Child Poverty Is Public Policy in the UK
It’s no surprise that Tories are fine with keeping kids in poverty. But if the Labour Party refuses to oppose such a heartless policy, Labour doesn’t deserve to be in power.
19529 Articles by: Ryan Switzer
Ryan Switzer is a PhD candidate in sociology at Stockholm University. He researches right-wing politics in welfare states.
Spain’s Election Is a Key Test for the Catalan Left
National divides are so key to Spain’s politics that far-right party Vox even proposes to ban pro-independence parties. For the Catalan left, today’s election is about resisting Spanish nationalist forces who want to crush their autonomy.
Spain’s Left Is Fighting Back Against the Rise of the Far Right
Yolanda Díaz’s left-unity Sumar platform is gaining momentum, countering far-right Vox’s rise in the final stretch before today’s election. Left-wing unity and mobilization are crucial to fend off the possibility of a reactionary wave.
The Privatization of Water Is a Scam
British water companies have loaded up with debt while pumping sewage into waterways, raising bills and delivering huge profits to shareholders. This can only end by the government taking water back from these corporations.
Conservative Free-Speech Crusaders Tried to Censor a Left-Wing Podcast
The left-wing podcast Know Your Enemy engages seriously with conservative thinkers. A deep-pocketed conservative foundation tried to destroy the podcast with a serious lawsuit. Which side is serious about the free exchange of ideas?
Nonunion Hollywood Workers Should Stand With Striking Actors and Writers
The only way working conditions in the entertainment industry will improve is through good old-fashioned solidarity with striking workers — including by nonunion Hollywood workers like me standing with unionized actors and writers on the picket line.
Christopher Nolan’s Martyrdom of Saint Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer ignores the darker sides of the life and work of J. Robert Oppenheimer in order to deliver a crowd-pleasing, blockbuster spectacle.
Spain’s Far Right Say They’re Rebels — But the Establishment’s Already Accepted Them
A decade ago, Spain was often cited as a rare European country without far-right MPs. But polls for Sunday’s election suggest the Franco-nostalgist Vox party is about to enter national government, after years building its influence over mainstream conservatives.
The Communist International Was a Unique Experiment in Global Politics
No organization in modern history was as transnational in its scope as the early Communist International. The men and women who worked for it had to travel across borders and forget about any kind of settled life as they sought to promote a global revolution.
Striking Hollywood Workers Are Demanding a Cut of Streaming Revenue. They Can Look to Michael Jordan for Precedent.
In Air, Amazon valorizes Michael Jordan’s mother, Deloris, for demanding a continuous cut of Nike’s Air Jordan sales. Now, that same studio is balking at very similar demands of ongoing compensation from its workers.
Hollywood Is on Strike Against High-Tech Exploitation
As both writers and actors are on the picket lines in Hollywood, the stakes couldn’t be higher: Will average entertainment workers be able to eke out a living in an industry awash in cash, or will studio executives use new tech like AI to gobble up all of it?
The CIA Opposes JFK Record Releases Because Each One Is More Damning Than the Last
The latest JFK disclosure is further proof the CIA has lied for decades about its relationship to Lee Harvey Oswald. No wonder it doesn’t want the last of the records to see the light of day.
Wildfires Are Exposing Canada’s Willed Ignorance of the Realities of Climate Change
The self-deception that has plagued Canada’s response to the changing climate should be harder to sustain in the face of this summer’s wildfires. The 2016 Horse River wildfire in Alberta’s tar sands region was a powerful early warning of the current catastrophe.
Pro-DeSantis, Anti-Trump Republicans Have Learned Nothing From 2016
Ron DeSantis’s backers are clinging to the exact same fiction indulged by anti-Trump forces in 2016: that a singularly unconventional opponent can be defeated through blandly conventional means.
Talking About The Sopranos With Michael Brooks
In this previously unpublished conversation, Jacobin’s Ben Burgis and the late socialist podcaster Michael Brooks, who died three years ago today, talk about their shared love for The Sopranos.
Kurds Will Pay the Price for Sweden’s NATO Deal
After months of brinkmanship, NATO chiefs have announced that Sweden will be allowed to join the alliance. The deal rewards Turkish demands for Sweden’s collaboration in its anti-Kurdish repression — and makes a mockery of NATO’s purported stand for freedom.
Why We Need Rent Control
Across the United States, we’re in the middle of a brutal housing crisis. We need rent control to get us out of it.
After Israel’s Jenin Attack, It’s Time to Strengthen the BDS Movement
Israel’s rulers use culture as a propaganda tool while waging war on the cultural life of Palestinian society. The best way to challenge the normalization of Israeli apartheid on every front, including the cultural one, is through boycotts, divestment, and sanctions.
Yes, Israel Is an Apartheid State. That Means It’s a Racist One, Too.
In yet another reality-denying ritual of fealty to the pro-Israel lobby, members of Congress absurdly voted to say Israel was neither an apartheid state nor racist. Only a few progressives, including members of the Squad, stood firm in opposing the measure.
The Left Shouldn’t Get Too Excited About Joe Biden’s “Supply-Side Liberalism”
Pundits have lauded the Biden administration for replacing the free-market consensus with supply-side liberalism. But it is geopolitical tensions with China and labor’s weakness that have made elites feel comfortable with a milquetoast industrial policy.