Even the “Good” Billionaires Are Bad
Liberals and right-wingers have the same love-hate relationship with billionaires: both love the ones on their side of the partisan divide and hate those on the opposite side.
19230 Articles by: Julia Goodman
To Get Unstuck, the Left Should Emulate the Right’s “Swarm” Model
Over the last decade, the American right has developed a successful organizing model that combines national messaging with local mobilizations. The stalled-out left could stand to learn a thing or two.
The Killer Isn’t the Only Murderer in The Good Nurse
In The Good Nurse, a serial killer’s murders are disguised by the frequently nightmarish workings of hospitals in a for-profit health care system.
As the Fed Raises Interest Rates, People Will Lose Jobs and Democrats Will Lose Elections
The Federal Reserve has signaled that it will further raise interest rates this month, increasing the chances of a recession that will hurt average people. In response, most of the Democratic Party establishment are twiddling their thumbs.
Brazil’s Election Shows the Dangers of an Increasingly Far-Right Police
Lula’s election victory was nearly derailed by a Bolsonaro-supporting police effort to suppress the vote. It was only the most recent episode in which politicized police forces have intervened to thwart democracy — and the US is far from immune to the problem.
Real Estate Billionaires Are Fighting Tooth and Nail Against Measure ULA
Measure ULA, a Los Angeles ballot initiative up for approval by voters, would increase taxes on high-value property deals and use the revenue to address the city’s dire housing crisis. The real estate industry is spending millions to fight the measure.
Starbucks Roastery Workers in New York City Are on Strike
Unionized workers at the Starbucks Roastery in Manhattan are on day eight of a strike protesting unsanitary conditions, including a bedbug infestation and moldy ice machines. Jacobin spoke with striking workers about their demands and Starbucks’s retaliation.
Britain’s Security State’s Long History of Spying on Left-Wing Intellectuals
Britain’s police and secret service has spied on and infiltrated left-wing political organizations since the 19th century. A new book shows that their continued influence poses a serious threat to democracy.
Mike Davis Revisits His 1986 Labor History Classic, Prisoners of the American Dream
The late socialist writer Mike Davis’s first book was Prisoners of the American Dream, a deep exploration of how the US labor movement became so weakened. Nearly four decades later, Davis revisited the book in an interview with Jacobin.
Lula’s Victory Over Bolsonaro Has Restored Hope for Brazilian Democracy
Lula defeated Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro in yesterday’s election. The left-wing veteran will face some huge challenges on taking office, but his triumph over Bolsonaro has given Brazilian politics a fresh chance after a disastrous presidency.
Tár Is Stuck in the Muck of Its Own Highbrow Artiness
Todd Field wants you to think his new movie Tár is a critique of the pretentiousness of the high art world. But the movie is actually trapped in that suffocating world and can’t find a way out.
How Nazi Billionaires Thrived in Postwar Germany
In Nazi Germany, industrialists built vast fortunes from slave labor and stolen Jewish property. In postwar West Germany, they were allowed to keep them — with denazification doing little to trouble those who had profited most from the regime.
Free Speech Is Too Important To Be Entrusted to Elon Musk
Liberals who minimize the importance of free speech on Twitter are dead wrong. But we shouldn’t have to hope that a billionaire with a track record of suppressing his critics will live up to his free speech rhetoric.
On Halloween Night in 1891, Tennessee Miners Made Righteous Mayhem
The Coal Creek War was one of the largest insurrections in American labor history, with thousands of miners batting state troops to end the convict leasing system designed to extend slavery and undermine organized labor.
Bill Clinton’s Welfare Reform Gave Us Brett Favre’s Welfare Fraud
Millions of dollars of Mississippi welfare funds went to retired Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre. That could never have been possible without the grotesque “welfare reform” championed by Bill Clinton.
Today’s Hawkish Discourse Makes the Cuban Missile Crisis’s Nuclear Brinkmanship Seem Sane
In the 1962 US-Soviet nuclear showdown over Cuba, there was no shortage of voices calling for escalation or decrying “appeasement.” But there was always broad support for the kind of talks that ended up saving the world — something frighteningly absent today.
Lula’s Former Press Secretary on the Meaning of Lulismo
Today, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva can return to power and build a more equitable and prosperous Brazil. Former Lula press secretary André Singer spoke to Jacobin about what’s possible in power and the enduring appeal of Lulismo.
Carlo Tresca Was an Italian Radical Who Fought Fascism in the United States
In the early twentieth century, Carlo Tresca was one of the most important immigrant labor organizers in the United States. When fascism triumphed in his homeland in 1922, he took up the struggle against its American backers.
“Raising the Retirement Age” for Social Security Just Means Cutting Benefits
GOP leaders say they want to raise the Social Security retirement age. That’s just a deceptive way of saying they want to cut benefits — punishing nonwealthy Americans while leaving untouched the massive government spending on tax shelters for the rich.
Anatomy of a Union Organizing Drive
Unions aren’t just vehicles for transforming society — they also transform lives, as workers and organizers learn how to build an organization that can overthrow the authoritarian dictatorship of the boss and create a beloved community.