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.
Some states have taken on the cost of prison phone calls to keep private equity–backed telecom companies from price gouging inmates and their loved ones. Yet these companies have found new ways to exploit prisoners.
For 50 years, bosses have extorted concessions from workers while saying we’re “lucky to have jobs.” Now, Association of Flight Attendants president Sara Nelson writes in Jacobin, workers need to make bosses understand they’re lucky to have our work.
Last month, Passional Boutique and Sexploratorium, a Philadelphia sex shop with a reputation for “inclusivity,” laid off its entire staff after they asked the store to recognize their union. Jacobin spoke with one of the workers.
Labor has enormous power to demand an end to Israel’s murderous assault on Gaza. The AFL-CIO’s call for a cease-fire is a huge step toward the entire labor movement using that power.
Socialists in the US are more likely to be experts on the Russian Revolution than the American civil rights movement. That’s a mistake: this homegrown revolution is a strategic guidebook for winning social change today.
French workers vote for the far-right Rassemblement National more than for other parties, but more often, they don’t vote at all. Rather than laying down roots like the old workers’ parties, Marine Le Pen’s party has exploited the vacuum left by their decline.
After scrapping its pledge to invest £28 billion in green energy, Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has no real climate policy — just platitudes about shrinking the deficit and promoting economic growth.
While Republicans cry “invasion” and Democrats placate them with hard-line border policy, immigrants languish in prisons or die in dangerous passage. A rational approach to immigration must both address the causes of displacement and protect those who migrate.
In the 1970s and early ’80s, NYC’s racially and ethnically diverse working-class neighborhoods nurtured groundbreaking rap, salsa, and punk music. Real estate speculation did away with the social conditions that made those scenes possible.
Consumer confidence is up, and inflation is down. But will the economy improve enough by November to buoy Biden’s flagging reelection prospects?
Jenin camp in the West Bank has become a flash point in the ongoing Israeli assaults on Palestinians, with raids occurring near daily. Civilian victims of this violence say that Israeli forces are not coming to fight combatants, but for revenge.
Across Europe, platform workers have won a series of court cases ruling that they are employees, not self-employed. Moves for new EU-wide legislation have faced serious resistance from lobbyists but now look set to deliver some new protections.
Last month in Chicagoland, 130 Teamster food-service drivers went on strike and secured major contract gains. The workers won by extending the picket line nationwide, hitting employer US Foods at dozens of distribution centers across the US.
After being found responsible for starting a deadly wildfire last summer, Hawaii’s for-profit energy utility is set to receive a public bailout. The episode makes a powerful case for bringing utilities under public ownership.
The past week saw Democrats take up Trump’s hard-right immigration policy as their own for campaign fodder, with the liberal press’s assent. The very xenophobia that Democrats decried as “fascism” has become their policy agenda.
The US government has continued air strikes against Yemen’s Houthis while claiming not to be at war. But the Houthis are unlikely to be deterred: even Yemenis who formerly took up arms against them now support the attacks on Israeli-bound ships in the Red Sea.
Far-right Italian premier Giorgia Meloni likes to claim her party has “left fascism in the past.” Yet the announcement of a new museum honoring Italian victims of Yugoslav partisans represents a disturbing attempt to rewrite the history of World War II.
At Allison Transmission in Indianapolis, autoworkers with the UAW leveraged a credible strike threat to eliminate wage and benefit tiers. It’s a sign of growing militancy among the United Auto Workers.
The ugly new bipartisan immigration bill fortunately failed to pass the Senate. Mass deportations won’t benefit the US working class.
Ed Broadbent, the leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party for nearly 15 years, died last month at age 87. He was one of North America’s most important champions of social democracy.