“Sometimes it’s worthwhile to take a little time away from real politics, an interlude, and make sure you get somebody out. This time it is critically important”

“We’re not good enough right now,” the New York Democrat says of her party, and unless the material lives of working-class people are improved the nation’s dangerous slide to the right will continue

Interview on a variety of topics

What world do you really want to be in after the election is fully resolved?

Voting for Biden in a swing state, and calling on others to do the same, is a recognition of the realities we face and of the fact that a Trump victory would have incalculable consequences for the left, for all Americans, and for our planet

The pandemic has revealed the barbaric nature of an economy that has largely left the care of children to the whims of market forces. The well-being of children, women, and especially women of color is at stake

Among the groups trying to prevent the GOP from out-organizing the Democratic Party among veterans and military families are the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and Common Defense, a national organization of progressive veterans

In practice, despite the seeming rift between Washington and Brussels, the outcome is, essentially, the same. The US and Europe are Israel’s largest trade partners, weapon suppliers and political advocates. 

If the demands of the movement are clear and unambiguous, everyone should be able to tell whether they have been met and there will be no opportunity for leadership sellout. Democracy is not negotiable

The default counterinsurgency mode is a consequence of being ruled by an elite that sees the whole population as the enemy

Interview on a variety of topics

But there is another path leading away from this crossroads, one that Joe Biden should embrace, which involves redirecting our country’s resources and energies away from unsustainable imperial power through a peaceful transition to a sustainable, prosperous post-imperial future

Urging Progressives to Vote for Biden to Defeat Trump

Many progressive activists, wary of being spurned and burned again as they feel they were by Obama, are nevertheless preparing to—as Noam Chomsky, Medea Benjamin, and other left activists said in a recent letter of their own—”dump Trump, then battle Biden.”

The urgent problem of overcoming the existential crises—global warming, nuclear war, pandemics—has to be done within the general framework of existing institutions. We can improve them. But you won’t be able to overcome them in the relevant time frame

Black and Latinx people are disproportionately affected by disenfranchisement laws, which are still in effect in most U.S. states

Palestinian prisoners should not be left alone, paying a price for daring to stand up for justice, fairness and for their people’s freedom

Both individually and in organizations we should celebrate differences and, when possible, should keep alive varied approaches so that everyone benefits from lessons and accomplishments others attain

The IMF and the Bank would like the global South to believe that they are indispensable. They are not

The pretend peacemaker has repeatedly endangered the nation and world

Interview on the national and international significance of Trump’s refusal to commit to a “peaceful transition to power” and his reliance on conspiracy theories

With systemic injustices now screaming out to all who are open to hearing, the left would have a historic opportunity under Biden to expose and confront the Democratic Party

The president has made clear that he intends to cling to power at all costs, including the U.S. Constitution and our democracy

With regard to violating international law, Israel is in a unique category of its own, for Israel’s behavior is always governed by its military strength and the backing of its Western allies.

How do we conduct activism seeking limited gains with the personalities and means we have at hand, yet in ways that lead toward comprehensive transformation?

Why a Global Green New Deal Project is the only way to address climate change

It is a threat to all of us as members of society. Overcoming a Trump Coup is Social Self-Defense

It is abundantly clear that Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, has underestimated the seriousness of the challenges facing Palestine and the Palestinians.

And then I would weep for your soul, but you don’t have one. I would bemoan the loss of your intelligence, but you don’t have any. I would lament the loss of your sly and slippery feel for self preservation, but the end of that would be a blessing. 

If President Trump dies from the coronavirus that has killed more than 200,000 Americans largely due to his deliberate negligence, the man replacing him will be no less dangerous

As long as U.S. leaders continue to coddle the Saudis, it’s difficult not to ask who is more evil—the maniacal Saudi crown prince responsible for Khashoggi’s murder and the slaughter of more than a hundred thousand Yemenis, or the mendacious Western governments and businesspeople who continue to support and profit from his crimes? 

What he demonstrated, perhaps more than anything else, is that he is the President who wishes to herald the reemergence of the “white republic,” the construct around which the USA was originally founded

Julian Assange is a threat to these recurring horrors—that’s why he is being persecuted, why a court of law has become an instrument of oppression, why he ought to be our collective conscience: why we all should be the threat.

Selected comments came in private emails which is why they appear here without names, but, in truth, they are from a cross…

Those who want to prevent another Trump victory should go all-out to show they won’t be fooled again

Death when one is diminished is devastating. Death when one is isolated is shattering. All manner of death is final. Lydia Sargent…

Picking Michelle Flournoy to lead the Pentagon would be a tragic indication that Biden is truly hell-bent on squandering America’s future on a debilitating arms race with China and Russia

A review of Abdullah Ocalan’s book, The Sociology of Freedom (PM Press)

The whole principle of the right to be free journalists is at stake

Stephen R. Shalom criticizes the arguments against lesser-evil voting and makes the case for the Left both to support Biden and build the social movements

A single chart, or a thousand, can never truly describe the actual terror felt by a million children who feared for their lives during those horrific days

Outrage Over Florida Gov. DeSantis’ Proposed Anti-Protest Bill

“We can lend a hand to people’s organizations that are not just working to defeat Trump, but also working to upend an unacceptable status quo, defeat an out-of-touch political establishment, take on the powerful forces arrayed against us, and win the future for the many, not the few.”

The major task for progressives is to search for creative ways that will alter public consciousness in the United States about the devastating effects of a political culture engulfed in the flames of racial strife, violence, militarism, and climate change denialism

PI Council Member Noam Chomsky’s keynote speech at the Progressive International’s inaugural summit.

The liberal party offers strong rhetoric on climate change but in practice promotes continued fossil fuel production. In the face of our unfolding climate catastrophe, this needs to end now

Interview on the 2020 US election, the state of humanity, the breakdown of democracy, the rise of conspiracy theories, the prosecution of Julian Assange, the role of satire – and what helps to keep him going amidst all this

The means to manage the crisis are available. But not for long. One primary task of the Progressive International is to ensure that we all panic now — and act accordingly.

This summer has seen two significant national strike actions–for Black Lives and for safe reopening of schools. These are hardly conventional strikes–indeed, they represent historically unprecedented forms of protest

Source: Politics Art Roots Culture – Media Michael Albert is an American economist, speaker, writer, and political critic. Since the late 1970s,…