JACOBIN

JUNE 28. 2025

The Hidden Human Cost of AI Moderation

Training AI often means staring at humanity’s worst atrocities for hours at a time. Workers tasked with this labor endure psychological injury without support — and face legal threats if they speak about it.

JUNE 27. 2025

Kirsten Gillibrand Doesn’t Seem Bothered by Palestinian Deaths

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand attacked Zohran Mamdani this week with Islamophobic falsehoods, later partially walking back the comments. It’s of a piece with Gillibrand’s indifference to the genocidal Israeli war that is increasingly outraging New Yorkers.

Iulii Martov Was the Russian Revolution’s Lost Prophet

The Russian socialist leader Iulii Martov warned that a revolution that sacrificed democracy would end up destroying its own ideals. Martov lost the political battle after 1917, but the development of the Soviet system vindicated his early criticisms.

Andrew Cuomo Thought He Could Bend a Passive Party to His Will

Zohran Mamdani’s stunning upset over Andrew Cuomo reveals how the Democratic Party’s hollowness and passivity cuts both ways — first enabling Cuomo’s absurd candidacy, then failing to insulate him from a left-wing challenger.

Europe’s Daddy Issues

NATO chief Mark Rutte this week praised Donald Trump for talking tough to Iran and Israel, publicly commenting, “Daddy sometimes has to use strong language. ” Rutte’s fawning is a cringeworthy display of European subservience to Trump.

Robert Reich Teaches One Last Class to the Next Generation

Jacobin sat down with former labor secretary Robert Reich to talk about his new documentary, The Last Class, democratic socialism, and why we’re possibly in an even more unequal Gilded Age than the original.

The Biden Hawk Behind Trump’s Iran War

Outgoing CENTCOM commander Michael Kurilla has had Iran in his crosshairs for years as part of a larger vision for keeping China out of the Middle East and squeezing it in an eventual conflict.

The British Establishment Still Fears the Ideas of Tony Benn

Having been vilified and spied on when he was an active politician, Tony Benn was patronizingly dismissed in his later years. A new collection of Benn’s writings shows why his democratic socialist vision was such a powerful threat to the status quo.

JUNE 26. 2025

A Billionaire Trump Backer Is Desperate to Stop Zohran Mamdani

Billionaire Bill Ackman and his rich friends want someone, anyone, to bring down Zohran Mamdani. Their pitch: take our money, it won’t be much time and energy, and maybe you’ll get famous enough to use the campaign as a stepping stone to higher office.

As the Left Erupted in Protest, Ansel Adams Moved Right

For decades, Ansel Adams ran in circles of left-wing photographers with a radical eye. But come the 1960s, he was denouncing the UC Berkeley Free Speech Movement protests and calling for expulsions.

Trump’s Tax Bill Is Bought and Paid for by Big Business

Backed by Big Pharma, Big Oil, and Wall Street, Republican lawmakers are claiming Donald Trump’s tax bill helps ordinary Americans. In reality, it cuts taxes for the rich while slashing health care and other benefits for tens of millions.

A Tech-Backed Influencer Wants to Replace Teachers With AI

Backed by tech money, entrepreneur MacKenzie Price is growing a network of private K–12 schools that promises to replace all classroom teachers with an “AI tutor” that students learn from while glued to their laptop screens.

Ursula von der Leyen Is Waging War on Workers

The European Union’s top official, Ursula von der Leyen, has declared rearmament the bloc’s emergency priority. While military spending soars to new heights, working people face a fresh era of austerity.

Keir Starmer’s Palestine Action Ban Is a Threat to Democracy

Britain’s government is banning the group Palestine Action for its role in nonviolent direct action against Israeli arms factories — a sinister and unprecedented move from a government that wants to suppress opposition to the Gaza genocide.