New York state legislators just passed a bill limiting Governor Andrew Cuomo’s attempt to shield his big donors from COVID-related lawsuits. But nursing home CEOs are still protected for negligence or wrongdoing that took place earlier this year.
The Establishment Is Gunning for Rashida Tlaib
Rashida Tlaib, one of Congress’s most unapologetically left-wing members, is under threat from a challenger backed by super PAC money. The Left must defend her.
Michael Brooks and the Meaning of Socialist Internationalism
Michael Brooks’s ability to understand and analyze the similarities among authoritarians across the globe meant that he had little time for narratives that sought to portray non-Western culture as the source of barbarism and authoritarian rule.
There Is Nothing Natural About “the Market”
After his death, the followers of economist John Maynard Keynes embraced the myth of a “natural” market economy that required “intervention” from the government to keep it stable. But there is nothing natural about the market — and the Keynesians’ mistake led to a withering of the radical potential of Keynes’s ideas.
Billionaires Want to Reopen Schools Amid a Pandemic. They Might Unleash a Teacher Strike Wave.
Business interests are eager to reopen schools so they can get the economy running again and turn a profit. But teachers across the country are insisting that schools should only be reopened when it can be done safely — and they might just go on strike to fight back against the billionaires.
- 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.
How a Small Student Magazine Helped Build Norway’s Social-Democratic Common Sense
The socialist magazine Mot Dag trained some of Norway’s key public figures, including three Labor Party prime ministers and the cofounder of the World Health Organization. Their experience shows how left-wing media can build a socialist common sense in wider society — and help socialists in parliament resist establishment kickback.
St. Louis’s Shameful Workhouse Jail Must Be Shut Down
In St. Louis, the demand to defund the police has dovetailed with long-lasting struggles against cash bail and the abuse of prisoners. The Board of Aldermen’s passing of a bill that promises to start closing the city’s most notorious jail reflects the movement’s strength — but also the need for pressure to ensure that abolitionist demands are not watered down into merely cosmetic reforms.
“Michael Brooks Leaving This World Was Only the Beginning of His Legacy”
After we put out a call for remembrances of Michael Brooks, we received deeply emotional emails from his viewers and listeners all around the world about how he changed their politics — and often their lives.
Austin’s Newly Elected District Attorney Vows to End the Drug War
José Garza, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, is set to become Austin, Texas’s next district attorney after a movement-based campaign promising to end the drug war and radically downsize the carceral state. He says the Left is finally making its mark in Texas politics.
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.
Why the Superrich Keep Getting Richer
Billionaires like Jeff Bezos aren’t obscenely wealthy because they work harder than everyone else or they’re more innovative. They’re obscenely wealthy because their corporate empires drain society’s resources — and we’d all be better off without them.
What Michael Brooks Meant to Me
Michael Brooks was one of the funniest, most intellectually curious human beings I’ve ever known. He was also deeply committed to creating a better world.
AOC’s Anti-Sexism Speech Yesterday Was a Triumph
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s blistering speech yesterday powerfully connected her experience of sexism with the broader issues of patriarchy and workplace harassment. It was proof, once again, that it’s very nice having democratic socialists in office.
Michael Brooks Was a True Internationalist
Michael Brooks believed that every person, regardless of where they were born or where they lived, was worthy of fundamental human respect — and his dream was to create a more just world, not only for Americans, but for every working person on Earth.