The Strike as the Ultimate Structure Test
To build a more confident, fighting, politically educated working class, no task is more pressing right now than building for successful strikes.
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The Strike Returns to New Zealand
Over the last year, New Zealand has seen tens of thousands of workers walk off the job, challenging the Labour government’s self-imposed austerity.
Capitalism Killed Intimacy and Replaced It With PornHub
With our communities destroyed and our growing distance from each other, we humans of late capitalism are left with a deficit of intimacy and affection.
How Finance Exploits Us
The new era of financial capitalism, with its explosion of household debt and its dependence on complex derivatives, has caused fundamental changes in the way capital exploits labor.
Man and Stuberman
Kumail Nanjiani’s new Uber-based buddy flick, Stuber, says a lot about woke masculinity, economic precarity, and the death of the old-school "taxi movie." It’s also not very good.
The Internet’s Invisible Cleanup Crew
A hidden army of tens of thousands of content moderators is at work every day — in often appalling conditions — to make the internet as we know it habitable. We should hold Silicon Valley responsible.
“Now Is a Good Time for Working People to Get Involved in Politics”
Jacobin spoke with Lili Baiman, a democratic socialist running for Columbus, Ohio city council. She wants to support the city’s labor movement and strengthen tenants’ rights. Socialism, for her, “means power and equality.”
A Shit Job for One Is a Shit Job for All
Last week’s passage of a bill in the California state legislature ending the rampant misclassification of workers as independent contractors was a huge win. The bill was animated by the spirit of unions fighting for the entire working class — the exact principle that should animate all unions.
The Student Worker Movement Is Growing
Faced with a hostile NLRB, repressive university policies and a lack of institutional support, student workers across the country are pushing ahead in their campaign to unionize.
At Age 83, Ken Loach Is Still Dangerous
After years in the wilderness, first with Thatcherism, then with New Labour, both the Left and British director Ken Loach are just hitting their prime.
Jess Phillips Is Not the Answer to What’s Wrong in British Politics
Britain's right-wing press has been routinely vicious to so many in the Labour Party in recent years. But they've always had a soft spot for MP Jess Phillips. Perhaps that's because they know her PR-driven politics poses them no threat.
Sick Pay Should Be Enough to Live On
Faced with the threat of coronavirus, Boris Johnson has said statutory sick pay will apply from the first day off work. But the meager payment isn’t enough to live on — and won’t even be made to all workers.
Sanders Is Offering a Science-Based Coronavirus Policy. Trump Wants a Cruise-Ship-Industry Bailout.
Bernie Sanders’s competent, evidence-based approach to the pandemic provides a much-needed contrast to the shambolic public health menace of Donald Trump. We need legislation providing for free COVID-19 tests, mandatory paid sick leave, free health care for COVID-19 patients, and quarantine pay.
The Coronavirus Crisis Is Political
In 2008, they told us not to “politicize” the crash. We ended up with a decade of austerity. The coronavirus crisis will reshape the economy in profound ways — now is the time to make socialist arguments about how to respond.
Anti-Capitalist Politics in the Time of COVID-19
As Marxist geographer David Harvey argues, forty years of neoliberalism has left the public totally exposed and ill prepared to face a public health crisis on the scale of coronavirus.
Comrade Britney Spears, We Salute You
Britney Spears called for a general strike and wealth redistribution in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Therefore we are legally obliged to publish something about it.
How Big Tech Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bombs
Until quite recently, many Big Tech firms opposed the militarization of AI, but that now seems like ancient history as they move to sign partnerships with arms companies. The prospect of lavish Pentagon funding for AI is too tempting to refuse.
Building Picket Lines When We Can’t Stand Together
The wave of strikes demanding better workplace protections shows labor’s impressive resilience faced with the COVID-19 crisis. Social distancing and the rise of homeworking are blocking off many traditional forms of collective action — but also bringing about new ways of pressuring employers.
A Basic Income Is a Lifeline in This Crisis — But Can’t Solve Everything
With millions of people put out of work, analysts across the political spectrum have proclaimed that the time has come for an Unconditional Basic Income. But this safety net won’t be enough unless we take on the biggest problem we face — an economic model based on high rents and high personal debts.
Zohran Mamdani Just Created an Office of Worker Power
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has signed an executive order creating the country’s first city agency dedicated explicitly to helping workers organize. He spoke with Jacobin about how the new office will advance his affordability agenda.