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.
Monday’s court ruling against extraditing Julian Assange to the United States is a welcome relief for his supporters. But the court also rejected his defenses on the grounds of journalists’ rights to seek and impart information — a ruling that will further thwart scrutiny of the national security establishment.
Corporate-backed conservative groups like the US Chamber of Commerce, the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity, and companies like Chevron have all issued statements decrying Wednesday’s occupation of the Capitol — without acknowledging the role they played in helping elect the politicians who egged on and fueled the attempt to overturn the presidential election.
Spanish dictator Francisco Franco’s family has finally been evicted from the summer palace it has occupied since 1938. The handover shows how Spain is starting to confront its past — but also points to the vast real estate and business power that still lies in the hands of Franco’s supporters.
Yesterday’s riot of Trump supporters at the US Capitol will likely be a radicalizing event for the far right. We shouldn’t underestimate their ability to cause more death and destruction in the aftermath.
Republicans have staunchly defended the Electoral College for years, but they may soon find that the only way to remain a viable national party is to support a national popular vote. That could open the door to finally eliminating the terribly undemocratic Electoral College.
The protests and occupation of the US Capitol yesterday are a small taste of the kind of brazenly undemocratic power grabs the authoritarian right has executed in countries like Bolivia. Regardless of what actions Trump and his supporters take to cling to power, the response of the Left, labor, and the millions of anti-fascists across the US and world should be the same: mass, ongoing mobilizations opposing them.
The kid-glove treatment of yesterday’s far-right protesters was a shocking departure from the wanton police brutality that is the norm for leftist protesters of any kind. When racial justice or antiwar protesters take to the streets, police repression is fierce and unrelenting. When right-wingers protest, they’re given free rein.
The promise of $2,000 survival checks helped the Democrats gain control of the Senate. They should send them out immediately, and absorb the lesson of this election: when Republicans are forced to confront bold proposals to help the broad working-class majority, they lose.
Though Tuesday’s gratifying Democratic victories in Georgia are unlikely to move the needle of politics very far, they came as a satisfying vindication of arguments the Left has been making for years.
Yesterday’s events were the expression of a dangerous authoritarian movement that has been long in the making.
Donald Trump has long stoked the kind of abhorrent far-right action that we saw storm the Capitol today. But it’s not just Trump who deserves the blame: mainstream conservatives created this monster, too.
The far-right mob that took over the Capitol today never would have gotten past the front door if the federal police hadn’t allowed them to storm in. The simple fact is that left-wing protesters get treated with brutality, while right-wing protesters get coddled.
Julian Assange’s extradition to the US has been blocked thanks to a technicality, but he still faces the injustice of years in prison in the UK. While world leaders remain quiet, AMLO stands alone in speaking up for freedom of speech — and has offered Assange asylum in Mexico.
Big pharma firms like Pfizer are marketing COVID-19 vaccines for a profit, yet the research behind them would have been impossible without universities and public funding. The lack of an international public health response has placed capitalist profit over human need — and will leave billions of people unvaccinated.
Under the Congressional Review Act, Congress can rescind recently passed Trump administration rules that weaken protections for workers and the environment. Will Democrats use that power?
The exit polls from Georgia are clear: voters think Congress is doing too little to help them and too much for large corporations.
The lawless behavior of Donald Trump and Georgia’s GOP senators recently captured on tape is, like so much about Trump, appalling. But it reflects an American political culture in which the powerful are never held accountable for any kind of wrongdoing, no matter how blatant or evil.
Opponents of the $2,000 survival checks claim they’re poorly targeted. That’s nonsense. They would help the working class and poor far more than the rich.
Joe Biden is no friend to progressive politics of any kind. But after constant pressure, the president-elect has changed his stance on $2,000 survival checks if Georgia Democrats win.
Julian Assange’s defeat of extradition to the United States was a huge victory — one that couldn’t have been achieved without a public pressure campaign. That same public pressure will now be needed to free Assange from prison.