The Right’s Phony Class War
The populist right’s new intellectuals are abuzz about capitalism and class. Don’t be fooled. Their denunciations of “cosmopolitan elites” actually provide cover for the plunder by the rich and powerful.
19241 Articles by: Ryan Switzer
Ryan Switzer is a PhD candidate in sociology at Stockholm University. He researches right-wing politics in welfare states.
After We Sacked the Ministers
Last winter, powerful student protests in Albania forced the removal of half the cabinet. Amidst the chaos in the country’s institutions, it’s time to put an end to decades of privatization and rampant speculation.
Bernie Against the Beltway
The mainstream media likes to cast Bernie Sanders as a fringe candidate. Yet the data on individual donors don’t lie: across the country, he generates more enthusiasm than any other candidate — at least, outside the Beltway.
Socialists Invented Summer Vacation
Summer at work is unbearable when we can’t look forward to some time off. In 1930s France, the labor movement made the fight for vacation a top priority — and forced bosses to pay for our time at the beach.
Jeffrey Epstein Is the Face of the Billionaire Class
The Jeffrey Epstein story is a case study of the abuses and pathologies inherent to extreme wealth. The only way to stop them is to create a world without billionaires.
“They’re Not Moving Until We Get Paid”
Harlan County miners are blocking trains full of coal until they get their back pay. One miner explains what’s at stake and whether miners like him would support the “just transition” proposed in the Green New Deal.
A Red Deal
The Green New Deal can connect every struggle to climate change. A Red Deal can build on those connections, tying Indigenous liberation to the fight to save the planet.
Go Ahead, Take the Adventure of Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood
In Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino is continuing his creative endeavor of engaging popular film forms and alternate-history structures to reimagine points of terrible disturbance in our collective past.
Going Red-Red-Green
The European elections marked a historic setback for the German left. Die Linke cochair Katja Kipping tells Jacobin how she plans to revive it.
We Need to Win Our People Back
French workers’ top electoral choice isn’t Marine Le Pen, but abstention. To mobilize their support, the Left needs to look beyond the workplace alone — and answer a deeper mood of alienation.
Bernie Should Declare Housing a Human Right
The right to housing should be part of the Green New Deal. And Bernie should help push it forward.
Socialists Should Support Sex Workers’ Rights
The criminalization of sex work is an attack on the lives and livelihoods of working-class people. Socialists should support decriminalization.
The American Legion Is Not Your Friend
The American Legion was created not as a space for former soldiers to meet and swap stories, but to bring together shock troops of the counter-revolution — an authoritarian mass movement of combat veterans.
Democracy Is a Puzzle
Democracy is about the struggle for a more equitable world — but it’s also about grappling with the messy, contingent questions that will always confront humanity.
The Appeal and Limits of Andrea Dworkin
Reading Andrea Dworkin today is still bracing. But her pessimistic, dystopian vision of a world dominated by male violence only gained currency when the utopian power of the feminist movement receded.
MSNBC’s Ridiculous War on Bernie Sanders
When MSNBC legal analyst Mimi Rocah said that Bernie Sanders made her skin crawl, she was just sticking to the company line.
On the Clock and Off
As leftists debate what their labor strategy should look like, many are turning to the rank-and-file strategy. A longtime union activist reflects on a lifetime of struggle in the rank and file.
Let Them Eat Credit
The new normal of low interest rates is designed to sooth the palpitations of capitalists, not to improve the lives of working people.
What the Presidential Debate on Race Is Really About
When the Democratic establishment opposes the universal programs in Bernie Sanders’s platform, it’s not because they want to do more to address racism. It’s because they want to do less.
When Politics Becomes Professional
All successful movements need leaders, elected officials, and, yes, even bureaucrats. The key is to remember the radical roots of those bureaucracies and leaderships — so they can sustain instead of squelch socialist politics.