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.
During the war in Iraq, the fight against South African apartheid, and the coup that brought down Salvador Allende, British unions showed their solidarity through boycotts, strikes, and protests. It’s time they do the same for workers trapped in Gaza.
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie is polling in the low single digits for the Republican presidential primary. Despite his lack of popularity with actual GOP voters, he continues to endear himself to liberal pundits.
Whether you’re speaking out on Palestine, supporting a union drive, or wearing the wrong shoes, at-will employment laws mean that your freedom of speech effectively stops at work, and your boss has the power to fire you.
Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty this week for running a crypto scam and faces years in prison. It seems jurors weren’t taken in by SBF like famed author Michael Lewis, whose new book paints an oddly sympathetic portrait of Bankman-Fried.
Britain’s BBC is one of the world’s most influential and trusted news sources. But pressure from conservative political elites has warped its coverage of Israel’s war and caused it to downplay the violence being inflicted on Palestinian civilians.
With growing talk of a possible conflict over Taiwan, the US and Japanese governments have put Okinawa at the heart of their war strategies. But the island’s people have suffered enough from great-power militarism and are organizing their own peace movement.
While some US unions and many labor activists are calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, most union officials are keeping silent. They’re forgetting the old labor adage: “an injury to one is an injury to all.”
A recent military escalation in West Papua is the latest episode in a long history of repression and dispossession since the island came under Indonesian control. But the authorities in Jakarta still haven’t been able to stabilize their rule over West Papua.
Critics of Israel’s merciless war on Gaza are facing threats of government prosecution and blacklists or firings. In this neo-McCarthyist environment, anything pro-Palestine is being made to carry the whiff of bigotry or even incitement to violence.
Pro-Palestine congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is being smeared as pro-terrorism in a massive new ad by the Democratic Majority for Israel. But the pro-Israel group’s lies are transparent — and polls show that Democratic voters are more on Tlaib’s side.
Union flight attendants at American Airlines recently delivered a strike authorization vote of 99%, with 93% turnout. The staggering total was the result of not only a membership itching to walk out but a campaign that engaged rank-and-file members.
In Israel, the crackdown against Palestinian solidarity is reaching grim new heights. Activists and ordinary citizens alike are getting fired and arrested for daring to say a word in support of Palestinians.
The United Auto Workers’ strikes against Ford, GM, and Stellantis have resulted in historic wins. The union’s counterpart in Canada was negotiating with the automakers at the same time — and, despite differences in strategy and tactics, also made big gains.
Pushed to the brink by the COVID-19 pandemic, public school teachers in Portland, Oregon, walked out for the first time ever yesterday, calling for better pay and improved student support.
North Dakota’s Doug Bergum is a billionaire governor running an impossibly bland, popularity-free campaign for the GOP presidential nomination. Why is he running, other than that he’s rich and he can? We have no idea.
In Canada, there’s a budding crackdown on workers who have expressed pro-Palestine sentiments. While Canadian bosses have considerable latitude in who they fire, workers have legal recourse to fight back.
Pundits are still scratching their heads about why voters don’t love the state of the US economy. But many workers are in worse straits than they were a few years ago, particularly because Democrats let the COVID welfare provisions expire.
As the Israeli military uses ever more violence against Gaza’s civilian population, there have been massive demonstrations calling for a cease-fire. The protesters are taking a stand for basic human solidarity against the moral bankruptcy of Western leaders.
In Philadelphia, the local Democratic Party chairman has promised to expel party ward leaders who support the socialist city council candidates. It threatens to depress already sagging voter turnout in the 2024 presidential elections.
Radical labor leader Harry Bridges helped create one of the US’s most powerful unions, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Its founding principles were anti-racism and worker autonomy, which he learned from rank-and-file dockworkers and seamen.