Shut Down the Supreme Court Confirmation
If the roles were reversed, Mitch McConnell would use his power to to stop a Democratic president’s Supreme Court pick. Democrats now face pressure to fight Trump's nominee just as vigorously.
Blog
In Australia, Keynesianism Is Back in Fashion — but It Still Won’t Work
Neo-Keynesians, nostalgic for the postwar economic boom, imagine that state spending can create full employment and resolve the crisis of neoliberalism. But their analysis is wrong about the past, wrong about the present, and wrong about capitalism itself.
How John Rawls Became the Liberal Philosopher of a Conservative Age
With his 1971 book A Theory Of Justice, John Rawls became the most influential political philosopher of his time — just as the liberal agenda he supported was retreating under conservative fire. A close look at Rawls can help us understand the fate of contemporary liberalism.
Trying To Get Workers Fired Is the Wrong Way To Fight Racism
Bosses use the possibility of workers losing their ability to pay for the basic necessities of life like food, shelter, and health care to force workers to do what they want. We can’t use such threats against workers as a way to fight racism — we need to organize instead.
Fighting Racism Is What Makes Us Universalists
Anti-racists in France are constantly accused of being “identitarians” undermining the supposed universalism of the "color-blind" Republic. But the demands raised at the protests following George Floyd’s murder uphold actual universalism: a commitment to fighting oppression that recognizes the reality of racist and colonial violence.
Spain’s New Memory Law Will Finally Recognize Franco’s Victims
Even after Spain’s late 1970s transition to democracy, its political establishment maintained a tactful silence over the record of Franco’s dictatorship. But a bill advanced by the left-wing government insists on the need to acknowledge the dictator’s crimes — and identify the estimated 112,000 people lying in unmarked graves across Spain.
The Two Souls of East German Socialism
Throughout the history of the German Democratic Republic, its leaders faced opposition from dissenters who believed that a socialist system needed to have democratic rights. The arguments they made — often at great personal cost — still resonate today.
A Human Rights Contradiction
Thirty years since reunification, the former East Germany is routinely presented as a “second German dictatorship” where human rights were all but nonexistent. Yet when that state took sides with Third World causes and antifascists in the West, it frequently used the language of human rights — an expression of solidarity that often clashed with realities in East Germany itself.
German Reunification Brought a Wave of Neoliberal Triumphalism — And a Social Disaster
In the last years before the Berlin Wall's fall, most opposition movements in East Germany sought a reformed, more democratic socialism. But the effect of reunification on October 3, 1990 was a wave of neoliberal triumphalism in both East and West — undermining the principles of social solidarity and pushing the Left into the wilderness.
How the Deutsch Mark Swallowed Up East Germany’s Economy
After the Berlin Wall's fall, the introduction of the West German currency was widely presented as the East’s path to prosperity. But the result was a fire sale of East German industry to Western businesses — a massive destruction of jobs and public property whose harmful effects are still felt 30 years after reunification.
When the Left Grew Up
When Jacobin was founded in the aftermath of the financial crisis, the Left was dominated by academic jargon, sectarian organizations, and samba bands. Ten years later, we have a long way to go, but it’s become a lot easier to talk about socialism as a real political force.
Why the East Germans Lost
Thirty years since German reunification, the “new states” from the former East still suffer the effects of mass deindustrialization and emigration. But if reunification hasn't delivered the promises of 1990, socialists should recognize why most East Germans didn't defend the old system — and why welfare and public services aren’t enough to build a viable socialist society.