In Defense of Brunch
As socialists, we’ve rallied against brunch for too long. What we should really be demanding is brunch for all. Consider this our apology.
19655 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.
As Portugal Votes, the Far Right Is at Its Strongest Since the Return to Democracy
After the Carnation Revolution overthrew the dictatorship in 1974, Portugal boasted over four decades with no fascist presence in parliament. But with a far-right anti-migrant candidate likely to be runner-up in today’s presidential election, a hard-won anti-fascist consensus is beginning to crumble.
Hunts Point Workers Went on Strike and Won
Today, a 1,400-person strike by Teamsters Local 202 ended. Workers won an immediate 70-cents-an-hour raise, and gave up no concessions to their bosses. It’s a victory worth celebrating and proof that going on strike works.
The 1970s: Decade of the Rank and File
The 1970s were a high-water mark for the US labor movement, with work stoppages, wildcat strikes, and sit-downs spreading up and down the country, involving workers in all industries.
The True Story of Indonesia’s US-Backed Anti-Communist Bloodbath
The massacre of the Indonesian left in 1965–66, backed by Washington, was one of the great crimes of the twentieth century. A new generation of scholars has uncovered its long-suppressed history of slaughter of up to a million people in the name of anti-communism.
It’s Time for Players to Tackle the Great Canadian Football Rip-Off
Team owners in Canadian football made record profits while many of their players had to work second jobs to make ends meet. Now they’re using the pandemic as an excuse to claw back wages even further — a player fightback is the only way to change the game.
Hank Aaron Was More Than a Man Who Hit Home Runs
Hank Aaron will be remembered for his astonishing achievements as one of the all-time great baseball players, not least because he broke Babe Ruth’s home run record. But Aaron also ceaselessly fought to defend black people in a hostile, racist society.
The Dutch Government’s Benefits Scandal Is Rooted in Stigma Against Welfare Recipients
Last Friday, the Dutch government had to resign in scandal, after thousands of parents were wrongly accused of making fraudulent childcare benefit claims. The affair was driven by racist demonization of welfare recipients deeply rooted in the country’s politics.
After Donald Trump, the Last Thing We Need Is Unity
Joe Biden has long prized bipartisanship above all, and some of his early actions indicate he simply wants to restore the country to its pre-Trump form. That would be a disaster.
The PRO Act Could Transform the Labor Landscape
Joe Biden promised to be the most pro-union president in modern history. He has a chance to prove it by passing the PRO Act, a sweeping labor law reform bill.
Israeli NGO: Israel Is an Apartheid Regime
B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights organization, has taken an extraordinary step — following many Palestinian and human rights groups around the world — in calling the state of Israel what it is: an apartheid regime and thus anything but a democracy.
Bernie Sanders Is Right, and Joe Biden Is Wrong. We Still Need Medicare for All.
Joe Biden and the Democratic establishment refuse to push Medicare for All even as COVID-19 continues to ravage the country. That’s all the more reason for us to demand, alongside Bernie Sanders, that everyone get the health care they need free of charge until the pandemic is over.
Joe Biden Wants to Make Health Care “Secure for All.” He Should Just Make It Free.
In his inauguration speech Wednesday, Joe Biden promised health care that will be “secure for all.” But no amount of rhetorical triangulation can erase the fact that a single-payer system is the only viable alternative to the status quo.
Remembering Margo St James, a Pioneering Sex Worker Organizer
The legacy of Margo St James, the trailblazing sex worker organizer who died earlier this month at 83, is more than her brazen personality, more than her bold and flamboyant tactics. She recognized that economic exploitation and gendered harassment are inextricably linked to police violence.
Joe Biden Has Preserved Key Ethics Loopholes for New Appointees
Joe Biden’s new ethics order will limit one revolving door loophole between government and lobbying — but not the loopholes Biden’s own cabinet picks used to make their fortunes.
As Joe Biden Takes Office, Labor Marches On
In the first 24 hours of the Joe Biden administration, Teamsters are on strike in the Bronx, Chicago teachers are preparing to stop work, and even the staff of the New Yorker are engaged in a work stoppage.
Joe Biden Was Right About the Lies in Our Politics. But He’s Repeatedly Been One of the Liars.
In his inauguration speech yesterday, Joe Biden rightly identified a crisis of ignored truth and unending lies in American politics. Donald Trump enflamed that crisis, but the political class, the media industry, and Biden himself helped create it.
How the Italian Communists Fought the Rise of Fascism
Founded 100 years ago today, the Italian Communist Party immediately faced a violent wave of repression, killing hundreds of militants. As policemen, business elites, and even liberal politicians swung behind Benito Mussolini, no party resisted the Fascist threat more than the Communists.
The Many Lives of Ignazio Silone
Inspired by the hardships faced by peasants in his native Abruzzo, Ignazio Silone’s Fontamara was one of the great anti-fascist novels of the twentieth century. But his own political journey was deeply conflicted, as he left behind his Bolshevik past to become a strident anti-communist.
Francesco Misiano, the Italian Communist Who Brought Battleship Potemkin to the West
The Italian Communist Party was founded 100 years ago today. One of its most remarkable early militants was Francesco Misiano — a keen internationalist who fought gun in hand in the German Revolution before becoming a leading light of Soviet cinema.