We’re Just at the Beginning of a Long Struggle for Justice
Whatever happens in the election, the Left will be either blamed or shamed. Don’t be surprised — be ready for the fight of our lives.
19639 Articles by: Opal Lee
Opal Lee is a writer.
On Election Day, Follow the Money for Both Parties
In an oligarchic system, there are few better predictors of how a president will govern than where they got their money. Here’s who’s funded both the Biden and Trump campaigns.
The Right-Wing Violence Trump Has Encouraged Has Deep Roots in American History
The far-right violence that Donald Trump has stoked has deep roots in US history. Kicking him from office won’t change that — but it would deal a blow to right-wing vigilantism.
New York’s Elected Socialists Are Building a Movement
In New York this campaign season, something extraordinary happened: a dedicated effort by AOC and the state’s newly elected DSA-aligned socialist legislators to transform their campaigns into non-electoral socialist organizing vehicles within their districts.
Let Everyone Vote
More than 31 million adults who live in the United States are legally prohibited from voting in today’s election. That’s an obscene human rights violation.
Republicans Don’t Want the “Wrong Kind of People” to Vote
Republicans and the broader conservative movement have been trashing democracy and pushing voter suppression for decades — because they know that their oligarchic project is unpopular and they can’t win fair and square.
The Courts Were Always Bad. Now They’re Fundamentally Illegitimate.
For too long, progressives have accepted without question the legitimacy of the courts. That needs to change now.
Poland’s Massive Pro-Choice Protests Can Change the Whole Political Agenda
In recent days, Poland has seen its biggest protests in decades, with strikes and demonstrations against the harshened abortion ban. As MP Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk tells Jacobin, the movement is a lightning rod for frustrations at the country’s hard-right government — and can finally put women’s hardships at the center of the political agenda.
We’re Sorry to Report That the New Borat Movie Isn’t Funny
Amazon’s Borat sequel tries to replay the zany laughs of the original but picks easy, woke moralizing over funny social satire.
Jason Kenney Is Calling in the Austerity Apparatchiks to Justify Attacking Alberta’s Workers
In the Canadian province of Alberta, the United Conservative Party has enlisted accountancy firms to promote its agenda of economic liberalization, cloaking its partisan policies in the bloodless language of efficient management and accounting practices.
Jane McAlevey: Prepare to Hit the Streets After Election Day
Labor organizer and strategist Jane McAlevey saw the disaster of the 2000 Florida recount close up. This time, she says, the labor movement will be crucial in the fight to “force the Democratic Party to do something that we don’t think that they’re going to do on their own.”
What Is the Democratic Party, Exactly?
People on the Left spend a lot of time arguing about what should be done about the Democratic Party — and rightly so. But first we need to understand what the Democratic Party is. Hint: it’s a lot more complicated than it looks.
Becoming Labor Secretary Might Not Be the Best Way for Bernie to Aid Workers
As Secretary of Labor, Bernie Sanders could do a lot to empower American workers. But the working class might be better served with Bernie pushing for pro-labor legislation outside the Biden administration rather than inside it.
“This Is What I Believe: Capitalism Isn’t Helping Us”
Katie Valenzuela is a democratic socialist who was elected to Sacramento’s city council earlier this year. In an interview with Jacobin, Valenzuela talks about how Bernie Sanders inspired her candidacy and the fights for environmental justice, defunding the police, and rent control in Sacramento.
Donald Trump Lied About Passing Pro-Worker Industrial Policy
In his first presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised to bring back manufacturing jobs with good pay. Those promises were empty. But Democrats haven’t been much better on industrial policy recent decades. Socialists need to fight for a real industrial policy.
Just Pack the Damn Courts
The Left shouldn’t wring its hands about whether we should pack the courts or not. Just pack the courts.
Obama Wants Us to Go Back to Brunch After Trump Is Out. That Would Be A Disaster.
Democrats are suggesting that we can all tune out and go back to brunch if Joe Biden wins the election. If we do that, we’re doomed.
A Liberal “Moral Reckoning” Can’t Solve the Problems That Plague Black Americans
If we view the problems of poverty, health care, and criminal justice through a lens that filters out the political-economic underpinnings of these injustices — informed by the language of moral reckoning — we may just end up with modest reforms at best and symbolic gestures at worst, when what we need is fundamental structural change.
Coal Miners’ Struggle Against Black Lung Is a Climate Justice Issue
Climate activists often argue that carbon-intensive energy like coal is mortgaging our future. It’s true — but coal workers themselves have already been paying the costs for a long time, measured in hundreds of thousands of shortened lives ravaged by diseases like black lung in the US alone.
The Pandemic Has Exposed the Free Market’s Fundamental Flaws. We Need a Democratically Planned Economy.
As COVID-19 cases skyrocket again, hospitals remain understaffed and PPE and ventilators are still in short supply. We can’t leave people’s basic needs up to the whims of profit-seeking actors — we need democratic planning.