Bernie Sanders Was Right About Cuba
Bernie Sanders was right to applaud Cuba’s literacy programs even as he criticized the country’s undemocratic political system. He has nothing to apologize for.
19372 Articles by: Karl Leffme
Karl Leffme is a socialist in New York CIty.
Chris Matthews Is Just Another Crybully
I hope MSNBC keeps Chris Matthews on the air for the rest of the campaign. While he might convince some with his paranoia, he’s far more likely to expose himself for the crybully he really is. And what he’s really protecting.
Painting All Workers as “Social Conservatives” Is Middle-Class Elitism
Since Labour’s election defeat, pundits have accused the party of being out of step with working people’s social conservatism. But the “Blue Labour” obsession with Christian morality and national pride offers a caricature of the working class — and ignores the ability of socialist politics to unite people across cultural divides.
Australian Labor Is Becoming the Party for Coal
The fires are barely out, and a new right-wing faction in the Labor Party is organizing to protect the coal industry. It didn’t take long for party leader Anthony Albanese to cave.
Our American Zion
The racism and red-baiting of Bari Weiss’s latest book, How to Fight Anti-Semitism, isn’t an accident. It reflects her deep conflation of her own Judaism with American exceptionalism and the US global empire.
Free Public Childcare and Pre-K Is Popular and Affordable
Good news: the vast majority of Americans support a policy to have the government provide free public childcare for all children too young to attend school. And now Bernie Sanders is on board with the idea.
A Jewish Communist’s Revolution Against Fascism
Eugenio Curiel was a leader of the Italian Resistance against Nazism, before he was murdered by fascists on February 24, 1945. He insisted that the Resistance wasn’t just about deposing Benito Mussolini — it was about putting the masses at the center of a new democracy.
Michael Bloomberg Should Have Never Been Allowed to Run This Campaign
Michael Bloomberg is spending orders of magnitude more on his presidential campaign than any other candidate in US history. The Left must push for campaign finance reforms that can stop billionaires like him from buying their way onto the political stage.
Slavery Was Defeated Through Mass Politics
The overthrow of slavery in the United States wasn’t a byproduct of capitalist development nor the triumph of an enlightened activist vanguard. It was a battle waged and won in the field of democratic mass politics — a battle that holds enormous lessons for radicals today.
The Populist Pundits
Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti’s The Populist’s Guide to 2020 offers a powerful rebuke to liberal elitism and ruling class neglect. But only one of its authors has the solutions it will take to remake our unequal society.
Joe Biden Helped Pull the Democrats to the Right
Ronald Reagan successfully dismantled the New Deal order and pulled liberals rightward. Reagan transformed the Democratic Party — and he was aided by Democrats like Joe Biden.
The Robots Are Not Coming for All of Our Jobs
There’s lots of breathless talk these days about robots replacing all of our jobs. But if you look at the data, there’s little indication that’s actually going to happen.
From the United States to a Socialist Germany That Never Was
The Westemigranten were communists who fled Nazism for the United States, only to resettle in East Germany after 1945. Their biographies are a monument to the hopes of the twentieth-century communist movement — and how they were disappointed by the reality of the postwar Eastern Bloc.
After the Nevada Blowout, It’s Bernie’s Party Now
Bernie Sanders’s decisive victory in Nevada today shows that he has a working-class base committed to fundamentally transforming our radically unequal political and economic system. He’s on his way to not just the nomination, but the White House.
The Making of Joe Biden’s Conservative Democratic Politics
Joe Biden’s early years in politics established a pattern he would follow for the rest of his career: champion progressive values at select times to select audiences while on the whole running away from any association with such values.
“It’s the Working Class That Creates the Wealth in This Country”
Newly endorsed by AOC’s Courage to Change PAC, democratic socialist Samelys López is running to represent the South Bronx, fight for affordable housing — and take on the Democratic establishment in the process.
Deporting Immigrants to Their Death Is Unconscionable
When the United States sends Salvadoran immigrants back to their home country, it’s sending them back to the very violence they were trying to flee — and that the United States itself helped create.
Bernie’s Democratic Socialism Is a Strength, Not a Weakness
All the best things in America were once decried as socialist: Medicare, unions, Social Security. Bernie’s democratic socialism is his strength, and we shouldn’t shy away from talking about it.
Superyachts and the Super Rich
Superyachts, like the billionaire class, shouldn’t exist. We need to institute a global wealth tax, shut down tax havens, and, yes, take their boats.
Right-Wing Social Democrats for Coal
The Australian Labor Party’s right wing has a new faction, the “Otis Group,” that uses the language of jobs and economic prosperity to pit working-class interests against the fight to stop global warming. It’s a cynical strategy that won’t pay off — and will continue cooking the planet in the meantime.