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Ben Wray is the author, with Neil Davidson and James Foley, of Scotland After Britain: The Two Souls of Scottish Independence (Verso Books, 2022).
In Britain, hotels hosting refugees have become a target of anti-immigration rallies. Keir Starmer’s government is pandering to the protests — announcing a partnership with delivery app firms to identify asylum seekers working as riders.
Firms like OpenAI are developing AI in a way that has deeply ominous implications for workers in many different fields. The current trajectory of AI can only be changed through direct confrontation with the overweening power of the tech giants.
NATO’s European members have agreed to massively hike defense spending. The move conforms to Donald Trump’s demands — but also reflects a German-led bid to revive its economy through massive investment in the military.
Population growth has been slowing and even reversing in many countries, a trend with far-reaching social implications that looks certain to continue.
Sunday’s Basque elections could see a historic victory for leftist pro-independence party EH Bildu. The Spanish media is obsessing over the party’s past links to separatist group ETA — and ignoring the social issues that are fueling its support.
The US has built up an elaborate machinery for waging economic warfare on its rivals with little or no public debate. This sanctions-industrial complex is a disguised form of imperialism and a dangerous source of global instability.
Across Europe, platform workers have won a series of court cases ruling that they are employees, not self-employed. Moves for new EU-wide legislation have faced serious resistance from lobbyists but now look set to deliver some new protections.
On Thursday, trade unions and women’s movements across Spain’s Basque Country held an explicitly feminist general strike. Workers are striking for a public community care system — one that ensures care work is well-paid and properly supported.
Britain’s Conservative government has scrapped policies to reduce carbon emissions while the Labour opposition is also rolling back its own climate commitments. Trade unions are stepping into the political vacuum to demand a working-class ecological agenda.
Since inflation started rising, British capitalists have been raking in massive profits while workers have suffered a disastrous wage slump. Yet the Bank of England still wants to boost unemployment in case workers develop their fighting strength.
Tourist hot spot San Sebastián has Spain’s highest house prices, pushing out many locals. Ahead of today’s elections, Basque left party EH Bildu is calling for action on rents — but the campaign has been dominated by attempts to demonize the party.
Semiconductors are as important for global capitalism today as access to energy resources. Only a handful of countries can produce the most advanced microchips, and control over their supply is becoming a key battleground in the US-China trade war.
Since Indonesia annexed West Papua, its people have faced brutal military repression while the US helps whitewash the occupation. But the country’s freedom movement is pressing ahead with a unique liberation project based on ecological principles.
Fashionable academic theorists have dismissed the Marxist approach to nationalism as outdated and inadequate. But it remains an indispensable guide to national independence movements — urging support for them when they represent a challenge to capitalist rule.
From Brexit to the Scottish independence movement and growing support for a united Ireland, the British state has been convulsed by the resurgence of nationalism. These crises ultimately stem from the decline of capitalist globalization after 2008’s crash.
Walden Bello is one of the world’s leading critics of corporate globalization. In an interview with Jacobin, he explains why Russia’s war is a shock to the international system — and why it is likely to accelerate China’s rise.
Firms like Uber and Deliveroo systematically deny their workers basic rights by falsely treating them as self-employed contractors. Now Europe is finally passing legislation to recognize them as employees — and the UK should do the same.
Since the 1990s, workers in the Basque Country have gone on strike more than twice as often as any other workforce in Europe. The Basque unions insist that we have to fight for our interests — a strike-fund-centered strategy that has won huge victories even in the age of austerity.
Scotland played a pioneering role in the rise of global finance, from the Industrial Revolution to the age of neoliberalism and the great crash. Since 2008, however, its banks have become offshoots of the City of London, posing a sharp dilemma for supporters of Scottish independence.
The British government has extended its program to subsidize employment during the lockdown, but pressure is mounting on workers to risk their lives for the sake of profit. We can’t let this happen.