The Left in Purgatory

Socialists in the United States are stuck. How do we become masters of our own fate?

We Can Decommodify Housing Through Eminent Domain

Eminent domain has long been used to displace working-class people of color in Los Angeles, as in many cities. In a twist, a group of LA tenants is campaigning to use eminent domain to save themselves from eviction.

Japanese Militarism Has Put the People of Okinawa on the Firing Line

Okinawans have long campaigned against the massive US military bases that dominate their island. But the Japanese state is pressing ahead with a new base against their will, placing the island on the front line in a region made more dangerous by US saber-rattling against China.

The Stories We Tell Ourselves About Marriage Are Wrong

Our society is deeply invested in a rosy version of romance while offering little support for families to survive the challenges of marriage and child-rearing. We can’t survive those challenges without honest narratives about the maddening realities of love.

Are These the Last Days of Die Linke?

Die Linke was founded on the promise of unifying Germany’s left and rejuvenating what was once the world’s leading socialist movement. Fifteen years later, it’s struggling to survive.

The Tenured Radical on the Telly

The 1980s BBC series The History Man was a venomous takedown of academic pseudo-radicals. How does it stand up today?

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.