Even if Bernie Sanders — or any other democratic socialist — had an electoral majority for our political revolution, we would have to contend with the power of capital. Investment strikes, capital flight, and the power of finance could turn the euphoria of victory into a disaster unless we have a plan to confront them.
Bernard-Henri Lévy has made a name for himself as the patron philosopher of France’s neoliberal elite. Here’s how an ex-Maoist become Europe’s leading anti-socialist.
The Italian communist Antonio Gramsci left behind a rich and complicated legacy of thought on socialist strategy for transforming the world. Historian Michael Denning guides us through the great — and misunderstood — thinker.
Over the course of decades, social democracy abandoned workers. Then workers abandoned social democracy.
At stake in Sunday's French election is the specter of the far right, the neoliberalism of the extreme center, and Mélenchon's challenge to the system itself.
Even if Macron wins, five more years of neoliberalism in France could further bolster Le Pen's National Front.
The far right has made breakthroughs in old Communist heartlands across Europe. A new memoir blames this on the slow and painful erosion of class politics.
Neoliberalism is embedded in the European Union’s DNA. But for the continent’s left, there are few good alternatives.
Filmmaker François Ruffin has become a leading critic of the destruction of France’s welfare model. Today an MP, Ruffin told Jacobin how the Left can rediscover its purpose — and again rally the discontent of rural and peripheral France.
Emmanuel Macron has pushed through a rise in the pension age despite vast protests. In a televised address on Monday night, he said he’d “heard the anger” in the streets — yet his government’s new budget plans promise further attacks on France’s social model.
Since his first presidential campaign in 2017, Emmanuel Macron has presented himself as the only barrier to chaos. But this snap election has shown how much Macron has helped build up the far-right threat in order to entrench his own power.
During the 1970s, left parties and unions promoted the idea of a “Social Europe” as a response to the crisis of capitalism. The term later served as a rhetorical distraction from the EU’s ongoing embrace of neoliberal dogma.
After the Axis powers’ defeat in World War II, many former Nazis and Vichyites recycled themselves as anti-communists. Jean-Marie Le Pen sought to rally such forces with radicalized conservatives in a common front against the red peril.
In France, right-wingers love to pose as defenders of free speech. Yet the takeover of media by a cast of billionaire pro-Trump tycoons means that just a handful of individuals have a veto over huge swaths of the press.
Our impulse should not be to reject social democracy's legacy, but to build on and complete its promise.
Gabriel García Márquez on Fidel Castro, the Soviet Union, and creating “a government which would make the poor happy.”
Many thought the Parti de gauche would reinvigorate the French left. Why has the effort failed?
Emmanuel Macron’s strong polling in the French election signals a political realignment destined to consolidate elite control.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s senior economic advisor explains his proposals to grow the economy and carry out an ecological transition.
We need a socialism that goes beyond capitalism. And not just for moral reasons.