HBO’s Burning Man Documentary Omits the Festival’s Workers
A new HBO documentary about Burning Man, produced with the explicit approval of the festival’s brass, elides the underpaid, overexploited workers who toil each year to make the party happen.
Blog
Nancy Fraser’s Theory of Capitalism Is Politically Vital
Nancy Fraser has broadened her understanding of how capitalism works and why it relies on multiple forms of domination. Her theory shows us that feminist, environmental, and anti-racist struggles are all necessarily linked to anti-capitalist politics.
The People’s Dolly
Dolly Parton was a poor girl from a Tennessee cabin who never forgot it, never stopped singing about it, and never treated anyone as beneath her.
Israel Has Robbed Gaza’s People of Their Homes
Israel has systematically destroyed 135,000 buildings across the Gaza Strip, an orgy of vandalism that has continued since the declaration of a ceasefire. It is obstructing all efforts at reconstruction with the aim of making life in Gaza impossible.
Indonesia Still Hasn’t Come to Terms With Suharto’s Crimes
A recently unveiled statue in Jakarta is the city’s first public memorial to one of the many crimes of Suharto’s dictatorship. Its rarity exposes the culture of historical amnesia that’s making it easier to roll back democratic rights today.
The American Plutocracy Wants Workers Trapped in Debt
The US government wrote off almost all the money it lent businesses during the pandemic. Now it’s wrecking credit scores and threatening to garnish paychecks to collect student loans. Debt can be forgiven easily enough — just not for the working class.
AI Isn’t Coming for Our Jobs. It’s Coming for Our Wages.
Over the short term, AI may create more jobs than it destroys. But bosses will use it to de-skill work and suppress wages unless workers make it a terrain of class struggle and fight to put it under public control.
The Oil Crisis That Became a Weapon Against Welfare
War, dollar chaos, and soaring oil prices fueled the inflation of the 1970s. Workers and the welfare state took the blame. As war sends oil prices soaring again, that story still limits what we think society can afford.
Starbucks Workers Are Calling for a Nationwide Boycott
Hoping to pressure Starbucks to finally sign a contract with its 12,000 unionized baristas, Starbucks Workers United has called for a boycott of the company. It is asking individuals as well as organizations and unions to stop patronizing the coffee giant.
Tony Is a Terrific Coming-of-Age Story
Matt Johnson’s Tony takes a few pages from Anthony Bourdain’s best-selling memoir and turns them into a warm, character-driven film about a spoiled kid learning how to work. It’s fantastic.
Centrist Dems Are at War With Their Own Voters on Israel
Putting Jared Moskowitz in charge of Middle East policy isn’t just a slap in the face to Democratic voters — it’s an empowerment of a leading Democratic supporter of Trump’s disastrous Iran war and free speech crackdown.
Faced With Record Fires, France Skimps on Fire Crews
This summer, France again saw hellish heat waves and record-high wildfires. But the job of dealing with fires is increasingly pushed onto volunteers, as an austerity government refuses to invest in its professional firefighting force.