Since October 7, US officials have been quietly admitting in the press that Joe Biden fully supports Israel’s war — and that talk about the president’s supposed anger at massive civilian casualties in Gaza is purely PR to keep the war going.
Across the US, right-wing state legislatures have disregarded popular will to enact costly school privatization plans. In North Carolina, they flouted democracy to advance their agenda.
Last year Kenyan courts ruled that Meta, Facebook’s parent company, broke the law by firing workers who had attempted to unionize. Meta responded by refusing to pay its employees for over eight months and fighting labor law.
Old-money WASPs once ruled America with an air of clannish exclusivity. Then the economic crises of the 1970s upended their world, opening the corporate floodgates to new-money barbarians — and replacing elite social norms with wanton money lust.
Each February 14, tourists flock to Terni, Italy, hometown of third-century martyr Saint Valentine. Yet Terni’s “city of love” identity is itself rather new, as politicians seek tourist dollars to replace its once-mighty steelworks.
Cynical politicians like John Fetterman and Benjamin Netanyahu are trying to pit calls for a cease-fire in Gaza against efforts to bring Israeli hostages home. The reality is a cease-fire is the only way to do just that.
Last fall, democratic socialists in Tacoma, Washington, led a victorious campaign to establish robust protections for the city’s renters. Jacobin spoke with two campaign leaders about the effort.
The growing swell of American unions demanding a cease-fire in Gaza is heartening. But labor will have to take its antiwar commitments further than issuing statements to stop Israel’s wanton slaughter.
Some states have taken on the cost of prison phone calls to keep private equity–backed telecom companies from price gouging inmates and their loved ones. Yet these companies have found new ways to exploit prisoners.
For 50 years, bosses have extorted concessions from workers while saying we’re “lucky to have jobs.” Now, Association of Flight Attendants president Sara Nelson writes in Jacobin, workers need to make bosses understand they’re lucky to have our work.
Last month, Passional Boutique and Sexploratorium, a Philadelphia sex shop with a reputation for “inclusivity,” laid off its entire staff after they asked the store to recognize their union. Jacobin spoke with one of the workers.
Labor has enormous power to demand an end to Israel’s murderous assault on Gaza. The AFL-CIO’s call for a cease-fire is a huge step toward the entire labor movement using that power.