Unionizing the “Cultural Apparatus”
Don’t mourn the professional-managerial class — organize it.
19494 Articles by: Opal Lee
Opal Lee is a writer.
Donald Trump’s Reactionary Futurism
Like its 20th-century predecessors, today’s far right longs for the purported glories of the ancient world, all while fetishizing modern technology.
Jean-Marie Le Pen Got the Last Laugh
Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died last month, attempted to forge an alliance between neo-fascists, apologists for French colonialism, and neglected working-class communities. Today this coalition threatens the foundations of the Fifth Republic.
Electricity for the Public Good
In a new interview, Sandeep Vaheesan discusses his book Democracy in Power and the history of America’s electrification, showing how organizers can build support for public power and public utilities during hostile times.
How the West Destroyed Congo’s Hopes for Independence
In 1960, Patrice Lumumba became the prime minister of newly independent Congo. His close ally Andrée Blouin describes how Belgium and the US conspired to oust Lumumba and impose Mobutu’s kleptocratic dictatorship on the Congolese people.
South Africa’s Worst State-Sponsored Massacre Since Apartheid
In a staggering display of cruelty, South African police laid siege to an illegal gold mine near Johannesburg, leaving at least 78 workers dead by mid-January. Informal miners are the shadow of an exploitative mining industry — one inextricable from apartheid.
Elon Musk: Austerity for Thee but Not for Me
This week, as Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” was attempting to further gut the US government, his rocket company SpaceX was cementing a NASA contract adding millions of dollars to its already massive deal with the space agency.
Love Hurts, and So Does Going to This Movie
Love Hurts is the Valentine’s Day–themed action movie you never asked for.
Power Elites and the Limits of Representation
Born to Rule makes it clear that wealth and inheritance, not merit, are still the way to get ahead in Britain. Its case for a meritocratic elite, however, misses the point: Britain’s problems run much deeper than talent misallocation among its upper classes.
Immanuel Wallerstein and the Life and Death of Capitalism
Immanuel Wallerstein was convinced that the capitalist system would end within the next few decades and would either be replaced by a more regressive world-system or a more democratic and egalitarian one. In his view, the odds were 50-50 each way.
Trump and the Very American Personnel Question
In his attempts to reshape the federal workforce, Donald Trump is drawing on the American tradition of treating workers’ employment as completely subject to their bosses’ whims.
From Zionist Myths to Humanist Ethics
In his latest book, Peter Beinart calls on American Jews to see the horrors of Gaza and abandon blind Zionism in favor of a justice-driven Jewish identity. Blending biblical critique with political observations, it rethinks the meaning of Jewishness today.
Colombia’s Receding Coastline
In Colombia, coastal erosion caused by a combination of climate change and environmentally destructive industrial agriculture is displacing the country’s poorest citizens. But the scale of the disaster means that it has no easy solutions.
AI Is Here to Stay. Who’s Steering the Ship?
From the smokestacks of the Industrial Revolution to today’s neural nets, technology has always been a double-edged sword that carries the promise of liberation for workers. But cashing in on that promise requires control over how technology is deployed.
Wolfgang Streeck: “Global Governance” Is a Pipe Dream
Wolfgang Streeck’s new book Taking Back Control? argues that the neoliberal era of free trade and trickle-down rhetoric lies in the past. He spoke to Jacobin about the political shocks this might bring.
If This Isn’t Corruption, Nothing Is
Donald Trump once told voters he was fighting a corrupt political system. With Elon Musk operating with impunity throughout the federal government, Trump has taken political corruption to new and unprecedented lengths.
Elon Musk Is a Mouthpiece for South Africa’s White Far Right
Elon Musk’s claim that South Africa’s land expropriation laws are part of a broader attack on the country’s white minority is divorced from reality. But it represents South African elites’ inability to understand the class tensions that define their nation.
A Key Opportunity to Check Trump: Stopping Medicaid Cuts
Defeating the GOP’s proposed Medicaid cuts, which will then fund huge tax cuts for the rich, is an urgent priority. It’s a chance to reestablish the popularity of the welfare state in American politics and hand Donald Trump and Elon Musk a much-needed defeat.
Federal Workers Can Defeat Elon Musk’s Coup. Here’s How.
Elon Musk would like you to think he is invincible right now. But the world’s richest man is actually extremely vulnerable to public pressure at the moment — public pressure that federal workers and their unions can take advantage of.
Saudi Arabia Is Still One of the Most Repressive Countries
Pundits like Thomas Friedman claimed that Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman was a reformer committed to liberalization. In reality, the Saudi kingdom remains unflinchingly authoritarian, combining traditional and ultramodern repressive techniques.