Dirty Work Shows the Toll Bad Jobs Take on the People Who Do Them
Capitalism has created a world full of bad and brutal jobs, from meatpackers to drone operators. Capitalists created these jobs — only organized workers can get rid of them.
19358 Articles by: Benjamin Case
Benjamin Case is a researcher, educator, and organizer living in Pittsburgh.
It’s Time for a Wealth Tax in Canada
To combat extreme inequality, a housing crisis, and crumbling infrastructure, we must tax the rich. A wealth tax could raise hundreds of billions to rebuild the welfare state, but none of Canada’s major parties are proposing tax hikes that go far enough.
Washington Is Shedding Crocodile Tears for Afghan Women
War hawks constantly cite women’s liberation in support of the US occupation of Afghanistan. That’s transparent hypocrisy: during the Cold War, the US supported patriarchal fundamentalists against a party dedicated to advancing the cause of Afghan women.
Justin Trudeau’s Election Promises Were Made to Be Broken
After pledging billions in new spending to salvage his electoral fortunes, Canada’s prime minister has decided to spend the final week of the current election campaign doing what he does best: defending the wealthy from tax hikes.
The Supreme Court Justices Really Are “A Bunch of Partisan Hacks”
Amy Barrett says Supreme Court justices must be “hyper vigilant” about their biases — less than four months after Barrett decided to participate in a major climate case against Shell Oil, the fossil fuel giant that employed her father for nearly three decades.
Dave Zirin: You Can’t Separate Sports and Politics
Over the past decade, sportswriter Dave Zirin has had a front-row seat to the upheavals sweeping professional sports. From Colin Kaepernick to the Milwaukee Bucks’ strike for Jacob Blake, athletes aren’t shutting up and playing anymore.
France’s Extreme Center Is Radicalizing — And Adopting Far-Right Talking Points
Last summer, left-wing French MP Danièle Obono was portrayed in a nationalist magazine as a slave in chains. She told Jacobin about how the far right is taking over French media — and how Emmanuel Macron’s supporters are adopting its reactionary agenda.
Betsy DeVos Is Still Undermining Public Schools. Next Target: Los Angeles.
In Los Angeles, Betsy DeVos is using the chaos of COVID-19 to push a voucher scheme that would force public schools to compete for students to stay open. After conquering LA, DeVos and friends aim to take the plan nationwide.
Barack Obama, the Hollow Icon
The Obama presidency gave rise to a uniquely powerful iconography that projected a sense of hope and radical possibility. But behind the president’s messianic imagery was a country unraveling at the seams — and a president who stood for nothing.
How Socialist Cuba Became a Sports Power
In 1972, the Soviet Union beat the US in men’s Olympic basketball. The controversial victory has overshadowed the story of Cuba’s bronze medal at the very same games, and the remarkable socialist sports infrastructure that made the island nation’s win possible.
The Anti-Capitalist T. Rex Helping Write Chile’s New Constitution
Cristóbal Andrade is a car mechanic and socialist elected to Chile’s Constitutional Convention. Jacobin asked him why he attends sessions dressed as a dinosaur.
In the Fight for a Green New Deal, Schools Are the New Front Lines
A major socialist-led grassroots campaign is underway to pass Jamaal Bowman’s Green New Deal for Public Schools — a strategically savvy measure that combines forthright climate action with large-scale investment in working-class schools.
Lauren Boebert’s Anti-Climate Legislation Is a Self-Enrichment Scheme
The Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert is spearheading amendments that could gut Democrats’ climate bill — while also benefiting her husband’s fossil fuel business.
New Jersey Might Elect Its First Socialist Official in a Century
Longtime union organizer Joel Brooks is running for city council in Jersey City on a platform of permanently affordable housing, a municipal Green New Deal, and a public safety agenda that stabilizes rather than upends people’s lives.
Salvador Allende Was Overthrown Because His Government Showed Chile Could Be Transformed
This weekend marks the 48th anniversary of the US-backed coup against Chilean socialist president Salvador Allende. That coup’s history is important, but we can’t forget that Allende’s government also achieved incredible things while in power.
After 9/11, the US Tried to Force Its Will on the Rest of the World. It Failed.
Central to the justification for the “war on terror” by right-wing and liberal administrations was the simple idea that the United States has the right to impose its will on the rest of the world. The results, unsurprisingly, were disastrous.
Twenty Years Ago, the Saudi Government Got Away With the Crime of the Century
Despite copious evidence of Saudi complicity in the September 11 attacks, the Bush administration and its successors have spent twenty years shielding the country’s elite from accountability while making war on an ever-growing list of other Middle East countries.
HBO’s New Obama Documentary Is Apolitical Propaganda
HBO has a new documentary about Barack Obama. It’s so devoid of politics that a viewer just learning about Obama would have no idea he escalated the war in Afghanistan and presided over eight years of rising economic inequality.
Ending the 9/11 Era
The 9/11 era helped create a modern version of the Dark Ages. Today, we must finally move beyond it and forge a new sort of politics based on truth and collective emancipation.
Guantánamo Must Close
Two decades after 9/11, the US prison at Guantánamo Bay still holds detainees who have been charged with no crime. The crimes of Gitmo must end and the base must be returned to the Cuban republic.