Economist Anwar Shaikh, who died this month, spent half a century turning Marx’s categories into hard numbers. His first teaching assistant and longtime collaborator remembers the man and the work.
Jacobin Is International
Jacobin is now publishing in seven languages, with three on the way. Check them out, and support socialist internationalism today.
The Political Economy of the Restaurant
Political organizer and chef Lewis Bassett’s The Full English offers a firsthand account of how English food has been shaped by industrialization, empire, and class from the vantage point of restaurants across the country.
The Video Game Industry’s Crisis Is a Crisis of Capitalism
Recurring layoffs reveal an industry organized around extracting value while workers bear the cost of crises. In Montreal, game workers are building solidarity and organizing for collective power.
Tax the Rich and Slash the Military Budget
The Left is often asked how it proposes to pay for programs like universal childcare, Medicare or All, and a green jobs program. Here’s how: tax wealth and capital the same way we already tax wages, and slash our bloated and destructive military budget.
Is Trump Crashing the Dollar Empire?
Economist Mona Ali on how the United States wields the world’s most powerful currency to shore up empire and its own ruling class — and how Trump’s careless moves might blow it all up.
The real choice is not between globalization and deglobalization, free trade and tariff walls, but between empowering capital and empowering workers.
The Left Needs an Answer to the Center’s New Cold War Program
Centrist Democrats like potential 2028 presidential candidate Rahm Emanuel are presenting heightened great-power rivalry as the path to US national renewal. Socialists need to articulate an alternative to their New Cold War fantasies.
Workers Can Govern, but They Need Power First
A new book makes the most rigorous case yet for why so few working-class people hold office. But by treating the lack of workers in office as a law of electoral democracy, its authors underrate how much organized workers could change it.
Colombia’s President Wants US Boots on the Ground
Far-right Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella seeks the return of the disastrous Plan Colombia, this time inviting US troops for joint operations, per Pete Hegseth. The opposition says it’s a violation of Colombians’ rights.
Exploring the Mirror World of the Chinese Internet
A complacent view contrasts the freedom of the US internet with the tight regimentation of the Chinese version. In reality, the two seem to be converging around a model of state and oligarchic control over online communities and debates.
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s Empire became a campus sensation because it offered a master theory for globalization at a moment when old Marxist categories seemed exhausted. But the capitalist internationalism they saw as permanent has now crashed and burned.
The British State Is Dodging Accountability for the Troubles
Britain’s Labour government has brought forward a bill that’s supposed to address the legacy of the Troubles in the North of Ireland. But the latest changes to the bill will shield British soldiers from any threat of being prosecuted for their crimes.
Dattner’s Architects Say They Want a Union
Employees at Dattner, the firm behind some of New York City’s most distinctive public buildings, from subway stations to sanitation facilities, are organizing with the International Association of Machinists and seeking a card-check neutrality agreement.
Leftists Should Learn to Organize Like Evangelicals
Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Church was a smash hit among evangelical Christians in the 1990s. It’s about how to build growing, vibrant churches. But it can also be read by socialists today to figure out how to grow our movement.
High School Protests Can Transform France’s Election Campaign
The protests in schools across France have highlighted “rural deserts” of underfunded services. Massive in scale, the movement is reenergizing the election campaign by bringing social issues of left-behind areas more sharply into focus.