Ron Knox
@ronmknox.bsky.social
Researcher and policy advocate at ILSR. Antimonopoly is the party. rknox@ilsr.org
1. Cities and states should outlaw Amazon’s latest assault on small businesses — an AI tool that scrapes their websites and creates listings of their products within the Amazon app without their consent. It’s causing huge, costly problems. This can and should be banned.
This is your periodic reminder that fighting against corporate control of our economy and politics is also fighting fascism. A new post on our moment and how we got here. open.substack.com/pub/whoshall...
Fighting Monopoly Is Fighting Fascism
A reflection on our moment, and the political economy that led us here
open.substack.com
Not surprisingly, my buddy Ron synthesizes a lot of different stories and critiques into one cogent, forceful call to action. The frustration he articulates here can be found daily among all Americans, in indignities big and small, and any party with aspirations for control must fight them.
Ron Knox@ronmknox.bsky.social · 8mo agoThe Democratic party today remains trapped in its neoliberal past. But working Americans everywhere are raging against corporate power - a rising political antimonopoly movement. The Dem party will either embrace it, or lose. New from me in @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/acti...
read my dude @ronmknox.bsky.social in @thenation.com !
Ron Knox@ronmknox.bsky.social · 8mo agoThe Democratic party today remains trapped in its neoliberal past. But working Americans everywhere are raging against corporate power - a rising political antimonopoly movement. The Dem party will either embrace it, or lose. New from me in @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/acti...
This piece by @ronmknox.bsky.social is terrific. I would add that where we are today on these issues is 100% a result of policy choices.
Ron Knox@ronmknox.bsky.social · 8mo agoThe Democratic party today remains trapped in its neoliberal past. But working Americans everywhere are raging against corporate power - a rising political antimonopoly movement. The Dem party will either embrace it, or lose. New from me in @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/acti...
The Democratic party today remains trapped in its neoliberal past. But working Americans everywhere are raging against corporate power - a rising political antimonopoly movement. The Dem party will either embrace it, or lose. New from me in @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/acti...
Anger at Corporate Power Is Everywhere
It should guide the Democrats.
thenation.com
The Democratic party today remains trapped in its neoliberal past. But working Americans everywhere are raging against corporate power - a rising political antimonopoly movement. The Dem party will either embrace it, or lose. New from me in @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/acti...
Anger at Corporate Power Is Everywhere
It should guide the Democrats.
thenation.com
Here's a great, quick explainer on how Pepsi schemed with Walmart to raise grocery prices, from @ronmknox.bsky.social and @dannycaine.com www.tiktok.com/@ilsr_org/vi...
The newly unredacted details of the FTC’s complaint against PepsiCo show how the company systematically violated the law, giving Walmart preferential treatment at the expense of independent grocers an...
TikTok video by Building Local Power
tiktok.com
A proposed ordinance backed by music fans and venue owners would effecctivly kill a plan to bring a new Live Nation venue to Portland, Maine. Who will city leaders listen to? Fans and artists? Or one of the most despised companies on earth? New from me:
Live Nation's Invasion of Portland May End Before It Begins
An new proposal in Portland, Maine may stop the live music monopolist from opening a new venue in the city.
open.substack.com
My ILSR colleagues @ronmknox.bsky.social and BLP host Danny Caine welcomed Cory Doctorow as a podcast guest on Ron’s Who Shall Rule Substack for a wide-ranging talk about Doctorow’s new book on Enshittification Dope convo about the problems of the platform economy & some possible solutions
Enshittification and How To Fight It: A Conversation with Cory Doctorow
We have a new cool podcast, hooray!
whoshallrule.com
More power for workers. Protections for small businesses. Freedom from slumlords. With Lina Khan by his side, Zohran Mamdani is the vanguard of the modern antimonopoly movement.
Mamdani and the Antimonopoly Movement
In policies and promise, Zohran Mamdani has become antimonopoly's flag bearer
whoshallrule.com
Amazon's planned mass culling of its workforce, and the vast damage it will cause, speaks to its unchecked power over so much of the economy. I wrote about what antimonopoly action - both antitrust AND union organizing - can and should do about its power. open.substack.com/pub/whoshall...
On Amazon, Automation and Antimonopoly
Amazon's threatened mass layoffs speak to its power - and the need to end it.
open.substack.com
Amazon's planned mass culling of its workforce, and the vast damage it will cause, speaks to its unchecked power over so much of the economy. I wrote about what antimonopoly action - both antitrust AND union organizing - can and should do about its power. open.substack.com/pub/whoshall...
On Amazon, Automation and Antimonopoly
Amazon's threatened mass layoffs speak to its power - and the need to end it.
open.substack.com
A new Times story this morning detailed the rising resistance to predatory data centers around the world. The fight for environmental justice is ultimately part of our struggle against monopoly control of our communities and resources. New from me: www.whoshallrule.com/p/nyt-data-c...
NYT: Data Center Fights Go Global
Data centers unleash hell on communities around the world. But people are fighting back.
whoshallrule.com
A new Times story this morning detailed the rising resistance to predatory data centers around the world. The fight for environmental justice is ultimately part of our struggle against monopoly control of our communities and resources. New from me: www.whoshallrule.com/p/nyt-data-c...
