Eddie Murphy Is So Much Better Than Coming 2 America
Eddie Murphy is one of the most talented actors alive. Yet his brilliance is wasted in this sloppy sequel to the classic 1988 film Coming to America.
20417 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.
In the Netherlands, Workers Are Taking on Fossil Fuel Giants Like Shell
Today, protests in forty towns and cities across the Netherlands are highlighting the role of Dutch-based firms like Shell in fueling climate crisis. Workers are at the forefront of the struggle — offering hope for a mass environmental movement that goes beyond the middle class.
Chicago Socialists Led the Way in Expanding Undocumented Immigrant Protections
The City of Chicago has now fully banned the police department from collaborating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport undocumented immigrants. That’s because two socialist city council members, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa and Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez, pushed for years to end that collaboration.
Radical Anti-Racist Unionism Has a History in Bessemer, Alabama
The ongoing union drive at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, could prove to be a key beachhead for union organizing in the South. But it’s not the first time Bessemer has seen union fights. Nearly a century ago, the town was home to anti-racist union organizing with the Communist-led union Mine-Mill.
Joe Biden Should Quit Stalling and Reverse Trump’s Colonial Handover of Western Sahara
One of Donald Trump’s last decisions in office was a squalid diplomatic deal with Morocco, granting US recognition of its occupation of Western Sahara in exchange for Moroccan recognition of Israel. Since the move, the Saharawi population has faced intense military repression — yet the Biden administration refuses to say whether it will reverse Trump’s colonial handover of the territory.
Lula’s Return Could Save Brazilian Democracy
With former Brazilian president Lula da Silva now eligible to run in next year’s election, Jair Bolsonaro’s grip on power is looking weaker than ever before. Amid the tide of reaction, Lula’s return means there is finally some hope for democracy and social justice in Brazil.
Nomadland Is a Great and Terrible Film
While Nomadland goes out of its way to avoid talking politics, its genius is in locating the emotional truth of what it’s like to be one of the many millions of Americans cast adrift by disaster.
How a Revolution on the Tiny Island of Grenada Shook the World
On this day in 1979, the most remarkable social revolution in the modern history of the Anglophone Caribbean began. Today, we remember not only the crisis and imperialist invasion that brought the Grenadian Revolution to an end, but its tremendous accomplishments.
Don’t Be Fooled: Little Marco Rubio Is Still an Enemy of Labor
Marco Rubio grabbed headlines today by offering a strange and half-hearted endorsement of the unionization drive in Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama. Don’t be fooled, though: Rubio’s absurd “right-wing economic populism” isn’t serious about fighting for the working class.
Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Andrew Cuomo
A wave of Democratic lawmakers from across the political spectrum have now called for New York’s governor to resign. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand have conspicuously failed to follow suit.
The Clock Is Ticking for the Amazon Union Vote in Bessemer, Alabama
Ballots are due by March 29 in the first warehouse-wide union drive at a US Amazon facility. The Alabama workers are up against an avalanche of anti-union propaganda, but if they win a union, it would mark a historic incursion by labor into the heart of a formidable anti-union employer.
Legendary Leftist Filmmaker John Sayles on Matewan, Working-Class History, and Left-Wing Organizing
John Sayles is one of the most talented left-wing filmmakers in US history. We spoke with him about radical politics, independent filmmaking, and his legendary 1987 labor movie Matewan.
Our Political Leaders Could Have Prevented Mass COVID-19 Deaths. They Chose Not to.
The US has never seriously considered far-reaching responses to the coronavirus pandemic like a national lockdown or a universal basic income that would allow people to stay at home without immiseration. The result: unnecessary mass deaths, with more on the way.
No, Joe Biden Won’t Give Us Social Democracy
There were many good things in the stimulus package. But claims that Biden’s Democratic Party has embraced structural change are overblown: an injection of much-needed cash isn’t the same thing as empowering workers or creating a constituency for change.
Joe Manchin Is the Poster Boy for a Doomed Centrist Politics
West Virginia senator Joe Manchin is an embodiment of centrist Democrats’ worst instincts. He says he wants to win over Republican-voting workers, but he is consistently on the wrong side of populist economic issues like a minimum wage hike that are wildly popular among those workers.
Emmanuel Macron Is the Face of 21st-Century Neoliberalism — And It Isn’t Pretty
Emmanuel Macron has revealed what the political center of the twenty-first century looks like in practice: a war on workers, authoritarian demagogy, and a further emboldening of the far right.
Joe Biden’s COVID Relief Bill is Rightfully Bringing Back Government Handouts
The newly passed COVID-19 relief bill will not solve every aspect of the crisis, and it won’t fundamentally reverse our massive wealth inequality. But the bill will make a substantial difference in people’s lives — and in the process create fertile terrain for the Left to organize.
Walter LaFeber (1933–2021)
Walter LaFeber, a giant in the field of American diplomatic history, died this week at 87. His work refused to prettify the destructive record of US foreign policy and emphasized the unacknowledged economic motives behind American statesmen’s high-flying rhetoric.
Niki Ashton Has No Reason to Apologize for Meeting With Jeremy Corbyn
Canadian NDP MP Niki Ashton has faced absurd attacks for agreeing to join an event with British Labour politician Jeremy Corbyn. Canada’s Left should see the absurd charges of antisemitism against Ashton and Corbyn for what they are: an attempt to delegitimize socialist ideas.
We Are All Living in Rupert Murdoch’s World
The right-wing media baron Rupert Murdoch turns 90 today. His news empire has been instrumental in reshaping the world in the image cast by conservative elites. The need to build a robust and democratic alternative media has never been more urgent.