Class Struggle Built the Welfare State
The welfare state wasn’t created by enlightened dialogue or “sensible” moderate politics. It was a concession won by workers against bosses through decades of struggle.
Search Result(s) for: “working class”
Rossana Rossanda (1924–2020)
Rossana Rossanda, who died on Sunday at age 96, was an anti-fascist partisan and cofounder of Italy’s il manifesto newspaper. A communist till the last, she insisted that the Left must defend its own identity — and unflinchingly take sides with the exploited and oppressed.
Washington Is Using the Ukraine War to Rebuild Its Global Power
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has produced a moment of unity in the West — and helped Washington reassert its leadership in NATO. With no peace in sight, the war has provided the opportunity to rebuild America’s tattered “informal empire.”
The Meaning of Theresa May
Theresa May as prime minister, like Thatcher before her, represents a woman given equal opportunity to oppress other women.
The Long History of Workplace Sexual Harassment
Sexual coercion in the workplace has long been a primary driver of gender inequities.
Allende in Chile Today
Nearly five decades after the coup that overthrew leftist president Salvador Allende, the Chilean left is starting to rebuild power. But it still wrestles with the legacy of the bloody defeat of Allende’s democratic revolution.
Keir Starmer’s Anti-Politics Is Taking the Labour Party Further From Workers
This year’s Labour conference will be a jamboree for corporate lobbyists, hungry to influence a future Keir Starmer government. Labour poses as a competent B-team for capital — while telling working people that their needs are simply too pricey to fulfill.
Hillbilly Elitism
The American hillbilly isn’t suffering from a deficient culture. He’s just poor.
Thank You, Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders took socialism out of the margins and into the American mainstream for the first time in generations. His contributions to the struggle for a better world cannot be overstated.
The Work of Nicos Poulantzas Is Vital for Understanding the Authoritarian Right
Nicos Poulantzas developed a highly original interpretation of fascism, seeing it as a potential that lurked within all capitalist states under conditions of crisis. His work can help us understand the danger posed by right-wing authoritarianism today.
Malta’s Offshore Economy Is Corruption’s Greatest Ally
The murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia provided a harrowing demonstration of Malta’s toxic nexus of political and corporate power. But the fight against corruption can’t rely on moral outrage alone — it has to free the mass of people from an economic model based on endemic patronage.
Retooling the UAW
Even if the UAW had won in Tennessee, another conversation is needed about the kind of organization the union has become.
Don’t Worry, We’re Listening
The focus group was invented by a socialist, nurtured by corporate America — and revolutionized the relationship between elites and the masses.
A Marxist View of Tolkien’s Middle Earth
J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy world is a medieval utopia with poverty and oppression airbrushed out of the picture. But Tolkien’s work also contains a romantic critique of industrial capitalism that is an important part of its vast popular appeal.
A Second Scottish Independence Referendum Isn’t Going to Happen
The arrest of former Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s husband has dealt another blow to her political legacy. She has left her Scottish National Party greatly weakened — and with its plans for independence in tatters.
The Nutty ’90s
John Ganz’s When the Clock Broke offers a tour of ’90s politics, from Klansmen strangled on talk shows to a drugged-up George H. W. Bush running for office.
Assessing 40 Years of Labor Notes
Labor Notes is one of the most successful socialist projects in the labor movement in US history. It has trained and connected tens of thousands of union militants throughout the world.
The Remaking of the American Right
When the Clock Broke offers a tour of the ’90s, from Klansmen strangled on talk shows to a drugged-up George H. W. Bush running for office. Author John Ganz also argues that the far right of the ’90s was a precursor to Donald Trump, a claim reliant on distortions of past and present.
For Jack Mundey, Union Militancy and Environmentalism Went Hand in Hand
With the death this week of Jack Mundey, Australia has lost a giant of trade unionism. His green-socialist vision put labor militancy and democratic control at the heart of society and pushed back against the rapaciousness of urban development.