Peru’s Socialist President-Elect, Pedro Castillo, in His Own Words
Pedro Castillo, the rightful president-elect of Peru, describes his journey from elementary school teacher to trade union militant to the cusp of state power.
19684 Articles by: Karl Leffme
Karl Leffme is a socialist in New York CIty.
How Real Madrid’s Florentino Pérez Built His Evil Empire
Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez wasn’t just a key player in the botched European Super League attempt — he’s also vicious capitalist who has profited from outsourcing and privatization at the expense of the Spanish public.
General Mills Workers Speak Out: “Be Strong, Fight for Your Rights, and Fight for a Decent Pay Raise”
Despite making record profits in 2020, multinational food manufacturer General Mills claims it can’t afford a modest pay raise for workers at its New South Wales plant. Sick of being disrespected, the workers have gone on strike.
In the Era of Decolonization, West Indies Cricketers Refused to “Grovel”
The 1970s in the Caribbean were marked by major political and social upheaval. Cricket became a primary vehicle for asserting West Indian independence — and defeating England was paramount.
Americans Are at Least $27.6 Billion in Debt to Courts
States and municipalities are increasingly relying on court fees as revenue streams, creating at least $27.6 billion in debt for Americans. To handle that debt’s collection, those states and municipalities, and even the IRS, are increasingly turning to private firms, which can add up to 40 percent surcharges onto the fees.
Sweden’s Social Democrats Got No-Confidenced Because They Tried to Remove Rent Controls
Sweden’s Social Democrat-led government is in crisis after its defeat in Monday’s no-confidence vote. It lost its left-wing support after it moved to abandon rent controls — showing how the neoliberalized wing of social democracy is undermining its own past achievements.
Is New York Really Going to Elect Eric Adams?
New York City mayoral election was bizarre. And it’s not over: Eric Adams’s unique blend of supposedly anti-racist law-and-order politics, pro-landlord policy, and appeals to outer borough resentment of liberal Manhattan elites won the first round.
A Century Ago, West Virginia Miners Took Up Arms Against King Coal
The Battle of Blair Mountain is one of the most stunning episodes in the United States’ violent history of class warfare. In 1921, twenty thousand armed miners in West Virginia marched on the coal bosses and were met with bombs and submachine guns.
UK Liberals Could’ve Stopped Boris Johnson. They Wanted to Stop Corbyn Instead.
Five years after the Brexit referendum, Boris Johnson is flying high in British politics. He could have been stopped, but the pro-Brexit right and the anti-Brexit center were united in opposing Jeremy Corbyn and a Labour left–led government.
You Can Have Billionaires or You Can Have Democracy
The billionaire class isn’t just a group of people who happen to be superrich. It’s a dynastic oligarchy with a single overriding objective: controlling the government to protect its inherited wealth.
Why Are Billionaires Always Presumed Innocent?
After an IRS leak about billionaires’ massive tax avoidance schemes, corporate media says there’s nothing to see here because the avoidance is surely legal. But there’s no reason we should assume that these billionaires are playing by the rules.
The Secret Life of Communist Richard Sorge, Hitler’s Nemesis and the World’s Greatest Spy
One man put a stop to Hitler’s march across Europe: not Stalin, Churchill, or Roosevelt, but a German Communist called Richard Sorge. Sorge was a real-life spy whose exploits surpassed any fictional creation, and one of the twentieth century’s great heroes.
For Soviet Filmmakers, There Was No Glory in War
The Soviet experience of Nazi invasion inspired many powerful works of cinema. In contrast with Hollywood’s approach to World War II, Soviet filmmakers avoided triumphalist images of warfare, depicting the conflict as a brutal necessity that should never be repeated.
Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony Was a Defiant Counterblast to Nazi Aggression
Performed in a city under siege, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony symbolized popular resistance to the Nazi invasion. A complex work with several layers of political meaning, the symphony was a high point of twentieth-century classical music.
Operation Barbarossa Was a War of Racial Annihilation
The Nazis reserved two fates for the Soviet Union’s people: slavery or extermination. The outside world still hasn’t fully registered the scale of the horrific crimes unleashed by the Nazis’ invasion of the Soviet Union on this day in 1941.
Erdoğan Will Never Defeat the Fight for Democracy in Turkey
Sebahat Tuncel is an MP for the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) who has spent almost five years in Turkish jail on fabricated terrorism charges. She writes from prison on how President Erdoğan is using the courts to suppress dissent — and why Kurdish and democratic forces will never give in to his regime.
New York’s Mayoral Race Has Frustrated the Left — But the Tide May Soon Turn
Polling places open tomorrow in New York City as the race to succeed mayor Bill de Blasio effectively comes to an end. The campaign has been endlessly frustrating for the city’s left — but its chances in other upcoming races look quite good.
At Child Migrant Detention Centers, Biden Is Overseeing a Cruel Public Health Disaster in Waiting
The conditions in child migrant detention facilities aren’t just cruelly overcrowded and holding kids for far longer than is legal or moral — they’re also a perfect storm for a major outbreak in infectious diseases, including COVID-19.
Amazon Prime Day Is a Nightmare for Amazon Workers
Amazon calls its annual Prime Day a “holiday” — but it’s pure misery for the hundreds of thousands of workers tasked with fulfilling orders.
The Winner in France’s Regional Elections Was Abstention
We often hear about discontented French voters turning to Marine Le Pen’s far right, but not about the tens of millions who’ve given up on voting at all. They were the key in yesterday’s regional elections — and they’re the ones the Left has to win.