Archives: Online Posts
The Political Ecology of Pandemics
Michael Friedman on the political ecology of emerging diseases and pandemics.
Materializing Race
Jack Norton and David Stein respond to John Clegg and Adaner Usmani’s argument that mass incarceration isn’t a product of racism. The authors’ argument, they demonstrate, is both conceptually misguided and empirically wrong.
Competing with Nature: COVID-19 as a Capitalist Virus
Rob Wallace speaks about the global capitalist roots of the current pandemic, the likelihood of future pandemics, and the types of organized resistance necessary to prevent them.
The Exception as the Rule
Ongoing organizing in the face of COVID-19 reveals how class struggles in Toronto are inseparable from fights waged on feminist, anti-racist, and other fronts, all in the name of reclaiming life over profits.
Beyond Borders
Is postcolonial nationalism a liberatory force because it’s postcolonial, or a reactionary force because it’s nationalism? Nandita Sharma speaks to Spectre editor Zachary Levenson about this question in relation to her new book, Home Rule.
Unfixing South Asian Identity
Drawing upon autobiographical reflections, JS Titus explores the class stratification of South Asians in the UK. She argues that class and oppression rather than idealized identities must be the basis of forging solidarity today.
Fighting for Black Lives at School
Ashley Smith interviewed Black Lives Matter activist and educator Jesse Hagopian about the struggle for Black Lives at school, the uprising for racial justice, the role of unions in that struggle, and the looming workers’ fight against austerity in cities and states across the country.
Yih and Kulldorff’s “Radical” Covid Strategy
An epidemiologist responds to two Harvard researchers who called for socialists to oppose lockdowns in the name of workers’ lives. But their argument, Michael Friedman insists, puts us all at risk – above all, workers.
The Interregnum
Spectre’s Tithi Bhattacharya interviewed Meagan Day, Justin Charles, and Charlie Post about the left, electoral strategy, and class and social movements after the defeat of Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Primary. In the first part, each answers Bhattacharya’s questions and in the second part, they respond to one another.
New Statue, Old Chimurenga
Lebohang Mojapelo writes about how little Zimbabwe has changed since the November 2017 coup that drove out Robert Mugabe.