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.
If education is nothing but a provider of the “human capital” that will help students get a job, the argument to privatize public education will be far too convincing. Instead, we should look at our schools as institutions to educate kids to be citizens in a democracy with expectations for better lives.
Xavier Becerra advocated Medicare for All and tough action against Big Pharma. Too bad the incoming Biden administration he’s set to be a part of as Health and Human Services head has refused to take on the health insurance industry.
The only good thing we have to say about the reactionary film adaptation of Hillbilly Elegy is that it’s so boringly told you’ll forget about it in an hour.
After decades of chalking up record profits, Australian universities are now mired in a deep crisis. But if we’re going to defend — let alone rebuild — the sector, its champions have to reject the subordination of education to the bottom line.
The Mad Max veteran villain actor Hugh Keays-Byrne died last week. His performances took us to the demonic dark side of politics and showed that if we dare to struggle, we dare to win.
After four years of having a xenophobic reality TV host in the White House, the desire to just “go back to normal” is understandable. But a return to normalcy would be disastrous, shoring up the plutocratic status quo that gave us Trump in the first place.
The multibillion-dollar luxury sneaker market increasingly seems like something out of a sci-fi novel. But for all its bizarre quirks, there’s no better illustration of the way modern capitalism works, and the direction that it’s going.
Deprived of their basic human rights, asylum seekers in Ireland are taking it upon themselves to agitate for change. The system of Direct Provision needs to be abolished and replaced with a radically different policy toward refugees.
In the wake of the pandemic, Australian renters are once again facing the threat of mass evictions. The militant renters’ struggles of the Great Depression are an excellent model for the movement that’s taking shape today.
Amazon represents the pinnacle challenge to union organizers and socialists throughout the country. Are we in a 1919 moment, still a generation of failures away from breakthrough success? Or closer to 1935, approaching the tipping point of winning real worker power?
Stephen Cohen, who passed away earlier this year, resisted ideological conformity at every turn. The great historian of Nikolai Bukharin and the Russian Revolution left behind a deep body of work that will remain invaluable for generations of socialists to come.
AMLO’s decision to hold off on congratulating Joe Biden on his presidential victory has ruffled feathers among establishment Democrats. But the United States stands to learn a lesson from remaining impartial in foreign elections.
The UK government has announced a surge in military spending, even as it plans a new round of austerity. As Jeremy Corbyn writes, there’s always enough money for war — but never enough for lifesaving services.
The catastrophe that continues to unfold across the US as COVID-19 spreads is disproportionately affecting older people, who are perishing in far greater numbers than any other group. In a pandemic, our routine neglect of the elderly has turned murderous.
The liberal tradition is a complex body of thought that socialists should grapple with seriously. But today, preserving the gains of liberalism — civil liberties, free speech, and social pluralism — means rejecting the liberal defense of capitalist private property rights.
Public school teachers have been working harder than ever during the pandemic. But that’s not enough for the New South Wales Productivity Commission, which wants to cut pay and conditions, while increasing productivity by pitting “value-added” teachers against their colleagues.
The vast majority of Canadians support a wealth tax, but 90 percent of the country’s MPs recently voted against a proposal to establish one. When push comes to shove, Canadian politicians are just as much in thrall to the rich as their US counterparts.
Sofia Coppola’s On the Rocks is yet another meandering depiction of life as a bored and alienated celebrity.
In praising the pro-corporate Washington hacks Joe Biden has chosen to staff his administration, liberal groups are betraying their missions in order to try to gain influence — despite that appeasement strategy rarely working in American history.
The critique of capitalism was central to William Morris’s vision of an arts and crafts movement in the Victorian era. Against the alienation and exploitation of a rapacious industrialism, he advocated for a conception of art capable of restoring creativity to everyday life.