Before their illiberal turn, Poland and Hungary were lauded as postcommunist poster children. Both nations have combined moderately redistributive welfare states with attacks on civil liberties — but inflation is putting their growth model to the test. Polish prime...
Labor minister Yolanda Díaz is Spain’s most popular politician — and her new Sumar electoral vehicle promises to greatly expand the Left’s support. But the project remains marred by infighting, with strained relations between Díaz and her Podemos allies. Yolanda Díaz...
A North Carolina charter school that receives 95% of its funding from public sources is forcing girls to wear skirts. If the Supreme Court hears the case, it could determine if constitutional protections governing public education apply to charter schools. Charter...
The mainstream pro-choice movement has mounted a highly individualized defense of abortion rights, one centered on privacy and choice. But abortion rights can also also be rooted in achieving economic justice for everyone. Abortion rights activists attend the Women's...
Joe Biden has repeatedly pushed to cut Social Security in the past. But a proposal to end the payroll tax exemption for the rich would bolster the crucial government service and even has Joe Manchin’s support. The president has no excuse not to support it. President...
Left political strategies have traditionally divided between social democratic parliamentarism and the Leninist idea of “smashing the state.” Nicos Poulantzas argued that neither strategy was adequate and developed his own vision of “revolutionary reformism.” The...
Former iCarly child actor Jennette McCurdy’s new memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died, exposes how a profit-hungry entertainment industry encouraged the abusive behavior of her mother, who used her daughter’s stardom as an escape from financial precarity. Jennette McCurdy...
A New York Times investigation has uncovered a scam by which food service workers are made to pay out of pocket for state-mandated “safety” courses run by the restaurant lobby — which then turns around and spends millions of dollars pushing lawmakers to keep food...
When Rishi Sunak became the leader of the Conservative Party last October, he was the fifth Tory leader since Sunak himself entered Westminster for the first time in 2015. During the last Conservative stint in government, there were just two party leaders in the whole...
The US health care system forces new parents to pay thousands of dollars simply to have their child delivered into the world. That’s absurd. We could easily make childbirth free for all. A pregnant woman holds her belly on September 27, 2016 in Cardiff, United...
The Federal Trade Commission has proposed banning “noncompete clauses” in labor contracts. It’s a win for workers, but the FTC’s rationale — a blind devotion to “competition” as the solution to injustices in the labor market — is wrongheaded and dangerous....
The great labor historian Michael Denning reflects on what Antonio Gramsci’s work has to tell us today. A mural of Antonio Gramsci in Rome, 2015. (Nicholas Gemini / Wikimedia Commons) Italian communist leader and theorist Antonio Gramsci is perhaps more referenced...