Afghanistan Was Never a Good War
The United States invaded Afghanistan after 9/11 because its leaders wanted revenge. The US occupation brought misery and destruction for the Afghan people, and its failure was guaranteed from the start.
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No, Inflation Does Not Justify Wage Cuts or Austerity Measures
In the US and Canada, the policy measures taken to battle inflation will set the tone for post-pandemic politics. It is of utmost importance that combating inflation does not become an excuse for wage cuts and fiscal austerity.
The Mexican Right Has United to Defeat AMLO
In Mexico, the midterm election campaign has just kicked off and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's right-wing opponents have formed a coalition against his ruling party, MORENA. Their aim is to seize a majority in the lower house and stop AMLO’s progressive agenda in its tracks.
Biden’s State of the Union Was a Paean to Liberalism’s Complacent Status Quo
In his first State of the Union address, Joe Biden commendably stuck to most of the progressive policy stances he campaigned on in 2020 — but steered clear of identifying or pointing fingers at those culpable for the injustices he claims to want to remedy.
Canada Is Cheerleading New NATO Expansion
Justin Trudeau's Canadian government has eagerly embraced NATO’s new "strategic concept": expansion. The strategy is a return to the Cold War — and a recipe for more frequent military conflict.
H. Chandler Davis Was a Lifelong Radical and a Moral Touchstone for the Left
Chan Davis, who died last month at the age of 96, faced down McCarthyite blacklists and imprisonment to pursue a brilliant academic career. Davis knew how to change and learn from political experience, but he always remained loyal to his socialist principles.
Curt Sørensen (1938–2021)
Born into a blue-collar family on the eve of World War II, Curt Sørensen became Denmark's most prominent Marxist intellectual. He insisted that Marxism wasn't just a tool for academic analysis — rather, it had to be an aid to the workers' movement, learning from and feeding back into practical efforts to achieve socialism.
Canadian Elites Are Engineering a Recession to Discipline Workers
Economic orthodoxy blames inflation on everyone except corporations and their windfall profits. It’s time to think about responding to inflation and recessions with policies that make corporations pay, not average workers.
How a Young Communist Won and Lost Power in Postwar Japan
Today marks a decade since the death of Japanese communist Toshiko Karasawa. Her courageous life is a testament to the revolutionary potential of anti-imperialism, but also the difficult choices faced by the Left in US client states.
Why “Pro-Worker Conservatives” Misrepresent Viktor Orbán’s Hungary
Figures like Tucker Carlson have hailed Hungarian premier Viktor Orbán for marrying cultural conservatism with protectionist economic measures. Yet for all his demagogic attacks on finance, Orbán's policies have favored local oligarchs and sharply increased social inequality — pointing to the hollowness of his American fans' own "pro-worker conservatism."
To Fight Imperialism Abroad, Build Class Struggle at Home
The idea that workers in wealthy countries like the United States are part of a “labor aristocracy” bought off with the fruits of imperialism is nonsense. The best way to build a movement against US imperialism is to build the labor movement domestically.
Pete Buttigieg Is Bootleg Obama in the Worst Ways Possible
Pete Buttigieg, a shape-shifting knockoff of the Obama original, has written a book about the importance of Trust — a surprising topic for a politician who elicits suspicion every time he opens his mouth. Can we just let bootleg Obama wander off into obscurity?
Jean-Marie Le Pen’s Memoir Reminds Us That France’s Populist Right Has Fascist Roots
In recent years, Marine Le Pen has sought to detoxify her party's brand and distance herself from her father Jean-Marie's crankish outbursts. But his latest volume of memoir is a reminder that her so-called populist right is rooted in fascism and a National Front that united Vichyites and antisemites with radicalized conservatives.
What You Should Have Read in 2022
We published 2,500 original essays in 2022. Here’s a recap in case you missed one or two of them.
We Don’t Need New Terror Laws to Defeat the Far Right
Last week's riot was an attempt to undermine the nation’s democratic procedures. The response from some political elites is unwittingly trying to do the same through calls for unnecessary new terror laws.
How Capitalists Created International Financial Institutions to Rule the Planet
Long before Bretton Woods, powerful capitalist nations perfected the art of exploiting other countries without formally colonizing them. They’ve done this through a rigged international economy, governed by institutions like the World Bank and the IMF.
How Iran’s Theocrats Allied With — and Then Crushed — the Left
Sociologist Chahla Chafiq was a 25-year-old Marxist activist during the 1979 Iranian revolution. Now in exile in France, she looks back on the tensions between socialism, feminism, and anti-imperialism that have roiled Iran’s opposition politics for decades.
Diego Rivera’s Resolute Socialism Is on Full Display in His Mural Pan American Unity
Diego Rivera was a champion of the socialist cause who sought to produce art that “belongs to all mankind.” Nowhere was this vision more clear than in his mural Pan American Unity, a homage to Hollywood, Mexican culture, and modernism.
The Birth of the Labour Party Has Many Lessons for Socialists Today
American leftists are constantly wrestling with the question of how to relate to the Democratic Party. The history of the UK Labour Party’s formation through a break with the Liberals a century ago is full of lessons for socialists today.