Expensive, Overcrowded Housing Is Deadly
Making cities more resilient against coronavirus pandemics will require taking on the landlords, real estate developers, and elected officials who prop them up. We need safe, affordable housing.
19639 Articles by: Karl Leffme
Karl Leffme is a socialist in New York CIty.
A New Study Shows That Holding Wisconsin’s April Election Made the COVID–19 Crisis Worse
The state of Wisconsin plowed ahead with an in-person election last month despite the many clear dangers. A new study suggests exactly what many feared: a direct link between voting in person and spreading COVID–19.
Anti-Communist Massacres Killed Indonesia’s Hopes for National Liberation and Socialism
The mass slaughter of leftists in Indonesia was more than just another Washington-backed atrocity. It was the prototype for smashing the hopes and dreams of the Left in the developing world — for good.
No Act of God
Hurricanes, pandemics, and droughts are acts of God. Private markets in housing, health care, and food — and the resulting deaths — are not.
Interpreter of Maladies
Here’s a guide to the words you should probably know, even if you don’t want to think about them.
Every Economic Question Is a Question of Power
The links between business, finance, and the state do not represent a perversion of liberal democracy — they are an unavoidable feature of capitalist political economy.
Viral Socialism Now!
Class struggle will shape how this crisis plays out, and the world that’s created in its wake.
The Black Death Helped Bring About the Modern World
The Black Death wiped out a third of Europe’s population in just a few years. But the peasants and laborers who survived wielded newfound power over their masters.
Millions Die, But They’re All Liberals
On the literary destruction of Los Angeles and the nervous breakdown of American exceptionalism.
Pretty Faces Who Care
Why we all hate celebrities right now.
It Came From Canada!
David Cronenberg’s first three films track the progress of epidemics “from the perspective of the disease.” What they reveal is a North American society already on the brink of disaster.
Beautifying the Apocalypse
In films like Annihilation and Ex Machina, director Alex Garland knows how to make the end of the world look majestic. But his new show, Devs, gives a grace and dignity to the apocalypse that you won’t find in our own world.
Letters + Celebrities Speak
Life is better if you own a yacht.
The Market Is Leaving Us Unprepared for a Pandemic
As we face down what the World Health Organization calls “a new normal” of high-impact epidemics, researchers and public health officials find themselves at war with for-profit pharmaceutical companies.
“We’re Not Heroes, We’re Health Workers”
While most politicians quarantine in safety, La France Insoumise’s Caroline Fiat is risking her life on the front lines as a health worker.
If Neoliberalism Were to End, How Would We Know?
What will decide the fate of neoliberalism today is not the extent of the economic damage the virus wreaks — it is the extent to which the virus transforms popular expectations.
Is This the End of Neoliberal Globalization?
The coronavirus has scattered the pieces on the geopolitical chessboard, revealing the fragility of just-in-time global production. Getting back to normal is the last thing we need.
It Takes a Herd
Simply put, vaccination saves lives.
Virulence and Contagiousness
Deadly pathogens may kill their host before the host has a chance to pass on the pathogen. That’s why there tends to be a trade-off between virulence and contagiousness.
Krona Virus
A magic money tree does exist — and not just in Scandinavia. The question is who gets to shake it first.