Persuasion Is the Goofy Jane Austen No One Asked For
Netflix’s Persuasion tries and fails to bring Fleabag’s irreverence to Jane Austen.
19740 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.
On Military Spending, the Establishment’s Inflation Hawks Are Nowhere to Be Found
The House has approved an $850 billion military budget, twice as much as Biden’s stimulus checks cost. Yet somehow, we aren’t getting panicked screeds from corporate pundits about how a massive injection of federal spending is going to turbocharge inflation.
The Success of Pandemic Income Support Does Not Mean That Universal Basic Income Works
In Canada, the results of pandemic income support seem to confirm the claims of universal basic income advocates. But to make UBI work, we need to ensure it’s coupled with a massive expansion of welfare state policies.
What Would Mike Davis Bomb?
Legendary socialist writer Mike Davis used to put a prompt to his students: If you had a B-52 with unlimited tonnage, what ugly, antisocial buildings would you bomb? We put the question to urbanist thinkers who have been inspired by Davis’s writing.
Police Departments Spend Vast Sums of Money Creating “Copaganda”
US police departments spend tens of millions of dollars every year to manipulate the news, flooding the discourse with “copaganda.” These aggressive tactics give the public a distorted view of what public safety means, what threatens it, and how to solve it.
Amazon Workers in North Carolina Are Building a Union
Since the Amazon Labor Union’s victory in New York, interest in organizing has surged nationwide. In North Carolina, worker-organizers are building solidarity by helping coworkers struggling with starvation wages and an increasingly punitive management.
Joe Biden’s Middle East Trip Was a Gift to the World’s Autocrats
Joe Biden just returned from his Middle East trip, where he went hat in hand to some of the world’s most brutal, US-backed despots in a desperate bid to boost oil production. All he got was a fist bump from Saudi tyrant Mohammed Bin Salman.
As You Watch Tonight’s MLB All-Star Game, Remember These Three Baseball Labor Struggles
Tonight is Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game. You probably won’t hear it on the broadcast, but there’s labor unrest brewing involving minor-league players, concession workers, and Bernie Sanders — and the target is baseball’s oligarchic business model.
Stop Using Hamas as a Bogeyman to Silence Palestinians
Enthusiasts for Israeli militarism often claim that Gaza needs “freeing from Hamas.” Such a claim is steeped in the logic of collective guilt, refusing Palestinians the right to both armed struggle and the ballot box.
Boris Johnson Has Many Enemies, but the Deep State Isn’t One of Them
The outgoing Conservative leader claims to be the victim of a nefarious deep state conspiracy. Britain does have a deep state, but Johnson is the very last person who would show up on its hit list.
The Founder of Surrealism Helped Inspire a Revolution in Haiti
In 1945, the French revolutionary poet André Breton took a trip to Haiti. Breton was fascinated by Haiti’s culture and tradition of revolt — and his own talks helped trigger a popular uprising against the country’s dictator, Élie Lescot.
No, Karl Marx Was Not Eurocentric
Critics of Marx have accused him of imposing a European model of historical development on the rest of the world. But the real Marx rejected Eurocentric thinking and developed a sophisticated view of world history in all its diversity and complexity.
To Reduce Methane Emissions, Take on the Oil and Gas Companies
US and EU officials recently suggested targeting livestock and agriculture in Asia and Africa to reduce methane emissions. Far more emissions, however, come from oil and gas production in the US — but reducing them requires taking on fossil fuel companies.
The Democratic Base Keeps Getting Richer and Whiter
A startling poll shows how rapidly the Democrats are trading away their traditional multiracial, working-class base for white, highly educated voters. And the shift is causing a change to the party’s political priorities as a result.
I Marched Against Putin’s War for the Same Reason I Protested the War in Iraq
The antiwar movement was right to challenge the lies used to justify the US-UK invasion of Iraq. We should be equally willing to denounce Vladimir Putin’s fake pretexts for war against Ukraine.
France’s Left Needs to Speak to All Parts of the Working Class
The French left made gains in spring’s elections — but it did much better in big cities than in deindustrialized areas. Debates in France Insoumise have highlighted the need to win back the older working class without giving up on political radicalism.
Rick Caruso Is a Los Angeles Good Old Boy Posing as a Political Outsider
Taking a page from Trump’s playbook, billionaire real-estate developer Rick Caruso is campaigning for LA mayor as an antiestablishment maverick. In reality, like Trump, he’s just another wealthy conservative out to protect himself and other rich people.
Paul Robeson Spent His Life Fighting Against America’s Extreme Right
Paul Robeson, the socialist actor, musician, and civil rights campaigner, dedicated his life to battling against right-wing red-baiting that has echoes in reactionary crusades against progressive education and “critical race theory” today.
How the Democrats Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Free Market
In the 1990s, the New Democrats trusted corporations to do the right thing. The results were disastrous.
Under Jair Bolsonaro, Meat Is Becoming an Unaffordable Luxury Item for Most Brazilians
Brazil is the world’s biggest beef exporter, yet over half its population says it can no longer afford red meat. President Jair Bolsonaro is denying the problem exists, even as his own policies deepen most Brazilians’ cost of living crisis.