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.
Pundits love to narrate progressive politics as a story of “dreamers” like Bernie Sanders versus “realists” who understand the political constraints they face. They may be right about those roles — but they’ve got the casting backward. Sanders is the realist in this election.
Adam Schiff, the liberal hero of impeachment, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the military-industrial complex and a fervent exponent of permanent war.
When Bernie Sanders compared wage labor to slavery in the 1970s, he wasn’t equating the two. He was drawing on an emancipatory tradition, encompassing everyone from Frederick Douglass to Eugene Debs, that sees wage labor as shot through with subjugation — and insists on the need to democratize the workplace.
Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro stokes his base’s fears by warning of the “communist threat” posed by “cultural Marxism.” But if you don’t make a living off exploiting workers, there’s no reason to be afraid of Karl Marx and his friends.
For Indigenous Australians, Australia Day commemorates nothing but the invasion of their territories. While the Change the Date campaign gathers momentum, only a Treaty can begin to address the trauma and bloodshed of British settlement.
He wasn’t a household name, or even well-known outside Chicago labor and community organizing circles. But James Thindwa, who died this week after a long bout with cancer, was as dedicated, hard-working, and joyful of an organizer as was humanly possible — whose impact will continue to ripple across Chicago and beyond long after his death.
Unions are more popular than ever, but union membership just hit a new low. We need to elect Bernie Sanders, make his “Workplace Democracy Plan” a reality, and encourage a new wave of workplace militancy to stop the decline and end the devastation of working-class communities.
The American au pair program is closer to indentured servitude than cultural exchange.
Lots of myths and half-truths circulate about Nordic countries like Finland. But make no mistake: socialists and militant workers built the Finnish welfare state — not an enlightened or pro-business elite.
Jess Phillips’s brief but disastrous bid for the Labour Party leadership is a cautionary tale for substanceless centrists in politics: just because pundits and TV hosts love you doesn’t mean anybody else will.
Anti-abortion advocates have gained ground in recent decades by separating abortion from health care overall. We have to see abortion rights as an integral part of the fight for Medicare for All.
Joe Biden has a history of shady dealings, from protecting the interests of corporate donors to the business in Ukraine. Running him against our corrupt president would be a catastrophe.
The Bolsonaro government’s attack on Glenn Greenwald is an attack on free speech and democracy. We should unequivocally stand by his side.
Antonio Gramsci is remembered as a great theorist of modern politics and culture. But he didn’t think big ideas were just a matter for intellectuals — and he insisted that workers must become the leaders of their own organizations.
Pundits who once decried Joe Biden’s attacks on Social Security are now insisting he never made them, while self-declared “fact-checkers” with an ax to grind are treated like an infallible Ministry of Truth. The anti-Sanders attack machine has taken an Orwellian turn.
Austria’s right-wing chancellor Sebastian Kurz promises his coalition with the Greens will “protect both the climate and the borders.” But while the Greens have accepted a right-wing agenda on immigration, the partners’ shared neoliberal assumptions will hobble action on the climate.
In an absurd interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Hillary Clinton — one of the least popular politicians in modern memory — trashes Bernie Sanders, one of the most popular. Yet again, Clinton has showcased the elitism and cluelessness that cost her the 2016 election.
The phrase “believe women” was coined to demand that women’s experiences of sexual assault be taken seriously. Elizabeth Warren’s defenders cynically using that rhetoric to attack Bernie Sanders isn’t just dishonest — it hurts the movement against sexual harassment and assault.
A batch of quietly released documents confirms what many have long suspected: Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign worked behind the scenes to delay the release of US hostages in Iran, for the benefit of Reagan’s election campaign. It raises the question: When was the last time a Republican won a presidential election without the help of dirty tricks?
With a resurgent left-labor movement and a new crop of progressive and socialist city council members, nervous Chicago real estate developers are hinting they’ll pull their investments in the city. To stop capitalists from undercutting left agendas around the country, we need to recognize when they’re bluffing — and how to stop them when they’re serious.