Peter Dreier is the E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics at Occidental College. His most recent book is We Own the Future: Democratic Socialism—American Style, published by the New Press in January 2020 and co-edited with Kate Aronoff and Michael Kazin.
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Peter Dreier
Kate Wolffe/KQED via AP
Oakland Activists Beat Real Estate Mogul
Moms 4 Housing’s organizing victory highlighted the twin crises of homelessness and lack of affordable housing in many communities in America. Read more
John Minchillo/AP Photo
The Decade in 11 Movements
The 2010s saw a surge in activism. Here are some of the highlights. Read more
Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press
How California’s Tenants Won Statewide Rent Control
Long a community with little clout, the state’s renters won a victory with national implications. Read more
Jim Bourdier/AP Photo
The Man Who Put Public-Employee Unions on the Map
Saturday is the 100th birthday of Jerry Wurf, who turned AFSCME into a powerhouse and a champion of equal rights. Read more
Sammy Solomon/New Market Fire and Rescue Team via AP
The Highlander Center Won’t Let an Arsonist Extinguish Its Flame of Justice
The Tennessee training center has been a hub of the civil rights movement and progressive organizing since 1932. It appears that hatemongers have again tried to shut it down. Read more
AP Photo/Steven Senne
The College Admissions Scandal: Graft By Any Other Name
Outright bribery may be the exception, but favoring the rich is the rule. Read more
AP Photo
Jackie Robinson: A Legacy of Activism
January 31 is the 100th birthday of the great ballplayer who set the standard for athletes who protest social injustice. Read more
AP Photo/Ron Edmonds, File
The Last President of the Old Ruling Class
George H.W. Bush, 1924-2018 Read more
AP Photo/Nick Perry
John Roberts (the Tortoise) Is Outrunning Trump (the Hare)
To advance the conservative agenda, Roberts invokes the fiction of a nonpartisan judiciary. Read more
AP Photo/Teresa Crawford
The Nine New Democratic Black Congress Members Come From Heavily White Districts
And will boost the Congress’s African American membership to a record-high of at least 55. Read more
(AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
Nike Tells Kaepernick: Just Do It
The former quarterback’s new deal with Nike could have mixed effects on social justice. Read more
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Mutiny in the White House
The Times’s anonymous op-ed calls to mind the World War II tale of a ship’s captain losing his marbles and seeking revenge. Read more
(Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
The Queen of Feminist Soul
Aretha, “Respect,” and the rise of second-wave feminism Read more
(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Resurgence of Democratic Socialism in America
The DSA member’s upset victory shows a growing number of Americans are no fans of actually existing capitalism. Read more
Let Us NOT Praise Anthony Kennedy
Regardless of his motives, Kennedy will be responsible for allowing Trump to name a replacement who, along with the other right-wingers on the court, will further erode American democracy. Read more
Public Domain
Was Albert Einstein a Racist?
The great scientist was a radical egalitarian—but subject nonetheless to some of the biases of his time. Read more
(Ryan Kang via AP)
For NFL Players, Civil -- and Visible -- Disobedience Is the Only Option
Taking a knee is in the best American tradition of protest. Read more
Why America Needs More Social Housing
Subsidizing market prices to make housing affordable is a losing strategy. There’s a better way—on display for a century in Vienna. Read more
Josef Schwarz/Creative Commons
Recalling Pete Seeger’s Controversial Performance on the Smothers Brothers Show 50 Years Ago
Seeger had been blacklisted as a communist and this gutsy defiance of a corporate media giant marked his return to the mainstream cultural scene. Read more
