Teamsters for a Democratic Union at 50
At its recent 50th annual convention, members of Teamsters for a Democratic Union assessed what their organization has achieved in recent years and debated their approach to Donald Trump.
20389 Article(s) by: Jonathan Sas
Jonathan Sas has worked in senior policy and political roles in government, think tanks, and the labor movement. He is an honorary witness to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. His writing has appeared in the Toronto Star, National Post, the Tyee, and Maisonneuve.
Predator: Badlands Keeps the Hunt Alive
Predator: Badlands delivers a fresh spin on the nearly 40-year-old franchise by delving deeper into the alien society at the heart of the franchise. Judging by the impressive box office performance, it’s a rare hit in an otherwise dismal movie season.
The Left Is Stepping Out of the Neoliberal Dark Age
Vivek Chibber describes how four decades of neoliberalism have distorted the radical left, but also how the Left is finally starting to rebuild a truly socialist politics — and what it will take to advance further.
Mario Tronti and the Crisis of Italian Workerism
Italian workerism had a big influence on the 1960s left, highlighting the role of workers’ struggles in the evolution of capitalism. As one of its key thinkers, Mario Tronti had to make sense of a world where those struggles went into sharp decline.
In Utilities, a Culture of Graft Costs Consumers Billions
The cozy relationship between utilities regulators and the firms they are meant to regulate greatly benefits a few bureaucrats turned executives. It’s been a disaster for consumers, who see nothing from it but bigger bills.
Minneapolis Educators Are Showing a Way Forward for Labor
The Minneapolis educators’ union won a historic contract just over a week ago. The victory was the product of years of rank-and-file reform efforts as well as workplace and community organizing that bridged occupational and racial divides.
Amazon’s Layoffs Are Business as Usual, Not Omens of AI Doom
The recent round of Amazon corporate layoffs isn’t a sign of an imminent AI apocalypse. It’s an expression of the company’s brutal corporate culture, enabled by its use of the H-1B visa program.
Tupac Shakur Was Forged in a Revolutionary Political Culture
Tupac Shakur was a deeply political artist, shaped by the radical left-wing traditions of black America. A new biography finally does justice to this side of his life and work.
Liberalism Is Surrendering to the Hard-Right Challenge
As Donald Trump tramples over the norms of the postwar liberal order, centrist political leaders are only too keen to accommodate him. Global liberalism is collapsing, while the battle over what replaces it is just beginning.
Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein Is Dead Flesh Reanimated
Guillermo del Toro’s long-awaited Frankenstein adaptation for Netflix is a big, bloated mess. Much like Frankenstein’s Creature, it’s dead matter, crudely stitched and bolted together.
Canada Is Too Economically Dependent on the US
Key Canadian industries like auto are currently on the brink of extinction under assault from Donald Trump. Escaping this impasse requires confronting Canada’s subordinate relationship to its juggernaut neighbor to the south.
Tech Capitalists Don’t Care About Humans. Literally.
It’s not just a figure of speech to say tech titans are indifferent to humanity. From Peter Thiel to Elon Musk, many are adherents of a worldview that envisions humans being replaced by digital post-humans and sees this as progress.
Schumer Democrats Can’t Stop Trump. Mamdani Democrats Might.
A week after Zohran Mamdani’s inspiring win, the Democratic Party’s centrist leadership proved its worthlessness in the Senate. The moderate party establishment is no match for Trumpism. It’s time to give Mamdani’s democratic socialism a chance.
Unionized Starbucks Workers Are on Strike Across the US
Starbucks workers at 65 stores in 40 cities across the US walked out Thursday, striking against what they describe as unfair labor practices and the company’s stonewalling at the bargaining table. The strike could spread to as many as 550 stores.
Health Care Consolidation Is Leading to Ever-Higher Prices
Health insurance premiums keep rising, fueled by decades of lax oversight of health care consolidation that has given hospitals and health insurers enormous market power. That power is letting insurers keep raising prices and increasing their profits.
In Chile, Jeannette Jara Is the Candidate for Organized Labor
The Left’s candidate in Chile’s presidential election is Jeannette Jara, a Communist who was until recently the country’s labor minister. She’s running on her record of boosting the minimum wage and shortening Chileans’ working hours.
The Left-Leaning Military Veterans Eyeing Congress
A crop of progressive-minded veteran congressional candidates say they are aiming to break from the mold of military service candidates — hawkish, corporate-friendly, and weak on labor questions — favored by the Democratic Party establishment.
Trump’s Killings at Sea Escalate the US’s Forever Drug War
Donald Trump’s lethal attacks on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific are a brutal escalation of the United States’ long-running “war on drugs,” a bipartisan war that has seen the US involved in torture and extrajudicial killing abroad since the 1970s.
Capitalism Enabled Jeffrey Epstein’s Crimes
The strategies Jeffrey Epstein used to hide the money funding his sex trafficking organization were perfectly legal. In fact, they are the same legal strategies that most of the top 0.1% uses to avoid taxes and other regulations.
Even After Valencia’s Floods, Climate Skeptics Keep Rising
In Valencia, Spain, the right-wing regional president has quit over the mishandling of floods that killed 229 people. While institutional failures forced his resignation, they’ve also fed support for Vox, a far-right party that opposes action on climate change.