Ryan Switzer is a PhD candidate in sociology at Stockholm University. He researches right-wing politics in welfare states.
The UK government has announced a surge in military spending, even as it plans a new round of austerity. As Jeremy Corbyn writes, there’s always enough money for war — but never enough for lifesaving services.
The catastrophe that continues to unfold across the US as COVID-19 spreads is disproportionately affecting older people, who are perishing in far greater numbers than any other group. In a pandemic, our routine neglect of the elderly has turned murderous.
The liberal tradition is a complex body of thought that socialists should grapple with seriously. But today, preserving the gains of liberalism — civil liberties, free speech, and social pluralism — means rejecting the liberal defense of capitalist private property rights.
Public school teachers have been working harder than ever during the pandemic. But that’s not enough for the New South Wales Productivity Commission, which wants to cut pay and conditions, while increasing productivity by pitting “value-added” teachers against their colleagues.
The vast majority of Canadians support a wealth tax, but 90 percent of the country’s MPs recently voted against a proposal to establish one. When push comes to shove, Canadian politicians are just as much in thrall to the rich as their US counterparts.
Sofia Coppola’s On the Rocks is yet another meandering depiction of life as a bored and alienated celebrity.
In praising the pro-corporate Washington hacks Joe Biden has chosen to staff his administration, liberal groups are betraying their missions in order to try to gain influence — despite that appeasement strategy rarely working in American history.
The critique of capitalism was central to William Morris’s vision of an arts and crafts movement in the Victorian era. Against the alienation and exploitation of a rapacious industrialism, he advocated for a conception of art capable of restoring creativity to everyday life.
Even if the new bipartisan relief proposal does pass, it will be inadequate, forcing millions of Americans to rely on the generosity of family and strangers this winter. Millions of Americans are suffering, and our political leaders don’t care.
After 52 years in action, Australia’s Commonwealth Employment Service shut down in 1998, to be replaced by the widely hated, privately owned Employment Service Providers. At its best, the CES showed that a public welfare system can treat workers with dignity and respect.
So far, Joe Biden’s transition has hired liberally from Wall Street and corporate America, chosen appointees who have made multiple trips through the revolving door, and recruited fans of fossil fuels in the middle of a climate crisis. It’s little different than what we saw under Donald Trump.
Mass household indebtedness is a key feature of financialized capitalism, driving insecurity and sustaining poverty around the world. Could a union of debtors join forces to agitate for the abolition of all consumer debt?
Joe Biden’s choice to install two former BlackRock execs in his cabinet is a major signal of his deference to Wall Street and the superrich. But it’s also a sign of the times: the world’s largest asset management company is revolutionizing finance by investing in capitalism itself.
Cornel West talks to Jacobin about what the Bernie Sanders campaign represented, what its failure means, and why Democrats think they can win over black and brown voters with just “symbolic decorative changes.”
A year into Spain’s coalition government, today’s budget offers major public health care investment and a commitment to expand the Guaranteed Minimum Income plan. These promises show how Unidas Podemos has changed the political agenda — and yet centrist ministers are still stonewalling on measures that risk upsetting business.
Canada’s self-image as a land immune to US-style extremes of wealth is increasingly divorced from reality. Canadian billionaires have quadrupled in a generation, and without a wealth tax, their share of the country’s riches will only keep growing.
Australia has a record of loyal support for Israeli state racism and human rights abuses that puts even the US to shame. In order to change that record, we need to challenge the political forces that have made Australia Israel’s most faithful ally.
Former Ghanaian president Jerry Rawlings died last month at the age of 73. He went from heading two revolutionary governments to championing neoliberal reforms, but he left behind an important legacy for progressives and radicals.
Last month, Peruvians took to the streets to protest the seizure of the country’s presidency by the far right after a questionable impeachment, with the likely intention of holding the office past next year’s elections. We spoke to Verónika Mendoza, left-wing presidential candidate for Juntos por el Perú, about the mass protests and the possibility of scrapping the country’s dictatorship-era constitution.
US media outlets like the New York Times rightly dismissed bogus claims of electoral fraud by Donald Trump. Now they need to start applying the same standards to Latin America, where such claims have been used to justify the violent overthrow of elected left-wing governments.