The Architecture of Prisons Is Everywhere We Look
Buildings’ design communicates the values of a society. In contemporary American architecture, those values appear closer to control and surveillance than openness and enjoyment for all.
19639 Articles by: Karl Leffme
Karl Leffme is a socialist in New York CIty.
We Can’t Blame the South Alone for Anti-Tax Austerity Politics
The South of slavery and Jim Crow is often cast as the major historical reason for the US’s stunted welfare state. But the most fanatical resistance to taxation and redistribution came from the Northern ruling class.
A Brazilian Bloodbath
When Lula and the Workers’ Party took power in Brazil, they had a plan to take on crime and the power of the police. Their failure helped undermine their entire program.
Unions Are Inadvertently Propping Up Fossil Fuels
Workers’ retirement savings are being used to bankroll oil and gas companies’ climate destruction.
Art and Capital Have Become Nearly Indistinguishable
From brands commissioning immersive installations at prestigious art fairs to hedge funds transforming artworks into stock-like financial instruments, the line between art and capital is blurrier than ever.
When the Communist International Is Your Boss
Throughout history, it’s been hard for agitators and troublemakers to hold down a good job. In the interwar decades, tens of thousands of them were hired by the Communist International — an employer with long hours, difficult bosses, and a lot of opportunities for travel.
The Legacy of Vancouver’s Radical Punk Scene Lives On
Punk rock’s original radical spirit may have been co-opted by the culture industry long ago, but some of its progenitors still have fire in the belly. The most recent album of Canada’s Art Bergmann, Late Stage Empire Dementia, returns punk to its radical roots.
Once Jailed for His Beliefs, Socialist Max Zirngast Now Holds Public Office
Jacobin contributor Max Zirngast, who was imprisoned in Turkey for his left-wing political writing, has now been elected to the municipal council of his home city of Graz, along with several other Communist Party of Austria members.
In British Politics, Pro-Palestinian Activism Is Now Considered Criminal
When British students demonstrated this week against a far-right Israeli politician, Tzipi Hotovely, the country’s politicians lined up to denounce them as violent antisemites. Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has added its voice to this authoritarian chorus.
The Italian Communist Whose Radical Children’s Books Shaped a Generation
Gianni Rodari was Italy’s most important children’s author — and a Communist. Cherished by generations of readers, his irreverent fairy tales encouraged children to question authority and think for themselves.
Australia Is Lobbying for a New Cold War Between China and America
Paranoia about Chinese influence in Australia is on the rise — and the Australian ruling class is stoking tensions between China and the United States. For the sake of world peace and prosperity, they have to be stopped.
Canadians Need to Replace the Debt Economy With a Living Wage
Canada’s income supports helped avoid mass insolvencies during the pandemic, but widespread indebtedness continues to prop up the country’s ailing economy. Workers must fight to replace easy credit with living wages.
Remembering Nigeria’s Ogoni 9, Murdered for Their Organizing Against Shell
Oil giant Shell wrought devastation across Nigeria for years. In 1995, nine organizers from the Ogoni region were hanged after a campaign against the company.
Carlo Rosselli Was a Revolutionary Murdered by Fascism
This day in 1936, Italian socialist Carlo Rosselli made his famous Radio Barcelona appeal for anti-fascists to join the struggle “today in Spain, tomorrow in Italy.” He was murdered by fascists the following year, but Rosselli’s vision of a free and just society lives on.
Israel Is Hacking the Phones of Palestinian NGOs
Israel has been caught hacking the phones of six Palestinian human rights staffers. It’s the latest incident in Israel’s larger web of blatantly undemocratic mass surveillance practices.
How the US War on Drugs Subverted Bolivian Democracy
It’s been two years since the right-wing coup against Evo Morales’s socialist government. One of his former ministers tells Jacobin about how the US war on drugs helped create a Bolivian military free from popular control.
Rich People Are Destroying the Planet
Rich people have a carbon footprint 25 times the size of even the typical American. To tackle climate change, we need to start with fossil capital and the most affluent.
Health Care Giant Kaiser Is the Latest Employer Now Staring Down the Barrel of a Strike
At Kaiser Permanente, some 32,000 workers are preparing to go on strike. In addition to proposing measly raises, the health care giant is resisting workers’ desire to have more say in addressing chronic understaffing.
Smooth Criminals
From the Wolf of Wall Street in New York to Jho Low in Malaysia, globalization unleashed a world of well-connected and superrich con artists.
What We Really Know About the CIA and Crack
The CIA claimed that any story linking it to the 1980s crack cocaine explosion was conspiratorial slander. But the evidence of its complicity is all there in the congressional record.