Joe Biden Is Failing at Fighting the Pandemic
President Biden came into office promising to lead a robust effort to vanquish coronavirus. So far, he has failed.
19274 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.
Everything You Need to Know About What’s Happening in Afghanistan
The rapid collapse of Afghanistan to Taliban rule has created a chaotic, complicated situation. But here’s the fundamental point: the US has nothing to show for two decades of bloodshed and occupation.
The Afghanistan Defeat Should Shatter Our Illusions About US Imperial Might
The US military has lost enormous legitimacy because of its humiliation in Afghanistan. We will need to remind people of that humiliating defeat every single time the Pentagon tries to sell us another war.
Austerity Helped Fuel Greece’s Wildfires
Wildfires are devastating Greek forests in the worst heat wave in 30 years. Thanks to years of austerity and a right-wing government pushing through further privatizations under cover of the pandemic, even the basic services required to fight the fires are desperately lacking.
Revolutionary Mexico Tried to Transform the World Economy
In the twentieth century, the post-revolutionary Mexican government drew up ambitious plans to transform the world economic system for the benefit of the Global South. Their failure helped turn Mexico itself into a laboratory for neoliberalism.
Canada’s Military Is Spying on Canadian Citizens
The Canadian military has been caught using PSYOP tactics it honed in Afghanistan on domestic soil. The dirty tricks, which included a scheme to spread panic about imaginary wolf attacks in Nova Scotia, should worry anyone concerned about civil liberties.
Tucker Carlson Is Touting Hungary’s Viktor Orbán as a Competent Trump
Visiting Hungary, Tucker Carlson presented its authoritarian leader, Viktor Orbán, as the defender of the normality America has lost. In fact, Orbán’s kleptocracy offers a grim indication of what far-right ideologues would do in the US if they had the chance.
Europe Is Shamefully Shutting the Door to Afghan Refugees
After the Taliban seized Kabul, Emmanuel Macron led EU governments in declaring the need to “protect ourselves” from a fresh wave of refugees. The West’s intervention fueled chaos in Afghanistan. Now, it is punishing the victims.
The US Is to Blame for the Destruction of Afghanistan
Despite its claims to be building democracy in Afghanistan, the US’s War on Terror pushed the country deeper into chaos. The United States should be held fully responsible for this failure by the rest of the world.
Rent Controls in the UK Are Not a Fantasy
With 445,000 UK tenants in arrears, it’s clear the landlord class is out of control. Rent controls can rein in its exploitation.
The Right Wants to Starve Workers Into Submission. Does Joe Biden Agree?
On Fox News, Laura Ingraham asked, “What if we just cut off the unemployment? Hunger is a pretty powerful thing.” With benefits set to expire, Joe Biden has three weeks to decide whether he agrees with her.
Liberals Don’t Understand the American Empire
The Trump presidency briefly made liberals critics of US actions around the world — but now he’s gone, they’re back to believing America is the solution to the destruction it creates.
Gig Companies Are Bringing the Disastrous Prop 22 to a State Near You
The gig companies, fresh from their Prop 22 victory in California, are seeking to repeat their success in Massachusetts, pushing a ballot measure that would strip app-based drivers of existing labor protections like the minimum wage.
Yet Again, the US Was Defeated in Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, as in Vietnam and Iraq, US elites sold us a vision of the world in which the United States alone has not just the power but the duty to forcibly reshape the world how it sees fit. They have again proven utterly incapable of doing so.
The Purge Has Nothing to Say
The Purge franchise and its offshoot, The Hunt, try to feed the appetite for dark social satire about the barbaric inequalities of the modern United States. But they end up delivering little more than weak fantasies of resistance.
AMLO Wants a United Latin America
Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has called for a union of Latin American countries. Drawing on the revolutionary vision of Simón Bolívar, it aims for regional integration as a bulwark against foreign interference. Could it work?
Texas’s Fossil Fuel Elite Is Driving Us to Climate Disaster
Oil and gas donors have spent $100 million on elections in Texas. Now storms made worse by climate change have flooded the state capitol building in Austin.
When Oklahoma Was the Heartland of American Socialism
In 1917, impoverished Oklahoma tenant farmers were the backbone of the US’s flourishing socialist movement. That year, hundreds mobilized — armed — to march on Washington and force an end to the World War I draft.
To Fight Racism, Organize With Your Coworkers
Too many anti-racist efforts today obsess over individual actions like microaggressions. We need to fight racism in a collective project rooted in shared material interests — as the United Packinghouse Workers of America did in its heyday.
The White Lotus Is a Perfect Satire of Today’s Rich
HBO’s brilliant The White Lotus reminds us that class society permeates everywhere, even on a tropical island — something that US television traditionally does its best to hide.