US Sanctions on Iran Are Increasing Coronavirus Deaths
Iran is ravaged by coronavirus — and US sanctions are making the pandemic even more deadly.
19639 Articles by: Opal Lee
Opal Lee is a writer.
Now Is the Time to Fundamentally Transform America
Our economy is crashing hard and fast. But with a bold set of policies, like nationalizing the banks to fund a Green New Deal, we can save millions of workers from untold suffering — and transform the country in the process.
Meet the Socialist Power-Pop Band Whose Music Blasted out at Bernie Rallies
With classic rock riffs and fuzzed-out melodies, Philadelphia’s Sheer Mag wears their left-wing politics on their sleeves.
Coronavirus Has Exposed America’s Digital Divide
Coronavirus is pushing us from our workplaces, classrooms, and public spaces into our homes. High-speed internet is more essential than ever to maintain social ties. But millions are denied this fundamental right.
Even in a Pandemic, the University of Illinois Doesn’t Care About Its Grad Workers
Despite the coronavirus outbreak, the University of Illinois has jacked up health care premiums for graduate workers and refuses to grant additional sick days to those who test positive for COVID-19. This is what workers have to deal with in the corporatized university.
Now Our Senate Overlords Are Making Money off Our Deaths
With the appalling Senate scandal over coronavirus insider trading, it is no longer possible to deny it: we are governed by a caste of the unimaginably rich who don’t care if we live or die.
We Can Stop Pandemic Profiteering
If we are going to avert the worst-case COVID-19 scenario and prevent unimaginable human suffering, we have to fight — and even nationalize — the corporations that are trying to profit off of this crisis at everyone else’s expense.
To Fight Coronavirus, Organize Your Coworkers
Faced with impossible choices between going to work and facing potential exposure to coronavirus or staying home and losing needed income, workers at a Brooklyn cafe got organized. To ensure a just response to coronavirus, millions more working people will need to get similarly organized in our workplaces, in our communities, and in politics.
Detroit Bus Drivers Went on Strike to Win Protections Against Coronavirus — And Won
In the face of inadequate health and safety protections against coronavirus on public transit, Detroit bus drivers walked off the job Tuesday demanding management take action. They won.
Anti-Capitalist Politics in the Time of COVID-19
As Marxist geographer David Harvey argues, forty years of neoliberalism has left the public totally exposed and ill prepared to face a public health crisis on the scale of coronavirus.
Our Public Health Infrastructure Is Losing a Fight With Capitalism
COVID-19 teaches us why Medicare for All should be the floor of our demands, not the ceiling. As an epidemiologist argues, we need to radically rebuild our entire public health infrastructure.
Europe Can’t Decarbonize Without Democracy
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen claims to represent the “spirit of Greta,” yet corporate lobbyists have more influence over Europe’s Green Deal than ordinary citizens do. The green transition ought to be controlled by the social majority, so it serves all our needs — not just the businesses who hold sway in Brussels.
We Can Retool the Economy to Fight Coronavirus — With Labor Playing a Key Role
During World War II, UAW leader Walter Reuther had a plan to reorient the economy toward needed production, centering the interests of labor rather than markets. As the global health system faces massive shortages in vital medical equipment, Reuther’s blueprints can help us generate our own mass-scale response to the crisis.
Mitt Romney’s $1,000 Isn’t Our Universal Basic Income
The “UBI” ideas being thrown around as a response to the coronavirus are, in many cases, neither universal, basic, nor an income. But they do show how much the Left has shifted what’s considered possible over the past decade.
Capitalism Has Always Been “Rogue”
Companies like Google and Facebook make money not just by predicting our behavior, but by influencing our choices. It’s an intensification of the surveillance that has always been at the heart of capitalism, not a new economic system.
Bernie Sanders Is Trying to Rescue America’s Frail Democracy
The Democratic Party elite insists nothing can be done to mobilize working-class nonvoters. By challenging their cynicism, Bernie Sanders is rendering a profound service to American democracy.
Norway’s Workers Insisted They Shouldn’t Pay for Coronavirus — And They Won
At the start of the coronavirus epidemic, Norway’s government said it would help businesses by making it easier for them to get rid of workers. But trade unions and left-wing parties fiercely denied that these measures were “inevitable” — and they won a bailout to serve working people, not just their employers.
We’re at War With Coronavirus. And Bernie Should Be Our General.
Containment isn’t enough. We need a wartime mobilization to expand coverage, capacity, and production in order to test, trace, and treat coronavirus. And Bernie Sanders must play a major role in advocating for more aggressive measures.
The Coronavirus Crisis Is Political
In 2008, they told us not to “politicize” the crash. We ended up with a decade of austerity. The coronavirus crisis will reshape the economy in profound ways — now is the time to make socialist arguments about how to respond.
How to Beat Back Gentrification
The Oakland group Moms 4 Housing is leading a movement to halt gentrification and de-commodify housing. Their victory in California helps pave the way for a militant housing strategy that we can use across American cities.