Enver Motala is an associate of the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation (CERT) at the University of Johannesburg and of the Centre for Integrated Post-School Education and Training at the Nelson Mandela University.
In times of war, stocks in weapons companies have always been a safe investment. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shown that wars are also a big opportunity for crypto bros — another group of disaster capitalists profiting off other people’s misfortune.
Last year, farmers in India blocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s neoliberal agricultural reforms through a wave of protests. But the economic woes that fueled the unrest continue to hammer farmers, leading to sky-high suicide rates.
Vladimir Putin claims to be protecting Russian speakers in Ukraine. A Jacobin reporter at the Polish border found Russian-speaking refugees outraged at his claims — and at Russian media’s denial of horrors they saw with their own eyes.
The story of classical music is inseparable from the rise of capitalism. The new system made a musical revolution possible, but its crisis-ridden development then drove a wedge between musicians and their audience, leaving behind a frozen tradition.
Eric Adams, New York City’s new mayor, is a fascinating, eccentric character. He’s also the architect of a ruthless law-and-order crackdown on the city’s poorest, most vulnerable residents.
Opposing Vladimir Putin’s horrific war in Ukraine is no reason to target ordinary Russians or Russian culture. Anti-Russian bigotry won’t bring peace to Ukrainians.
The anti-psychiatry movement advanced a radical critique of the role that capitalism and power play in the medical profession. Its motives were noble, but it ended up closing the door to understanding, and properly treating, psychological suffering.
The boundary-crossing social theorist Leo Kofler was one of postwar West Germany’s most important Marxists. Today, he is little known outside his homeland — yet his revolutionary humanism has much to tell us about freedom today.
Karl Marx died on this day in 1883. At his funeral, Marx’s lifelong friend and comrade Friedrich Engels delivered a eulogy predicting Marx’s work would endure through the ages. We reprint Engels’s speech here in full.
In Europe, the volunteers welcoming Ukrainian refugees are often the same people attacked for aiding refugees in the Mediterranean. That’s not just hypocritical, it’s inhumane — we should welcome all migrants fleeing war and terror.
A new documentary goes inside the making of the classic labor-feminist movie 9 to 5 — and shows how many of the problems it lampooned still plague working women today.
Canada’s New Democratic Party has introduced a new bill to decriminalize drug possession and improve harm-reduction measures. Passing it would need the support of the Liberals, who have thus far proved unwilling to fight for reform.
Pro-Putin pollsters maintain that most Russians support the “special military operation” against Ukraine. But artificial efforts to stir public enthusiasm can’t hide the disastrous effects the war is having on ordinary Russians.
In a pro–Bernie Sanders district with a strong union presence, a son of immigrant street vendors seeks election to LA City Council. Hugo Soto-Martinez wants “to create a new society: a world with good union jobs, universal health care, and affordable housing.”
Residents of Isparta, Turkey, were left without power for weeks after the city was hit by blizzards. This was no mere natural disaster — the lights wouldn’t have gone out if not for the chronic mismanagement of basic utilities by President Erdoğan’s cronies.
Cafeteria staff make learning and healthy development possible by providing balanced meals to kids who otherwise might not get them. In return, they bring home some of the lowest earnings of the generally underpaid K–12 workforce.
In an effort to damage his reputation, sections of the Mexican media are coming after Andrés Manuel López Obrador with baseless charges and concocted slander. Staving off these right-wing media attacks is an essential line of defense for the Left.
Vladimir Putin’s criminal invasion of Ukraine has stirred calls for solidarity across the West. A useful response should focus on material aid to the war’s victims — and condemn war-hawk posturing.
By playing up a fake tabloid scandal involving his progressive opponent Jessica Cisneros, the scandal-plagued anti-abortion Texas House Democrat Henry Cuellar has only further disgraced himself.
Uber and Lyft continue their crusade to misclassify drivers as “independent contractors,” now with a bill in the Washington State Legislature. Unfortunately, they’ve hit on a new tactic: cutting deals to get labor union support.