Stories by Mark Engler

Mark Engler, a writer based in New York City, is a senior analyst with Foreign Policy In Focus and author of How to Rule the World: The Coming Battle Over the Global Economy (Nation Books, 2008). He can be reached via DemocracyUprising.com. subscribe to Mark Engler's feed

The Maximum Wage: Coming Soon To A CEO Near You?

Posted on: Jul 15, 2013, Source: The New Internationalist

U.S. transit workers union leader Larry Hanley recently proposed a “maximum wage” law that would limit an employer’s income to being no more than 100 times the salary of his or her lowest-paid employee.

Student Debt Crisis: It's Time for a Jubilee

Posted on: Aug 7, 2012, Source: Dissent Magazine

After decades fighting for debt forgiveness on a global scale, the Jubilee campaign is now pushing for the cancellation of student debt, as well.

How Student DREAMers Won A Step in Immigration Reform

Posted on: Jun 25, 2012, Source: AlterNet

It is worth spending a moment to pay homage to the DREAM Act students whose extraordinary activism made change possible.

Occupiers from Around the Country Descend on Iowa Caucuses

Posted on: Dec 30, 2011, Source: AlterNet

The "people's caucus" is also going on in Des Moines.

Why the 99% Can't Be Co-opted

Posted on: Oct 21, 2011, Source: Dissent Magazine

Occupy Wall Street draws strength from its reach.

Defense Cuts? Don't Believe it Until you See Them

Posted on: Jul 27, 2011, Source: Dissent Magazine

In the real world, talk of cuts to the military has a way of evaporating when it comes time for appropriations.

How Boycotters Helped Get Rid of Glenn Beck

Posted on: Jul 4, 2011, Source: AlterNet

The Fall of Glenn Beck: How an Imaginative Boycott Stripped the Right-Wing Screamer of Sponsors and What We Can Learn from Its Success

Posted on: Jul 4, 2011, Source: AlterNet

Commentators have been downplaying the role of a Color of Change campaign against Beck. They are wrong. Beck is gone. Give the boycotters their due.

Immigrant Labor Improves Job Prospects For the Native Born

Posted on: Sep 21, 2010, Source: Foreign Policy in Focus

Immigrants aren’t stealing jobs from native-born U.S. citizens. In fact, they help the economy in a way that results in higher average wages for U.S. workers.

Gas Is Really Costing Us About $15 a Gallon

Posted on: Aug 13, 2010, Source: TomDispatch.com

Calculating the true cost of living in a country built on oil.

Should Democrats Use the Tea Party to Split the Right?

Posted on: Aug 8, 2010, Source: Dissent Magazine

Some Democratic candidates are luring Tea Partiers to run in tightly-contested Congressional races, but the strategy could backfire.

How the Obama Admin Turned its Back on Democracy in Honduras (and Missed a Chance for a Real "Change" in Foreign Policy)

Posted on: Jul 28, 2010, Source: AlterNet

Why Obama has not taken a much stronger stand against the Honduras coup is a lingering mystery.

The Yes Men: Pranksters Out to Fix the World

Posted on: Oct 27, 2009, Source: Foreign Policy in Focus

The Yes Men pose as spokespeople for major companies or bodies like the World Trade Organization, and give presentations that highlight the logic of corporate greed.

Climate Disobedience Is on the Rise and It's Not Just for Radical Activists Anymore

Posted on: Aug 13, 2009, Source: TomDispatch.com

An emerging movement is determined to use direct action to combat the depredations of climate change and they've got some big names on board.

Neocon Fantasies of Empire Crushed: the New Global Reality

Posted on: Apr 20, 2009, Source: Foreign Policy in Focus

Two disastrous wars and the economic meltdown have shaken America's superpower status. What can Obama do to help shape a sustainable global order?

El Salvador is Poised to Break With the Past; Is the U.S. Ready to Change its Policy Toward Latin America?

Posted on: Mar 13, 2009, Source: Foreign Policy in Focus

Washington's past policies in El Salvador have been deadly. With Salvadorians poised to vote for change, the U.S. should embrace it.

As the "New Economy" Crashes, to What Degree Will Mainstream Economists Change Their Stripes?

Posted on: Jan 2, 2009, Source: Dollars and Sense

These days, establishment defectors from the doctrine of market fundamentalism are growing in number.

Pentagon Tries to Lock Obama Into an Outrageously Bloated Budget

Posted on: Dec 23, 2008, Source: In These Times

The U.S. spends as much on the military in a single year as it did in the $700 billion financial bailout. Yet the Pentagon is now calling for more.

