Politics Is Not Arithmetic
UBI advocates have a habit of mistaking politics for arithmetic. Proving that a policy is mathematically possible isn’t enough — and it can distract from more compelling left priorities.
19789 Articles by: Ryan Switzer
Ryan Switzer is a PhD candidate in sociology at Stockholm University. He researches right-wing politics in welfare states.
Before Sweden Was Social-Democratic
Swedish social democracy is often thought of as somehow eternal — the fruit of a solidaristic national culture, or even its historic homogeneity. But Sweden used to be just as unequal as other European countries — and making social democracy “normal” took a fight against what was once considered traditional.
Beyond the Waterfront
Few workers hold as much potential power as dockworkers. Studying the history of those workers, both in the San Francisco Bay Area and Durban, South Africa, shows how such workers can continue building that power into the twenty-first century.
Labour’s Inclusive Ownership Funds Will Be Fine
British companies grant shares to their executives all the time. But now that Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour is planning to require them to grant shares to ordinary workers, the Financial Times is warning of disaster.
Why Political Candidates’ Family and Friends Are Fair Game
Class shapes our social world — not just through the economy, but through our personal networks. Whether it’s Kamala Harris’s corporate lawyer husband or Elizabeth Warren’s McKinsey alum daughter, it’s legitimate to ask how a politician’s class connections might influence the decisions they make in office.
When Union Corruption Detracts From a Strike
United Auto Workers members recently voted to strike against the Big Three automakers. But as a rank-and-file General Motors worker explains, the ongoing corruption cases within the union make it hard to prepare to walk off the job.
The Rank-and-File Strategy and the Trade Union Bureaucracy
To understand the rank-and-file strategy for socialists in the labor movement, you have to understand the role and interests of the trade union bureaucracy.
What Bernie Sees in the New Deal
Bernie Sanders’s embrace of the New Deal legacy is an opportunity to dispel some pernicious historical myths about the New Deal’s relationship with socialism and its attitude toward the struggle for racial equality.
Why Is Homelessness Criminalized?
A class-based theory of homelessness helps explain both why anti-homeless laws exist and how homeless people are mistreated by charities and state welfare.
UBI Already Exists, We Just Need to Redistribute It
Capital’s share is more than enough money to finance a universal basic income.
The Lib Dems’ New Friends
Anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, anti-immigrant — the Liberal Democrats’ new recruits are anything but liberal.
Refuse the Boss’s Soft Handshake
Electing progressive leadership is nowhere near enough to transform the labor movement — drifting away from union democracy and militancy is too easy. Good left labor leadership must be rooted in the rank and file.
How Michel Foucault Got Neoliberalism So Wrong
In the emerging neoliberalism of the 1970s, Michel Foucault saw the promise of a new social order, more open to individual autonomy and experimental ways of living. That’s not how things turned out.
Why the Right Hates Voting Rights
Conservatives in the United States know they can’t win on a level playing field — so they’ve started rigging the electoral rules in their favor, democracy be damned.
Joe Lie-den
Joe Biden can’t stop lying. He lies for popularity, he lies to protect billionaires’ profits, and he lies to cover his own misdeeds. If he were to quit lying, Biden would be exposed for who he actually is: a happy stooge of industry trying to squash the rising demand for a better world.
“People Are Homeless Because of the Failure of Our Capitalist Economy”
Dean Preston, a democratic socialist candidate for San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, has spent years fighting landlords and developers as a tenant organizer. Now, he explains in an interview, Preston is taking the fight to the city’s Democratic Party establishment.
Capitalism Set the Fires in the Amazon Rainforest
The deforestation that led to the fires that recently raged across the Amazon is driven by the imperatives of capitalism. To halt the fires, we have to fight those imperatives.
We Heard Three Visions for Saving the Planet Last Night. Only One Will Work.
On CNN’s climate town hall last night, Joe Biden promised a return to the old status quo, Elizabeth Warren promised carrots and sticks, and Bernie Sanders promised to wrest control of the future from corporations. The clock is ticking, and the choice couldn’t be clearer.
What Marx Understood About Slavery
Marx, like generations of socialists, saw the particularly capitalist character of the New World’s slavery — and the inextricable link between the emancipation of the enslaved and the liberation of the entire working class.
Another Season of Horror Kicks Off
The National Football League kicks off yet another season tonight — and with it, another season of severe brain damage for players. To confront the costs of football head on, we need solidarity between players and fans that can put the well-being of athletic workers first.