It’s Chicago Educators Versus the Ruling Class
Striking educators in Chicago are showing the country how union power can confront and turn back the abhorrent conditions of the neoliberal era.
Search Result(s) for: “working class”
Google’s YouTube Music Workers Are on Strike
A week after YouTube Music workers filed for a union election, Google issued a return-to-office order for the remote workforce. Employees, who say the order is an illegal attempt to interfere with the election, are now on strike. We spoke with some of them.
It’s a Wonderful Life vs. the FBI
Amid Cold War paranoia, J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI set its sights on a potential source of communist subversion: Frank Capra’s Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life.
“They Don’t Understand the Value of Life”
Clarence Jones was homeless, despite being employed as a janitor for a multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical company. He thought his situation was his fault. Then he got involved in his union.
How a Grotesque Mediocrity Like Boris Johnson Became Britain’s Prime Minister
Boris Johnson stepped down as an MP last week. The entitlement typical of Britain’s privately educated elite defined his career, but he added to it a unique brand of dishonesty and opportunism.
A Double Issue of Catalyst Journal Is Out Now
The new edition is essential reading to understand the current moment, how we got here, and how the Left should strategize in these difficult times.
You Don’t Want Hygge. You Want Social Democracy.
Hygge has exploded as a cozy, comforting interior design trend. But the security and intimacy it evokes can't be achieved by scented candles alone — that requires social democracy.
The Other March on Washington
As Nazism was challenged abroad, A. Philip Randolph led an uncompromising campaign for democracy at home.
Chumbawamba’s Long Voyage
There’s that song, the one about getting knocked down and then getting back up again, but their body of work is like an iceberg; the bulk of it is submerged below the surface, difficult to get a hold of.
What the Sandinistas Won in Nicaragua
Forty-two years ago today, Sandinista National Liberation Front forces captured Managua and put an end to the Somoza dictatorship. It was a triumph that changed the course of Latin American history.
The Nicola Sturgeon Era in Scottish Politics Already Feels Fleeting and Ephemeral
Nicola Sturgeon tried to channel the desire for change in Scotland with a political style that was resolutely anti-populist and technocratic. The contradictions of this approach caught up with Sturgeon, and she leaves office without a transformative legacy.
Post-Work: A Guide for the Perplexed
The basic vision of the post-work left is one of fewer jobs and shorter hours.
In Defense of Kenny G
Our first piece of 2020: a defense of the great Kenny G.
The Long Struggle of Mexican Teachers
The teachers' protests that have erupted in Mexico are part of a century-long fight for equitable schools and genuine democracy.
Republicans’ and Democrats’ Biggest Corporate Sponsors
Both political parties in the US receive exorbitant amounts of donations from corporations and the very rich. A close look at the money trail shows which sections of capital favor Republicans and Democrats, respectively.
The Devil and Dennis Potter
In Dennis Potter’s banned TV play Brimstone and Treacle, the Devil is very real indeed — and it was too much for the BBC to handle.
Pakistan’s Crisis Is the Result of a Failed System With a Dysfunctional Ruling Class
Pakistan’s government has imprisoned former PM Imran Khan and called elections for early next year. The turmoil since Khan’s ouster, perhaps the most dramatic crisis in three already-turbulent decades, is symptomatic of deeper political-economic woes.
Unions Should Start Planning for a Mass Strike on May Day 2028
Calls for a general strike usually skip over the hard work of organizing one. But UAW leader Shawn Fain is urging unions to align their contract expiration dates for May 1, 2028 — setting up the possibility of a mass May Day strike.
Expanding Remote Work Won’t Inherently Empower Workers. It Could Do the Opposite.
Working from home has obvious benefits, which is why so many people want to keep doing it after the pandemic is over. But the outward appeal of remote work masks serious downsides for workers. We ignore them at our peril.
Your Party: A Left for Itself
The farcical spat that has riven Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s “Your Party” exposes a Left increasingly focused on itself rather than on the class it aims to mobilize.