Americans Are Abandoning the Communal Meal
Consuming food all by oneself is an anomaly in the history of human civilization, a deviation from millennia of tradition. And more and more Americans are doing it.
20380 Article(s) by: Christina Groeger
Cristina Groeger is a history professor at Lake Forest College and a member of the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America.
A Lawless Trump Administration Runs Amok in the Caribbean
As great powers abandon even the pretense of law, the undeclared war on Venezuela exposes a world ruled by extortion, collapse, and the redefinition of sovereignty.
From “No Kings” to “A Fair Shot”
The fight to defend democracy will succeed only if it is rooted in the everyday economic realities that drive people’s disillusionment with politics in the first place.
Why the US Has Such a Brutal Penal Regime
Compared to similarly rich countries, the US has an exceptionally punitive system of policing and prisons. What explains America’s extremely harsh penal regime?
Spirit Halloween Is Robbing the Shopping Mall Cemetery
Spirit Halloween’s vulture-like business model keeps operating costs low by snapping up short-term leases in vacant retail spaces, making itself a rare beneficiary of private equity’s hollowing out of big box stores across the country.
After No Kings, It’s Time to Escalate
After the massive No Kings protests, we need bigger, more disruptive nonviolent campaigns that can go viral and peel away Donald Trump’s pillars of support.
The US Military Is Destroying the Planet Beyond Imagination
Abby Martin’s new documentary feature, Earth’s Greatest Enemy, takes stock of the US war machine’s environmental damage, tracing a devastating landscape of destruction from poisoned military bases to melting Arctic horizons.
Ireland’s Presidential Election Was a Left-Wing Landslide
Ireland’s new president, Catherine Connolly, is an outspoken left-winger who champions the rights of the Palestinians and opposes Europe’s militarization drive. Her resounding victory came as a huge shock to the conservative political establishment.
When Fascism Destroyed Italy’s Socialist City Halls
After World War I, city hall Socialists around Italy built an impressive array of welfare programs, schools, and libraries. The Fascist backlash soon showed the limits of their strength and the impossibility of relying on urban citadels of power alone.
To Rebuild the Labor Movement, Take On the Giants
Unions in the US have responded to the hostile organizing environment by targeting smaller shops in more peripheral industries. To actually grow the labor movement, however, they will need to organize large units in the economy’s fast-growing sectors.
Socialists Are Key Leaders of the Anti-Trump Opposition
The Democrats have failed to mount a serious response to Donald Trump’s authoritarianism. Their fecklessness has left the door open for democratic socialists like Zohran Mamdani to position themselves as the real opposition to Trump.
You’re Being Lied to About Graham Platner
We read Graham Platner’s whole Reddit archive. The vilification of the Maine candidate for Senate doesn’t square with what he actually wrote in his posts.
From Socialism to “Capitalism for All”
Bolivia’s election of the center-right Rodrigo Paz Pereira marks the end of the MAS’s nearly 20-year rule. As MAS self-destructed, Paz appealed to an urban middle class that expanded as the Left achieved historic reductions in poverty and social inequality.
Private Flood Insurers Are Capitalizing on the Shutdown
With the US government shutdown effectively paralyzing the National Flood Insurance Program, private firms such as Neptune Insurance Holdings are seizing the opportunity to push for the near-total privatization of flood insurance.
Zohran Mamdani: We Can Win Freedom for All
At a rally last night in Queens, New York, with Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Zohran Mamdani addressed a crowd of 13,000: “For too long, freedom has belonged only to those who can afford to buy it.”
Shake Shack Is Restricting Its Customers’ Legal Rights
Following an industry trend, fast-food chain Shake Shack recently updated its terms of use agreement to include a binding arbitration agreement and class-action waiver denying customers their legal right to take the company to court.
W. E. B. Du Bois on Blowing Up the White House’s East Wing
The vision of W. E. B. Du Bois was one of congressional democracy, critical of presidential regimes that concentrate power in the hands of one individual — an individual who can, say, impose his vision of a White House ballroom in the sky upon all of us.
Palestinian Rights and Free Speech Rights Are Closely Linked
A recent successful court case brought by university professors against the Trump administration’s ideological deportations is an important win for supporters of Palestinian liberation and opponents of rising authoritarianism in the US.
ICE Will Use AI to Surveil Social Media
A Silicon Valley firm has contracted with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to build out a social media surveillance dragnet. Critics say that the AI-driven software will target immigrants for political speech.
The GOP Is Fine With You Getting Your Fingers Chopped Off
Donald Trump’s yes-men at the Consumer Product Safety Commission are withdrawing a series of proposed safety rules, including an appendage-saving safety mandate for table saws. This will mean thousands more fingers lost per year.