Frances Abele CM is Distinguished Research Professor and Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy Emerita at Carleton University. She is a research fellow at the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation and the Broadbent Institute. Much of her work focuses on indigenous-Canada relations.
Texas is about to open its business courts, a new legal system backed by Big Oil that is expected to have immediate impacts on environmental cases in the state. The courts’ judges were handpicked by Gov. Greg Abbott, a major recipient of oil industry cash.
Despite what new Labour prime minister Keir Starmer says, there’s nothing inevitable about another round of austerity — it is a deliberate decision to avoid confronting the powerful and presenting a real alternative for working-class people.
On the eve of the Iranian revolution, Fred Halliday published a classic study of the shah’s US-backed dictatorship and the social forces working to undermine it. It’s an essential text for those who want to understand the politics of the Middle East.
LA mayor Karen Bass has burnished a progressive reputation throughout her political career. But that reputation has helped legitimate her move toward punitive approaches to homelessness and other social problems.
When governments rely on free-market forces for the shift away from fossil fuels, gains are left in private hands while the public is responsible for losses.
Democratic leaders can’t wish away protests against Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Emmanuel Macron has ruled out appointing a government led by the biggest force in parliament, the left-wing New Popular Front. His refusal confirms a case long made by the Left: it’s time to get rid of the French president’s monarchical powers.
Political strategist Waleed Shahid explains why the Uncommitted movement’s organizing at the Democratic National Convention should be seen as successfully moving the needle within the Democratic Party toward justice for Palestine.
The Federal Trade Commission is trying to stop the merger of two of the US’s largest grocery-store chains, Kroger and Albertsons. In response, the companies are suing to undermine the FTC and dismantle the country’s antitrust machinery.
Neville Alexander was a brave fighter against South African apartheid who was jailed on Robben Island alongside Nelson Mandela. Alexander exposed the links between racism and capitalism and opposed the ANC’s neoliberal turn after the fall of apartheid.
Japan’s socialist movement took shape in the face of brutal repression as the country embarked on a path toward imperialist expansion. Against the odds, Japanese socialists built a political force that could challenge the new capitalist order.
From the depths of August’s cinematic dumping ground comes The Crow, a dreary reboot of the classic 1994 Brandon Lee film, reviled by critics and loaded with lurid CGI and occult hooey. Save yourself the ticket price — better films are on their way.
The Boeing contract for over 32,000 workers in Washington and Oregon expires next month, and workers have voted to sanction a strike. Their complaints include low pay, frozen pensions, and mismanagement that has resulted in deadly disasters for the company.
France’s elections in July handed a surprise first place to the New Popular Front, which is now demanding the right to govern. To really change the country, it needs to broaden its base of support among nonvoters and the working class.
Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell has finally signaled the beginning of the end of high interest rates. But keeping rates higher for longer might have done unnecessary damage domestically and abroad, including to the all-important energy transition.
To figure out how best to address climate change, federal climate funding is crucial. But government granting agencies are increasingly at the mercy of climate deniers.
In the United States and Canada, we’ve seen an increase in labor militancy. This upsurge is a chance to inject working-class politics into the political arena, which has so far been mostly unresponsive to workers’ demands.
In 1960s New York, a new urbanist philosophy emerged that argued cities were best developed organically, without municipal planning. But cities like NYC today need a good dose of planned, large-scale public housing to address their housing crises.
Much of the climate movement is now pouring its energies into combating disinformation. But this focus fails to address real concerns about a green transition and obscures what is needed to win the public over to effective climate action.
Soviet symbols are widespread in today’s Russia, including in propaganda for the war in Ukraine. But in the classroom, the Soviet legacy is reduced to a nationalist cult of World War II, while burying even the notional idea of a more equal society.