Reading Victor Serge from the Depths of Defeat
Despite isolation, political defeat, and incalculable grief, the Russian revolutionary Victor Serge persisted in writing in collective rather than personal terms.
19370 Articles by: Opal Lee
Opal Lee is a writer.
Did Americans Want a Political Revolution?
Joe Biden told us there was an easy path. Reality will soon catch up to that fantasy.
We Won’t Forget the Questions Bernie Asked
After half a decade of Bernie Sanders, the genie doesn’t go back in the bottle.
The Prophet of Inequality
Whatever its shortcomings, Thomas Piketty’s latest book, Capital and Ideology, is a serious attempt to map our social world without resorting to easy abstractions.
The Two Paths of Democratic Socialism: Coalition and Confrontation
After Bernie Sanders, democratic socialists in America face a vital strategic dilemma. Do we go the Justice Democrats route of winning gains as the junior partner in a progressive coalition, or do we take a gamble on more independent class organization and struggle?
How the Labour Party Lost the Chance of a Lifetime
Corbynism had a popular program — but not the popular insurgency it needed to fight for it.
We Knocked on a Million Doors for 45,000 Votes
I helped organize Bernie Sanders’s canvassing efforts in Iowa, and I learned that we can knock on as many doors as we want, but to make lasting change, we need to think beyond election day.
Let’s Talk About South Carolina
Bernie Sanders didn’t lose because of the “black vote,” but winning places like South Carolina is crucial to building a left majority.
After Years of “Silencing, Repression, and Retaliation” at This Software Company, Workers Decided to Organize
At Epic Systems, a Wisconsin-based software company, workers had complaints that will be familiar to many workers across the United States: an oppressive culture of surveillance and control, executives pushing to end their pandemic-induced working from home. Now, Epic’s workers are organizing.
The Pandemic Is Exposing the Cruelty of America’s Workhouse Economy
American workers are sharing their stories of life on unemployment benefits. The horrors of our collective surrender to the market are on full display.
The Redbaiting of Rep. Karen Bass Is Absurd
Rep. Karen Bass is no socialist, but she’s hung around a few of us in the past. Because of this, as her name was floated for Biden’s vice presidency, she’s been subjected to McCarthyist-style smears. We on the Left have to clearly and loudly stand against these attacks — they’re designed to make socialism politically beyond the pale.
Andrew Cuomo Wants to Protect His Wall Street Donors From Paying Taxes
New York Democratic legislators are trying to tax stock trades, capital gains, and carried interest. Wall Street, of course, is horrified by such a development — but luckily, their millions in campaign contributions have helped create a solid friendship with Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Borders Are the Problem, Not the People Crossing Them
Dividing up the “good refugees” from the “bad migrants” is a false distinction rooted in inhumanity. Whether people are fleeing their home countries because of violence or poverty, they should be welcomed with open arms.
A Green New Deal Needs a 21st-Century Civilian Conservation Corps
From 1933 to 1942, FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps put more than 3 million jobless young people to work on nature restoration projects all across the country. It was possibly the most popular of all the New Deal programs and a spectacular conservation success — one that a Green New Deal can replicate.
Wasp Network Is a Rare Movie That Doesn’t Paint Cubans as Cartoonish Villains
It might be surprising to find a movie on Netflix that presents Cuban agents as self-sacrificing idealists and Miami exiles as right-wing terrorists. But Wasp Network offers a sober portrayal of how Cubans resisted the Miami opposition’s violent campaign of attacks in the 1990s.
The Antinomies of Perry Anderson
Perry Anderson’s essays on the history of Marxism show his dazzling erudition and breadth of historical vision. But the British Marxist’s work has also been deeply shaped by his changing political outlook, as his 1960s hopes in socialist revolution have given way to a more sober reading of capitalism’s crises.
There’s No End in Sight for Lebanon
Lebanon has been subject to an unending series of disasters, of which last week’s ammonium nitrate explosion is only the most recent. But neither its own corrupt elites or European neoliberals like Emmanuel Macron can be trusted to actually end them.
Bacurau Is the Most Must-See Movie Since Parasite
Movies about class and inequality have made it into the global mainstream recently and are picking up major prizes. The genre-busting, edge-of-your-seat Brazilian film Bacurau is the latest. You’ve gotta see it.
The Fight for Racial Justice Must Include Defending Public-Sector Jobs
As the financial crisis worsens, public-sector employment is coming under heavy fire — for black people in particular. Fighting budget cuts and layoffs in public-sector jobs like the post office and public transit must be an essential piece of the fight for black lives.
Calls to Defund the Police Are Joining the Demand to Cancel Rent
The combination of rising property values and billowing police budgets have transformed New York City since the 1970s. Now, movements to defund the police are coalescing with calls to cancel rent.