Banning TikTok Is a Terrible Idea
Large numbers of both Republican and Democratic officials, including Joe Biden, are indicating their support of a measure to ban TikTok. It’s a nonsensical idea born of elite mistrust of ordinary people.
19653 Articles by: Kool A. D.
Kool A.D. is a rapper, author, and astrological navigator.
How US “Foreign Aid” Has Helped Destabilize Haiti
A surge of gang violence in Haiti has now led to the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry. Through its heavy-handed use of foreign aid to intervene in Haitian politics, the US government bears significant responsibility for Haiti’s ongoing instability.
The Hearing Test Is a Pitch-Perfect Novel About Loss
In Eliza Callahan’s debut novel, The Hearing Test, a woman develops sudden deafness shortly before her 30th birthday. What follows is a story about loss and aging, but without the self-indulgence common to the millennial novel.
Capitalist Markets Aren’t “Free.” They’re Planned for Profit.
Neoliberalism was never about shrinking the state to unfetter markets and enhance human freedom. In her new book, Vulture Capitalism, Grace Blakeley argues that neoliberalism has always sought to wield state power to maximize profits for the rich.
Why Is the ACLU Undermining Labor Rights?
The progressive ACLU is trying to establish a precedent that would strike a huge blow against workers’ rights across the country and make union organizing much more difficult. Let’s hope the organization comes to its senses soon.
Swiss Voters Just Raised Pensions, Not the Pension Age
Switzerland’s labor unions have won a national referendum on raising pensions, while blocking a rival proposal to increase the retirement age. The vote showed a clear class divide, as lower-paid and lower-educated voters defied business leaders’ warnings.
New Study: Where Are All the Left Populists?
Democrats are losing working-class votes. A new study from Jacobin, ASU’s Center for Work and Democracy, and the Center for Working-Class Politics shows how few Democratic Party candidates use populist rhetoric, propose progressive economic policies, or come from working-class backgrounds.
The Enduring Predictability of the Mostly Apolitical Oscars
Yet another “return to normal” Oscars — briefly disrupted by a statement from Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer criticizing Israel’s assault on Gaza — only demonstrates just how boring even a “good one” can be.
Jamaal Bowman Deserves the Left’s Support
New York congressman Jamaal Bowman is a democratic socialist incumbent under fire by AIPAC for his pro-Palestinian stances and corporate lobbyists for his progressive domestic policy. His defeat would be a serious setback for the Left.
Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda, Capitol Hill Antiwar Lobbyists
In 1974, after years of grinding war in Vietnam had exhausted most of the antiwar movement, Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda came up with a new strategy: an educational and lobbying push targeting Congress to stop funding the war machine.
Aligning With Washington Is Bad News for Argentina
Argentina’s biggest trade partners are Brazil and China, but President Javier Milei is making them into enemies. Desperate to suck up to US interests, Milei’s Cold Warrior foreign policy is an ideological relic, out of touch with a multipolar world.
The Egalitarian Radicalism of Thomas Müntzer
Reformation-era preacher Thomas Müntzer’s menacing of elites and his role in the Peasants’ War won him a lasting reputation as a theologian of revolution. Müntzer fostered apocalyptic dreams of equality in a time of tyrants, only to find his head on a spike.
How the Left Fell in and Out of Love With Free Trade
In Pax Economica, the historian Marc-William Palen argues that the Left has a long history of championing open markets as a bulwark against nationalism. Neoliberals quashed this idealism.
Middlemen Are Profiting off the Broken US Pharma System
Pharmacy benefit managers push expensive medications and slash drug reimbursement rates, pocketing the profits for themselves. Congress looked set to regulate these shadowy middlemen — but $50 million in industry lobbying later, the effort has stalled.
Unions Can’t Be Rebuilt Piecemeal. We Need to Go Big.
The 1930s rise of the Congress of Industrial Organizations led to millions of people being union members for the first time. The lesson of the CIO is that it’s necessary to harness the collective power of the working class on a grand scale.
Emmanuel Todd Prophesies the Defeat of the West
French demographer Emmanuel Todd’s new book argues that secularization has left Western societies weak and divided. But his account of the US and Europe’s secular nihilism is deeply reductive, leaving no space for forward-looking political change.
Debating Class Dealignment
Class dealignment posits that Democrats have been losing working-class voters in favor of middle- and upper-class voters. Is this actually happening? And to what extent is it a problem?
The Gary Convention Elided Black America’s Internal Disunity
In 1972, black political leaders and activists convened in Gary, Indiana, to develop a unified black political program. But the convention’s emphasis on racial cohesion overlooked the realities of black class stratification and internal ideological divisions.
Ding Dong, Former Canadian PM Brian Mulroney Is Dead
Canada’s former Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney reshaped the country with a mix of free trade enthusiasm and privatization. Lionized in his passing by Canada’s press, his legacy of undermining the country’s working classes shouldn’t be whitewashed.
Evelyn Trent Was One of America’s Great Revolutionaries
Best remembered as the partner of Indian revolutionary M. N. Roy, Evelyn Trent deserves to be recognized as a major figure in her own right. The Californian activist was a pioneering anti-colonial feminist who helped initiate India’s communist movement.