Annie Ernaux’s recently translated book, Getting Lost, chronicles her passionate love affair with a married man. What makes Ernaux’s reflections so refreshing is her rejection of the idea that literature’s job is to provide readers with moral instruction.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country by far, may not have a political profile to match its size. But it has a powerful tradition of socialist theory and practice that deserves to be better understood by the international left. That tradition has helped shape the best features of Nigeria’s contemporary political scene.
Socialist leader Salvador Allende became Chile’s president fifty years ago today. Allende’s election inaugurated a unique experiment in radical democracy that was cut short by Augusto Pinochet’s brutal US-backed coup.
Sarah Polley’s film Women Talking depicts the brutal true story of rape in a Mennonite colony. It’s a poor fit for the oversimplified, “you go, girl” feminist message of its framing.
Venture capitalist Peter Thiel’s massive wealth and resulting political influence are symptoms of a profoundly unequal society. But don’t buy into his “evil genius” self-branding. His ideology isn’t a dark enigma — it’s just run-of-the-mill rich guy stuff.
Paola Cortellesi’s film There’s Still Tomorrow offers a striking portrayal of working-class women fighting gendered violence in late 1940s Italy.
Director Adam Curtis’s latest BBC docuseries, Shifty, follows Britain’s late 20th-century retreat into make-believe as managed decline tears everything apart. It’s the familiar Curtis aesthetic, but still as powerful and haunting as ever.
Chadwick Boseman’s final performance in playwright August Wilson’s new Netflix adaptation of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a haunting but appropriate farewell.
The British media still glorifies the SAS despite revelations about its involvement in war crimes in Afghanistan. There’s a yawning gulf between the force’s macho public image and its true role as a brutal accessory for Britain’s imperial adventures.
Based on Cixin Liu’s megapopular sci-fi novels, 3 Body Problem is an engrossing spectacle about alien invasion. It’s a welcome 21st-century twist on the old War of the Worlds premise.
Hans-Christian Ströbele, one of Germany’s best-known Green politicians, passed away in August. He made his name denouncing the Nazis in postwar West Germany’s institutions, countering his country’s self-congratulation over its break with the past.
Taking issue only with the “woke” part of “woke capital,” GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s asset management firm Strive promises to invest in the most damaging industries on the planet. It will likely fail — but he’s making a lot of money along the way.
In much of the world, International Women’s Day has become a bland and largely apolitical event. But it has its origins in working women’s struggles — including those that gave rise to a mass socialist women’s movement.
As the world’s premier Marxist historian, Eric Hobsbawm’s intellectual range was unrivaled. Never one to pander to conventional politics, he was often a brave voice of dissent. Today more than ever, Hobsbawm’s work deserves serious examination.
Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany’s Wealthiest Dynasties explores the historical links between the Third Reich and Germany’s current captains of industry. It’s not just ancient history.
Kindness, empathy, and compassion were values at the heart of Jacinda Ardern’s political career — but they were often absent from her government’s policies. The result was a squandered opportunity to overhaul New Zealand’s economy for the better.
Sunday’s Cypriot election brought victory for nationalist hardliner Nikos Christodoulides. The Left’s vote held up, but the campaign also showed its weaknesses in combining class politics with answers to the country’s enduring division.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon's left-wing coalition is neck and neck with Emmanuel Macron’s party in polls for today’s French parliamentary elections. The coalition’s victory would shake the neoliberal order in France and across the European Union.
Nationwide, “safe haven” laws allow mothers to abandon newborn children and relinquish responsibility for parenting them. The laws sound like something no one could oppose — but they’ve been a key strategy in the Right’s war on women’s right to abortion.
Bernie Sanders’s grilling of Starbucks’s union-busting billionaire Howard Schultz put a CEO in the hot seat on a national stage. It also forced Senate Democrats who might rather stay on the Democratic donor's good side to denounce his flagrantly illegal behavior.