Australia’s Left Is Breaking Through
The Australian election saw historic defeats for the Right and its backers in the Murdoch media. But the Labor Party can’t change the country without fighting for a robust, progressive economic agenda.
19611 Articles by: Agathe Dorra
Agathe Dorra is a PhD researcher in political aesthetics at King’s College London
Right-Wing Death Threats Won’t Stop Gustavo Petro From Becoming Colombia’s Next President
Left-wing presidential candidate Gustavo Petro has been fighting Colombia’s far-right paramilitaries for decades. The revelation of a recent plot to murder Petro is unsurprising, but his campaign still appears strong ahead of Sunday’s election.
How Amazon Invented “Plat-Fordism”
Market ideologues paint Amazon as a model of a flexible, networked platform capitalism. Yet Amazon’s growth has revitalized parts of the Fordism that Silicon Valley claimed to have overcome — including the rise of an organized blue-collar workforce.
The Commodification of Jean-Michel Basquiat
When he was alive, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s iconic art leveled a powerful opposition to inequality and racism. Since his death, his work has been co-opted, emptied of all political content, and commodified to be sold as an image of New York’s vanishing cool.
When Jeff Bezos Tweets, He Wants His Journalists and Joe Biden to Listen
The world’s second-richest man is using social media to push back against any hint that corporate greed is stoking inflation — and to send a message about his news preferences in the Washington Post, the paper he owns.
A Loyal CIA Operative’s Mind Is Not a Pretty Place
Longtime CIA operative Ric Prado just published a memoir. From training murderous right-wing paramilitaries to complaining about “hellholes” the world over, it’s shockingly candid — but the content is hardly surprising to anyone familiar with US foreign policy.
Joe Biden Has Botched the Summit of the Americas
The United States is excluding Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua from the forthcoming Summit of the Americas. Washington probably wasn’t expecting that much of Latin America, led by Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador, would publicly push back in response.
Australian Voters Have Demanded Action on Climate Change
Thanks to its stubborn inaction on climate change, the conservative coalition was trounced in this weekend’s election in Australia. With Greens and independents set to hold the balance of power, it’s time for the climate movement to step up its demands.
Everything Everywhere All at Once Is the Most Insane Movie of the Year
Hot dog fingers, a talking raccoon, butt plug karate, Michelle Yeoh in dominatrix gear: Everything Everywhere All at Once has something for everyone. Past the absurdity is a deeply (and sometimes overly) sentimental tale about a family struggling to make it.
Neoliberalism Hasn’t Helped Much of the Global South
For a brief period after World War II, Third World nations played an active role in shaping the world economic order and fostering development. For all its promises and a few success stories, neoliberalism hasn’t done the same.
Remembering Jeffrey Escoffier, Queer Socialist Pioneer
With Jeffrey Escoffier’s passing this week, the world has lost a great thinker who took sex as seriously as politics and never lost sight of their intimate connections. Farewell to a titan of the queer socialist left.
Progressives Need to Resist the Domestic “War on Terror”
The Squad and other progressives voted this week to ramp up the “war on terror” here at home. Right now, they might find it politically convenient to prop up draconian national security measures — but at some point, they’re going to have to take a stand.
Die Linke and Québec Solidaire Want to Rebuild Class Politics
Die Linke’s Stefan Liebich recently met with members of Québec solidaire to talk politics. Bringing together vantage points from both sides of the Atlantic, the discussion covered political strategy, regional differences, and tactics for future left victories.
There Was a Lot of Good News in This Week’s Primaries
Despite setbacks, from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, socialist candidates eked out victories in this week’s primaries. Centrist challengers, backed by super PAC and corporate money, massively underperformed. Democratic socialists aren’t going away anytime soon.
Men Is Terrifying — Until It Succumbs to Its Big Ideas
Alex Garland’s Men is a horror movie about how awful it is to be a woman. But he’s so intent on driving this point home that all the terror drains out of the film by the end, and only annoyance at the didactic exercise remains.
It’s Always the Right Time to Call George W. Bush a War Criminal
If George W. Bush is not going to stand trial for war crimes, he should at the very least stop appearing in public to weigh in on unjustified wars, as he did this week when he accidentally referred to the “wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq.”
I Helped My Classmates Get Illegal Abortions Before Roe. We Can’t Go Back.
Before Roe v. Wade, women set up referral networks to help each other access abortions. One referral coordinator was Carol Giardina, who connected her college classmates to safe abortion providers even though it was illegal. The time for such bravery has come again.
Britain’s Conservatives Are Eroding Democracy
With recent legislation, the Tories have restricted immigration, disenfranchised voters, and enhanced police powers. The Labour Party leadership needs to do something to stop this turn in British politics.
Canada’s Foreign Military Training Operations Are Unscrupulous Power Plays
Canada’s pretense of being a champion of peace and mediation conceals the aim of its foreign military training operations. These operations are not instances of bighearted largesse — they are strategic, geopolitical power projections.
Vulture Capitalists Want to Flood the Health Care System With Cheap Medical Labor
Private equity firms have conspired to flood the emergency health care market with ER doctors in an effort to cut labor costs — in the midst of what patients will still experience as an acute physician shortage with declining standards of care.