From the Union Hall to the Church
Jair Bolsonaro’s election in Brazil marked the decline of trade unions as the primary site of working-class organization; and the rise of Evangelical churches in their place.
21053 Article(s) by: Benjamin Case
Benjamin Case is a researcher, educator, and organizer living in Pittsburgh.
How Neoliberalism Reinvented Democracy
Neoliberalism replaces the citizen with the consumer — pushing people out of political life and into the marketplace.
Housing for the People
A public vote on expropriating the big landlords offers Berliners a chance to push down soaring rents.
“When Will We End the Human War?”
Allen Ginsberg died on this day in 1997. While known for his Beat poetry, he was also indelibly shaped by leftist politics.
Medicare for All Critics Are Telling Lies
One of the most common myths about the US health system is that if you like your insurance, you can keep it. But millions of people are thrown off their employer-based coverage every year — so the only solution is Medicare for All.
Target: Corbyn
Amid the political chaos of Brexit, video has emerged of British army soldiers using a photo of Jeremy Corbyn for target practice. It’s just the latest sign that the UK is facing a mounting threat from the far right.
The Blood of Tulips
A dispatch from another year of agonizing bloodshed in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
A Half-Millennium of Indigenous Resistance Continues
The indigenous uprising at Standing Rock was far from an isolated incident on that native land, as historian Nick Estes shows in a new book. It is the site of hundreds of years of anticolonial struggle.
A Green New Deal for Agriculture
Agriculture policy in the original New Deal sprang from a heady mix of class struggle and uneasy alliances. The Green New Deal will have to stitch together a different coalition that can challenge the dominant mode of agriculture and create a more just food system.
Joe Biden, Anti-Immigrant Enabler
Joe Biden has a bad past in all sorts of ways. Here’s another one: he spent his career helping build the very deportation state now in Trump’s hands.
Show Us the Money
Facing pressure from the Left, Democratic presidential candidates are foregoing corporate PAC money. But in private, they’re still cozying up to capitalist supervillains.
A Socialist Wave in Chicago
Chicago socialists cleaned house in last night’s municipal elections, winning as many as six socialist city council members. The city’s left has a historic opportunity to push back years of gentrification, police brutality, and austerity.
Daylight in Turkey?
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s party lost significant ground in Sunday’s Turkish elections. That doesn’t mean the slide toward fascism is over — but there’s a bigger opening for democratic and socialist forces than there’s been in years.
Liberalism’s Hollow Partisans
In 2016 we learned that for some liberals, the best time to push for fundamental change is never. In 2020, we can expect more of the same.
Bernie Isn’t McGovern. Biden Might Be Humphrey.
The pundits want you to see Bernie Sanders as a modern-day George McGovern. They’re wrong — but Joe Biden might well be the next Hubert Humphrey.
Why Kautsky Was Right (and Why You Should Care)
Karl Kautsky’s vision for winning democratic socialism is more radical, and more relevant, than most leftists care to admit.
Pelosi and Schumer Hate BDS More Than Ultranationalism
Democratic elites would rather side with Benjamin Netanyahu’s racist agenda than give any power to Israel critics like Ilhan Omar.
Brecht Was a Revolutionary
Not only did Bertolt Brecht transform German drama, but his work captured his radical commitment to socialist politics and the emancipation of working people.
Have You Heard? Pete Buttigieg Is Really Smart
The recent craze for Pete Buttigieg — multilingual Rhodes Scholar and all-around smart guy — is just the latest incarnation of the meritocratic cult of “smartness.” It’s social Darwinism for elite liberals.
No Beauty in Defeat
The Spanish Civil War ended 80 years ago today with Franco’s victory. But for opponents of Spanish fascism, the brutal repression of popular culture and democracy was only beginning.