Silvio Berlusconi had a dismal record in office, and today countless memes continue to treat him as a comical figure. Laughing at Berlusconi was a way of coping with his rule — but also reflected Italians’ growing cynicism about politics itself.
As the referendum over a First Nations Voice approaches, the No campaign is turning to deranged conspiracies that link Aboriginal rights with communism. But it’s not just paranoia — they’re drawing on a long history of racism and red-baiting.
In the West Bank, violent settlers try to drive out the Palestinian population, under the watchful eye of IDF troops. This is an apartheid system, and there can be no peace in Palestine until it is dismantled.
A new comparative study of left-wing governments in Latin America shows that left governance can create strong local participatory democracy, even in hotbeds of opposition.
Toronto tenants have been on strike for months. With new tenants joining in the fight, the strike appears to be gaining momentum as it seeks to put landlords on notice and redress the balance of power between property owners and renters.
Emmanuel Macron continues to attack the French welfare state. Following his regressive retirement age reform that sparked mass protests, Macron is now seeking to force jobseekers to do unpaid work in exchange for their meager benefits.
In a massive victory today for UAW strikers, GM agreed to bring battery plants for electric vehicles under the union’s master agreement. The concession is a landmark win in the struggle for a pro-worker green transition.
Laphonza Butler, California’s newest senator, went from heading a major union to leading lobbying for Airbnb. In that position, she oversaw the company’s efforts to fight off local governments’ regulations — directly exacerbating the US housing crisis.
Canada’s disgraceful history of covering for and even feting Nazi war criminals is finally receiving the attention it deserves. Yet some mainstream figures are still parroting far-right nationalist propaganda under the guise of resisting “disinformation.”
Happiness guru Arthur C. Brooks has found fertile ground in the self-help industry to disseminate his right-wing agenda, making a pretty penny convincing liberals that welfare programs and universal benefits have nothing to do with Americans’ well-being.
This year’s Labour conference will be a jamboree for corporate lobbyists, hungry to influence a future Keir Starmer government. Labour poses as a competent B-team for capital — while telling working people that their needs are simply too pricey to fulfill.
Fifty years after the Yom Kippur War, its legacy still defines US policy in the Middle East. The aftermath of the conflict saw Washington massively expand aid to Israel — while buying off Arab governments in order to isolate the beleaguered Palestinians.
Conservative intellectuals have recently levied a “postliberal” critique of the status quo, claiming to defend ordinary people against elites. But the solutions offered are little more than reactionary nonsense dressed up in populist rhetoric.
Companies like Uber and iFood claim they are “platforms” rather than employers and shouldn’t be subject to labor law. That’s nonsense: platforms are just digital machines. And like many other machines corporations use in the workplace, they’re hurting workers.
California governor Gavin Newsom, who has been dubbed the “leader of liberal America,” has snubbed labor repeatedly in recent weeks — eliminating union jobs by allowing self-driving buses and vetoing a bill to extend unemployment to striking workers.
Socialist filmmaker Ken Loach has released his final movie, about Syrian refugees finding their feet in an English working-class community. It makes it all the more grotesque that Loach’s political foes are trying to present him as a dangerous bigot.
The Big Three automakers have been deploying scabs against the UAW strike. In the US, we often take the practice for granted — but in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and British Columbia, replacement labor is banned. We should make scabs illegal here too.
The PRO Act contains some of the most significant changes to labor law in decades. But with genuine shortcomings, including no “card check,” the legislation should be seen as an important part of a broader suite of pro-labor reforms.
Poet Linton Kwesi Johnson calls his verse a “cultural weapon in the black liberation struggle.” For half a century, his work has provided a peerless record of black British experience — offering a vital lesson in how oppression fuels the flame of defiance.
Pakistan’s government has imprisoned former PM Imran Khan and called elections for early next year. The turmoil since Khan’s ouster, perhaps the most dramatic crisis in three already-turbulent decades, is symptomatic of deeper political-economic woes.