The Filibuster Is the Ultimate Excuse for Democrats
The filibuster saga isn’t simply about Joe Manchin. It’s about the Democratic Party overall, and their continued interest in allowing process to prevent them from governing.
19423 Articles by: Benjamin Case
Benjamin Case is a researcher, educator, and organizer living in Pittsburgh.
The United States’ Imperial Foreign Policy Is the Deadly Enemy of Progress at Home
The US military spends trillions on death abroad that could be spent on improving life back home.
Corporate Welfare Props Up the Billionaire Class
The last year has seen the largest increase in billionaire wealth in history, but it has little to do with innovation — states across the world are pursuing policies which guarantee that the rich get richer.
Japan’s Student Movement and the Revolutionary Politics of 1968
Historians often neglect Japan’s New Left protest movement in the late 1960s, but it was one of the largest in any country. Radical student activists brought the university system to a halt — and changed the future of Japanese politics.
50 Years Ago Today, Daniel Ellsberg’s Pentagon Papers Helped End the Vietnam War
The first installment of reporting based on the Pentagon Papers was published half a century ago today in the New York Times. Pentagon whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg risked life imprisonment to expose the lies and brutality that the US war on Vietnam was based on.
Municipal Socialism Is Working in Preston
In Britain, even as the Labour Party is in turmoil at the national level, left-wing city councils in places like Preston are bringing socialist policies to life at the local level.
Kevin Rudd’s “Fourth Way” Proves the Australian Labor Party Is Out of Ideas
Former Australian PM Kevin Rudd has come up with a plan for Labor that he calls the “Fourth Way.” But on closer inspection, Rudd’s would-be alternative is a rehash of the timid, conservative approach to politics that has kept Labor out of power for a decade.
The Colombian Government’s War on Protesters
After six weeks of massive protests against neoliberalism and state violence in Colombia, right-wing president Iván Duque is relying on brute force to stay in power.
Conservative Opponents of Critical Race Theory Are Pushing Their Own Propaganda
Conservatives are rushing to ban “critical race theory” from public schools, arguing it is ahistorical propaganda. But their own version of US history is a sterilized, hagiographic account that closes off connecting the issues of yesteryear with the problems of the present.
The Academic Culture War Comes to Denmark
Denmark’s parliament has condemned campus radicals’ political agenda for “undermining scholarly inquiry.” But the mainstream use of disciplines like economics shows that scholarship has always been political — the powerful just don’t like research that challenges their interests.
Did They Just Turn Cruella de Vil Into a Girl Boss?
Disney has rebooted their legendary dalmatian-skinning villain, Cruella de Vil — and turned her into a scrappy, likable hero. The result is the complete mangling of one of the greatest Disney villains of all time.
In a Village Named After Franco, Spain Is Struggling to Overcome the Fascist Past
One of the three hundred settlements founded by Franco’s regime, the village of Llanos del Caudillo is still today named in homage to the dictator. Villagers’ nostalgia for his regime reflects Spain’s failure to reckon with its past — and the ongoing struggle to gain recognition for fascism’s victims.
The Australian Communist Author Who Lent His Voice to the Gurindji Strike
In 1966, Aboriginal stockmen, domestic workers, and their families at Wave Hill cattle station started a nine-year strike against work conditions that amounted to slavery. Frank Hardy, a communist author, helped the strikers tell their story to the world.
Ilhan Omar’s Critics Want Impunity for US and Israeli War Crimes
Democratic Party leaders have accused Ilhan Omar of “moral equivalency” because she rejected the brazen double standard underpinning US foreign policy. But Omar is right: murderous violence against civilians is no less criminal when Israel or the United States are the perpetrators.
The Hunger Games Prequel, Songbirds, Is a Satire on the Ruling Class
Novelist Suzanne Collins has returned with a prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy. This time, she writes about the fictional world of Panem from the perspective of its ruling class, which makes her satire on our own society all the more cutting.
In Defense of Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Zizek has made some serious missteps in recent years — but he remains an important theorist for the Left in our postmodern, neoliberal era.
Ilhan Omar Has Absolutely Nothing to Apologize For
Yet again, both Republican and Democratic party leaders are attacking Rep. Ilhan Omar for telling the truth about American and Israeli war crimes. And yet again, Omar has nothing to apologize for.
We Need Class Politics to End Our Second Gilded Age
We talk with historian Matt Karp about how ending our great age of inequality will take a renewed working-class politics.
New York Democrats Seem to Be Giving Up on State-Level Medicare for All
Under pressure from labor leaders and insurance executives, New York Democratic leaders are blocking a vote on single-payer health care legislation in the state — even though it has majority support in the legislature.
Gerry Harvey Is an Emblem of Australia’s Corrupt Economic System
Australian retail billionaire Gerry Harvey has rightly been vilified for describing COVID-19 as an opportunity for profitmaking. But Harvey was just stating the facts: the pandemic has enabled his class to get even richer off the backs of the working class.