Poverty Shortens Your Life
New research into life expectancy across England’s richest and poorest areas reveals the real cost of social inequality: a decade of life.
20416 Article(s) by: Karl Leffme
Karl Leffme is a socialist in New York CIty.
To Stabilize Yemen, the United States Must Stop Selling Arms to Saudi Arabia
Two bills now before Congress would block a proposed $650 million arms sale to Saudi Arabia. That won’t end the war in Yemen, but it’s a necessary start. Progressive lawmakers should join Ilhan Omar and Bernie Sanders in supporting the bills.
Blind Faith in the Army Isn’t “Supporting Veterans”
British politicians increasingly seek to silence criticism of wars abroad by emphasizing the need to “respect our boys.” But, veteran Joe Glenton tells Jacobin, many recruits who’ve seen the British army from the inside aren’t happy about being used to launder its image.
Amazon Is Reshaping Contemporary Literature
From the hypercommercialization of Kindle Singles to the fraught question of classifying book genres, Amazon has put its stamp on the literary field in ways large and small — but always in the interests of profit, says Mark McGurl, author of Everything and Less: The Novel in the Age of Amazon.
Bernie Sanders Is Facing Down Corporate Democrats on Taxes
The Democrats are poised to pass a giant, regressive tax giveaway to the wealthy by raising the SALT cap deduction. Bernie Sanders is trying to stop them.
Nick Kristof’s Bill Gates Problem
For years, Nicholas Kristof’s New York Times column has relentlessly promoted and whitewashed the controversial projects spearheaded by Bill and Melinda Gates, like for-profit education and exploitative microlending. As governor of Oregon, would Kristof continue serving billionaire interests?
Oliver Stone Talks to Jacobin About JFK’s Killing
Oliver Stone sat down with Jacobin to discuss JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass, his new documentary that exhaustively makes the case that the national security state, including the CIA and FBI, killed John F. Kennedy — not a lone shooter.
How the Mexican Revolution Made John Reed a Red
John Reed’s thrilling dispatches from the front lines of the Mexican Revolution could have made him a pop culture celebrity. Instead, the experience made him a committed socialist.
The Pete Buttigieg Documentary Is an Empty Portrait of an Empty Politician
Amazon’s new Pete Buttigieg documentary attempts the impossible: making the disturbingly empty yet also unnervingly ambitious mayor of South Bend somehow seem like a compelling historical figure. It fails.
Corruption and Patronage Are the Norm in the Australian Labor Party
Earlier this year, disgraced former MP Adem Somyurek joined the long list of Labor politicians to be investigated for corruption. Somyurek was no outlier — the nepotism and cronyism he practiced are just part of the day-to-day running of the Australian Labor Party.
Microworkers are “Disempowered to a Degree Previously Unseen in Capitalist History”
“Microworkers” are the anonymous digital contract workers whose labor powers the tech giants’ artificial intelligence systems. They’re hyper-exploited — and, like all other workers under capitalism, will continue suffering until they can organize.
China’s Growth Model Is in Crisis
China has long seen high-speed economic growth tied to property investment. That model is now failing.
The Harder They Fall, Netflix’s New All-Black Western, Is Bloody, Star-Filled Fun
Drawing from real but forgotten figures from the old West, The Harder They Fall breathes new life into the Western. It’s also a violent good time for all.
Everyone Should Have the Right to Disconnect From Work
Portugal has banned employers from making nonemergency contact with staff outside of working hours. The “right to disconnect” is a good idea — but more protection is needed for precarious workers who aren’t on fixed schedules.
Mayor Pete Is a Portrait of a Completely Cynical, Empty Presidential Campaign
The new Pete Buttigieg documentary reveals more about the failures and emptiness of today’s Democratic Party than it does about Buttigieg himself.
Cuba’s Vaccine Could End up Saving Millions of Lives
Thanks to its public biotech sector and its government’s deep commitment to public health, Cuba is now the only low-income country to have made its own COVID vaccine. It’s already helped millions of Cubans, and it’s poised to help millions more around the world.
Workers in Atlantic Canada Face Down Austerity
In New Brunswick, 22,000 public-sector workers are struggling against austerity measures put in place by Tory premier Blaine Higgs. His actions are a portent of the austerity measures to come in a post-COVID world.
Conservatives Are Wrong: There’s Nothing Natural About Hierarchy
Conservative thinkers like Roger Scruton defend traditional hierarchies as natural and inescapable. But our social order is the product of human decisions — and it can be remade to benefit the many rather than the few.
Kim Stanley Robinson on Science Fiction and Reclaiming Science for the Left
Writer Kim Stanley Robinson talks to Jacobin about Ministry of the Future and his other books, climate change, and why he thinks the Left should reclaim science as a tool of socialist progress.
Did We Really Need a Hillary Clinton Novel? (The Answer Is No)
Hillary Clinton’s fiction debut fails for the same reason centrist Dems are struggling politically: their Trump obsession is boring.