May 29, 2026

The Democrats’ 2024 autopsy fails to confront the truth about Gaza’s ruinous effect on Harris campaign 
A wide detour around clear polling data was necessary to keep out of the autopsy the reality of measurable damage that Harris’s support for arming Israel did to her campaign. In August 2024, an IMEU/YouGov poll in three swing states found that for every vote Harris might lose by supporting an arms embargo on Israel, she stood to gain five votes. The mindset that chose to block such facts from getting into the autopsy was consistent with the way that the DNC has automatically functioned. The Guardian

Beyond Westminster’s Chaos, a New Grassroots Left Is Taking Shape
As Keir Starmer fights for survival, Jeremy Corbyn’s decade-long grassroots strategy may yet have the last word.

Within months [of Corbyn’s installation], there was a fully-fledged parliamentary revolt, with many of Corbyn’s shadow cabinet resigning. He remained firm, replacing ministers and facing off a leadership challenge triggered in June 2016 when 172 Labour MPs voted against him in a no-confidence motion, while only 40 backed him. But outside of Parliament, Corbyn’s popularity was soaring. A reinvigorated and much enlarged party membership was voicing its support for his progressive politics, and interest was emerging in what he stood for from well beyond the membership. openDemocracy

NYC’s Economic Development Corporation Can Build Public Options
The Left needs to show it can deliver bold, ambitious new public services. Zohran Mamdani can transform the Economic Development Corporation into an incubator for public goods that can meet the needs of all New Yorkers..Jacobin via Portside

Resisting Regime Change in Cuba
Since the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the United States has sought “by any means necessary” to throttle the socialist society being born, to prevent the spread of an alternative model.  Today, for the first time since the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, this has taken the form of possible direct U.S. aggression.  Margorie Cohn, in her “Resisting Regime Change in Cuba,” retraces that history to understand current dangers. Z network

Boots Riley: “Theft is not outside of capitalism, it’s what it was built on”
Don’t call Boots Riley an anti-capitalist, at least not without qualification. “I’m a communist,” he clarifies. “A lot of stuff that calls itself anti-capitalist is doing so because they’re afraid of calling themselves socialist or communist or something else.” […] His latest film, I Love Boosters, turns shoplifting into a Robin Hood–style proletarian allegory, where stealing itself is a mode of survival. And it arrives amid renewed debate over retail theft, with some on the left framing small-scale “boosting” as a form of resistance, and labor advocates warning that it ultimately harms workers while giving retailers cover to escalate enforcement and pursue felony charges. “Theft is not outside of capitalism; it’s what capitalism was built on — and not even, like, metaphorically,” Riley says. “The bourgeoisie was no different in that they stole land, stole minerals, stole labor. But that theft is thought of as legal.” The Guardian

Department of Labor Tells Employees to Report Anyone Prioritizing DEI
An email reminds workers they can report behavior that predates Donald Trump’s second inauguration. One employee tells WIRED it felt like a “reminder to narc on your coworkers.”Late last week, employees at the Department of Labor received a long email strongly urging them to file whistleblower complaints and report instances of “diversity, equity, and inclusion”–related discrimination or retaliation. In short, employees were told to alert the government of DEI compliance in any way. The email, sent on Friday and viewed by WIRED, felt like it was a “reminder to narc on your coworkers for doing DEI,” says a DOL employee who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation. The notice was titled “Reporting DEI-Related Discrimination, Retaliation, and Related Whistleblower Disclosures” and came from a “DOL Guidance and Information” email account. It was not signed by any particular member of DOL leadership. WIRED

The Politics of Purity and the War on Venezuela
Venezuela was the first victim of the Trump Administration’s illegal use of military might to assert US power in a sovereign land.  The character of the current Venezuelan government is often expressed in sweeping judgments of what should or should not be done.  Celina Della Croce in her “The Politics of Purity and the War on Venezuela,” digs beneath the surface.  Meanwhile we should remember that the most important lesson here should be that we must build a stronger anti-war movement that stays the hand of US militarism. Counterpunch