Independent since 2002 Issue No. 1102 Week of November 7, 2026 Get the free email dispatch →

Guest Commentator

Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute

BlackCommentator.com Guest Commentator, Sonali Kolhatkar is the host and producer of Uprising, a popular, daily, drive-time program on KPFK, Pacifica Radio in Los Angeles and co- director of the Afghan Women's Mission, a US-based non-profit organization that works with the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA).

100 pieces

Guest Commentary

Republicans Tell Texans to Suck It Up

By Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute Guest Commentator

Seeing electricity generation as a profit-making enterprise rather than the fulfillment of a public need, GOP policies in Texas have made the state vulnerable to such mass outages.

As Texas battles a severe snowstorm and mass power outages this winter, Tim Boyd, the now-former Republican mayor of Colorado City, revealed his party’s plan for…

Continue reading 6 min

Guest Commentary

Why Amazon Fights So Hard to Prevent Warehouse Workers from Unionizing

By Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute Guest Commentator

If workers vote affirmatively, they would have the first unionized Amazon workplace in the United States.

Thousands of warehouse workers at an Amazon plant in Bessemer, Alabama, are at the center of a potentially game-changing union vote taking place right now. On…

Continue reading 6 min

Guest Commentary

Wanna Fix Inequality? Tax the Rich

By Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute Guest Commentator

There is a direct line between the mind-blowing largesse that elites enjoy and the dystopian economic wreckage that the rest of us find ourselves in.

As Democrats and Republicans jostle over the particulars of a new economic stimulus package to address the devastation of the coronavirus pandemic, it is not too…

Continue reading 7 min

Guest Commentary

The COVID-19 Pandemic Can’t Be Managed—It Has to Be Eradicated

By Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute Guest Commentator

were the United States to take an elimination approach to COVID-19, we would be done with this pandemic in a short period of time,

For millions of Americans who believe that COVID-19 is real, dangerous, and requires a plan of action, Joe Biden’s election to the presidency has finally offered…

Continue reading 7 min

Guest Commentary

Republican Immigration Dam Is Cracking

By Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute Guest Commentator

If anything, the word “amnesty” when used in relation to immigrants ought to be associated most directly with the GOP demigod, Ronald Reagan, whose signature on a sweeping immigration bill helped nearly 3 million undocumented immigrants.

On day one of his presidency, Joe Biden signed numerous executive orders to undo his predecessor’s “deeply inhumane” anti-immigrant policies. These included reversing the “Muslim ban,”…

Continue reading 6 min

Guest Commentary

Hey GOP, Was That Deal With Trump Worth It?

By Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute Guest Commentator

Although he is the highest-ranking elected official to enable Trump, McConnell is hardly alone among his Republican colleagues to have engaged in a deal with the devil.

When Donald Trump ran for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 2016, many top Republicans shunned him. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) confidently explained how Trump was…

Continue reading 6 min

Guest Commentary

Why Do Business Profits Come First Over the Pandemic in America?

By Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute Guest Commentator

European nations have paid workers to stay at home - an obvious solution to curbing the virus.

Los Angeles, California, is now considered one of the worst COVID-19 hotspots in the nation. LA mayor Eric Garcetti assessed grimly that there is one new…

Continue reading 6 min

Guest Commentary

Curing America’s Vaccine Paranoia

By Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute Guest Commentator

The pandemic won’t end until we overcome our fear and loathing of scientific remedies and achieve “herd immunity”—but of the kind that is possible through mass vaccinations, not inaction.

The end is in sight, we are told. The cavalry has arrived in the form of safe and effective vaccines for COVID-19 on the verge of…

Continue reading 6 min

Guest Commentary

Will Joe Biden Forgive Billions in Student Debt?

By Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute Guest Commentator

The president-elect has said that he believes in student debt forgiveness. Why then is he refusing to rely on straightforward executive action to achieve his stated aims?

There is an easy option available to President-elect Joe Biden to ease the economic suffering of Americans on the first day he takes office, and that…

Continue reading 6 min

$ $ Contribute $ $