Letters + #JacobinPitches

Jacobin troll Donald Hughes (@getfiscal) has been pitching us every week for two years. We’ve compiled some of the best, and our responses, without edits.

The Parties We Didn’t Build

The 2010s were meant to herald a new generation of party activism, as Europe’s austerity generation built new structures to the left of social democracy. Instead, we got short-lived surges of electoral enthusiasm — without the deeper rebuilding we so sorely needed.

It Wasn’t Only the Media That Defeated Jeremy Corbyn

The Labour Party’s election disaster was rooted just as much in its own errors.

Will Big Money Defeat Bernie Sanders?

Thomas Ferguson’s work traces the history of how big money buys politics in America. He recently sat down with Jacobin to talk about Bernie Sanders, the superrich, and how the flood of corporate cash is shaping the Democratic primary.

A Most Dangerous and Necessary Journey

How to Be a Socialist in the Twenty-First Century

Erik Olin Wright devoted his life to figuring out ways the world could finally leave capitalism behind. His final book holds crucial lessons about which strategies belong to the past and which ones can build the bridge to a socialist future.

Blueprint for a Political Revolution

If we’re going to change the United States, socialists will have to win the working class. And we urgently need a strategy and an organization to do just that.

Medicare for All Is the One-in-a-Million Shot We Have to Make Happen

There’s nothing realistic about passing Medicare for All — we’re outgunned, outspent, and outmatched. And yet we have no other choice.

Are You Reading Propaganda Right Now?

Jacobin is politically committed. We’re not ashamed of that, and that’s why we need the support of our politically committed readership.

Common Nonsense

Extinction Rebellion’s cofounder Roger Hallam wants a mass revolt against climate change. But while his new book calls for activists to engage in “disruption” against politicians, it offers no blueprint for the workers who have the power to transform the economic structures that created our climate crisis.

Our First 100 Days Could Be a Nightmare

Even if Bernie Sanders — or any other democratic socialist — had an electoral majority for our political revolution, we would have to contend with the power of capital. Investment strikes, capital flight, and the power of finance could turn the euphoria of victory into a disaster unless we have a plan to confront them.

The Death of Revolutionary Film Form

From the end of World War I through the 1970s, filmmakers around the world experimented with film form in the hopes of awakening a new political consciousness. Why did that dream die?

You Say You Want a Revolution

On a forgotten back-and-forth between Nina Simone and John Lennon.

Jesse Jackson’s Political Revolution

Before Bernie Bros vs. the DNC, there was Jesse Jackson vs. the Atari Democrats.

Michael Bloomberg Is Not a Lesser Evil

A Michael Bloomberg presidency wouldn’t be a repudiation of Donald Trump — it would cement the oligarchic status quo and deliver another blow to American democracy. No one should vote for Bloomberg, even if he wins the Democratic nomination.

Our Revolution Must Dismantle the National Security State

We can’t avoid confronting the Pentagon and the massive (and lucrative) security state it oversees.

Get Bernie

Trump’s inauguration set off an unprecedented dirty war from the Washington establishment. A President Sanders would face even worse.

Democracy, Without the Majority Class

Workers are frozen out of politics in both the United States and Britain.

For the Few, Not the Many

How many votes does it take to capture the most powerful assembly in the United States? Turns out, not that many.

We Won the Battle, They Won the War

History shows that the capitalist class will do whatever it can to undermine our reforms and oust the Left from power.