Jacobin

The fall issue of Jacobin is out now! Among other topics, “The New Empire” examines why the erosion of US dominance has bred more violence, not less, and why militarism remains so politically durable. Get it by starting a subscription for just $3: jacobin.com/subscribe?me...

After meddling in elections across Latin America in favor of the far right, Donald Trump intended Brazil to be the next domino to fall. Instead, Lula handed Trump a resounding defeat.

The novelty of Gen Z socialism doesn’t lie in leaderless mass demonstrations or protesters’ use of social media. What’s really new is the way in which generation has been globalized as a political identity.

Alberta’s vote to stay in Canada was predictable. But the political tensions the referendum represented haven’t been fully exorcized by the vote to remain.

Israeli opposition leaders have rarely challenged Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to annex parts of Gaza and southern Lebanon. International pressure is vital in stopping Israel’s rolling program of ethnic cleansing.

Lula has once again reached the masses. But this fourth term must entail governing in a different way.

Israel’s parliamentary elections are on October 27. But whoever wins, there is not going to be any change to Israel’s denial of basic rights to the Palestinian people. Both main coalitions are adamantly opposed to a Palestinian state.

“We can do this to any country we want.” Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump's ambassador to Greece, allegedly told a Greek minister. Her real legacy is a US natural gas deal that enriches American exporters and Greek capital while households pay the price.

Just as it has throughout Latin America, the Trump administration was openly working to defeat a left-wing government in Brazil and replace it with a far-right one. With Lula’s victory, Trump failed.

From France to India, young paople have led the current wave of protests. Rather than deny the importance of generational politics, we can see it as a way that people make sense of their life chances and of the opportunities they are denied.

The result of Alberta’s referendum was widely expected: three-quarters chose to stay in Canada. The referendum’s other questions, and the political tensions they exposed, point to deeper struggles — over immigration and the country’s resource economy.

Thirty years after Hyman Minsky’s death, his name is more familiar than his political economy. Whenever a financial boom turns into panic, someone announces a new “Minsky moment.” This posthumous fame has narrowed our understanding of Minsky’s legacy.

In a wide-ranging interview, political scientist Adolph Reed explores the tensions between capitalist accumulation and democratic legitimacy and critiques neoliberalism’s displacement of class-based politics.

Israel’s ethnic cleansing of southern Lebanon and Gaza has reached a scale unseen since the Nakba. The history of Israel’s offensives shows how depopulation is soon followed by annexation.

Lula’s defeat of the far right in Brazil not only secures the Brazilian president a definitive place in the history of global democracy but also offers valuable lessons for socialists across the planet.

The rival blocs contesting Israel’s general election differ over many questions, but they converge in their opposition to a Palestinian state. Even if Benjamin Netanyahu loses power, the occupation will continue.

Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump’s ambassador to Greece, has resigned. Her farewell statement lays bare the bigger story: how American exporters and Greek capital collude to make ordinary households foot the bill for their new energy order.

The economist Hyman Minsky died 30 years ago yesterday. Best known for his theory of financial instability, Minsky developed a view of capitalism and its mutations that was far more radical than many of those who cite his work appreciate.

Donald Trump’s popularity may be waning, but the political-economic conditions that gave rise to Trumpism remain, Adolph Reed argues. To defeat the Right, the Left needs to rebuild durable working-class organization and a universalistic politics.

Israel’s election on Tuesday is the first since October 7, 2023. Even if Benjamin Netanyahu’s government loses, it’s unlikely to lead to a real shift in Israeli policy.

To understand the global appeal of the far right, look to Brazil, where Bolsonarismo has capitalized on social disintegration to cement brute exploitation as the dominant social logic.

Having spent billions on high-tech weaponry, the Saudi military finds itself unable to stop missile strikes by its Yemeni opponent Ansar Allah. Saudi vulnerability weakens the kingdom’s potential for regional domination.

During the first half of the 20th century, in both politics and baseball, Milwaukee’s have-nots often beat the odds. The histories of baseball and socialist politics in the city are intertwined in ways not often appreciated.

Vancouver’s COPE, the Coalition of Progressive Electors, elected all 12 candidates it ran in the city’s recent election. The democratic socialist party now shares a progressive council majority.

President Lula’s supporters have occupied public space, hoping that their mobilization can drive up turnout and defy the polls.

