Wouter van de Klippe is a freelance journalist and writer based in Europe. He is particularly interested in organized labor, social and environmental justice, and social welfare states.
This year was a depressing one for politics, but it produced books that were ambitious and serious attempts to understand the present. From novels about millennial ennui to sweeping histories of the West, 2025 had a lot to offer to readers.
An essential part of ringing in the New Year will be preparing for the major political struggles of 2026. Here’s a month-by-month roundup of the key union fights, elections, and other events of note for the Left.
Construction unions are making clear that offshore wind is a win for workers and the environment. Donald Trump’s repeated attempts to block it are just another front in his war on workers.
Worries about an exodus of millionaires from New York City are not supported by economics.
France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy has called on his allies to stop demonizing Marine Le Pen. It’s part of a broader shift in establishment conservatism toward open collaboration with her far-right party.
A new study shows that socialist plans to take over the privately owned power utility in New York’s Hudson Valley would lower rates for users and improve its long-term health. Public ownership of power companies is better for everyone but the rich.
Health care spending now represents about 18% of the US economy, meaning that roughly one out of every five dollars spent goes toward health care costs — more than what Americans spend on groceries or housing. The spending is driving massive medical debt.
Mitt Romney recently published a New York Times op-ed arguing for higher taxes on the rich. When he was in a position to actually sculpt the GOP platform and the tax policy of the US, Romney was an ardent supporter of cutting taxes for the wealthy.
Donald Trump’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration wants to exclude “inherently risky professions,” including those in sports and entertainment, from basic workplace safety protections. The rollback could affect hundreds of thousands of workers.
Critics of the American sewer socialists often point to racist statements made by their leading light, Wisconsin’s Victor Berger. A close examination of his writings shows that those views changed dramatically over time.
With nothing but a new cut of Kill Bill to offer, Quentin Tarantino has gone into semiretirement right as American cinema is fighting for its very life. And to make matters worse, he won’t stop talking smack.
Good books offer new arguments, while excellent books pose new questions. Alyssa Battistoni’s Free Gifts, on the unfinished commodification of nature and care, is an excellent book.
Why was the revolutionary road out of capitalism abandoned for an evolutionary one? Vivek Chibber explores how socialist parties moved from revolution to reform, but why real progress will always mean a conflict with capital.
The challenges Chicago’s progressive mayor, Brandon Johnson, has faced demonstrate that Mayor Zohran Mamdani in New York will have to out-organize what’s soon to be a mighty opposition to his every move from finance, insurance, and real estate interests.
As Donald Trump’s GOP grows more and more fanatically xenophobic and rabidly anti-socialist, it’s worth examining how the American right has long fused its hatred of both immigrants and radicals to carry out a larger reactionary program.
Italy’s Francesco Rosi produced an unforgettable series of political movies. They feature mob bosses and oil tycoons, corrupt politicians and conspiring spooks, showing how Italian elites used every dirty trick available to exclude the Left from power.
Recent survey data show that Americans have lost their faith in the future. Socialism can restore it.
Fifty years ago, Sweden attempted the most ambitious democratic transition to socialism ever. Its architect, a Jewish economist who witnessed the rise of Nazi Germany firsthand, was motivated by the imperative to never repeat the horrors of fascism.
A new history traces how elite-driven development made New York richer on paper and poorer in practice.
Ken Livingstone’s legacy in London reminds us just how much democratic socialist leadership can do for a single city.