NYT: Data Center Fights Go Global
Data centers unleash hell on communities around the world. But people are fighting back.
whoshallrule.com
Sure, the FTC got some of what it wanted when it settled the Amazon Prime “dark patterns” lawsuit. But by not finishing what it started and seeing the case through trial, it potentially lost so much more. New from me: inequality.org/article/the-...
The Good and Bad of Amazon’s 'Dark Patterns' Settlement
The government's deal with Amazon skips over what could have been a valuable case for regulators and the public.
inequality.org
Sure, the FTC got some of what it wanted when it settled the Amazon Prime “dark patterns” lawsuit. But by not finishing what it started and seeing the case through trial, it potentially lost so much more. New from me: inequality.org/article/the-...
The Good and Bad of Amazon’s 'Dark Patterns' Settlement
The government's deal with Amazon skips over what could have been a valuable case for regulators and the public.
inequality.org
Prescription drug middleman monopolies drive up drug costs and kill small town drugstores, and pretty much everyone not on their payroll hates them. Now, indie pharmacies in Kansas and beyond are getting closer to ending their abuse. New from me! www.whoshallrule.com/p/can-kansas...
Can Kansas indie pharmacies finally beat monopoly middlemen?
In Kansas and around the country, local drug store owners are fighting prescription drug middlemen - and the wins feel imminent.
whoshallrule.com
Prescription drug middleman monopolies drive up drug costs and kill small town drugstores, and pretty much everyone not on their payroll hates them. Now, indie pharmacies in Kansas and beyond are getting closer to ending their abuse. New from me! www.whoshallrule.com/p/can-kansas...
Can Kansas indie pharmacies finally beat monopoly middlemen?
In Kansas and around the country, local drug store owners are fighting prescription drug middlemen - and the wins feel imminent.
whoshallrule.com
“Northern Minnesota is now faced with the prospect of paying higher utility bills so that a company can use AI to raise your rent, airfare or food costs.” From this week’s You’re Probably Getting Screwed open.substack.com/pub/screwed/...
Data center stans and big tech monopolies will talk forever about the jobs those data centers will create. But those jobs don’t exist. It’s just extraction all the way down. www.whoshallrule.com/p/remember-d...
Remember: Data centers don't create jobs
And yet the narrative around data center economic development persists
whoshallrule.com
Data center stans and big tech monopolies will talk forever about the jobs those data centers will create. But those jobs don’t exist. It’s just extraction all the way down. www.whoshallrule.com/p/remember-d...
Remember: Data centers don't create jobs
And yet the narrative around data center economic development persists
whoshallrule.com
Hello. Today, I'm launching Who Shall Rule, where I'll tell stories and share thoughts about frontline fights against corporate control - fights that reflect an emerging political movement to break free from the abuse of corporate oligarchy. Welcome! Subscribe! www.whoshallrule.com/p/who-shall-...
Who Shall Rule: A welcome note
People everywhere are standing up to corporate domination.
whoshallrule.com
Ron is an exceptional storyteller of resistance and analyst of corporate abuses. This substack is going to be good.
Ron Knox@ronmknox.bsky.social · 10mo agoHello. Today, I'm launching Who Shall Rule, where I'll tell stories and share thoughts about frontline fights against corporate control - fights that reflect an emerging political movement to break free from the abuse of corporate oligarchy. Welcome! Subscribe! www.whoshallrule.com/p/who-shall-...
Hello. Today, I'm launching Who Shall Rule, where I'll tell stories and share thoughts about frontline fights against corporate control - fights that reflect an emerging political movement to break free from the abuse of corporate oligarchy. Welcome! Subscribe! www.whoshallrule.com/p/who-shall-...
Who Shall Rule: A welcome note
People everywhere are standing up to corporate domination.
whoshallrule.com
Whatever happens at the federal level, the fight against monopolies will continue at state and municipal levels, and musicians will be at the center of it! Thanks to @ronmknox.bsky.social for connecting the dots.
The Shifting Anti-Monopoly Landscape
Fights over data centers and music venues show that resisting corporate power will have to go local in the age of Trump.
prospect.org
Trump's "MAGA antitrust" enforcers seem more interested in unserious culture war grievances than enforcing the law. But don't worry: The states - our original trustbusters - are fighting for workers, shoppers and small businesses. New from me in @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/soci...
As Federal Chaos Ensues, Trustbusters Rise in the States
With Trump’s antitrust appointees more concerned with scoring points in MAGA culture wars than restraining corporate abuses, officials in the states are keeping up the fight.
thenation.com
Trump's "MAGA antitrust" enforcers seem more interested in unserious culture war grievances than enforcing the law. But don't worry: The states - our original trustbusters - are fighting for workers, shoppers and small businesses. New from me in @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/soci...
As Federal Chaos Ensues, Trustbusters Rise in the States
With Trump’s antitrust appointees more concerned with scoring points in MAGA culture wars than restraining corporate abuses, officials in the states are keeping up the fight.
thenation.com
Local grocers have to pay much higher prices for their products than Dollar General & Walmart. Last month the FTC quietly killed a case to level the playing field. It's huge blow to small businesses & will further devastate rural America. @ronmknox.bsky.social has a terrific explainer:
Has Trump’s FTC Abandoned Fair Markets? | Washington Monthly
Trump's FTC just killed a landmark antitrust case that could have leveled the playing field for small grocers.
washingtonmonthly.com