Micah Uetricht is the editor of Jacobin. He is the author of Strike for America: Chicago Teachers Against Austerity and coauthor of Bigger than Bernie: How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism.
Belle and Sebastian’s If You’re Feeling Sinister seems like a soundtrack of breezy lives of personal heartbreak and occasional triumph unencumbered by the larger troubles of the world. But the album is a direct product of Scotland’s welfare state.
The teachers strike wave is the most important development in working-class politics in years. Combined with the rise of socialism, chances for a major transformation leftward in American politics are better than ever.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa was once the lone socialist on Chicago’s city council — now he’s joined by five members of the Democratic Socialists of America. In an interview with Jacobin, Rosa talks about the attacks from the city’s political and capitalist class that didn’t land and the agenda for the city’s newly elected socialists.
The Vast Majority is hosted by managing editor Micah Uetricht.
The Chicago Teachers Union is choosing its leadership this week. A reelection of the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators would mean a commitment to more of the militant teacher unionism that has reshaped Chicago and inspired educators around the country.
Work in the twenty-first century sucks. But it’s not because of a new “gig economy” — it’s because work under capitalism always sucks.
Chicago has long been dominated by a powerful Democratic machine and decades of austerity and gentrification. But the city’s left won victories across the board in Tuesday’s elections.
Jeanette Taylor is a community activist on Chicago’s South Side running for city council. In an interview, Taylor explains why she participated in a month-long hunger strike to reopen a school, how to fight inequality in the city, and her vision for a working-class Chicago.
Mark Fisher died two years ago this month. He helped us see the collective depression we have all lived in for decades. If only he could have seen that depression finally start to lift.
Democrats are endorsing striking teachers. That doesn’t mean the party’s abandoning its education agenda, but it does mean that the working class is making itself harder to ignore.
Democratic leaders are outraged at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s actions in Congress and are trying to reel her in. It’s a clear sign she’s antagonizing all the right forces in the party.
In the 1960s and ‘70s, feminists began to transform society. Today, we need to finish the job.
Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez is a democratic socialist running for Chicago city council. In this interview, she explains how austerity forced her to leave her native Puerto Rico, her vision for building working-class power in Chicago, and how to seize our “historic opportunity” to fight for socialism.
Jason Van Dyke, the Chicago police officer who shot Laquan McDonald sixteen times, has been found guilty of murder. It’s a major victory for Chicago activists and the broader movement against police brutality.
Jeff Bezos raised Amazon’s starting wage to $15 because of pressure from workers and Bernie Sanders — showing how, even when workers and socialists are weak, we can win against the most powerful people in the world.
Socialists today don’t have to reinvent the wheel — we can learn from the successes and failures of past American radicals, including the New Communist Movement.
Chapo Trap House’s Matt Christman on pulling angry young men away from the alt right, consumption choices as politics, the grotesqueries of American life, and his commitment to “optimism of the will and all that shit.”
By fighting him tooth and nail for seven years, Chicagoans have established that Rahm Emanuel is garbage. No matter what he does next, that stench isn’t coming off.
The FBI has long tried to destroy socialist organizations, but its actions aren’t limited to surveillance. In the sixties and seventies, informants were key — even at the top levels of left groups.
