Kyrsten Sinema Comes Through Yet Again for Big Pharma
Joe Biden allies ran ads thanking Kyrsten Sinema for fighting for lower drug prices — just before she did the exact opposite by opposing Democrats’ drug pricing plan.
19118 Articles by: Benjamin Case
Benjamin Case is a researcher, educator, and organizer living in Pittsburgh.
A New Working-Class Party Is on the Rise in Norway
Norway’s billionaires spent the election campaign smearing the Red Party as totalitarian extremists. But the party kept its focus on working-class Norwegians’ material interests — and secured a historic electoral breakthrough.
The Communist Party Just Won the Elections in Austria’s Second-Biggest City
In Sunday’s elections in Graz, Austria, the Communist Party romped to victory for the first time in history. Jacobin spoke to one of its winning candidates about how the party built a “red fortress” in the city.
Socialist Assemblywoman: Shut Down Rikers Island
Two people have died at Rikers Island in the past week, bringing the total to 12 this year. We spoke with socialist assemblywoman Phara Souffrant Forrest, who just visited Rikers Island, about the unconscionable conditions and why we must close the prison facility once and for all.
Revolutionary Cuba and the Legacy of Fidel Castro
Cuba is facing a new set of challenges as a post-Castro leadership confronts the pandemic and its economic fallout. But Cuban socialism has repeatedly shown its capacity for survival and adaptation since the revolution of 1959.
Canada’s Essential Workers Fought and Won Against Their Bosses During World War II
In the 1940s, Canadian workers were essential to the nation’s war effort, but the government and employers used the war to justify a clampdown on labor rights. In Windsor, Ontario, workers fought back, securing gains that lasted decades.
Germany’s Electric Car Program Is About Defending Its Auto Giants’ Profits
Ahead of today’s German election, all the main parties have emphasized the need to green the auto industry. But the state’s strategic support for electric cars isn’t an attempt to save the planet — it’s about enhancing German capital’s supremacy over its foreign competition.
Olaf Scholz Is Not Your Friend
Polls for today’s German election point to a once unlikely victory for Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats. The party’s campaign has focused on Scholz’s personal credentials as a future chancellor — yet his record suggests he will never stand up to the powerful.
Yanis Varoufakis: Angela Merkel Was Bad for Europe and the World
Today’s German elections mark the effective end of Angela Merkel’s 16-year rule. Yanis Varoufakis writes for Jacobin about how she became Europe’s most dominant peacetime leader — at the expense of Europe itself.
There’s No Moral Justification for Capitalist-Owned Enterprises
Capitalist “liberty” is just another word for private tyranny. Workers, not capitalists, should control economic enterprises.
How FDR’s Original Green New Deal Challenged Jim Crow
The Civilian Conservation Corps, FDR’s original Green New Deal, cared for the environment and gave jobs to the unemployed. And though its record on racial equality was imperfect, it helped undermine key parts of Jim Crow.
Larry Summers Is Wrong About Inflation
Enraged at the rise of an “intransigent” left, Larry Summers put his credibility on the line with wild predictions of runaway inflation in the wake of Joe Biden’s stimulus package last January. It’s looking like his predictions were wrong.
New York City Screwed Taxi Drivers. Now They’re Drowning in Debt.
New York City made a killing off of taxi drivers who purchased medallions by driving them into enormous debt. Those drivers need debt forgiveness — but the city’s relief policies won’t provide it.
Mark Zuckerberg’s “Metaverse” Is a Dystopian Nightmare
The Facebook founder intends to usher in a new era of the internet where there’s no distinction between the virtual and the real — and no logging off.
The Climate Movement Can Win Over Workers
Working people can be won to support radical action on climate change — so long as decarbonization is tied to a vision of shared prosperity for all.
If Hollywood Workers Strike, the Entertainment Industry Will Grind to a Halt
In a display of worker militancy not seen in Hollywood for decades, members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) are about to vote on whether 60,000 of them will go on strike in October.
A World Cup Every Two Years Would Be Devastating for Football
Chiefs at soccer governing body FIFA are calling for the World Cup to be held every two years instead of every four. The plan is a naked cash grab — and shows that undemocratic sports authorities will always put chances to sell advertising above the quality of the game.
Rikers Island Is a Human Rights Atrocity. New York Must Close It Immediately.
New York State Assembly member Emily Gallagher recently visited the city’s jail on Rikers Island. “Nothing prepared me for the level of abuse and neglect that I witnessed there,” she writes in Jacobin.
There’s No Substitute for Mass Working-Class Parties
Robert Michels developed his “iron law of oligarchy” after seeing the bureaucratization of the early socialist movement. His warnings are relevant today — but the path to social transformation still runs through building mass, working-class political parties.
Progressive Pressure Over the Budget Reconciliation Bill Is Creating Establishment Pushback
The pressure from pro-corporate establishment voices against the budget reconciliation bill is intensifying because progressives are, for the first time in generations, threatening to use their leverage and refuse to vote for a watered-down bill stripped of measures that would aid working people.