Jacobin

The Black Panthers Who Never Came Home

Fifty-nine years after Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panthers, Charlotte and Pete O’Neal remain in exile in Tanzania. Their story, told through interviews, archives, and firsthand repo

Google’s Monopoly Sentence: Barely a Slap on the Wrist

For years, across multiple presidential administrations, the US government has been pursuing aggressive lawsuits against the tech giants. The toothless sentence Google recently received for its illega

The Left Needs to Rethink How It Handles Inequality

Redistributing income alone is unlikely to solve America’s vast inequalities. Workers need and want more power in their workplace and for the state to weaken the influence that corporations have over

Why Americans Hate the Democratic Party

Most voters aren’t rejecting Democrats over the culture war. They’re rejecting them because they don’t deliver. With President Donald Trump’s approval rating deep under water, and Ameri

Channing Tatum’s <cite>Roofman</cite> Is a Bummer of a Feel-Good Movie

In Roofman, Channing Tatum plays a real-life lovable burglar and family man trying to make it in America. But while writer-director Derek Cianfrance clearly wanted a lighthearted, feel-good movie, Roo

The Pelicot Trial Exposes France’s Jury Problem

Last year’s Pelicot trial was the biggest rape case in French history, drawing huge public attention. But only an appeal last week saw the case heard before a jury, allowing ordinary citizens to pass

How to Save the Internet From “Enshittification”

The activist and writer Cory Doctorow spoke to Jacobin about the steady decline of the “enshittified” internet and what we can do to save it. Bloomberg via Getty Images) There are ver

What Is Going On in the Grocery Industry?

Will Amazon disrupt groceries? How did Walmart take over food sales? Is Zohran Mamdani’s public grocery plan too small? Why is the market increasingly polarized between Erewhons and dollar stores? An

The Used Car Market Is Imploding

Huge bankruptcies for used car firms have exposed Wall Street’s entanglement with the sector. Far from derisking after the Great Recession, banks rebuilt the economy on obscure financial intermediarie

Zohran Mamdani: “Our Time Is Now”

Last night at a campaign rally, Zohran Mamdani addressed his supporters: “For too long, we have tried not to lose. Now, it is time that we win.” Last night at a rally at the United Palace,

Raging Against Vladimir Putin’s War Machine

In Russia and occupied Ukraine, many thousands of civilians have been jailed or forcibly disappeared for speaking out against the invasion. The numbers reflect a crackdown on dissent worse than at any

Sébastien Lecornu Wants to Cut Everything but the Military

France’s new prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, has had a rocky start. Yet as armed forces minister, he has already proved himself where it counts: loyally defending Emmanuel Macron’s austerity plans

Britain’s Made-Up Migrant Crisis

Political fearmongering about the effects of immigration on the British economy doesn’t track with reality. Sorry, this articles is available to subscriber only. Click here to subscribe.

Whatever Happened to #Abolish  ICE?

In 2018, #AbolishICE was everywhere. Seven years later, the agency is bigger than ever, yet the slogan’s champions are nowhere to be found. Sorry, this articles is available to subscriber on

All Guns and No Butter on a Burning Planet

The insatiable demands of the military industrial complex are a barrier to human flourishing on a livable planet. In the wake of World War II, the United States crowned itself leader of

American Labor’s Shameful History of Support for Zionism

Some American trade unionists have argued that labor should remain “neutral” on the question of Palestine. In fact, the US labor movement has never been neutral: its union officialdom has a more-than-

The NLRB Faces a Constitutional Crisis

While lecturing others on democracy and human rights, the United States has let its own system for enforcing basic labor protections collapse. Its failure to protect the rights of workers should be an

It’s Still Possible to Rebuild a Working-Class Majority

Labor organizing can’t succeed at scale without a supportive legal and political environment, created by majoritarian coalitions that can win reforms, confront corporate power, and prove to skeptical

For Karl Marx, Human Flourishing Is Inherently Social

Central to Karl Marx’s vision of the good society is the idea that people fully flourish only in meeting the needs of others. Much contemporary left thought focuses on what is wrong wit

