A teacher plays with children at the Kleiner Fratz daycare center in Berlin, Germany.

Messing With Childcare Ratios Is a Terrible Idea

Donald Trump’s childcare czar says he wants federal regulations for daycare centers to “fit on an index card in my back pocket.” His plans contain many causes for alarm, not least his dangerous proposal to raise child-to-adult ratios.

Still from Wall Street with Michael Douglas's character pointing while on the phone in an office.

The Corporate Thriller Lied to Us

Criterion Channel is hosting a retrospective on Hollywood’s “corporate thrillers” from the 1980s through the early 2000s. If anything, their message about the capitalist rot in America’s institutions looks far too tame for how the last couple of decades turned out.

Käthe Kollwitz, "Charge," sheet 5 of the cycle "Peasants’ War," 1902/1903

Capitalism Was Built on the Ruins of the Commons

The Industrial Revolution's chief product was not goods, but a new class of laborers who owned nothing and worked to survive. Historian Peter Linebaugh traces the creation of this working class through the violent enclosure of the commons they once relied on.

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Under capitalism, technological “progress” like AI systematically deskills workers, deepens managerial control, and turns the labor process into a site of conflict rather than liberation. This is by design.

How Massachusetts Teachers Transformed Their Union

Outgoing Massachusetts Teachers Association president Max Page reflects on a decade of rank-and-file reformers turning a cautious, staff-driven union into a militant, member-led force by striking, winning stronger contracts, and pushing to tax the rich.

A red sign that reads "1st May fete du travail des traveileures," with an x over du travail.

May 1: Day of Work or Workers’ Day?

In France, May Day has long been a day for all workers to stop working. A recent proposal for some businesses to remain open forced unions to defend the idea that French workers keep May Day as a day to themselves.

A wood engraving from the Maifestzeitung 1904 of the German Social Democrat Party's organ <cite>Vorwarts</cite>, depicting workers marching with red flags to commemorate May Day.

May Day: An Answer to Rampant Individualism 

Countless influencers and quack positive-thinking gurus tell us that success is all a matter of individual effort. International Workers’ Day reminds us that individuals are happiest when we have others standing alongside us. 

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Jacobin is a leading voice of the American left, offering socialist perspectives on politics, economics, and culture.

$29.95
1 Year / 4 Issues
Digital Subscription
$39.95
1 Year / 4 Issues
Print + Digital Subscription