
Remembering Capitalism’s Crimes
A new book uncovers the reality of America's victory in the Cold War — detailing how massacres of leftists in twenty-two countries helped to overcome resistance to capitalism across the world, writes Grace Blakeley.

A new book uncovers the reality of America's victory in the Cold War — detailing how massacres of leftists in twenty-two countries helped to overcome resistance to capitalism across the world, writes Grace Blakeley.

With Jair Bolsonaro at the helm, Brazil’s democracy is in crisis. Veteran of the Brazilian left and the armed struggle against the dictatorship, and a principal strategist of the Workers’ Party, José “Zé” Dirceu spoke to Jacobin about the need for a broad front coalition to defeat Bolsonarismo.

Argentina’s public health response to COVID-19 was far better than Jair Bolsonaro’s disastrous mismanagement in Brazil. Yet as the two countries seek to rebuild, both are enfeebled by their subordinate place in the global financial system, a subordination that is threatening to turn today’s shock into a protracted crisis.

It might be surprising to find a movie on Netflix that presents Cuban agents as self-sacrificing idealists and Miami exiles as right-wing terrorists. But Wasp Network offers a sober portrayal of how Cubans resisted the Miami opposition’s violent campaign of attacks in the 1990s.

Colombia’s Supreme Court has placed former right-wing president Álvaro Uribe under house arrest on charges of manipulating witness testimony. Whatever happens to Uribe next, this will be a watershed moment for Colombian politics.

We talked to Bernie Sanders foreign policy adviser Matt Duss about the internationalism that animated the Vermont senator’s 2020 campaign.

There’s a brutal history of US intervention in Central America, culminating in the cruelty of today’s border regime. Salvadoran journalist Roberto Lovato speaks to Jacobin about the amnesia that is taking root, and the need for a militant excavation of personal and collective stories.

Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have been friends to Latin America or to Latinos living in the US. Yet the Democrats seem to take the Latino vote for granted, as Joe Biden’s platform promises to extend the criminalization of immigrants.

Orlando Gutiérrez, the Bolivian militant trade union leader, has been murdered by a fascist gang in Bolivia. He gave his life to the struggle for democracy, workers’ rights, and socialism. Orlando will not be forgotten. And fascism will not win.

Victory for socialist candidate Luis Arce in last month's Bolivian election seemed to turn the page on the overthrow of Evo Morales last fall. But the murder of miners' leader Orlando Gutiérrez just after the election shows that the coup plotters are still a violent threat — and will do all they can to silence working-class Bolivians.

Peru was the birthplace of neoliberal populism under Alberto Fujimori. Now Pedro Castillo, a socialist trade unionist from an indigenous background, has won its presidency.

Latino voters, just like any other group, are divided along class and ideological lines. The key to winning working-class Latinos to a left politics is to offer a positive vision that materially improves their lives.

Housing organizer and socialist Guilherme Boulos recently shocked Brazil by forcing a runoff for mayor in the largest city in the Western Hemisphere, São Paolo. In an interview, he lays out his vision for the position, how to embed the Brazilian left in the country’s working class, and how to “place the periphery in the center.”

Fifteen years after Evo Morales was first elected president of Bolivia, his socialist party has returned to power. The far right hasn’t given up — but the indigenous masses that reversed the right-wing coup and forced elections have proven themselves a formidable force for justice and democracy.

The Trump-brokered deal between Morocco and Israel normalizes relations between the two states. But the outgoing president bought Morocco's agreement by endorsing its ownership of Western Sahara — making the US the only major state to rubber-stamp an occupation regime condemned by international law.

In 2017's French election, radical left-winger Jean-Luc Mélenchon surged to 20 percent support, only narrowly failing to make the runoff. Last month he announced his candidacy for the 2022 race — and he's trying to show that his France Insoumise movement can govern as well as protest.

Several tensions run deep in Russian society: Politics are decided by elections without democracy. A growing number of Russian billionaires have outlandish wealth but no political power. And Putin is a populist without the people.

In Mexico, the midterm election campaign has just kicked off and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's right-wing opponents have formed a coalition against his ruling party, MORENA. Their aim is to seize a majority in the lower house and stop AMLO’s progressive agenda in its tracks.

The violent attempt to stop the certification of the electoral vote shouldn’t be ignored. But fascism isn’t on the brink in America. Pretending we’re on the precipice of losing our democracy plays into the hands of those who want to give new, repressive powers to the security state.

Matteo Renzi's move to split Italy's center-left government is a distraction from its COVID-19 response — and could even force Italians back to the polls. But what's really at stake is the shape of its post-crisis recovery, as neoliberal technocrats again threaten to return to office.