Palestinians Don’t Need Jared Kushner’s Racist Peace Plan
Jared Kushner’s plan to bring peace to Palestine reads like a real estate developer’s brochure laden with “white man’s burden” racism. Palestinians are right to view him with contempt.
20415 Article(s) by: Opal Lee
Opal Lee is a writer.
Americans Actually Do Want Medicare for All
The media and the private insurance lobbyists are doing everything they can to twist the truth about public opinion on a public health system. Don’t listen: when it’s described accurately to them, a majority of Americans want Medicare for All.
Selling Out Julian Assange
By granting asylum to Julian Assange in 2012, Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa made clear his country would no longer bow to US diktats. The decision this spring to allow Assange’s arrest shows how far Ecuador’s challenge to empire has faded.
The Real-Estate Developers Are the Enemy
Chicago recently elected six socialists to its city council. One organizer explains how they won: by going after the real-estate developers that are gentrifying the city and pushing working-class Chicagoans out.
Karl Marx Is Useful for Our Time, Not Just His
The financial crash didn’t kill off neoliberalism — it actually embedded its logic ever deeper in our lives. Marxist geographer David Harvey says the only way to end this system for good is to change how we fight it.
We Don’t Need Pete Buttigieg’s National Service Program
Pete Buttigieg thinks national service will solve America’s inequality and division. But what we actually need to build solidarity and improve lives are broad social guarantees to decent jobs, health care, and education.
Bernie Should Oppose Nonprofit Charter Schools, Too
By calling for a ban on for-profit charter schools, Bernie Sanders has gone further than any other candidate to confront the privatization of our schools. But we can’t fully defend public schools if we let nonprofit charters off the hook.
Vietnam Gambles on Workers’ Rights
In a desperate effort to tame rebellious workers, Vietnam is now building a collective bargaining regime. But empowering independent trade unions could backfire for the country’s authoritarian government — and allow workers to fight back against multinational capital.
Giving Amazon’s Side of the Story
The New York Times recently profiled life on the Amazon shop floor — chaperoned by Amazon management. Perhaps not shockingly, the result was a fawning portrait of work at Amazon that only a boss could love.
The Problem With Community Land Trusts
Acquiring and administering property should not be housing movements’ only goals — advocacy for affordable housing must be coupled with bottom-up control by residents. The community land trust movement has largely abandoned fighting for and expanding that control.
Why Democrats Keep Caving on Immigration
For years, Democrats have embraced hardline immigration policies in a desperate attempt to win Republican votes. But the only way to deliver justice for immigrants is to defeat the Right — with a progressive, multiracial coalition.
Academic Freedom Must Extend to All
The Pitzer College community voted to suspend a study abroad program with the University of Haifa because of its ongoing policies discriminating against Palestinians. But their president decided to overturn a democratic referendum supporting human rights.
How Community Land Trusts Can Help Address the Affordable Housing Crisis
The United States is in the middle of a massive housing crisis. Community land trusts can help address it.
Revolutionary Socialists in the Democratic-Socialist Moment
Right now, democratic socialism is on the rise in American society. Revolutionary socialists who have kept the torch of socialism burning during the lean years will now have to merge with democratic-socialist demands of the current moment.
Chernobyl: The Show Russiagate Wrote
HBO’s Chernobyl isn’t the show this event deserves.
An Abortion Rights Movement for All
The reproductive rights movement is in crisis, and it’s looking for new tactics to break out of the impasse. That’s why there’s renewed interest in clinic defense — but the tactic deserves scrutiny.
AMLO Shouldn’t Back Down
Trump is threatening a trade war if Mexico doesn’t fall in line with his depraved migrant policy. But a trade war might actually hurt the US more than Mexico. AMLO should call Trump’s bluff and refuse to do his bidding.
Building Worker Power on the Docks
Dock workers in San Francisco and Durban, South Africa, have huge amounts of strategic leverage in the global economy. Both have long used that power not just to fight for better wages, but also to fight imperialism and racism.
The Border Patrol Is the American SS
After decades of nurturing a culture of violent, racist abuse, Customs and Border Protection cannot be seen as just another working-class job. Like Hitler’s SS, we must see CBP not as a place where good people do bad things, but where bad people do bad things.
“You Don’t Get This Perfect Storm of Class Struggle Very Often”
The teachers strike wave is the most important development in working-class politics in years. Combined with the rise of socialism, chances for a major transformation leftward in American politics are better than ever.