CVS Strangled, Then Swallowed, Rite Aid
First CVS bled Rite Aid dry with half a billion in retroactive fees, then it bought the corpse and called it consolidation. For consumers, the result is higher drug costs.
20266 Article(s) by: Benjamin Case
Benjamin Case is a researcher, educator, and organizer living in Pittsburgh.
Meet Danielle Smith, Canada’s Ayn Rand in Cowboy Boots
Danielle Smith, Alberta’s leader, is fusing libertarian dogma with oil-soaked grievance politics. It’s Canada’s version of the New Right, dressed up in provincial pride.
Tipped Workers Don’t Need Tax Relief. They Need Real Wages.
Donald Trump’s No Tax on Tips policy is a major part of his appeal to working-class Americans. But tipping is itself a strange and flawed system invented to preserve inequality. Critics worry Trump’s policy will only intensify tipping culture.
Not by Popular Power Alone
Grassroots worker organization and mobilization is essential to the success of any socialist electoral project. But socialists in executive office can’t neglect other elements, like maintaining wide popular support and alliances within the state.
Intel Is Laying Off Workers While Raking In Public Largesse
Chipmaker Intel has been laying off thousands of its American workers — as it rakes in billions in subsidies from the US government and lavishes multimillion-dollar severance and compensation packages on its former and current CEOs.
Kentucky Battery Plant Workers Have Voted to Join the UAW
In a close election, 1,200 battery plant workers at the BlueOval SK Battery Park in Kentucky voted to join the United Auto Workers this week. The ultimate outcome of the vote will hinge on 41 ballots that the union is challenging.
To Reduce Poverty, Expand the Welfare State
The policy solutions to poverty are simple: redistribute capital ownership and expand the welfare state.
In Poland, Austerity Targets Ukrainian Refugees
Polish president Karol Nawrocki is shutting off welfare benefits for Ukrainians in Poland. Earlier welcomed as refugees, Ukrainians are now pushed into a role as second-class guestworkers in their host country.
Yevgeni Preobrazhensky’s Plan to Build a Socialist Economy
The Russian Marxist Yevgeni Preobrazhensky drew up one of the most sophisticated blueprints for building a socialist economy in an underdeveloped country like Russia. Stalin’s terror silenced Preobrazhensky, but his writings are now being rediscovered.
Highest 2 Lowest Is a Cringeworthy Remake of a Classic
Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest attempts to remake a beloved Akira Kurosawa film about the injustices of a class-stratified society all while sidestepping class. Even Denzel Washington can’t save this misfire.
The Maritime Oil Trade Keeps Global Capitalism Afloat
The pandemic caused unprecedented disruption to the global shipping of oil, but the industry survived with the help of massive state intervention. Control over the oil trade is a vital tool of economic power that the US is determined to retain.
Katrina Set the Stage for New Orleans’s Capture by Investors
Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans 20 years ago today. In the years after the storm, the city became a laboratory of Frankenstein proportions for the most extreme forms of privatization and deregulation.
ICE Is Draining Funds From FEMA
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is siphoning ever more resources and personnel from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, threatening national preparedness for climate disasters.
Proving the German Media Bias Against Palestinians
German reporting on the Middle East has long been criticized as one-sided. Our exclusive analysis of 5,000 headlines from leading German media outlets since October 7 shows the bias is even worse than suspected.
The Long Twilight of Central Bankism
Historically low levels of inflation and a defeated labor movement made the era of central bank independence possible. But the 2008 crash repoliticized the institution. Donald Trump’s attack on Lisa Cook is a backlash that has been brewing ever since.
How the Pharma Industry Botched Alzheimer’s Treatment
Journalist Charles Piller has exposed a pattern of shoddy and even fraudulent practices in Alzheimer’s research. It shows the drug research system needs serious reform, but health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr is engaged in reckless vandalism instead.
Fred Ross Changed Community Organizing
Community organizer Fred Ross Sr was a key figure in progressive activism during the 20th century. He started in the 1930s farmworker camps that inspired John Steinbeck’s novels and went on to pioneer methodical tactics that transformed American organizing.
Libya’s EU-Backed Coast Guard Attacked a Migrant Rescue Ship
On Sunday, the migrant rescue ship Ocean Viking was attacked by armed men in international waters. The assailants: the Libyan Coast Guard, sponsored by the European Union to police the Mediterranean.
The Center Left Is in Denial About NATO’s New Normal
NATO members across Europe have embraced Donald Trump’s call to spend 5 percent of GDP on defense. Many social democrats argue that this shouldn’t come at the cost of welfare cuts, but they refuse to challenge the military spending plan itself.
“Education Reform” Has Undermined Public Schools’ Popularity
School privatization efforts are making dangerous advances in states like Florida and Arizona. Neoliberal education reforms that have degraded public schools, from high-stakes testing to corporatized visions of education, are in part to blame.