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.
Bernie Sanders is reportedly making a bid to be the secretary of labor in a potential Biden administration. That’s good news. The labor secretary has broad latitude to raise worker standards — and Bernie could use the bully pulpit to declare that all workers will have the full backing of the federal government if they organize on the job.
Last Thursday, Poland’s Constitutional Court banned almost all abortion, as part of a wider Catholic-conservative offensive against women’s rights. But the ruling has already sparked strikes and blockades across Poland — and the working-class women least able to afford a clandestine abortion are leading the revolt.
Texas Rep. Van Taylor has voted against aid for renters and student debtors. Yet the real estate mogul is now using his office to pressure the government into giving his commercial real estate industry a bailout.
Commentators have long drawn sharp distinctions between conservatives in English-speaking countries and Europe’s own far-right traditions. Yet in the famously liberal Netherlands, such divides are becoming increasingly blurry, as reactionaries seeking a cultural counterrevolution try to imitate US neocons.
The Electoral College is an undemocratic mess. It also creates a far higher possibility of narrow elections being overturned by courts, according to a new study.
The fight over pandemic prevention isn’t just about surviving the coronavirus. It’s about our potential to build a more collective and compassionate society. Despite Donald Trump’s absurdities, most Americans are ready and willing to adopt solidaristic measures.
Indonesia’s new Omnibus Law was passed earlier this month, enacting a major series of counterreforms to workers’ rights and the environment. In protest, tens of thousands of workers went on strike, and in dozens of cities, students took to the streets.
For years, right-wingers have sought to destabilize Venezuela, and even proclaimed their own rival “president,” Juan Guaidó. But average Venezuelans understand that US sanctions hurt them — and should be resisted.
Philosopher and activist Cornel West discusses the presidential election and why a democratic socialist vision is necessary to overcome capitalism and build a better society.
The already Herculean task of parenting in normal times has now become impossible under coronavirus. Parents are going insane — and it’s made worse by the United States’ complete lack of basic social programs supporting them.
Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee hasn’t been asked much about it in Senate confirmation hearings, but Amy Coney Barrett made a series of rulings against workers facing racial discrimination on the job.
Victoria’s lockdown has provoked a self-styled rebellion that postures as defending freedom against the state premier, “Dictator” Dan Andrews. But once you scratch the plebian surface, the “movement” is led by right-wing activists and funded by Liberal Party money.
Across the United States, museum workers, activists, and artists are forcing a conversation about the labor abuses, racism, and wealthy patrons’ “art-washing” schemes at museums.
Even Donald Trump’s supporters know he is a terrible person. To ensure his resounding defeat, Democrats need to focus on bread-and-butter economic issues.
The fight for renewable energy cannot hinge simply on a shift from fossil fuels to solar and wind power. In cities like New York, the fight for democratized clean energy has begun.
Held up as a eurozone poster boy after the 2008 crash, the Irish economy still isn’t delivering for the majority of its people, especially the young. A second global recession in just over a decade will sharpen popular discontent and the desire for a new model.
Amy Coney Barrett’s father helped lead the American Petroleum Institute for 20 years — the same lobbying group that is right now pushing Supreme Court justices to limit states’ power to stop fossil fuel projects.
This summer, in a COVID-19–driven economic crisis, Chile’s opposition forced the right-wing government to allow desperate citizens to draw on their privatized pension funds. But in a constitutional referendum tomorrow, Chileans may go a step further and vote to scrap these widely hated pension funds altogether.
The failure to provide meaningful work to the vast majority of the population is a powerful indictment of our economic system — one more promise capitalism makes but can’t keep.
Bolivia’s MAS party will confront numerous challenges when returning to power. But its resounding victory against the authoritarian right and its roots as a party of social movements represent a radical vision of hope at a time when we need it most.