We’ve Got Another Seven Videos and a Podcast Out This Week
From the case against Joe Biden to the economics of a feasible socialism and a new EP Thompson podcast, we have a busy week of audio and video content for you.
21002 Article(s) by: Julia Goodman
I Literally Wrote the Case Against Joe Biden. But I’ve Got Some Free Advice for Him
Pundits are panicking about whether the Left will help Joe Biden defeat Trump. The former vice president probably doesn’t want it, but here’s some advice for him from the author of Yesterday’s Man: The Case Against Joe Biden.
Donald Trump’s Plan for Uninsured Coronavirus Patients Is Outflanking Joe Biden
Donald Trump has decided to use federal dollars to directly foot the bill for uninsured COVID-19 patients, while Joe Biden is still clinging to the Affordable Care Act. It’s a boneheaded move that is allowing mainstream Democrats to be outflanked by Trump on health care.
Argentina’s COVID–19 Lessons
The United States’ COVID-19 response has paled in many respects to Argentina’s. But it’s not just Argentina’s public health response that the United States should learn from — it’s also the country’s history of popular resistance that will be crucial to fighting unequal and undemocratic responses to the pandemic.
The Leaked Labour Party Report Is Shameful. It’s Time for an Investigation.
This weekend’s revelations about the conduct of Labour Party staff in undermining the party’s 2017 general election campaign and abusing elected representatives are shameful. They demand an immediate and full investigation.
We Won’t Forget What the Bernie Sanders Campaigns Accomplished
As Bernie Sanders listened to tired and dejected working people across the country, he said he wanted them to “feel less alone.” We are indeed not alone. United behind a common program, with full knowledge of our friends and enemies, we must keep forging on.
We Need Unions to Organize Worker Fightback During the COVID-19 Crisis
Throughout the US, bosses are putting workers’ lives in danger by forcing them to work in hazardous conditions during the coronavirus pandemic. Workers need to fight back to stop them — and they need unions’ support.
Turns Out, If You Like Your Private Insurance, You Still Can’t Keep It
Amid spiraling unemployment, a new study finds that 35 million Americans are about to lose their health insurance. Tragically, the coronavirus is making the case for Medicare for All better than any policy paper ever could.
Chile’s Feminist Revolt Continues in Lockdown
This International Women’s Day, Chile’s feminist strike was bigger than ever, building on the anticapitalist protests that erupted last October. Now that a lockdown means street protests are no longer possible, feminists are thinking of new and creative ways to resist.
This Pandemic Won’t Save the Climate From Big Oil
Global oil prices have plummeted in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. But that doesn’t mean the giants of the industry are facing terminal decline: Big Oil could bounce back stronger than ever.
Mass Politics, Not Movementism, Is the Future of the Left
Bernie Sanders is out of the race, but we can’t retreat to the subcultural politics that were hegemonic on the Left before his campaigns began. Mass politics is still our way forward.
Bernie Must Retool His Campaign Organization, Not Dismantle It
Bernie Sanders has officially suspended his campaign, but its infrastructure is our best hope at organizing to win a just response to the coronavirus pandemic. Bernie can’t dismantle that infrastructure now — we need it more than ever.
Even in a Pandemic, Workers Can Fight Back
During the Great Depression, radicals played key roles in helping organize the worker upsurges that led to the New Deal’s pro-worker policies. We can do the same today in fighting back against the economic misery and unsafe working conditions of the coronavirus pandemic.
Manufacturing Consent One Chyron at a Time
Matt Taibbi’s Hate Inc. is a raucous updating of Noam Chomsky and Ed Herman’s classic dissection of capitalist news. Its message is hilarious yet grim: behind the buffoonery of the 24-hour partisan news machine is a propaganda system devoted to upholding the power of entrenched elites.
A Brief Intermission in the Age of Unrest
A new report from a national security think tank documents the historically unprecedented spread of mass protest across the globe over the past decade. As the world economy sinks into its worst downturn since the 1930s, we are likely entering an era of explosive change.
We Just Lost a Giant of Development Economics
When the world was shifting toward neoliberalism, blind to shocking inequalities, Thandika Mkandawire (1940–2020) bravely stood up for the welfare state. We should remember him as a brilliant economist and committed egalitarian.
“Different Policies Wouldn’t Have Prevented Coronavirus — But They Would Have Improved Our Response”
Just months after emergency room staff went on strike to protest their lack of resources, Paris’s hospitals are having to skimp on masks and thermometers. We spoke to frontline health workers about how they’re coping with the pandemic — and how years of underinvestment is making their job harder.
We Can’t Let Tech Companies Use This Crisis to Expand Their Power
Whether in China or the United States, tech companies are teaming up with governments to boost surveillance amid the coronavirus pandemic. It’s a slippery slope that threatens to bring more civil liberties violations and more power for profit-hungry tech companies.
Read Vivian Gornick’s Romance of American Communism
Based on interviews with former Communist Party members, Vivian Gornick’s The Romance of American Communism is a book full of emotional people who struggle to talk about their emotions. It shows how Party commitment gave everyday life an epic dimension — and made political defeats into personal traumas.
Italy Is Discovering that European Solidarity Doesn’t Exist
Thursday’s Eurogroup agreement promised Italy loans to deal with the health care costs of coronavirus — but refused to help it stave off economic catastrophe. EU leaders have once again put neoliberal dogmas above the welfare of ordinary citizens — further undermining Italians’ once-dogged pro-Europeanism.