Abolish the Olympics
The Tokyo “2020” Olympic games are just like every other Olympics: a bonanza for corporate profits, and miserable for everyone else. The Olympics can’t be reformed — it’s time to abolish them.
19679 Articles by: Karl Leffme
Karl Leffme is a socialist in New York CIty.
Twenty Years Since the Genoa G8 Protests, Globalization Is Imploding
Even as massive protests confronted the Genoa G8 summit in July 2001, many saw some form of capitalist globalization as inevitable. But today, national capitalisms are regaining strength — and the Left has to adapt its strategy accordingly.
Frito-Lay Workers Are on Strike for Their Lives
Hundreds of workers are on strike at the Frito-Lay plant in Topeka, Kansas. Many of them are working 12-hour days, seven days a week, and some haven’t had a day off in five months — conditions that are literally killing them.
What the Sandinistas Won in Nicaragua
Forty-two years ago today, Sandinista National Liberation Front forces captured Managua and put an end to the Somoza dictatorship. It was a triumph that changed the course of Latin American history.
Across the State of New York, Left Elected Officials Are Winning
The leftist electoral wins at the local, state, and federal level in New York City have been much discussed. But the Left is also notching victories in western New York, challenging the moderate Democrats often at the helm in the region.
Biden Just Turned Down a Golden Opportunity to End Vaccine Apartheid
Joe Biden publicly supports proposals to waive vaccine patents to help end the COVID-19 pandemic. But so far he appears to have no intention of spending political capital to make those proposals a reality.
We Will Never Forget Dawn Foster
Jacobin writer Dawn Foster passed away last week at the age of 34. Dawn is irreplaceable, but we can seek to emulate her extraordinary combination of compassion and political commitment.
The Olympics Is a Racket
The world’s top athletes coming together in a spirit of friendly competition is a beautiful vision. But the Olympics have become a machine for the ruthless extraction of profit at the expense of working-class people.
Neoliberalism Won’t Take Real Action to Stop Climate Change
At least 185 people have been killed by floods centered on the Rhineland region. Despite Germany’s supposed green credentials, the weak political response to the disaster shows how unwilling neoliberals are to take real action against corporate polluters.
The Forgotten History of Mexican American Militancy
Too often, the militant, radical history of Mexican American workers is omitted or forgotten. But from resisting racist exclusion to building CIO unions in the 1930s, Mexican American workers have been central to left-wing politics in the United States.
Summer of Soul Is an Enthralling and Emotional Concert Film 50 Years in the Making
With historic performances by everyone from Stevie Wonder and Gladys Knight to Nina Simone and Sly and the Family Stone, Questlove’s documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival is a moving portrait of black music and a radical political and cultural moment.
Europe’s Romani Population Can’t Breathe
Last month, a Czech police officer kneeled on the neck of Romani man Stanislav Tomáš until he stopped breathing. Fifty years since the first World Romani Congress, Europe’s Romani people urgently need a new movement against discrimination and deprivation.
The US Blockade on Cuba Must End
For sixty years, the United States has aimed to strangle Cuba’s economy and inflict misery on the Cuban people. Blockades are methods of war — and it’s time for the war on Cuba to end.
Beating Nuclear Arms Into Plowshares
The US nuclear arsenal gobbles up massive resources for death that should be used for human life. For decades, Catholic activists have put their bodies on the line to insist we dismantle that arsenal.
Why Socialists Should Distrust Antitrust
People are right to be disgusted by giant corporations. But the liberal “antitrust” response too often valorizes small-scale competition instead of solidarity and worker organization.
Luca Is Another Beautiful, Overstuffed Pixar Sob Sandwich
Pixar’s latest film, Luca, is so chock-full of twists and turns, it reveals just how much that once-little animation studio has helped shape our current “bingeworthy” narrative standard.
In Belarus, Peaceful Student Protesters Are Languishing in Jail
A year since election fraud sparked Belarus’s biggest ever protests, Alexander Lukashenko’s regime speaks of a return to normality. But the country’s universities have seen a purge of dissidents, with hundreds of students arbitrarily expelled or even jailed.
Australian Business Has Used the Pandemic to Attack Workers — Now It’s Time to Fight Back
Much of Australia is back under pandemic lockdown thanks to Coalition mismanagement. The Liberals have used the crisis to bolster big business. Now the workers’ movement needs to champion its own measures to counter the pandemic and rebuild the economy.
What Biden’s Child Tax Credit Is Getting Wrong
Joe Biden’s Child Tax Credit is an important lifeline for poor and working-class families. But his administration has bungled the rollout: 90 percent of eligible children still haven’t been reached, consigning them to brutal poverty.
Jamaica’s 1831 Revolt Dealt a Hammer Blow to Colonial Slavery
In 1831, slaves in Jamaica took up arms against murderous exploitation by the island’s plantation owners. Their courageous rebellion, at the halfway point between Haiti’s revolution and the US Civil War, was a landmark in the battle for slave emancipation.