Essays Archive - Page 47 of 131

Can Joe Biden Stay Above the Fray?

The President is quietly trying to rebuild the economy while Republicans tear each other apart

May 19, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

_____ This week, President Joe Biden traveled to Dearborn, Michigan, to sell his $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan. Visiting Ford’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center, he tested an electric version of the classic F-150 pickup and urged Americans to use the race to dominate the market in electric vehicles as a way ...

Economy

It’s Time to Ask New Questions About Boycotts

Named after an obscure English estate agent, a tactic that harnesses consumer power to make political change has had many incarnations

May 18, 2021 • by Claire Potter

_____ In 1880, the harvest in County Mayo, Ireland, was so poor that it seemed unlikely that the tenant farmers on lands held by English absentee landowner Lord Erne would be able to pay their rents. Graciously (he thought), Erne offered them a ten percent reduction. Energized by a fairness campaign ...

Politics

When Political Institutions Fail, Boycott and Street Protests Can Succeed

In the face of a corrupt election, opposition parties refuse to participate in governing the Republic of Georgia, forcing an intervention from the European Union

May 18, 2021 • by Anastasia Mgaloblishvili

_____ Once a frontrunner in democracy in the region, Georgia now faces a crisis of democracy. What was supposed to be the country’s first predominantly proportional parliamentary elections that would strengthen representation and bring in a diverse, pluralistic parliament resulted in the opposite. Georgia’s 2020 parliamentary elections became known as “the ...

When Political Institutions Fail, Boycott and Street Protests Can Succeed

Politics

When a Boycott Blocks Queer Research

California LGBT legislators convinced their colleagues to prohibit spending public funds in states with anti-LGBT laws—and created roadblocks for researchers who could help solve the problem

May 18, 2021 • by Marc Stein

_____ After enacting some of the country’s most regressive anti-trans legislation in April 2021, Arkansas is likely to become the thirteenth state subject to California’s ban on publicly-funded travel to states with anti-LGBT laws. AB1887, enacted in 2016 and effective as of 2017, currently applies to eight southern states (Alabama, Kentucky, ...

Activism

Taking on the Coors Brewing Company—and the Conservative Family Behind It

Consumer activists taking on the companies that support former President Donald Trump can learn from the boycott that never ended

May 18, 2021 • by Allyson P. Brantley

_____ Well into the 1990s, the energetic, septuagenarian gay organizer Morris Kight vehemently opposed any suggestion that the Coors beer boycott, first launched in the late 1950s by unionized brewery workers and later taken up by Chicano, Black, and LGBT activists, was over. For nearly four decades, Kight and other activists ...

Taking on the Coors Brewing Company—and the Conservative Family Behind It

History

The Paris Commune—Myth Made Material

As George Sorel explained, myths “provide an intelligible exposition of the passing of principles into action”

May 18, 2021 • by Mitchell Abidor

_____ Revolutions are materialist events in their essence. The explosive outgrowth of specific circumstances in specific places at specific times, the product of a specific history and a specific society, they are also, paradoxically, the bearers and result of what the philosopher Georges Sorel in his Reflections on Violence called “myths.” ...

History

The US Olympic Team with No Results

A boycott ended hundreds of gold medal dreams in 1980—to what purpose?

May 18, 2021 • by Anita L. DeFrantz

_____ Boycotts have many virtues. They impose financial and social penalties for official behavior that cannot otherwise be changed. Boycotts can not only be successful, they can be turning points in history. Without a doubt, the most important American boycott of the 20th century was initiated by Mrs. Rosa Parks, who, ...

Economy

Building an Alternative to Amazon?

Toward a planetary-scale, pluralist commonwealth for the digital economy

May 14, 2021 • by Trebor Scholz and Casper Gelderblom

_____ During a community town hall discussion last year, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez commented that “If Jeff Bezos wants to be a good person, he’d turn Amazon into a worker cooperative.” AOC’s refreshing call for a radical transformation of Amazon’s Everything Store rests on a well-established case of shocking violations of workers’ ...

Art & Design

What Can’t be Contained

A conversation between Alexandra Délano Alonso and Macushla Robinson

May 13, 2021 • by Alexandra Délano Alonso and Macushla Robinson

_____ In March of 2020, with the pandemic devastating New York and Queens being declared the “epicenter of the epicenter” it felt impossible to find words to describe the uncertainty, the losses, the distance. Over the coming months, Alexandra Délano Alonso gathered images and fragmentary language to hold what was (and still ...

Economy

IOU planet

Industrialized nations have heavily plundered natural resources for around 160 years. It’s now payback time

May 13, 2021 • by Sarah Waring

_____ ‘We must go faster and further than ever before,’ asserts a measured voice. Scenes of renewable energy simultaneously glide across my screen. I’ve tuned into the US presidency-organized ‘Leaders Summit on Climate’ and am watching the motivational introduction with anticipation. The initial message is one of urgency, determination and action. With ...

Politics

Cheney’s Last Stand

She may be exiting the GOP leadership, but she is joining a new Resistance

May 12, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

_____ Tuesday night, in a speech that claimed every piece of the Republican landscape since 1980, Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney launched a broadside against the Republican leaders who have shackled the party to the former president. “Today we face a threat America has never seen before,” Cheney said. A former president who ...

Politics

That We Love Our Country More

In defeat, Liz Cheney seizes the high ground and declares war on the Party of Trump

May 12, 2021 • by Claire Potter

_____ Nobody—much less Cheney herself—imagined that there would be a last-minute deal that would keep her in the Republican leadership. And there wasn’t. Within 20 minutes of the Republican caucus gaveling in its regular 9:00 AM Wednesday meeting, Liz Cheney was removed from leadership by a quick voice vote. Virginia Foxx (NC-5) ...

Essays

Can Joe Biden Stay Above the Fray?

The President is quietly trying to rebuild the economy while Republicans tear each other apart

It’s Time to Ask New Questions About Boycotts

Named after an obscure English estate agent, a tactic that harnesses consumer power to make political change has had many incarnations

When Political Institutions Fail, Boycott and Street Protests Can Succeed

In the face of a corrupt election, opposition parties refuse to participate in governing the Republic of Georgia, forcing an intervention from the European Union

When a Boycott Blocks Queer Research

California LGBT legislators convinced their colleagues to prohibit spending public funds in states with anti-LGBT laws—and created roadblocks for researchers who could help solve the problem

Taking on the Coors Brewing Company—and the Conservative Family Behind It

Consumer activists taking on the companies that support former President Donald Trump can learn from the boycott that never ended

The Paris Commune—Myth Made Material

As George Sorel explained, myths “provide an intelligible exposition of the passing of principles into action”

The US Olympic Team with No Results

A boycott ended hundreds of gold medal dreams in 1980—to what purpose?

Building an Alternative to Amazon?

Toward a planetary-scale, pluralist commonwealth for the digital economy

What Can’t be Contained

A conversation between Alexandra Délano Alonso and Macushla Robinson

IOU planet

Industrialized nations have heavily plundered natural resources for around 160 years. It’s now payback time

Cheney’s Last Stand

She may be exiting the GOP leadership, but she is joining a new Resistance

That We Love Our Country More

In defeat, Liz Cheney seizes the high ground and declares war on the Party of Trump

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