John Wojcik pays tribute to a black US activist who spent six decades at the forefront of struggles for voting rights, economic justice and peace – reshaping US politics and inspiring movements worldwide
Latest editorial
The ugly face of US exceptionalism
The insurrection at the Capitol was not ‘an abberation’ – but is symptomatic of a nation whose history and culture are filled with violence and injustice, says LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
In the fifth and final part of a series of articles, Storming the Heavens author JENNY CLEGG explains how the Communist Party of China’s approach demonstrates how Marxism, rooted in concrete conditions and mass participation, can shape history
In times of genocide, art is not a refuge from politics but a weapon against injustice, says ROGER McKENZIE, highlighting three of his own favourite political truth-tellers
As members elect their first leadership, a deeper battle is unfolding over what democracy should mean in practice, says CASSI BELLINGHAM
The language of humiliation is a step towards a second civil war, argues RAMZY BAROUD
ANDREW MURRAY says switching the prime minister on and off again is no substitute for new political approach we need
WHEN incoming US president Joe Biden took to the podium following the violent and illegal January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, he reiterated what he and most US citizens believe the country represents: a “beacon of light and hope for democracy.”
Biden declared that the US’s reputation as the apotheosis of freedom had been besmirched by the actions of outgoing US President Donald Trump’s supporters, who, incited by the president himself, stormed the US Capitol.
This deep-rooted mythology, effectively US exceptionalism, stakes a place for the US in the world as the bearer of freedom and liberty, and as morally superior to other countries.
Similar stories
Mask-off outbursts by Maga insiders and most strikingly, the destruction and reconstruction of the presidential seat, with a huge new $300m ballroom, means Trump isn’t planning to leave the White House when his term ends, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
For 80 years, survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings have pleaded “never again,” for anyone. But are we listening, asks Linda Pentz Gunter
Bizarrely, Trump’s latest attacks now include the National Zoo, but his real and racist agenda is to strip everything black from the country’s cultural institutions, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
Musk’s ‘Doge’ is already dismantling institutions and destroying lives with shocking rapidity, while legal challenges and protest movements finally begin to mount against the chaos and cruelty, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER