Socialize the Animal Shelters
America’s animal shelter system is a disaster. We need a well-funded, fully public system that no longer treats animals as expendable commodities — and empowers the workers who staff public shelters.
Search Result(s) for: “Los Angeles”
Will New York Teachers Strike for Safe Schools?
In response to Mayor Bill de Blasio pushing a public schools reopening despite the serious dangers it would pose, New York City’s United Federation of Teachers is considering their first strike in almost half a century. We talked to union activist and Brooklyn teacher Jia Lee about why a school reopening isn’t safe and what teachers are willing to do to stop it.
Fernando Tatís Jr Knows Baseball Better Than the Scolds
The Fernando Tatís Jr controversy this week shows how absurd many of baseball’s “unwritten rules” are. Imagine the NBA’s Zion Williamson or NFL’s Patrick Mahomes having the game of their life and the focus afterward being their need to do less.
The Radicalism of Woody Guthrie
Legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie is best known for his anthem “This Land Is Your Land,” which can come off as an innocuous ode to America if you aren’t listening closely. But the singer-songwriter was a lifelong socialist.
The Mill Was Good Socialist TV. Let’s Make More.
We need high-quality, entertaining class-struggle television. The BBC’s period drama The Mill, which was ahead of its time when it debuted in 2013, shows us how it’s done.
How Capital Strikes Yanked Barack Obama’s Presidency to the Right
Barack Obama swept into office with a progressive mandate, but his legislating was tepid, often conservative. One key reason: his administration had no plans — or even interest in — overcoming the massive capital strikes they were up against.
California Democrats Kill Gas and Oil Regulations After Campaign Donations
Democrats killed legislation protecting California homes and schools from oil and gas operations after big campaign donations and industry-funded junkets.
Bringing H. P. Lovecraft to Jim Crow America
The new HBO series Lovecraft Country melds the macabre monster stories of H. P. Lovecraft with the real-life horror of Jim Crow America. Once again, Jordan Peele shows that the scariest American monster is the white-supremacist cop.
Red-Scare Rhetoric Isn’t Gone From Histories of American Sport
The Cold War may be over, but its rhetoric demonizing the former Eastern Bloc and valorizing the United States isn’t. Nowhere is that clearer than in popular sport history productions like ESPN’s 30 for 30 podcast Heavy Medals and the Netflix documentary Athlete A, chronicling the abuse of elite gymnasts.
The OAS Accusation of Electoral Fraud Against Evo Morales Is Bullshit — And Now We Have the Data to Prove It
The day after the Bolivian election, the Organization of American States suggested the result was fraudulent — then took months to provide any proof. Last month, it finally released its data — and researchers at the Center for Economic and Policy Research found a basic coding error that destroys the OAS’s case against Morales.
New York City’s Teachers Union Doesn’t Remember How to Strike
The United Federation of Teachers, New York City’s teachers union, is a massive local that could wield enormous power through striking. But the union hasn’t struck in nearly half a century — even in the face of a deadly pandemic and unsafe schools reopening. Why does the UFT refuse to use its most powerful tactic?
How Democratic Are American Unions?
Unions are absolutely essential for building working-class power. But they’re also often undemocratic. Building a strongly democratic labor movement is a key task for the Left and the labor movement as a whole.
The Left Needs the “Uneducated” Working Class
All around the world, the Left has been hemorrhaging working-class support for decades. To think it could achieve long-run success as the champion of affluent cosmopolitanism is whistling past the graveyard.
Talking About Auto Work — Or Any Work Under Capitalism — Means Talking About Constant, Brutal Violence
Auto work is typically remembered as one of the best industrial jobs a worker could get in postwar America. Less remembered, however, is how absolutely brutal and violent life on the auto factory floor was — and still is.
We Were Right To Celebrate Trump’s Defeat. Now We’ll Have To Stay in the Streets for the Next 4 Years.
The mass celebrations of Trump’s defeat yesterday were a beautiful outpouring of collective political joy. We can harness that energy to build a mass working-class politics against Joe Biden’s neoliberalism.
The Good, Bad, and Extremely Ugly of the 2020 Election
Looking beyond Joe Biden’s unexpectedly modest victory, the 2020 election was a historic failure for the Democratic Party. On the other hand, despite some painful hitches coming out of this campaign season, the Left has reason to be hopeful.
Punk Versus Reagan
A new book on American punk paints the movement as the last gasp of left-wing cultural resistance in the 1980s.
How Real Estate Agents Keep Cities Segregated
Under capitalism, housing is a commodity, which means it principally exists to make rich people richer rather than meet human needs. That gap between making money and making profit distorts a whole range of life outcomes for average people — and real estate agents play a critical role in that process.
There’s No Such Thing as “the Latino Vote”
Latino voters, just like any other group, are divided along class and ideological lines. The key to winning working-class Latinos to a left politics is to offer a positive vision that materially improves their lives.
Unions Must Fight for a Universal Welfare State
The United States is notorious for having the weakest welfare state of any advanced economy. The labor movement needs to fight for social provisions for all workers, not just some.