Capitalism is Still the Problem
(Image by Jon Tyson) As far as the United States is concerned, today’s Left is not only small, it’s also quite confused. Sure, there are debates regarding the conflict being fought in Ukraine and the...
View ArticleWe Did Not Evolve to Be Selfish—and We Can Choose How Our Cultures Evolve
Ours is a critical time in the cultural evolution of humanity that is likely to shape our long-term future, or lack thereof. As a species, we have been on a self-destructive trajectory that has led us...
View ArticleOn Four Global Contradictions
Having an analytical framework to understand the key relationships that define the social conditions and political battles we face can guide us in formulating our strategy and tactics on every...
View ArticleBananas for Socialism
Will there be bananas under socialism? The question recently swept the internet, started with a tweet from Malcolm Harris, communist and author of Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and...
View ArticleHow Much Discomfort Is the Whole World Worth?
Organizing is not a process of ideological matchmaking. Most people’s politics will not mirror our own, and even people who identify with us strongly on some points will often differ sharply on others....
View ArticleHow Ideology Can Help (Or Hurt) Movements Trying To Build Power
What is ideology? And why does it matter in social movements? In comparison with their counterparts in Europe, Latin America and other parts of the world, movements in the United States have tended to...
View ArticleThe Emerging Coalition That Could Revitalize Our Politics
Nearly 30 years ago, in 1996, Columbia University hosted a conference called “The Fight for America’s Future: A Teach-in With the Labor Movement.” Speakers included the feminist activist Betty Friedan,...
View ArticleThe Recent Decade of Revolt – Anarchy vs. Lenin
Perhaps it was not quite a revolution but the last decade or so – from 2010 to 2022 – has seen an upsurge of mass movements, revolts, and some might even say, a revolutions. It all began in Tunisia...
View ArticleSouth Africa’s Transition to Democracy Left Neoliberalism in Place
South Africa’s transition from an apartheid state to a democratic republic did not inaugurate an era of either prosperity or egalitarianism. This year, South Africa has seen its worst period of planned...
View ArticleCapitalism Isn’t Just Buying and Selling Things. It’s a System of Domination.
The video essay opens with battling citations of environmental activist Greta Thunberg and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. She says, “Capitalism will kill us all.” He says, “Free...
View ArticleWhat is a Political Psychopath?
Unhealthy societies tend to develop unhealthy people. 20th century philosopher Adorno once said, wrong life cannot be lived rightly. One indication of such a wrong life as well as an unhealthy and...
View ArticleThe Long Transition to Socialism
There has been a lot of talk about democratic socialism in the last ten or so years. Mostly, socialism is used as a label for a political tendency (Bernie + the Squad + Democratic Socialists of...
View ArticleAre Political Labels a Farce? The Case of the (non-)Radical Left
Political labels, more than any other time in the late modern history, which traditionally begins with the French Revolution of 1789, not only have lost their former relevance but have become a poor...
View ArticleWhat’s Driving Former Progressives to the Right?
In a new essay in the progressive magazine In These Times, the writers Kathryn Joyce and Jeff Sharlet grapple with the contemporary version of an old phenomenon: erstwhile leftists decamping to the...
View ArticleFrom Chile to Grenada, Socialism Is What Capitalists Are Really Afraid Of
Today, we too often study Salvador Allende’s government nostalgically, as a tale of heroic struggle and martyrdom. But Allende shouldn’t be remembered as someone who believed in a vague progressive...
View ArticleBeware Lifestyle Fascism
The first thing to know about Bryan Johnson is that there are two of him. One is Bryan with a “y,” the forty-six-year-old founder of the Blueprint life-extension system. This Bryan Johnson spends his...
View ArticleWe Need Better Tools
The pursuit of a better future involves questioning the very foundations of our current society, including the forms of technology that uphold it. Today we explore Ivan Illich’s concept of an...
View ArticleGaza: A Ghastly Window into the Crisis of Global Capitalism
As the world watches in horror over the mounting death toll of Palestinian civilians and Israel faces charges before the International Court of Justice for the Crime of Genocide, the carnage in Gaza...
View ArticleMarxism As Our Guide? ft Michael Albert
Is Marxism alone, enough to understand the current plight of people under capitalism? We discuss with Michael Albert
View ArticleThe Left Has a Great Story to Share About Alternatives to Capitalism—But...
For radical socialists, one of the most frustrating political experiences in the post-Cold War era is witnessing the dramatic deterioration of socio-economic conditions throughout the developed world...
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