The Left in Purgatory
Socialists in the United States are stuck. How do we become masters of our own fate?
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The Left in Purgatory
After the failure of every revolution or counterrevolution, a feverish activity develops among the fugitives, who have escaped to foreign countries. The parties of different shades form groups, accuse each other of having driven the cart into the mud, charge one another with treason and every conceivable sin. At the same time they remain in close touch with the home country, organize, conspire, print leaflets and newspapers, swear that the trouble will start afresh within twenty-four hours, that victory is certain, and distribute the various government offices beforehand on the strength of this anticipation.
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Front Matters
Locked Out of Heaven
Letters + Internet Speaks
We read all our emails — even the ones about exciting new business opportunities.
The Coming Democratic Minority
Without a radical change in its relationship to working-class voters, the Democratic Party is hurtling toward doom.
Feature
Reading Materiel
We Were No Years In Power
The Liminal Left’s Bid for Power
Like our leading figures, our new left is young and highly educated. Is that tanking our chances at building a mass working-class coalition?
Cultural Capital
The Compromised Second Draft
Palaces of Lost Promise
Berlin’s new Humboldt Forum is German neoliberalism in one building — retrograde, pompous, and built on the ruins of socialist modernism.
The Coen Brothers and Their Big Socialist Losers
Spinning comedy out of misery, Joel and Ethan Coen have spent decades telling the story of American failure. No wonder they’re so drawn to American socialists.
The Beatles and the Revolutionaries
Peter Jackson’s Get Back, the latest revisionist Beatles product, has glimpses of the political moment that made the band possible — and how distant we are from it today.
The Tenured Radical on the Telly
The 1980s BBC series The History Man was a venomous takedown of academic pseudo-radicals. How does it stand up today?
The Tumbrel
Tankies Without Tanks
The Socialist (Almost) Mayor of Buffalo
India Walton was set to become mayor of New York’s second-largest city. Then Buffalo’s establishment had their say.
Working-Class Politics Without the Working Class
Born at the height of the Clinton era, the Working Families Party thought it had found a way to build a labor party in America. Today, it’s advancing progressive politics with a far narrower base than it expected.
The New State Church
In our era, state capacity is faltering, and the size and scope of NGO activity is expanding.
Feature
Leftovers
In Exile
And Now, a Message From Our Sponsors — the Organized Working Class
The “union label” ads of the 1970s are a reminder of how labor tried and eventually failed to win a battle for the airwaves.
The Political Isn’t Personal
In a world where the political is personal, we signal our political goodness — and hunt for political badness.
Jacobin in Purgatory
Stuck in the middle with you.