Staff at democratic socialist magazine claim they were fired for trying to start a worker co-op

Several employees of the ‘democratic socialist’ magazine Current Affairs claimed on Wednesday to have been fired for attempting to shape the company into an egalitarian worker’s cooperative.

In a statement, five employees â€" including the magazine’s business manager and managing editor â€" announced they had been “unilaterally fired” from the company so founder and editor Nathan J. Robinson could “avoid an organizational restructuring that would limit his personal power.”

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“Yes, we were fired by the editor-in-chief of a socialist magazine for trying to start a worker co-op,” the employees claimed, alleging that Robinson “did not want Current Affairs to be a democratic workplace.”

The employees declared that they felt “sad, aghast, betrayed, and of course, angry” by the move and argued that the “small staff composed entirely of women and non-binary people” have “faithfully worked to make Current Affairs the beautiful, engaging leftist magazine and podcast that it is.”

“The left can be as lonely and vicious as anywhere else on this earth,” they continued, concluding that the firing “feels like a light going out.”

Current Affairs' former employees also included an alleged email from Robinson in their statement, which appeared to show him saying that he thinks he “should be on top of the org chart, with everyone else selected by me and reporting to me” and that he mistakenly “let Current Affairs build up into a sort of egalitarian community of friends.”

Business manager Allegra Silcox, managing editor Lyta Gold, administrative assistant Kate Gauthreaux, contributing editor Aisling McCrea, and ‘poet at large’ Cate Root all signed the statement, though still appear on Current Affairs' staff page.

In her own series of tweets, Gold additionally accused Robinson of wanting her to “be his servant” and wrote, “I thought of him as a brother. I defended him when people were mean to him! but I am beginning to think the worst people on the internet may have been right about him all along.”

Current Affairs’ board of directors announced on Wednesday that the magazine will take a hiatus until the end of September.

Many social media users were quick to point out the irony of a self-proclaimed ‘democratic socialist’ magazine allegedly dismissing its staff for wanting to implement a democratic socialist hierarchy.

Nothing better than seeing rich over educated leftists like Nathan â€" constantly online, obsessed w/style & symbols & language policing, who sneers at at actual working class concerns like gun violence â€" throw a tantrum when asked to live up to any supposedly radical principles.

â€" Lee Fang (@lhfang) August 18, 2021

they say socialism is all just worker co ops and then they don’t even want the co ops lmao https://t.co/IYfanYh3fV

â€" 𝐭𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐱 ðŸ'‹ (@as_a_poster) August 18, 2021

Robinson has not yet publicly commented on the situation.

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