Ryan Switzer is a PhD candidate in sociology at Stockholm University. He researches right-wing politics in welfare states.
In an alarming trend, financially strapped school districts across the country are introducing “fees” for looking after students. We need to stop the COVID-19–era privatization of public schools.
Unlike most of the world, American unions have almost no history of waging political mass strikes. But with Donald Trump’s exceptionally dangerous and undemocratic threats, some unions are discussing the possibility of withholding their labor to stop him from stealing the election.
The Organization of American States, a supposedly neutral election observer, helped legitimate last year’s coup in Bolivia by falsely claiming Evo Morales had committed election fraud. And now it’s observing today’s elections — a fundamental threat to the prospects for democracy in the country.
On the day of Bolivia’s presidential election, we look at the legacy of Evo Morales — who won power in South America’s poorest country, tripled its GDP, and lifted millions out of extreme poverty.
Almost a year since the military coup against Evo Morales, today Bolivians will finally get to vote on a new president. But the forces that overthrew Morales have done everything they can to stop his Movement Toward Socialism to return to power through a free and fair election.
The Liberal Party’s plan for a “gas-fired recovery” is not just the product of climate change denialism. It’s a class-conscious scheme to guarantee the profitability and continued hegemony of mining and fossil fuel capital long into Australia’s future.
Alberta’s UCP government, led by premier Jason Kenney, is kowtowing to the province’s bosses in every conceivable way. The passage of Bill 32 demonstrates their devotion to Alberta’s business class and their contempt for working people.
Mafalda is one of the most loved comic strips of all time. Drawn by the Argentine cartoonist Quino, its central character is a six-year-old girl who, with a mix of irony and naivete, interrogated the image of modernity being sold to the Latin American middle classes in the 1960s, and derided the authority of both the family and the state.
Get Out was a triumph. Antebellum tries to follow in its footsteps, but it completely fails at making a horror movie out of the experience of racism in America.
England’s North-South divide lies at the heart of Britain’s recent political disputes, from Brexit to the fate of the Labour Party. There’s a long and fascinating history behind that regional chasm, from the Norman conquest to the Industrial Revolution and the rise of Margaret Thatcher.
Lenin’s famous denunciation of Karl Kautsky as a “renegade” has long discouraged Marxists from actually engaging with the German-Austrian socialist’s writings. But if the Bolshevik leader sharply criticized Kautsky’s retreats, this was also because of his great admiration for his earlier work — a revolutionary Marxism that lay decisive stress on the battle for democracy.
A San Francisco PAC has been given more than $3 million in donations to oppose left candidates and ballot measures in the upcoming election. Socialist candidates like Dean Preston are redrawing the lines of city politics around class — and the ruling class isn’t happy about it.
South Korea’s 2016–17 Candlelight Revolution shows that to defend democratic rights, you have to be ready to step outside the bounds of liberal proceduralism. We should take the same lesson in the US: the best way to ensure that Donald Trump will respect the results of the November election is to mobilize in the streets and demand it.
Britain’s Tory government is passing legislation to shield undercover agents from prosecution even for violent crimes. Jeremy Corbyn explains why Labour should be standing up against this attack on civil liberties — and not just abstaining.
The US is attempting to imprison one of its critics, Julian Assange, by claiming a global right to prosecute any journalist in the world. If that prosecution succeeds, it would be a severe blow not just to press freedom, but to our very right to oppose imperialism and empire.
The expiration of stimulus benefits has thrown millions into poverty, even as the unemployment crisis continues to hammer workers. There’s a deep sickness at the heart of the American economy.
Perhaps months away from the first COVID-19 vaccines, their effectiveness may be threatened by growing anti-vaccination sentiment in the Global North. The Left should brook no vaccine skepticism in its ranks, but we should also work to prevent the conditions that give rise to such irrationality in the first place.
Amy Coney Barrett told senators that she is impartial and that her views on climate science are irrelevant. But she showed a dangerous bias against environmental action that would make the climate crisis far worse.
This Saturday, Mattea Meyer and Cédric Wermuth are set to become the new copresidents of Switzerland’s Social Democratic Party. They told Jacobin why they think they can pull their party to the left — and stand up for those who aren’t benefiting from their country’s great wealth.
In their early-twentieth-century heyday, American socialists advanced a distinctive vision of constitutional interpretation that centered popular mass politics — not judges and lawyers. As we face our own crisis of constitutionalism today, we should look back to that vision.