Socialist Gym Rats Fought to End Slavery in America
Veterans of the 1848 German revolution immigrated to America with three passions burning in their hearts: barbells, beer, and socialism.
19228 Articles by: Frances Abele
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.
RIP William Friedkin, Hollywood’s Larger-Than-Life Maverick
Boisterous, brilliant, and never boring, director William Friedkin burst out of the gate in the 1970s with a trio of blistering classics — The French Connection, The Exorcist, and Sorcerer. His was a filmmaker a world apart from the sterile Hollywood of today.
Austerity Is Part of a Plan to Privatize the NHS
Decades of austerity have undermined Britain’s National Health Service, leading to staffing shortages and longer wait times. It’s a pretext for handing off more and more of the system to profiteering corporations.
The West’s Double Standards in the Armenian Crisis
The West is indifferent to Azeri aggression in Armenia because Azerbaijan’s strategic significance makes it an essential partner for Western energy security, leaving democratic Armenia with limited support in its time of need.
The 1933 Conference That Helped Forge Civil Rights Unionism
Ninety years ago this month, at the Amenia conference co-organized by W. E. B. Du Bois, young black leftists argued for a mass politics aligned with the labor movement. Their radical approach set the stage for the civil rights unionism that would help topple Jim Crow.
Georgia Became the “Hollywood of the South” Through Massive Corporate Tax Breaks
The state of Georgia is subsidizing Hollywood CEOs to the tune of $1 billion a year. That money could go to schools, roads, health care, and good public jobs. But sure, a little peach logo in the credit sequence is cool too.
Military Spending Is Soaring, Even as Food Insecurity Reaches New Heights
As US military spending balloons to record levels, new data show that the number of US adults who don’t have enough to eat has jumped for the fourth straight month. The massive military budget is quite literally taking food out of people’s mouths.
Selling Sunset Is a Window Into the Out-of-Control Luxury Gentrification of LA
The long-running Netflix reality show Selling Sunset often veers into the territory of Real Housewives–style drama. But it also provides a close-up look at the investor-fueled irrationalities of the luxury real estate market.
The American Political Science Association’s Profile in Cowardice
In declining to cancel its annual conference at Southern California hotels where workers are on strike, the American Political Science Association is refusing to sacrifice for workers whose cause is just. There’s a word for that: “cowardice.”
Germany’s Model for European Capitalism Is Exhausted
Through Angela Merkel’s reign, neoliberal European integration provided the scaffolding for Germany’s export-led growth. But war on the continent and a series of crises have tested this model’s limits, producing splits within Olaf Scholz’s government.
The Supreme Court’s “Major Questions Doctrine” Is a Threat to Democracy
The “major questions doctrine,” cited to invalidate student loan forgiveness, empowers the conservative Supreme Court to veto any executive action with broad social impact. Its goal is to undermine the government’s ability function and aid average people.
Let the Primary Against Eric Adams Begin
New York City has seen increasing chaos and immiseration under Mayor Eric Adams. It’s time for the city’s leftists and progressives to unite behind a challenger who can win.
Newly Unionized Amazon Delivery Drivers Say the Company Is Hiding Behind Subcontractors
Like many corporations, Amazon has used subcontractors to avoid responsibility for working conditions and pay. A group of Palmdale, California, subcontracted workers wants to force Amazon to change that.
The Niger Coup Risks Opening Another Front in the West’s War With Russia
On July 26, a coup deposed Niger’s democratically elected president, the seventh in the region in three years. The ongoing conflict threatens to divide the region between pro- and anti-Western factions, spreading the new cold war to Africa.
The European Right’s “Pro-Family” Turn Is Just Austerity in Disguise
Across Europe, the Right has taken a pronatalist turn. Despite claiming to support mothers, its initiatives — largely ineffectual, according to many studies — serve to reinforce patriarchal gender roles and protect the interests of employers.
Ellen Meiksins Wood Showed Us the Irrationality of the Capitalist Market
Ellen Meiksins Wood was one of the great Marxist thinkers of her age. One of Wood’s most important contributions was to show how the coercive pressure of markets is specific to capitalism and point us toward the necessary socialist alternative.
The Split in Die Linke Reflects a Rudderless German Left
Germany’s Die Linke is set to split, as former leading light Sahra Wagenknecht threatens to start her own party. The two sides have rival ideas on how to market themselves to voters — but neither has a strategy for building a working-class movement.
Nolan’s Oppenheimer Shows Us the Grandeur and the Horror of Modernity
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is an evocative exploration of the contrasting dimensions of modernity. The film probes the potential horrors cast by advancing technology alongside the exhilarating heights of human achievement.
We Can Craft a Workable Workplace Democracy for a Socialist Future
The structure of democratic firms within a socialist framework might clash with broader goals such as balanced growth and equitable income. We will need a model that can harmonize firm-level democracy with macroeconomic expansion and a solidaristic wage.
We Can’t Leave Outer Space to the Capitalists
Space policy is already a site of class struggle, and the mining and militarization haven’t even begun. It’s left-wing space policy or barbarism.