The Business Class Has Never Liked Democracy
Today, on Inauguration Day, we shouldn’t forget that the business class has long stoked fears of democracy — and bankrolled the conservative movement that gave us the events of January 6.
19152 Articles 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.
Donald Trump Was Always a Plutocratic Fraud
Donald Trump won the presidency claiming he was a radical opponent of the political establishment. That was always a lie — and his four years in the White House revealed he was just another reactionary, capitalist billionaire.
Joe Biden Is Not Ready to Confront Corporate America
Joe Biden will likely govern to the left of Barack Obama. But his willingness to spend has everything to do with capital’s relaxation of deficit worries — and where capital says “no,” no one should expect Biden to say “yes.”
If Biden Is to Succeed Where Obama Failed, He’ll Have to Fight the GOP
President Joe Biden now has a choice: make friends with congressional Republicans or actually make progress on the multiple overlapping crises facing the United States. He can’t do both.
Get Ready to Fight Joe Biden
The departure of Donald Trump from the White House is cause for celebration. Our task now is to build a democratic socialist alternative to Joe Biden — and to oppose the Democratic establishment’s neoliberal agenda.
The Sheer Absurdity of Trump’s “1776 Commission” Report Is Hard to Overstate
The “1776 Commission” report released by Donald Trump just before his exit from the presidency is so staggeringly awful, trotting out every moldy reactionary trope about the history of the United States it can, that it has to be read to be believed.
1,400 Workers in the Bronx Are on Strike for a Livable Wage
More than a thousand workers at Hunts Point Produce Market in the Bronx are striking for a dollar-an-hour raise. They risked their health to feed New York City throughout the pandemic — they deserve the city’s solidarity.
Joe Biden Lifted His Health Care Plan From Insurance Industry Lobbyists
Instead of pushing a promised public health care option or expanding Medicare or any of the other health reforms the United States desperately needs, Joe Biden’s health care reform draws from proposals from for-profit health insurance companies.
The Patient-to-Staff Ratios Won By California Nurses Save Lives. We Need More of Them.
California nurses fought for over a decade to win safe-staffing legislation, a crucial set of rules protecting both nurses’ rights on the job and the well-being of hospital patients. So far, no other state has followed suit — but nurses nationwide are struggling to change that.
Martial Arts in the Age of Trump
From the UFC to Hollywood, MMA and other ultra-brutal martial arts have gone mainstream — hand in hand with the rise of the far right.
How the QAnon Cult Stormed the Capitol
Perhaps the strangest thing about the media coverage of the Capitol Hill rally was how little of it focused on the visible presence of QAnon. What’s behind the Q cult, and how can we confront it?
Coronavirus Is an Occupational Disease That Spreads at Work
For both Democratic and Republican politicians, blaming social gatherings for coronavirus’s spread is convenient. But they’ve ignored or denied the central role workplace transmission plays in driving up infections. We need to treat coronavirus as the occupational disease it is — and that means restricting the power of business owners.
When Joe Biden Takes the White House, What’s Next for the Left?
The American left has been transformed over the past four years under President Donald Trump. But the Left will have to organize and fight just as hard under President Joe Biden.
Gandhi Led a Mass Movement for India’s Freedom — But He Also Constricted It
The movement led by Gandhi is a touchstone for advocates of non-violent resistance today. But the conventional view overlooks the limitations of Gandhi’s political philosophy, and the importance of insurrectionary struggles that he opposed in the fight for Indian independence.
When Germany’s Social Democrats Made a Revolution by Half
The November Revolution of 1918 replaced Germany’s monarchist regime with a parliamentary system. But its Social Democratic leaders made a pact with the old ruling class to repress the left-wing radicals who wanted to go further, crippling the new Weimar Republic from the start.
Germany’s Christian Democrats Are Turning Toward Coalition with the Greens
This weekend’s Christian-Democrat conference elected Armin Laschet as new party leader, narrowly defeating his Trump-like rival. With Chancellor Angela Merkel set to step down this fall, the party is seeking a new centrist bloc with the Greens — but still faces a hard-right upsurge within its own ranks.
Why the Dutch Socialist Party Is in Crisis
In the late 2000s the Dutch Socialist Party was a success story, having risen from a small Maoist group into a 50,000-member party. But a split with its youth wing and talk of a coalition with right-wingers have demoralized activists — and shown the dangers of a parliamentary party becoming unmoored from labor and social movements.
The Mexican Right Has United to Defeat AMLO
In Mexico, the midterm election campaign has just kicked off and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s right-wing opponents have formed a coalition against his ruling party, MORENA. Their aim is to seize a majority in the lower house and stop AMLO’s progressive agenda in its tracks.
After Prop 22, Expect Uber to Escalate Its War on Workers’ Rights
Companies like Uber had a massive victory in November, when their $200 million propaganda blitz convinced voters in California to pass Proposition 22, excluding platform workers from labor protections. Their plan to entrench contractor status for workers nationwide is clear, but stopping them is still an option — and a necessity.
Jeremy Corbyn: “The Rule of the Few Over the Many Rests on Shaky Ground”
Today, Jeremy Corbyn addressed the launch conference of his new Peace and Justice Project. Describing how the post-crash period has exposed the bankruptcy of unaccountable elites, he argued that movements from below have the power to transform the political agenda.