Cosmopod

This is a narration of the introduction to Mike Macnair's groundbreaking book Revolutionary Strategy. Narration and editing by Lydia Apolinar. The free market triumphalism of the 1990s is over. Early 21st century capitalism looks like Karl Marx's description: growing extremes of wealth and poverty, and irrepressible boom-bust cycles. But for the moment, rightwing religious and nationalist nostalgia politics is the main beneficiary of the opposition this has spawned. The political left remains in the shadow of its disastrous failures in the 20th century. The centre-left - where it has not joined forces with the neoliberal right - clings to nationalist and bureaucratic-statist nostalgia for the social-democratic Cold War era. The far left clings to the coat-tails of the centre-left. It cannot unite itself - let alone anyone else - because it is unwilling to reinterrogate the ideas of the early Communist International, especially on the 'revolutionary party'. To move beyond this impasse we need to re-examine critically the strategic ideas of socialists since Marx and Engels' time. This book begins the task. You can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Lulu. To support the project, sign up for our Patreon.

Rudy joins Roxy Hall and Giacomo Bianchino for a discussion on the past, present and future of the Australian state. We talk about the history of Australian colonization with its differences and similarities with US and Canada, the squatter vanguard of settler-colonialism, the failed attempt at a bourgeois revolution that was the Eureka Stockade and the process of Federation. We then turn to the formation and pivotal role of the Australian Labor Party in Australian politics, outlining the broad pacts between labour and capital which included White Australia, the Whitlam government and the New Left period, and finish off by discussion the present prospects for struggle around the AUKUS military pact, migrant workers, housing and the environmental and indigenous struggles. Check out Jack's article on Agricultural Labor in Australia. Further reading:J. Roberts - "Massacres to Mining: the Colonisation of Aboriginal Australia" H. McQueen- "A New Britannia: An Argument concerning the social origins of Australian radicalism and nationalism." R. W. Connell and T. H. Irving - "Class Structure in Australian History " E. Humphrys - "How Labour Built Neoliberalism: Australia's Accord, the Labour Movement and the Neoliberal Project" Erratum: Harold Holt was the Prime Minister that enfranchised indigenous peoples.

In light of the Taliban's consolidation of power in response to U.S. withdrawal from the region, Rob Ashlar predicts not the foreclosure of class struggle in Afghanistan but new beginnings. LC reads the article aloud.

Niko and Rudy sit down with Jason Moore, author of Capitalism in the Web of Life and The Capitalocene (Part I, II) for a discussion on his approach to world-ecology including the concepts of Capitalism as a way of organizing nature and of the Web of Life. We discuss how Capitalism has organized nature since its inception and why it is necessary to begin a periodization of capitalism's effects on nature in the colonization of the Atlantic Islands, the debates around Metabolic rift/shift, the role of climate changes in history and what that can teach us for today's struggles, the concept of the four Cheaps and appropriation of unpaid labor, internationalism, the pitfalls of 70s ecology, the Green New Deal, how scientists should relate to radical politics and how to adequately incorporate the concept of Capitalism as a method for organizing Nature in our politics.

This is a narration of the introduction to Mike Macnair's groundbreaking book Revolutionary Strategy. Narration and editing by Lydia Apolinar. The free market triumphalism of the 1990s is over. Early 21st century capitalism looks like Karl Marx's description: growing extremes of wealth and poverty, and irrepressible boom-bust cycles. But for the moment, rightwing religious and nationalist nostalgia politics is the main beneficiary of the opposition this has spawned. The political left remains in the shadow of its disastrous failures in the 20th century. The centre-left - where it has not joined forces with the neoliberal right - clings to nationalist and bureaucratic-statist nostalgia for the social-democratic Cold War era. The far left clings to the coat-tails of the centre-left. It cannot unite itself - let alone anyone else - because it is unwilling to reinterrogate the ideas of the early Communist International, especially on the 'revolutionary party'. To move beyond this impasse we need to re-examine critically the strategic ideas of socialists since Marx and Engels' time. This book begins the task. You can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Lulu. To support the project, sign up for our Patreon.

