In Tennessee, Socialists Are “On the Cusp of Something Incredibly Big”
Three socialists ran in this month’s Tennessee primaries. With endorsements from the Memphis chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, all three of them won.
20415 Article(s) by: Jonathan Sas
Jonathan Sas has worked in senior policy and political roles in government, think tanks, and the labor movement. He is an honorary witness to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. His writing has appeared in the Toronto Star, National Post, the Tyee, and Maisonneuve.
Does Joe Kennedy Still Believe Austerity Is the “Right Blueprint Forward”?
The 2010 Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan demanded major cuts to Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare during Barack Obama’s first term. Joe Kennedy praised the plan as “the right blueprint forward.”
The Radicalism of Woody Guthrie
Legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie is best known for his anthem “This Land Is Your Land,” which can come off as an innocuous ode to America if you aren’t listening closely. But the singer-songwriter was a lifelong socialist.
How Class-Conscious Women Garment Workers Shaped the Movement for Women’s Suffrage
On the one-hundredth anniversary of American women’s right to vote, let’s remember the working-class socialist suffragists who struggled for the franchise. And let’s devote the next hundred years to realizing their vision.
How Poland’s Road To Socialism Was Blocked
Polish economists like Oskar Lange and Michał Kalecki produced highly creative models of how a socialist system could work, balancing equality and efficiency. But Poland’s Communist government neglected their ideas, sowing the seeds of its eventual demise.
In North Carolina and Around the US, Neoliberal Universities Are Sending Students Into Hell
Many colleges and universities around the country have insisted on reopening in-person classes and putting the burden of preventing coronavirus on individual college students. The administrators behind these decisions seem to care little for the obvious devastation this is wreaking among students.
What Can Stop Cops In Cities Like Kenosha From Brutalizing Black People Like Jacob Blake?
The outrageous shooting of an unarmed black man in Kenosha shows the difference between elected officials’ kind words and actual progress. The movement against police violence will be fighting for a long time.
Last Night’s GOP Insanity Proves How Much the Two Parties Need Each Other
The lunacy on display at last night’s Republican National Convention is what keeps frightened liberal voters satisfied with the meager crumbs of progress offered by the Democrats — and the meagerness of those crumbs is what keeps working-class whites inside an increasingly lunatic GOP.
How Capital Strikes Yanked Barack Obama’s Presidency to the Right
Barack Obama swept into office with a progressive mandate, but his legislating was tepid, often conservative. One key reason: his administration had no plans — or even interest in — overcoming the massive capital strikes they were up against.
Trump’s Post Office Head Has Also Been Serving on the Board of Two GOP Super PACs
Yesterday, Trump’s USPS chairman, Robert Duncan, confirmed he had served on two Republican super PACs — at the same time new documents showed that the GOP takeover of the United States Postal Service coincided with a significant slowdown in mail delivery just months before the November election.
After the Coup, Mali Needs a Change of Direction, Not Just a Change of Leadership
Last week’s coup in Mali came after weeks of protest against an unpopular, autocratic ruler, but the intentions of the junta leaders remain unclear. The country now badly needs to address deep-rooted problems of the Malian state that have been neglected for much too long.
Isaac Deutscher and the Fate of Polish Communism
The Polish Communists were savagely persecuted by Stalin in the 1930s, before he raised their party to power after 1945. Despite attempts at reform, their regime could never transcend its origins as a Soviet satellite state.
Jess Scarane Wants To “Create a Government That Puts People Over Profit”
Jess Scarane is challenging incumbent Chris Coons for a Senate seat in Delaware. In an interview with Jacobin, the thirty-five-year-old candidate endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America and her local Sunrise Movement hub talks about her vision of a better society, Coons’s use of “Republican talking points against the policies that we need,” and why a return to the status quo before the coronavirus is nowhere near good enough.
José Carlos Mariátegui’s Indo-American Socialism
José Carlos Mariátegui was Latin America’s most original revolutionary thinker, who combined Marxist analyses with the vernacular of regional popular movements. Ninety years after his premature death, his work is strikingly relevant.
After the Beirut Explosion, Disaster Capitalism Has Lebanon in Its Sights
The explosion that devastated Beirut was an indictment of the parties that have misruled Lebanon for decades. Now, however, those parties are using the disaster as a pretext to deepen neoliberal policies, with French leader Emmanuel Macron and the IMF egging them on.
Israel Is an Army With a Country Attached
A new book by an Israeli scholar dissects the extraordinary hold that the country’s military — and militaristic ways of thinking — have on Israeli society, and the ideological myths that keep the project afloat.
Most Politicians Don’t Care About Workers. But Unions Can Make Them.
New research finds that strong unions are pretty effective at making politicians pay attention to the interests of ordinary people. In order to pursue a real pro-worker agenda in government, we need an emboldened labor movement.
Why Is It Always the Wrong Time to Criticize Democrats From the Left?
Progressives are being told by the Democratic Party to shut up until after the election. Meanwhile, corporate Democrats are trumpeting how far right they are — a message that could demoralize Democratic voters and depress turnout.
The Triumph and Tragedy of Poland’s Solidarity Movement
Poland’s Solidarity trade union was one of the most impressive workers’ movements in postwar Europe. It rocked the foundations of an autocratic regime, but it took a wrong turn as the Eastern Bloc started to crumble.
When Fascism Almost Came to Australia
In Australia, as elsewhere, the 1930s saw the emergence of an armed, proto-fascist right who were united by their hatred of working-class politics.