
The Making of the Soviet Ruling Class
Yuri Slezkine’s portrait of the Soviet elite under Stalin is an eccentric masterwork. But his portrayal of the Bolsheviks as a religious sect is a travesty of history.

Yuri Slezkine’s portrait of the Soviet elite under Stalin is an eccentric masterwork. But his portrayal of the Bolsheviks as a religious sect is a travesty of history.

Founded by a former Bill Clinton aide, Frontera is a failed oil firm known for its bid for domination in the former Soviet Union. Now, US congressmen are trying to stop it being expelled from Georgia — blaming its well-deserved legal woes on “Russian interference.”

There is no use in sugarcoating the scale of last night’s defeat. But there is still a pathway to victory for Bernie Sanders.

Seventy-five years ago today, Japan adopted a constitution that ruled out ever using war as a tool of state policy. The country’s conservative leaders now want to ditch that commitment as they embrace the dangerous role of a militarized US client state.

Thomas Ferguson’s work traces the history of how big money buys politics in America. He recently sat down with Jacobin to talk about Bernie Sanders, the superrich, and how the flood of corporate cash is shaping the Democratic primary.
President Obama didn't fail because he lacks courage. He failed because he represents the country's most powerful interests.

Former guerrilla fighter Gustavo Petro may soon be Colombia’s first left-wing president. His candidacy has been met not only with smears, but credible threats of assassination from the Right.

We can’t avoid confronting the Pentagon and the massive (and lucrative) security state it oversees.

Joe Biden loves to insult skeptical voters and suggest that they go vote for somebody else — all while telling Wall Street donors how badly he needs their support. It’s the Democratic Party establishment’s strategy in a nutshell.

Italy’s Democratic Party refuses to break with the neoliberal status quo. This political conservatism will only further open the door to the populist right, which has massively increased its support in recent years.

The Bank of England's interest rate hike is an attempt to force the economy into a recession, increase unemployment, and lower wages even further. In other words, workers will be forced to pay even more for the cost of living crisis.

South Korea’s 2016–17 Candlelight Revolution shows that to defend democratic rights, you have to be ready to step outside the bounds of liberal proceduralism. We should take the same lesson in the US: the best way to ensure that Donald Trump will respect the results of the November election is to mobilize in the streets and demand it.

The Russian left doesn't just belong to the past. It can use the surge around Alexei Navalny to grow a new independent movement.

The US has attempted to exclude several countries from next month’s Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. The move has only backfired, prompting a boycott of the summit and renewed calls for an alternative union of Latin American and Caribbean countries.

In the world of philanthropy, George Soros is about as good as it gets. But allowing plutocrats, even progressive ones, to decide what's best for the rest of us is fundamentally unjust and undemocratic.

Over the past century, the US government repeatedly disrupted leftist movements and supported or carried out coups around the world — aided by American labor leaders. A full reckoning with the AFL-CIO’s collaboration with US imperialism can help us forge a truly internationalist, left-wing unionism in the twenty-first century.

With recent legislation, the Tories have restricted immigration, disenfranchised voters, and enhanced police powers. The Labour Party leadership needs to do something to stop this turn in British politics.

The NEP helped the young Soviet Union rebound economically. But its lack of political reform hampered the ability of workers and peasants to resist the onset of Stalinism.

Do you want to see Donald Trump defeated in 2020? Of course you do. The candidate who is best positioned to do exactly that: Bernie Sanders.

Impeachment is about more than Donald Trump — it has the potential to undermine the right-wing forces that stand behind him. Socialists should see impeachment as an opportunity to attack a movement that poses a long-run threat to the Left’s very existence.