March 15, 2023

Silicon Valley Bank and All That

The entrance to the Santa Clara headquarters of Silicon Valley Bank; by By Minh Nguyen - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=129577575

Where is Powell? Where is Yellen? Stop this crisis NOW. Announce that all depositors will be safe. – David Sacks, PayPal co-founder and Silicon Valley libertarian commentator, 3/10/2023 OK. We can all enjoy some schadenfreude as the Silicon Valley techno-libertarians discover that maybe there is a role for government, after all. Especially when their money…


March 10, 2023

Socialist Humor Is Not an Oxymoron

Cover pf Danny Katch's book is simple, a red cover with "Seriously" scrawled under "Socialism."

Paul Buhle interviews socialist humorist Danny Katch, on the publication of a new edition of Socialism….Seriously, by Haymarket Press, 2923 I wrote the first version of this book in early 2014, when TikTok was a Ke$ha song, Donald Trump was a joke, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was a bartender. #Blacklivesmatter was a hashtag and not a movement,…


February 28, 2023

As Black History Month Ends, Another Look At “The Souls of Black Folk”

Cover for Paul Peart-Smith's graphic reinterpretation of WEB Du Bois' THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK shows a stoic Black figure on a green field.

This year, the end of the 53rd Black History Month coincides with the 155th birthday of W. E. B. Du Bois–one of the most influential thinkers of the last century, whose ideas enter into every conversation about race in this country, whether the participants know it or not. This year also marks the 120th anniversary…


February 27, 2023

A Film Festival of Workers’ Stories!

Seeds planted and harvested in four panels of thr Workers Unite! Film Festival poster.

As #BlackHistoryMonth wraps up, are you looking for something to watch that’s NOT a franchise or Oscar bait? You’re in luck thanks to the Global Labor FilmFest Network (GLFF) 2023 Online Screening Series, co-sponsored by the DC Labor FilmFest (Washington, D.C.), the Rochester Labor Film Series (NY), the Socialist Labor Party Hall in Barre (VT), Reel W.ork Labor Film Festival (CA), and the Labor Heritage…


February 20, 2023

The Goods, the Bads, and the Questionables: U.S. Jobs in January 2023

Hans Hillewaert found the perfect way to illustrate "labor hoarding" - a crowd of hoarded silver coins.

In the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Employment Situation for January, the official unemployment rate fell a tenth of a percent to 3.4%. If we had no hidden unemployment, this would be a very positive  number. And even with uncounted joblessness, it is a very low rate. The rate for Black workers fell .3…


February 13, 2023

Help us preserve the legacy of the DSA!

Hey, comrade! Are you a DSA chapter leader trying to organize digital records for better access and use?  Read the full article in the January/February 2023 issue of Democratic Left.