Donald and Rudy join John Smith, author of Imperialism in the 21st Century: Globalization, Exploitation and Capitalism's Final Crisis for a discussion on imperialism and unequal exchange. We discuss the history of three global commodities: t-shirts, iPhones and coffee and what they can tell us about the worldwide social relationships of capitalism, why GDP and productivity are illusions that hide exploitation and super-profits, the concept of labor aristocracy and super-profits and the political programs of Arghiri Emmanuel, Samir Amin and Ruy Mauro Marini. We then turn to the present, including capitalism's crisis, decaying US hegemony, the possibilities of North-South solidarity and the existing actual solidarity links in trade unions. We finish by discussing what fair trade relationships between socialist countries could look like.

Roxy Hall makes an intervention into debates around transgender issues, critiquing both trans liberalism and anti-trans radical feminism to stake out a position that seeks the abolition of gender. Annie Rose reads the article aloud.

Matt and Rudy join Sasha Durakov Warren from An Unsound Mind for a discussion on the history of psychiatry reform movements and radical mental health. We discuss how the definition of mind has changed across history, and how the internal movements to reform psychiatry and mistakenly grouped under broad umbrellas that hide a myriad of approaches and contradictions. We also discuss the Franco Basaglia's Democratic Psychiatry movement and Fanon's decolonial psychiatry, and end by envisioning what therapy could look like in a communist society.

Written by Bolshevik philosopher, economist, and statesmen Nikolai Bukharin in 1921, Historical Materialism: A System of Sociology was the standard primer on sociology and the historical materialist method in the early Soviet Union. Christian Cail introduces the text in the latest offer from Cosmonaut Press, which Cliff Connolly reads aloud. The book is available for purchase at cosmonautmag.com and a reading group starting Sept 30th will be available to all Patreon subscribers.

This is a narration of the introduction to Mike Macnair's groundbreaking book Revolutionary Strategy. Narration and editing by Lydia Apolinar. The free market triumphalism of the 1990s is over. Early 21st century capitalism looks like Karl Marx's description: growing extremes of wealth and poverty, and irrepressible boom-bust cycles. But for the moment, rightwing religious and nationalist nostalgia politics is the main beneficiary of the opposition this has spawned. The political left remains in the shadow of its disastrous failures in the 20th century. The centre-left - where it has not joined forces with the neoliberal right - clings to nationalist and bureaucratic-statist nostalgia for the social-democratic Cold War era. The far left clings to the coat-tails of the centre-left. It cannot unite itself - let alone anyone else - because it is unwilling to reinterrogate the ideas of the early Communist International, especially on the 'revolutionary party'. To move beyond this impasse we need to re-examine critically the strategic ideas of socialists since Marx and Engels' time. This book begins the task. You can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Lulu. To support the project, sign up for our Patreon.

Donald and Rudy join Daniel Tutt for a discussion on the history and present of psychoanalysis and its relationship to Marxism. We discuss whether psychoanalysis can be considered a science and how psychoanalysts produce knowledge before explaining the libidinal economy and possible psychoanalytic interventions in the sphere of exchange. We also discuss Wilhelm Reich: his claim to being the first Marxist psychoanalytic as well as his writings on fascism and its relationship to the family. We continue with family abolition, psychoanalysis in the New Left, and Christopher Lasch's project in the context of psychoanalysis, and finish with the relevance of Ernst Bloch and utopia in Marxist propaganda today.

This is a narration of the introduction to Mike Macnair's groundbreaking book Revolutionary Strategy. Narration and editing by Lydia Apolinar. The free market triumphalism of the 1990s is over. Early 21st century capitalism looks like Karl Marx's description: growing extremes of wealth and poverty, and irrepressible boom-bust cycles. But for the moment, rightwing religious and nationalist nostalgia politics is the main beneficiary of the opposition this has spawned. The political left remains in the shadow of its disastrous failures in the 20th century. The centre-left - where it has not joined forces with the neoliberal right - clings to nationalist and bureaucratic-statist nostalgia for the social-democratic Cold War era. The far left clings to the coat-tails of the centre-left. It cannot unite itself - let alone anyone else - because it is unwilling to reinterrogate the ideas of the early Communist International, especially on the 'revolutionary party'. To move beyond this impasse we need to re-examine critically the strategic ideas of socialists since Marx and Engels' time. This book begins the task. You can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Lulu. To support the project, sign up for our Patreon.

