Lula Can End the Jair Bolsonaro Nightmare Today
Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency has been a destructive clown show. A Lula win today can help rebuild Brazil’s democracy.
19500 Articles by: James Bloodworth
James Bloodworth is a writer and journalist from London.
When Paul Robeson Played Toussaint Louverture
Socialist actor, musician, and civil rights campaigner Paul Robeson viewed the Haitian Revolution as a guiding light in the struggle for freedom and dignity. In 1936, he played the revolutionary leader in C. L. R. James’s play Toussaint Louverture.
The Best Solution to Fixing Your Crappy Job Is a Union
It’s no mystery why millions of workers are quitting their jobs: pay is low, conditions are terrible, and on-the-job disrespect is rampant. But the best way to transform a terrible job isn’t to leave it — it’s to organize a union.
Neoliberal Disaster Management Is Forcing Puerto Ricans to Create Their Own Recovery
Enmeshed in a colonial relationship with the US and abandoned by their own establishment politicians, Puerto Ricans are being forced to forge their own recovery after Hurricane Fiona. But they’re also dreaming of a different, more just future.
The 1919 Elaine Massacre Was a Violent Response to Black Sharecropper Organizing
Black sharecroppers organizing a union were slaughtered en masse 103 years ago this week in the Elaine Massacre. It was one of the US’s worst episodes of racist violence — and a reminder that Jim Crow was about keeping the masses divided and labor brutalized.
Ian McEwan’s Centrist Agitprop Novel Is a Creative Failure
British writer Ian McEwan wanted to deliver a literary manifesto for liberal centrism with his new book Lessons. But the result is an aimless, meandering novel that reveals his creative exhaustion and bewilderment at the state of the world.
Left-Wing Journalist Katie Halper Has Been Fired for Calling Israel an Apartheid State
The Hill has fired Katie Halper from its morning show, Rising, for describing Israel’s policies as tantamount to apartheid. It’s a blatant act of censorship to silence a pro-Palestinian journalist.
A Postelection Coup in Brazil Is Unlikely. But the Military Is Still Too Powerful.
Despite fears that a military coup could follow Sunday’s elections in Brazil, the country’s military brass is unlikely to feel threatened enough to attempt one. Whoever wins, the military’s growing institutional hold on power looks likely to continue.
Britain’s Tory Meltdown Is a Case of Socially Determined Stupidity
The new Conservative prime minister Liz Truss has experienced a spectacular humiliation during her first weeks in office. Her self-defeating agenda reflects the mindset of a Thatcherite ideologue managing an economy already ravaged by decades of Thatcherism.
The Early IWW’s Unionism Was So Effective That Capitalists Decided It Had to Be Smashed
The Industrial Workers of the World pioneered a radical unionism that built a small but incredibly dedicated group of unionists and union supporters — which is why American capitalists and politicians quickly decided they needed to stop the union.
The Federal Reserve Is Now the Biggest Threat to the Economy
The Fed has dropped all pretense of aiming for a “soft landing” as it ratchets up interest rates to fight inflation. It now openly admits it’s trying to create a recession in which millions of people will lose their jobs.
Wall Street Is Profiting Off the Sick and Elderly While Delivering Substandard Care
New studies suggest that private equity–owned hospitals and nursing homes deliver worse outcomes and higher costs for patients — weeks after Congress gave private equity firms a new tax break.
We’re Still Living in Don DeLillo’s White Noise
Published in 1985, Don DeLillo’s White Noise depicted an America blinded by consumerism. Ahead of Netflix’s adaptation of the novel, it’s worth revisiting DeLillo’s masterpiece, which remains one of our most perceptive visions of contemporary America.
Student Debt Relief Would Disproportionately Benefit Borrowers in Red States
Six Republican states are suing to stop Joe Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan — even though a new study shows that borrowers in most of those states would be among the biggest beneficiaries of the program.
Blonde Is Marilyn Monroe Abased All Over Again
Based on Joyce Carol Oates’s novel, Andrew Dominik’s film Blonde ignores the assertive and hardworking real-life Marilyn Monroe and instead gives us a lurid tale of perpetual victimization.
Democrats Are in Power, but Republicans Are Still Setting the Political Agenda
Despite Democrats controlling the White House and Congress since 2020, it has largely been the Right that has taken the political initiative and set the terms of the political conversation. Expect that to get worse after November.
AMLO Is Calling for Peace in Ukraine, but More Military in Mexico
Unlike most world leaders, Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has boldly called for peace commission in Ukraine, foregrounding the need for open negotiations to end the war. At home, however, he has increased the power of the military.
Sidney Poitier Was an Icon. But Oprah Winfrey’s Documentary Sidney Is Too Worshipful a Tribute.
The new Oprah Winfrey–produced Sidney Poitier documentary, Sidney, is a gushing tribute film, not a fully rounded portrait of a human being who had weaknesses to go along with his many strengths.
America’s Schools Are Overheating as Climate Change Cranks the Thermostat
Our resource-starved public education system is not equipped to handle the increasingly extreme heat, condemning students and teachers to sweltering classrooms. New school infrastructure is an urgent priority if we want to have a functional education system.
State Governments Are Colluding With Billionaires to Shield Their Wealth From Taxation
You’ve heard about tax havens like the Cayman Islands. But billionaires aren’t just dodging their taxes with international loopholes — US states have turned their tax codes into plutocratic rackets where billionaires can stash their cash tax-free.