The New Communists
It’s 2017. Time to stop worrying about the questions of 1917.
Search Result(s) for: “corbyn”
In Search of Russia’s Lost Opposition
The Russian state has forced many antiwar leftists into exile, cutting them off from ordinary Russians. But activists are well aware that change in Russia must come from within, mobilizing ordinary people around their own interests.
Italian Identity Doesn’t Have to Belong to the Far Right
Xenophobic nationalism has assumed a central role in Italian political life in recent decades. But calls for the country’s Left to “reject Italian identity” are a dead end — and risk distancing it from its own popular traditions.
Rent Controls in the UK Are Not a Fantasy
With 445,000 UK tenants in arrears, it's clear the landlord class is out of control. Rent controls can rein in its exploitation.
Politics Is Everywhere, So Why Do People Feel So Powerless?
The defining feature of the last decade was that everything, from food to music, was politicized. All the while, our capacity to act collectively only grew weaker. Anton Jäger’s Hyperpolitics sets out to explain why.
British Politics Still Lives in the Shadow of the Coal Mines
Coal mining regions were central to Britain’s labor movement, and the industry’s decline has left a gaping hole. This social crisis and political vacuum made Boris Johnson’s election victory possible — but the Tories haven’t conquered the coalfields yet.
Keir Starmer Richly Deserves This Defeat
In Britain, Thursday’s Gorton and Denton by-election was a historic victory for the Greens. Labour prime minister Keir Starmer chased the Left out of his party, and he is now seeing its voter base collapse.
Keir Starmer Wasted His Chance to Stand Up to the US
The US bombing campaign in Iran relies heavily on British military bases. For a moment, it seemed Keir Starmer might refuse Washington access, but he has proved too cowardly to make even this basic stand for human rights against imperial war.
Liverpool’s Municipal Socialists Took the Fight to Thatcher
Liverpool’s left-wing council led one of the most important struggles against Margaret Thatcher’s government during the 1980s. If other Labour-run councils had followed its lead, they could have inflicted a major blow to Thatcher’s agenda.
Chapo’s Comic Book Is a Riveting Political Horror Show
The Chapo Trap House comic book, Year Zero #1, is a collection of horror stories with a clear political message: liberal capitalism is not failing accidentally — it is functioning as designed, producing horror as a by-product of stability.
Scottish Independence Is About Ordinary Scots, Not Alex Salmond’s Ego
Ahead of May's Scottish elections, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon finds herself embroiled in an intense row with her predecessor Alex Salmond, who last week formed his own separate party. The clash between the two is sure to dominate the election campaign — but it's also a distraction from the democratic issues at the heart of the independence movement.
Karl Polanyi’s Great Transformation and the Countermovement to Capitalism
Media pundits hail the economist Karl Polanyi as a brilliant theorist of capitalism and a thinker for our time. In order to understand Polanyi’s ideas, however, we need to see him in the context of his own time: Europe’s "age of catastrophe" in the early twentieth century.
The UK’s Parliament Is Full of Landlords
No less than 115 UK members of parliament — 90 of them Tories — are landlords. The housing crisis won't be solved until that changes.
We Will Never Forget Dawn Foster
Jacobin writer Dawn Foster passed away last week at the age of 34. Dawn is irreplaceable, but we can seek to emulate her extraordinary combination of compassion and political commitment.
Keir Starmer Used His Power to Trample on Human Rights
Keir Starmer marketed himself as a human rights lawyer who stood up for the downtrodden. As Britain’s prime minister, he showed nothing but contempt for human rights law, and he now leaves behind a disgraceful record of authoritarian policies.
Bernie’s Burlington Was an Experiment in Practical Socialism
When Bernie Sanders was mayor of Burlington, the spirit of socialism showed up in everything from snowplows to poetry. Writer Dan Chiasson tells the story of these years from the unique vantage point of his own experience growing up in Bernie’s Burlington.
Britain’s “Sectarian Politics” Narrative Is a Dangerous Con
Right-wing politicians and pundits in Britain have spent the last few months talking about the alleged danger of sectarian politics. It’s a cynical attempt to present British Muslims as a fifth column and to delegitimize opposition to genocide in Gaza.
The Nicola Sturgeon Era in Scottish Politics Already Feels Fleeting and Ephemeral
Nicola Sturgeon tried to channel the desire for change in Scotland with a political style that was resolutely anti-populist and technocratic. The contradictions of this approach caught up with Sturgeon, and she leaves office without a transformative legacy.
Millennial Anger Is the First Step Toward Class Consciousness
Millennials aren’t angry because they’re coddled. They’re angry because they know we live in a society of unprecedented wealth and capacity but are being held back from a better world by a minority of billionaires.
How Capitalism Worms Its Way Into Every Aspect of Our Lives
Marxists have a powerful critique of exploitation in the capitalist workplace, but our analysis can’t stop there. A comprehensive analysis of capitalism, Nancy Fraser argues, must also account for the social relations that make the official economy possible.