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.
Barack Obama’s trademark schtick — soaring rhetoric about transformational change while cynically catering to the status quo — was on display at COP26 in his address to young people. But young people already learned the hard way that Obama’s act is hollow.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse is no utopian vision — it’s another opportunity for Big Tech to colonize our lives in the name of profit.
The US hoped the protests in Cuba would overthrow Cuba’s government. That didn’t happen. Talking to average Cubans on the island reveals why: Despite criticisms of the government, many Cubans want to further the revolution, not scrap it.
Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board is planning to transfer billions of dollars from workers’ injury compensation to employers. The board has claimed the funds are excess savings — but they were made through neoliberal cost-cutting.
By demanding new tax breaks for the rich, Democrats are helping Republicans portray them as hypocritical elitists just before a midterm election.
If you, like me, despise the British monarchy, you may expect Spencer, the new Princess Diana movie, to be insufferable. But the film is so bonkers, you may put aside all desire to watch the House of Windsor drown in the River Thames and actually enjoy the show.
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is a living embodiment of what’s wrong with the Silicon Valley venture capital sinkhole. But we can’t get too mad at her for defrauding some of the worst rich people in the world.
Is it really true that if the Democrats had big majorities in Congress, we’d see the sweeping change party stalwarts promise in election campaigns? Here’s a good test: look at the blue states, where Democrats govern virtually alone. It’s not a pretty picture.
European authorities accuse Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko of mounting “hybrid warfare” by letting thousands of migrants amass at the Polish border. But Poland’s nationalist government is also using the crisis to crack down on migrants — with the EU’s blessing.
The film and TV workers’ union IATSE ratified a pair of contracts on Monday, despite a majority of ballots being cast against the larger of the two deals. Thanks to the union’s Electoral College–style voting system, that contract passed anyway.
This fall, Panama has seen large “pro-democracy” and “anti-corruption” protests, backed by mainstream media and much of the country’s business elite. But corruption isn’t owed to a few “bad apple” politicians — it’s rooted in Panama’s ultra-privatized economy.
The political and economic crises roiling countries like Sudan and Tunisia right now cannot be separated from the global institutions of capital and the cycles of indebtedness that they impose.
Buildings’ design communicates the values of a society. In contemporary American architecture, those values appear closer to control and surveillance than openness and enjoyment for all.
The South of slavery and Jim Crow is often cast as the major historical reason for the US’s stunted welfare state. But the most fanatical resistance to taxation and redistribution came from the Northern ruling class.
When Lula and the Workers’ Party took power in Brazil, they had a plan to take on crime and the power of the police. Their failure helped undermine their entire program.
Workers’ retirement savings are being used to bankroll oil and gas companies’ climate destruction.
From brands commissioning immersive installations at prestigious art fairs to hedge funds transforming artworks into stock-like financial instruments, the line between art and capital is blurrier than ever.
Throughout history, it’s been hard for agitators and troublemakers to hold down a good job. In the interwar decades, tens of thousands of them were hired by the Communist International — an employer with long hours, difficult bosses, and a lot of opportunities for travel.
Punk rock’s original radical spirit may have been co-opted by the culture industry long ago, but some of its progenitors still have fire in the belly. The most recent album of Canada’s Art Bergmann, Late Stage Empire Dementia, returns punk to its radical roots.
Jacobin contributor Max Zirngast, who was imprisoned in Turkey for his left-wing political writing, has now been elected to the municipal council of his home city of Graz, along with several other Communist Party of Austria members.