Nationalize the Means of Transportation
The airlines are in crisis. But instead of just bailing them out, we should use this opportunity to invest in rail and bus services and put transportation firmly in the hands of the public.
19276 Articles by: Christina Groeger
Cristina Groeger is a history professor at Lake Forest College and a member of the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America.
Teachers’ Unions Are Demanding Police-Free Schools
A major lesson from the recent teachers’ strike wave was the necessity for unions to bargain for the common good of the entire working class. By joining the nationwide protests against police brutality and demanding police-free schools, teachers’ unions have taken that lesson to heart.
Eugene Debs Was an American Hero
On June 16, 1918, Eugene Debs gave the anti-war speech that would soon send him to prison. His arrest sparked a nationwide movement to secure his release — and forced the government to finally recognize the free speech rights of wartime dissenters.
Eugene Debs’s Statement to the Court
Before being sent to prison for speaking out against World War I, Eugene Debs delivered a defiant speech to the court that decried the ills of capitalism, held out the democratic promise of socialism, and declared, “While there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.” We reprint it here in full.
Once Again, the US Military Wants Your Kids
This summer, military recruiters continue focusing their efforts on twenty-three American cities with large numbers of black and Latino young people. As coronavirus drives thousands into unemployment, the Pentagon is developing bizarre neighborhood profiles and trolling social media to boost their enlistment numbers.
Trump Just Fulfilled His Billionaire Pal’s Dream
Trump just changed the rules to let Wall Street’s most predatory industry get its hands on hundreds of billions of dollars of ordinary workers’ retirement savings. Now his friends in private equity are celebrating.
“To Halt Climate Change, We Need an Ecological Leninism”
Despite the obvious parallels with coronavirus shutdowns, states still show little determination to put in place the measures we’ll need to deal with the climate emergency. For Andreas Malm, we need to stop seeing climate change as a problem for the future — and use state power now to impose a drastic reordering of our economies.
Smartphones Have Transformed the Fight Against Police Violence
Before smartphones, police violence went mostly unseen — but far more violent interactions are never captured on film. The problem of racist policing won’t be solved by more visibility.
Jeffrey Epstein Was the Monster Capitalism Made
A new book with fresh details about Jeffrey Epstein — his life, death, and relationship with Bill Clinton — reminds us that Epstein’s crimes couldn’t have happened without a system that allowed him to hoard unlimited wealth.
Logistics Firms Have Used the Pandemic to Boost Profits and Make Workers More Precarious
With millions of people ordering basic necessities direct to their homes, the pandemic has massively strengthened big distributors like FedEx and Amazon. But while official discourse celebrates delivery drivers as “heroes,” the logistics firms themselves have used the crisis to undermine workers’ most basic rights.
Corporations Are Claiming “Black Lives Matter.” That Would Be News to Their Workers.
How much do black lives matter to America’s leading corporations? Not enough to put any real money on the table for their workers.
How Solidarity Crossed the Border in Corona-Hit Gibraltar
For centuries, politics on the rock of Gibraltar has been dominated by the imperialist rivalry between Britain and Spain. But faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, communities built solidarity across the disputed border — insisting that the demands of public healthcare stood above the battle for flags and territory.
The United States Has a Long History of Mutual Aid Organizing
Mutual aid networks cropped up all over the United States at the start of the lockdown, helping communities organize themselves in the absence of adequate state support. Those projects have a deep history in the US, especially within early organized labor.
Children’s Singer Raffi on Creating a Society That Respects and Cherishes Kids
Today is International Children’s Day. To celebrate, we spoke to beloved children’s singer Raffi about nurturing the creativity and sense of play of children, his support for Bernie Sanders, organizing against climate change and for racial justice, and how we can create a society in which we “admire and respect the young child as a whole person.”
The Decline of Democracy in Hungary Is a Troubling Vision of the Future
Hungarian premier Viktor Orbán has used the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to silence his critics, even as he endorses street mobilizations by the organized far right. But these aren’t just the pathologies of a country with weak democratic traditions — they’re an extreme version of a reactionary turn happening across the West.
In Australia, the Ecological Crises Are Escalating
Australia has been hit by one ecological disaster after another this year: first the devastating bushfires, then the COVID-19 pandemic. Both are part of the same rising environmental crisis, and without meaningful action, we’re headed toward dystopia.
How Yugoslavia’s Partisans Built a New Socialist Society
Yugoslavia’s partisan movement singlehandedly defeated Nazi occupation and paved the way for a radical transformation of society. Yet socialist Yugoslavia was ultimately broken by its own internal contradictions — and its unwillingness to push that transformation further.
How Europe’s “Trash Market” Offloads Pollution on Its Poorest Countries
For decades, Europe’s big economies outsourced the problem of pollution by literally shipping their trash to China. When Beijing banned the toxic trade in 2018, it could have served as a wake-up call — but instead, the big polluters have rerouted their garbage to low-wage, low-regulation countries inside the European Union.
Workers Are on the Frontline of a Second Wave of COVID-19
While public-health guidance tells citizens to work from home, for millions of low-wage workers, this has never been a realistic option. As Europe’s governments ease the lockdown, it’s working-class people who are on the firing line of a second wave of infections.
The Half-True Story of Catherine the Great
Period dramas too often treat their subject with polite reverence and slavish accuracy. Tony McNamara’s new show, The Great, flips the genre on its head, telling the story of Russia’s great Empress with all the grotesque comedy the eighteenth-century Russian court deserves.