Rosa Luxemburg is an icon of the socialist movement who died a martyr’s death in 1919. But she was also a brilliant and highly original political thinker whose ideas about capitalism and how to oppose it are strikingly relevant to today’s world.
Throughout history, it’s been hard for agitators and troublemakers to hold down a good job. In the interwar decades, tens of thousands of them were hired by the Communist International — an employer with long hours, difficult bosses, and a lot of opportunities for travel.
Far-right candidate José Antonio Kast’s upset victory in the first round of Chile’s elections has led to claims that the country’s “left turn” has run its course. Leftist candidate Gabriel Boric needs to show that narrative is false by rallying the vast majority to his side.
After the demise of the USSR on December 26, 1991, the Russian left had to find its place in a society transformed beyond recognition. In the face of huge challenges, its activists have led important struggles against the system established by Yeltsin and Putin.
Éric Zemmour’s presidential campaign didn’t go well — but it helped Marine Le Pen project a moderate image, including by denouncing his Nazi supporters. Far from a spoiler, Zemmour helped to shepherd traditional right-wing voters to her.
We published 2,500 original essays in 2022. Here’s a recap in case you missed one or two of them.
Anti-Muslim racism has become a central theme for right-wing demagogues in Europe and the US. Islamophobia isn’t just a bad set of ideas: it’s a product of imperialism and the destructive wars waged by the US and its allies in the Middle East.
Born on this day in 1915, Claudia Jones became a leading figure in the US anti-racist movement who highlighted the oppression faced by black women. The US authorities deported Jones for her communist views in 1955, but they couldn’t snuff out her legacy.
Britain’s moral panic over the trans “threat” is often promoted by people who see themselves as liberals. But their transphobia echoes the same reactionary themes long used to demonize minorities.
Buried for many decades by the dominance of liberal thought, the republican tradition of freedom as nondomination has been excavated in recent years. Democratic socialists should embrace it.
Dressed in radical language, Jenny Odell’s new book, Saving Time, offers up positive thinking as a solution to exploitation. But the real reason people don’t have enough spare time is that low wages and high rents force them to work constantly.
Historian Robin D. G. Kelley has uncovered a tradition of African American radicalism that was — and is — a crucial part of the American left’s history. He talks to Jacobin about the need to connect struggles against racism and class oppression.
Sohrab Ahmari’s critique of capitalist power is surprising and compelling. But as long as he remains committed to unjust hierarchies of power in gender and sexuality, he can’t be a coalition partner with the Left.
The coordinated attack on trans rights in state legislatures across the US is built on a foundation of hateful paranoia and right-wing lies. But however unpopular anti-trans bills are, the human costs are real: thousands are migrating from anti-trans states.
Historian Katya Hoyer has caused a sensation with her new history of everyday life in East Germany. On the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, she spoke to Jacobin about why that state failed — and why reunification didn’t live up to expectations.
Conservatives have often embraced the work ethic in order to attack the poor and unemployed. In her latest book, the philosopher Elizabeth Anderson argues for reclaiming the concept, explaining that its origins lie in a radical critique of the idle rich.
Cologne University has canceled philosopher Nancy Fraser’s planned visiting professorship after learning she signed a pro-Palestine letter. In her first interview after the cancellation, Fraser says she won't let Germany stop her from standing up for Palestine.
With rich Amazon forests and fewer than a million people, Suriname is one of the few countries that absorbs more carbon than it produces. But the former Dutch colony is now being forced to implement destructive austerity by global financial interests.
Dissatisfaction at established green parties and environmental NGOs has fed the rise of more confrontational forms of activism. The task can’t just be to raise awareness but to mobilize millions of people in fighting for their own interests.
Today no one on either side of the political spectrum would present themselves as an enemy of choice. The historian and author of The Age of Choice, Sophia Rosenfeld, spoke to Jacobin about the complex legacy of an idea that helped forge the modern world.