Benjamin Case is a researcher, educator, and organizer living in Pittsburgh.
John Lennon understood the contradictions of music making under capitalism but couldn’t solve them. Having struggled against being transformed into a commodity, he fell victim 43 years ago today to a nightmarish version of the pop fan’s need to be a star.
As the repression of Palestinians and dissenting Israelis escalates amid Israel’s renewed onslaught in Gaza, domestic tensions are getting harder to conceal. Jacobin spoke to an Israeli trade unionist who stands against the war and the occupation.
PTSD is a scourge for military veterans. The good news is that the VA system provides specialized, high-quality care for PTSD; the bad news is that corporate-friendly politicians are privatizing this vital public health system.
Nicolas Cage’s new comedy fantasy film Dream Scenario desperately wants to satirize our celebrity-obsessed times. But with American society already so steeped in hypercommercialism, it feels like it’s several decades too late.
Israel is deliberately targeting the civilian population of Gaza in a horrifying campaign of mass killing. The Biden administration’s claim to be concerned about civilian casualties is a cynical PR exercise intended to deflect pressure for a cease-fire.
We all have to pee. Yet New York City and cities around the country are suffering a massive shortage of public toilets. The situation could easily change today with a new commitment to provide bathrooms for all.
Germany is blocking billions of euros in investment domestically and across the EU because of the country’s commitment to low budget deficits. This “fiscal discipline” is undermining economic growth and decarbonization goals across the continent.
In India, Muslim women who dare to criticize Narendra Modi’s government routinely meet with vile sexual harassment. Far from just nasty words, it’s part of a culture of often violent attacks on minority women, defended by the far-right ruling party.
Digital technologies have helped capital to extend its grip ever deeper into our lives. But, leftist writer Evgeny Morozov tells Jacobin, the Left must also grasp these technologies’ potential benefits in building alternatives to neoliberalism.
Wilhelm Liebknecht took part in Germany’s failed revolution of 1848 and became a close ally of Karl Marx in exile. He went on to lead the Social Democratic Party, which defied state repression to become the world’s most formidable working-class movement.
For years, Bernie Sanders has been one of the few US politicians willing to publicly recognize the humanity of Palestinians. He should join the call for a permanent cease-fire in the war on Gaza.
Elite feminism at times substitutes a culture of contempt for a culture of care. If we are truly devoted to gender equality, we must ditch the assumption that all men enjoy similar privilege.
France’s top court has thrown out a ban on the ecological group Earth Uprisings. The interior minister labeled the group “terroristic” for its attacks on property — but its actions are a response to the government’s own criminal inaction on the climate crisis.
Immanuel Wallerstein developed a compelling analysis of capitalism as a world-system that undercut the triumphalism of the neoliberal age. Wallerstein’s work is full of valuable insights into the forces that are destabilizing global capitalism.
The CIA and the Chilean military have rightly been seen as central culprits in the 1973 overthrow of socialist president Salvador Allende. But we shouldn’t overlook the important role that the Chilean middle class played in the coup and its aftermath.
As liberals defend their tradition from attack, their definition of liberalism has become so broad as to encompass everything and nothing at all. The truth is liberalism has become more about deference to elites than about challenging hierarchy.
The Southern Tenant Farmers Union was founded on the principle of interracial organizing. It challenged the Southern landowning class and the Jim Crow white supremacist order, leaving a proud legacy for both the labor movement and the civil rights movement.
From the UAW to the Writers Guild, this year’s biggest contract victories have been won by unions in which members directly elect their leaders. That’s a right denied to most US union members — but it may be the key to unleashing broader labor militancy.
There are many good reasons to be unhappy with the economy today: by conventional social democratic metrics like union density, welfare generosity, and public ownership levels, the economy is not in good shape, and recent trends have been mixed at best.
German politicians often boast of having atoned for their ancestors’ crimes — but then claim that antisemitism is an ill imported by migrants. Far from a model, German memory culture has created an exceptionalist myth that Germans understand racism best.