JACOBIN

FEBRUARY 26. 2025

US Pop Culture Has Long Raged Against Health Care Injustice

The memes celebrating Luigi Mangione are far from novel: they represent a long tradition of American popular culture voicing outrage at the injustices of our health care system, from Dog Day Afternoon to Star Trek: Voyager to John Q.

USPS Privatization Would Cost Rural America More Than Mail

Rural postal workers don’t just deliver mail. They put out fires, help elderly people who’ve fallen, and ensure veterans receive medication during storms. Trump’s proposed USPS privatization threatens these care networks in areas already lacking services.

A Revolution in Everyday Life

In the decades after 1945, European leftists disillusioned with workers’ parties created new protest movements and countercultures. Their efforts were boundlessly creative — but also reflected an erosion of the mass politics that had sustained the old left.

FEBRUARY 25. 2025

Meet Trump’s Favorite “Woke” Payday Lender

The Trump administration wages a ruthless war on “wokeness” when it means gutting social programs. But when it means suing a predatory firm that acts woke while ripping working-class Americans off, Trump suddenly loses interest.

Poland’s Milk Bars Live On After Communism

In Poland, postwar Communist rule has few defenders. But state-subsidized eateries known as milk bars, designed under state socialism to free people from “kitchen slavery, ” continue to thrive today.

Marx on Trump’s Abuses of Power

Karl Marx saw how presidential systems with strong executives threatened to eclipse the democratic power of the legislature.

A New Saudi Basketball League Reflects Sports’ Soulless Turn

Saudi Arabia’s plan to start its own international basketball league is the latest sign of the game’s drift into a world in which money, held by increasingly anonymous elites, has distanced sport from fans and communities.

QAnon Hasn’t Disappeared. It’s in America’s Bloodstream.

The QAnon conspiracy theory that Donald Trump was fighting a satanic pedophile cabal may have faded from national discourse, but its ideology, networks, and practices have become integrated into American politics.

Independent Media Can Defeat the Right’s Noise Machine

The information war against the Right’s vast media machine won’t be won by building a louder Democratic Party megaphone through corporate-funded outlets. The key is stronger independent media.

FEBRUARY 24. 2025

This Fired Federal Worker Wants His Colleagues to Fight DOGE

Before DOGE came along, Jonathan Kamens worked on cybersecurity for the VA. Now, he says in an interview with Jacobin, he dreads an avalanche of scams against veterans — and hopes his former coworkers will push back.

The Invisible Costs of Upward Mobility

Elite colleges are making a greater effort to recruit working-class students. But flinging open these institutions’ doors won’t end class inequality, and the burdens of working-class entrance into rarefied social circles are often heavier than they seem.

Interns and Residents Are Unionizing at a Rapid Clip

SEIU’s Committee of Interns and Residents won six NLRB elections in January 2025 involving 250 or more people. This string of victories has become somewhat commonplace for a rapidly growing union.

Democrats Appear Paralyzed. Bernie Sanders Is Not.

Since Donald Trump’s election, his opposition party hasn’t acted much like one. The same cannot be said of Bernie Sanders, who hit the road this weekend in red states in an effort to stoke pushback to Trump’s slash-and-burn plutocratic governance.

After Germany’s Election, the Left Can Hope Again

Sunday’s German election saw a big shift toward right-wing parties. But while the Alternative für Deutschland piled up votes in the former East, socialist party Die Linke also made a major breakthrough.