Eleni Schirmer is a writer living in Montréal. She holds a postdoc at Concordia University’s Social Justice Centre and organizes with Debt Collective.
During the Great Depression, a mass movement of the elderly helped pressure FDR to enact Social Security. As seniors increasingly struggle with financial insecurity today, that movement could serve as a model for a campaign to fix the program’s shortcomings.
If the Supreme Court strikes down Joe Biden’s proposed student debt cancellation plan tomorrow, the president has other, smarter options to relieve student debtors.
It’s tempting for students and academic workers to hope for a quick “return to normal” at colleges and universities. But normality was misery for an increasing number of us.
Thirty-five thousand students in Quebec went on strike this week. Their demand is simple: interns must be paid for their labor.
“Right to work” is about to spread to Wisconsin. But with patient organizing, the Left can still respond.