Democratic socialism is a living political tradition that emphasizes the need to weaken the grip of capital, empower the working class, oppose authoritarianism, expand democracy, and shift our economy and society away from private profit and toward the fulfillment of social needs. It’s a vision worth debating — and defending.
Workers in the US were deeply split in the 1930s, not least by race and ethnicity. To organize greater swaths of the working class, the Congress of Industrial Organizations had to turn division into solidarity.
A major socialist-led grassroots campaign is underway to pass Jamaal Bowman’s Green New Deal for Public Schools — a strategically savvy measure that combines forthright climate action with large-scale investment in working-class schools.
An obvious way to win the support of the working class is to support some actual pro-worker policies. An obvious starting point: raising the minimum wage, and well above $15 an hour.
A movement defending working-class interests isn’t just about what happens at work, but also about the places where we live. A labor movement fight against evictions can break the power of landlords to ruin our lives — and make the case for why we all deserve affordable, quality housing.
The roots of modern Zionism are in colonialism. This was the foundation of the Jewish left’s opposition to Zionism in the 1930s and ’40s, on the grounds that it is a form of right-wing nationalism and imperialism that is fundamentally opposed to working-class internationalism.
Irish labor leader Jim Larkin’s combination of Christian faith and socialist zeal electrified the working class — and threatened to tear down the established order.
Socialist New York City Council member Alexa Avilés is running for reelection against a Democratic primary candidate backed by big real estate and pro-Israel money. We spoke to her about her record and the forces that want her out of office.
On this day in 1981, Bernie Sanders became Burlington’s first socialist mayor by a margin of just ten votes. Here’s a definitive history of how Bernie beat the political establishment with a working-class coalition behind him and how we can do the same today.
In Minneapolis, a new generation of activists is challenging Donald Trump, reviving labor militancy, and scoring victories. Next stop: May Day 2026.
In postwar decades, Italy boasted the West’s largest communist party, yet by the mid-1970s, its promise of social transformation had been all but abandoned. Swallowing the basics of neoliberal economics, the Left became increasingly distant from workers’ material interests — with disastrous results.
In California, the United Auto Workers are calling on the state to make major investments in green energy, while also making sure these investments provide good union jobs and products that are affordable for working-class consumers.
Joel Richards is a teacher, union activist, and socialist running for Boston City Council. In an interview, Richards discusses his plans to fight for Boston’s working class, why the city needs its own Green New Deal, and how Christianity shapes his socialism.
The political and social war that is now inevitable in the United States could shape the character of the rest of the century.
In the 1920s, China’s Communist Party retreated from the cities to the countryside to wage a protracted guerrilla war. This long separation from the Chinese working class fostered an autocratic culture that went on to shape the party’s rule over China.
To win, fighting back on a citywide and national level isn’t enough. We need a strategy to build working-class power on a statewide level.
Eric Hoffer was a conservative who only had the time to write because he was represented by a powerful leftist union.
Russian liberals often claim Vladimir Putin has his base in the “vatniki,” the uneducated lower classes. But his rise didn’t owe to the “brainless masses” — it’s the result of the social Darwinism that gripped Russia in its shock transition to capitalism.
The world’s top athletes coming together in a spirit of friendly competition is a beautiful vision. But the Olympics have become a machine for the ruthless extraction of profit at the expense of working-class people.
Tony Blair's New Labour government left the fundamental architecture of Thatcher's economy in place — and failed to break the cycle of deepening inequality. It's not just the criminal Iraq War, Blairism failed at every level.