Two Cheers for The French Dispatch
Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch showcases both the director’s remarkable gifts as a stylist and his tendency to reduce history to pure aesthetics.
19152 Articles by: Rob McIntyre
Rob McIntyre is a United Workers Union delegate at the Toll Kmart warehouse in Truganina.
Emmanuel Macron’s Bodyguard Is Let Off the Hook
French president Emmanuel Macron’s bodyguard Alexandre Benalla has been handed a suspended sentence for violently beating protesters while posing as a cop. It’s a slap on the wrist in a country where elite impunity reigns.
Teachers Are on Strike in Joe Biden’s Hometown
Teachers and students in Scranton, Pennsylvania, have endured years of devastating cuts to public education. The school board promised to cut off educators’ health insurance if they went on strike — but teachers aren’t backing down.
Australia’s Largest University Stole $8.6 Million From Workers’ Wages
Worker action exposed systematic wage theft within Australia’s largest university and forced management to pay staff the millions that had been stolen from them.
No, the Democrats’ Reconciliation Bill Is Not “Twice as Big” as the New Deal
Grasping for any available talking points to stave off progressive anger, Democrats are trying to depict Joe Biden’s Build Back Better bill as some sort of New Deal 2.0. The comparison is absurd.
Attica Puts Audiences in the Middle of America’s Bloodiest Prison Riot
The new Showtime documentary Attica covers the 1971 riot at the Attica Correctional Facility. Award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson talks to Jacobin about the revolt and the state massacre that slaughtered prisoners and ended a movement for human dignity.
Langston Hughes Was a Lifelong Socialist
In the 1930s and ’40s, Langston Hughes wrote poetic tributes to the working class and socialist leaders worldwide. Some critics allege he abandoned his principles later in life, but they ignore the role of McCarthyist oppression — and Hughes’s creative resistance to it.
Nostalgia for Swinging London Haunts Last Night in Soho
British filmmaker Edgar Wright’s knack for mixing and matching subgenres finally leads him off the deep end — and into incoherence — with Last Night in Soho.
The World’s Best Mayor Is a French Communist
Philippe Rio from Grigny, south of Paris, has been voted the world’s best mayor. He told Jacobin about the local social programs that have made his Communist administration a global success story.
We Need a Socialist Spotify
Streaming services like Spotify shamelessly exploit musicians. But there is an alternative to corporate monopoly music: a music streaming platform built for the common good.
The ANC’s Control of South African Politics Is Over
South Africa’s municipal elections this week were nothing short of disastrous. South Africans are desperate for a political alternative to the African National Congress; if the Left doesn’t provide it, right-populists and ethnonationalists will.
It Pays to Be a Conservative Democrat Blocking Popular Legislation
Why do conservative Democrats like Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin oppose wildly popular progressive policy measures? Because it’s a very lucrative racket.
“Multilevel Marketing” Companies Cheat and Exploit Ordinary People on a Vast Scale
Multilevel marketing is a scam. But thanks to protection by political elites and well-funded industry propaganda, it keeps growing. Cracking down on it would be as simple as enforcing the laws against fraud — if only the political will could be found.
Global Elites Can’t and Won’t Ever Stop Climate Change
At COP26, global elites are delivering sermons about rolling back the damage that they themselves caused. The people getting rich off of killing the planet are never going to save it.
The Strike at Kellogg’s Is Now Entering Its Second Month
Workers at Kellogg’s cereal plants across the United States are still on strike. As the company drags out the bargaining process, workers, now without health insurance, are demanding a contract without concessions.
The Only Winning Climate Policy Is a Pro-Worker Climate Policy
Climate legislation is failing under Joe Biden because the Green New Deal strategy was ignored from the beginning. We need to link decarbonization directly to material gains for the working class, not technocratic clean energy policies.
Joe Biden Is Continuing Donald Trump’s Deforestation Plans
Despite pledging to reverse deforestation at COP26 this week, the Biden administration is moving forward with a plan that would devastate a major national forest’s old-growth trees and grizzly bear habitat.
The Virginia Governor Race Shows That Dems Can’t Count on Running Against Trump
The GOP won Virginia not with a Trump-style reactionary, but a boring old country-club Republican. That spells bad news for a Democratic Party banking on running against Trump-style conservatives.
Elites Won’t Save the Planet — We Need a Mass Movement
At COP26 this week, some of the world’s biggest corporate polluters sent huge delegations to proclaim the need for climate action. They’re presenting themselves as the new climate saviors, but averting disaster won’t come from those who make a profit from killing the planet.
Dungeons & Dragons Is a Case Study in How Capitalism Kills Art
The story of Dungeons & Dragons isn’t just about nerds creating a wildly popular game and then losing control of it. It’s also about how the dictates of the free market inevitably end up stripping even our leisure activities of joy.