The Public Transit Solution That Never Was
The Alden StaRRcar was a noble but failed attempt to combine the virtues of public and private transport.
19244 Articles by: Yi San
Yi San is a freelance writer based in New York.
Built for a Supervillain
Jacobin ranks the all-time best James Bond villain secret lairs.
A Stunning New Chapter Begins for Amazon Warehouse Workers
In a staggering upset, Staten Island Amazon workers just won a union election. It’s the start of a new chapter for workers at one of the world’s most powerful companies
At Starbucks, There Are No Workers, Only “Partners”
A December 2021 missive from managers at the Elmwood Avenue location of Starbucks in Buffalo, New York, after workers voted 18 to 9 in favor of unionizing, shared by Starbucks Workers United on Twitter.
Hijackobin!
Our favorite hijacking movies.
On Canceling Writers
While certain writers or texts might fall afoul of polite society today, great writing can and will never stay canceled.
Palaces of Shelter
The metros in Kyiv and Kharkiv — Soviet-era “palaces of the people” — have doubled as bomb shelters during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Didion on the New Left
Much of the late Joan Didion’s writing from the 1960s and ’70s is characterized by a pessimism about the New Left. She thought hippies and the rest of the counterculture were worthy of contempt, and she thought radicals like the Black Panther Party and various Marxist groups were both ludicrously far from power and frightening menaces to society.
How to Make the Internet a Truly Public Good
Four lessons from Ben Tarnoff’s Internet for the People.
Sports Are Sinking in Crypto Snake Oil
The crypto takeover of European football promises to empower supporters — but in truth, it’s just marketing fluff for a giant pyramid scheme.
57,000 Channels and There’s Nothing On
American TV once threatened to become radical and strange through the proliferation of local stations. But it wouldn’t be allowed to last.
It’s Bigger Than Amazon
When and where organized labor’s been on the move.
What You Need to Know About Inflation
It’s bad and could get worse. Socialists need a response.
“We’re New — We Don’t Have Any Customs”
Two films about the Tennessee Valley Authority stress its utopian promise and the lives that had to be destroyed to fulfill it.
Voices From a Forgotten Revolution
The Rural Electrification Act (REA), passed in 1936 as part of the New Deal, enabled the federal government to provide loans to rural electric cooperatives. Access to electricity transformed education, farm work, and home life for communities previously ignored by big electric companies. Nearly 50 years after the passage of the act, the North Carolina Association of Electric Cooperatives conducted 44 interviews with rural residents whose lives were affected by the REA.
Spaghetti Junctions
How did New York become the only metropolis in the world to insist that its transit map reflect the layout of the city above?
The Casualties of the Drone War
Since the War on Terror began, the US military has used aerial bombing campaigns to avoid American combat losses. But they’ve led to a staggering number of civilian deaths.
Putin Didn’t Unite Europe — He Just Militarized It
Whatever the outcome of the Ukraine war, it’ll mean a more divided and armed Europe.