California Democrats Kill Gas and Oil Regulations After Campaign Donations
Democrats killed legislation protecting California homes and schools from oil and gas operations after big campaign donations and industry-funded junkets.
20395 Article(s) by: Ryan Switzer
Ryan Switzer is a PhD candidate in sociology at Stockholm University. He researches right-wing politics in welfare states.
Finland Is Rallying Around a Six-Hour Workday — And So Should We
Finland’s social-democratic prime minister, Sanna Marin, has called for a six-hour workday without loss of pay, allowing Finns more free time and a fairer distribution of employment. As the pandemic forces us to reassess how working life is organized, we should take up labor’s historic call for a shorter workday.
After the Beirut Explosion, Beware the Helping Hand of France and the US
In the wake of this month’s devastating explosion in Beirut, French and American leaders have made a show of pledging their support to Lebanon. But many have greeted these messages with suspicion in light of the disastrous history of French and US involvement in the country since it attained independence in 1943.
Chadwick Boseman (1976–2020)
More than any other actor of his era, Chadwick Boseman, who played a range of black heroes from Thurgood Marshall to T’Challa, had a capacity to inspire his audience and evoke a sense of pride in the triumphs and struggles of black people.
Strippers Are Workers With the Power to Unionize
Strippers have at least one thing in common with Uber drivers: they’re the victims of rampant labor misclassification at the hands of their bosses. But Brandi Campbell, an adult dancer in Ohio, fought the practice in court and won. The law is clear: strippers are workers with the right to unionize and strike.
There May Be No Choice but to Nationalize Oil and Gas — and Renewables, Too
The global oversupply of oil and gas before the pandemic, plus the massive slump in demand as a result of lockdown, has put the profitability of the sector in extreme crisis. The case for nationalizing energy production has never been stronger.
Japan’s Shinzō Abe Was an Uninspiring Leader Who Prospered by Default
Shinzō Abe became Japan’s longest serving prime minister thanks to the weakness of his political rivals. But Abe never realized his dream of rewriting the Japanese constitution to legitimize the nationalist militarism that was central to his worldview.
Wall Street Doesn’t Like Ed Markey
Ed Markey, the Democratic Massachusetts senator facing a tough primary challenge from Joe Kennedy III, is known for the Green New Deal — but he also has a history of drawing the ire of Wall Street.
How Undergraduate Workers Transformed Their Union to Fight the Neoliberal University
Student workers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have used their union to fight for decent pay, better working conditions, and substantive safety measures in response to coronavirus. Three of those workers explain how they did it.
Andrzej Wajda’s Hidden History of the Polish Working Class
Polish director Andrzej Wajda created an exhilarating form of political cinema that helped shape events as well as depicting them on screen. His films stand as a powerful document of working-class history in Poland, and a glimpse of a socialist democracy that might have been.
Last Week’s Pro Athletes Strikes Could Become Much Bigger Than Sports
Professional athletes have an enormous amount of power that they put to good use this past week in a series of unprecedented strikes. But workers of all types have similar kinds of power — and could, just like athletes, use it to shut society down to fight injustice.
What’s the Difference Between Kyle Rittenhouse and the Police?
Rather than asking whether law enforcement and vigilantes like Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse support or oppose one another, we can see them as different groups who are both performing the same function — policing society.
The Coronavirus Vaccine Must Be Free for Everyone
After receiving boatloads of public money, one of the companies developing a COVID-19 vaccine is trying to profit from it. That’s immoral — any COVID-19 vaccine must be free and available to all.
Alex Morse: “I Would Be One of the Few Democrats That Stands Up To the Democratic Party”
The progressive congressional candidate talks to Jacobin about the smear campaign he’s endured, the limitations of a Joe Biden presidency plus Richard Neal chairmanship, his record on policing, his personal relationship to the opioid crisis, and democratic socialism.
In Belarus, Labor Is Struggling to Find Its Voice
Since Belarus’s disputed election, both President Alexander Lukashenko and the liberal opposition have recognized the importance of strike actions in deciding what happens next. But while there have been protests across Belarus’s major workplaces, a long-shackled labor movement faces an uphill struggle to advance a political agenda of its own.
Red-Scare Rhetoric Isn’t Gone From Histories of American Sport
The Cold War may be over, but its rhetoric demonizing the former Eastern Bloc and valorizing the United States isn’t. Nowhere is that clearer than in popular sport history productions like ESPN’s 30 for 30 podcast Heavy Medals and the Netflix documentary Athlete A, chronicling the abuse of elite gymnasts.
The Government’s Pantry Isn’t Bare — the People’s Pantry Is Bare
At a moment where tens of millions of families will require the government to help fill their pantries and medicine cabinets, this is not the moment to thrust our country into another age of austerity. Resist the call of fiscal hawks everywhere.
Bringing H. P. Lovecraft to Jim Crow America
The new HBO series Lovecraft Country melds the macabre monster stories of H. P. Lovecraft with the real-life horror of Jim Crow America. Once again, Jordan Peele shows that the scariest American monster is the white-supremacist cop.
Republicans Run Toward Their Base. Democrats Run Away From Theirs.
This year’s RNC was predictably a circus, while the DNC was largely pitched to a relatively small sliver of affluent professionals and suburban conservatives. While conservatives are pulled ever rightward by an increasingly radicalized fringe, liberal elites discipline their base into accepting a message crafted for someone else.
With Their Wildcat Strike, NBA Players Have Pointed the Way Forward
Despite its outcome, this week’s NBA wildcat strike provided a crucial lesson for all of us: we have to disrupt owners’ profits and engage in collective action if we have any hope of making change.