Free Reign
Eric Adams’s alleged record as Brooklyn borough president and mayor of New York City would be tough for anyone to top.
20389 Article(s) by: Opal Lee
Opal Lee is a writer.
Urban Legends
Politicians and thought leaders have spent decades demonizing American cities. urban-legends
Zohran Mamdani Is Right on Public Safety
On crime, just as on other issues, Zohran Mamdani is leading the Left out of dead-end sloganeering and toward progressive governance.
Indulgences
Jacobin Finally Gets the Key to the City
Now Who’s the Boss?
When and where organized labor’s been on the move.
When Unions Built Social Housing
Throughout the mid-20th century, immigrant associations and labor unions bought and built thousands of co-ops to house working-class New Yorkers. A left-led co-op revival might provide a way out of our present-day urban housing crisis.
Sharing the Big Apple
Union co-ops were a source of both affordable housing and displacement for New York’s workers.
Downstate Socialism
New York’s socialist movement found a mid-century standard-bearer in an Italian American congressman from the Bronx.
Mayor Mamdani’s Budget Can Add Up
New York’s incoming socialist mayor faces real fiscal constraints — but also real opportunities. With a strong tax base, modest reforms, and a clear political mandate, Zohran Mamdani has the tools to govern.
Issue 60: Misery Index
Crunching the numbers on the class war.
The Oligarch Upstairs
Some of the most over-the-top apartments in New York City are owned — and left empty — by überwealthy foreign nationals.
When the Rich Say “We’re Leaving”
Every time we want to change society to benefit average people, we have to deal with ultrawealthy crybabies.
Colonial Plunder Didn’t Create Capitalism
Despite what you may have heard, colonial plunder didn’t give rise to capitalism. In an interview with Jacobin, Vivek Chibber discusses why the “colonialism-created-capitalism” argument fails, and why Marxism provides a better account of its emergence.
Making a May Day 2028 General Strike a Reality
In the wake of the historic stand-up strike two years ago, United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain called on the labor movement to prepare to strike together on May 1, 2028. What will it take to make a successful general strike a reality?
Sortition Can Help Cure What Ails Our Democracy
Americans are frustrated with our increasingly oligarchic political system. Selecting an assortment of lawmaking deliberative bodies through random lotteries could help fix it, by empowering ordinary people rather than unaccountable politicians.
Threatened With Jail for Offering Blankets to Migrants
Twenty-four aid workers in Greece are being tried on trumped-up smuggling charges after they gave blankets and water to migrants. Some have been in pretrial detention for months in a case highlighting the EU’s authoritarian clampdown on migrant rescue.