Trump’s “Maximum Pressure” on Iran Is Making COVID-19 Worse
Even as Iran’s coronavirus death toll nears 5,000, US sanctions continue to bear down on the country’s health care system.
19352 Articles by: Rob McIntyre
Rob McIntyre is a United Workers Union delegate at the Toll Kmart warehouse in Truganina.
The Oil Industry Is Dying Right Now. Don’t Resuscitate It.
The massive oil price crash we’ve seen this week is an opportunity for governments to do what we have long needed to do: keep the remaining fossil fuels in the ground and invest in a Green New Deal to save the planet and stimulate the economy.
COVID-19 Is Exposing the United States’ Ragged, Shameful Safety Net
A decent welfare state should provide the basics of life so everyone can flourish. The United States’ patchwork of poorly funded safety net programs is doing the opposite — dropping people through a trapdoor as the pandemic ravages the economy.
A Zionist State at Any Cost
The foundation of Israel is tied up with David Ben-Gurion, its first prime minister. Through examining his life, we see how Israel’s creation was from its beginnings doomed to create an apartheid-like state maintained by an oppressor nation.
Bernie’s Campaign Strategy Wasn’t the Problem
With Bernie Sanders now out of the race, commentators from left and right are finding fault with the campaign itself, arguing that there was too much class politics or not enough. But the problem wasn’t Bernie’s campaign strategy — it was the full force of the Democratic establishment that so effectively consolidated against him.
Saving Bulgarian Communism’s “Concrete Spaceship”
Captured on a thousand Instagram feeds, the UFO-like monument to the Bulgarian Communist Party is one of the Eastern Bloc’s most famous architectural relics. A battle to save it from decay has brought Bulgaria’s past back into political debate — and highlighted the death of the radicalism that motivated the project to start with.
Precarious Work Isn’t New — It’s Part of How Capitalism Functions
Claims that the working class no longer exists often suggest it’s been replaced by a “precariat” who don’t get a regular salary. But this precarious condition has been the experience of most workers throughout capitalism’s history — and where we did get stable employment, it was because we organized.
Benny Gantz Was Never the Answer
For more than a year, Benny Gantz bestrode the stage of Israeli politics as the standard-bearer of that country’s version of Anyone-But-Trumpism — a hollow politics of “restoring dignity” in the face of Benyamin Netanyahu’s outrages. Now that project has collapsed, leaving Israel’s sclerotic and prostrate left more adrift than ever.
Mayor Bernie Sanders’s Trial by Fire
Faced with wall-to-wall obstruction from the Burlington, Vermont city establishment, a newly elected Mayor Bernie Sanders won a series of early fights that showed the country what a creative, pro–working-class socialist government could accomplish at the local level.
A Basic Income Is a Lifeline in This Crisis — But Can’t Solve Everything
With millions of people put out of work, analysts across the political spectrum have proclaimed that the time has come for an Unconditional Basic Income. But this safety net won’t be enough unless we take on the biggest problem we face — an economic model based on high rents and high personal debts.
Kinshasa Prepares for the Pandemic to Hit
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the authorities lack the resources, the capacity, and even the public trust needed to respond effectively to COVID-19. Rich countries in the North must not leave its people to face the pandemic without international support.
Frontline Farmworkers Are Defenseless and Terrified
In Immokalee, Florida, immigrant farmworkers are living and working in crowded conditions without sick leave, space to quarantine, or a nearby hospital. They’re afraid of an outbreak, and they’re making demands on the state to prevent one.
Coronavirus Is Hammering the News Industry. Here’s How to Save It.
Tens of thousands of journalists are losing their jobs, newspaper chains are going under, and vulture capitalists are picking over the remains. We need a news bailout — but one that overhauls the existing corporate model and pushes the media to put the public before profits.
Bernie Said We Could Govern Ourselves
What made Bernie Sanders different from any major presidential candidate in our lifetimes was that he didn’t pitch himself as the most qualified pilot — he demanded that we pilot the plane ourselves.
The Coronavirus Will Not Spare Africa
African countries haven’t yet borne the brunt of COVID-19. But as the virus migrates into the cities and shacks and towns of Africa, it could spread rapidly — pummeling the continent’s austerity-wracked public health systems.
Ecuador’s Government Is Persecuting the Man Who Doubled Health Care Spending
In office from 2007 to 2017, Ecuador’s left-wing president Rafael Correa more than doubled investment in health care. But Lenín Moreno’s austerian regime has abandoned that legacy — and is now using the courts to silence those who criticize its response to COVID-19.
Mourn and Organize!
We all love Joe Hill, but his famous piece of advice — “Don’t mourn, organize!” — is only half right. Given the state of the world today, with Bernie Sanders out of the presidential race and hundreds of thousands dead from the coronavirus, we ought to be doing both.
Car Plants Are Making Medical Equipment — And Things Should Stay That Way
The coronavirus pandemic has ushered in a series of emergency measures to reorient our economies toward the public health care response. The crisis offers a glimpse of how production could be made to serve social needs — but only if we defeat those who want a return to capitalist normality.
Australia’s “JobKeeper” Scheme Falls Short by Design
The Australian “JobKeeper” scheme will subsidize the wages of many throughout the course of this pandemic, but more than 2 million workers are set to be left out entirely. What’s more, the scheme undermines collective bargaining agreements, giving more power to employers in a shift that threatens to far outlive this crisis.
To Rebuild Our Towns and Cities, We Need to Design a Green Stimulus
The COVID-19 quarantine has exposed the importance of parks, sidewalks, and other public spaces to our collective well-being. To stitch the world back together once the pandemic recedes, we should enact a massive green stimulus that builds out our public infrastructure in beautiful, imaginative, low-carbon ways.