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.
Creating a vibrant left ecosystem doesn’t just mean building stronger labor and tenant unions — it means building cultural institutions that prize democracy over privatization and embed themselves in everyday working-class life.
With the death of John Lewis, we’ve lost another giant of the Civil Rights Movement. It’s up to us to carry on the struggle for the “beautiful community” he spent his whole life fighting for.
Both Chile and the United States have seen massive social upheavals over the past year. The two countries have much to teach each other about how such unrest can translate into substantive political change.
Mexican scholar, columnist, and television host Gibrán Ramírez Reyes reflects on President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s first year and a half in office.
Over its 25-year rule in Madrid, the right-wing Partido Popular has given rise to vast webs of corruption, widespread privatizations, and a disastrous mishandling of COVID-19. But its Thatcherite revolution has also forged a new voter base loyal to the ruling party — meaning predictions of imminent collapse are likely premature.
In the Depression-era United Kingdom, the National Unemployed Workers’ Movement mobilized thousands to resist the indignities of unemployment. We’re entering another period of massive economic crisis — and just like workers then, unemployed workers today can fight back.
In Portland, Oregon, a coalition of parents, childcare workers, socialists, unions, and progressive organizations has collected tens of thousands of signatures to put a universal preschool measure on the ballot — all in five weeks, and in the middle of a pandemic.
Even compared to other recently elected left-wingers, Ilhan Omar stands out for her political courage and determination. It’s no wonder she now finds herself the target of a phenomenally well-financed primary challenge backed by private equity interests. Helping her fend off that challenge should be a priority for the Left.
In early 1990s Italy, the retreat of the Left and mounting popular cynicism toward politics allowed a new radical right to begin building its hegemony. For all its idiosyncrasies, the Italy of those years looks increasingly like a mirror of our own future — a country where fascist talking points became normalized and even mild reformism was decreed illegitimate.
There was nothing J. Edgar Hoover feared more than a charismatic black radical who could inspire the oppressed to fight back. And that’s why, according to a compelling new series, the FBI had its fingerprints all over Malcolm X’s murder.
This day in 1940, the Jewish communist Werner Scholem was murdered at Buchenwald concentration camp. A champion of socialism and democracy, his life was intimately tied up with the dramatic defeat of the interwar German left.
The past four years have seen a political sea change in New York, with progressives and socialists remaking the state’s politics and establishing themselves as a force to be reckoned with. We spoke with Luke Hayes, campaign manager for three recent electoral insurgencies and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, on the recent political upheavals in New York.
When Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court was under fire, a dark money group called Judicial Crisis Network came to his aid. According to recently obtained documents, more than half of JCN’s funding came from one mysterious, unnamed donor who gave $15.9 million towards the effort.
The massive protests that rocked Chile last October insisted that we don’t have to obey an unending austerity regime. The government response was a wave of police repression, killing at least 36 civilians — the bloody expression of the dogma that “there is no alternative.”
Strangely enough, Japan’s ruling elites initially viewed the Russian Revolution favorably — until radical ideas started spreading to their colonies.
Airbnb bookings have completely collapsed during coronavirus, creating huge numbers of empty properties in the very cities that are suffering the worst housing crises. It’s a perfect time to crack down on Airbnb — including by public seizing of Airbnb units.
Supreme Court Justice John Roberts has been praised recently as a heroic force for moderation. But his court’s recent ruling just helped Wall Street giants stomp on thousands of public-sector workers and retirees in one of America’s poorest states.
The 1975 “dismissal” of Gough Whitlam by the Queen’s representative, Sir John Kerr, is one of the defining moments in Australia’s modern history. It also forms part of a Cold War history that saw left-wing governments around the globe punished for daring to break with US hegemony.
For today’s liberals, the default approach to combating the Right is to fact-check the Right. But conservatives aren’t contestants in a debating contest: they’re waging a political struggle and playing to win. Fact-checking won’t save us.
Ahead of his reelection on Sunday, Polish president Andrzej Duda claimed that “LGBT ideology” was a threat “worse than Soviet communism.” Together with his homophobic offensive, Duda successfully played on Poles’ fears over the economy — fusing a reactionary culture war with the promise to defend families’ benefits.