
The Hidden Billionaires
Media-friendly, politically moderate billionaires like Bill Gates get a lot of airtime. But the vast majority are nothing like him. Most are highly secretive — and extremely right-wing.
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.
Media-friendly, politically moderate billionaires like Bill Gates get a lot of airtime. But the vast majority are nothing like him. Most are highly secretive — and extremely right-wing.
American inequality thrives on the myth that the rich deserve their millions because they’re better, smarter, and more hardworking. The college admissions scandal shows that’s a lie.
The oldest refrain of the Right is that socialism leads to tyranny. Yet for the last four decades, it’s neoliberalism that’s been inching us closer to a police state.
The way to think about climate change isn’t labor versus environmentalists. It’s labor versus the fossil fuel companies who are destroying both worker protections and the planet.
More and more states are enacting anti-labor policies. But it’s not because the public dislikes labor — it’s because conservative donors and rich people do.
A Green New Deal will require trillions of dollars of investment. But the government doesn’t actually need to put up all the cash — we can make corporations pay.
Critics of populism lament the rise of “emotion-driven” politics. But instead of asking why politics has become so “irrational,” we should ask why people are so angry in the first place.
Canada’s autoworkers union recently announced a boycott of Mexican-made GM cars. It’s a dead-end strategy that plays into the hand of the racism and xenophobia of the Right.
Milton Friedman was wrong. Capitalism doesn’t foster freedom — it produces autocratic workplaces and tyrannical billionaires.
Mainstream commentators have been fretting over Donald Trump’s hostile rhetoric towards the media. But Chelsea Manning’s recent jailing shows that there are much graver threats to press freedom happening right under their noses.
Capitalists are already using the state to reshape our cities — we need to wield it in a radically different way to serve the interests of working people.
When Bernie Sanders says “It’s not about me, it’s about us,” he’s not just pandering. He’s trying to create a mass movement — because he knows that without one, his agenda doesn’t stand a chance.
Canadian comedians figured out how to engage in collective action — and just won a major victory.
The teachers strikes of the 1960s and ‘70s embraced workplace militancy but alienated parents and other communities who should have been allies. By striking on behalf of the entire working class, today’s teachers aren’t making that same mistake.
The United States isn’t just the shape we see on a map — it’s a sprawling empire whose reach touches not just in formal territories and colonies but all corners of the world.
The historic prospect of Irish unification is now greater than it has been in decades. But it won’t succeed unless campaigners offer a clear and compelling picture of what a united Ireland will look like.
High Flying Bird reminds us the NBA “family” is beyond dysfunctional; it’s malevolent. And it challenges us to imagine a different sort of league.
Tens of thousands of students in Europe have launched “school strikes” to demand a Green New Deal and reject their governments’ moderation on climate change.
Netflix’s Trotsky is a sinister rewriting of history, intended to benefit the right-wingers who dominate modern Russian politics.
Once upon a time, “socialism” meant breadlines and tyranny to many Americans. Then Fox News came along and made it sound amazing.