Karl Leffme is a socialist in New York CIty.
Three decades after the end of state socialism, Bulgaria is plagued by low wages, kleptocracy, and a dearth of progressive alternatives. The massive protests of recent weeks have echoed past discontent with corrupt officials — but there’s growing awareness that an anti-corruption drive won’t uproot the real sources of unaccountable corporate power.
Donald Trump’s deployment of federal agents to American cities is a continuation of bipartisan police repression. But make no mistake: he’s also tapping into some of the darkest corners of far-right authoritarianism, which seek to stamp out the radical “enemy from within.”
Seth Rogen grabbed headlines this week for saying he thinks the state of Israel “makes no sense.” He’s right — and his strident words signal a broader shift among young American Jews against Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians.
Since the clean sweep victory for the Democratic Socialists of America’s slate of New York legislative candidates, the local political establishment has been in a state of shock. Slowly it’s beginning to dawn on them that there is such a thing as “politics” — and that right now they’re losing at it, badly.
The coronavirus relief legislation being debated in Congress is supposed to get money into the hands of small businesses to save jobs. But at the last minute, Republicans snuck in language calling for a bailout of corporate lobbying groups — the same groups that are spending millions in Senate races to elect Republicans.
Earlier this week, four labor leaders voted against including Medicare for All in the Democratic Party platform — a slap in the face to millions of Americans struggling through an unprecedented pandemic. We need a union movement that fights for all workers, both organized and unorganized.
While flawed, African governments in the early post-independence years projected a vision beyond neocolonialism and subordination to the Global North. Neoliberalism has deepened the continent’s subjugation — and dressed it up as non-ideological.
This past week, the committee in charge of setting the Democratic Party’s platform decisively rejected Medicare for All — even as millions of Americans are poised to lose their health insurance. It’s just another sign pointing to the moral bankruptcy of the political order.
One hundred years ago, five socialists elected to the New York State Assembly were expelled for their views. Today, a slate of five Democratic Socialists of America-backed candidates are following in their footsteps by fighting for working people and terrifying the political establishment.
Led by A. Philip Randolph, black Pullman porters struggled against the exploitation of the company and the racism of the mainstream labor movement to win a fighting union. They secured dignity on the job — and laid the foundation for the modern Civil Rights Movement.
AMLO’s center-left presidency in Mexico has promised to stamp out corruption and tackle inequality. But instead of paying for his badly needed direct cash transfer program through taxing the rich, he’s making cuts to the country’s cultural programs.
Solidarity from India with anti-racist protesters in the United States is hollow if the same critical scrutiny isn’t applied to oppression and police brutality in India itself.
While raking in cash from health care industry donors, Beltway Republicans copied language from an Andrew Cuomo law meant to shield negligent nursing home execs into their new COVID-19 relief package, word for word.
Bolivia’s coup government has announced that elections slated for September will be pushed back yet again. It’s another reminder that the right-wing coup-makers care nothing about democracy — they only want to institute neoliberal policies and repress Evo Morales’s leftist party, who they know would win a free and fair election.
The Australian Labor Party is one of the most conservative social democratic or labor parties in the world — but this has not always been the case. Understanding the origin and evolution of the ALP’s modern faction system is crucial to grasping both its right-wing trajectory and possibilities for change.
In Portland, federal agents have been snatching up protesters while hyper-militarized police crack down on demonstrators. It’s a frightening display of state repression — one with roots in the attacks on the anti-corporate globalization movement of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialists of America–backed candidate for New York’s state assembly, has officially won his race. His campaign shows us what a serious socialist electoral bid looks like: class-conscious politics, an uncompromising program, and deep face-to-face organizing. There should be many more like it.
New York state legislators just passed a bill limiting Governor Andrew Cuomo’s attempt to shield his big donors from COVID-related lawsuits. But nursing home CEOs are still protected for negligence or wrongdoing that took place earlier this year.
Rashida Tlaib, one of Congress’s most unapologetically left-wing members, is under threat from a challenger backed by super PAC money. The Left must defend her.
After his death, the followers of economist John Maynard Keynes embraced the myth of a “natural” market economy that required “intervention” from the government to keep it stable. But there is nothing natural about the market — and the Keynesians’ mistake led to a withering of the radical potential of Keynes’s ideas.