Massachusetts Utility Companies Are Blocking Environmental Progress
In liberal Massachusetts, you don’t have to convince many people that climate change is real — it’s for-profit utility companies that are creating a major barrier to climate action.
19540 Articles by: Julia Goodman
Those Refusing to Fight in the Ukraine War Should Be Protected
As Russian men fled after Vladimir Putin’s draft announcement, Latvia closed its border with Russia, and Finland said it was tightening its visa policy. Those choosing not to fight need to be celebrated, not shunned.
The Heroic Gwangju Uprising Sowed the Seeds of Democracy in South Korea
In May 1980, pro-democracy protesters mobilized in the South Korean city of Gwangju. The US-backed military dictatorship responded with bloody repression, but the legacy of the Gwangju Uprising was vital for the democratization of Korean politics.
American Parents Are Pissed Off
Being a parent in privatized America, where you’re basically on your own, has never been easy. Since COVID, things have gotten even worse — but it doesn’t have to be this way. More social democratic policies can relieve the strain underlying parents’ rage.
In Iran, Mass Protests Are Chanting “No Mullahs, No Shah, Just Democracy”
Iran has exploded in protest following the death of Jîna (Mahsa) Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman detained by “morality police.” We spoke with an Iranian leftist about the mass mobilization and why Western meddling undermines the cause of Iranian democracy.
Canada’s NDP Should Return to Its Socialist Roots
Canada’s New Democratic Party, which was founded as a democratic socialist organization, is currently little more than the ruling Liberal Party’s “conscience.” It’s time the NDP changed course and finally recommitted itself to socialist politics.
Barack Obama Still Doesn’t Get It
A recently unearthed conversation between Barack Obama and reporters, held days before Donald Trump took office, reveals an outgoing president unable to let go of his allegiance to the “norms”-venerating, elite-driven politics that doomed his presidency.
Wall Street Is to Blame for the Water Crisis in Jackson, Mississippi
The water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, wasn’t the product of government mismanagement. It was the result of Wall Street jacking up the city’s interest rates, which left residents with decaying infrastructure that couldn’t even deliver clean water.
Joe Biden Should Decriminalize Marijuana Right Now
Joe Biden campaigned on decriminalizing marijuana but has done nothing about it while in office. He has the power to stop the senseless persecution of weed — he should use it immediately.
When Texas Cowboys Fought Private Property
Cattle barons carved up Texas with barbed wire in the late 19th century, separating poor farmers and landless cowboys from vital resources for their struggling cattle herds. So the cowboys formed fence-cutting gangs to preserve the open range.
Does the Constitution Apply on the Assembly Line?
In the early 1980s, Jon Melrod worked in a Wisconsin auto plant and published a shop-floor newspaper, Fighting Times. When the company sued him and his coworkers for denouncing a “scab of the month” in the paper, the rank and filers fought back — and won.
Canada Is Cheerleading New NATO Expansion
Justin Trudeau’s Canadian government has eagerly embraced NATO’s new “strategic concept”: expansion. The strategy is a return to the Cold War — and a recipe for more frequent military conflict.
Lula Should Still Win Brazil’s Presidential Race. But Bolsonaro Is Alarmingly Strong.
Lula won the first round of Brazil’s presidential election yesterday and should beat Jair Bolsonaro in the runoff later this month. But Bolsonaro and his allies outperformed expectations — and Brazil’s far right remains a potent threat to democracy.
Behind Russia’s War Is Thirty Years of Post-Soviet Class Conflict
The invasion of Ukraine is not simply a product of Vladimir Putin’s expansionist mindset. It corresponds to a project for Russian capitalism that he and his allies have pursued since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Black and White Workers and Communists Built a “Civil Rights Unionism” Under Jim Crow
Labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein on why today’s union activists should look to the example of North Carolina black and white tobacco workers, who organized a union and went on strike in the teeth of the Jim Crow South.
The War in Ukraine Could Lead to Nuclear War
With his original war aims in shambles, a desperate Vladimir Putin is openly threatening nuclear warfare in Ukraine. The rhetoric of nuclear retaliation and escalation is a risk to the entire world, and, yes, you should be alarmed.
Barry Hines’s The Gamekeeper Is a Novel About How Capitalism Steals Nature From Us
Barry Hines is best known as author of Kestrel for a Knave, adapted for film by Ken Loach. His newly rereleased novel, The Gamekeeper, offers a searing portrait of how capitalism steals nature from working-class people.
In 1946, Aboriginal Workers in Western Australia Struck Against Racist Hyperexploitation
Twentieth-century Aboriginal workers laboring for sheep and cattle stations in Western Australia’s Pilbara region endured conditions comparable to slavery. In 1946, they walked off the job — and founded the modern land rights movement.
Calls for Artifact Repatriation Are Exposing the Political History of Urban Monuments
The mass destruction caused by 20th-century wars created new forms of artifact preservation and exhibition, backed by Western international groups. But calls to repatriate artifacts are calling into question norms of commemoration and public display.
Quebec Is Trading Social Solidarity for the Politics of Exclusion
As Quebecers head to the polls on Monday, the waning sovereignty movement has lost ground to insular, xenophobic traditionalism. In an increasingly disenfranchised society, an exclusionary Quebec is a sign of fractured federalism.