The Rich: On Top of the World and Very Anxious About It

The small handful of ultrawealthy winners are firmly ensconced in their positions of privilege in power. Yet so many of them seem haunted by the possibility that maybe they don’t deserve it.

Ken Loach and Paul Laverty’s Final Show

Ken Loach’s longtime screenwriter Paul Laverty talks to Jacobin about their final collaboration on The Old Oak, which follows Syrian refugees and ex-miners in Northeast England, and why the working class remains the last hope for justice in the world.

How Pfizer Completely Dodged the Corporate Income Tax

In 2023, Pfizer made more than $27 billion in revenue and paid zero federal income tax. Like many other large US companies, it took advantage of Donald Trump’s 2017 tax law, which widened existing loopholes and set off a tax-avoidance bonanza.

On Technological Weapons, Truth, and How TikTok Makes Teens 17% More Antisemitic

“Models and Bottles” Clubs’ Extravagance and Exploitation

We know the rich are getting richer, but what exactly are they doing with all those riches? Sociologist Ashley Mears examined one site of elite consumption: the world of VIP clubs and its rituals of garish waste and exploitation of women.

Tenants Are Forcing Bay Area Landlords to the Bargaining Table

San Francisco’s groundbreaking Union at Home legislation encourages tenants to organize in their buildings the way employees organize at work. Housing activists in Berkeley are hoping their city will follow suit — but landlords are pushing back.

Ripley Is a Waste of the Talented Mr Andrew Scott

Netflix’s new series Ripley, the latest iteration of Patricia Highsmith’s murderous con man from The Talented Mr Ripley, is an arty, inert snooze. Its flat portrayal of the title character doesn’t come close to the novels or other fantastic adaptations.

In Postwar Italy, Artists Revolutionized Culture

Today post-1945 Italy is often presented as an age of anti-fascist hegemony. But Cold War Italy was no paradise for the Left — and neorealist filmmakers and writers had to resist Church censorship and right-wing hegemony over the country’s culture.

Church Conversions

Some Christian churches have moved on to their next lives.

The Unbearable Necessity of Experts

Right-wing populism’s disdain for the opinions of experts can be mistaken for the Left’s scorn for technocracy. But democratic principles and mass politics are the real antidote to the appropriation of power by experts.

Rural America’s Decline Fueled Oregon’s Secession Movement

Twelve Eastern Oregon counties are considering leaving the state for Idaho, where they hope to secure Republican representation. The movement cites cultural differences, but the true divisions are rooted in rural America’s faltering agricultural economy.

Big Brother Is Watching Amazon and Walmart Warehouse Workers

Both Amazon and Walmart invest massively in highly invasive technological surveillance of their warehouse workforce — surveillance that then enables the hyperexploitation both companies’ workers are subject to.

Zionism Killed the Jewish-Muslim World

In an interview with Jacobin, filmmaker and academic Ariella Aïsha Azoulay traces how Western powers’ exploitation of Zionism led not just to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine but to the demise of Jewish communities across the Middle East.

Does the Biden Administration Care About International Law?

If you’re a US ally looking at Israel’s bombing of the Iranian consulate in Syria and Ecuador’s raid on its Mexican consulate, you’re probably thinking, “I can get away with something similar because the most powerful country in the world will let me do it.”

How Alabama Communists Organized in the Jim Crow South

In 1930s Alabama, Communist Party members fought brutal repression to organize black and white workers in the Jim Crow South. Their efforts remain a source of inspiration for those fighting racism and exploitation today.

In Argentina, Javier Milei’s Shock Therapy Is Wreaking Havoc

Four months into his term, Argentina’s “anarcho-capitalist” president Javier Milei has drastically slashed public spending and sought to suppress wages. It’s a disaster for the country’s working class and its public institutions of research and learning.

Slavery Was Crucial for the Development of Capitalism

Historian Robin Blackburn has completed a trilogy of books that provide a comprehensive Marxist account of slavery in the New World. He spoke to Jacobin about the intimate links between the slave systems in the Americas and the origins of capitalism.

Vinson Cunningham’s Great Expectations Retells the Obama Era

Vinson Cunningham’s debut novel, Great Expectations, follows a staffer working for a magnetic young black senator making a bid for the US presidency. It’s a book about the emptiness of political symbols and the comforts and dangers of blind faith.

A US Rep Is Trying to Undo Clean Water Laws That He Violated

In 2017, before he was a lawmaker, John Duarte was fined $1.1 million by federal regulators for disturbing wetlands on land owned by his business. Now, as a US representative, he is pushing legislation that would roll back the law he broke.

Monkey Man Packs a Wild Punch

With a breakneck pace, Dev Patel’s directorial debut, Monkey Man, delivers on its bloody, brutal promise: a John Wick film in Mumbai that attempts to reclaim Hindu mythology for the underclasses of Indian society.