Why Rent Control Works
Neoliberals are wrong: rent control protects tenants, is good for the housing market, promotes lively cities, and reduces one of the biggest sources of rising inequality today. We need to expand it dramatically.
20406 Article(s) 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
What the Chicago Teachers Union Achieved
The Chicago Teachers Union approved the contract that they went on strike for last month. While it’s far from perfect, the contract includes huge victories on multiple fronts. Teachers around the country should study what the CTU achieved — and how they organized within the union itself to achieve it.
Democratic Party Elites Are Conspiring to Destroy Fusion Voting — and the Working Families Party Along With It
A New York State commission moved yesterday to make changes to ballot access laws, and through those changes to destroy the Working Families Party. Make no mistake, this is about protecting the rich from even modest challenges to wealth and privilege.
Northern Ireland’s Nurses Are Striking for Their Patients, Too
The UK’s Royal College of Nursing hasn’t organized a single strike in its 103-year history. Now that’s changing as nurses across Northern Ireland take industrial action in response to years of neglect of the National Health Service.
Yes, We Need to Strike For Each Other
In 1980s Britain, miners went on strike in support of nurses’ pay claims, throwing their industrial muscle behind under-pressure hospital staff. After decades of harsh anti-union laws, Labour’s manifesto promises a way to rebuild this culture of solidarity.
Adam McKay Is Mad as Hell
From Will Ferrell comedies to The Big Short, Vice, and Succession, Hollywood’s greatest populist is taking aim at oligarchy — from the hard left.
Organizing Australia’s Food Supply Chain
The farming industry has long been one of the most exploitative and abusive sectors in Australia. Our organizing drive in the sector could change that.
Kshama Sawant Passes the Amazon Stress Test in Seattle
Seattle socialist city council member Kshama Sawant prevailed over Amazon in her recent reelection. Sawant won by using the same strategies that make for successful workplace organizing — strategies that socialists around the country could take up against the corporate behemoths that want them to lose.
In Sri Lanka’s Ethnocracy, Tamils Will Always Lose
Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the architect of Sri Lanka’s genocide against Tamils in 2009. He was also just elected president of the country. It’s the culmination of a decade of impunity following the end of the Sri Lankan civil war that has enabled genocidaires to be feted as “war heroes.”
“Scorsese Versus Superheroes” Misses the Point
Martin Scorsese’s recent comments bashing superhero movies provoked a torrent of outrage. But the real issue isn’t Marvel movies — it’s a funding model that prioritizes easy blockbusters over riskier, daring films.
The WeWork Con
The $47 billion WeWork implosion is proof that the rich are the biggest suckers of all.
The Tories Are the Proud Party of Racism
In Britain, the choice is clear: the Tories are led by people who have done grave material harm to ethnic minorities. Labour is led by people with a record of determined opposition to racism.
Is Bernie “Trumpian”?
Only to frightened elites.
The Little Man on the Big Screen
Everyone knows Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, but it was director Preston Sturges who captured the volatile reality of success, failure, and the American dream.
Into the Void
Over the past 40 years, working-class parties have slid rightward toward neoliberalism and workers have increasingly dropped out of the political process.
White-Collar Populism
On the politics of professional-class anxiety.
Winning the Battle, Not the War
Pink Tide populism was built in the context of two decades of deindustrialization and industrial fragmentation. But we need a socialist left that can reverse those very trends.
Halfway Between Jefferson and Marx
A close look at the 1892Omaha Platform, the program of the Populist Party.
The Right-Populist Advance
Throughout Europe, right-wing populists captured voters from the collapsing center-left, winning legislative seats at home and in the European Parliament.
A Forgotten Country
Country music doesn’t deserve its right-wing reputation — its roots lie with the hopes and travails of working people.