Micah Uetricht is the editor of Jacobin. He is the author of Strike for America: Chicago Teachers Against Austerity and coauthor of Bigger than Bernie: How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism.
Nikil Saval went from being an editor at the leftist literary magazine n+1, to a volunteer for Bernie Sanders, to a successful democratic-socialist primary candidate in for Pennsylvania State Senate. In an interview with Jacobin, he talks about the race and his plans for governing as a leftist in the state capitol.
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, calls to cut police budgets have spread like wildfire. In an interview with Jacobin, two Chicago city council members explain why they’re calling to defund the police and why the city’s mayor Lori Lightfoot can’t credibly call herself a “progressive.”
The brutality we have repeatedly seen meted out by American police all over the country isn’t a bug of our political-economic system — it’s a feature.
There is only one morally justifiable response to tonight’s attack on US military bases, no matter what: the United States cannot escalate the conflict with Iran.
With Kamala Harris out of the race and Elizabeth Warren’s numbers dropping, recent weeks haven’t been kind to candidates who have equivocated on Medicare for All. Bernie Sanders is the only candidate whose support for M4A is solid and unchanging — a stance that’s not only morally correct but politically smart.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot promised to end business as usual in Chicago. Instead, she’s antagonizing teachers, refusing to fully fund public schools, and giving the rich whatever they want. That agenda didn’t end well for Rahm Emanuel. It won’t for Lightfoot, either.
Cathy Kunkel is an energy analyst, environmental and community activist, and member of the Democratic Socialists of America running for Congress in West Virginia’s second district. She explains her history of organizing and argues that “red-state” voters will get on board with an agenda that includes Medicare for All and a just transition for fossil fuel workers.
Make no mistake: the Working Families Party’s opaque presidential endorsement process signaled a rejection of not only Bernie Sanders but the movement emerging around him.
Bernie Sanders’s embrace of the New Deal legacy is an opportunity to dispel some pernicious historical myths about the New Deal’s relationship with socialism and its attitude toward the struggle for racial equality.
Heidi Sloan is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America running for Congress in Texas’s twenty-fifth district, challenging Republican incumbent and very rich used car salesman Rep. Roger Williams. Sloan sat down with Jacobin to talk about her story, how she came to socialism, fighting for Medicare for All and a Green New Deal, and which supervillain she would most like to interrogate as a member of the House of Representatives.
Socialists have historically played a key role in the US labor movement as part of a broader current of militant rank-and-file workers. The recent teachers’ strike wave shows that to rebuild unions, we have to build that militant current.
Filmmaker Astra Taylor on her latest documentary, the relationship between democracy and freedom, and why the latest round of books on the erosion of norms are “just not very good.”
Socialists have to wrestle with the tricky questions about the nuts and bolts of socialism. We need to put forward a credible vision of a future socialist society. Here’s what that society could look like.
Belle and Sebastian’s If You’re Feeling Sinister seems like a soundtrack of breezy lives of personal heartbreak and occasional triumph unencumbered by the larger troubles of the world. But the album is a direct product of Scotland’s welfare state.
The teachers strike wave is the most important development in working-class politics in years. Combined with the rise of socialism, chances for a major transformation leftward in American politics are better than ever.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa was once the lone socialist on Chicago’s city council — now he’s joined by five members of the Democratic Socialists of America. In an interview with Jacobin, Rosa talks about the attacks from the city’s political and capitalist class that didn’t land and the agenda for the city’s newly elected socialists.
The Vast Majority is hosted by managing editor Micah Uetricht.
The Chicago Teachers Union is choosing its leadership this week. A reelection of the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators would mean a commitment to more of the militant teacher unionism that has reshaped Chicago and inspired educators around the country.
Work in the twenty-first century sucks. But it’s not because of a new “gig economy” — it’s because work under capitalism always sucks.
