In Defense of the High-Rise
Elite arguments against tower blocks aren't about safety — they're about contempt for public housing.
Search Result(s) for: “working class”
Capitalism Can’t Fix the Climate Crisis
Neither corporations nor liberals will stop climate disaster. The Left can.
How the Philippines Were Crucial to the Making of American Empire
From its vicious occupation in the early 20th century to its military bases in the present, the US has long had a brutal, domineering relationship with the Philippines. And crucially, it’s depended on the labor of colonized Filipinos themselves.
The Third Way’s Last Triumph
Hillary Clinton's triangulation may win in November, but it's a politics that has little future.
The Australian Left Must Fight for a Strategy That Will Eliminate COVID-19
The highly infectious Delta variant is spreading through Australia. Center-left politicians have wrongly joined the Right in opposing lockdowns and border closures on spurious grounds. The Left should instead fight to eliminate COVID.
Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s Post-Marxism Can’t Give Us a Political Strategy
Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe claimed to have identified the fatal flaw of Marxism and developed a better framework for left politics. But their taboo against class “essentialism” means they can’t identify the strengths and weaknesses of capitalist power.
Climate Action and Affordability Are Not Opposed
A renewable energy transition doesn’t have to mean higher prices for consumers. On the contrary: if managed well, it could actually offer lower energy prices.
Planning for Disaster
Community climate-adaptation initiatives preserve and build on stark geographic inequalities.
Ireland’s Red Troubadour
Luke Kelly was Ireland’s best-known folk singer — he was also a lifelong socialist.
The People’s Cult
Over 900 died at Jonestown in 1978 in a murder-suicide that shook the world. How did Peoples Temple go from emancipatory project to disaster?
New York’s Successful Socialist Slate Shows the Left Should Think Big
In New York City, the Democratic Socialists of America ran a five-candidate slate for state office — and won across the board. The campaign’s overwhelming success points to a model of radical electoral organizing in the wake of Bernie Sanders.
Gorbachev Couldn’t Reform the Soviet System — but a Better Socialism Is Possible
Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev, who died last week, was a tragic figure. He tried to build a humane socialism on the rotten foundations of authoritarianism. Today, without the albatross of Stalinism, we can fight for an entirely different kind of socialism.
From Fear to Resistance
After the Brussels terrorist attacks and a right-wing backlash, the Belgian left is trying to organize in the new environment.
Fighting Racism Is What Makes Us Universalists
Anti-racists in France are constantly accused of being “identitarians” undermining the supposed universalism of the "color-blind" Republic. But the demands raised at the protests following George Floyd’s murder uphold actual universalism: a commitment to fighting oppression that recognizes the reality of racist and colonial violence.
We Can Only Go Beyond Communism by Coming to Terms With Its History
Thirty years ago today, the Soviet Union collapsed. Twentieth-century communism should be understood in all its complexity, as revolution and regime, a spur to anti-colonialism and an alternative form of social democracy.
In Spain’s Basque Country, Workers Held a General Strike for Public Care
On Thursday, trade unions and women’s movements across Spain’s Basque Country held an explicitly feminist general strike. Workers are striking for a public community care system — one that ensures care work is well-paid and properly supported.
Hardt and Negri’s Empire Got Everything Wrong
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s Empire became a campus sensation because it offered a master theory for globalization at a moment when old Marxist categories seemed exhausted. But the capitalist internationalism they saw as permanent has now crashed and burned.
Sweden’s Collective Bargaining for Rents Must Be Defended
In Sweden, rents aren’t set at landlords’ whims but through collective bargaining with the tenants’ union. The system is a reminder of Swedish social democracy’s once-great reformist measures — but also how vulnerable they are in an age of neoliberal counterreforms.
How DSA Won — and Lost — in New York City Elections
In this year’s New York City Council elections, the Democratic Socialists of America chapter elected two of its six candidates after the Democratic establishment entered the elections fully prepared to fight the Left. It’s a stark reminder of how hard it will be to take on elite interests and win.
Debunking the Economist’s Myths of Free-Market Liberalism
The Economist’s liberalism is often framed as the politics of human rights and individual freedom, but its origins lie just as much in a fear of the masses and democracy.