A terrifying choice between two unpopular options confronts voters in the US this month.
When Barack Obama was elected in 2008 there were high hopes for what he could achieve. Eight years on the excitement was encapsulated in Bernie Sanders’ left wing challenge for the Democratic nomination.
Since losing that battle, Sanders has said that a vote for anyone except Hillary Clinton is a vote for Donald Trump. Despite that, some of his supporters will vote for the Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who says, “we put people, planet and peace over profit”. But she is currently only polling 2 to 3 percent. Many more will not vote at all.
A new organisation has sprung from the ashes of the Sanders nomination campaign called Our Revolution. The slogan is, “Campaigns end. Revolutions endure”. But it appears to be focused on uniting people in the activity of election campaigns.
Whoever wins the presidency, the US will need to see more mobilisations of the Black Lives Matter movement, environmental campaigners, low-wage and other workers to bring about any real, enduring change.
In November of last year, there was a brief moment of light amid the darkness that was 2020. Scotland became the first country in the world to make period products free for all. Just as the weekend and the eight-hour-day are now regarded by many as a given, future generations may be in disbelief that...
On 4 November last year, when many of us were watching the aftermath of the American presidential election, the US formally left the Paris Climate Agreement. Written in 2015 at the United Nations’ COP21 climate conference in Paris, the agreement is often considered to be the most significant document of international climate cooperation. Back then,...
To say 2020 was dramatic would be an understatement. The world situation has been completely transformed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the inadequacy of governmental and state responses. As we head into 2021 it feels like we are entering uncharted territory. To make specific predictions would be unwise. But the Covid-19 crisis raises fundamental questions...
The 2020 crisis we’ve endured isn’t an aberration of the system but, as Alex Callinicos argues, an aspect of its permanent crisis.
