How to Explain the Inexplicable War in Iran?
The Iran war seems irrational to the point of inexplicable madness. But stepping back and assessing who benefits from that madness can bring some clarity.
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Democracy After Orbánism?
Péter Magyar will be sworn in as Hungary’s new prime minister this week. His government has a strong technocratic thrust — a departure from Viktor Orbán’s cronyism but hardly a revitalization of democratic participation.
Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! vs. Mainstream Media
The new documentary Steal This Story, Please! shows how Amy Goodman helped build Democracy Now! into an independent outlet with a mass audience. We spoke to Goodman and director Tia Lessin about the film and challenging corporate media today.
Manufactured Stone Is Killing Stonecutters
The lethal workplace illness silicosis killed thousands each year up through the 1960s but became much rarer in recent decades thanks to union workplace safety fights. The disease is now making a comeback among stonecutters working with manufactured stone.
“Their Greatest Effort Ever”: The British General Strike at 100
It’s difficult to imagine, in our age of labor quiescence, the impact of the great British general strike, which began 100 years ago today and reached every city and town in Britain.
Why Puerto Rico Remains a Colony in All but Name
Cold War Puerto Rico by Steve Howell argues that Washington has long treated the island as giant aircraft carrier. The result has been severe: residents face economic strain while lacking many democratic rights and social protections.
The Making of London’s General Strike
One hundred years ago today, a general strike led by London’s dockworkers brought the city to its knees. Police violence and a conservative union beat the workers in the end, but the episode helped shape Britain’s labor movement.
Tony Mazzocchi Embodied the Best of the Labor Movement
In the latter half of the 20th century, labor leader Tony Mazzocchi fought for a progressive political vision that put working-class concerns front and center. His example continues to be invaluable for labor and the Left today.
For Iranians, Despair Is Not Strategy
An Iranian American reflects on how the diaspora, grieving for the Iranians caught between domestic repression and imperialist intervention, came to be at war with itself.
The Donroe Doctrine: Making LatAm an Investor’s Paradise
The Trump administration is forcing Latin American governments into arbitration courts that grant multinationals the extraordinary power to sue states that nationalize resources or even just raise the minimum wage, if perceived to threaten investor profits.
We Are Watching the Rise of Democratic Fascism
Bertolt Brecht predicted it in 1942: American fascism would be democratic in the American fashion. He was right. That's precisely what makes it so hard to stop.
Donald Trump Is on a Mining Offensive in DR Congo
The Trump administration wants a new sphere of influence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. US businesses are already rushing in, but many locals insist their mineral wealth should be for the Congolese themselves.
The Corporate Thriller Lied to Us
Criterion Channel is hosting a retrospective on Hollywood’s “corporate thrillers” from the 1980s through the early 2000s. If anything, their message about the capitalist rot in America’s institutions looks far too tame for how the last couple of decades turned out.
Capitalism Was Built on the Ruins of the Commons
The Industrial Revolution’s chief product was not goods but a new class of laborers who owned nothing and worked to survive. Historian Peter Linebaugh traces the creation of this working class through the violent enclosure of the commons they once relied on.
Messing With Childcare Ratios Is a Terrible Idea
Donald Trump’s childcare czar says he wants federal regulations for daycare centers to “fit on an index card in my back pocket.” His plans contain many causes for alarm, not least his dangerous proposal to raise child-to-adult ratios.
Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” Is a Board of Naked Power
Rebuilding Gaza under Trump’s Board of Peace is diplomacy for warmongers, imposed on Palestinians.
The Historic Strike That Transformed the Danish West Indies
In 1916, a mass strike led by black labor organizer David Hamilton Jackson upturned power relations in the Danish West Indies. Its success owed partly to support from Denmark’s labor movement — a true labor internationalism as rare then as it is today.
How Massachusetts Teachers Transformed Their Union
Outgoing Massachusetts Teachers Association president Max Page reflects on a decade of rank-and-file reformers turning a cautious, staff-driven union into a militant, member-led force by striking, winning stronger contracts, and pushing to tax the rich.
Barbara Kopple on Her Labor Documentary Masterpieces
Barbara Kopple’s films Harlan County USA and American Dream captured labor struggle as it was happening: on picket lines, inside unions, and under pressure. Decades later, both remain some of the finest labor documentaries ever made.
May 1: Day of Work or Workers’ Day?
In France, May Day has long been a day for all workers to stop working. A recent proposal for some businesses to remain open forced unions to defend the idea that French workers keep May Day as a day to themselves.