Rudy joins Paris Yeros editor of Reclaiming the Nation: The Return of the National Question in Africa, Asia and Latin America and Reclaiming the Land: The Resurgence of Rural Movements in Africa, Asia and Latin America for a discussion on the agrarian and national questions in the 21st century, with a focus on the Zimbabwe land occupations of the 2000s. We discuss the semi-proletarization and land hunger in the Global South, the relevance of the peasantry as a social class, national sovereignty and South-South cooperation before moving on to discuss the land occupations and land redistribution process in Zimbabwe that started in 2000 and how they centered the race and national questions. We also discuss the challenges Zimbabwe has faced since then, and compare the militancy of the Zimbabwe occupations to other movements today such as La Via Campesina and MST in Brazil. Further reading: Paris Yeros - A New Bandung in the Current Crisis Sam Moyo - The Land Occupation Movement and Democratisation in Zimbabwe: Contradictions of Neoliberalism Sam Moyo & Paris Yeros (2007), The Radicalised state: Zimbabwe's interrupted revolution, Review of African Political Economy, 34(111), 103–121. Sam Moyo & Paris Yeros (2013), 'The Zimbabwe model: Radicalisation, reform and resistance', in S. Moyo & W. Chambati (eds), Land and agrarian reform in Zimbabwe: Beyond white-settler capitalism (pp. 331–358). Dakar: CODESRIA.

This is a narration of the introduction to Mike Macnair's groundbreaking book Revolutionary Strategy. We have also included a preface from Parker McQueeney on what this book means in the context of 2021. Narration and editing by Lydia Apolinar. The free market triumphalism of the 1990s is over. Early 21st century capitalism looks like Karl Marx's description: growing extremes of wealth and poverty, and irrepressible boom-bust cycles. But for the moment, rightwing religious and nationalist nostalgia politics is the main beneficiary of the opposition this has spawned. The political left remains in the shadow of its disastrous failures in the 20th century. The centre-left - where it has not joined forces with the neoliberal right - clings to nationalist and bureaucratic-statist nostalgia for the social-democratic Cold War era. The far left clings to the coat-tails of the centre-left. It cannot unite itself - let alone anyone else - because it is unwilling to reinterrogate the ideas of the early Communist International, especially on the 'revolutionary party'. To move beyond this impasse we need to re-examine critically the strategic ideas of socialists since Marx and Engels' time. This book begins the task. You can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Lulu. To support the project, sign up for our Patreon.

Rudy and Brendan join Tyler Shipley, author of Canada in the World: Settler Capitalism and the Colonial Imagination, for a discussion on the past, present and future of the Canadian state. We discuss the terms "Settler Capitalism" and "Colonial Imagination", the formation of Canada through Confederation, the historical policy of Canada towards indigenous people and the current debates around residential schools and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW), how Canada is falsely posited as a gentler alternative to the U.S. and the difference between the "Canadian mosaic" and "American melting pot" approaches to immigration. We also discuss the centrality of decolonization and the impossibility of santizing the signifier of Canada. We strongly recommend checking out American Indian voices on the topics covered. Aside from the classics by Howard Adams: Prison of Grass and A Tortured People, and Glen Sean Coulthard's Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition, the book Stringing Rosaries: the History, the Unforgivable, and the Healing of North American Indian Boarding School Survivors by Denise Lajimodiere and Mary Annette Plumber's numerous articles are good ways to continue learning. M. Gouldhake's writings are also an invaluable source on the Canadian context and aswell as a resource on Marxism/anarchism and Indigenous people. We also recommend the following Red Nation Podcast episodes as a basic introduction to the ways indigenous people are organizing around these issues: No Apologies, Land Back (on Boarding Schools) and MMIWG2S+: No more red hand prints! We also alluded to (non-indigenous) Patrick Wolfe's Traces of History: Elementary Structures of Race in the episode.

Rudy joins Boike Rehbein, author of Globalization, Society and Culture in Laos and Society in Contemporary Laos for a discussion on the past, present and future of the Lao People's Democratic Republic. We start by discussing the concept of habitus and how it can be used to study Laotian society. We then talk about the structure of pre-communist society, the communist takeover in 1975 and the early attempts to build a centralized economy, and the market reforms of 1986. We finish by discussing the bases of the Communist Party and the recent events in 2016 which saw the return of hardliner socialists to power. A brief and comprehensive introduction to his work on Laos is the chapter Capitalist Transformation and Habitus in Laos he authored in the book The Socialist Market Economy in Asia: Development in China, Vietnam and Laos.

