Martial Arts in the Age of Trump
From the UFC to Hollywood, MMA and other ultra-brutal martial arts have gone mainstream — hand in hand with the rise of the far right.
19622 Articles by: Zola Carr
Zola Carr is a doctoral candidate at Columbia University, working on a dissertation on the development of experimental brain implants for psychiatric disorder.
How the QAnon Cult Stormed the Capitol
Perhaps the strangest thing about the media coverage of the Capitol Hill rally was how little of it focused on the visible presence of QAnon. What’s behind the Q cult, and how can we confront it?
Coronavirus Is an Occupational Disease That Spreads at Work
For both Democratic and Republican politicians, blaming social gatherings for coronavirus’s spread is convenient. But they’ve ignored or denied the central role workplace transmission plays in driving up infections. We need to treat coronavirus as the occupational disease it is — and that means restricting the power of business owners.
When Joe Biden Takes the White House, What’s Next for the Left?
The American left has been transformed over the past four years under President Donald Trump. But the Left will have to organize and fight just as hard under President Joe Biden.
Gandhi Led a Mass Movement for India’s Freedom — But He Also Constricted It
The movement led by Gandhi is a touchstone for advocates of non-violent resistance today. But the conventional view overlooks the limitations of Gandhi’s political philosophy, and the importance of insurrectionary struggles that he opposed in the fight for Indian independence.
When Germany’s Social Democrats Made a Revolution by Half
The November Revolution of 1918 replaced Germany’s monarchist regime with a parliamentary system. But its Social Democratic leaders made a pact with the old ruling class to repress the left-wing radicals who wanted to go further, crippling the new Weimar Republic from the start.
Germany’s Christian Democrats Are Turning Toward Coalition with the Greens
This weekend’s Christian-Democrat conference elected Armin Laschet as new party leader, narrowly defeating his Trump-like rival. With Chancellor Angela Merkel set to step down this fall, the party is seeking a new centrist bloc with the Greens — but still faces a hard-right upsurge within its own ranks.
Why the Dutch Socialist Party Is in Crisis
In the late 2000s the Dutch Socialist Party was a success story, having risen from a small Maoist group into a 50,000-member party. But a split with its youth wing and talk of a coalition with right-wingers have demoralized activists — and shown the dangers of a parliamentary party becoming unmoored from labor and social movements.
The Mexican Right Has United to Defeat AMLO
In Mexico, the midterm election campaign has just kicked off and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s right-wing opponents have formed a coalition against his ruling party, MORENA. Their aim is to seize a majority in the lower house and stop AMLO’s progressive agenda in its tracks.
After Prop 22, Expect Uber to Escalate Its War on Workers’ Rights
Companies like Uber had a massive victory in November, when their $200 million propaganda blitz convinced voters in California to pass Proposition 22, excluding platform workers from labor protections. Their plan to entrench contractor status for workers nationwide is clear, but stopping them is still an option — and a necessity.
Jeremy Corbyn: “The Rule of the Few Over the Many Rests on Shaky Ground”
Today, Jeremy Corbyn addressed the launch conference of his new Peace and Justice Project. Describing how the post-crash period has exposed the bankruptcy of unaccountable elites, he argued that movements from below have the power to transform the political agenda.
Clinic Workers Should Be Central to the Fight for Abortion Rights
If there are any gains to be made for reproductive rights in the coming years, they will begin with the workers in clinics all across the United States — not with the politicians on Capitol Hill.
Far-Right Intellectuals Are Offering Workers a Rotten Deal
Far-right intellectuals like Steve Bannon claim to speak for a working class put upon by out-of-touch liberal elites. But their anti-modernist, hierarchical vision of the world doesn’t offer workers what they really need: more money in their pockets, and more power at the workplace.
Michael Apted’s Up, a Decades-Long Film on Britain’s Class System
The 1964 film Seven Up! asked 14 British seven-year-olds about their hopes of being the “shop steward and the executive of the year 2000.” Revisiting them every seven years for more than half a century, director Michael Apted made his interviewees into familiar faces — and shone a light on changing notions of class in Britain.
Musicians Need to Organize Collectively, as Workers
Like every other industry under capitalism, the music industry is currently organized to make a small handful of people very rich while the vast majority of working musicians benefit little from their recordings and performances. The only way to change that is through collective action.
Corporate Democrats Want Tax Breaks for the Rich — Not $2,000 Survival Checks
Corporate Democrats are backing off a chance to push for a new round of $2,000 survival checks. And some of them are even floating tax breaks for the wealthy instead. We should rally against this backsliding.
Israel Is Refusing to Give Palestinians COVID Vaccines
Israel has been praised for launching an aggressive coronavirus vaccination drive. There’s just one problem: they’re excluding Palestinians in occupied territories.
Workers Are Standing Up to Far-Right Violence
In industries across the economy — from airlines to tech — the past two weeks have seen workers and their unions take the lead in combating Donald Trump’s far-right base.
Belle and Sebastian Makes Us Feel Exactly as We Are, Together
Go ahead, put on some of Belle and Sebastian’s “sad-bastard” music. It won’t cure all that ails you, but you might feel a little less alone — and a little more solidarity with everyone out there who’s suffering alongside you.
Here Are 4 Better Responses to the Capitol Riot Than Expanding “Domestic Terror” Crackdowns
A massive law enforcement failure led to last week’s disastrous Capitol riot. Now, many, including liberals, are pushing to give those agencies even more power as part of a “domestic terrorism” crackdown. This is the wrong way to combat the threat of far-right violence — we should start instead with an investigation of white supremacist infiltration of local police forces.