Science can be a liberatory force that frees people from drudgery and fosters human freedom and flourishing. But to unleash that potential, we need a radical new science policy that promotes human needs over corporate profits.
Commentators like to point to Wuhan’s “wet markets” as the source of the pandemic, but COVID-19 is the result of a much larger, global phenomenon of environmental degradation. Combatting both means putting the politics of food production and land use at the very heart of our socialist project.
The COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged influential figures like Gordon Brown and Tony Blair to press for new structures of global governance. But the system they have in mind won’t be democratic. We need a radically democratic world government.
It appears that an effective COVID-19 vaccine may be on the horizon. But the profit-making of Big Pharma is threatening what should be a basic principle: that the vaccine is universally available, not just in rich countries but across the Global South.
Bernie Sanders’s proposal to create a national emergency health insurance plan could have a transformative effect on the national health care debate, long after the COVID pandemic is over. But that plan, along with any other progressive policies, will be rendered moot if Joe Biden sticks to his insistence on seeking Republican support in Congress.
New research shows stay-at-home orders and eviction bans are key to stopping the spread of COVID-19. But Gov. Gavin Newsom is ignoring that research and reopening California with a weak eviction moratorium.
Despite Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s own admission that reopening other parts of the city like restaurants would be unsafe given COVID-19 infection rates, she is insisting Chicago teachers and students return to in-person learning. The Chicago Teachers Union has voted to defy the mayor, refusing to return to schools under current conditions.
In a viral moment last night, Joe Biden told an eight-year-old girl at a CNN town hall that kids rarely contract or transmit the coronavirus. But the science says otherwise — yet the media recklessly let Biden get away with spreading misinformation.
Everyone wants schools to reopen, but the Biden administration seems to be ignoring what mounting evidence from overseas shows: many of the newest COVID variants do in fact infect children and promote community spread.
In Brazil, an absurd and deeply politicized “anti-corruption” campaign was carried out to block Lula da Silva from the presidency — delivering it instead to far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, who oversaw the world’s worst COVID-19 response. We have ex-judge Sergio Moro to thank for it.
The global battle over drug company patents for COVID-19 vaccines is the latest skirmish in the irrepressible conflict between property rights and human rights. It’s no surprise that Bill Gates, the monopolist billionaire, has taken the side of patents.
The horrific COVID crisis in India isn’t just the result of rich countries’ criminal hoarding of vaccines and intellectual property — it’s the fault of Narendra Modi’s far-right government, which has prioritized private profits over public health.
Over the past few months, pharma giants like Pfizer and Moderna have become household names and fodder for affectionate memes. But their prominence reflects how the market has cannibalized science and public health during a global crisis. Big pharma still is not your friend.
Central to Trader Joe’s corporate image is the idea that it is a vaguely progressive alternative to corporate grocery chains. But my time working at Trader Joe’s during the COVID-19 pandemic exposed how little the chain cared about the safety of workers like me.
The frenzied warnings of impending mass inflation are completely overblown. The inflation we've seen has been limited to a few specific items — and putting the brakes on the economy now would hammer the working class.
Since the end of free movement within the EU, Britain's farms have relied on seasonal migrants allowed into the country for just a few months at a time. Denied almost any possibility to change jobs, their situation shows how bosses can use visa rules to blackmail a pliant workforce into swallowing the most degrading conditions.
The Biden administration intended to release far-reaching safety rules designed to protect workers from COVID — until big business came calling and demanded the rules be drastically scaled back.
Joe Biden publicly supports proposals to waive vaccine patents to help end the COVID-19 pandemic. But so far he appears to have no intention of spending political capital to make those proposals a reality.
Slavoj Žižek writes in Jacobin that today's exploding ecological crises open up a realistic prospect of the final exit of humanity itself. Might socialism be our off-ramp, or is it already too late?
The EU’s promised €750 billion in recovery spending has been a boost for consultancy firms like Deloitte and PwC, hired to plan where funds are directed. These businesses’ growing control over public spending isn’t just undemocratic — it’s a recipe for corruption.