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Their End is Our Beginning: Cops, Capitalism, and Abolition By brian bean Haymarket Books, 2025, 280 pages, $19.95 paper. IN MAY 2006 in Oaxaca, Mexico, teachers and their families assembled for a “festive but militant protest occupation” of the city’s central square, which had become an annual fixture of contract negotiations. When the governor sent… Continue reading Ends and Beginnings: An Abolitionist Manifesto

Crucible By John Sayles Melville House Publishing, 2026, distributed by Penguin Random House, 496 pages, $32.99 hardcover, paperback available December 2026, $21.99. WHEN THE New York Times asked John Sayles if Crucible, his novel about Detroit in the early 20th century, confirmed him as a writer of “historical fiction,” his answer highlighted a defining trait… Continue reading Choosing History: A Detroit Crucible

DONALD TRUMP’s ATTACKS on worker health and safety protections are notorious, but less well known is that Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom in California has mimicked Trump in likewise understaffing and underfunding Cal/OSHA, the state’s worker safety agency. Trump has allowed the number of field compliance inspectors for federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to… Continue reading Gutting Health & Safety Protections: Gavin Newson Following Trump’s Lead

We must get beyond the numbers on nuclear tests

This summer, France again saw hellish heat waves and record-high wildfires. But the job of dealing with fires is increasingly pushed onto volunteers, as an austerity government refuses to invest in its professional firefighting force.

A recently unveiled statue in Jakarta is the city’s first public memorial to one of the many crimes of Suharto’s dictatorship. Its rarity exposes the culture of historical amnesia that’s making it easier to roll back democratic rights today.

The US government wrote off almost all the money it lent businesses during the pandemic. Now it’s wrecking credit scores and threatening to garnish paychecks to collect student loans. Debt can be forgiven easily enough — just not for the working class.

Over the short term, AI may create more jobs than it destroys. But bosses will use it to de-skill work and suppress wages unless workers make it a terrain of class struggle and fight to put it under public control.

War, dollar chaos, and soaring oil prices fueled the inflation of the 1970s. Workers and the welfare state took the blame. As war sends oil prices soaring again, that story still limits what we think society can afford.

Feeding the Beast: Second in a series about lax regulation, corporate influence and the heavily polluting, yet nearly untouchable American meat industry. Thousands of dead and bloated pigs floated down country roads, buoyed by floodwaters. Tens of millions of gallons of feces and urine spilled over the brims of lagoons and contaminated everything in their […]

Data center developers and states see small modular nuclear reactors as one of the potential solutions for America’s increasing energy demand due to their smaller sizes and ability to provide steady energy generation. But nuclear energy experts say the main challenge is the timeline for their commercial deployment. The U.S. Energy Information Administration describes small […]

by Eduardo Miguel Álvarez Estévez

Russia says it is Cuba’s strategic ally. They repeat it at every summit. In every communiqué. On every anniversary of our bilateral relations. But the oil is not arriving. The ships do not appear. And the electric power blackouts continue to happen.

by Tom Wetzel

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the onset of the civil war and revolution in Spain. In this essay I suggest that the efforts of the Spanish working class in that epic conflict provide elements for building a model of socialism based on direct working-class control and participatory, democratic planning of a socialized economy.

by Murtaza Shibli

Five years after the Taliban returned to power, Afghanistan presents a mixed picture of consolidation and crisis. Large-scale violence has declined, security has improved, and the Taliban have pursued major infrastructure and connectivity projects while expanding ties with neighbouring countries. At the same time, the economy remains fragile, unemployment is high, and millions of returning refugees are placing additional pressure on limited resources. Relations with Pakistan have deteriorated sharply, while the exclusion of women and girls from education, employment and public life remains the most serious human rights issue. Murtaza Shibli examines the Taliban’s record, evolving regional relationships and the challenges shaping Afghanistan’s future.

by Hedelberto López Blanch

On August 7, a shadowy figure took office as president of Colombia. He has been implicated in various drug trafficking and money laundering scandals, but because he is a friend of the convicted U.S. president, Donald Trump, and other far-right figures in that northern nation, his crimes were swept under the rug.

by Vijay Prashad

Six months after the United States intensified pressure on countries supplying oil to Cuba, the island faces a deepening energy and economic crisis. Fuel shortages have contributed to prolonged power cuts, disrupted public transport, strained hospitals and water systems, and made it harder to move food from rural areas to cities. Vijay Prashad examines the unequal impact of the crisis and argues that humanitarian relief must be separated from political coercion. He outlines a path centred on predictable fuel supplies, international cooperation, negotiated de-escalation, diversified energy sources and investment in renewable, decentralised power systems that can strengthen Cuba’s energy sovereignty.

This is the presentation that Khrystyna Levchenko, former Atomprofspilka union rep at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, showed when she spoke alongside Ivanna Khrapko of the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine at the public meeting we held at UNISON’s national office in London on 27 August. (Above: Khrystyna and Ivanna, above USC banner, with … Continue reading Slides from Khrystyna Levchenko’s presentation on the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and its workers

Hoping to pressure Starbucks to finally sign a contract with its 12,000 unionized baristas, Starbucks Workers United has called for a boycott of the company. It is asking individuals as well as organizations and unions to stop patronizing the coffee giant.

by Don Fitz

Openly discussing degrowth can be a great activity both for those who think about it a lot as well as those who never imagined that life can improve with less stuff. Our group examination proved a great way to let a thousand flowers bloom in people’s minds. Removing the ills of the old society is critical for survival but will come to nothing without provoking a cascade of ideas for building a new one.

Matt Johnson’s Tony takes a few pages from Anthony Bourdain’s best-selling memoir and turns them into a warm, character-driven film about a spoiled kid learning how to work. It’s fantastic.