Amazon’s Demands for Public Subsidies Are a Giant Scam
New reports reveal Amazon doesn’t need the public subsidies it has demanded for new facilities. Maybe cities and states should stop forking that money over.
20412 Article(s) by: Benjamin Case
Benjamin Case is a researcher, educator, and organizer living in Pittsburgh.
The US National-Security State Has an Invisible Army
Tens of thousands of Americans work for US military and intelligence agencies, operating domestically under false identities with fake documents and James Bond–style spy gizmos. Why? To allow the national-security state to pursue its forever wars smoothly, forever.
The Root Cause of Central American Migration Is US Imperialism
It would be nice if the US government acknowledged that its imperialist meddling in Central America drove millions to flee to the United States. Instead, Kamala Harris went to Guatemala this week and had the gall to tell would-be migrants, “Do not come.”
Oakland Longshore Workers Say No to Israeli-Operated Cargo
In response to calls for a boycott of Israel from the Palestinian labor movement, longshore workers in Oakland, California, last week refused to unload cargo from an Israeli shipping operator.
Colombia’s Uprising Isn’t About Duque. It’s About Overturning Neoliberalism.
A popular protest movement is winning a war of attrition against Colombia’s authoritarian and neoliberal government. We talk to activist leader Jennifer Pedraza about how they’re coordinating the upheaval and the challenges ahead.
Americans Hate Their Private Insurance Plans. But They Love Their Government Health Care.
A massive new survey published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows how much Americans hate the expense, the red tape, and the skimpy coverage of their private insurance plans. But they do love their Medicare.
AMLO’s MORENA Wins the Mexican Midterms
Facing an alliance of right-wing parties, business associations, and US-backed institutions like the National Endowment for Democracy, Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s MORENA Party still managed to retain its majority in Congress. It’s a victory worth celebrating.
Union Busters Operate in Secret — And Want to Keep It That Way
Right now, corporations can secretly hire firms designed to destroy union efforts. A proposed rule change would expose such anti-union expenses — the last thing the union busters themselves want.
Lewis Hine, Photographer of the American Working Class
Few American photographers have captured the misery, dignity, and occasional bursts of solidarity within US working-class life as compellingly as Lewis Hine did in the early twentieth century.
How Entering Australia Has Become a Privilege, Not a Right
Australia has maintained one of the toughest border regimes in the world throughout the pandemic, helping it contain the virus and save lives. But with strict quotas on entry, flights into Australia are a privilege reserved only for the rich.
Acts of Desperation Is a Novel About How We’re Made to Feel Powerless
Megan Nolan’s debut novel, Acts of Desperation, centers on a young woman trapped in a toxic relationship with her violent boyfriend. It’s also a book deeply pervaded by class — and how a social order built on domination makes us feel we have no power to free ourselves.
The Billionaire Class Is a Threat to Democracy
Since the pandemic began, America’s billionaires have seen their wealth skyrocket to an amount almost equal to a fifth of US GDP. This concentration of wealth is morally unacceptable — but it also represents a mortal threat to democracy.
Capitalism Has a Compulsive Hoarding Problem
Pathological hoarding, now recognized as a mental disorder, is a fitting malady for an economic system predicated on the compulsive accumulation of profits — achieved, in practice, by flooding the world with stuff.
Labour’s Centrists Ignore What Working-Class Voters Want
After Labour’s setbacks in May’s local elections, moderates claim the party needs to tack to the center to win. But their economic ideas offer 1990s-style neoliberalism — not the jobs and investments working-class voters want.
Nobody Should Be Celebrating the Affordable Care Act
Presidents Obama and Biden yukked it up this weekend in a video celebrating the Affordable Care Act. But the real thrust of Obamacare was always finding ways to pretend to address the health care crisis while protecting the health insurers fueling it.
Will Neoliberalism Finally End in Chile?
Chile voted for sweeping structural reform and an end to neoliberalism. It’s a repudiation of Augusto Pinochet and the economic regime he cemented in the country.
Palestinian Workers Have a Long History of Resistance
The Palestinian general strike of May 18 fits into a much longer history of mobilization by Palestinian workers. From the British colonial years to the present, those struggles have faced harsh repression, but kept a spirit of resistance alive.
“We’re Seeing the Breakdown of Collective Responsibility”
Western states’ response to the coronavirus pandemic has been far inferior to East Asian countries’ — illustrating their inability to cope with major crises. China scholar Kenneth Pomeranz spoke to Jacobin about the decline of collective responsibility and the dangers of future pandemics.
Narendra Modi Turned COVID-19 Into a Catastrophe for India
India’s experience of COVID-19 has gone from crisis to catastrophe in recent months. Responsibility for the disaster lies squarely with Narendra Modi’s right-wing government, which has consistently prioritized its own political interests over public health.
TikTok and the Proletkult
TikTok is a corporate product generating multibillion-dollar revenues for its owners, but some of its users have carved out space within it for a new culture of youth militancy.