Why the LA Teachers Strike Matters
This week’s Los Angeles teachers strike starkly poses the question: will the public or privatizers control public education?
19201 Articles by: Opal Lee
Opal Lee is a writer.
Reclaiming the Best of Karl Kautsky
Denounced and then lost to history, the radical Karl Kautsky’s thought still offers a compelling vision of how to democratize all aspects of our lives.
Talking About Power
The Social Democrats have collapsed. Die Linke is divided. Will the German left ever be able to contend for power?
Franco Never Left
Spain’s far right is enjoying its biggest breakthrough since the 1970s. But it grows from a reactionary swamp that has festered ever since Franco’s dictatorship.
Politics Is Not Harry Potter
Liberals love Harry Potter because it presents a world they desperately wish was a reality — one where the magic of facts and reason and elite education were enough to vanquish the ills of society.
The Roots of Karl Marx’s Anti-Colonialism
Through his relationship with the Chartist radical and labor poet Ernest Jones, Karl Marx came to realize the necessity of opposing slavery and colonialism in ending capitalism.
“I Will Always Stand up Against Injustice”
Jacobin contributor Max Zirngast has finally been released after spending three months in a Turkish jail. Here’s his first extended interview.
Seán Garland 1934–2018
A historic leader of Irish republicanism, Seán Garland steered a difficult course between class politics and the demands of the armed struggle.
No Go
Nancy Pelosi wants new anti-deficit rules in the House. Her goal: averting the threat of progressive legislation.
Corporations Are Swimming in Cash
Corporations have more cash than they know what to do with. We should take it into public hands.
Playing for Power
Video game workers are overwhelmingly young with no trade union experience. But that hasn’t stopped them from organizing.
A House Divided
Medicare for All would be a tremendous boon to unions. So why is New York’s labor movement divided on the campaign for it?
The Indonesian Counter-Revolution
The Indonesian genocide was one of the great crimes of the twentieth century. Its victims were leftists who struggled against colonialism and fought for Indonesian self-determination.
There Could Be Power in a Union
The gilets jaunes’ street demonstrations arose outside of trade-union structures. Yet their mobilization offers a historic opportunity to renew the labor movement.
How Federal Workers Could Fight the Shutdown
Federal workers have dealt with low pay, degraded working conditions, and repeated employer lockouts. If they want to improve their conditions, they’ll have to organize.
Why the Alt-Right Loves Nietzsche
Nietzsche’s critique of modernity has fascinated thinkers on the Right and Left — but in its essence, it belongs to the Right. The Left must advance an alternative modernity.
Completing the Feminist Revolution
In the 1960s and ‘70s, feminists began to transform society. Today, we need to finish the job.
Disco and Communism
The Italian Communist Party saw culture as a key political battleground. But the arrival of disco challenged its assumptions about what music should be.
Who Wants Bernie to Run?
Pundits claim that Bernie has a “problem” with minority voters. But the polling is clear — Sanders is advancing a vision of politics that challenges injustice in a way that black voters broadly support.
We Have a Right to Boycott Israel
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is trying to criminalize boycotts of Israel — an appalling, McCarthyite attack on free speech.