Boris Johnson’s Luck Is About to Run Out
Boris Johnson’s career has been one long romp of consequence-free irresponsibility. Now, as he faces an impossible Brexit and unprecedented public scrutiny, his lucky streak is about to end.
19143 Articles by: Yi San
Yi San is a freelance writer based in New York.
Jo Swinson Is Not Your Friend
Brexit is giving the Lib Dems the opportunity to rebrand as a reforming, progressive party. But they’re still a force for privilege and austerity. New leader Jo Swinson will only make matters worse.
Man and Stuberman
Kumail Nanjiani’s new Uber-based buddy flick, Stuber, says a lot about woke masculinity, economic precarity, and the death of the old-school “taxi movie.” It’s also not very good.
Why Does the UAW Keep Losing?
For forty years, the UAW has sought to act as management’s “partner” in running the auto industry. The results have been a disaster.
We Can End Racial Segregation in America
For decades, government policy helped make segregation worse. But we can use the power of the government to reverse it in the twenty-first century.
Freedom of Speech for Palestine Solidarity Activists
Defenders of Israel’s human rights abuses frequently attack critics for supposedly suppressing freedom of speech. But as the recent controversy at Williams College shows, it’s Palestine solidarity activists who face the highest risks when they speak out.
Bernie Is the Best Chance We Have on Climate
Electing Bernie Sanders president wouldn’t be enough to fight climate change. But his class-struggle politics give us the best chance we have to take on the fossil fuel companies.
How Finance Exploits Us
The new era of financial capitalism, with its explosion of household debt and its dependence on complex derivatives, has caused fundamental changes in the way capital exploits labor.
Even Nice, “Generous” Rich People Are Not Your Friends
Rich people love to give away money for charitable causes to convince you that they’re not so bad after all. Don’t be fooled: we need to dispossess the benevolent rich of their ill-gotten gains, too.
A Clash of Loyalties in the Parisian Suburbs
Beyond clichés about a “clash of civilizations,” a new book by French sociologist Fabien Truong illuminates the role of Islam in the lives of France’s poor and marginalized.
Which Way to Socialism?
Is there a democratic road to socialism? And if so, what does it mean for socialists today?
The Welfare State They Were In
Belle and Sebastian’s If You’re Feeling Sinister seems like a soundtrack of breezy lives of personal heartbreak and occasional triumph unencumbered by the larger troubles of the world. But the album is a direct product of Scotland’s welfare state.
Finding God in Solidarity
An interview with Rabbi Brant Rosen, founder of the United States’s first openly non-Zionist temple.
Space Exploration Isn’t Just for Capitalists
Socialists aren’t usually mentioned in the history of US space travel. They should be: the history of radicals who believed space exploration and science in general should be in the service of the people is one the Left should reclaim.
We Don’t Need Space Colonies, and We Definitely Don’t Need Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos says his space colonies will produce “a thousand Mozarts and a thousand Einsteins.” But we already have millions of talented people here on Earth — the problem is, they’re toiling in obscurity for people like Bezos.
Emmanuel Macron Wants to Set Space on Fire
The 1960s space race prompted international treaties insisting that space travel should only be used for peaceful purposes. Today, Emmanuel Macron’s plans to put military hardware in space point to a dangerous new arms race.
The Wrong Way to End Austerity in Alaska
The recent round of austerity measures in Alaska have been devastating. The cuts make clear that Alaskans need a new way of funding spending that impacts the wealthiest in the state, not than the poorest.
“We Work, We Sweat, Put $15 on Our Check!”
After years of Democratic prevaricating, the House has passed a $15 minimum wage bill. It’s almost certain to die in the Senate — but it shows how far the Fight for $15 movement has come.
A Musician for the Class Struggle
Italian composer Luigi Nono’s career told the story of European communism writ large: brash and revolutionary at the height of the 1960s and ‘70s, reflective and uncertain as the Italian Communist Party collapsed and the possibility of radical change receded. His life is a reminder that no artist is free from the politics of our time.
Please Don’t Embarrass Our Apartheid State
When Netanyahu’s education minister defended “gay conversion therapy” and called for the entire West Bank’s annexation, critics condemned only the homophobia. Apartheid’s defenders don’t give a damn about the oppressed — they’re just embarrassed when the far right undermines their pinkwashing of a brutal, illegal occupation.