Forget Your Middle-Class Dreams
When it comes to workplace organizing, there’s no such thing as a “privileged” worker. You’re either with your coworkers or you’re against them.
20423 Article(s) by: Opal Lee
Opal Lee is a writer.
The Real Working Class Is Invisible to the Media
The media doesn’t talk much about working-class America. But when it does, it mainly has one thing to say about it: that it’s entirely white, male, and very right-wing. All those things are lies.
They Never Have Enough Money
Why is Trump going after Obamacare yet again? Because the modern Republican Party has one guiding purpose: to shovel as much money as possible to the rich.
Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay
Debt-stricken countries like Greece have continued repaying their creditors even though it’s hammering workers’ living standards. They should stick it to the banks and default instead.
“Inside the Game, You Are Still a Commodity”
When people think about Major League Baseball, they think about big stars and big paychecks. But today, on MLB’s Opening Day, we should remember that the game is rife with exploitation — especially in the minor leagues.
Sending in the Troops
Emmanuel Macron’s decision to use the army to repress the Yellow Vests represents a desperate bid to project a tough-guy image.
What the Show Trials Show
The sedition charges against Catalan independence activists mark a shameful moment for Spanish democracy. Franco’s regime is long gone, but the state machine he created has not been fully broken.
The Tory Crisis That Dare Not Speak Its Name
The British media have turned the Labour Party’s alleged antisemitism problem into a national crusade. Meanwhile, leading Tories this week openly associated themselves with the Ku Klux Klan and the ideas of Anders Breivik — and the media shrugged.
A Hundred Netanyahus
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won’t be defeated in the polls on April 9. Whether he is indicted for corruption soon or not, his method of repressing Palestinian resistance is popular — and will probably outlast him in Israeli politics.
Let Chelsea Go
The US government is holding Chelsea Manning in solitary confinement again. It’s a vindictive, unconscionable attack on a brave truth teller.
Organizing to Win a Green New Deal
The labor movement has to be central to winning a Green New Deal and reversing climate change. Recent labor victories show how we can do just that, from the ground up, and quickly.
That’s Strike One, Amazon
In what may be the first coordinated strike at a US Amazon facility, fifty Somali-American workers walked off the job in Minnesota recently to protest work speedups. And organizers say it won’t be the last strike.
What the New Deal Can Teach Us About a Green New Deal
The original New Deal was a bold, visionary effort that transformed the economic and political life of the country. The Green New Deal could do even more.
What is the Rank-and-File Strategy, and Why Does It Matter?
We can’t win socialism without workers fighting back. The rank-and-file strategy gives us the tools to do that.
Closing the Russiagate
With the end of Mueller’s inquiry, our long, national hallucination is finally over. But the damage done by neocons and liberal conspiracy theorists is just beginning.
When Fighting Racism Meant Fighting Economic Exploitation
Though often forgotten today, the National Negro Congress forged a black-led, labor-based coalition in New Deal America that fought white supremacy and the economic exploitation that undergirded it.
The Mueller Report Won’t Bring Down Trump
After months of frenzied speculation and breathless commentary, Robert Mueller has turned in his report. But the political landscape some said it would upend is basically unchanged.
The Decline of the Low Countries
The far right swept to record success in last week’s Dutch elections. Yet the vote also saw Geert Wilders’s PVV overshadowed by more traditionalist reactionary forces.
An Uncommon Historian
Eric Hobsbawm wasn’t just a historian of the twentieth-century communist movement: he was part of it.
Labor Unions of the World, Unite
Labor is struggling with how to build international working-class power. The United Electrical Workers offer a model of just that.