Is 'Taking it to the Streets' Worth the Bruises, Tear Gas and Arrests?

Posted on: Sep 28, 2008, Source: AlterNet

The 1999 protests against the WTO were dramatic enough to inspire a new feature film, but did they actually make a difference?

There Is an Alternative to Corporate Rule

Posted on: Aug 31, 2008, Source: Nation Books

All over the world, alternative approaches to capitalist greed are bubbling up from the grassroots.

The Battle for the Soul of the Democratic Party

Posted on: Apr 29, 2008, Source: Foreign Policy in Focus

Today, trade policy plays an important role not just in the global economy, but also here at home. It goes hand-in-hand with demands for good jobs.

Hopeful Signs For Global Justice

Posted on: Dec 27, 2006, Source: TomPaine.com

Despite the challenges presented by the current administration, the global justice movement has made impressive strides.

The Overwhelming Costs of the Iraq War

Posted on: Feb 24, 2006, Source: TomDispatch.com

Judging by the lessons of Vietnam, public opinion has already tipped against the war on Iraq. All that remains is to hold the neocons accountable.

When Lost Is Found

Posted on: Aug 19, 2005, Source: In These Times

A review of "A Field Guide to Getting Lost," by Rebecca Solnit.

Republicans Among Us

Posted on: Sep 3, 2004, Source: AlterNet

A week in review from the Republican National Convention, inside and out.

Revenge of the Combat Cartoonist

Posted on: Jul 28, 2004, Source: In These Times

Meet El Fisgon, satirist, historian, and agitprop iconographer extraordinaire.

Harken v. Costa Rica

Posted on: Mar 25, 2004, Source: Grist.org

Highlighting one of the flaws in the upcoming CAFTA treaty, Harken Energy sues the nation of Costa Rica for $57 billion for enforcing its own environmental laws.

The Momentum of the Movement

Posted on: Mar 17, 2004, Source: TomPaine.com

One year after the invasion of Iraq, what has the peace movement accomplished? And where do we go from here?

Wisconsin Farewell: A Dean Retrospective

Posted on: Feb 16, 2004, Source: AlterNet

The end of Howard Dean's candidacy provides a good time to take stock of his dramatic reversal of fortune, and to appreciate his contribution to a revived Democratic Party.

The WMD Blame Game

Posted on: Feb 1, 2004, Source: AlterNet

The independent investigation into Iraq WMD claims must have power to look beyond technical intelligence-gathering processes and investigate how the White House misused findings in its push for war.

Who Pays For Poverty?

Posted on: Sep 21, 2003, Source: TomPaine.com

Critics questioned welfare reform during the prosperous '90s, but the real crisis is emerging in the wake of the Bush recession.

Whether to Be Loved or Feared

Posted on: Jul 2, 2003, Source: AlterNet

Does international public opinion about the United States really matter? Yes, and here's why.

Bush's Environmental Strategy: Greenwashing the Truth

Posted on: Mar 31, 2003, Source: AlterNet

When faced with environmental crises attributable to business interests cozy with the White House, the administration has developed an alternative response: suppress, ignore, preempt.

'Tis the Season For Corporate Welfare

Posted on: Dec 26, 2002, Source: AlterNet

The Bush White House reserved its biggest Christmas gifts for corporate polluters and price-gouging drug companies this year.

A Prize-Winning Rebuke For Bush

Posted on: Nov 24, 2002, Source: AlterNet

Nobel prize laureates around the world have come out against Bush's unilateralist policy.

Needed: A Quarantine Against Greed

Posted on: Sep 30, 2002, Source: AlterNet

If the finance ministers at the IMF/World Bank meeting pay attention to the protestors, they will understand the cause for their economic woes: infectious greed.

Doing Right By Immigrants on Labor Day

Posted on: Aug 27, 2002, Source: AlterNet

The labor movement's embrace of immigrantion reform is based on the realization that there can be no worker's rights without immigrant rights.

Marching for a Global Peace

Posted on: Apr 21, 2002, Source: AlterNet

A committed activist steps back to look at the April 20 anti-war protests and what they mean for the Bush administration, for Israel and for corporate globalization around the world.

Brewing Poverty And Violence In El Salvador

Posted on: Mar 27, 2002, Source: TomPaine.com

President Bush is busy touting U.S. aid to developing countries, but experience in El Salvador shows how U.S.-devised neo-liberal policies deepen poverty and constrain human rights.

Fortress Quebec: A Return to Tear Gas and Violence

Posted on: Apr 22, 2001, Source: TomPaine.com

After easing off from tear gas during recent globalization protests, authorities returned whole-heartedly to the chemical violence in Quebec City. Why?