It’s not just radicals and doomers screaming the sky is falling. The financiers who move money around for a living are starting to have serious doubts about how sustainable the AI boom actually is.

A sudden offensive by Ansar Allah this summer took its Yemeni opponents and their Saudi allies by surprise. But the resumption of conflict is likely to be long and protracted, with disastrous consequences for Yemen’s civilian population.

With the passing of Chris Wickham, we have lost the greatest medieval historian since Marc Bloch, and one of the most original Marxist historians ever. His work revolutionized our understanding of how societies function and change across time.

The Milwaukee Brewers are in the World Series for the first time since 1982. The small-market team’s success this season is a reminder of Milwaukee baseball’s progressive heritage and the city’s proud socialist history.

Amazon has spent more than $5 million trying to stop New York City from passing a bill that will force it to classify its workers as employees rather than independent contractors. Mayor Zohran Mamdani rallied with workers to pass the Delivery Protection Act.

Vancouver’s Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) elected all 12 candidates it ran in the city’s recent election. The democratic socialist party is now part of a progressive council majority.

Victory for Flávio Bolsonaro in Brazil’s election would bring mafiosi to power and reward interference by the White House and Miami reactionaries. In the final stretch of the campaign, Bolsonaro no longer looks invincible.

If you want to know whether artificial intelligence is a gigantic economic bubble, don’t just take pundits’ word for it. Major investors are now moving their money to try to protect themselves from the AI bubble popping.

The British medieval historian Chris Wickham, who died earlier this month, transformed our understanding of the Middle Ages. Rooted in the great tradition of British Marxist historiography, Wickham covered a staggering range of case studies in his work.

High-profile litigation against Big Tech companies like Meta, Apple, and Alphabet has come to little. Organized tech workers and a political movement for real regulation and public control may be the only forces that can rein in the tech giants.

Best-selling evangelical author Rick Warren articulates a model for generating self-reinforcing membership growth that has a lot to teach the American left today, as we struggle with member retention and development.

In 2016, then Defense Secretary Ash Carter said “innovation” 67 times in a 38-minute speech. Thomas Frank on how creativity became the ruling class’s favorite alibi.

There is a long but neglected history of governments successfully using price controls to battle inflation and support working-class living standards. Isabella Weber’s new book extracts lessons from these experiences for today’s Left:

Marxist political theorist Peter Thomas died this month at 53. His work offered a powerful rethinking of politics beyond the alternatives of technocratic governance and populism.

In case you haven’t heard, Jacobin now has publications in Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Dutch, and more. Check out our global publications, and help support socialism worldwide.

This year has seen the resolution of major suits against tech giants Alphabet and Meta, both of which were found liable for serious lawbreaking. Yet the penalties imposed on the corporations are laughably inadequate to restrain their power.

Evangelical churches like Rick Warren’s wouldn’t be as massive as they are with real retention of members over time without a serious plan for member leadership development. The Left could learn from them.

Thomas Frank on the middle class’s most cherished idea, creativity, and how it became the cover story for the plutocracy that replaced it.

In You Can See Everything, Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim turn their confrontation with Elizabeth Holmes into a Hitchcockian thriller about the slippery nature of truth. It’s a masterpiece.

In her new book, economist Isabella Weber explains how inflation has helped drive the far right’s ascendance around the developed world — and how effective price regulation can promote affordability and boost the Left.

Peter Thomas, the Marxist theorist best known for his work on Antonio Gramsci, has died. He restored the political edge to Gramsci’s theory of hegemony and saw his own scholarship as part of the Left’s fight for power.

Jacobin is now publishing in seven languages, with three on the way. Check them out, and support socialist internationalism today.

The fortunes of medieval Egypt’s masses were tied to the Nile. If it rose adequately, they would eat, and if not, they would starve. By hoarding grain, elites insulated themselves from the effects of famine — but not from mass revolt.

New York City will never again see a historian quite like the Marxist Pulitzer Prize winner Mike Wallace. His longtime researcher remembers him.

Political and business leaders, euphoric over record profits and a booming stock market, are touting an economic “golden age.” But is the economy really booming if workers’ take-home share is shrinking?

At the height of the pandemic, Isabella Weber was ridiculed by mainstream economists for arguing that corporate price hikes were driving inflation. Since vindicated, she tells Jacobin how we can save democracy from the crisis of capitalism.