Trump’s Historic Blunder in Iran
Both the White House and Israel wanted swift regime change in Iran. Instead they’ve triggered a spiraling conflict with no plausible endgame.
21008 Article(s) by: Wouter van de Klippe
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.
There Was No “Right Way” to Attack Iran
Some critics of the Trump administration’s Iran war say the problem is how it’s being waged. There was never a correct way to attack Iran, only a deadly disaster in the making.
Sarah Sherman, Our Socialist at SNL
We spoke to Saturday Night Live’s Sarah Sherman about doing body horror at a time of real horrors, the hope at the heart of Zohran Mamdani’s mayoralty, and her emergence as a top local canvasser for Bernie Sanders’s last presidential run.
France’s Communists Hold Back the Far Right, for Now
Blue-collar voters in northern France are often seen as a natural base for Marine Le Pen’s surging far right. Yet while her party has made major inroads in this electorate, local elections saw Communists resist what seemed like inevitable defeat.
Giorgia Meloni Has Finally Suffered a Defeat
Through more than three years in power, Italian premier Giorgia Meloni has often seemed to have an electoral magic touch. Her defeat in a judicial-reform referendum today tells us she still can’t rewrite the country’s constitution at will.
Joe Rogan Hosted Canada’s Free Market Champion
Canadian Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre recently appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience. He offered a blend of anti-government populism and free-market triumphalism in a pitch that was aimed at US capital as much as Canadian voters.
Labor Wins When They Run Union Members for Office
A new report from the Center for Working-Class Politics, Arizona State University’s Center for Work and Democracy, and Jacobin shows how labor can play to its strengths — and win. The secret? Run more union members for office.
Trump’s Latest AI Contract Clause Scraps Crucial Safeguards
A new Trump administration contracting clause would require AI companies like Anthropic to make their technology available to federal agencies “for any lawful government purpose” — even for uses their systems are designed to prevent.
Israel’s Young Settler Vanguard
In the West Bank, at-risk youth are recast as pioneers — funded by Israeli ministries and US tax-deductible charities and deployed to harass, dispossess, and drive Palestinians from their land.
Liverpool’s Municipal Socialists Took the Fight to Thatcher
Liverpool’s left-wing council led one of the most important struggles against Margaret Thatcher’s government during the 1980s. If other Labour-run councils had followed its lead, they could have inflicted a major blow to Thatcher’s agenda.
The CIA Manipulated Americans Into an Anti-Communist Boycott
In 1954, the CIA enlisted a right-wing radio host and a US senator in a plot to spread propaganda convincing Americans to boycott Guatemalan coffee — all to destabilize a democratically elected government the US would soon help overthrow.
Corporate Consolidation Fuels the Decline of Skiing
Most ski resorts operate on vast swaths of land owned by the public. So why has skiing become such a cost-prohibitive pastime for most Americans?
How Global Finance Drove Deindustrialization
Economist Ann Pettifor explains how America’s industrial decline has its roots in the dismantling of the international monetary system established at Bretton Woods and in the rise of a global financial system that prioritizes capital mobility over production.
Thermonuclear Slop and the Return of the Bomb
We are bumbling toward an AI-enabled, nuclear-curious World War III. A new book urges us to get over antiwar protest burnout and cynicism and to rebuild the long-dormant Cold War movement to ban the bomb.
Can We Break Out of Our Hyperpolitical Moment?
In Western democracies today, intense political polarization is the norm, and mass protests are not uncommon. Yet ordinary people remain far from the levers of power.
Give 16-Year-Olds Something to Vote for, Not Just the Vote
Austria’s experience with 16-year-old voters shows that expanding the franchise does little to restore trust when elections amount to a choice between managed decline and the far right.
Namibia’s Workers Spearheaded Its Fight for Independence
After more than a century of German and South African rule, Namibia finally gained its independence on this day in 1990. Working-class struggles and organizations played a vital role in the country’s long march to freedom.
The Inheritors of an Unfinished Revolution
Growing up after the monarchy’s fall, Nepal’s youth are confronting a republic that transformed political institutions while leaving the underlying social order intact.
With Chuck Norris, the Meme Was the Message
Twenty years before Donald Trump was posting AI images of himself as a king, the internet learned how to meme by exaggerating the masculine superiority of Chuck Norris. What began innocently with “Chuck Norris Facts” has evolved into MAGA’s empire of slop.
How Adults Took Over YA
By treating young adult fiction as a laboratory for professional-class moralizing, the publishing industry has effectively abandoned actual teens.