When the Seattle General Strike and the 1918 Flu Collided
The first major general strike in the United States coincided with the last major pandemic. Here’s the full story.
19148 Articles by: Opal Lee
Opal Lee is a writer.
On Strike — No Rent
This May 1 in New York City, housing activists are organizing “Can’t Pay May,” a citywide rent strike that will dramatize the impossibility of making rent under lockdown — and the need for a radical overhaul of the housing system.
It Took Guts for Chris Hayes to Cover Tara Reade’s Accusations Against Joe Biden
Bucking a liberal establishment that has ignored, downplayed, and dismissed Tara Reade’s accusations of sexual assault against Joe Biden, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes has urged his viewers to take it seriously. TV news needs more anchors like him.
For a Left Cultural Politics
Much of our contemporary culture works to deny the existence of class and inequality, at the same time as its structures of nepotism and unpaid internships keep working-class voices marginalized. We need to wrestle back control at the point of cultural production.
“We Were Called Comrades Without Condescension or Patronage”
In the Jim Crow South, the Alabama Communist Party distinguished itself as a champion of racial and economic justice — fighting for the rights of black defendants, helping organize hyper-exploited sharecroppers, and welcoming black workers into its ranks on completely equal terms.
Don’t Listen to David Brooks: It’s Not You, It’s the 1 Percent
How do commentators like David Brooks account for the undeniable rise in inequality? Not by analyzing the dynamics of wealth distribution and power that would help us address the problem, but by pointing the finger at the rest of us.
Your Classes Are on Zoom and Your Teaching Staff Is Being Cut
Through decades of marketization, universities have replaced permanent teaching staff with temporary and often low-paid hires. Faced with COVID-19, they’re pulling the purse strings even tighter — as students pay high fees for online seminars with a shrinking band of overworked lecturers.
“Today’s Working-Class Heroes Should Be at the Heart of Tomorrow’s Society”
European leaders won’t consider debt cancellation or abandon the dogma of neoliberal austerity. Coronavirus shows that well-funded public services are essential for our survival — austerity is a matter of life and death. We need an alternative.
No, Liberal Pundits: Joe Biden Hasn’t Actually Been a Progressive All Along
In the latest media parlor game, the players try to convince each other that Joe Biden could actually campaign as a progressive. We already know the answer: he can’t, because his record is so abysmal.
The Democrats Seem Just Fine With Joe Biden’s Sexual Assault Allegations
In 2016, an alarmed Republican establishment tried to force Donald Trump out of the race over his history of sexual assault — not because they were feminists, but because they thought it looked bad. But today, the Democratic establishment is simply dismissing the same allegations against Joe Biden.
“I Want the People Who Lead This Company to Have More Humanity and Respect for Their Workers”
Donald Trump is insisting that meatpacking plants stay open, despite companies like Cargill coming under fire for the deplorable workplace conditions that are spreading coronavirus. We spoke to a worker who says Cargill’s carelessness and deceit made a bad situation incalculably worse.
A Manager Threatening Retaliation Against Workers for Union Activity Is Not a Joke
The Federalist‘s top manager Ben Domenech is deeply upset that Matt Bruenig filed charges at the National Labor Relations Board for Domenech’s “joking” anti-union threats against employees. If Domenech didn’t want to get dragged to court, maybe he shouldn’t have broken labor law.
Socialists Should Side With Workers — Not the Chinese or American Ruling Class
The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a dangerous escalation in tensions between China and the United States. But our allegiance shouldn’t be with either country’s ruling class — it should be with both countries’ workers.
Socialists Shouldn’t Endorse Joe Biden
Prominent Democrats and liberal writers lost their minds when the Democratic Socialists of America announced it would not endorse Joe Biden. But why would a socialist organization campaign for a politician who opposes everything that organization stands for?
How Bernie Won a Landslide of Latino Voters
In this year’s primaries, Bernie Sanders won landslide levels of support from Latinos. Here’s how he did it.
The Israel-Palestine Conflict Isn’t a “Clash of Cultures.” It’s About Colonialism.
Palestine has been battered for over a century, yet the narrative of a “tragic clash” of two peoples with claims to the same territory still prevails. That framing is wrong — Palestine’s miseries are the product of settler-colonial conquest.
Our Revolution Failed to Live Up to Its Potential. But the Bernie Movement Needs a Mass Organization Now.
A few weeks ago, we had a democratic-socialist presidential campaign with several million donors and over a thousand-person staff. Today, we have no mass organization to carry on the struggle. We can change that — but only with Bernie’s help.
Coronavirus Shows Us Why Occupational Health and Safety Is Life or Death for Workers
The power of organized labor won the Occupational Safety and Health Administration 49 years ago today. That victory has saved thousands of lives in workplaces across the country — but we need to think even bigger than regulatory reforms now.
We Need Unionized Jobs, Not Crumbs of Charity
Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, has donated $100 million to food banks during the current crisis, but he won’t even pay his own workers sick pay. Instead of charity, we need rights we can rely on — and as Unite leader Len McCluskey argues, the best way to win them is to organize with our coworkers.
J. B. Pritzker Should Lift Illinois’s Rent Control Ban to Provide Relief for Renters
Illinois cannot act to provide relief for its renters struggling under the coronavirus pandemic because of a 1997 rent control ban pushed by the Right. But this could change if its governor, J. B. Pritzker, used his emergency powers to lift that ban and aid the millions of Illinoisans who can’t pay the rent.