It’s Really Not That Hard: Just Ignore the Senate Parliamentarian
Once again, Senate Democrats are allowing a nonbinding ruling by the Senate parliamentarian to torpedo their agenda. Could the Dems be any more pathetic?
20971 Article(s) by: Wouter van de Klippe
Wouter van de Klippe is a freelance journalist and writer based in Europe. He is particularly interested in organized labor, social and environmental justice, and social welfare states.
Congress Has a Chance to Roll Back the Flow of Military Weapons to Police Departments
The Pentagon’s 1033 program has allowed over $1.5 billion in military equipment to be given to local police departments. The House votes today on rolling 1033 back — but the Biden administration hasn’t lifted a finger to reduce the military weapons in cops’ hands.
The Marxist Who Saw the Fall of the German Left
The postwar German left has had a lot of ups and downs — and leading Marxist political scientist Frank Deppe was there for most of them. On his 80th birthday, he spoke to Jacobin about the need to root left-wing politics in the changed realities of the modern working class.
Australia’s Right-Wing Libertarians Are Trying to Capitalize on Anti-Lockdown Sentiment
Libertarianism is marginal in Australian politics. But the governing coalition’s failings and the rise in support for right-wing anti-lockdown protests have given the dangerous Liberal Democratic Party an opportunity to make gains.
The IDF’s Grotesque Practice of Ransacking Palestinian Homes Is Israeli Apartheid in Action
A new report from a coalition of human rights groups details the horror of Israel’s apartheid-style home invasions in the West Bank — yet another revelation about the horrifying realities of what US military aid to Israel is funding.
Canada Just Voted for More of the Same
Canada’s federal election replaced a Liberal minority government, with nothing on offer for workers with . . . a Liberal minority government, with nothing on offer for workers. Neither establishment party offers working-class communities a brighter future.
Norway’s Radical Left Is Gaining Power
In Norway’s recent election, the radical Red Party doubled its vote share, helping the Labour Party toss the Conservatives from power. Two of Rødt’s new MPs speak to Jacobin about socialist strategy in Norway and building a workers’ party from the ground up.
Big Pharma Has a Friend in Kyrsten Sinema
Kyrsten Sinema has received some of the most Big Pharma money of any Democrat in the Senate — and a pharma-backed dark money group started running ads for her just before she threatened to take down Democrats’ drug pricing plan.
Canada’s Pointless Election Has Weakened Justin Trudeau
In what was supposed to be an easy victory, global liberalism’s would-be savior lost the popular vote for the second time in two years — and now enjoys the slimmest popular mandate of any prime minister in Canadian history.
Washington Carpenter: “It’s Up to the Membership to Win This Strike”
Two thousand carpenters went on strike in Washington on Thursday after rejecting a fourth tentative contract agreement. Jacobin spoke with one of the workers about the strike, and why it’s pitting rank-and-file carpenters against their union leaders.
Australia Played a Key Role in Chile’s 1973 Coup. Chilean Exiles Are Demanding an Apology.
Newly declassified documents reveal that Australia helped the US overthrow Chile’s democratically elected socialist government and install the brutal Augusto Pinochet regime. Chilean exiles in Australia are demanding an apology.
The Southern Slaveholders Dreamed of a Slaveholding Empire
Antebellum slaveholders weren’t content with an economic and social system based on trafficking in human flesh in the South alone. They wanted to expand slaveholding territory outward, to the American West and even beyond the borders of the United States.
Biden’s China Advisers Seem Ready to Defend American Corporate Interests
Joe Biden’s appointments on China policy suggest he’s uninterested in breaking with America’s long legacy of putting the protection of corporate profits at the heart of its foreign policy vision.
Illinois Just Won a Big Green Jobs Victory
In Illinois last week, a coalition of unions and environmentalists scored a major victory with a law providing for a miniature Green New Deal: billions invested in clean energy, a commitment to decarbonizing, solid labor standards, and embrace of nuclear power.
The House Democrats Bought and Paid For by Big Pharma
Reps. Scott Peters, Kurt Schrader, and Kathleen Rice — Democrats all — give weak, incoherent responses to why they torpedoed a plan to let Medicare negotiate drug prices.
In New York City, Occupy Wall Street Got the Last Laugh
Back in 2011, the media dismissed Occupy Wall Street as a mere flash in the pan. But in the long run, the movement reshaped the landscape of New York City and State politics.
The Socialist Movement’s Strength Is Growing in America’s Most Diverse County
Since 2016, under the influence of Bernie Sanders and NYC-DSA, the socialist base in Queens, New York has transformed from an eclectic mixture of progressive voters into a multiracial movement of the working class.
Call Center Workers in Australia Are Unionizing to Demand Better Pay and Conditions
In Australia, call center work is notoriously precarious, atomized, and poorly paid. Through a rank-and-file union drive, hundreds of workers across over 90 workplaces are organizing to change that.
There’s Trouble in El Salvador’s Bitcoin Paradise
Between the growing authoritarianism of his government and the massive popular pushback to his absurd new Bitcoin law, the honeymoon for El Salvador’s young, self-styled “disrupter” president Nayib Bukele is over.
You Can’t Be Against “Forever Wars” Without Cutting the Military Budget
These days, a lot of politicians say they’re against “forever wars” — and that’s a good thing. But the acid test for genuine opposition to the national security state is support for cutting the military budget.