In Minnesota, BlackRock Is Acquiring Vital Infrastructure

Alex Salmond Made Scottish Independence a Tangible Goal

It’s a year since the death of Alex Salmond, the most important Scottish politician of his generation. Although Salmond’s career ended in marginalization, there’s no doubting his achievement in popula

Love Can Still Liberate

Just because love is compromised by patriarchal society doesn’t mean it has lost its ability to transform us and, through us, the world we build. A couple of weeks ago, one of us (Eveli

Shawn Fain: “We Need More Than a Party — We Need a Movement”

UAW president Shawn Fain, speaking at a Center for Working-Class Politics and Jacobin event, emphasized the need for a political program that addresses workers’ most basic issues — and how a broad str

Bailing Out Pfizer Won't Lower Drug Prices

New England Unions Lead the Way on Offshore Wind

Building trades unions in Rhode Island and Massachusetts are successfully fighting for offshore wind projects that create good union jobs and revitalize the economy. In the process, they’re showing ho

In France, Too, Billionaire Tycoons Are Silencing Their Critics

In France, right-wingers love to pose as defenders of free speech. Yet the takeover of media by a cast of billionaire pro-Trump tycoons means that just a handful of individuals have a veto over huge s

Anti-Corruption Politics May Be the Key to Beating Trumpism

The Trump administration’s cartoonish graft presents a unique opportunity for a populist anti-corruption platform. But for the Democrats to pull it off, they’d have to repudiate corruption within thei

What Populism Can (and Can’t) Do for the Left

We live in an age of populism, on the Right and on the Left. In an interview with Jacobin, Vivek Chibber explains both populism’s potential and limitations for putting class and economics back into po

Life Inside China’s Gig Machine

Hu Anyan’s I Deliver Parcels in Beijing describes life working in China’s logistics and service trades. Anyan’s account reveals differences in context between Chinese and US workers that indicate the

Private Equity Delivers Consistently Poor Health Outcomes

The West Has Helped Paul Kagame to Pillage the Congo

For the last three decades, Rwanda’s leader Paul Kagame has fueled conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and ransacked its natural resources. The US and the EU have been Kagame’s partners in cr

Why the Deck Is Stacked Against Workers Under Capitalism

CUNY Workers Against the New McCarthyism

The Professional Staff Congress, the faculty and staff union at the City University of New York, is organizing against GOP attacks on higher ed — and fighting what it says are the CUNY administration’

Trump: The US Lost Vietnam and Afghanistan Due to Woke

Donald Trump thinks the US was constrained by “political correctness” in Vietnam and Afghanistan. But those wars were characterized by thorough dehumanization and staggering destruction. What type of

We Can Use Predistribution to Fight Income Inequality

Mainstream economics argues that the tax system is the best tool for reducing economic inequality. In fact, “predistributive” measures like minimum wages and collective bargaining can be equally or mo

Economic Populism Is Powerful, but Democrats’ Brand Is Toxic

Populist economic policies grounded in the value of work and commonsense notions of fairness may be able to win over constituencies that have abandoned Democrats in recent decades. There’s a problem t

Where Is Politicians’ Urgency Over Donald Trump’s ICE Raids?

Why aren’t more elected officials turning Donald Trump’s assault on the basic rights of both noncitizens and citizens into a major national scandal? At the very beginning of Donald Trum

In Spain, Farmworkers Are Dying in the Heat

Three migrant farmworkers died from heatstroke in Spain this summer. Largely ignored by media, their fate illustrates how the effects of the climate crisis are offloaded on the least visible workers.

