Ryan Switzer is a PhD candidate in sociology at Stockholm University. He researches right-wing politics in welfare states.
Friedrich Engels was far more than Karl Marx’s benefactor, or the custodian of his intellectual legacy. When they met as young men in the 1840s, Engels was already an accomplished political writer, who first articulated some of the basic concepts of what became “Marxism.”
Two hundred years since his birth, Friedrich Engels is often considered a man rooted in the culture of 19th-century thought. But if not all his predictions ring true, his critique of the rising industrial capitalism offers penetrating insights into our own present.
Friedrich Engels once wrote that he played “second fiddle” to Marx. On the 200th anniversary of his birth, we should remember the profound influence that Engels had on his friend and comrade, as well as his own theoretical contributions.
Former government officials Tony Blinken, Michele Flournoy, and Lloyd Austin may run Biden’s national security agencies — their firm is telling investors it expects to profit off ties to those officials.
In the years after Karl Marx’s death, Friedrich Engels wrote that a rising socialist movement could now advance by means other than violent insurrection. This didn’t mean an embrace of existing institutions — rather, it meant recovering the mass democracy experimented with during the French Revolution.
Growing up in the south of Iran, our distraction from life was football, our passion was football, and our heroes were footballers. And it seemed at the time that our heroes were immortal. Rest in peace, Diego Maradona.
Friedrich Engels was just 22 when he was sent to England to help run the family firm. His father hoped this would draw him away from radical ideas — but in industrial Manchester, young Friedrich instead saw the suffering, and the power, of a growing working class.
Friedrich Engels was born 200 years ago today. We should thank him for helping out his friend Karl Marx — but also for the critique of capitalism he produced in his own right.
John Carpenter’s movies provide visions of societies falling apart. No wonder his work is resonating now more than ever.
From the mutant animals of Chernobyl and Marie Antoinette’s perverted orgies, to QAnon and Russiagate, conspiracy theories flourish in times of crisis and collapse of political legitimacy.
Latino voters, just like any other group, are divided along class and ideological lines. The key to winning working-class Latinos to a left politics is to offer a positive vision that materially improves their lives.
Southampton, New York, is the famed summer retreat of billionaires and celebrities. Now it’s the scene of an indigenous struggle for justice and survival.
Thailand’s conservative military regime holds power through repression and a rigged political system. This year, however, the government has faced an unprecedented challenge from a pro-democracy movement spearheaded by young activists.
On October 6, Lidia Thorpe was sworn in as the first Aboriginal woman to represent Victoria in Australia’s parliament. This month, Thorpe spoke to Jacobin about a centuries-long struggle for justice.
Comcast received $1 billion in government subsidies. But it’s still imposing new data fees on customers reliant on the internet due to COVID. Thanks to a massive lobbying effort and ties to Joe Biden, the telecom giant might very well get away with it.
America’s biggest corporations have made record profits during the COVID-19 pandemic — while denying or clawing back their workers’ hazard pay.
Housing organizer and socialist Guilherme Boulos recently shocked Brazil by forcing a runoff for mayor in the largest city in the Western Hemisphere, São Paolo. In an interview, he lays out his vision for the position, how to embed the Brazilian left in the country’s working class, and how to “place the periphery in the center.”
We don’t have a labor party in the US, but as of earlier this month, we do have a Labor Caucus in Congress. We talked to Wisconsin representative Mark Pocan about the caucus’s plans.
The writer Yukio Mishima, who took his own life fifty years ago today, remains one of modern Japan’s most important cultural figures. Mishima’s eccentric and contradictory political stances have also gained him a devoted following on the international far right.
Whatever his failings, the late New York mayor David Dinkins’s historic stature and contributions to the common good gave him a unique place in the democratic socialist movement.