No, Studying Marx Is Not Elitist
Reading Marxist theory isn’t just for highfalutin academics — just ask the millions of workers whose ideas about the role they could play in changing the world were transformed by both study and practice.
Search Result(s) for: “working class”
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.
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.
Winning the Rank-and-File Vote
A look at recent bottom-up efforts to win endorsements for Bernie Sanders and mobilize trade unionists against Donald Trump offer insights into how the labor movement can better and more democratically engage its members in politics.
Democrats Are Going Extinct in Kentucky’s Coal Country
The last rural Democrat in Kentucky’s state senate just switched parties. Robin Webb is wrong that Republicans better represent her coal-country constituents, but she’s right that Democrats lost interest in them long ago.
An English Rust Belt?
To win power, Corbynism must challenge a creeping conservative presence in England’s former industrial heartlands.
Connolly at 150
James Connolly was born 150 years ago today. He remains the outstanding socialist of Ireland's history.
Revolutions Look Different According to Authoritarian or Democratic Conditions
The Russian Revolution led to revolutionary upheaval in countries far beyond Russia. Looking at Russia’s imperial borderlands like Finland suggests that socialist struggle can look wildly different in autocratic versus parliamentary conditions.
The Rank and File’s Paper of Record
The history of Labor Notes shows that labor's strength — and socialists' relevance — depend on a militant and independent rank and file.
Meet Scott Seiss, TikTok’s “Angry Retail Guy”
Comedian Scott Seiss on how his viral TikTok character “Angry Retail Guy” gave voice to the rage of the 21st-century chain store worker.
Vermont’s New AFL-CIO President Is a Democratic Socialist and Labor Reformer
Katie Maurice is a Democratic Socialists of America member and labor activist. She was recently elected president of the Vermont AFL-CIO on a platform of boosting rank-and-file participation and building power outside the Democratic Party.
Austerity’s Billy Club
The Bay Area's transit system shows that austerity and police violence go hand in hand.
The Pseudo-Populism of Canada’s New Right
Pierre Poilievre talks like a class warrior, but his policies serve the C-suite. A new book digs into the ideology and elite backing behind his faux-populist, anti-government movement.
When the “Unskilled” Become “Essential”
World War II made the economically impossible suddenly possible. As our capitalist states mobilize for the pandemic, the Left has another golden opportunity for worker empowerment.
Turning Tragedy Into War
The tragic attacks in Paris call for a politics of international solidarity and antiracism — not a new wave of war and repression.
The Rise and Fall of the Blue-Collar Black Middle Class
Good union jobs built America’s blue-collar black middle class. But the percentage of black workers in manufacturing has been halved since the 1970s, yielding poverty and precarity. We can’t achieve racial justice without a movement to win those jobs back.
Nina Turner: For-Profit Health Care Is Immoral
Nina Turner reflects on the outpouring of anger at our for-profit health system in the wake of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s killing — and her concern that without radical change to our political system, political violence will continue to escalate.
Can We Criticize Foucault?
Late in life, Michel Foucault developed a curious sympathy for neoliberalism.
What Mamdani’s Win Can (and Can’t) Teach Us
Zohran Mamdani’s astounding triumph shows the power of bread-and-butter economics and the bankruptcy of the Democratic establishment. But how many of its lessons can be applied nationally?