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.
The Taiwan Policy Act has advanced through a Senate committee by a bipartisan vote. It’s the latest instance of the US chipping away at the “One China” policy. The result could be the very war the bill is meant to deter.
Cash bail creates a two-tier justice system where freedom belongs to those who can afford it. For poor people, Illinois’s new bail reform bill is a step toward justice. For melodramatic conservatives drowning in propaganda, it’s right out of a horror film.
The persistent shortage of homes is a key driver of the housing crisis. The solution is social housing, but to halt the churn of displacement in the short term, we simply need to build more homes.
The Inflation Reduction Act has been widely touted as a big step on climate. But to pass it, Democrats struck a deal with Joe Manchin to accelerate oil and gas pipeline construction — and no one is discussing how much it might increase emissions.
It’s good that Donald Trump and his cronies are facing increasing legal pressure. But the threat of Trump’s politics won’t go away until we change the conditions that gave rise to them.
The big winner in last weekend’s Swedish elections was the far-right Sweden Democrats, who came in second place nationally. To stop their advance, the Left needs to rebuild its roots in all sections of the working class.
At the height of his fame, Mark Twain schmoozed with robber barons like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. But he remained sharply critical of the unequal system they presided over.
A rail system shutdown was averted by an eleventh-hour tentative agreement between rail companies and union negotiators. But union members may reject the deal — the details of which are still forthcoming — making future strikes a distinct possibility.
Mainstream Canadian pundits claim the country is in the midst of a “labor crisis” in which workers just don’t want to work. This is absurd: workers need unions and decent wages, and right now many don’t have either.
Director Jean-Luc Godard has died at the age of 91. Many of his films explore the struggles of the post-’68 period — but even his less explicitly political work provides a utopian message of creative freedom.
The poverty line is arbitrary, and many who clear the threshold are still suffering in ways no decent society should allow. The true goal of public policy shouldn’t be nudging people over the poverty line but enabling people to lead good lives.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union address this week marked a small step away from austerity dogmas. But the EU isn’t facing up to the vast fallout of the mounting energy crisis.
New revelations show that the CIA secretly took control of the security company hired by Ecuador’s government to guard Julian Assange during his exile in London. The agency’s spying on Assange and his visitors constitutes a major breach of civil liberties.
Seattle teachers are back in the classroom this week after walking off the job on September 7. The union won some gains — but some members aren’t happy about how the strike ended.
For the first time in living memory, the Supreme Court is facing a crisis of popular legitimacy. Let’s make the most of it.
Stop calling it a “political stunt.” Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s use of vulnerable immigrants as props is disgusting and criminal.
Hundred of thousands of Ukrainian workers have mobilized to defend their country against the Russian invasion. Yet economic elites are using this moment to push through an unpopular liberalization agenda.
Sycophantic journalists and politicians make it seem as if deference to the British monarchy is the natural order of things. But the country over which Charles III now reigns rose up against his 17th-century namesake to challenge hereditary privilege.
Today marks 150 years since the first French edition of Capital. This wasn’t just a translation but a “completely revised” work — showing how Karl Marx’s research continually renewed his critical perspective on capitalist development.
In the contest for leadership of Canada’s Conservative Party, MP Pierre Poilievre has won a resounding victory, sparking fears of a slide into Trumpism. But Poilievre’s leadership represents continuity with the party’s past more than a break with it.