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.
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s failure to contain the virus in the earliest weeks of the outbreak doomed New York to far more suffering than it needed to endure. Now, with a vaccine here, he is again proving his unfitness to lead his state through the worst crisis it has faced in modern history.
Apologists for capitalism like to point to its historically progressive aspects, like its supposed use of “free labor” rather than older forms of labor compulsion. But throughout its history, as the system has conquered new territories for capital accumulation, it has embraced and depended on the most coercive forms of “premodern” production relations.
Impeachment could, in theory, turn Donald Trump into an even bigger symbol of a rotten political and social order. It could help bury the Reagan order once and for all. But establishment Democrats would never be interested in the type of impeachment that fundamentally challenged the status quo.
Big Ag had a field day last year at the federal trough, gulping down more subsidies than ever before. We can do much better — promoting sustainable farming while empowering farmworkers and challenging the power of Big Ag.
The Republican Party is frozen in place, unable to move beyond Donald Trump but unsure of what to do even if it could. The Democratic establishment is firmly in charge of their party. We’re stuck in a bankrupt interregnum — with little chance of breaking free one way or the other anytime soon.
British suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst was a militant campaigner for women’s right to vote. As a socialist, she also refused to uncouple the women’s movement from the fight for equality across all of society.
The riot at the Capitol on Wednesday was a symptom of right-wing weakness, not power. The real danger isn’t a MAGA coup, but a restoration of the neoliberal status quo that produced the nightmare of Trump and his minions.
Joe Manchin, the Democratic West Virginia senator who is a Republican in all but name, represents a state suffering immense economic hardship under COVID-19. Yet he is threatening to block a new round of $2,000 survival checks that his constituents — and all of us — badly need.
The National Association of Manufacturers has strong ties to the Trump administration and a long history of waging war on one of the most important democratic institutions in the United States: unions. Of course it couldn’t help releasing a statement about the storming of the capitol and the need to “preserve democracy.”
Mike Pence built his political career on theocratic extremism, Dickensian economics, and sycophancy toward Donald Trump. It’s a little late for him to be posing now as a defender of democracy and a counter to Trump’s authoritarianism.
The US government claims to be supporting the Syrian Kurds in the fight against ISIS. But it is attempting to bring a more moderate leadership to power in a bid to weaken the Kurds’ revolutionary project in Rojava. Washington will never be a friend of self-determination.
Monday’s court ruling against extraditing Julian Assange to the United States is a welcome relief for his supporters. But the court also rejected his defenses on the grounds of journalists’ rights to seek and impart information — a ruling that will further thwart scrutiny of the national security establishment.
Corporate-backed conservative groups like the US Chamber of Commerce, the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity, and companies like Chevron have all issued statements decrying Wednesday’s occupation of the Capitol — without acknowledging the role they played in helping elect the politicians who egged on and fueled the attempt to overturn the presidential election.
Spanish dictator Francisco Franco’s family has finally been evicted from the summer palace it has occupied since 1938. The handover shows how Spain is starting to confront its past — but also points to the vast real estate and business power that still lies in the hands of Franco’s supporters.
Yesterday’s riot of Trump supporters at the US Capitol will likely be a radicalizing event for the far right. We shouldn’t underestimate their ability to cause more death and destruction in the aftermath.
Republicans have staunchly defended the Electoral College for years, but they may soon find that the only way to remain a viable national party is to support a national popular vote. That could open the door to finally eliminating the terribly undemocratic Electoral College.
The protests and occupation of the US Capitol yesterday are a small taste of the kind of brazenly undemocratic power grabs the authoritarian right has executed in countries like Bolivia. Regardless of what actions Trump and his supporters take to cling to power, the response of the Left, labor, and the millions of anti-fascists across the US and world should be the same: mass, ongoing mobilizations opposing them.
The kid-glove treatment of yesterday’s far-right protesters was a shocking departure from the wanton police brutality that is the norm for leftist protesters of any kind. When racial justice or antiwar protesters take to the streets, police repression is fierce and unrelenting. When right-wingers protest, they’re given free rein.
The promise of $2,000 survival checks helped the Democrats gain control of the Senate. They should send them out immediately, and absorb the lesson of this election: when Republicans are forced to confront bold proposals to help the broad working-class majority, they lose.
Though Tuesday’s gratifying Democratic victories in Georgia are unlikely to move the needle of politics very far, they came as a satisfying vindication of arguments the Left has been making for years.