The Mexican Revolution Was an Internationalist Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a transnational explosion of resistance to grinding exploitation that kicked off a global epoch of anti-capitalist revolution.
19744 Articles by: Opal Lee
Opal Lee is a writer.
Giving Birth in a Public Health Care System Showed Me What’s Wrong With US Health Care
I gave birth to two children in two cities, New York and London. The care I received through the UK’s National Health Service showed me the serious limits of even the best private health care in the US.
How LA Education Workers Waged a Successful Joint Strike Across Two Unions
Bosses have long known the power of solidarity strikes — and thus try to make such strikes illegal. But United Teachers Los Angeles president Cecily Myart-Cruz explains in Jacobin that her union and SEIU Local 99 recently pulled such a strike off and won.
Jean-Paul Sartre’s Existential Marxism Shows How We Can Make Our Own History
Jean-Paul Sartre was the world’s most renowned philosopher when he set out to renew Marxist theory in the 1950s. The result was a brilliant analysis of how human beings can overcome the weight of social structures to change the world for the better.
When Antiwar Activists Salted the US Military
The practice of “salting,” covertly getting a job with the intention of organizing a workplace, is receiving renewed attention lately. During the Vietnam War, activists used this tactic to build the antiwar movement within the ranks of the US military.
Profit-Obsessed Private Equity Is Now Dominating the US Hospice System
The US hospice system is supposed to provide compassionate end-of-life care. But private equity firms have swallowed up the industry: 7 out of 10 hospice agencies are now for-profit, putting profit maximization over patient well-being.
Longtermists Are Pushing a New Cold War With China
Motivated by fears of the existential risks posed by advanced AI falling into the hands of authoritarian regimes, longtermists have for years been quietly pressing the White House to pursue a more aggressive policy toward China.
UFC Doesn’t Have an Integrity Problem — It Has a Capitalism Problem
Last year, a major fight-fixing scandal broke out in mixed martial arts company UFC, centered around fighter turned trainer James Krause. No one should be surprised: UFC’s neoliberal business model all but incentivizes corruption.
Succession Is Television’s Most Devastating Critique of the Ultrarich
Succession is heading toward its series finale, having settled into a portrait of how the ultrarich’s quest for limitless accumulation crowds out any semblance of humanity. The show is the most potent piece of class critique on TV in recent memory.
Today, Lebanon Celebrates Victory Over Israeli Occupation
On this day in 2000, popular resistance forced Israel to abandon its nearly two-decade-long occupation of southern Lebanon. It showed that Israel is not invincible — and provided valuable lessons for the Palestinians.
2024 Is Beginning to Feel a Lot Like 2016
Joe Biden is so weak and unpopular that we have to take seriously the possibility that Donald Trump could defeat him in 2024.
For Airline Workers, a Willingness to Strike Gets the Goods
WestJet pilots just secured a deal from the airline, averting a strike at the 11th hour. It’s a win that reinforces the truth that taking proactive labor actions delivers results — a noteworthy fact for an industry currently witnessing a labor-rights push.
Unions Can Organize High-Turnover Workplaces
Organizing workplaces like Amazon with enormous turnover is a steep challenge. But workers there and elsewhere are experimenting with different tactics to unionize despite the churn.
Dark Money Is Behind Republicans’ Debt Ceiling Plan to Shrink the Social Safety Net
Republican lawmakers are refusing to raise the debt ceiling unless Democrats accept sweeping spending cuts and expanded work requirements on social programs — an agenda borrowed from a dark money–funded think tank that has pushed to loosen child labor laws.
American Socialists Have Grappled With Race From the Very Beginning
A new book torpedoes the familiar notion that 19th-century US socialists were indifferent toward race. While flawed, the “interracial internationalism” they espoused should be recognized as part of early socialism’s legacy.
Alex Niven Believes in the Political Potential of Poetry
In light of the failures of mainstream politics across the board, socialist writer Alex Niven wants to inject a sense of hope back into contemporary life. A champion of the North of England, he believes that literature can help.
How German Leftists Fell in Love with Arms Supplies
In Germany, even radical left-wingers who long distrusted state power are today calling for more tanks and jets for Ukraine. Lacking alternative solutions to the conflict, parts of the Left increasingly fall in behind the government’s call to rearm.
The Labour Party Refuses to Address the UK’s Economic Problems
Amid a brutal cost-of-living crisis after decades of austerity, popular support for progressive economic policy is the highest it’s been in years. Yet Keir Starmer’s Labour Party refuses to deliver — because it’s afraid of empowering workers.
Telling the Story of Australia’s Soviet Diaspora
Australian historian Sheila Fitzpatrick has spent her career documenting the history of the USSR. She tells Jacobin about her latest project, which looks at the Soviet citizens who migrated to Australia and their complicated relationship with their homeland.
Salting Wouldn’t Be Necessary If Employers Didn’t Union Bust
The US workplace is a private dictatorship where bosses exercise extraordinary power and systematically union bust. “Salting,” or getting a job with the intent to organize a workplace, is a completely justifiable response to this workplace despotism.