Walmart’s Company Town of Bentonville, Arkansas
Bentonville, Arkansas, is home to Walmart’s headquarters. It’s also a town in which the Walton Family Foundation works like a parallel state, creating a kind of twenty-first-century company town.
20422 Article(s) 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.
Democrats Aren’t Doing Enough to Address America’s Mental Health Crisis
The United States has been locked in a mental health crisis over the past year, one exacerbated by the miserable material conditions faced by millions. Democratic leaders should promise easement from that sense of dread through redistributive policies, connecting our mental well-being to our material well-being.
Arby’s Says It Helped Kill the $15 Minimum Wage
Inspire Brands — which owns Jimmy John’s, Arby’s, Sonic, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Dunkin’ — bragged in internal documents about its role preventing workers from getting a living wage. $15 an hour and a union is the least we should be demanding from predatory corporations.
We Need an Anti-Imperialist Alternative to Biden’s Status Quo Foreign Policy
When it comes to foreign policy, Joe Biden represents a continuation of the imperialist status quo. We need a leftist alternative that weakens US empire and prizes democracy, rather than one that assumes the US is right to dominate the world.
There’s Never Been a Better Time to Abolish the Monarchy
Conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic love Britain’s monarchy because “royals” are emotionally potent mascots of extreme inequality and deference. There’s no reason this heinously undemocratic institution should exist.
Colectivo Coffee Workers Are Organizing a Union
Baristas and other workers at multiple Colectivo Coffee locations in Wisconsin and Illinois are organizing a union. We spoke to a Colectivo worker about the working conditions under COVID-19 that spurred them to organize, allegations of union-busting, and the need for workers everywhere to “get over the fear that [unionizing] can’t be done.”
How the Pandemic Is Creating New Urban Wastelands
For decades, ordinary residents have been pushed out of cities like London and New York to make room for offices and luxury apartments. But the pandemic has massively reduced demand for these same locations — turning city centers into ghost towns, full of shiny new buildings that no one needs.
Save the Post Office — Fire Trump’s Postmaster Louis DeJoy
The Trump-nominated postmaster general Louis DeJoy is still in charge of the US Postal Service — and he’s still trying to run it into the ground. Joe Biden must do everything he can to boot DeJoy from office.
Sweden’s Left Has to Show Working People That the State Will Protect Them
Sweden is a famous for its welfare system, but recent decades’ neoliberal reforms have made life for working people ever more precarious. The Left Party’s new chair, Nooshi Dadgostar, told Jacobin why rebuilding a strong safety net is decisive for shielding Swedes from the pandemic — and reassuring workers worried by the green transition.
Amazon’s PR Flacks Are Starting to Sweat
With Bernie Sanders on his way to Bessemer, Alabama to support warehouse workers voting on a union, and the company facing increasingly negative press over working conditions that include drivers being forced to urinate in bottles, Amazon’s PR operation is getting defensive.
More “Pro-Business” Measures Aren’t Going to Pull Italy Out of Crisis
When COVID-19 sent the global economy into meltdown, European leaders insisted they wouldn’t repeat the same mistakes they made after the 2008 crisis. But in Italy, a familiar cast of technocrats are again touting the same neoliberal recipes — hobbling the country’s public sector and driving ever-wider inequalities.
The Right Created Boot Camps for Destroying Democracy and Voting Rights
Records show how right-wing groups have used a network of conferences to teach Republican lawmakers how to gerrymander their states and suppress voting rights. Georgia is just the beginning in the war on democracy.
Australia Needs a Working-Class Environmental Movement
Led by Australian unions, the Hunter Jobs Alliance is organizing workers, environmentalists, and Hunter Valley communities to oppose the right-wing narrative on climate change. We don’t have to choose between protecting jobs and saving the planet: a plan based on public investment can do both.
How Jean-Paul Sartre and Les Temps Modernes Supported Algeria’s Struggle for Freedom
France waged a brutal colonial war in Algeria during the 1950s. But a group of writers clustered around Jean-Paul Sartre’s journal Les Temps modernes played a courageous role, exposing French war crimes and supporting the right of the Algerian people to self-determination.
Alice Neel, Painter of the People
The 20th-century American portrait painter Alice Neel was often misunderstood by art critics throughout her career. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new Neel retrospective, “People Come First,” recontextualizes her career as a painter of the human condition whose socialist politics were central to her work.
Sorry, Anti-Zionism Still Doesn’t Equal Antisemitism
The struggle against Israeli apartheid has nothing to do with antisemitism — and everything to do with winning liberation for colonized Palestinians.
If the Democrats Don’t Kill the Filibuster, They’re Screwed
The Democratic Party’s leadership must immediately kill the filibuster and move key legislation — because the GOP is one heartbeat away from reclaiming control of the Senate.
Greece’s Fight for Independence Was Part of a Global Revolutionary Movement
Today marks 200 years since the beginning of the Greek Revolution. The uprising secured Greece’s national independence — but also expressed the anti-imperialist and democratic vision carried by a global revolutionary movement, from France to the black Jacobins in Haiti.
Judge Sergio Moro Is to Blame for Jair Bolsonaro’s Far-Right Presidency
In Brazil, an absurd and deeply politicized “anti-corruption” campaign was carried out to block Lula da Silva from the presidency — delivering it instead to far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, who oversaw the world’s worst COVID-19 response. We have ex-judge Sergio Moro to thank for it.
South Africa’s Widespread Corruption Is the Rotten Fruit of Apartheid
The endemic corruption in South Africa isn’t about a few bad apples — it’s the rotten fruit of an apartheid era that enriched self-interested political elites at the expense of the black masses.