We Need to Start Taxing Bitcoin
Bitcoin is an asset so useless that even if a financial transactions tax completely destroyed it, the world would be better off.
21053 Article(s) by: James Bloodworth
James Bloodworth is a writer and journalist from London.
France’s Mounting Authoritarianism Is Paving the Way for Fascism
Soldiers’ and police unions’ calls for action to save France from chaos show how fascist ideas have spread within the state. For decades, neoliberal governments have increased these repressive bodies’ powers — and today, they’re preparing the ground for a Le Pen presidency.
Roberto Benigni Is Getting a Golden Lion for Not Being Funny Anymore
Venice’s International Film Festival is awarding Roberto Benigni this year’s Golden Lion for lifetime achievement. Announcing the award, the festival called Benigni a model of transgressive filmmaking. In fact, for decades, the Life Is Beautiful star has symbolized how onetime radicals turn into purveyors of conformist schmaltz.
Mike Gravel Was on the Right Side of History
While Mike Gravel never earned the respect of the political establishment, he passed from this Earth with his conscience untormented by the ghosts of screaming civilians whose lives those in Washington regularly snuff out with their afternoon coffee.
While Average People Suffered, 5 Million People Became Millionaires Under COVID-19
The pandemic was and remains brutal for average people. But not for the rich: central bank policies created 5 million new millionaires during the pandemic. It’s the latest sign that our economy is rigged for the wealthy.
New York’s Economic Development Corporation Is a Tool for the Rich
The Economic Development Corporation manages New York City land in the service of private profit. The city needs a new approach that doesn’t give away massive amounts of public money to the wealthy.
Australia Was Founded on an Act of Genocide. It’s Time to Make Amends.
Henry Reynolds has demolished the apologetic arguments of conservative intellectuals, showing that the British colonization of Australia was a crime even by the standards of its time. Reynolds makes a powerful argument for recognizing Aboriginal sovereignty.
We Have to Act Now to Stop the Coming US Eviction Crisis
A flood of evictions is about to slam the United States. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The federal government can stave off the crisis and fix the underlying injustices causing it. Here’s how.
Big Tech Is Killing Movies
Amazon’s buyout of MGM is the latest example of the culture industry’s transformation into a Big Tech monopoly. Artists, workers, and the film-watching public suffer the consequences.
How Colorado State Graduate Workers Got Organized During the Pandemic
The pandemic has been brutal for graduate workers, but some have organized despite COVID. Case in point: graduate workers at Colorado State University, who, with help from the Emergency Workers Organizing Committee, demanded decent pay and treatment.
Billionaire Tycoons Are Turning French Radio Into a Copy of Fox News
For decades, Europe 1 has been one of France’s most respected radio networks — but under pressure from its new billionaire owners, it’s being merged into the Fox-style CNEWS. Last week, journalists took strike action, trying to stop a French broadcasting icon from becoming yet another far-right echo chamber.
Eugene Debs: The Red Flag “Is a Sign of Terror to Every Tyrant”
In 1907, Eugene Debs waxed poetic about the red flag, calling it “a sign of terror to every tyrant” and “the flag of Universal Freedom.” We reprint his article here in full.
Conservatives Are the Ones Attacking Free Speech at Universities
Australian conservatives claim that “woke” students and left-wing lecturers pose a threat to free speech on university campuses. But the real “cancel culture” is coming from the Right.
C. B. Macpherson Wanted a Socialism That Didn’t Lose Sight of the Individual
Canadian thinker C. B. Macpherson insisted that capitalism’s “possessive individualism” constrained human flourishing. In its place, he wanted a democratic socialist society where people could build meaningful relationships and express the kaleidoscope of human individuality.
Evictions Aren’t Just a Symptom of Poverty — They’re a Cause of It
The United States is deeply hostile to renters, especially in states like Indiana that are staring down an enormous flood of evictions. We need action immediately to avoid a humanitarian disaster of millions being kicked out of their homes this summer.
Nora Ephron Wrote Through It
I love Nora Ephron. The world needs more Nora Ephrons. There are potential Noras all around us — they, and we, deserve a society that supports and nourishes and encourages them.
How Britain’s Red Wedge Tried to Bring Pop Into Politics and Politics Into Pop
In the 1980s, British musicians like Billy Bragg and Paul Weller tried to mobilize Labour support through the group Red Wedge. The rise and fall of Red Wedge tells us a lot about how culture might be used to advance socialist politics.
The Shackles of Debt in the Global South Weigh Down Workers Everywhere
In the pandemic’s first year, poor countries’ debt rose to astonishing heights, plunging such countries into even worse austerity than before. These attacks are directed at workers in the Global South, but the fallout isn’t contained within national borders — the struggle against debt servitude belongs to workers everywhere.
The Bezos Theory of Value Is Deeply Disturbing
In his final letter to shareholders as Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos offers a novel — and profoundly disturbing — conception of value creation: a handful of visionaries are the sole source of all “real value.” This aristocracy mercifully blesses customers, clients, and even Amazon workers with social goods.
China’s Downwardly Mobile Millennials Are Throwing in the Towel
Exhausted and alienated Chinese students and white-collar workers are “lying flat” to register discontent with the status quo. For their protest to produce change, they’ll need to transform individual passivity into collective activity.