In Just One Year, Starbucks Workers Have Won 267 Union Elections
A year ago today, Starbucks workers in Buffalo, New York, voted to unionize. Since then the campaign has exploded nationwide, with an impressive 267 Starbucks locations now unionized.
19579 Articles by: Yi San
Yi San is a freelance writer based in New York.
Despite Their Divestment Rhetoric, New York Pensions Are Still Supporting Coal
New York state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has promised to divest pension funds from fossil fuel companies. But this money is still propping up big polluters: the pension’s $500 million dollar Blackstone investment funnels cash to a major coal plant.
The University of California Strike Is Approaching Crunch Time
Grad student workers in the UC system have been on strike for the last month, and they’re now facing a crucial moment in their battle for decent pay. The biggest academic strike in US history needs all the support and solidarity we can provide.
The Class Conflict Between Elites and Workers Goes Back to America’s Founding
You wouldn’t know it from the widespread glorification of America’s “founding fathers,” but the years around American independence were shot through with class conflict between elites and working people. And most of the founding fathers were on the wrong side.
Nationalize the Ski Slopes
Ski resorts should be public facilities available to all, not expensive luxuries for the wealthy few. Powder to the people!
Putting the South Carolina Primary First Doesn’t Make Any Sense
Democrats have won South Carolina once in 60 years, the state is getting older and whiter, and plenty of battleground states would be a better fit. So why do Democrats want to put the state’s primary first? Because it helps Joe Biden and hurts the Left.
One Year Ago Today, Starbucks Workers Successfully Unionized Their First Café
Workers at a Starbucks cafe in Buffalo, New York, were the first in the company to unionize one year ago today. The movement has grown rapidly since. We visited Starbucks union activists in five cities around the country to hear about the campaign.
How Capitalism Worms Its Way Into Every Aspect of Our Lives
Marxists have a powerful critique of exploitation in the capitalist workplace, but our analysis can’t stop there. A comprehensive analysis of capitalism, Nancy Fraser argues, must also account for the social relations that make the official economy possible.
Since Boris Yeltsin, Russians Have Been Living in an Imitation Democracy
After the Soviet Union’s fall, the West backed Boris Yeltsin as a paragon of democracy, even as his administration rigged elections and empowered a new capitalist class. Now, under Vladimir Putin, the crisis of Russia’s democracy is only intensifying.
The Failure of Reconstruction Is to Blame for the Weakness of American Democracy
A new book argues that the American right emerged out of a backlash to multiracial democracy following the Civil War. This is only partly true: reactionaries did not just fear democracy, they feared the economic redistribution former slaves associated with it.
Nationalize the Railroads
As we learned in the recent rail union contract negotiations, ruthless profit-seeking has made conditions for railworkers unbearable. It’s also made railroads less efficient. America badly needs a national rail service owned and operated for the public good.
The Child Tax Credit Can Be a Poverty-Fighting Machine
The Child Tax Credit expansion last year lifted several million children out of poverty, before Democrats failed to extend it. Now Congress is debating the policy again — and this time they have the chance to ensure even more children receive the benefit.
Salvador Allende’s Struggle Lives on in Today’s Socialism
Rodrigo Arenas was just a baby when his mother was forced to flee Augusto Pinochet’s Chile. Now he’s an MP for left party La France Insoumise — and, as he tells Jacobin, struggles in his homeland continue to inspire the French left.
The Forgotten German Marxist Who Criticized Imperialism
German theorist Fritz Sternberg, who wrote on the rise of the Nazis, the Cold War, and decolonization, remains an underappreciated figure in Western Marxism. His work offers crucial insights about the centrality of internationalism to socialist politics.
How Julius Evola Became the Internet’s Favorite Fascist
The fascist writer Julius Evola is loved by monologuing YouTubers, Greece’s far-right Golden Dawn party, and Steve Bannon. The hallmark of his work is a rejection of modernity, and his popularity is owed to the persistence of antidemocratic ideas on the Right.
Should We Abolish Prisons?
America’s prisons are grossly dehumanizing and unjust. The eminent political philosopher Tommie Shelby debates prison abolition and what kind of radical change justice demands.
Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg Could Still Deliver Sick Leave to Railworkers
After forcing a contract on exhausted railworkers last week, President Joe Biden vowed to keep fighting for them to have paid sick leave. If he’s serious, here is how he and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg could fulfill that promise.
The Railway Labor Act Allowed Congress to Break the Rail Strike. We Should Get Rid of It.
Congress was able to break the rail strike last week because of a century-old law designed to weaken the disruptive power of unions. It’s time to cast aside this law and every other government-mandated strike prohibition that ties the hands of workers.
Trump’s Call for the “Termination” of the Constitution Shows He’s Not Even Trying Anymore
Donald Trump’s call to “terminate” the Constitution is every bit as outlandish as we’ve come to expect. But it’s also a political dud, reflecting the low-energy mood that pervades his newly announced presidential campaign.
France’s Most Degrading Talk Show Is Promoting Far-Right Politics
It’s easy to think of French public life as more highbrow than its US counterpart. But France’s top-rated talk show is fusing politics and entertainment — and it’s a key part of a billionaire-funded effort to normalize far-right talking points.