Jacobin

The midterms made clear that Americans are angry about the headlong rush into artificial intelligence. We are blocked from needed federal action for now, but states and localities have options that can move us toward eventual national regulation.

Make no mistake: the thousands of dollars that come out of your paycheck each year to pay for health insurance is a tax, just one paid to a private insurer rather than the federal government. Medicare for All would actually lower your taxes.

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 8–Golden State has been headed by one family since 1984. Reform candidates say union staff are using intimidation tactics to prevent a competitive election this year.

Reactionary feminist writers Mary Harrington and Louise Perry dress up arguments for marriage and sexual restraint in Marxist rhetoric. But they also point to the limits of liberal feminism — limits that the Left needs to grapple with.

The emergence of the dollar as the world’s currency was the result of the rise of the US as the preeminent global power. But the slow erosion of US economic and political power will not automatically spell the end of the dollar system.

While New York City gets much of the media attention, the Democratic Socialists of America chapter in Portland, Oregon, has quietly built a local political powerhouse over the last few years.

China’s leaders now appeal to the vision of a rejuvenated future rather than a revolutionary past. The new social contract between the people and the party state is a pragmatic one: social stability in return for continued economic growth.

In recent decades, the basis of US hegemony has shifted from domestic industrial strength to its ability to enforce the rules that organize global production, finance, and money. Today this imperial role is now increasingly under strain.

A proud symbol of German industry, Volkswagen enjoys far-reaching government support. Yet as it leans on the Chinese market, it’s far from clear that the firm is going to save jobs at its German sites.

The public option sounds like a step toward universal health care, but it’s really a delay tactic. The latest versions would force public plans to mimic private insurers, while the fight over the arcane details buys the industry another decade or two.

Skepticism toward moral absolutes has made the modern mind leery of the very idea of evil. Philosopher Susan Neiman makes the case that explaining wrongdoing is not the same as reckoning with its moral significance.

Comedian Deniz Göktaş spent 88 days in a high-security prison for insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He turned his sentence into a punch line, but the chilling consequences of the case extend far beyond one comedian.

Finnish authorities have instructed Google to stop work on two data centers after the firm flouted environmental rules. Ahead of the country’s election, the Left is calling for a wider plan to ensure AI doesn’t cause further devastation.

From military rule over Palestinians to apartheid in the occupied territories, Israel has never been a democracy for Palestinians. Efforts to restrict expat voting ahead of the elections showed how barriers to democracy can reach Jewish citizens, too.

Lula da Silva beat Flávio Bolsonaro to win a fourth term as Brazil’s president. Political scientist André Singer says the hardest fight is still ahead: Brazil’s bourgeoisie wants harsh austerity, and Lula’s coalition is split over it.

What do we actually mean by “equality”? Few thinkers have answered that question better than Elizabeth Anderson: not identical outcomes but a society where no one gets to dominate anyone else, including at work.

After this week’s elections, Democratic congresspeople from working-class backgrounds are set to grow their numbers by 75%. They have a chance to push the party’s agenda in a pro-worker direction. Organizing in a congressional caucus can help them do that.

The blue wave was undeniable. But early survey data suggest the party rode on a backlash against Donald Trump and a midterm electorate tilted toward college graduates, not a return of the working-class voters the party will need in 2028.

Populism isn’t just a switch the GOP could have chosen to flip on in this election but didn’t. Its governing record under Donald Trump has been one of harm and contempt for working people. Voters knew that and punished Republicans for it.

Italy’s top court has shut down the ILVA steel mill in Taranto, recognizing that it has become a disastrous health hazard. While European authorities boast about green investment plans, the site’s demise reflects the failure of their industrial policy.