Opal Lee is a writer.
On Monday, Sweden’s Social Democratic government lost a vote of no confidence after it tried to abandon the country’s system of collective bargaining on rents. The Left Party was decisive to the defeat — and now, the proposal to introduce market rents has been dropped.
When Benito Mussolini’s Italian Fascists pulled off their coup d’état in October 1922, Antonio Gramsci was in Moscow — and his first article responding to the events appeared in Russian. It was virtually lost for a century. We publish it in English for the first time.
Saul Alinsky, the Frankfurt School, “cultural Marxism” — the Right regularly cycles through shadowy texts and philosophies that explain all the Left’s evil deeds. Critical race theory is the explanation du jour; soon enough, something else shiny will catch their eye.
Sarah Schulman’s Let the Record Show tells the story of one of the most compelling and successful social movements of the past century, ACT UP. We talked to Schulman about the “New York Crimes,” the messy joy of political commitment, and how ACT UP changed history.
The battle for labor law reform has historically been one of the most difficult in US politics. Passing the PRO Act is crucial — but workers may not be able to win it without flexing their strike muscles.
Basic income schemes are no silver bullet to make up for the loss of well-paid union jobs. But they can allow workers say no to the most thankless, low-wage work — and provide a platform from which to rebuild our bargaining power.
Supreme Court justices are being portrayed by mainstream media like the New York Times as moderate — at the exact same time the court is repeatedly voting to rig America’s laws against workers.
Pedro Castillo, the rightful president-elect of Peru, describes his journey from elementary school teacher to trade union militant to the cusp of state power.
Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez wasn’t just a key player in the botched European Super League attempt — he’s also vicious capitalist who has profited from outsourcing and privatization at the expense of the Spanish public.
Despite making record profits in 2020, multinational food manufacturer General Mills claims it can’t afford a modest pay raise for workers at its New South Wales plant. Sick of being disrespected, the workers have gone on strike.
The 1970s in the Caribbean were marked by major political and social upheaval. Cricket became a primary vehicle for asserting West Indian independence — and defeating England was paramount.
States and municipalities are increasingly relying on court fees as revenue streams, creating at least $27.6 billion in debt for Americans. To handle that debt’s collection, those states and municipalities, and even the IRS, are increasingly turning to private firms, which can add up to 40 percent surcharges onto the fees.
Sweden’s Social Democrat-led government is in crisis after its defeat in Monday’s no-confidence vote. It lost its left-wing support after it moved to abandon rent controls — showing how the neoliberalized wing of social democracy is undermining its own past achievements.
New York City mayoral election was bizarre. And it’s not over: Eric Adams’s unique blend of supposedly anti-racist law-and-order politics, pro-landlord policy, and appeals to outer borough resentment of liberal Manhattan elites won the first round.
The Battle of Blair Mountain is one of the most stunning episodes in the United States’ violent history of class warfare. In 1921, twenty thousand armed miners in West Virginia marched on the coal bosses and were met with bombs and submachine guns.
Five years after the Brexit referendum, Boris Johnson is flying high in British politics. He could have been stopped, but the pro-Brexit right and the anti-Brexit center were united in opposing Jeremy Corbyn and a Labour left–led government.
The billionaire class isn’t just a group of people who happen to be superrich. It’s a dynastic oligarchy with a single overriding objective: controlling the government to protect its inherited wealth.
After an IRS leak about billionaires’ massive tax avoidance schemes, corporate media says there’s nothing to see here because the avoidance is surely legal. But there’s no reason we should assume that these billionaires are playing by the rules.
One man put a stop to Hitler’s march across Europe: not Stalin, Churchill, or Roosevelt, but a German Communist called Richard Sorge. Sorge was a real-life spy whose exploits surpassed any fictional creation, and one of the twentieth century’s great heroes.
The Soviet experience of Nazi invasion inspired many powerful works of cinema. In contrast with Hollywood’s approach to World War II, Soviet filmmakers avoided triumphalist images of warfare, depicting the conflict as a brutal necessity that should never be repeated.