Chile Is Rewriting Its Constitution. Australia Should Too.
Australia’s constitution is outdated, antidemocratic, and has consistently blocked social democratic reforms. That’s why we need to rip it up and write a new one.
19426 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.
C. L. R. James Never Gave Up on His Dream of Revolution
C. L. R. James loved seeing workers take ownership of culture that was thought to belong to their betters. He believed in the creative talents of workers, just as he believed in their power to secure their own liberation without direction from above.
Will They Coup Lula?
Lula da Silva is leading the polls for Brazil’s upcoming presidential election. But far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro is threatening a coup to hold on to power if he loses the vote.
A. Philip Randolph’s Radical, Stirring Speech at the 1963 March on Washington
The official head of the August 28, 1963, March on Washington was socialist A. Philip Randolph. In his speech, reprinted here, he called for restructuring society so the “sanctity of private property takes second place to the sanctity of the human personality.”
The Civil Rights Movement Was Radical to Its Core
Today is the 59th anniversary of the March on Washington, so get ready for plenty of whitewashed history. Here’s the truth: the Civil Rights Movement was a radical struggle against Jim Crow tyranny whose early foot soldiers were Communists and labor militants.
You’ve Been Lied to About the 1963 March on Washington
The March on Washington was 59 years ago today. It’s popularly remembered as a moderate demonstration where MLK “had a dream” — but in fact, it was the decades-long culmination of a mass, working-class movement against racial and economic injustice.
Jamie Foxx’s Day Shift Is Another Big-Budget Netflix Mediocrity
With a solid premise about working-class vampire hunters, Day Shift had real potential — but there’s no escaping the Netflix curse.
Student Debt Relief Was Never Supposed to Happen
Student debt forgiveness is about to become official US policy by a stroke of Joe Biden’s pen. It’s a good time to remember that, just a few years ago, the idea was denounced as hopelessly utopian, a left-wing pipe dream — and that was the liberals talking.
The Brutal Pessimism of Michel Houellebecq
The French author Michel Houellebecq is one of the most virulent, petulant critics of the 20th century’s legacy. His affinities with the Right are clear, but as a novelist, he nonetheless demands to be read.
Despite Its Flaws, the IRA Will Raise Taxes on Corporate Profits and Stock Buybacks
The Inflation Reduction Act was a compromise from the outset, and Senator Kyrsten Sinema made its tax provisions even worse. But the legislation will still raise billions in revenue by creating a fairer tax burden for corporations.
Mexico’s New Truth Commission Will Shine a Light on the Crimes of Its “Dirty War”
No one was ever brought to justice for Mexico’s brutal “dirty war,” sparked by a police massacre of students in 1968. Now Andrés Manuel López Obrador has launched the first truth commission to address the government’s crimes.
How to Work Hard, Live Frugally, and Still Have $71,000 in Student Debt
Critics like to paint a picture of debtors as overeducated elites demanding a handout while idly snacking on $15 avocado toasts. But I’ve worked hard and lived modestly, and my debt is still haunting me — even after the White House’s partial cancellation.
The Privatization of the Port of Haifa Is a Move to Make Political Allies for Israel
The sell-off of the Port of Haifa looks like a takeover by corporate interests. Yet the acquisition was led by a close ally of Indian premier Narendra Modi — showing its ties to Israel’s strategy of finding autocratic allies abroad.
Why the Philippine Elite Continues to Back US Empire
Amid rising tensions in the Southeast Asian Sea, both the US and China are courting the Philippines. Most Filipinos would prefer a nonaligned foreign policy — but Manila’s elites keep lining up with the US, further threatening regional peace and stability.
British Postal Workers Are on Strike Today
Over 115,000 British postal workers are out on strike today. Why? They’re tired of austerity.
Did Democrats Just (Modestly) Rein in Big Pharma?
Past congressional efforts to rein in drug pricing have been undone by Big Pharma’s lobbying of the executive branch. But Democrats seem to have written their recent drug pricing legislation to prevent this possibility.
The Nazis Weren’t Socialists — They Were Hypercapitalists
Right-wingers love to insist that members of Adolf Hitler’s party were socialists. But Nazism’s real economic policies upheld hypercapitalist principles rooted in social Darwinist ideas about the value of human life. They weren’t socialists at all.
One of the Largest Nurses’ Strikes in US History is Brewing in Minnesota
Last week, 15,000 nurses at seven Twin Cities hospitals voted to authorize a strike. Their demand is simple: put patients before profits.
Rosa Luxemburg Was the Great Theorist of Democratic Revolution
A new edition of Rosa Luxemburg’s writings, most of which have never appeared in English before, gives us a unique perspective on her thought. Luxemburg believed that a socialist revolution would have to be democratic or else it would be doomed to failure.
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò: “Oppression Is Not a Prep School”
In activist and academic circles, privileged people are expected to automatically defer to marginalized people on issues of oppression. Philosopher Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò argues that this norm kills solidarity and replaces effective politics with endless navel-gazing.