Why Trump’s Attempt to Bully Brazil Is Falling Flat

In solidarity with the recently imprisoned former president Jair Bolsonaro, Donald Trump levied tariffs of 50 percent on Brazil. He is quickly learning that the US’s influence is weaker than he though

Big Pharma’s Legal Escape Hatch

Women say Pfizer has failed to properly warn them about a link between birth control shot Depo-Provera and brain tumors. The pharmaceutical giant is now attempting to use a powerful legal maneuver to

France Is Experiencing a Full-Blown Regime Crisis

France has just seen the third resignation of a prime minister in less than a year. What is at stake is not merely short-term instability — it is a crisis of the entire Fifth Republic political regime

When a Superpower Declines, Shared Reality Dissolves

When the Soviet Union fell, Russians lost their sense of past and future at once. Collective hallucinations flourished in the void. In the United States, our reality is now disintegrating in a similar

Canada Post’s Strike Is a Salvo Against the Gig Economy

Canada Post once set the standard for secure, middle-class work. Now, as government moves to gut it, postal workers are fighting against a future of gigified delivery jobs, vanishing benefits, and rac

The Czech Neoliberal Right Lost. Czech Trumpists Won.

The Czech elections handed victory to the Trump-like billionaire Andrej Babiš last weekend. The neoliberal right-wing incumbents did little to curb the high cost of living and again lost to a candidat

I Spent Five Days in Israel’s Desert Prison

I joined a flotilla to deliver aid to Gaza. After Israeli forces seized our ship, I spent five days inside al-Naqab prison, witnessing the cruelty of Israel’s detention regime. Progressive

Lea Ypi’s Reckoning With Family and the Legacy of Revolution

Hollywood Could Use Another Robert Altman Right Now

The Criterion Channel’s retrospective on Robert Altman, the auteur behind masterpieces like Nashville, M*A*S*H, and The Long Goodbye, is a reminder that, not long ago, Hollywood backed maverick filmma

Ultraleftism Can’t Free Palestine

Two years into Israel’s genocide, the US movement in solidarity with Palestinians is far weaker than it should be. To cut off American arms to Israel, we need to build a powerful movement oriented to

Herbert Matthews Was a Role Model for Engaged Journalism

Herbert Matthews of the New York Times was one of the great reporters of his time. US conservatives still haven’t forgiven him for his 1957 interview with Fidel Castro and even blamed him for the succ

Two Years After October 7, the Horrors Are Indescribable

After October 7, Israeli society went into a vengeful genocidal tailspin, carrying out some of the most heinous crimes of this century again and again and again. Two years on, its leaders are unrepent

October 7, Two Years On

Two years into its war on Gaza, Israel faces global condemnation and a growing Palestinian solidarity movement. Yet, as analyst Mouin Rabbani explains, US support remains unwavering, and Israel shows

Organizing Amazon Should Be a Priority for Labor Globally

Whether workers can organize Amazon will be pivotal for the fate of the labor movement worldwide. Initial victories in Coventry, England, and elsewhere show that when unions put serious resources into

Peter Thiel, Would-Be Philosopher King, Takes on Democracy

Billionaire Peter Thiel insists that freedom and democracy are incompatible, and his portfolio of data mining and political bets puts that belief into practice. His is a program of authoritarian contr

Italy’s Tide of Solidarity With Gaza

Friday’s general strike in Italy was the biggest pro-Palestinian mobilization in any Western country yet. It expressed moral indignation but also resulted from years of movement building.

The Left Needs to Rethink How It Understands Inequality

The 21st-century left has often argued that the solution to rampant inequality is income redistribution. But this may not be a silver bullet. What workers need is power over employers and the market.

Report: Economic Populism Has Broad Appeal in the Rust Belt

An exhaustive new survey from the Center for Working-Class Politics and its partners finds that strong economic populism resonates across Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania — and that indepen

<i>The Clash of Civilizations</i>, 30 Years Later

At a time of neoliberal triumphalism and the so-called end of history, Samuel Huntington predicted ongoing conflict. Sorry, this articles is available to subscriber only. Click here to subsc

Toward an Anti-Capitalist Drug Policy

The war on drugs has utterly failed to reduce drug consumption. But it has served to maintain US military and intelligence apparatuses in Latin America. The so-called war on drugs has b

The Left Can’t Abandon Nostalgia to the Right

The global right today excels at leveraging nostalgia for reactionary ends. Yet memories of periods of revolutionary hope and collective victories can provide the materials for a form of nostalgia tha

