Abolish Qualified Immunity
Qualified immunity is the legal doctrine with deep roots in white supremacy and the Jim Crow era that allows police to get away with wanton brutality over and over again. It’s time to abolish qualified immunity.
19640 Articles by: William G. Martin
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 1 Percent Are Cheating Us Out of a Quarter-Trillion Dollars in Taxes Every Year
As the social safety net is shredded, new data show that billionaires and corporations are refusing to pay hundreds of billions of dollars of owed taxes every single year. It really puts all the hand-wringing about “looting” into perspective.
Canada’s 1% Is Incredibly Rich. Their Wealth Needs to Be Taxed.
American leftists look to Canada’s more robust social-welfare state with envy. But all is not well north of the border: Canada’s richest families own 120 times more wealth than the rest of the country combined. There’s never been a better time to introduce a wealth tax.
Solidarity Should Be the Basis of White Anti-Racism, Not “Allyship”
The great black freedom struggles of the past have been joined by many white people — not just out of a sense of moral obligation or sympathy for the oppressed, but out of a sense of shared interest and a desire for collective liberation. That spirit of solidarity should be central to anti-racist struggle today.
Trump’s Labor Secretary Is Reaching Cartoonish Levels of Supervillainry
Donald Trump’s labor secretary Eugene Scalia has been busy lately: 1. helping money managers shift workers’ retirement savings into high-risk private equity schemes to enrich Wall Street, 2. relaxing rules dictating that money managers work in clients’ best interests, and 3. stopping the moving of workers’ savings into low-risk, environmentally sustainable investments.
How Black Lives Matter Inspired West Papua’s Freedom Struggle
The people of West Papua have suffered decades of oppression and discrimination at the hands of the Indonesian state. Now they’ve drawn inspiration from the Black Lives Matter protests to mount popular resistance to yet another authoritarian clampdown.
Jonathan Sackler Spent His Life Spreading Opioid Addiction Throughout the United States
Disgraced opioid tycoon Jonathan Sackler died last week, two decades into a nationwide addiction epidemic that he helped create — and from which he pocketed billions. His life of spreading addiction was a monument to the brutal pathologies of capitalism.
Eric Hobsbawm’s Century
As the world’s premier Marxist historian, Eric Hobsbawm’s intellectual range was unrivaled. Never one to pander to conventional politics, he was often a brave voice of dissent. Today more than ever, Hobsbawm’s work deserves serious examination.
How Counterinsurgency Tactics in the Middle East Found Their Way to American Cities
Many of the repressive police tactics and technologies used in the US have been developed in the Middle East to suppress dissent. Ending police violence at home must involve ending America’s wars abroad.
Unions Are Essential for Eliminating Racism
A new study finds that unions don’t just increase wages and benefits for workers on the job — union membership is also linked to diminished racist attitudes among white workers. If we want to defeat racism, building strong, democratic unions is essential.
In Melbourne’s “Hard Lockdown,” Public Housing Residents Get the Harshest Measures
Nine public housing towers in Melbourne have been put under a police-enforced “hard lockdown” without warning, with isolation effectively policed at gunpoint. It’s a measure reserved for inner-city public housing residents, despite the rising wave of infections throughout the city.
Mike Davis Tried to Warn Us About a Virus-Induced Apocalypse
Historian Mike Davis wrote a book fifteen years ago warning of the coming global pandemic. The “monster at our door” has finally stepped through that door in COVID-19, and unfortunately, Davis was proven correct.
James Averhart Oversaw Chelsea Manning’s Brutal Imprisonment. Now He’s Running for Congress as a Democrat.
James Averhart led a push to track down and punish soldiers who deserted the Vietnam War in an attempt to stop similar desertions in Iraq and oversaw Chelsea Manning’s brutal imprisonment at a Quantico jail. He’s now vying for an Alabama House of Representatives seat — as a Democrat.
When Black Sharecroppers in the South Rose Up
In the Jim Crow South, the planter class’s greatest fear was that black sharecroppers and white tenant farmers would rise up against their oppressors. In the 1930s, Socialist and Communist organizers tried to make that a reality.
“California Is Ripe for a Revolution”
Jackie Fielder, a Democratic Socialists of America–backed candidate for California’s State Senate, is refusing to take money from police unions, real-estate interests, and the fossil fuel industry. For her, the connection between capital and police violence is clear: “Our communities face intense repression from the state because it is profitable.”
Rest in Power, Harry Britt
Harry Britt succeeded Harvey Milk on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and fought to build a queer politics that stood doggedly for workers’ and tenants’ rights. When he died last month, we lost a gay socialist icon.
The Corporate Media Convinced Millions That Bernie Was “Unelectable”
There is overwhelming evidence a surge of mostly older, Trump-fearing voters decided the Democratic primary — and that Bernie Sanders failed to counter an establishment messaging campaign that Trump would beat him in a general election.
In These Stunning Images, Ordinary Yugoslav Partisans Captured Their Revolution on Camera
Most of the fighters who joined the partisan struggle in World War II Yugoslavia had never even held a camera, let alone considered themselves photographers. Yet organized efforts to create a “partisan photography” helped carry the image of their struggle to the masses — and showed that artistic production wasn’t just for professionals.
The Labour Party Can’t Retreat From Its Vision of Change
Labour must outline its democratic-socialist vision of an economy that works for people and planet — before the Tories monopolize the narrative.
Jon Stewart’s Post-Partisan Critique of American Politics Is Stuck in 2004
Jon Stewart’s new political comedy Irresistible wants to be a scathing critique of the media, big money, and Beltway corruption. But as satire, it’s weighed down by the comic’s let’s-all-just-get-along politics.