William G. Martin teaches at SUNY-Binghamton and is co-author of After Prisons? Freedom, Decarceration, and Justice Disinvestment (2016) and a founding member of Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier; he covers local justice matters at www.justtalk.blog
The US government and media instigate international fearmongering and saber-rattling on a regular basis. But the recent Chinese spy balloon incident belongs in the Hall of Fame as one of the most idiotic panics by a jittery, trigger-happy warfare state.
From Brexit to Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s anti-China policies, elites are offering their own challenges to the free-trade consensus — just as they did during the early 20th century’s pushback against “globalism.”
Corporate dentistry is on the rise in Canada, lining investors’ pockets at the expense of patients’ oral health. Dental treatment should be fully incorporated into Canada’s universal health care system to prevent the nightmare of American-style dental care.
Born on this day in 1915, Claudia Jones became a leading figure in the US anti-racist movement who highlighted the oppression faced by black women. The US authorities deported Jones for her communist views in 1955, but they couldn’t snuff out her legacy.
This summer could see 350,000 UPS workers walk off the job, the United States’ largest strike in the 21st century thus far. The Teamsters are getting ready. Here’s a look at how.
Last week the NLRB ruled that workers fired from a Philadelphia Starbucks for unionizing should be reinstated. The decision is part of a series of recent worker victories against a company intent on putting an end to all unionization efforts.
The Austrian economist and philosopher Otto Neurath devised elaborate ideas for a democratically planned economy. They are a monument to the most optimistic strands of the interwar socialist movement.
US labor union density is at historic lows, and multinational corporations seem more powerful than ever. But by organizing to take advantage of strategic vulnerabilities in supply chains, workers can still score major victories.
The new PBS documentary Ruthless: Monopoly’s Secret History tells the story of how a board game intended to warn Americans about inequality ended up teaching them how to be good little capitalists.
Today, on Presidents’ Day, we rightly celebrate Abraham Lincoln for helping end slavery. But we shouldn’t forget the unstoppable force that also brought down the Slave Power: the several million slaves who left the plantation, many of whom joined the Union Army.
From Karl Marx to Eugene Debs to 1930s American Communists, leftists have regarded Lincoln as a prolabor hero who played a crucial role in vanquishing chattel slavery. We should celebrate him today as part of the great radical democratic tradition.
A Queens Starbucks worker was one of many across the country fired in retaliation for union organizing. Thanks to NYC laws that require due process for firing fast-food workers, he was reinstated.
Mexican autoworkers in the city of Emiliano Zapata’s burial just voted to join a new independent union, breaking from the company-friendly unions that dominate the country.
Lamar Johnson’s 1995 murder conviction was overturned on Tuesday — but only after he spent most of his life in jail. The circumstances of his wrongful conviction reflect an American justice system quick to condemn working-class men of color.
Since the late 1970s, strike action and union membership have been declining steadily in most Western democracies. New research finds that one key reason is the working class’s increasing dependence on credit.
The “wage-price spiral” was the distinctively destructive form that inflation took in the 20th century. It’s unlikely to make a comeback anytime soon.
A special EU summit in Brussels last week committed to increasing funds for border surveillance and the deportation of refugees. It’s the latest in Europe’s ongoing project of hardening its borders in flagrant disregard for human life.
Two key questions confront labor: should unions focus on organizing workers with major strategic leverage in the economy? Or should they welcome any workers willing to fight, since that organizing can constitute a major catalyst for other workers?
Sunday’s Cypriot election brought victory for nationalist hardliner Nikos Christodoulides. The Left’s vote held up, but the campaign also showed its weaknesses in combining class politics with answers to the country’s enduring division.
While many radicals of the 1968 generation shifted to the right, French philosopher Alain Badiou maintained fidelity to the revolutionary communist project.