Are mass protests and elections enough to block the slide toward authoritarianism? Labor scholar and organizer Eric Blanc argues that neither will suffice without exerting leverage on the key pillars of Trump’s support. He discusses how a multi-level campaign against the corporations and other entities that back the administration could be organized, as well as … Continued
What is the relationship between things held in Common — from rivers and forests, to traditions of sharing and mutual aid — and communism? How should we understand the connection between the Commons within class society and life after capitalism? Historian Peter Linebaugh weighs in on the history of the idea of Communism, the very … Continued
Gene-guided healthcare has taken U.S. medicine by storm, promising precision, targeted treatments to myriad illnesses. It has also proved very profitable. James Tabery traces how genetic medicine vied within the federal government with another approach to healthcare — one emphasizing the social and environmental determinants of health, such as whether you live in a polluted … Continued
Twenty years ago, Against the Grain came on the air for the first time, in the midst of turmoil, protest, and impending war. In the second half of a two part retrospective, historian Iain Boal discusses the context out of which Against the Grain emerged, from the media reform, global justice, and antiwar movements at … Continued
As the world rushes headlong into the climate emergency, what might a liberatory approach look like, that would avert ecological disaster while making another world possible? Drew Pendergrass and Troy Vettese have laid out one vision for eco-socialism that takes on the difficult question of how to plan society in a radically different way. Resources: … Continued
Egalitarianism is a thing of our distant past, or so we learn from conventional history. After a long stretch as hunter-gatherers roaming in small bands, our societies became bigger and more complex. And as they became larger, and cities emerged, hierarchy was inevitable in the form of kings, priests, and bureaucrats. The late anthropologist and … Continued
