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.
Our spring issue, “Pandemic Politics,” is out now. Get a discounted subscription today!
How Counterinsurgency Tactics in the Middle East Found Their Way to American Cities
Many of the repressive police tactics and technologies used in the US have been developed in the Middle East to suppress dissent. Ending police violence at home must involve ending America’s wars abroad.
Mike Davis Tried to Warn Us About a Virus-Induced Apocalypse
Historian Mike Davis wrote a book fifteen years ago warning of the coming global pandemic. The “monster at our door” has finally stepped through that door in COVID-19, and unfortunately, Davis was proven correct.
“California Is Ripe for a Revolution”
Jackie Fielder, a Democratic Socialists of America–backed candidate for California’s State Senate, is refusing to take money from police unions, real-estate interests, and the fossil fuel industry. For her, the connection between capital and police violence is clear: “Our communities face intense repression from the state because it is profitable.”
When Black Sharecroppers in the South Rose Up
In the Jim Crow South, the planter class’s greatest fear was that black sharecroppers and white tenant farmers would rise up against their oppressors. In the 1930s, Socialist and Communist organizers tried to make that a reality.
- Issue No. 37 out now!
- Spring 2020
Pandemic Politics
In this issue
No Act of God
Hurricanes, pandemics, and droughts are acts of God. Private markets in housing, health care, and food — and the resulting deaths — are not.
Political organizing is hard — political education shouldn’t have to be. We’re now offering our ABCs of Capitalism series as free ebooks.
Unions Are Essential for Eliminating Racism
A new study finds that unions don’t just increase wages and benefits for workers on the job — union membership is also linked to diminished racist attitudes among white workers. If we want to defeat racism, building strong, democratic unions is essential.
In Melbourne’s “Hard Lockdown,” Public Housing Residents Get the Harshest Measures
Nine public housing towers in Melbourne have been put under a police-enforced “hard lockdown” without warning, with isolation effectively policed at gunpoint. It’s a measure reserved for inner-city public housing residents, despite the rising wave of infections throughout the city.
James Averhart Oversaw Chelsea Manning’s Brutal Imprisonment. Now He’s Running for Congress as a Democrat.
James Averhart led a push to track down and punish soldiers who deserted the Vietnam War in an attempt to stop similar desertions in Iraq and oversaw Chelsea Manning’s brutal imprisonment at a Quantico jail. He’s now vying for an Alabama House of Representatives seat — as a Democrat.
In These Stunning Images, Ordinary Yugoslav Partisans Captured Their Revolution on Camera
Most of the fighters who joined the partisan struggle in World War II Yugoslavia had never even held a camera, let alone considered themselves photographers. Yet organized efforts to create a “partisan photography” helped carry the image of their struggle to the masses — and showed that artistic production wasn’t just for professionals.
Longtime social movements scholar Frances Fox Piven on organizing the unemployed under coronavirus, where the Bernie Sanders movement goes from here, and why breaking rules and disrupting business as usual are central to making social change.
Jon Stewart’s Post-Partisan Critique of American Politics Is Stuck in 2004
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.
The Corporate Media Convinced Millions That Bernie Was “Unelectable”
There is overwhelming evidence a surge of mostly older, Trump-fearing voters decided the Democratic primary — and that Bernie Sanders failed to counter an establishment messaging campaign that Trump would beat him in a general election.
Rest in Power, Harry Britt
Harry Britt succeeded Harvey Milk on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and fought to build a queer politics that stood doggedly for workers’ and tenants’ rights. When he died last month, we lost a gay socialist icon.
We Worked on the Bernie Campaign — More Democracy Would’ve Made It More Effective
Three former Bernie Sanders field organizers argue that the campaign’s internal structures and lack of accountability hurt its chances and undermined Bernie’s theory of political change.