Andrew Cuomo Is Clinging to Power and Rewarding His Billionaire Loyalists
Real estate titans and landlords might just be New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s last base of support. The embattled governor is rewarding them handsomely for their loyalty.
19089 Articles by: Opal Lee
Opal Lee is a writer.
Joe Biden and Keir Starmer Are Warmonger Internationalists
The defeat of Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn and the ascension of Joe Biden and Keir Starmer hasn’t just meant the defeat of domestic working-class politics — it’s meant the defeat of an egalitarian internationalism that opposes war and imperialism.
The Obamanauts Are Rebranding as Evil
It’s not just Jay Carney, the former Obama spokesman who now leads capital’s side of the class war at Amazon. A whole cohort of Obamanauts — those bright, young idealists who wanted to change the world — have positioned themselves in roles in the private sector where they can most effectively be part of the problem.
Karl Polanyi’s Great Transformation and the Countermovement to Capitalism
Media pundits hail the economist Karl Polanyi as a brilliant theorist of capitalism and a thinker for our time. In order to understand Polanyi’s ideas, however, we need to see him in the context of his own time: Europe’s “age of catastrophe” in the early twentieth century.
Joe Biden Could Easily Recall the Billions in Military Equipment Police Received From the Pentagon
American police departments are armed to the teeth with military-grade weaponry like Humvees and assault rifles. Nothing is stopping President Biden from shutting down this military-to-police pipeline right away.
The Bombing of Podemos’s Offices Is the Latest Sign of Rising Neofascism in Spain
On Thursday night, the Murcia regional HQ of Spain’s Podemos party was set ablaze with a petrol bomb. The incident was the latest in a string of terrorist attacks against the Left — showing how the growth of the parliamentary far right is combining with the rise of a violent neofascist street movement.
Glenn Greenwald Took on the Authoritarian Right in Brazil — and Won
The full story of how Glenn Greenwald revealed the antidemocratic corruption behind Brazil’s supposed anti-corruption investigation Lava Jato — which jailed former president Lula da Silva and gave rise to Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right presidency — is one of bravery against a violent, reactionary right.
Joe Manchin Wants to Keep the Corporate Tax Rate as Low as Possible
West Virginia senator Joe Manchin is threatening to block President Joe Biden’s higher corporate tax rate as part of Biden’s infrastructure bill — a move that could shield private equity firms whose executives boosted Manchin’s campaign and bet big on Trump’s tax bill.
Novelist Nico Walker on Robbing Banks, Reading Dostoevsky, and Getting Brainwashed by the Army
After a stint in the army and a spell as a heroin addict, Nico Walker became a bank robber — a move that landed him in prison for almost a decade. That’s when he wrote Cherry, his first novel and now a motion picture starring Tom Holland. Jacobin spoke with Walker about the Iraq War, socialism in Bolivia, and why robbing a bank is easier than it looks.
The Chicago Teachers Union Has Defeated a Key Anti-Union State Law
A 1995 Illinois state law massively restricted the Chicago Teachers Union’s ability to bargain over anything but pay and benefits. The union has finally succeeded in rolling the law back — opening the door to bargaining over key issues like reversing privatization and the outsourcing of school services, capping class sizes, and more.
Tomorrow, Milwaukee Could Elect a New Generation of Sewer Socialists
Three democratic socialists are on the ballot tomorrow in Milwaukee, a city with a long history of socialist municipal government. We interviewed them about what their socialist vision for the city looks like.
Corporations Like McDonald’s Don’t Believe Their Own Anti–Minimum Wage Talking Points
Restaurant chains have told their investors that a minimum wage hike wouldn’t be a big deal — even as their corporate lobbying groups in Washington fight plans for a $15 minimum wage.
Former Bolivian VP Álvaro García Linera on How Socialists Can Win
Former vice president of Bolivia Álvaro García Linera sat down with Jacobin to discuss socialist strategy, how the Left can mobilize against antidemocratic forces like the right-wingers who recently executed a coup in Bolivia, and why democratic socialism means an “overflowing of democracy.”
We All Deserve a Death With Dignity
After years of dashed attempts, Spain’s left-wing government has legalized euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. Its victory shows how socialists in the United States can win the right for a dignified death for all.
The Australian Labor Party’s Left Faction Is Just Propping up the Right
In order to challenge the ALP leadership’s right-wing policy agenda, we first need to democratize the party’s rotten internal structures. The party’s Left faction should be leading this fight; instead, they’re helping perpetuate a system that keeps left-wing politics locked out.
Nova Scotia’s Coal Industry Is in Decline. The Province Needs a Green Energy Transition.
Coal mining is coming to an end in Nova Scotia. But the industry’s long history of lethal accidents, labor unrest, and prolonged decline offers a lesson for the future. A green energy transition will need public investment and control, not piecemeal subsidies for private capital.
LA Teachers Won a Safe Schools Reopening by Organizing
United Teachers of Los Angeles won a strong health and safety agreement ahead of returning to classrooms later this month. They won it the old-fashioned way: organizing rank-and-file teachers to demand an agreement that benefits teachers, parents, and students.
In Israel, Zionism Prevents Working-Class Solidarity
Despite unionization rates more than twice that of the United States, many Israeli workers continue to be committed to apartheid and the racist ideology enabling it. The Zionist project is preventing Israeli workers from organizing alongside Palestinians.
MLK Was a Radical Who Hated Not Only Racial Subordination But Class Exploitation
Throughout his adult life, Martin Luther King Jr believed in striking down not only racial apartheid but class exploitation. That twin commitment was embodied in his final effort: the often-forgotten Poor People’s Campaign.
Keir Starmer Has Spent a Year Pushing Labour to the Right
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer has been an incompetent opposition to Boris Johnson. But he has fulfilled his immediate objective during his first year in charge: waging war on the Labour left, attacking Jeremy Corbyn’s legacy, and pushing his party to the right.