Thaddeus Stevens, Revolutionary
Thaddeus Stevens was born on this day in 1792. A fierce, uncompromising opponent of slavery, he was a true American revolutionary.
19640 Articles by: Karl Leffme
Karl Leffme is a socialist in New York CIty.
After Corbyn, Socialists Must Continue the Struggle Within Labour
Today’s Labour leadership election is a defeat for the Left. But the real victory for our opponents would be watching the forces we have amassed in recent years scatter to the wind.
The Making of the Soviet Ruling Class
Yuri Slezkine’s portrait of the Soviet elite under Stalin is an eccentric masterwork. But his portrayal of the Bolsheviks as a religious sect is a travesty of history.
The Charade of Trump’s “Deal of the Century”
Earlier this year, Donald Trump presented his so-called peace plan for the Middle East, a travesty of a scheme that seeks to rubber-stamp Israeli land grabs and shatter the project of Palestinian sovereignty. Former Knesset member for the Arab Party list Haneen Zoabi on why it must be overturned.
Decades of Hospital Closures Led to This Disaster
The United States has been closing vitally needed hospitals for decades. Now, with a pandemic afoot and triage tents popping up in Central Park, we need to stop holding our hospital system hostage to the whims of the market.
“They Don’t Think Our Lives Matter as Much as Theirs”
On Monday night, workers at a Chicago Amazon warehouse joined a nationwide wave of walkouts over what they say is management’s inadequate response to the coronavirus pandemic. One of the action’s organizers spoke to Jacobin about it.
We Should Use the Coronavirus Pandemic to Fight Mass Incarceration
Coronavirus is colliding with American mass incarceration, making clear that warehousing human beings en masse is an often deadly decision. We should use this crisis to push for decarceration.
“If You Want to Keep Your Car, You Drive”
Thousands of drivers have rented vehicles through Lyft’s Express Drive program, working long hours for the company to pay off weekly rental bills. Now there aren’t enough rides on the road, and drivers can’t pay. We talked to Lyft drivers in three cities about how they’re managing the possibility of losing their cars in the middle of a pandemic.
The American Federalist System Is Killing Our Ability to Respond to Coronavirus
The US’s federalist system undermines even the most basic attempts to carry out effective national action. In pandemics, that’s a recipe for death and disaster.
The American Federation of Teachers’ Endorsement of Joe Biden Was Blatantly Undemocratic
The American Federation of Teachers recently announced its endorsement of Joe Biden for president. Even by the dismal standards set by the rest of the labor movement, the AFT’s endorsement was comically undemocratic.
The Coronavirus and Workers’ Democracy
The massive concentration of wealth and power at the apex of American society is not just obscene from the abstract standpoint of justice. It is a threat to our common health.
Tony Benn Spent His Life Fighting for Democracy and Socialism
Today would have been British Labour MP Tony Benn’s 95th birthday. We remember his contributions to the struggle for democracy and socialism, a struggle that we must continue today.
Jeremy Corbyn Showed the Way. But We Must Learn the Right Lessons.
Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party ends this weekend. We need to defend his legacy and carry on his noble democratic-socialist program, while being honest about where and why he fell short.
The Coronavirus Has Created Record Support for Medicare For All
A new poll shows a solid majority of Americans in favor of Medicare For All. It should come as no surprise — the horrors of the private health insurance system are now being put on full display.
Austerity Is Fueling the COVID-19 Pandemic in New Orleans, Not Mardi Gras Culture
Mainstream outlets are claiming the mounting coronavirus crisis in New Orleans is the result of cultural practices like Mardi Gras. That’s nonsense — it’s a consequence of deep class divides and decimated public health infrastructure.
“The Collective Work of Art We Call the City”
We pay tribute to Michael Sorkin, the architect and writer who died last week after contracting COVID-19. Sorkin spent his life both interpreting and changing cities in the interest of economic justice.
Abdul El-Sayed: “We Need to Remember This Is About People, Not Numbers or a Curve”
In an interview with Jacobin, Medicare for All advocate and former Michigan governor hopeful Abdul El-Sayed explains why the COVID-19 pandemic was avoidable — and why the cruelties of the US’s for-profit health and economic system are making everything worse.
Pandemic Bonds Are a Scam Holding the Global South Hostage
The World Bank’s “pandemic bonds” demonstrate how global capital has an uncanny ability to profit from social ills. So far, investors have earned about $96 million in interest on the pandemic bonds, but developing countries have yet to receive desperately needed money.
Faced With Coronavirus, Portugal Is Treating Migrants as Citizens — We Should, Too
Portugal’s center-left government has announced that all migrants with open residency applications will be given regularized status, allowing them full access to health care and social services. Its example shows that our collective response to the coronavirus outbreak has to include everyone — regardless of where they were born.
Britain’s Conservative Party Is the Patient Zero of the Country’s Worsening National Health Crisis
A decade of Tory austerity, now compounded by the COVID-19 crisis, is pushing Britain’s National Health Service to a breaking point.