The Workers’ Wimbledon
Tennis has often been considered an exclusive sport — but in the 1930s, trade unionists came together to challenge the private clubs with their own tournament: the “Workers’ Wimbledon.”
19500 Articles by: Ryan Switzer
Ryan Switzer is a PhD candidate in sociology at Stockholm University. He researches right-wing politics in welfare states.
The Disingenuous Defense of For-Profit Health Care Hasn’t Changed in Decades
From Ronald Reagan’s notorious 1961 rant against the horrors of socialized medicine to present-day propaganda of the insurance industry, right-wing and corporate efforts to halt the expansion of public health care seem to strike the exact same notes again and again — and draw on the same bogus arguments.
Why Brazilian Workers Love Lula
Lula rose from humble origins to become a leftist icon, exuding working-class authenticity and successfully bringing working people into the country’s political life. And his story isn’t over: he could soon return to power.
Choosing Your Own Health Care Plan Has Nothing to Do With Freedom
Picking a health care plan isn’t an exercise in freedom — it’s an impossibly complicated, mind-numbing task seemingly designed to drive you insane. Can’t we just have Medicare for All already?
Peru’s Pedro Castillo Can Break With Neoliberalism for Good
Pedro Castillo is the next president of Peru. His election was a repudiation of neoliberalism and right-wing authoritarianism — and it could signal a permanent sea change in Peruvian politics.
Were Haiti’s Capitalists Behind the Assassination of President Moïse?
Haitian president Jovenel Moïse was assassinated this week by alleged mercenaries. In an interview with Jacobin, the English language editor of Haiti Liberté says he suspects that some of Haiti’s richest families hired the attackers to preempt a potential revolution — and possibly even trigger US military intervention.
All of Us Should Be Working Four-Day Weeks
A mass experiment in Iceland found that workers with four-day weeks became happier and healthier and got just as much done. It’ll take worker organizing to win a demand like that.
Miners in Ontario Are Mobilizing Against Another Corporate Rip-Off
Mining multinational Vale is trying to strip its workers in Sudbury of vital benefits using the pandemic as cover. They’ve responded with strike action, building on a long tradition of militant trade unionism in the region.
Socialists Actually Did Very Well Among Black Brooklyn Voters
Democratic Party hacks love to accuse socialists of lacking support from black and brown New Yorkers. But a look at the numbers in Brooklyn reveals the opposite: socialism won among black working-class voters. Support from white liberals, on the other hand, was missing.
The Fight to Transform Peru Has Only Just Begun
A month since teacher and labor activist Pedro Castillo was elected Peruvian president, his far-right opponents are still trying to stop him from taking office. The attempt to overturn the election shows the elites’ refusal to accept defeat — and the dangers the Left faces as it seeks a break from the country’s neoliberal model.
Jessica Hopper Rescues Music From the Forces Sucking the Life Out of It
Music gives tangible shape to the best and basest in all of us. Yet under capitalism, it’s just another commodity. That artists and critics continue making and writing about music despite the industry’s vampiric drive for profit shows our stubborn unwillingness to give up a key piece of our humanity.
When America’s Red States Were Red
This month marks 120 years since the founding of the Socialist Party of America. The party was especially strong in rural areas like Oklahoma — success that the socialist movement could actually replicate today.
The Rust Belt’s New Working Class Is Just as Exploited as the Old One
In the Rust Belt, heavy industry has been replaced by health care. But even though the working class has changed, exploitation at the hands of their bosses haven’t.
Britney Spears Is Being Exploited for Profit
The exploitation and abuse of Britney Spears, justified by her legal conservatorship, is an extreme example of practices that are common in the entertainment factory.
The Canadian Mining Company Dominicans Call “Worse Than Columbus”
We traveled to the Dominican Republic to talk to rural farmers and workers battling a Canadian mining company. “We had no concept of what the devil was until Barrick Gold came to our lands,” one person told us.
Everyone Wants Health Care Reform. Industry Lobbying Won’t Let Them Have It.
It’s often said that politicians pander to polls. Not so for health care: despite repeated lopsided majorities in polls favoring a public system, leaders in both parties don’t seem to care.
When Detroit Was Revolutionary
In the 1960s and 1970s, when Detroit was home to a vibrant radical Left, photographer Leni Sinclair, cofounder of the White Panther Party and the Detroit Artists Workshop, stood at the center of a local scene where political and cultural ferment merged. We spoke to her about those years of upsurge.
A United Ireland Needs Economic Justice, Not Identity Politics
The Six Counties look closer than ever to reuniting with the rest of Ireland, and neoliberals are arguing for the new state to institutionalize Protestant-Unionist representation. But working-class people don’t need backward-looking identity politics — we need Ireland to stop being a low-wage tax haven.
Wall Street Takes Workers’ Retirement Money and Uses It Against Them
Workers’ retirement savings aren’t usually thought of as a stimulating topic. But we should pay closer attention, because public pensions are a key way for Wall Street to steal wealth from workers and hoard it for themselves.
How Sweden’s Left Party Stopped the Social Democrats’ Undermining the Welfare State
Sweden’s Social-Democratic prime minister Stefan Löfven has just been voted back into office — now having dropped proposals to abandon collective bargaining over rents. The change was thanks to pressure from the Left Party.