How We Won a $15 Minimum Wage and More
It’s been five years since Seattle’s landmark $15 minimum wage law. It not only helped workers — it raised their expectations about what’s possible and what they deserve.
20401 Article(s) 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.
Losing Barcelona
Ada Colau’s defeat in Barcelona was the low point of a disastrous election for the Catalan left. After a decade of powerful challenges to neoliberalism, the old parties are reasserting their dominance.
Arm Kyle Lowry
Ultrarich assholes act like kings that can subject workers to whatever petty indignities and abuses they want. That’s why billionaire Warriors minority owner Mark Stevens put his hands on basketball worker Kyle Lowry.
“Without a Union, Nothing Is Really Promised”
In the face of management scare tactics, workers at New York’s landmark Brooklyn Academy of Music are pushing to unionize. They’re joining a wave of cultural workers organizing their workplaces.
Schools Should Serve Humans, Not “The Economy”
Bernie Sanders’s education policies are the most progressive of any 2020 candidate. But his platform must reject the pro-business language of “competitiveness” to truly transform the education system.
“We Have Nothing to Lose but Our Debts”
Four years after he became a slavish enforcer of EU dogmas, Greek leader Alexis Tsipras is finally set to lose office. But for former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, next month’s snap elections are a chance to take the fight against austerity back into parliament.
The Rank-and-File Tactic
The rank-and-file strategy is crucial to building a powerful labor movement. But it should be seen as just one part of a broader socialist approach to labor and politics — a tactic rather than a strategy.
Israeli Tech’s Dirty Ops
Israeli tech companies aren’t just working on new apps for taxis or food delivery — they’re also hacking human rights activists’ WhatsApps and creating fake social media accounts to undermine democracy.
A Cross-Atlantic Plan to Break Capital’s Control
Bernie Sanders’s plan for worker-owned funds isn’t just notable because it could lead us toward a democratized, sustainable, socialist economy. It’s also the product of a growing collaboration between the Left in the United States and the United Kingdom.
I’m Gay and I Want Medicare for All
I support Medicare for All because it’s for everyone — but it’s especially important for gay and transgender people. It should be a central demand of the movement for our liberation.
Tommy Douglas, Canada’s Great Prairie Socialist, Wasn’t Always So Beloved
The late Tommy Douglas, Canada’s venerable socialist leader and the father of its single-payer health care system, is now revered as the “greatest Canadian.” But in his time, he was a radical and an enemy of the establishment.
“Let’s Build a Fighting Force on the City Council”
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa was once the lone socialist on Chicago’s city council — now he’s joined by five members of the Democratic Socialists of America. In an interview with Jacobin, Rosa talks about the attacks from the city’s political and capitalist class that didn’t land and the agenda for the city’s newly elected socialists.
Surprise! We Need Medicare for All
It’s good to see both Democrats and Republicans taking surprise medical bills seriously. But they’re missing the solution under their nose: Medicare for All.
The Last Socialists
Denmark is famous worldwide for its public services and safety net. Yet as Social Democrats retreat from their traditional values, the radical left is the only remaining force defending welfare state protections.
Selling Out Our Values
Denmark’s general election is set to produce the most left-wing parliament in decades. But the country’s Social Democrats have disgraced themselves with anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Tiananmen, 30 Years Later
30 years ago, the Chinese government began its massacre of hundreds of student and worker activists at Tiananmen Square. The government wants to erase this history from memory, because they fear students and workers again taking to China’s streets.
“Worker Power Is a Threat to the Way the University Is Run”
Graduate workers at the University of Chicago are on strike this week. They’re demanding union recognition from an administration that is relying on a Trump-appointed labor board’s hostility to workers to deny graduate workers’ organizing rights.
Corbyn Stands up to Trump
Jeremy Corbyn has snubbed Donald Trump’s visit to London, earning him predictable criticism from the British media. Who cares? Corbyn is on the right side of history.
In West Virginia’s Education Wars, “We Can’t Play Nice”
Yet again in West Virginia, Republicans are seeking to privatize schools and stop teachers strikes. A West Virginia teacher explains how educators are yet again mobilizing to stop it — and why “there’s nothing to compromise on.”
The Forgotten Socialists of Tiananmen Square
What the world remembers about the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests were the students. But above all, it was a mass workers’ uprising for socialist democracy.