The Left in Purgatory
Socialists in the United States are stuck. How do we become masters of our own fate?
Search Result(s) for: “Climate Change”
How Liberalism Betrayed the Enlightenment and Lost Its Soul
In the anti-communist climate of the Cold War, prominent liberal thinkers abandoned the Enlightenment’s ambitions for a society of real freedom and equality. The consequences have badly warped US politics to this day.
Freeman Dyson Refused to Let Go of His Optimism About the World
The renowned physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson died early this year and would have turned ninety-seven today. His eternal and unshakable sense of optimism about the world despite its myriad miseries is desperately needed right now.
Noam Chomsky: In Response to Coronavirus, “You Can Do Something”
In a new interview, Noam Chomsky gives his thoughts on the coronavirus pandemic, the depravities of capitalism, and the urgent need for a new era of solidarity and labor struggle.
Joe Biden Is Turning Out to Be Exactly Who He Told Us He Was
Joe Biden's rise has been a clarifying moment for the Left, showing its relative powerlessness within the Democratic Party. But the Left's ideas are popular in the country at large. The priority now must be advancing those ideas outside the framework of Democratic Party politics.
Peter Mertens: This Pandemic Shows How Elites Have Forgotten Us
With 18,000 dead out of a population smaller than Ohio's, Belgium has suffered the world's worst rate of coronavirus deaths. Belgian Workers' Party leader Peter Mertens told Jacobin how the population has been abandoned by the country's elites — and why things didn't have to be this way.
Escalation in the Donbas Risks a Disastrous War
Russian president Vladimir Putin has sent tanks into the Donbas on dubious pretexts. But a far bigger danger awaits if the West seeks an escalation that will only pour fuel on the fire.
Boeing Would Kill Us All to Increase Its Profits
The software on Boeing’s 737 MAX was designed to override human controls — but ended up smashing the planes into the ground. Netflix’s Downfall shows how the firm's obsessive cost-cutting ignored safety concerns and killed hundreds of people.
Renationalize Canada’s Airlines
The pandemic has exposed some terminal defects in Canada’s deregulated, privately owned airline industry. Nationalization is the best way to make air travel viable, environmentally sustainable, and in tune with social needs.
After Bacurau, Brazil’s Film Industry Is Under Threat From Jair Bolsonaro’s Government
The Brazilian film Bacurau received international acclaim as one of the best films of 2020. In Brazil, however, it has unleashed the ire of a far-right government, intent on smashing the country’s film industry. Bacurau’s directors speak to Jacobin about the Lula government’s revitalization of the Brazilian cultural scene and what Bolsonaro has been doing since to destroy it.
Morbid Symptoms Can Persist for a Long Time
The Republican Party is frozen in place, unable to move beyond Donald Trump but unsure of what to do even if it could. The Democratic establishment is firmly in charge of their party. We’re stuck in a bankrupt interregnum — with little chance of breaking free one way or the other anytime soon.
Gandhi Led a Mass Movement for India’s Freedom — But He Also Constricted It
The movement led by Gandhi is a touchstone for advocates of non-violent resistance today. But the conventional view overlooks the limitations of Gandhi’s political philosophy, and the importance of insurrectionary struggles that he opposed in the fight for Indian independence.
Corrupt, Right-Wing Machine Politics Are Crippling the Australian Labor Party
The ALP’s right faction is riddled with corruption and cover-ups that are holding the party back. We can’t rely on the legal system to clean out the ALP’s stables — empowering Labor members through real party democracy is the only way to break the cycle.
Global Debt Sacrifices the World’s Poor on the Altar of Profit
The developing world owes a total of $29 trillion to richer nations. Fifteen countries spend more on interest payments than they do on education, and forty-six spend more on interest than they do on health. It’s time for a global debt reckoning.
We Used to Fight Inflation With Boycotts
In 1973, hundreds of thousands of women took to the street to protest dramatic increases in the cost of meat. Grocery prices are growing at a much faster rate than they were 50 years ago. Why don’t we do the same?
The Energy Policy Culture War Is an Absurd Fantasy
What a surprise — the Texas energy disaster has been turned into a yet another culture war scrimmage field, pitting right-wing advocates of fossil fuels against liberal supporters of renewable energy. But the red vs. blue framing conceals something important: when it comes to the climate, Texans are far to the left of their representatives.
“Just Energy Partnerships” Are Failing
The recent post-COP26 rollout of “just energy partnerships” to finance poor countries’ turn away from fossil fuels has been widely touted as a way for wealthy countries to fund the green transition. The only problem: they aren’t working.
Millions of Texans Are Freezing Right Now — Our Deregulated Electrical Grid Is to Blame
What Texans are suffering through is a failure of deregulation and markets — a neoliberal ideology promoted not just by the fossil-fuel-loving right, but even many environmentally conscious liberals.
Joe Biden’s Immigration Reform Doesn’t Do Enough to Help Migrant Workers
President Biden’s immigration reform proposal at least rhetorically acknowledges the pain inflicted by existing US policy. But it continues to paint immigrants as criminals, instead of workers responding to labor demands and looking for a better life. We should fight for something better.
Meet the Philippines’ Socialist Candidate for President
From Ferdinand Marcos to Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines has long been ruled by an ultrawealthy, corrupt elite. Presidential candidate Ka Leody de Guzman, a socialist and former labor leader, tells Jacobin he wants to end the rule of political dynasties.