In 2023, Pfizer made more than $27 billion in revenue and paid zero federal income tax. Like many other large US companies, it took advantage of Donald Trump’s 2017 tax law, which widened existing loopholes and set off a tax-avoidance bonanza.
Tenants Are Forcing Bay Area Landlords to the Bargaining Table
San Francisco’s groundbreaking Union at Home legislation encourages tenants to organize in their buildings the way employees organize at work. Housing activists in Berkeley are hoping their city will follow suit — but landlords are pushing back.
“Models and Bottles” Clubs’ Extravagance and Exploitation
We know the rich are getting richer, but what exactly are they doing with all those riches? Sociologist Ashley Mears examined one site of elite consumption: the world of VIP clubs and its rituals of garish waste and exploitation of women.
In Postwar Italy, Artists Revolutionized Culture
Today post-1945 Italy is often presented as an age of anti-fascist hegemony. But Cold War Italy was no paradise for the Left — and neorealist filmmakers and writers had to resist Church censorship and right-wing hegemony over the country’s culture.
Ripley Is a Waste of the Talented Mr Andrew Scott
Netflix’s new series Ripley, the latest iteration of Patricia Highsmith’s murderous con man from The Talented Mr Ripley, is an arty, inert snooze. Its flat portrayal of the title character doesn’t come close to the novels or other fantastic adaptations.
With the development of artificial intelligence racing forward at warp speed, some of the richest men in the world may be deciding the fate of humanity right now.
Big Brother Is Watching Amazon and Walmart Warehouse Workers
Both Amazon and Walmart invest massively in highly invasive technological surveillance of their warehouse workforce — surveillance that then enables the hyperexploitation both companies’ workers are subject to.
Does the Biden Administration Care About International Law?
If you’re a US ally looking at Israel’s bombing of the Iranian consulate in Syria and Ecuador’s raid on its Mexican consulate, you’re probably thinking, “I can get away with something similar because the most powerful country in the world will let me do it.”
The Unbearable Necessity of Experts
Right-wing populism’s disdain for the opinions of experts can be mistaken for the Left’s scorn for technocracy. But democratic principles and mass politics are the real antidote to the appropriation of power by experts.
Rural America’s Decline Fueled Oregon’s Secession Movement
Twelve Eastern Oregon counties are considering leaving the state for Idaho, where they hope to secure Republican representation. The movement cites cultural differences, but the true divisions are rooted in rural America’s faltering agricultural economy.
ChatGPT feeds on language, outputting texts that reinforce the basic assumptions of our culture. The rise of AI forces the Left to take a hard look at the politics of language and the linguistics of Noam Chomsky.
Zionism Killed the Jewish-Muslim World
In an interview with Jacobin, filmmaker and academic Ariella Aïsha Azoulay traces how Western powers’ exploitation of Zionism led not just to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine but to the demise of Jewish communities across the Middle East.
How Alabama Communists Organized in the Jim Crow South
In 1930s Alabama, Communist Party members fought brutal repression to organize black and white workers in the Jim Crow South. Their efforts remain a source of inspiration for those fighting racism and exploitation today.
Slavery Was Crucial for the Development of Capitalism
Historian Robin Blackburn has completed a trilogy of books that provide a comprehensive Marxist account of slavery in the New World. He spoke to Jacobin about the intimate links between the slave systems in the Americas and the origins of capitalism.
A US Rep Is Trying to Undo Clean Water Laws That He Violated
In 2017, before he was a lawmaker, John Duarte was fined $1.1 million by federal regulators for disturbing wetlands on land owned by his business. Now, as a US representative, he is pushing legislation that would roll back the law he broke.