Ryan Switzer is a PhD candidate in sociology at Stockholm University. He researches right-wing politics in welfare states.
France was paralyzed by strikes on Friday, as workers from train drivers to teachers revolted against Emmanuel Macron’s attack on pensions. While the liberal president fancies himself as a French “Thatcher,” his bid to tear up France’s welfare state now faces its most powerful opposition yet.
Generations of left-wing thinkers have fundamentally misunderstood the young Soviet Union’s New Economic Policy.
Streams of reports point out the bias at work in BBC’s politics coverage. As it edges ever closer to Britain’s Conservative Party this election campaign, it’s clear the public broadcaster needs radical reform if it is to be saved.
In Colombia, a mass movement has emerged to challenge the government’s neoliberal policies and failure to honor its historic peace agreement with the FARC. It offers the possibility of a just future for the country.
The Tories hate the National Health Service not only because it delivers free public health care, but because it points the way toward a different society — one in which the market does not dominate our lives.
Whatever her intentions, Elizabeth Warren’s reversal from immediately pushing for Medicare for All to first passing a public option as part of a longer-term phase-in will sideline our movement — and fail to move us closer to achieving either program.
Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has repealed the Medevac Bill, a short-lived law that ensured the rapid evacuation of sick refugees for treatment. To justify his actions, Morrison relies on Christian credentials, but in his cruelty, he’s anything but Christ-like.
Yesterday, somebody asked Joe Biden a question about his failson Hunter. He responded by calling him fat and dumb. It’s just another reminder that “everyman” Joe Biden hates working-class people.
The roots of mindfulness as a spiritual practice go back thousands of years. But today, corporations like Facebook and Google are using it as a technique to extract more productivity and more profits from workers.
The protest movement convulsing Iraq is a heroic revolt powered by unemployed, precarious, and informal workers. Their aim is to overturn the entire political system, which has produced nothing but violence and poverty for the vast majority of Iraqis.
Successive UK governments have been slashing arts funding for decades. Labour is promising to reinvest.
Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party is running on a platform of peace and human rights. The Tories are running on a record of weapons sales to oppressive regimes and covert wars. The choice is clear.
They may win next week’s general election, but in Great Britain the Tories are struggling to win over anyone under the age of 45. And younger generations don’t seem to be going Conservative as they get older. The Conservative Party has a serious problem.
Otto von Bismarck built the world’s first welfare state, but his intent was to kill the rising workers’ movement. It’s a reminder that socialists don’t just want to use the welfare state to keep starvation at bay — we want to build the foundation for working-class emancipation.
There are only two real choices in the UK election — Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour and Boris Johnson’s Tories. Comfortable liberals who claim to be “politically homeless” are exposing their cluelessness about the misery and havoc another Tory government will impose on ordinary Britons.
Instead of spending billions developing driverless cars we should be building sustainable people-centered transportation.
In Hong Kong, leftists of all kinds support ongoing protests for democracy and civil liberties. Leftists everywhere else should, too.
December 5 is strike day in France, as trade unions mobilize against Emmanuel Macron’s assault on pensions. But as the gilets jaunes protests have shown, only a movement rallying wider layers of working people will be able to push back Macron’s neoliberal agenda.
With Kamala Harris out of the race and Elizabeth Warren’s numbers dropping, recent weeks haven’t been kind to candidates who have equivocated on Medicare for All. Bernie Sanders is the only candidate whose support for M4A is solid and unchanging — a stance that’s not only morally correct but politically smart.
Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar has been crowned by mainstream pundits as a Highly Electable Candidate. There’s only one problem — people hate her platform and no one wants to vote for her.