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
As novelists begin to turn their eyes to the pandemic and the destruction it has wrought, Gary Shteyngart’s latest stands out. He depicts a vision of America that is deeply unsettling: a collapse that is merely more of the same.
Every month, it seems a new corruption scandal emerges in Australian politics. These improprieties are not exceptions to the norm, they are the natural outcome of a two-party system that serves the wealthy elite.
Last month the Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided and dismantled a blockade of a pipeline on indigenous land — one of many clashes between federal police and First Nations land defenders and their supporters throughout Canada’s history.
A recent gathering of right-wing politicians and intellectuals underscores conservatism’s increasing illiberalism — and suggests the GOP might move even further toward authoritarianism and phony economic populism.
In the golden age of New Hollywood, creators were given huge sums to take big risks, and it paid off. But movies have come under the control of hedge funds that specialize in risk management. The result: boring, predictable cinema.
Amazon’s HR department is a hellscape where automated systems arbitrarily cut off benefits and fire workers, leaving an alarming number penniless and literally suicidal. And the company simply doesn’t seem to care.
Britain’s Tory government is passing legislation allowing it to deprive people of their citizenship at will. The law is a particular threat to those with immigrant backgrounds — and sends the message that they’ll never be considered truly British.
Some have responded to Omicron with despair at the possibility of ever exiting the pandemic. Others have dismissed the new variant, given preliminary data suggesting milder disease. How should the Left navigate the evolution of the virus amid such uncertainty?
Thanks to her investing prowess, the Speaker of the House’s wealth grew by an estimated $16.7 million in 2020, just as millions of Americans fell into poverty and struggled to make ends meet during the COVID-19 pandemic. Long live the Queen of Stonks!
Insurance companies not only offer coverage to fossil fuel projects, but also use millions of people’s premiums to invest in the fossil fuel industry’s expansion. We can’t stop climate change without reeling the insurers in.
It’s hard to think of anything more symbolic of America’s gilded and decadent ruling class than elected officials owning pieces of the very economy they’re officially charged with managing.
Animation writers — responsible for some of the world’s most recognizable cartoons at studios like Nickelodeon — are subject to staggering disparities between themselves and live-action writers.
Joe Biden’s obsession with bipartisanship for its own sake made him a risky bet as leader. Now, with the prospects of the Build Back Better bill seemingly waning, it may have unraveled his presidency.
Canceling student debt is both the right thing to do and what’s politically smart. By restarting student loan payments and refusing to cancel student debt, Joe Biden and the Democratic Party have shown they’re uninterested in either.
As the 1 percent internalized the sense that they alone were responsible for their success, so too was everyone else made to feel like the cause of their own failure. This formula was baked into the neoliberal philosophy from the beginning.
The Australian High Court has just ruled that, if an employment contract says you are a casual worker, then you must be a casual worker — even if you work regular, ongoing hours. The decision is a massive blow to workers’ rights.
After decades of flagrant profiteering and attacking workers’ rights, Tim Hortons is now struggling to find people willing to work for them.
Rooted in Cold War anti-communism, the military alliance between the US and Canada is responsible for bloody conflicts around the globe. An antiwar movement in Canada would challenge the strategic pact between the two nations.
The American health care industry revolves around a very lucrative scam: drugmakers, hospitals, and health insurance companies are constantly passing responsibility for denials of care to one another, in order to maximally gouge the public.
The Right has always used a mix of legislation, violence, and the courts to keep the wrong people from voting. Now it seems prepared to go a step further: legislating and organizing on the assumption that elections the GOP loses are inherently illegitimate.