Issue 50: Dossier
All the fighting words you missed the first time around.
19108 Articles by: Enver Motala
Enver Motala is an associate of the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation (CERT) at the University of Johannesburg and of the Centre for Integrated Post-School Education and Training at the Nelson Mandela University.
Laughing at the Void
British political comedy of the 1990s and 2000s satirized a low-stakes world of media management and spin. What happened when it tackled the tragedy and atrocity of the war in Iraq?
Beyond Chomsky and Walzer
We must condemn US foreign policy — but we must also articulate the socialist alternative to it.
George Michael Was Our Marvin
Despite pop cultural nostalgia for the protest songs of the ’60s, the march to war in Iraq seemed not to interest musicians — with one glorious exception.
Can the UAW Rise Again?
Despite the ravages of deindustrialization, the United Auto Workers remains the most important American industrial union. Members recently elected a new leadership promising democracy, militancy, and an end to corruption. But change isn’t coming easy to the UAW.
Only You Can Save Darfur
“Save Darfur” perfected a simple message: genocide is bad and must be stopped. But rather than examining the United States’ role in Sudan, it created a spectacle of American power and hierarchy.
Why Australia Marched to War
How Iraq brought Australia into America’s war machine — just in time for a showdown with China.
The Soft Left Couldn’t Stand Up to Tony Blair’s War
How Labour failed to mobilize against the Iraq War.
What Invasion Meant for the Kurds
The Iraqi Kurds were supposed to be liberated by Saddam’s removal. Instead, they face corrupt regional parties and a hostile central state.
Fight Songs
Some of the most scathing critiques of the Iraq War were set to music.
Saddam’s Big Cinematic Spectacle
In 1980, Saddam Hussein commissioned a biopic about his 1959 assassination attempt on Iraq’s prime minister. He enlisted a legendary James Bond director and cast his own son-in-law to play him.
Desert Shooters
Some of the top-selling video games of the post-9/11 world have taken real events as their inspiration.
The Whimsical Works of a War Criminal
Because the Western world has a “complicated” history with frustrated artists as national leaders.
If the Shoe Hits
On December 14, 2008, the Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw his black leather dress shoes at President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad. It was one of the greatest athletic acts of the Iraq War.
Was the Ba‘ath Party Socialist?
Despite its early accomplishments, Ba‘athism was always subject to the whims of a party elite more concerned with preserving power than revolutionary transformation.
Deport Conor Oberst
Bright Eyes front man and enfant terrible of the early aughts indie scene Conor Oberst sat down with Jacobin to discuss the Iraq War and more.
Merchants of Death
Germany likes to keep its hands clean — but its coffers full.