Hank Aaron will be remembered for his astonishing achievements as one of the all-time great baseball players, not least because he broke Babe Ruth’s home run record. But Aaron also ceaselessly fought to defend black people in a hostile, racist society.
The True Story of Indonesia’s US-Backed Anti-Communist Bloodbath
The massacre of the Indonesian left in 1965–66, backed by Washington, was one of the great crimes of the twentieth century. A new generation of scholars has uncovered its long-suppressed history of slaughter of up to a million people in the name of anti-communism.
The 1970s: Decade of the Rank and File
The 1970s were a high-water mark for the US labor movement, with work stoppages, wildcat strikes, and sit-downs spreading up and down the country, involving workers in all industries.
It’s Time for Players to Tackle the Great Canadian Football Rip-Off
Team owners in Canadian football made record profits while many of their players had to work second jobs to make ends meet. Now they’re using the pandemic as an excuse to claw back wages even further — a player fightback is the only way to change the game.
The Dutch Government’s Benefits Scandal Is Rooted in Stigma Against Welfare Recipients
Last Friday, the Dutch government had to resign in scandal, after thousands of parents were wrongly accused of making fraudulent childcare benefit claims. The affair was driven by racist demonization of welfare recipients deeply rooted in the country’s politics.
- Issue No. 39 out now!
- Fall 2020
Failure Is an Option
In this issue
American Capitalism Is Working — That’s the Problem
The United States is not a failed state — just ask any American capitalist. But we desperately need something better for everyone else.
A reporter for Jacobin traveled to the Kurdish province of Dersim to investigate the recent discovery of a mass grave from a 1937 massacre. But far from being forgotten, it’s an atrocity that still haunts the region today, with millions of Kurds in Turkey struggling for freedom against Erdoğan’s latest crackdown.
Bernie Sanders Is Right, and Joe Biden Is Wrong. We Still Need Medicare for All.
Joe Biden and the Democratic establishment refuse to push Medicare for All even as COVID-19 continues to ravage the country. That’s all the more reason for us to demand, alongside Bernie Sanders, that everyone get the health care they need free of charge until the pandemic is over.
After Donald Trump, the Last Thing We Need Is Unity
Joe Biden has long prized bipartisanship above all, and some of his early actions indicate he simply wants to restore the country to its pre-Trump form. That would be a disaster.
Joe Biden Wants to Make Health Care “Secure for All.” He Should Just Make It Free.
In his inauguration speech Wednesday, Joe Biden promised health care that will be “secure for all.” But no amount of rhetorical triangulation can erase the fact that a single-payer system is the only viable alternative to the status quo.
Israeli NGO: Israel Is an Apartheid Regime
B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights organization, has taken an extraordinary step — following many Palestinian and human rights groups around the world — in calling the state of Israel what it is: an apartheid regime and thus anything but a democracy.
Joe Biden Has Preserved Key Ethics Loopholes for New Appointees
Joe Biden’s new ethics order will limit one revolving door loophole between government and lobbying — but not the loopholes Biden’s own cabinet picks used to make their fortunes.
Remembering Margo St James, a Pioneering Sex Worker Organizer
The legacy of Margo St James, the trailblazing sex worker organizer who died earlier this month at 83, is more than her brazen personality, more than her bold and flamboyant tactics. She recognized that economic exploitation and gendered harassment are inextricably linked to police violence.
The PRO Act Could Transform the Labor Landscape
Joe Biden promised to be the most pro-union president in modern history. He has a chance to prove it by passing the PRO Act, a sweeping labor law reform bill.
As Joe Biden Takes Office, Labor Marches On
In the first 24 hours of the Joe Biden administration, Teamsters are on strike in the Bronx, Chicago teachers are preparing to stop work, and even the staff of the New Yorker are engaged in a work stoppage.