Speaking Truth to Power No Substitute for Taking Power

Progressives often applaud the idea of “speaking truth to power.” But this concept is hazardous. If taken literally and deployed as a single-minded strategy, it can divert attention from the crucial need to take power away from those who abuse it.

Class Struggle at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Classical musicians aren’t associated with picket lines, but the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is now on strike. We spoke to three strikers about their grueling work, recent attacks on orchestra members’ pensions and salaries, classical music and labor.

1.4 Million Climate Strikers Raise a Single Demand

Young people across the U.S. and globally walked out of school Friday in an international strike for climate action — reportedly the largest protest against global warming in human history. An estimated 1.4 million people in 123 countries took part.

Cuba Embargo Continues to Hurt Our ‘Hermanos’

On March 4, the Trump administration took another unprecedented foreign-policy step and activated Helms-Burton Title III. The activation of Title III represents a major step backward in the normalization of relations between the U.S. and Cuba.

Mar. 21, 2019-Reader Comments, Resources, Announcements

Reader Comments: Saving the Planet - Youth Climate Strike; White Nationalism Deep Roots; New Zealand - How a Government Should Respond; Setting the Record Straight - Prof. Joseph Wilson; lots of resources and announcements...

Islamophobia is a Global Crisis

The attack in New Zealand shows the problem is only getting worse, as anti-Muslim rhetoric has emboldened extremists across the globe.

Jacinda Ardern Shows What Real Leadership Is

The New Zealand prime minister has reacted to the Christchurch shootings with steel, compassion and absolute clarity. And she has given us a vision of a better world

DeVos Wants Billions for Private, Religious Schools

The Secretary of Education has been touring the country to promote her plan.

Florida GOP Attacks New Voting Rights for 1.4 Million

"The Constitution can't operate as the supreme law of our nation if it's consistently subverted."

Global Left Midweek - March 20, 2019

Worldwide Climate Protest, Algiers Upsurge, Stédile on Venezuela, Philippines Strike, Yellow Vests, Remembering Marielle, Ukraine Elections, Pakistani Women's Movement Under Attack
Read more

Culture

books

Brecht’s Poetry: Angry or Evil?

Michael Wood The London Review of Books
An extended ode to the revolutionary German playwright-genius Bertolt Brecht, whose exhaustive new collected poems exalt combating injustice while keeping faith in his fidelity to dissent.

food

Folk Witness

John T. Edge Oxford American
What draws us to seek pleasure and solace in places often referred to as joints and shacks? Is this about time travel? Are they portals to a Southern past? Is it rooted in rooted in class difference, and a want to span that chasm?

poetry

Fish & Duck Skills

Metta Sáma Poem-a-Day
The poet Metta Sáma depicts the travails of high school taunts and bullying that ultimately reduce to a single trait: race.

Frida Kahlo: Communist, Feminist, Global Commodity

Lauren Kaori Gurley The Indypendent
A look at a new and extensive retrospective of the outstanding Mexican artist’s work at New York’s Brooklyn Museum through more than 350 objects shows Kahlo’s political and artistic life in all of its complexities and contradictions.

Labor

labor

UAW Must Resist Strategy to Divide Members, NAACP Leader Says

Phoebe Wall Howard Detroit Free Press
“Are you going to be able to keep what you have? Are you going to be able to sit at the table as one?” NAACP National President Derrick Johnson asked UAW members, as he urged them to avoid division based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender.

labor

How to Use Grievances to Organize

Mike Parker and Martha Gruelle Labor Notes
This excerpt from "Democracy Is Power: Rebuilding Unions from the Bottom Up" explains how to think about grievance handling in another way.

labor

An Ecosocialist Green New Deal: Guiding Principles

DSA Ecosocialists Democratic Socialists of America
Our role is to help build a militant mass working-class movement that is powerful enough to secure human flourishing for all beyond the critical next decades, not just survival for some.

labor

Why Unions Must Bargain Over Climate Change

Nato Green Working In These Times
The policies of a Green New Deal require a robust and well-funded public sector with good union jobs. Because of the nature of public sector work, a Green New Deal disproportionately benefits women and people of color.

Friday nite video

video

Hip Hop: Outta da Bronx, and Around the World

On the latest episode of Patriot Act, Hasan dissects how the rise of music streaming on platforms like YouTube, Spotify, and SoundCloud has influenced the sound, reach, and impact of modern day hip hop. While streaming technology has led to the commercial viability of SoundCloud rappers, it is simultaneously enabling rap as a viable form of protest against oppressive regimes around the world.

video

Historian Rutger Bregman: Moderates Are The Real Fringe

Rutger Bregman, who went viral for his criticism of the super-rich at Davos, joins Lawrence to react to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's push for "Democratic socialism" and right-wing attacks on Democratic proposals.

video

Juanita | Netflix Movie

Fed up with her life, Juanita leaves her grown kids behind and hits the road in search of a fresh start.

video

Now That's What I Call an Alibi

'You've Got Friends in High Places' and all your other favorite misquoted Garth Brooks songs that you can use to obstruct justice!

video

A Better Way to Tax the Rich

American wealth inequality is staggering. A wealth tax, which would home in on the money people actually have, rather than just the money we earn and spend, could be a solution.

video

VENEZUELA | Music Parody

A different message to the melody of 'I heard it through the grapevine.' And some other recognizable tunes.