In 2016, the Retail and Fast-Food Workers’ Union was formed in Australia. Representing some of the most undervalued, low-paid workers in the country, RAFFWU is already among the most radical unions, challenging both employers and the conservative fiefdom of the “Shoppies.”
As Republicans ram through a Supreme Court nominee appointed by a president who lost the popular vote, the anti-democratic rule of the judiciary is on full display.
Adem Somyurek was sacked from his position in the Australian Labor Party last week for alleged branch-stacking. It’s the latest indicator of how Labor has been emptied of all mass politics and become a forum for factional power brokers to vie for control of the creaking party machine.
Jon Stewart’s new political comedy Irresistible wants to be a scathing critique of the media, big money, and Beltway corruption. But as satire, it’s weighed down by the comic’s let’s-all-just-get-along politics.
After losing to Sinn Féin in February’s general election, Ireland’s conservative parties have exploited the pandemic to regain their footing and strike a coalition deal with the Greens. The new government won’t deliver the change Irish society needs, but Ireland’s left-wing forces still have a real opening in the coming years.
Journalism on national conflicts from Belfast to the Balkans often speaks of ancient hatreds and ancestral sectarianism. But a closer look at the Irish conflict shows that questions of nationhood and identity are very modern phenomena — and have to be integrated into any serious analysis of class.
Ahead of his reelection on Sunday, Polish president Andrzej Duda claimed that “LGBT ideology” was a threat “worse than Soviet communism.” Together with his homophobic offensive, Duda successfully played on Poles’ fears over the economy — fusing a reactionary culture war with the promise to defend families’ benefits.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s blistering speech yesterday powerfully connected her experience of sexism with the broader issues of patriarchy and workplace harassment. It was proof, once again, that it’s very nice having democratic socialists in office.
Stacey Abrams shows every sign of becoming a fixture of national Democratic politics, thanks in part to unwaveringly positive press attention. Yet little of that media coverage has focused on her centrist legislative record or her coziness with the business world.
Held up as a eurozone poster boy after the 2008 crash, the Irish economy still isn’t delivering for the majority of its people, especially the young. A second global recession in just over a decade will sharpen popular discontent and the desire for a new model.
Twenty years of a “war on terror” and centuries of elite fear of popular revolt led to the nightmare that played out on Portland’s streets. And your town could be next.
On Medicare for All, the Left has won the battle of ideas. But that’s not enough, as the DNC’s rejection of M4A shows. We have to get serious about overcoming the entrenched economic and political power that is stopping us from having free public health care for everyone.
Gay identity became possible thanks to capitalism’s emancipatory side: its liberation of the individual from material dependence on the family. But that sexual freedom wasn’t automatic — it required decades of militant struggle. Today, we need more such struggles to combat the oppressive aspects of capitalism, which keep gay and straight people alike from living fully free lives.
Even as John Kasich reassured conservatives Joe Biden wasn't moving left, Michelle Obama lectured progressives to muster Obama 2008–style enthusiasm for him regardless. It's an incoherent message that could cost the party come November.
From suffragette jingoism in 1914 to the liberal support for the war in Afghanistan, a long tradition of feminists has made excuses for Western imperialism. But women’s liberation demands that we break up established power structures — and start by focusing on the women who most suffer the effects of imperial violence.
To court pack, or not to court pack? That is the question Democrats are doing everything they can to avoid answering — even though Republicans have been successfully packing the courts for years.
Kanye West’s bid for president didn’t come out of nowhere. He’s always been a contradictory figure, and arrogance always mingled with his nuance and consciousness.
Coronavirus has brought the United States to its knees not only due to our system’s countless weaknesses, but also because of our delusional self-assessment. Despite all evidence to the contrary, many believed that this country was invincible. That fantasy has been destroyed.
Australia’s employers and federal government have failed to halt COVID-19, while the country’s public health system and union movement have stepped up. The Australian labor movement now has an historic opportunity to push for an alternative to neoliberalism.
The Conservative Party of Canada has announced a new leader: Erin O’Toole. A seemingly spiritless, staid candidate, his leadership may nevertheless prove a strategic win for Conservatives.