Football Shouldn’t Be a Billboard for the World’s Dictators

From Rwanda’s Paul Kagame to the Emirati monarchy, some of the world’s most brutal regimes have chosen to use soccer as a promotional tool. Rwanda’s de facto dictator Paul Kagame is not

Britain’s Tories Are Radicalizing — and Losing Hope

Since becoming leader in 2024, Kemi Badenoch has taken Britain’s Tories onto hard-right territory — and dismal polling. Her call this week to abandon climate targets shows how Britain’s once dominant

The US Media Ignores Palestinian Deaths in Israeli Captivity

While the fates of Israelis held captive by Hamas regularly make front-page news, US corporate media almost never reports on the Palestinians who die in Israeli captivity. The different

Everything Is Becoming a Bank

Most major corporations — from airlines to social media platforms — now aspire to become unregulated banks. Bankification today accounts for the highest profit margins in the US economy, crippling pro

Elites Always Say We Can’t Have Nice Things. They’re Wrong.

All throughout American history, political and economic elites have insisted that better policies — ending child labor, establishing a weekend — were impossible to achieve. They were lying then, and t

Emmanuel Macron Doubles Down on Austerity

France’s new prime minister has resisted calls to suspend Emmanuel Macron’s 2023 pension reform. While left-wing opposition parties want to undo Macron’s agenda, the president is defending his attacks

Making Spanish Support for Palestine Real

Spain’s center-left prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has been one of the Western leaders most critical of Israel. But words often haven’t translated into action, and rising pro-Palestinian protests are

Democrats Are Screwing Up the Shutdown

Democratic leaders have focused far too much on process and decorum while explaining the government shutdown to voters. By instead emphasizing politics over bureaucratic machinations, Bernie Sanders a

Gaza Has Sparked Italy’s Biggest Protests in Years

Today’s general strike in Italy paralyzed transport and brought two million people into the streets. Even after years of setbacks for organized labor, it staged a historic protest in solidarity with P

The Government Shutdown: The Public vs. the Billionaires

Federal workers say public goods are being used as bargaining chips in a billionaire power grab. With the government shut down, the Federal Unionists Network is telling congresspeople to hold the line

The Borderland Where Fascism Learned to Rule

Italian Fascists honed their ideology in Venezia Giulia, fusing anti-Slavic racism with anti-communist repression. Sorry, this articles is available to subscriber only. Click here to subscri

Musicians Against Live Nation–Ticketmaster

Live Nation–Ticketmaster controls nearly every corner of the US live music business, from ticketing to touring. In Portland, Maine, a coalition of venues, musicians, and art workers rallied the city a

Assata Shakur (1947–2025)

Private Equity Is Set to Profit From New School Vouchers

The school voucher provision in Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill is expected to transfer billions of dollars to private schools and companies that contract with public school districts. That includes

The Sumud Flotilla Has Succeeded in Making Israel a Pariah

The Global Sumud Flotilla seemingly breached Israel’s blockade of Gaza while provoking an Israeli response that triggered anger and reprisals from various governments. It’s one of the most successful

The Algorithms That Dictate Our Lives Are Not Neutral

Algorithms are not apolitical tools that simply improve efficiency in online transactions or workplace coordination. They are instruments of control and should be regulated like other tools of control

Die Linke Finds Its Voice on Palestine

For two years, Germany’s socialist party Die Linke tried to skirt around its divisions over Gaza. Joining last Saturday’s massive demonstration in Berlin, its leaders finally showed the party can be a

Trump Classifies “Anti-Capitalism” as a Political Pre-Crime

Donald Trump’s new security directive labels anti-capitalist beliefs as a predictor of political violence. The irony: left-wing structural analysis actually pushes people away from lone-wolf attacks a

MAGA McCarthyism Comes to Texas State

In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder, a self-described “anti-communist cult leader” used a selectively edited video to falsely accuse labor historian and tenured professor Tom Alter of inciting violen