The Impossible Escape From the European Union
Neoliberalism is embedded in the European Union’s DNA. But for the continent’s left, there are few good alternatives.
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Ike & Hayek
Eisenhower’s warning about the “military-industrial complex” marked an era when the American right feared militarism could bankrupt the country and plunge it into socialism.
The European Union Has Been Shaken by Its Crises — but the Left Needs a Plan to Change It
The pandemic and the war in Ukraine have shaken many of the European Union’s dogmas. Yet the EU has repeatedly defied predictions of imminent collapse — posing the need for a serious left-wing program to reform it.
The F-35 Is Everything Wrong With the Military-Industrial Complex
The F-35 fighter jet has been plagued by malfunctions and cost overruns for years, yet Congress continues to order up more. The bipartisan consensus to fund tools of war rather than pro-worker programs like affordable housing or childcare is still strong.
A Marxist View of Tolkien’s Middle Earth
J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy world is a medieval utopia with poverty and oppression airbrushed out of the picture. But Tolkien’s work also contains a romantic critique of industrial capitalism that is an important part of its vast popular appeal.
A Tiny Cut in the Military Budget That Probably Won’t Happen Is Causing Panic in Washington
The bipartisan establishment is having a freak-out over the prospect of a modest cut to the defense budget. It’s not clear it will actually happen — but even if it did, the gargantuan US military budget would still be wasteful and counterproductive.
Ilhan Omar Should Wear Her Expulsion From the House Foreign Affairs Committee as a Badge of Honor
Ilhan Omar has been kicked off the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The move is a backhanded acknowledgment by her enemies of her unusual effectiveness as a critic of the hypocrisies of US foreign policy.
Sinophobia
The GOP is stoking a 21st-century Yellow Peril.
Peace in Ukraine Isn’t Coming Soon
Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine one year ago today hoping to capture it in a few days — then spent the last year turning its southeast into a bloodbath. Even if the current military stalemate is broken, the divides created by the war won’t heal soon.
Fred Halliday’s Writings on Global Politics Are a Vital Resource for the Left
The Irish scholar Fred Halliday covered an extraordinary range of subjects in his work, from Middle East revolutions to the Cold War. Halliday brought a Marxist perspective to the study of global politics and left behind a rich intellectual legacy.
Angel Wagenstein Was One of the Great Left-Wing Artists
The Jewish Communist partisan Angel Wagenstein was sentenced to death in 1944 — but he lived until 2023. From his Bulgarian homeland to postwar East Berlin, the filmmaker and novelist devoted his century of life to telling the stories of the persecuted.
University Campuses in India Will Be a Tool in the Hands of Hindu Nationalists
Elite international universities have announced plans to open campuses in India. Yet Narendra Modi’s government has made it clear these won’t be oases of academic freedom — rather, they’ll help Hindu nationalists impose censorship even outside India's borders.
US Empire’s Belligerent Decline in Latin America
Brutish and bigoted, grubbing and petulant, Donald Trump is an uncannily apt embodiment of the full sweep of US imperial arrogance and decadence in Latin America.
The Genoa Protesters Were Right About Global Capitalism
Twenty-five years ago, 300,000 people marched in Genoa against the G8 summit. The Italian state responded with tear gas, rubber bullets, and improvised torture chambers, but history has vindicated the critique of capitalist globalization by the protesters.
Pakistan’s People Will Vote Under a Cloud of Repression
Pakistan is due to hold national elections on February 8, but the country’s most popular politician, Imran Khan, is in jail, while his supporters face escalating repression. The country is in the middle of a crisis of democracy.
The US Plasma Industry Has Blood on Its Hands
America’s blood plasma industry is the largest in the world and preys on the economically desperate.
Russia’s Social Breakdown Isn’t the Product of a Unique National Psyche
Russia’s atomized citizenry and dysfunctional economy are often blamed on a unique national psyche. Yet the social breakdown in modern Russia is best explained in terms of its recent history, and the Soviet leadership’s failed response to its crises.
Zambia’s Debt Crisis Will Be a Turning Point for the Global South
G20 leaders have announced a deal with Zambia as a new debt crisis looms in the Global South. The deal will be another bonanza for finance capital at the expense of the world’s poorest people unless private lenders are forced to take a loss.
Billionaires and Monarchs Now Run Soccer
The transfer of stars like Karim Benzema to the Saudi Pro League has fed calls to stop its poaching of big-name players. But Saudi control is the natural outcome of the sport’s transformation into a plaything for billionaires.
Rich Countries Are Exporting Climate Breakdown to the Global South
From waste to deforestation to drastic flooding, wealthy countries of the Global North are outsourcing the impacts of their resource extraction to poorer countries in the Global South. Call it “carbon colonialism.”