The government shutdown was a test showing where progressive forces are strong and where they’re weak. The results are in after last night’s Democratic capitulation to the GOP: most top union leaders are failing to meet the moment.
Calls for Central Bank Independence Are Myopic
Donald Trump’s attacks on the Federal Reserve have been met with ardent defenses of central bank independence. Yet the Fed has always been vulnerable to political pressure, something that the insistence on returning to a pre-Trump status quo elides.
The Broken Promises of the Green Transition
A decade ago, Western governments pitched the green transition as a solution to reindustrialization and economic decline. The failure of these policies to produce well-paying jobs has triggered a right-wing backlash in both the UK and the US.
The Socialist Who Helped Bring Marx to America
The early-20th-century socialist and New York mayoral candidate Morris Hillquit saw liberalism and democracy as providing a foundation for a transition to socialism. Alongside Eugene Debs, he helped to forge a distinct American socialist tradition.
Francesca Albanese and the Palestinian Fight for Survival
The US sanctions against Francesca Albanese are testament to her courage speaking up for the Palestinians. If international law lies buried underneath the rubble of Gaza, truth-tellers like Albanese have implacably defended basic universalist principles.
At a Brooklyn town hall with Bernie Sanders on Saturday, Zohran Mamdani recounted how Bernie “gave me the language of democratic socialism to describe my politics” and called on supporters to keep organizing after Election Day. We reproduce his speech here.
One Day, Britain’s Monuments Will Fall
Monuments, museums, and cultural institutions were often created in the image of “militarist realism,” presenting colonialism and enslavement as eternal. Undoing this legacy is not erasing the past but combating a pernicious ideology.
Labor’s Climate Fight Requires Public Ownership
Green politics won’t succeed if they can’t simultaneously speak to questions of affordability. And green affordability will require expanded public ownership.
William Blake Was a Prescient Critic of Capitalist Alienation
Before socialism even had a name, the poet and painter William Blake saw how the Industrial Revolution’s “dark Satanic mills” harmed humanity. His visionary work condemned the forces of commodification and cold calculation in emergent capitalism.
How Sweden’s Social Democrats Abandoned the Working Class
The decline of Swedish social democracy is an illuminating case study in why the Left is losing the working class. It also offers clues as to how the Left might win workers back.
Labor organizing can’t succeed at scale without a supportive legal and political environment, created by majoritarian coalitions that can win reforms, confront corporate power, and prove to skeptical workers that progressive governance delivers.
Diane Keaton Was Never Just Annie Hall
From The Godfather to Reds to Something’s Gotta Give, Diane Keaton moved between comedy and drama with ease, turning self-doubt and control into the twin engines of her art. Across decades of self-invention, she built a career that was unmistakably her own.
How Big Pharma Turned FDA Approval Into a Rubber Stamp
The Food and Drug Administration, once a powerful regulatory agency, has been compromised by its cozy relationship with Big Pharma. Despite feigned concern for public health, the Trump administration is only worsening the agency’s decline.
Socialists Won City Elections Across the Country This Week
It’s not just Zohran Mamdani — socialist candidates won municipal elections across the US last week. Like the New York mayor-elect, many of them focused their campaigns on affordability and relied on impressive grassroots volunteer operations.
LA Tenants Have Won a Breakthrough Against Landlord Abuse
Since Los Angeles passed its tenant anti-harassment law in 2021, the city received over 21,000 complaints but referred just 35 cases for prosecution. Now Highland Park tenants have forced the first-ever enforcement through relentless organizing.
