Keep Calm and Fight for Medicare for All
As COVID-19 continues to expose the failings of the fragmented, profit-driven health system in the United States, the case for Medicare for All is stronger than ever.
Search Result(s) for: “China”
Sweatshops Aren’t Going to Last Forever
Brands like Gap and H&M have long been able to shop around for outsourced suppliers, driving sweatshop conditions in newly industrializing countries. But their rising dependence on large, centralized suppliers is undermining the bases of the sweatshop model — and increasing workers’ power to fight for improvements.
Nursing Home Worker: “Everything About This Is Designed for Disaster”
Some of the first US cases of coronavirus came from Washington nursing homes. We spoke to a nursing home worker and in-home care worker in the state about what it’s like providing care in the midst of a pandemic, and the brutal low-wage working conditions, worker shortages, and lack of decent health care that can only worsen the crisis.
Now Is the Time to Fundamentally Transform America
Our economy is crashing hard and fast. But with a bold set of policies, like nationalizing the banks to fund a Green New Deal, we can save millions of workers from untold suffering — and transform the country in the process.
No, Liberal Pundits: Joe Biden Hasn’t Actually Been a Progressive All Along
In the latest media parlor game, the players try to convince each other that Joe Biden could actually campaign as a progressive. We already know the answer: he can't, because his record is so abysmal.
Crises Have a Way of Accelerating History
Crises like the one we're in upend the social order, reveal long-festering conflicts, and throw open the doors to futures both bleak and transformative. We can emerge from this crisis a more just society.
Sanctions Against Iran at a Time of Global Pandemic Are Criminal
Even before the coronavirus, the United States' sanctions against Iran were unconscionable. But now, with one person dying of coronavirus every ten minutes in Iran, the sanctions are killing untold numbers of people. They must end now.
Joe Biden is Wrong About Single-Payer and Coronavirus
The ranks of the uninsured are growing, and people are already dying from a lack of coverage. Yet Joe Biden says coronavirus has nothing to do with Medicare for All. He’s wrong: its time has come.
Spain Needs Social Solidarity as Well as Social Distancing
Last month’s revelations of the Spanish monarchy’s illicit financial dealings embarrassed official claims that “we’re all in this together.” Faced with COVID-19, citizens are forced to build their own collective response — replacing the empty rhetoric of “national unity” with the real practice of social solidarity.
The “Crisis of Democracy” Around the World Is a Crisis of the Working Class
Our global crisis of democracy is real, but its solution isn't rebuilding political norms. It's rebuilding working-class power.
“A Little Flu” Could Be Fatal for Jair Bolsonaro
Brazil’s fragile health care system and densely populated cities threaten to turn the COVID-19 outbreak into a full-scale social collapse. President Jair Bolsonaro’s dismissal of the pandemic as a “little flu” is feeding dissent even among his allies — threatening to hasten the far-right leader’s downfall.
The Mainstream Media Versus Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Mainstream media coverage of Mexico’s leftist president Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his response to the coronavirus crisis has been terrible. While world health authorities have commended Mexico’s approach, the media — blindly parroting AMLO’s right-wing opposition — have panned it.
The American Federalist System Is Killing Our Ability to Respond to Coronavirus
The US’s federalist system undermines even the most basic attempts to carry out effective national action. In pandemics, that’s a recipe for death and disaster.
“It’s Obscene for Macron to Call Health Workers ‘Heroes’ After Showing Them Such Contempt”
Low testing rates and the undersupply of masks for hospital staff highlight the weakness of the French government’s reaction to COVID-19. As Danièle Obono MP tells Jacobin, Emmanuel Macron’s administration has based its response on the resources left after years of cuts — not on what the health system actually needs.
“The Collective Work of Art We Call the City”
We pay tribute to Michael Sorkin, the architect and writer who died last week after contracting COVID-19. Sorkin spent his life both interpreting and changing cities in the interest of economic justice.
Capitalism Causes Disasters, Socialism Can Solve Them
The devastation brought by the coronavirus has been hugely magnified by an irrational system that measures human life in terms of profits and loss. Faced with collapse, states have already had to intervene in the markets — now, we need them to plan to rebuild our societies for the future.
We Can’t Have An Economic Recovery If We Don’t Improve Health Care Right Now
We must not choose between staving off economic catastrophe or a public health disaster. We can do both — if we immediately expand Medicare to cover everyone while safely and simultaneously rebuilding our healthcare infrastructure."
A Democratic Virus
As the coronavirus sweeps the entire globe, democracy is becoming just another casualty.
Argentina’s COVID–19 Lessons
The United States’ COVID-19 response has paled in many respects to Argentina’s. But it’s not just Argentina’s public health response that the United States should learn from — it’s also the country’s history of popular resistance that will be crucial to fighting unequal and undemocratic responses to the pandemic.
The Global South Must Be Freed of Its Debt Servitude
The G20 has announced it will allow 76 poor countries additional time to pay back their loans. But it’s not an act of benevolence — it’s a desperate maneuver to maintain the global debt peonage that undergirds neoliberal capitalism.