The End of Joe Biden’s Student Debt Prison May Be in Sight
The Supreme Court may consider a case that could defang Joe Biden’s awful bankruptcy bill and protect the millions of Americans crushed by debt from student loans.
19276 Articles by: Alex Press
The US Is Waging Neoliberal Forever Wars
As the US military increasingly outsources the most important parts of war, American imperialism has evolved into something that can’t be measured merely by counting the number of boots on the ground. But it’s still highly profitable for corporate elites and spreads death and misery around the globe — and it still must be dismantled.
Keir Starmer’s First Year as Labour Leader Has Been a Disaster for the Left
Last April, Keir Starmer was elected party leader on a promise to make Labour a “real opposition” again. Yet instead of pushing back on a dangerous right-wing government, he’s decided to make the socialist left his main enemy.
Pod Can’t Save America
Why are powerful leaders all trying to be Oprah Winfrey? From Obama’s Netflix series to Bill Clinton’s podcast, the political elite aren’t content with being merely influential — they want to be influencers. But Pod Can’t Save America, and we shouldn’t come along for the ride.
Alberta’s United Conservative Party Has Found a New Enemy: Bigfoot
Alberta’s United Conservative Party has whipped up a ludicrous hysteria against a children’s cartoon about Bigfoot — a typical case of the UCP’s diversionary scaremongering. But Alberta’s New Democratic Party has also been guilty of similar tactics that debase the standard of public discourse.
The Infrastructure Bill Is a Chance to Make Our Public Spaces Beautiful
The push to rebuild the nation’s decrepit infrastructure is long overdue. But it isn’t enough to make our parks and public transit more functional — they must be beautiful spaces that affirm the public sphere is worthy of exaltation.
In Finland, Students Get Free Meals So They Don’t Have to Learn Hungry
In Finland, high-quality free school meals are provided to all children between six and sixteen as a public service. Students in the United States and everywhere else deserve the same.
Defend Kshama Sawant
A cabal of tech corporations, real estate interests, and business lobbyists are trying to strip Kshama Sawant, the pathbreaking socialist on the Seattle City Council, of the seat to which she was elected by the city’s voters. Sawant deserves your support.
Andrew Cuomo Is Clinging to Power and Rewarding His Billionaire Loyalists
Real estate titans and landlords might just be New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s last base of support. The embattled governor is rewarding them handsomely for their loyalty.
Joe Biden and Keir Starmer Are Warmonger Internationalists
The defeat of Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn and the ascension of Joe Biden and Keir Starmer hasn’t just meant the defeat of domestic working-class politics — it’s meant the defeat of an egalitarian internationalism that opposes war and imperialism.
The Obamanauts Are Rebranding as Evil
It’s not just Jay Carney, the former Obama spokesman who now leads capital’s side of the class war at Amazon. A whole cohort of Obamanauts — those bright, young idealists who wanted to change the world — have positioned themselves in roles in the private sector where they can most effectively be part of the problem.
Karl Polanyi’s Great Transformation and the Countermovement to Capitalism
Media pundits hail the economist Karl Polanyi as a brilliant theorist of capitalism and a thinker for our time. In order to understand Polanyi’s ideas, however, we need to see him in the context of his own time: Europe’s “age of catastrophe” in the early twentieth century.
Joe Biden Could Easily Recall the Billions in Military Equipment Police Received From the Pentagon
American police departments are armed to the teeth with military-grade weaponry like Humvees and assault rifles. Nothing is stopping President Biden from shutting down this military-to-police pipeline right away.
The Bombing of Podemos’s Offices Is the Latest Sign of Rising Neofascism in Spain
On Thursday night, the Murcia regional HQ of Spain’s Podemos party was set ablaze with a petrol bomb. The incident was the latest in a string of terrorist attacks against the Left — showing how the growth of the parliamentary far right is combining with the rise of a violent neofascist street movement.
Glenn Greenwald Took on the Authoritarian Right in Brazil — and Won
The full story of how Glenn Greenwald revealed the antidemocratic corruption behind Brazil’s supposed anti-corruption investigation Lava Jato — which jailed former president Lula da Silva and gave rise to Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right presidency — is one of bravery against a violent, reactionary right.
Joe Manchin Wants to Keep the Corporate Tax Rate as Low as Possible
West Virginia senator Joe Manchin is threatening to block President Joe Biden’s higher corporate tax rate as part of Biden’s infrastructure bill — a move that could shield private equity firms whose executives boosted Manchin’s campaign and bet big on Trump’s tax bill.
Novelist Nico Walker on Robbing Banks, Reading Dostoevsky, and Getting Brainwashed by the Army
After a stint in the army and a spell as a heroin addict, Nico Walker became a bank robber — a move that landed him in prison for almost a decade. That’s when he wrote Cherry, his first novel and now a motion picture starring Tom Holland. Jacobin spoke with Walker about the Iraq War, socialism in Bolivia, and why robbing a bank is easier than it looks.
The Chicago Teachers Union Has Defeated a Key Anti-Union State Law
A 1995 Illinois state law massively restricted the Chicago Teachers Union’s ability to bargain over anything but pay and benefits. The union has finally succeeded in rolling the law back — opening the door to bargaining over key issues like reversing privatization and the outsourcing of school services, capping class sizes, and more.
Tomorrow, Milwaukee Could Elect a New Generation of Sewer Socialists
Three democratic socialists are on the ballot tomorrow in Milwaukee, a city with a long history of socialist municipal government. We interviewed them about what their socialist vision for the city looks like.
Corporations Like McDonald’s Don’t Believe Their Own Anti–Minimum Wage Talking Points
Restaurant chains have told their investors that a minimum wage hike wouldn’t be a big deal — even as their corporate lobbying groups in Washington fight plans for a $15 minimum wage.