Portugal’s General Strike
Portugal’s right-wing government is extending the anti-labor agenda it pushed during the austerity era. A 3-million-strong general strike on December 11 showed a resilient working-class response.
20457 Article(s) by: Opal Lee
Opal Lee is a writer.
Mexico’s Successful Left Project Is Under Threat From Trump
Mexico’s hugely popular president, Claudia Sheinbaum, won massive reforms in 2025. But with the Donald Trump administration’s neocolonial interventions in Latin America, next year will be a fight for survival.
Lab-Grown Blood Vessel Maker Promotes Risky Off-Label Uses
Developers of a lab-grown blood vessel designed to save life and limb in emergency scenarios appear to be promoting its use in surgeries far beyond what the Food and Drug Administration has approved the product for, despite known safety risks.
Zohran Needs to Create Popular Assemblies
If Zohran Mamdani is serious about delivering on his promises, he needs more than policies — he needs institutions that empower working people. Popular assemblies offer a way to build a new, bottom-up political culture in New York City.
Canada’s Assisted Dying Program Is Bad for the Vulnerable
In Canada, physician-assisted suicide is available even to people who aren’t suffering from terminal illnesses. In the context of austerity, this often means people are offered death rather than the material support that could alleviate their suffering.
The Housing Crisis Is Solvable
British Columbia’s housing crisis is severe, but its root causes are familiar: exclusionary zoning, under-building, and chronic neglect of nonmarket housing. Economist Alex Hemingway’s proposals show how governments could reverse course, in BC and elsewhere.
Ten Essential Political Albums From 2025
Don’t buy into the doomerism about music. From Sam Fender and billy woods to Stereolab and Lambrini Girls, artists are using their music to capture the anger and unrest of our era.
The European Union Is Turning Away From the Green Transition
Europe has often called itself a global leader in fighting climate change, even promising to halt the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035. Yet now it’s dropped the plan, as part of a broader retreat from the green transition.
For a Peace From Below in Ukraine
Talks over an American-Russian peace plan seek to impose a harsh settlement on Ukraine. Faced with the carve-up of territory, it’s vital to build an international peace movement opposing the logic of imperialist blocs.
The Promised Land Is One of the Great Films About Capitalism
Fifty years ago, Polish director Andrzej Wajda produced one of the most astonishing films about the rise of capitalism ever made. The Promised Land is an unforgettable picture of early industrial exploitation that still feels contemporary.
The Resistance Moves Left
How the socialist left and the anti-Trump Resistance are slowly but surely learning to work together.
Israel’s Deliberate Destruction of Palestinian Academia
Gaza used to have twelve higher-education institutions. Over the last two years, Israel partly or totally destroyed every one of them in its campaign to crush Palestinian public life and ruin its chances of recovery.
Trump Tips the Scales in Honduras
Donald Trump’s meddling in Honduras’s national election aims to return the disgraced party of the narcotrafficking ex-president Juan Orlando Hernández to power.
The 2005 New York City Transit Strike: A Lasting Scar
On this day 20 years ago, New York City transit workers launched an illegal strike. It ended in a bitter defeat that hobbled the union for years and discouraged public sector labor militancy more widely. What lessons can we draw from the strike today?
The Kurdish Freedom Struggle Is Facing a Crucial Moment
Abdullah Öcalan’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party is engaged in high-stakes negotiations with the Turkish government over a peace settlement. The outcome will shape the future for Kurds throughout the region, including the PKK’s sister parties in Syria and Iran.
Yemen’s Civil War Has Taken a Dangerous New Turn
A separatist group backed by the United Arab Emirates has seized power in Yemen’s two biggest districts. It’s part of an intensifying power struggle between Saudi and Emirati elites, with the people of both Yemen and Sudan suffering the consequences.
Cover-Up Follows Seymour Hersh’s Life Uncovering Secrets
Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus’s Netflix documentary Cover-Up follows the life and work of legendary investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. Cover-Up depicts the kind of maverick journalism we desperately need in our authoritarian times.
AI Is Driving Up the Price of Consumer Electronics
Driven by the AI boom, chip manufacturers are pivoting production lines toward megacorporate clients. The move will make consumer electronics even less affordable.
Steve Bannon Was Much Closer to Epstein Than You Realize
Steve Bannon’s whole pitch is that he’s leading a movement against a decadent, borderless elite. Except according to newly released messages and emails, that movement has been heavily reliant on the most decadent, borderless elite of all: Jeffrey Epstein.
Heathrow Cleaners Deserve More Than the Bare Minimum
Cleaners at London Heathrow have begun a strike that could last until the end of the year. While subcontractors pay them only the legal minimum, they’re demanding that the airport live up to its proclaimed standards as a Living Wage employer.