Why Class Matters as Much as Ever
Some argue that the continued existence of the middle class refutes Karl Marx’s analysis of capitalism. In an interview with Jacobin, Vivek Chibber explains why this is wrong.
20188 Article(s) by: Abigail Torre
Abigail Torre grew up in Chile and now lives in Berkeley, California where she is cochair of the East Bay chapter of Democratic Socialists of America.
Gaza and the Economy of Genocide
Even before October 7, 2023, Gazans had been reduced to the role of a surplus population with minimal employment within Israel. Their expulsion from Israel’s capitalist economy helped to lay the groundwork for genocide.
We Desperately Need Maximum Wage Laws
With wealth inequality and billionaire control over American society growing ever more obscene, it’s well past time to implement a maximum wage limit.
Democrats Are Already “Moderate.” It’s Not Working.
The perpetual advice to Democrats is that moving rightward will solve all their problems. But look where the party is at the moment: already embracing Republican affect and policies, yet still losing.
Gustavo Petro Isn’t Afraid of Donald Trump
Colombian president Gustavo Petro lambasted Donald Trump’s human rights abuses and Israel’s genocide at the United Nations last week. The US State Department revoked his visa in response.
Sylvan Esso on Why They Pulled Their Music From Spotify
The band Sylvan Esso has removed its music from Spotify in protest of the company’s exploitative practices. In an exclusive interview with Jacobin, they explain their reasoning — and why the move feels so good even though it’s financially risky.
Event: Economic Populism and the Future of the Rust Belt
Register and join us tonight for an online discussion with UAW president Shawn Fain about working-class politics and winning back the Rust Belt.
The US Cheered On Suharto’s Massacres in Indonesia
The US enthusiastically supported the 1965 military coup in Indonesia and the mass killings that followed. One key motivation was Washington’s desire to scupper a new international alliance that Indonesia’s leader, Sukarno, was in the process of building.
In Indonesia, Popular Memory Fights Against Official Amnesia
Sixty years ago today, the Indonesian army seized power and began a campaign of mass murder to annihilate the country’s left. Relatives of the victims are still fighting against a culture of amnesia about one of the century’s bloodiest massacres.
Deportation as Class Strategy
Mass deportations may hurt big business and working people alike. But Donald Trump is betting that the fallout will hit Democrats harder — and cement a lasting right-wing majority.
Syria’s Future After the Massacre in Sweida
Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has been feted by establishment media as an ex-radical gone moderate. Yet massacres of civilians by government forces disturb the rosy picture of a return to peace.
Go See One Battle After Another Right Now
Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another deserves all the hype it’s getting. Run, don’t walk, to this thrilling, hilarious, moving, and all too prescient portrait of American radicals on the run from right-wing authoritarians.
Zohran Mamdani’s Golden Opportunity
With Eric Adams out of the New York mayoral race and the corrupt Andrew Cuomo his main opponent, Zohran Mamdani has a chance to cast his democratic socialism, his alleged “extremism,” as tied to the creation of a lawful society.
What the Giving Pledge Really Gave Us
Most Giving Pledge dollars never reached the public, flowing instead to private foundations and donor-advised funds while billionaires grew richer, bought reputations for generosity, and handed back scraps to the people who made their fortunes.
On Free Speech, Jacobin Has Always Been Consistent
In recent years, liberals, the Left, and the Right have all waffled on defending free speech when it doesn’t suit them. But not Jacobin. For 15 years, we have insisted that free speech is a basic democratic principle that must be defended.
France Is Deep in Debt but Failing to Tax the Superrich
Emmanuel Macron’s governments keep failing because of their unpopular austerity plans. The one move they’ve refused to consider: imposing a wealth tax on the superrich who’ve benefited most from Macron’s agenda.
The GOP Is Refusing to Interrogate Trump’s Big Tech Allies
GOP lawmakers recently ordered social media companies to testify before the House Oversight Committee to “examine radicalization of online forum users” — while notably excluding companies led by Donald Trump’s closest Big Tech allies, Meta and X.
Is Analytic Philosophy a Class Ideology?
Christoph Schuringa insists that analytic philosophy serves as an ideological fig leaf for liberal capitalism. But his polemic distorts the discipline’s history and fails to draw persuasive links between its development and apologias for the status quo.
Analytic Philosophy Is a Flawed Framework for the Left
Analytic philosophy has become the dominant school in anglophone philosophy departments since 1945. Christoph Schuringa persuasively argues that it has served to reinforce a liberal common sense that blocks the idea of radical change.
Lessons From Chicago’s Left, Two Years in Power
With Zohran Mamdani on the cusp of victory in New York City, the Left should learn from the ups and downs of embattled Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson.