The Lies We Tell About Lenin
Lenin and the debates that shaped the Russian Revolution have been misunderstood by friends and foes alike.
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Looking for Lost Momentum
With its poll numbers slipping, Podemos is searching for ways to recapture this spring's energy.
Fascism and Democracy
What Gramsci can tell us about the relationship between fascism and liberalism — and the rise of Donald Trump.
The Story of Bad Bishop Brown
Bishop William Brown was excommunicated from the Episcopal Church in 1924. His heresy: communism.
Which Way to the Barricades?
What was the mass strike and what would a successful one look like today?
Eric Hobsbawm on How Workers Made May Day Theirs
The late Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm recounts the origins of International Workers' Day. "The priests have their festivals," announced a 1891 May Day broadsheet, "the Moderates have their festivals. The First of May is the Festival of the workers of the entire world."
The Revolution Party
The question of the party is back on the Left's agenda — and not a moment too soon.
Connolly at 150
James Connolly was born 150 years ago today. He remains the outstanding socialist of Ireland's history.
In the Trenches
Critics claim democratic socialism is pie-in-the-sky idealism. But socialists have always been at the core of reform struggles.
From Reform to Revolution
Rosa Luxemburg saw the fight for social reform as a vital means of mobilizing the oppressed. Yet only revolutionary transformation could make their victories permanent.
The State We Need
Socialists throughout history have understood that holding office is not the same thing as winning power. Working people can only entrench their victories through a fight to change the state itself.
Class Rules Everything Around Me
The socialist emphasis on the centrality of class isn't about ignoring racial inequalities, but about crafting a politics capable of ending them.
“Revolutionary Cycles Are Contagious”
AMLO's party MORENA is launching a mass popular education project. The aim: to empower every working person with the tools to transform Mexico from the bottom up.
“Socialism From Above” and the Capitulation to Fascism
In 1930s Europe, Hendrik de Man’s bid to replace class struggle with state planning led to a deadly embrace with fascism. His attempt to graft nationalism onto socialism offers a terrible lesson for social democrats today who adapt their politics to far-right ideas.
Why the Early German Socialists Opposed the World’s First Modern Welfare State
Otto von Bismarck built the world’s first welfare state, but his intent was to kill the rising workers’ movement. It’s a reminder that socialists don’t just want to use the welfare state to keep starvation at bay — we want to build the foundation for working-class emancipation.
Why Unions Are Good — But Not Good Enough
For socialists, unions are paradoxical organizations. On the one hand, unions are essential for creating a workers' organization that can oppose capital and challenge it for power. But they are also an insufficient vehicle for mobilizing those workers to transform the world.
The Long Shot of Democratic Socialism Is Our Only Shot
Mass workers’ movements transformed much of the world in the twentieth century, but they couldn’t overcome the power of capital. Today, we need a new democratic socialism to remake politics and revive working-class organizing.
Europe Can’t Decarbonize Without Democracy
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen claims to represent the “spirit of Greta,” yet corporate lobbyists have more influence over Europe’s Green Deal than ordinary citizens do. The green transition ought to be controlled by the social majority, so it serves all our needs — not just the businesses who hold sway in Brussels.
The Young Eugene V. Debs
A pair of leftist historians has undertaken a massive project: compiling a six-volume collection of Eugene Debs’s writings and speeches. We spoke with one of them, who detailed Debs’s extraordinary journey from moderate young trade union leader to courageous socialist militant.
Eugene Debs Believed in Socialism Because He Believed in Democracy
Eugene Debs’s unswerving commitment to democracy and internationalism was born out of his revulsion at the tyranny of industrial capitalism. We should carry forth that Debsian vision today — by recognizing that class struggle is the precondition for winning a more democratic world.