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.
People behind bars have suffered enormously during the pandemic, with COVID-19 ripping through prisons. There’s no justification for not giving prisoners the vaccine immediately — both for their sake and for the broader society.
New York legislators are requesting a review of pension investments flowing to Wall Street firms whose executives funded groups that boosted the Republicans who tried to overturn the election.
Our child benefit system is bizarre and overcomplicated, Matt Bruenig argues. The US government should eliminate the Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, and Additional Child Tax Credit — and replace those programs with a $374 check sent out to every family every month for every child they are taking care of.
According to recent reporting, Joe Biden wants to strike a deal with Republicans on a new round of COVID-19 relief, rather than ramming through a package without their support. After everything that has happened in recent weeks and years with the GOP, how is Biden still naive enough to think he can strike a deal with them?
The violent attempt to stop the certification of the electoral vote shouldn’t be ignored. But fascism isn’t on the brink in America. Pretending we’re on the precipice of losing our democracy plays into the hands of those who want to give new, repressive powers to the security state.
Leo Panitch emphasized three core themes throughout his career: the process of class formation, the key role of political parties in facilitating this process, and the need to transform the state instead of wielding it in its current form. In doing so, he gave the democratic-socialist movement an invaluable trove of resources to change the world with.
Last week’s attack on the Capitol put Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other left lawmakers in great danger. But instead of cowering in fear, she delivered a defiant speech on Tuesday — and laid out an alternative vision rooted in solidarity and improving the lives of millions of workers.
Since 1963, the Indonesian state has occupied West Papua against the will of its people with the full backing of Australia and the US. Despite decades of brutal repression, Papuans are still rising up to demand their national liberation, at home, in Indonesia and internationally.
Former Michigan governor Rick Snyder suspended democracy for the majority of the state’s black residents, then oversaw Flint residents’ poisoning in the city’s ongoing water crisis. As of today, he’s facing well-deserved criminal neglect charges.
The vast majority of Canadians want a national pharmacare program, but right-wing think tanks and corporate lobbyists are battling to obstruct it. It’s time to stand up to their bullying and implement universal pharmacare so everyone can get the treatment they need.
Twitter profited from Donald Trump’s racist outbursts for years, only to delete his account a few days before his departure. A figure with such media platform runs no risk of being “no platformed” — but tech giants still have too much power over what the rest of us say.
Corporations are being lauded for halting PAC donations to the Republicans after the Capitol riot — but they are not shutting down the $500 million pool of cash that bankrolled authoritarian extremists.
The start-up trading app Robinhood invoked Occupy as it promised to fix a “rigged” financial system. But the firm now faces class action lawsuits for scamming its millions of novice customers — showing that “democratizing” finance is just a way of finding more people to prey on.
In the wake of last week’s attack on the Capitol, some are calling for the Armed Forces to prosecute pro-Trump rioters in military court. But relying on military courts won’t shore up American democracy — it will empower a punitive judicial system that is used to quash dissent within the ranks.
Last week, Google workers announced the formation of the Alphabet Workers Union, a groundbreaking step in organizing tech workers at one of the world’s largest tech giants. We spoke to two of the union’s rank-and-file members about the organizing effort, how unions can fight for democracy on the job, and why blue- and white-collar workers need to organize together.
Matteo Renzi’s move to split Italy’s center-left government is a distraction from its COVID-19 response — and could even force Italians back to the polls. But what’s really at stake is the shape of its post-crisis recovery, as neoliberal technocrats again threaten to return to office.
Today marks 80 years since James Joyce’s death. Joyce’s flirtation with organized socialist politics was brief, but he continued to find inspiration in socialist texts throughout his life.
GOP lawmakers are resisting new metal detectors at the Capitol building — less than three years after voting to install them at schools all across the country.
My uncle, LeRoy H. Wood, spent years in a federal prison for “conspiring to teach the advocacy of the overthrow of the US government by force and violence.” He was a Communist peacefully organizing for civil and economic rights. And he was punished to a far greater extent than Donald Trump will ever be.
The pandemic has exposed some terminal defects in Canada’s deregulated, privately owned airline industry. Nationalization is the best way to make air travel viable, environmentally sustainable, and in tune with social needs.