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.
In Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador faces an uphill battle in getting his energy reforms through Congress. American interests, vehemently opposed to the idea of a public energy sector in Mexico, stand in the way.
At home, French politicians mainstream far-right conspiracies about the replacement of whites by African immigrants. Abroad, they continue to intervene militarily and economically in the continent. Both are signs of a nation unwilling to accept its decline.
With polls showing Marine Le Pen closer than ever to winning the French presidency, anti-fascists should use all possible means to stop her. Voting for Jean-Luc Mélenchon can block her path — and stop France’s decades-long slide toward far-right dominance.
The new documentary series Jeen-yuhs keeps Kanye’s recent tabloid absurdities out of the picture. But such turbulent antics and generalized disorder are an essential piece of the remarkable — and remarkably chaotic — career he has built.
Hungary’s election was always going to be an uphill battle in the face of incumbent Viktor Orbán’s overweening power. But the opposition’s lack of a clear alternative meant it ran simply as an anti-Orbán front — and it failed to mobilize voters.
France’s election campaign has seen growing calls for greater ecological planning. But if the green transition is not to impose austerity by other means, it has to be planned by working people themselves.
Nayib Bukele has overseen multiple violent crackdowns on basic civil liberties across El Salvador during his time as president. With his recent declaration of martial law against gangs, it’s only getting worse.
Automation didn’t start in the age of robots and microchips. In the late 19th century, employers used machinery to break the power of skilled glass workers, and helped launch firms like Coca-Cola on a path to global domination.
Joe Biden pledged to support workers’ unionization efforts at Amazon on Wednesday, saying, “Amazon, here we come.” But his failure so far to implement any of the recommendations of his task force on worker organization seems to speak louder than his words.
White House claims that Putin was considering using chemical weapons in Ukraine were based on weak evidence, US officials have disclosed. The revelation should remind us all about the dangers of uncritically reporting government statements.
For years, Marine Le Pen has sought to break out of the far-right ghetto by pursuing a “populist popular front” beyond Left and Right. Today, her chosen reactionary themes have become mainstream — and she stands closer than ever to winning the presidency.
The avant-garde pop star Grimes has made a heel turn away from left-wing politics toward the Silicon Valley libertarianism of her ex Elon Musk. She calls herself “a bit of a socialist, but not economically.” Let’s just call her a manic pixie dream capitalist.
Faced with Russia’s invasion, more than 200,000 non-Ukrainians have fled the country. They haven’t received a warm welcome in other EU states — and many face being sent back to the homelands they escaped to begin with.
New drugs are developed with vast amounts of taxpayer money. But instead of universal access to these publicly funded scientific achievements, we get prohibitively expensive medicine and sky-high profits for pharmaceutical companies.
The same Western media that once documented and decried Ukraine’s far right is now playing it down and even rehabilitating its leaders — including actual Nazis. Such apologetics aren’t doing any favors for Ukrainians or their fight against Russia’s aggression.
Judd Apatow’s latest film, The Bubble, is a toothless satire of Hollywood insanity and the experience of living and working in a “bubble” mandated by COVID lockdown. It’s a pointless, dated movie that no one needs in 2022.
Emmanuel Macron famously spoke of “people who are nothing” — the working-class France who didn’t fit his neoliberal fantasy of a “start-up nation.” But social struggles throughout his term showed that the people he derided weren’t prepared to be ignored.
Billionaire Howard Schultz returned as CEO of Starbucks to stop worker organizing in his company. But baristas at the New York City Reserve Roastery aren’t budging.
Western Sahara is Africa’s last colony, and its citizens live under a brutal, US-backed occupation. If we support self-determination for Ukrainians, we should also support it for the people of Western Sahara.
For decades, public workers’ pensions have been moved into private equity, hedge funds, and real estate investments, enriching finance industry moguls — and shortchanging retired public employees and teachers.