Children Belong in School. That’s Why We Support the Chicago Teachers Union.
The eminently reasonable demands of Chicago teachers for a safe return to work have been met with a lockout and media attacks. They deserve our solidarity.
190 Articles by: Liza Featherstone
Liza Featherstone is a columnist for Jacobin, a freelance journalist, and the author of Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Workers’ Rights at Wal-Mart.
The Left Should Defend Classical Education
The great books aren’t just a collection of “dead white males,” and teaching or reading them isn’t elitist or Eurocentric. On the contrary, they are a treasure that should be made available and accessible to working-class people everywhere.
Liberals Are Increasingly Embarking on Dangerous Flights from Reality
Democrats like to think of themselves as “reality-based” people who “follow the science.” But lately, they have been engaged in irrational fearmongering over Russia and China that is reminiscent of their disastrous Cold War–era paranoia about the Soviets.
Did We Really Need a Hillary Clinton Novel? (The Answer Is No)
Hillary Clinton’s fiction debut fails for the same reason centrist Dems are struggling politically: their Trump obsession is boring.
Nicholas Kristof Was a Terrible Journalist. He Might Make a Worse Governor.
The good news is the New York Times’s Nick Kristof won’t be in the paper of record anymore. The bad news is he’s already plotting ways to broadcast his treacly liberalism to the good people of Oregon in a run for governor.
Meet Joe Manchin’s Appalling Daughter
As if his own record weren’t bad enough, former coal baron and current West Virginia senator Joe Manchin’s daughter Heather Bresch — who doubles as a major donor to Joe — is a price-gouging drug profiteer who has played a central role in her father’s destructive political career.
Colin Powell, Politely Anguished War Criminal, Dead at 84
Colin Powell, a principal architect of the US invasion of Iraq, a campaign of armed aggression that killed hundreds of thousands, was beloved by many for his thoughtful and deliberative vibe.
We Need More Radical Climate Fiction
Literature has seen an uptick in “cli-fi,” fiction about possible climate dystopias and utopias. But too much of that climate-change-related fiction lacks any kind of radical political imagination.
The Road to Climate Action Might Run Through Labor Law Reform
Democratic Socialists of America is pushing for the PRO Act as part of its climate strategy — because it realizes that rebuilding working-class power is crucial to confronting the climate crisis.
Illinois Just Won a Big Green Jobs Victory
In Illinois last week, a coalition of unions and environmentalists scored a major victory with a law providing for a miniature Green New Deal: billions invested in clean energy, a commitment to decarbonizing, solid labor standards, and embrace of nuclear power.
In the Fight for a Green New Deal, Schools Are the New Front Lines
A major socialist-led grassroots campaign is underway to pass Jamaal Bowman’s Green New Deal for Public Schools — a strategically savvy measure that combines forthright climate action with large-scale investment in working-class schools.
Joe Biden Needs to Get Serious About Voting Rights
As a matter of both principle and self-interest, Joe Biden should pull out the stops to abolish the filibuster and safeguard the right to vote, which is now under threat from GOP governments in dozens of states. So far, he seems uninterested.
Workers Need Paid Sick Leave, Not Just Vaccine Mandates
Vaccine mandates can help. But the most unifying way for workers to push for safer workplaces is by fighting for paid sick leave for all.
Never Forget: Andrew Cuomo Once Started a Sham Feminist Party
Before disgraced New York governor Andrew Cuomo was outed as a sexist boss, he was an innovator in the faux feminist space, having a fake political party — the Women’s Equality Party — for the sole purpose of destroying his political enemies.
Elite Feminists Ran Cover for Andrew Cuomo
Andrew Cuomo’s downfall has discredited a host of liberal feminist activists who quietly advised the governor on his response to sexual harassment accusations.
Barack Obama Has Been One of the Worst Ex-Presidents Ever
Since his retirement from politics, Barack Obama has displayed an astonishing lack of regard for the public good. Instead of serving his fellow human beings, he has mainly devoted himself to a rigorous program of conspicuous self-celebration.
Another Socialist Will Be Taking a Seat in the New York City Council
Socialist City Council candidate Kristin Richardson Jordan scored a remarkable upset victory in Harlem, with a campaign combining unabashed radicalism with a commitment to the unglamorous work of constituent services.
White-Collar Media
For most of the news media, the life and struggles of the majority class just aren’t newsworthy.
When Communists Organized a New Jersey Textile Strike
In 1926, New Jersey textile workers went on a massive strike, organized and supported by the Communist Party. The strike ultimately failed, but it showed the central role Communists could play in American class struggle.
Socialism Has a History — and a Future — in New York City
The three socialists who effectively won election to New York City Council this month have achieved something many would have thought impossible just a few years ago. But they won’t be the first socialists elected to that body.