Daniel Finn is the features editor at Jacobin. He is the author of One Man’s Terrorist: A Political History of the IRA.
William Morris condemned the dehumanizing impact of industrial capitalism on workers and raised an early alarm about the threat it posed to the natural world. His vision of ecological socialism is a vital resource for today’s political movements.
Socialist filmmaker Ken Loach has released his final movie, about Syrian refugees finding their feet in an English working-class community. It makes it all the more grotesque that Loach’s political foes are trying to present him as a dangerous bigot.
Pakistan’s government has imprisoned former PM Imran Khan and called elections for early next year. The turmoil since Khan’s ouster, perhaps the most dramatic crisis in three already-turbulent decades, is symptomatic of deeper political-economic woes.
The major capitalist economies of Europe and North America have been experiencing low rates of economic growth and population increase. Japan has been in that position since the 1990s, and its experience offers some important clues about what the future holds.
Álvaro Uribe came to power in Colombia shortly after 9/11 and declared his own war on terrorism with US support.
In the immediate aftermath of the Iraq invasion, the US and British governments tried to launch a radical experiment in oil privatization. Iraqi trade unions spearheaded a brave campaign to thwart their plans.
Greek premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis is cut from the same cloth as Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, attacking press freedom and brutalizing refugees. The EU’s leading actors have backed Mitsotakis to the hilt, and his political dominance was forged in Berlin and Brussels.
Manchester City is the hot favorite to win tonight’s Champions League final with the best team that an oil-rich autocracy can buy. It’s the latest stage in a long-term process that has converted the people’s game into a plaything of wealthy elites.
Eritrea spent decades fighting for independence against enormous odds. Its people finally achieved their goal in the 1990s, but Eritrean leader Isaias Afwerki has since created one of the world’s bleakest dictatorships, prompting countless Eritreans to flee.
The classic show The X-Files celebrated and satirized America’s love of conspiracy theories before they became an all-consuming obsession. When the show returned to the air after a long gap, it had to confront a culture of paranoia that made Fox Mulder’s imagination look tame.
After years of moralizing rhetoric, Keir Starmer couldn’t find a single credible accusation of misconduct to block his predecessor from running as a Labour candidate. All that’s left is a shrill campaign to exclude socialist ideas from public life.
The US promised to bring freedom to Iraqis, but its eight-year occupation resulted in death and destruction on a horrifying scale. It left behind a corrupt, sectarian political order that has responded to popular protests with brutal repression.
Media pundits claim that British politics is experiencing a “great moderation” with the departures of Nicola Sturgeon and Jeremy Corbyn. What they really mean is that a decrepit model based on food banks and xenophobia no longer faces mainstream opposition.
Thatcherism and austerity have had a devastating impact on British society, with stagnant wages and declining life expectancy. There’s a crying need for radical change, but no mainstream political force is offering to deliver it.
Critics say Marxism can’t account for the popular appeal of nationalism. But the Marxist tradition contains some vital insights into the origins and future of national communities.
Anti-Muslim racism has become a central theme for right-wing demagogues in Europe and the US. Islamophobia isn’t just a bad set of ideas: it’s a product of imperialism and the destructive wars waged by the US and its allies in the Middle East.
Social theorists identify automation as both the main cause of unemployment and the future launchpad for a high-tech post-scarcity world. But, Aaron Benanav argues, the problem is the stagnation of global capitalism and its inability to generate enough jobs.
Sinn Féin has become the largest party on both sides of the Irish border. But the party’s effort to eliminate that border for good will have to overcome some powerful obstacles that stand in the way of a united Ireland.
The Israeli state and its allies have campaigned tirelessly to promote the misleading concept of the “new antisemitism.” This effort brands effective, well-documented criticism of Israel as antisemitic while sowing confusion about real anti-Jewish prejudice.
The new left in Europe and North America hasn’t made the transition from being a symptom of democratic crisis to offering an effective cure for it.