Uphill Battle
Jared Abbott
The US left has made historic advances on the electoral front in recent years. Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential bid breathed life into a progressive wing of the Democratic Party which will likely become a permanent feature of the US political landscape. Apart from Sanders himself, the most visible _expression_ of this new left has been the Justice Democrats-backed ‘Squad’ of six legislators – mostly working-class women of colour – in the House of Representatives. The Squad played a major role in shaping the Democratic domestic policy agenda in 2020. Its members have inspired countless activists, and it has undoubtedly helped to shift the party’s centre of gravity. What are the prospects for this insurgent force under Biden, and beyond?
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Iron Musk
Marco D'Eramo
It is difficult to hide a certain satisfaction upon witnessing the collapse of bitcoin. Since I last dealt with the topic for Sidecar seven months ago, the total capitalization of cryptocurrencies has decreased from $2.6 trillion – equivalent to the total GDP of France – to only $984 billion to $901 billion (as of 15 June). One feels sorry, but only a little, for those gullible people who invested their modest savings in crypto currencies hoping for easy profits and got fleeced by another pyramid scheme – an updated version of the seventeenth-century tulip fever in the Netherlands, history’s first senseless financial bubble.
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Nightmare's End?
Rohini Hensman
I am not in Sri Lanka, and I feel torn about what is happening there. Acute anxiety about how millions will survive the shortages of food, fuel and medicine jostles against a glimmer of hope that this crisis could be the beginning of the end of a decades-long nightmare. Since the country gained its Independence in 1948, various sections of the population have been targeted by its ruling bloc: threatened with losing their homes, livelihoods and often their lives. They have fought back, but each section has been isolated and crushed by an increasingly centralized and ruthless state. Now, for the first time, the vast majority of the population has risen in revolt. Criticism of the dictatorship is widespread, and divisions between working people may finally be healing.
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