David Broder is Jacobin’s Europe editor and a historian of French and Italian communism.
Web3 shows how our online lives are increasingly being monetized. It’s time to take democratic control of the internet — turning the platforms we all use into free public services.
In the beginning of World War I, hundreds of French soldiers were executed by the French army “to set an example” and keep other soldiers in line. Only now, more than a century later, has France’s National Assembly voted for their rehabilitation.
Western governments are being called on to send more weapons to Ukraine — an arms buildup that will only escalate a potentially disastrous conflict. What we really need is a comprehensive peace settlement for the region.
Set to win 18 seats in parliament, the Workers’ Party of Belgium is the fastest-growing force on the European left. Newly elected leader Raoul Hedebouw tells Jacobin how his comrades built an explicitly Marxist party with mass appeal.
The left-wing Red-Green Alliance won November’s elections in Copenhagen with a tightly focused campaign on making housing affordable again, handing the city’s Social Democrats their first defeat in over a century.
Fascist TV pundit Éric Zemmour has announced his bid for the French presidency. His advance is part of a rising tide of Islamophobia and authoritarianism pushing France toward the far right.
British politicians increasingly seek to silence criticism of wars abroad by emphasizing the need to “respect our boys.” But, veteran Joe Glenton tells Jacobin, many recruits who’ve seen the British army from the inside aren’t happy about being used to launder its image.
Philippe Rio from Grigny, south of Paris, has been voted the world’s best mayor. He told Jacobin about the local social programs that have made his Communist administration a global success story.
A decade since the 15-M protests rocked Spain, the country has its first left-wing coalition government since the 1930s. But as Íñigo Errejón tells Jacobin, today it’s the nationalist right, not the heirs to 15-M, who are dominating the political agenda.
French media is saturated with the fascist pundit Éric Zemmour and his absurd, racist talk of a “great replacement” of France’s white population by immigrants. Now, he’s weighing a bid for the presidency — and his talking points are already dominating the debate.
Burkina Faso revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara was murdered on this day in 1987. Joséphine Ouédraogo recounts her time as a minister in his government — and their final meeting before he was ousted in a bloody coup d’état.
For decades, Italy had the West’s largest Communist Party. A key part of the party’s communications to the masses of Italians were its comics, dedicated to resisting the right-wing influence of priests and fascists.
In Spain, a center-left coalition government faces opposition not just from right-wingers and business leaders but from parts of the judiciary and police. For Pablo Iglesias, it’s time the Left pushed back against right-wing dominance in the state machine.
The auto parts firm GKN is laying off thousands of workers across Europe, sparking a series of strikes and protests. And rather than helping workers, the European Union is helping the company offshore their jobs.
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.
In his first article since withdrawing from frontline politics, Podemos founder Pablo Iglesias argues that Spain’s resurgent nationalist right is a threat to basic democratic freedoms.
For decades, the parties of labor have been slowly replaced by the parties of the educated. A Left that doesn’t acknowledge this as a problem has already been defeated.
The fall of the USSR in 1991 left Cuba mired in economic crisis and increasingly vulnerable to hostility from Washington. For the revolution to survive, it had to draw on its own domestic legitimacy — including its independence from the Soviet model.
Austrian socialist Julius Deutsch was a key figure in Red Vienna’s workers’ sports clubs. Founder of the Schutzbund workers’ militia, Deutsch and his comrades used the class pride built on the sports field to mobilize against rising fascism.
Soldiers’ and police unions’ calls for action to save France from chaos show how fascist ideas have spread within the state. For decades, neoliberal governments have increased these repressive bodies’ powers — and today, they’re preparing the ground for a Le Pen presidency.