In Colorado, Democrats Are Listening to Health Industry Lobbyists and Killing the Public Option
Colorado Democrats said they were going to pass a public option this year. And then they gave into health care industry propaganda and lobbying.
19354 Articles by: Yi San
Yi San is a freelance writer based in New York.
America’s Federalist Dysfunction Isn’t Going Away
Instead of prompting the coordinated, national response that’s needed, this pandemic is exacerbating one of the most destructive and enduring themes of US political life: the sectional conflict between states, and between town and country. Progress in battling coronavirus will continue to be hamstrung by our dysfunctional federalist system.
Delivering Food in a Pandemic
On Monday, Italy began to ease COVID-19 restrictions, with more than 4 million returning to work. But some, like delivery workers, never stopped working — nor organizing for labor rights in an industry deemed “essential” and putting workers at serious health risk.
Conditions in US Meatpacking Plants Today Aren’t Much Better Than They Were in The Jungle
Decades after Upton Sinclair exposed the horrors of meatpacking, radical labor organizing transformed the industry into a bastion of worker power. Now, a century later, after decades of union-busting and the coronavirus decimating workers throughout the industry, the meatpacking industry is back to The Jungle.
No, Immigration Is Not Driving Down Wages in Australia
The Australian Labor Party’s Kristina Keneally is using the lockdown to call for a reduction in immigration once borders reopen, citing the nativist trope that migrant workers are driving down wages. But it’s not immigrants that have driven down Australian workers’ wages — it’s the Labor Party’s own history of neoliberal policies.
When the ACLU Betrayed Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and the Left
Eighty years ago today, the leadership of the ACLU voted to expel labor radical and founding member Elizabeth Gurley Flynn for her Communist Party membership. It was a stunning capitulation to red-baiting — and a reminder that liberal-radical alliances are often a tenuous thing.
On VE Day, French Colonists Launched a Massacre in Algeria
May 8, 1945 brought the end of World War II in Europe and the final liberation of German-occupied territories. But the creed of restored national independence wasn’t extended to Africa — and that same day, French colonial forces launched a wave of repression in Algeria that killed thousands.
“Patriotism” Is a Dead End for the Left
Labour’s new leader, Keir Starmer, wants the Left to embrace patriotism. But rather than bowing to the totems of faith and flag, Labour should be drawing on the best of its own traditions — those of dissent, mutual aid, and a radical solidarity that refuses to be content with inequality or injustice.
Meet the Coronavirus Profiteers
Companies like Shake Shack, Ruth’s Hospitality Group, the Los Angeles Lakers, and J. Alexander’s Holdings drew from the Paycheck Protection Program established to aid small businesses in paying their employees. While average workers have suffered under the pandemic, these huge corporations have helped themselves to enormous amounts of cash.
Elon Musk’s New Baby’s Name Is Actually Less Absurd Than His Anti-Democratic, Quasi-Eugenicist Views
Elon Musk drew attention recently for announcing the name of his and Grimes’s new baby, X Æ A-12. But what’s more disturbing about Musk is the anti-democratic, quasi-eugenicist views that he and other tech elites espouse.
Why We Need Cooperatives for the Digital Economy
Platforms like Airbnb claim to be building online “communities” — even as their business undermines the real communities in cities. But the history of cooperatives shows that it really is possible to democratize the services we use — so long as it’s connected to a wider redistribution of power in society.
The Oil Crash Should Be Our Chance to Transform Energy Production
The oil industry, long characterized by boom and bust cycles, has crashed, with prices hitting below zero. The White House will reach for a corporate bailout, but now’s the opportunity to move away from oil extraction and build a rational system of clean energy.
David Sirota: A Bipartisan Effort to Prevent Accountability for the Coronavirus Response Is Underway
A chorus from politicians and mainstream media is rising to demand we “look forward, not backward” on the criminally negligent US response to coronavirus. The aim of these arguments is simple: to block efforts to hold Donald Trump and his cronies accountable for their incompetence and malice.
Anti-Colonialists Wanted the World
The anti-colonial struggle of the twentieth century wasn’t just about winning political independence — it was about shattering the global hierarchies that subjugated the Global South and winning an egalitarian world for all.
The Pandemic Response Shows How Workers Defend the Interests of All Humanity
Across France, workers are insisting that they be allowed to make masks and ventilators rather than continue with business as usual. Their initiatives show that when workers, not stock prices, decide what’s being made, production can serve the needs of society as a whole.
How Sally Rooney Gave Normal People Radical Politics
It’s not easy to imagine a Marxist love story. But in Normal People, Sally Rooney shows how our personal relationships — and the troubles we encounter — are inextricably bound to the society around us.
The Federal Reserve Can Help Workers in a Time of Crisis
The Federal Reserve has stepped in to deal with the coronavirus pandemic — unsurprisingly, as is so often true of the Fed’s intervention, on the side of the wealthy. We have to demand that the Central Bank act to aid the working class instead.
We Don’t Have to Live in a Society of Massive Inequality and Unnecessary Death
The extraordinary generosity of ordinary people and the immense courage of essential workers have been on full display throughout the pandemic. We need to build an economy that harnesses this basic goodness in humanity — and guarantees every worker the dignity, safety, and material well-being they deserve.
Our Revolution Is Already the “Post-Bernie” Organization We Need
Jacobin wrote last week that “Our Revolution failed to live up to its potential.” But the Our Revolution that I know is already a mass organization of working people fighting for real change.
How the Chairman of Spain’s Real Madrid Football Club Presided Over a Coronavirus Catastrophe in Nursing Homes
For decades, oligarchs like Real Madrid chairman Florentino Pérez have made Spain’s old-age care sector a favored cash cow. Today, the coronavirus deaths caused by their penny-pinching are a grim monument to the failures of privatization.