How the Mexican Revolution Made John Reed a Red
John Reed’s thrilling dispatches from the front lines of the Mexican Revolution could have made him a pop culture celebrity. Instead, the experience made him a committed socialist.
19549 Articles by: T Rivers
T Rivers is a pseudonymous journalist who covers East and Central Africa.
The Pete Buttigieg Documentary Is an Empty Portrait of an Empty Politician
Amazon’s new Pete Buttigieg documentary attempts the impossible: making the disturbingly empty yet also unnervingly ambitious mayor of South Bend somehow seem like a compelling historical figure. It fails.
Corruption and Patronage Are the Norm in the Australian Labor Party
Earlier this year, disgraced former MP Adem Somyurek joined the long list of Labor politicians to be investigated for corruption. Somyurek was no outlier — the nepotism and cronyism he practiced are just part of the day-to-day running of the Australian Labor Party.
Microworkers are “Disempowered to a Degree Previously Unseen in Capitalist History”
“Microworkers” are the anonymous digital contract workers whose labor powers the tech giants’ artificial intelligence systems. They’re hyper-exploited — and, like all other workers under capitalism, will continue suffering until they can organize.
China’s Growth Model Is in Crisis
China has long seen high-speed economic growth tied to property investment. That model is now failing.
The Harder They Fall, Netflix’s New All-Black Western, Is Bloody, Star-Filled Fun
Drawing from real but forgotten figures from the old West, The Harder They Fall breathes new life into the Western. It’s also a violent good time for all.
Everyone Should Have the Right to Disconnect From Work
Portugal has banned employers from making nonemergency contact with staff outside of working hours. The “right to disconnect” is a good idea — but more protection is needed for precarious workers who aren’t on fixed schedules.
Mayor Pete Is a Portrait of a Completely Cynical, Empty Presidential Campaign
The new Pete Buttigieg documentary reveals more about the failures and emptiness of today’s Democratic Party than it does about Buttigieg himself.
Cuba’s Vaccine Could End up Saving Millions of Lives
Thanks to its public biotech sector and its government’s deep commitment to public health, Cuba is now the only low-income country to have made its own COVID vaccine. It’s already helped millions of Cubans, and it’s poised to help millions more around the world.
Workers in Atlantic Canada Face Down Austerity
In New Brunswick, 22,000 public-sector workers are struggling against austerity measures put in place by Tory premier Blaine Higgs. His actions are a portent of the austerity measures to come in a post-COVID world.
Conservatives Are Wrong: There’s Nothing Natural About Hierarchy
Conservative thinkers like Roger Scruton defend traditional hierarchies as natural and inescapable. But our social order is the product of human decisions — and it can be remade to benefit the many rather than the few.
Kim Stanley Robinson on Science Fiction and Reclaiming Science for the Left
Writer Kim Stanley Robinson talks to Jacobin about Ministry of the Future and his other books, climate change, and why he thinks the Left should reclaim science as a tool of socialist progress.
Did We Really Need a Hillary Clinton Novel? (The Answer Is No)
Hillary Clinton’s fiction debut fails for the same reason centrist Dems are struggling politically: their Trump obsession is boring.
Destroying Democracy Is Central to the Privatization of Public Goods
The obsession with privatization isn’t just about turning public goods into profit generators for a small handful of wealthy people. It’s also about trampling on democracy.
Ultranationalists Are Seeing an Organizing Boom in Australia
At a recent anti-vaccine rally in Melbourne, observers identified supporters of the Ustaše, a Croatian fascist movement with Nazi-collaborationist roots. It’s no fluke: the radical right is attaching itself to the anti-vaccine movement everywhere.
The NYC Left Contemplates the Eric Adams Era
In a few months, the New York City Council will elect a new speaker for the first time since AOC’s 2018 shock victory shook up city politics. A strong left bloc in the city council could check mayor-elect Eric Adams’s law-and-order politics.
Remote Work Won’t End Exploitation
Since the pandemic became global, there has been a sharp increase in the percentage of remote workers. Liberals have championed this shift but ignored the fact that allowing people to work remotely does nothing to combat the exploitation inherent in capitalist labor.
Dysfunction Is Central to the Basic Functioning of American Society
Pandemic measures like the stimulus temporarily helped and empowered working-class and vulnerable people. And that’s quickly becoming a problem for an economy based on their hyper-exploitation.
Workplace Organizing Is Still Crucial for the Socialist Movement
Recent socialist electoral campaigns have been essential to the rebirth of the US left. Now the Left needs to commit to rebuilding the labor movement from the bottom up. If we don’t, major reforms — not to mention socialism — will remain off the agenda.
New Age Wellness Cranks Are Joining Forces With the Far Right
The Australian far right has joined forces with New Age spiritualists, snake-oil salesmen, and wellness gurus to take advantage of social alienation caused by the pandemic. Despite the new branding, their anti-union, anti-working-class politics remain the same.