Jacobin in Purgatory

Stuck in the middle with you.

From Post-Politics to Hyper-Politics

If everything is political, then nothing is political.

The Liminal Left’s Bid for Power

Like our leading figures, our new left is young and highly educated. Is that tanking our chances at building a mass working-class coalition?

The End of the AOC Honeymoon

In 2018, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was heralded as the millennial successor to Bernie Sanders. Today, some on the Left are starting to have doubts.

A Historian of Economic Crisis on the Fire This Time

Economic crises have reshaped the modern world. Economic historian Adam Tooze tells Jacobin how the coronavirus pandemic will upend global politics and commerce for decades to come.

The Political Isn’t Personal

In a world where the political is personal, we signal our political goodness — and hunt for political badness.

The Coming Democratic Minority

Without a radical change in its relationship to working-class voters, the Democratic Party is hurtling toward doom.

And Now, a Message From Our Sponsors — the Organized Working Class

The “union label” ads of the 1970s are a reminder of how labor tried and eventually failed to win a battle for the airwaves.

The Coen Brothers and Their Big Socialist Losers

Spinning comedy out of misery, Joel and Ethan Coen have spent decades telling the story of American failure. No wonder they’re so drawn to American socialists.

The Socialist (Almost) Mayor of Buffalo

India Walton was set to become mayor of New York’s second-largest city. Then Buffalo’s establishment had their say.

Working-Class Politics Without the Working Class

Born at the height of the Clinton era, the Working Families Party thought it had found a way to build a labor party in America. Today, it’s advancing progressive politics with a far narrower base than it expected.

Issue 44: Letters + the Internet Speaks

The Beatles and the Revolutionaries

Peter Jackson’s Get Back, the latest revisionist Beatles product, has glimpses of the political moment that made the band possible — and how distant we are from it today.

Palaces of Lost Promise

Berlin’s new Humboldt Forum is German neoliberalism in one building — retrograde, pompous, and built on the ruins of socialist modernism.

The New State Church

In our era, state capacity is faltering, and the size and scope of NGO activity is expanding.

The Media’s Breathless Shoplifting Coverage Ignores the Misery That Drives Theft

Corporate media is running constant, sensationalized stories about shoplifting — while ignoring the food insecurity and generalized desperation that is driving many people to shoplift.

The Left Should Stand for a Democratically Run BBC

Threatened with further cuts to its funding, the BBC has become ever less willing to hold the Tories to account. But while BBC news coverage has done little to enamor it to the Left, we should defend the principle of public broadcasting.

The CIA Is Still Spying on American Citizens and Lying About It

The CIA has operated above the law and resisted accountability throughout the century, and now we find out it’s been operating an illegal domestic spying program for years.

The Man Who Pushed Canada’s Conservatives Further to the Right

Ted Byfield, the founder of the far-right Alberta Report, left an indelible mark on Canadian conservatism. He was responsible for emboldening the most racist and anti-worker elements of the Right.

We Can Move Beyond Political Polarization Through a Working-Class Economic Agenda

US politics have become hyperpolarized along partisan lines. But they don’t have to be. Millions of Americans worry more about paying the rent or medical bills than what’s on cable news. They can be won over by a working-class economic agenda.