We Can’t Settle for Human Rights
The idea of human rights was once intimately tied to egalitarianism and socialist politics. By the 1990s, it was used to justify neoliberalism.
19085 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.
When France’s Railworkers Got Ideas Above Their Station
Railworkers have been decisive in the resistance to Emmanuel Macron’s dismantling of the French welfare state. These workers’ strength owes to their ability to bring traffic to a standstill — but also to a culture of solidarity built across decades of militant workplace activism.
Unions Are Saving Our Lives Every Day
The coronavirus pandemic is a reminder that as long as they’re making profits, capitalists don’t care if we live or die. But unions, at their best, fight for everyone.
Australian Universities Were Sick Before the Pandemic
The COVID-19 crisis has hit Australian universities hard, with a largely casualized workforce already at risk of job losses. As rank-and-file union members prepare to fight back, they’re forced to confront a neoliberal rot that set in decades ago.
We Need Massive Aid to the States — Not a Round of Bankruptcies
Mitch McConnell’s suggestion that states should go bankrupt instead of asking for federal assistance was the bloviating of an austerity-minded reactionary. What we need instead is a universal welfare state that refuses to let workers in any state suffer the vagaries of the market.
The US Political System Is to Blame for This Pandemic
Donald Trump richly deserves to be condemned for his response to COVID-19. But the catastrophic failures of public policy didn’t start with Trump: this bipartisan disaster has been decades in the making.
We Must Offer a Message of Solidarity and Hope
People are losing everything — their jobs, their homes, their health care, their savings. Democratic socialists must articulate the pain and uncertainty ordinary people are experiencing during this crisis or the Right will fill the void.
We’re Still Picking up the Pieces of the Last Crisis
After the bank bailouts in 2008, the next stage in the government’s response was to cut spending on public services and lump even greater responsibilities onto private households. The end result was a huge rise in informal and unpaid labor carried out by women — and faced with the current shutdown, the losers from the last crisis are being punished even further.
To Fight the Pandemic, We Must Challenge the Whole System
The dysfunctions of modern capitalism have left us perilously exposed to a public health catastrophe. We must build on the solidarity engendered by this crisis to fight for a different world.
John Prine’s Human Touch
Legendary singer-songwriter John Prine loved people and hated cruelty. It is a simple but beautiful motivation for music, and the world is poorer for his no longer being in it.
Amazon Workers Desperately Need an Insurgent Union Campaign
Amazon is one of the most important companies in the American and global economies. If enough out-of-work socialists and other fed-up workers got jobs at the company and organized, they could build real working-class power in the 21st century economy.
Capital Swallows Itself
The crisis of capitalism is currently opening wide. But it didn’t come out of nowhere.
Modi’s Government Has Botched Its Response to India’s Pandemic
With its economic resources and geopolitical strength, India should be in a better position to face COVID-19 than most countries in the Global South. But its people are paying the price for incompetent policymaking and years of neglect under Narendra Modi.
David Harvey: We Need a Collective Response to the Collective Dilemma of Coronavirus
The crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity for us to think again about Marx’s idea of human freedom. As David Harvey writes in Jacobin, emergency steps to get through the crisis also show us how we could build a different society that’s not beholden to capital.
Why Jordan Peterson Is Always Wrong
Jordan Peterson is one of the most famous public intellectuals in the world. But his pronouncements in favor of capitalism and hierarchy collapse at the slightest bit of scrutiny.
The Ruling Class Does Not Rule
In a capitalist society, state managers rely on business confidence to generate the economic growth on which they depend, so capitalists don’t have to mobilize politically to block radical reform. It requires exceptional circumstances to loosen these constraints.
The UK’s University Strikes Are in Lockdown
Since last year, the UK has seen sustained and powerful industrial action across its higher-education sector, with the latest strike wave only interrupted by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the crisis sure to be exploited by the Tory government, universities and colleges are more under threat than ever, and union strength has never been more vital.
The Labour Left Didn’t Start With Jeremy Corbyn’s Leadership, And It Won’t End There Either
British socialists may be reeling from December’s election defeat, but the injustices that fueled their movement are still as glaring as ever. Sooner or later, the forces inspired by Jeremy Corbyn will regroup and resume the struggle, under the leadership of a new generation.
Fifty Years Ago This Spring, Millions of Students Struck to End the War in Vietnam
In May 1970, 4 million students went on strike across the country, shutting down classes at hundreds of colleges, universities, and high schools and demanding an end to the Vietnam War. Fifty years later, their rebellion remains an inspiration, as radical student politics is back on the agenda.
The Left Can’t Just Dismiss the Anti-Lockdown Protests
The anti-lockdown protests may currently represent a Trumpian minority — but that could easily change if the choice becomes going hungry or going back to work. We need a real alternative that refuses to accept the false trade-off between economic security and public health.