08.24.2020

Jessica Scarane

Jess Scarane Wants To “Create a Government That Puts People Over Profit”

Jess Scarane is challenging incumbent Chris Coons for a Senate seat in Delaware. In an interview with Jacobin, the thirty-five-year-old candidate endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America and her local Sunrise Movement hub talks about her vision of a better society, Coons’s use of “Republican talking points against the policies that we need,” and why a return to the status quo before the coronavirus is nowhere near good enough.

08.24.2020

Nicolas Allen

José Carlos Mariátegui’s Indo-American Socialism

José Carlos Mariátegui was Latin America’s most original revolutionary thinker, who combined Marxist analyses with the vernacular of regional popular movements. Ninety years after his premature death, his work is strikingly relevant.

08.24.2020

Joseph Daher

After the Beirut Explosion, Disaster Capitalism Has Lebanon in Its Sights

The explosion that devastated Beirut was an indictment of the parties that have misruled Lebanon for decades. Now, however, those parties are using the disaster as a pretext to deepen neoliberal policies, with French leader Emmanuel Macron and the IMF egging them on.

08.24.2020

Belén Fernández

Israel Is an Army With a Country Attached

A new book by an Israeli scholar dissects the extraordinary hold that the country’s military — and militaristic ways of thinking — have on Israeli society, and the ideological myths that keep the project afloat.

08.24.2020

Meagan Day

Most Politicians Don’t Care About Workers. But Unions Can Make Them.

New research finds that strong unions are pretty effective at making politicians pay attention to the interests of ordinary people. In order to pursue a real pro-worker agenda in government, we need an emboldened labor movement.

08.24.2020

David Sirota

Why Is It Always the Wrong Time to Criticize Democrats From the Left?

Progressives are being told by the Democratic Party to shut up until after the election. Meanwhile, corporate Democrats are trumpeting how far right they are — a message that could demoralize Democratic voters and depress turnout.

08.24.2020

David Ost

The Triumph and Tragedy of Poland’s Solidarity Movement

Poland’s Solidarity trade union was one of the most impressive workers’ movements in postwar Europe. It rocked the foundations of an autocratic regime, but it took a wrong turn as the Eastern Bloc started to crumble.

08.23.2020

Alex North

When Fascism Almost Came to Australia

In Australia, as elsewhere, the 1930s saw the emergence of an armed, proto-fascist right who were united by their hatred of working-class politics.

08.23.2020

Julian Potter

In Australia, COVID-19 Has Exposed a Litany of Privatization Disasters

The coronavirus pandemic has preyed on weaknesses created by decades of austerity, confirming what socialists have consistently argued: privatization was a disaster.

08.23.2020

Duncan Stuart

The Rise of Casual Work Puts Us All at Risk

The rise of casual work has multiplied uncertainty, lowered wages, undermined conditions, and handed power to employers.

08.23.2020

Marta Fana

The Italian Government Banned Layoffs. Italian Bosses Are Fuming.

When the Italian government introduced a temporary ban on layoffs for the period of the coronavirus crisis, the employers’ federation reacted furiously. Firms have already received billions of euros in subsidies to help pay their workers’ wages — but what they can’t tolerate is any limit on their power to hire and fire at will.

08.22.2020

Barbara Kopple

American Class Struggle on the Big Screen

Barbara Kopple won Oscars for her gripping documentaries, like Harlan County, USA, on the struggles of the labor movement. She sat down with Jacobin to discuss that and her more recent work, as well.

08.22.2020

Arnold August

Justin Trudeau Has Worked With Trump to Support Regime Change

Despite its progressive veneer, the Justin Trudeau government in Canada has supported anti-democratic actions in Bolivia, Haiti, Venezuela, and elsewhere in the Americas. When it comes to foreign policy, Trudeau isn’t much different than Trump.

08.22.2020

Sam Gindin

We Need a Politics That Is Not Only Class-Focused, but Class-Rooted

It’s not enough to make class the subject of our politics. We need to develop our political demands from a ferment that is rooted in class organizing and union density.

08.22.2020

Matt McManus

Why Conservatives Get Karl Marx Very, Very Wrong

Conservative pundits are more likely to caricature Karl Marx’s writings and beliefs than offer serious rebuttals to his many ideas. Why? Because Marx’s trenchant insights expose deep inconsistencies in cherished right-wing doctrines.

08.22.2020

Volodymyr Ishchenko

The Opposition in Belarus Is Not All on the Same Side

The strikes in Belarus last week showed that the protests against Alexander Lukashenko aren’t just a “hipster rebellion.” But while citizens are joining the protests for all manner of different reasons, there are well-organized neoliberal forces well-placed to assert their own control.

08.21.2020

Ari Rabin-Havt

We Shouldn’t Have to Remind People George W. Bush Was a Terrible President

The campaign to normalize the George W. Bush presidency is part of a broader campaign to separate the Republican Party from Donald Trump. We should reject the whole project, and call Bush what he is: a war criminal abroad and a villain at home.

08.21.2020

Luke Savage

This Year’s DNC Was 2016’s DNC on Steroids

Open contempt for the progressive left, speeches from Republicans, and a liberal class hopelessly out of touch with the moment, this week was 2016’s DNC all over again — and the Democrats are at risk of the same result: failing to defeat Donald Trump.

08.21.2020

New York’s Successful Socialist Slate Shows the Left Should Think Big

In New York City, the Democratic Socialists of America ran a five-candidate slate for state office — and won across the board. The campaign’s overwhelming success points to a model of radical electoral organizing in the wake of Bernie Sanders.

08.21.2020

Luke Savage

Justin Trudeau Just Shut Down Canada’s Parliament To Escape a Scandal

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party once vowed never to shut down the House of Commons for political reasons, as Trudeau’s conservative predecessor did. This week, as a major scandal continues to engulf his government, Trudeau did exactly that.