Jacobin

The Democratic Socialists of America have gone from political obscurity to a major force in American politics. Vivek Chibber and Paul Heideman discuss its remarkable rise — and why electoral victories alone won’t build lasting working-class power.

In 2008, Barack Obama won a landslide victory and enormous mandate, only to quickly squander it. Today the Democratic establishment is far more delegitimized, and the Left is far stronger. History doesn’t have to repeat itself.

The United Auto Workers backed Abdul El-Sayed in a close Senate primary, then mobilized members across Michigan. Its sights are set on the next fight with the Big Three.

The takeaways from the midterms are clear: no amount of billionaire spending could overcome the fact that Donald Trump’s dominance is coming to a close, the Left has much more room to grow, and we have entered a period of new possibility in US politics.

Pro-worker policy isn’t just about the government improving labor standards. Zohran Mamdani’s administration could empower workers to shape and enforce standards by training and organizing each other.

The defining feature of Israeli “democracy,” including its elections last week, is its operation according to a Jewish supremacist logic, intensifying the discrimination, oppression, apartheid, mass violence, and genocide against Palestinians.

Amid protests in France, police unions are pushing for wage hikes and special legal privileges to cash in on the political capital they’ve built under Emmanuel Macron’s rule.

Democratic voters have long sided with socialists on policy but feared they were a liability in elections. Last night’s results finally proved that wrong.

Though still a small minority, socialists will soon have more members in Congress than they ever have before. A socialist caucus can help them build their power.

Seventy years ago today, Soviet forces crushed the Hungarian uprising that had electrified Eastern Europe. Latter-day conservative narratives distort the true history of the 1956 revolution and the crucial role of workers’ councils in driving it forward.

Zohran Mamdani understood something no one else did: most Donald Trump voters had their reasons for going for Trump, and those reasons were economic. Mamdani saw that, and he saw a path to winning them back. He gave it a name: affordability.

Remote mountain communities in northern Pakistan have contributed almost nothing to global warming, yet glacial floods are sweeping away their homes. Jacobin traveled to talk to the families who are rebuilding with little help from the state.

The reaction of the bulk of the American people to the cruelty and authoritarianism they’ve seen in the last two years has been abject disgust. They voted like it in the midterms.

A look at the polls and Donald Trump’s rhetoric on the midterms campaign trail suggests that MAGA may be exhausted and about to suffer a significant body blow.

Erika Hilton, one of Brazil’s first trans legislators, has brought new energy to the Brazilian left. The socialist congresswoman helped lead the fight to establish a 40-hour workweek that also gave a vital boost to Lula’s presidential campaign.

Donavan McKinney, a Democratic Socialists of America–endorsed candidate for the US House in Detroit, is set to win his general election today. Jacobin spoke to him before Election Day about why he’s running and what he hopes to accomplish in office.

Britain has banned climate scholar and left-wing activist Andreas Malm from visiting the country. Following the ban on Hasan Piker, it points to an alarming repression of pro-Palestine speech in Britain.

State employees with SEIU Local 1000 recently went on a one-day strike across California. It was the first walkout in the history of the union, which represents about 100,000 workers ranging from accountants to custodians to nurses.

Voters are epically dissatisfied as we enter into the midterms. But our political economy and social world are not changing in response to that dissatisfaction.

Patrick Stewart, who died last week at the age of 86, was a committed socialist from the start. That conviction ran through his greatest role: Jean-Luc Picard, a leader who used reason and compassion rather than force.