Alex Skopic reports on widespread attempts to ban books and shrink U.S. prison libraries. The carceral system is aiming to both further immiserate prisoners and set up corporations like Barnes & Noble to profit from them.
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Protean Magazine – Latest Articles
DoorDashing and Dreaming
Sudip Bhattacharya reflects on life under austerity: amidst a built environment inscribed with inequality, a frustrated academic joins the gig economy to make ends meet.
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Review: Bini Adamczak’s Yesterday’s Tomorrow
Clinton Williamson reviews Bini Adamczak’s Yesterday’s Tomorrow: On the Loneliness of Communist Specters and the Reconstruction of the Future, from MIT Press.
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Empire in Rendition
Matthew Byrne offers a thoughtful reflection on the history of colonialism and militarism as expressed in three paintings by J.M.W. Turner and John Singer Sargent.
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Three Poems by Belén Roca (Trans. Noah Mazer)
We’re thrilled to publish three poems by Belén Roca, translated by Noah Mazer. These pieces are excerpted from her forthcoming book, Magia Infrarealista (woe eroa), a communist flâneuse’s lyric passage through the streets of Santiago de Chile at the height of the 2019 insurrection.
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Who Counts?
The actual extent of homelessness in the U.S., writes KJ Shepherd, is drastically underestimated—a result of flawed counting metrics, enabled by a broader refusal by power to admit its true, staggering scale.
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Richie Floyd is Florida’s First Open Socialist Elected in a Century
McKenna Schueler reports from St. Petersburg, FL, where socialist and DSA member Richie Floyd has been elected to City Council—a heartening win for a campaign that emphasized the needs of working people.
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Interview: Tariq Ali on Afghanistan
Samuel McIlhagga spoke to Tariq Ali about his new essay collection on Afghanistan, the country’s history, and the devastation of the occupation.
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Picket Lines in the Graveyard: A History of Cemetery Workers’ Strikes
This Halloween, Kim Kelly relates the history of gravedigger’s strikes. Underappreciated cemetery workers perform an essential social service, but only collective action can win them pay and job conditions that reflect their importance.
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You & Me, Forever [Excerpt]
We’re thrilled to publish an excerpt from Vanessa Jimenez Gabb’s new collection, Basic Needs (Rescue Press), a book-length love letter to the destruction of capitalism.
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