What You Should Have Read in 2022
We published 2,500 original essays in 2022. Here’s a recap in case you missed one or two of them.
21058 Article(s) by: Alex Press
We Don’t Want a Post-Pandemic “Return to Normal,” We Want the End of Capitalism
In 2022, we limped out of the pandemic frying pan into the fire of resumed capitalist crises. Popular yearning to “get back to normal” is a desire for the good life — and making such a desire a reality will require fighting for socialism.
A Populism of the Left Can Realign American Politics
It’s clear that the GOP is capturing new parts of the working class. It’ll take credible appeals to workers’ frustrations and economic interests to win them back.
Why the Twitter Files Are in Fact a Big Deal
On the Left, there’s been a temptation to dismiss the revelations about Twitter’s internal censorship system that have emerged from the so-called Twitter Files project. But that would be a mistake: the news is important and the details are alarming.
State Officials Have Been Begging Pete Buttigieg to Crack Down on Airlines. He Hasn’t.
Southwest Airlines’ flight cancellations are stranding thousands. Attorneys general have been sounding the alarm about lax airlines oversight, begging transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg and Congress to crack down — to no avail.
Today, We Remember the Women Who Liberated Yugoslavia From Fascism
Eighty years ago, the Women’s Antifascist Front of Yugoslavia was founded to help resist the Axis powers and their local collaborators. Working-class women played a decisive role in fighting fascism — and claimed their place in building a new socialist society.
Why Socialists Need to Talk About Justice
It’s not enough for socialists to point out capitalism’s many faults — we need to explain our positive vision of the future and how it lives up to our ideals of justice.
The New Robert Downey Sr Documentary Is More Annoying Than Avant-Garde
Robert Downey Jr’s documentary tribute to his father, Sr., wants to mimic his dad’s avant-garde filmmaking. But the film lacks coherence, and its subject and filmmaker’s obscene wealth gets in the way of making that case.
Jeremy Corbyn: The Cost-of-Living Crisis Demands That We Democratize the Economy
In the UK, prices for basic goods are soaring while corporations rake in ever-bigger profits. The solution, Jeremy Corbyn argues, is to bring basic resources like energy, water, railways, and the postal service into democratic public ownership.
Why Sweden’s Social Democrats U-Turned on NATO
Sweden’s left has historically been opposed to joining NATO. But as the war in Ukraine made joining the alliance popular, Sweden’s Social Democrats changed tack, alienating many of their supporters and exposing deep divisions among the Left in the process.
Workers at Pittsburgh’s Biggest Newspaper Have Been on Strike for Nearly Three Months
Multiple unions representing Pittsburgh Post-Gazette employees have been on strike since October. Workers say they’ve been without a contract for six years, and many are being denied health care by the company. Jacobin spoke with two workers about the strike.
2022 Was the Year Republicans Got Too Weird for America
With the rise of polarization, the hard-core ideological right and left have become more visible to normie voters than ever before. In 2022, American voters made it clear which side’s ultras it finds more unacceptable: the weirdos of the Trumpian right.
I Was a Communist Party Activist for Decades — and I Don’t Regret It
The Communist Party USA had its share of bureaucrats, morons, sectarians, and incompetents, writes longtime leftist Michael Myerson. But it also included some of the best, most principled, courageous, and heroic fighters for social justice in US history.
The European Union Has Been Shaken by Its Crises — but the Left Needs a Plan to Change It
The pandemic and the war in Ukraine have shaken many of the European Union’s dogmas. Yet the EU has repeatedly defied predictions of imminent collapse — posing the need for a serious left-wing program to reform it.
Jake Xerxes Fussell Makes Down-to-Earth Folk Music for Troubled Times
American folk songs record a history of oppression and have often fueled the fire of protest. Folk artist Jake Xerxes Fussell’s music endeavors to sustain these working-class musical traditions while reinterpreting them for the modern age.
Global Capitalism Will Never Lift Workers Out of Poverty
Apologists for capitalist globalization claim that global value chains spread prosperity around the world. In reality, they allow firms like Apple to maximize labor exploitation while keeping workers chained to poverty.
Australia’s Mental Health Care System Is at a Breaking Point — and Labor Is Making It Worse
Despite growing need and out-of-pocket costs, Anthony Albanese’s Labor government is halving the number of Medicare-subsidized psychology sessions Australians can access each year. It’s an austerity measure that will harm those who need support the most.
Japanese Socialism Was a Powerful Force Until It Lost Its Political Bearings
For most of Japan’s postwar era, the Socialists were the second force in the country’s political system and the main challenger to conservative rule. But when they ditched their left-wing, anti-militarist principles in the 1990s, they collapsed into minor-party status.
Furio Jesi Was a Socialist Who Explained the Power of Myth
Political movements are not just driven by theories or even material interests but also their myths. Italian historian Furio Jesi was a socialist who examined the power of mythology — and its centrality to the Right’s cultural influence.
The Ukrainian Poet-Assassin Who Avenged the Pogroms and Got Away With Murder
Sholem Schwarzbard was an anarchist Yiddish-language poet from Ukraine. In 1926, he assassinated Ukrainian military commander Symon Petliura in revenge for deadly pogroms carried out by Petliura’s armies in the Russian Civil War — and was found not guilty by a jury of his peers.