William G. Martin teaches at SUNY-Binghamton and is co-author of After Prisons? Freedom, Decarceration, and Justice Disinvestment (2016) and a founding member of Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier; he covers local justice matters at www.justtalk.blog
In the 1988 Democratic presidential primary, the pro-business centrism of Michael Dukakis faced off against the pro-worker populism of Jesse Jackson. Dukakis won — and set the stage for the Democrats’ decades-long race to the middle.
Since their contract expired on June 30, hotel workers across the Los Angeles area have launched a wave of rolling strikes against 62 hotels. They are demanding raises to keep up with LA’s skyrocketing cost of living — especially rents.
The world is now experiencing some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded, thanks to profiteering fossil fuel corporations. They owe us hundreds of billions of dollars in reparations for the havoc they’ve unleashed.
Just in time for your (hopeful) escape from the heat and the grind, here are the summer reading recommendations of Jacobin’s editors and staff writers.
In August 1922, Benito Mussolini’s Fascists crushed a general strike by force. But on the barricades of Parma, the working class imposed a stunning military defeat on the Blackshirts — a victory that inspired enduring resistance against the Fascist government.
The Biden administration is entertaining the idea of pursuing a US-Saudi mutual defense pact. How does the prospect of risking lives for the Saudi monarchy sound?
Despite its extensively documented record of torture and other horrific human rights abuses, the US prison at Guantánamo Bay remains open. The Biden administration should close it immediately and make restitution to its victims.
Activist and organizer Norman Hill was present for every major development in the civil rights movement during the 1960s. He spoke to Jacobin about the arc of the movement, the legacy of its leadership, and the lessons for the modern left.
Matt Karp on how a political movement beating the drum for working-class populism can restore fraying ties between blue-collar workers and the Left.
In refusing to acknowledge his past climate denial and promotion of oil interests, Obama is relying on liberals forgetting his actual environmental record. Worse, he’s telling other Democratic leaders that lip service can stand in for action.
In launching red-baiting, homophobic attacks on librarian Emily Drabinski, the Right has shown it cares little about freedom of speech. Liberals and leftists should stand with Drabinski — both because the attacks are absurd and because they won’t stop here.
Tony Blair’s government introduced a national minimum wage for the UK 25 years ago. When it comes to lifting people out of poverty, the minimum wage law has been a clear failure — its enforcement has been lax, and it’s never kept up with the cost of living.
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese doesn’t have a real solution to the housing crisis. That’s why his Labor Party is trying to smear the Green Party as NIMBY antidevelopment activists.
It should be a matter of course that self-identified leftist and progressive members of Congress should vote down the annual bloated, dangerous, war-profiteer bonanza that is the military budget.
How To With John Wilson is an ode to weirdo New York. But that New York may not exist for long, as Mayor Eric Adams is determined to sand down the city’s nonconformist edges in the service of economic elites.
Global South countries currently seek debt relief at forums like the IMF and G20, where wealthy nations’ interests dominate the conversation. Low-income economies need a forum where they can collaborate to solve urgent problems rather than begging for relief.
An oil refinery processing tar sands crude without permits for over two decades showcases Alberta’s need for regulation. But with the Trudeau Liberals’ history of giving Big Oil no-strings-attached cash, it’s doubtful that the cavalry is coming anytime soon.
EU leaders fearmonger about immigration while neglecting the real and deadly threats posed by climate change. The entire Euro-Mediterranean region should collaborate on behalf of displaced persons, against fossil fuel giants, and toward decarbonization.
Keir Starmer has pulled Labour far from his campaign pledges while silencing his left-wing critics. The Left’s situation isn’t hopeless, but it needs to regain the radicalism it showed during Jeremy Corbyn’s first insurgency against the party establishment.
The major capitalist economies of Europe and North America have been experiencing low rates of economic growth and population increase. Japan has been in that position since the 1990s, and its experience offers some important clues about what the future holds.