The Radical James Baldwin
James Baldwin was many things: a brilliant writer, a trenchant social critic, a dogged activist. He was also an unapologetic radical.
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The Cops Can Be Defeated — But Not by Taking Obama’s Advice
Barack Obama recently lectured protesters about the need to move past protesting and focus on electing Democrats. The former president misunderstands the power of protest, which is not just to “raise awareness,” but to actually disrupt the institutions that control policy and force them to make concessions.
Jacobin’s Racial Justice Reading List
The point of a reading list should be to understand the world in order to change it. Here are ten essential books that can help inform the struggle for racial justice today.
Lorraine Hansberry Was an Unapologetic Radical
Lorraine Hansberry is best known for her classic play A Raisin in the Sun. But she was also a committed radical who insisted that black workers must be at the heart of the struggle for liberation.
Did the Thirty Years’ War Produce Capitalism?
The podcast Chapo Trap House’s miniseries Hell on Earth is an entertaining story which proposes that the Thirty Years’ War midwifed the birth of capitalism. Ultimately, however, the interesting argument doesn’t hold up.
How to Be a Marxist
Blending Kierkegaard with Hegel and Marx, Martin Hägglund’s This Life offers a new generation of socialists a guide to living a life of radical political commitment.
When George Wallace Came to Town
Donald Trump's appeal to some suffering white workers shouldn't surprise us. George Wallace did the same thing four decades ago.
Bernie’s Democratic Socialism Is Firmly Within the American Tradition
The Bernie Sanders campaign is nothing less than the promise to fulfill a thwarted but long-cherished American dream: a society where the wealthy and powerful no longer dominate our lives.
Judas and the Black Messiah Actually Does Fred Hampton Justice
Leftists have been burned so many times by Hollywood depictions of radicals. So it’s a welcome surprise when, once in a blue moon, mainstream filmmakers actually do the history of American radicals justice, as in the new film on Fred Hampton and the Black Panthers, Judas and the Black Messiah.
To Defend Democracy, We Need Mass Action
We can’t sit on our hands waiting for Joe Biden to protect abortion and the climate. Movements for the New Deal and civil rights showed us how to beat the Supreme Court and other reactionary, undemocratic institutions: mass action.
Ivory Perry, the Forgotten Civil Rights Hell-Raiser
Activists are often held up as exemplars of personal morality — but in every social struggle, ordinary people with complex lives rise up as leaders. Ivory Perry was one of these who waged a relentless war for racial and economic justice.
To Make Unions Resonate Again, Study the CIO’s History
Declining union density has diminished American workers’ awareness of labor organizing, pride in union status, and sense of belonging to a tradition of collective struggle. The history of the CIO can teach us how to embed unions in the working class again.
Bernie Has Opened an Opportunity for Us to Build an Anti-War Movement. We Should Seize It.
We need an anti-war movement more than ever. Through his insistence on the need to build grassroots power from the bottom up and his consistent anti-war record, Bernie Sanders can help give us the tools to build one.
Protests Are About Changing Public Opinion, Not Cowering in Response to Polling Data
Critics of the demand to “defund the police” cite current polling snapshots as supposed proof of protesters’ electoral malpractice. They’re politically shortsighted — and confused about the key role of mass protest movements in dragging such demands from the margins to the mainstream.
“Michael Brooks Leaving This World Was Only the Beginning of His Legacy”
After we put out a call for remembrances of Michael Brooks, we received deeply emotional emails from his viewers and listeners all around the world about how he changed their politics — and often their lives.
Ken Burns Talks to Jacobin About the Revolutionary Muhammad Ali
The new four-part PBS documentary Muhammad Ali, codirected by Ken Burns, examines the life of the legendary boxer and antiwar radical. Burns talks to Jacobin about how a kid from Kentucky named Cassius Clay became “the spirit of the 20th century.”
Accumulation by Lockout
Companies are increasingly turning to lockouts to break labor. How should unions respond?
The Forgotten Union
District 65 grew powerful by organizing low-wage workers that had been ignored by the traditional labor movement.
Remembering the Black Panther Party
More than five decades after its founding, the Black Panther Party's antiracist, anticapitalist vision remains just as relevant today.
The Legacy of Taft-Hartley
Seventy years ago, the Taft-Hartley Act ushered in “right-to-work” laws and imposed draconian restrictions on workers' rights. The labor movement still hasn’t recovered.