
The Life and Death of Paris’s Red Belt
How discontent over housing, and not workplace struggle, made Paris’s suburbs hotbeds of communism.
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Daniel Finn is the features editor at Jacobin. He is the author of One Man’s Terrorist: A Political History of the IRA.

How discontent over housing, and not workplace struggle, made Paris’s suburbs hotbeds of communism.

Western states would like to move on as if the Gaza genocide never happened, even though Israel is still terrorizing the Palestinian people. But the legal cases holding Israel and its leaders accountable are going ahead despite their best efforts.

The Portuguese Socialist Party once seemed to be a model for Europe’s center left, gaining support while its sister parties were in decline. But this year’s election was a crushing defeat that saw the Socialists fall behind the far-right group Chega.

Ireland’s new president, Catherine Connolly, is an outspoken left-winger who champions the rights of the Palestinians and opposes Europe’s militarization drive. Her resounding victory came as a huge shock to the conservative political establishment.

Political fearmongering about the effects of immigration on the British economy doesn’t track with reality.

The people of Gaza are starving because of a man-made famine as Israel draws up plans for a full-scale military occupation. US government officials haven’t just turned a blind eye to the historic atrocities in Gaza — they’ve been cheering them on.

Ten years ago today, the people of Greece voted decisively in a referendum to reject an EU austerity program. Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis speaks to us about how it happened and of the betrayal that followed.

Ancient Rome was a rigidly hierarchical society where the ruling elite stigmatized everyone who had to work with their hands. Yet Roman workers still found ways to resist exploitation through strikes and other forms of collective action.

From the diaspora to the occupied territories and the Palestinian minority in Israel, left-wing forces have played a major role in organizing popular struggles for democratic rights in Palestine. A new Jacobin podcast series looks at their impact and legacy.

Britain’s government is banning the group Palestine Action for its role in nonviolent direct action against Israeli arms factories — a sinister and unprecedented move from a government that wants to suppress opposition to the Gaza genocide.

While the Israeli attack on Iran dominates the headlines, Israel has been accelerating its campaign of mass killing in Gaza. Israeli soldiers have repeatedly gunned down people lining up for food as they stand on the brink of starvation.

Israel can inflict massive damage on targets in Iran thanks to its US-supplied technological advantages. But the old neocon fantasy of building a new Middle East through endless war is still as delusional as it is destructive of human life.

The Trump White House has helped install the ticking time bomb that is cryptocurrency directly into our economy. When it blows up, the damage will be catastrophic.

The British authorities have brought trumped-up charges against a member of Irish hip-hop group Kneecap in a bid to stifle criticism of their own complicity with Israeli war crimes. But no amount of legal harassment can stop the truth from getting out.

Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform party won a notable victory in last week’s local elections. Reform is feeding off popular disillusionment with Keir Starmer’s government, which has gone out of its way to disappoint hopes for positive change.

Amid all the confusing signals, China is clearly the prime target for Trump’s trade agenda. China’s best response to tariffs would be to rely more on domestic consumption than exports, but executing that turn presents a huge challenge for its leaders.

Born in the seventeenth century, our faith in progress is now at death’s door. Sociologist Göran Therborn traces the idea’s history — and argues that it must be revived.

European leaders claim to be champions of the liberal international order that Donald Trump is repudiating. But they’re lining up with Trump to support the resumption of Israel’s murderous onslaught against Palestinian civilians.

From Dancing at Lughnasa to The Wind That Shakes the Barley, from Peaky Blinders to Kneecap, here’s a list of Irish-themed films and TV shows for the discerning left-wing viewer — including the time Jackie Chan took on the IRA.

The New York Times’ David Leonhardt argues that Danish Social Democrats succeeded by restricting immigration and suggests other center-left parties may need to follow suit. Yet other recent European left parties have succeeded through a different path.