Rudy joins Maddie and Jess from Philly Socialists to discuss the politics of disability and its relationship with organizing. We discuss different models of disability and how they operate under capitalism, what disability can teach us about organizing methods, and the disability rights movements in the US. We the dive into how to relate to accessibility in our organizing, and how to handle conflicting needs around it. We end by discussing the liberatory horizons for disabled people under socialism. Transcript available in cosmonautmag.com Resources mentioned: It takes Organizers to make a Revolution - Rodrigo Nunez Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution From Tide to Wave - Jean RD Allen & Teresa Kalisz No, you can't speak to the Manager - Mara Henao Zoe Belinsky's Medium

This is a narration of the ninth chapter and conclusion of Lars Lih's excellent book Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context. In this chapter, Lih explores the debates between Bolshevik and Menshevik RSDWP members after their infamous split at the party's Second Congress. The conclusion hammers home Lih's insightful critique of the "textbook interpretation" of Lenin broadly and WITBD in particular, revealing the former as an optimistic and dedicated Erfurtian revolutionary. The full book contains much more content, including informative appendices and Lih's original translation of WITBD. You can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/... Narration and editing by Cliff Connolly.

Lydia, Agata, Anne and Rudy join for a discussion of Kristen Ghodsee's Second World, Second Sex: Socialist Women's Activism and Global Solidarity during the Cold War. We begin with the forgotten Communist history of International Women's Year (1975) which later became the United Nations Decade for Women (75-85), and the conflicts between the Western and Eastern blocs regarding women's liberation. We also discuss the double burden of women in Bulgaria, and how women's associations interfaced with the government. We then contrast Bulgaria to other Eastern Bloc countries, and also to the women's liberation movement in socialist Zambia, discussing how the double burden of women was alleviated but not eliminated in these countries. We also discuss the differences with Western feminism, and its pitfalls and advantages over the horizons of women's liberation under state socialism, highlighting the role of women's self-emancipation.

Renato Flores argues for a culture shift around meeting procedures that takes into account differing backgrounds to make our organizing spaces more accessible to everyone regardless of education and time available. Unoriginal Smack reads the article out loud.

Rudy and Annie join Mike Ely, a veteran of the Revolutionary Union and the wildcat strike movement in the West Virginia coalfields of the 1970s. Drawing from Ely's experiences as a communist in West Virginia, we discuss the practice of social investigation, the role of communists in strike struggles, the structural and conjectural views of revolution and the connection to Alain Badiou, and state repression of the radical left. Contact Mike at [email protected] References by Mike Ely: Ambush at Keystone: Inside the Coal Miners' Great Gas Protest of 1974 Sites of Beginning Throw Open Windows: Beginning a Fresh Communism

Isaac and Rudy join Shalini Puri, author of The Grenada Revolution in the Caribbean Present: Operation Urgent Memory,and the companion website urgentmemory.com, for a discussion on the Grenadian Revolution and its legacies in both the island itself and the wider Caribbean. We cover the Revolution's accomplishments as well as some of its pitfalls, the contradictions and mutual strengthening of Marxism and regional liberation movements, and the Revolution's collapse. We then discuss the concepts of volcanic and stone memory, and how memories of the Revolution remain alive in the Caribbean today. Further reading: The Grenada Revolution Online – Free and thorough online resource that includes many speeches 'Is Freedom We Making'; the New Democracy in Grenada – Merle Hodge (ed.), Chris Searle (ed.) Maurice Bishop Speaks: The Grenada Revolution and Its Overthrow, 1979–83 – M. Bishop, S. Clark Grenada: The Jewel Despoiled – G. K. Lewis African & Caribbean Politics: From Kwame Nkrumah to Maurice Bishop – M. Marable The Grenada Chronicles, v. 1-34 – Grenada National Museum, Ann Elizabeth Wilder (maintainer of TGRO website)

This is a narration of the eighth chapter of Lars Lih's excellent book Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context. In this chapter, Lih examines the culture of the Russian revolutionary underground to elucidate the world that Lenin's organizational proposals in WITBD would go on to shape. The full audiobook is currently in production by the team at Cosmonaut Magazine. You can find more episodes (and other audio books) on our Youtube channel, and you can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Haymarket books. Narration and editing by Cliff Connolly.

Donald has a chat with Richard Barbrook, author with Andy Cameron of The Californian Ideology and the book Imaginary Futures. The two discuss Silicon Valley techno-Utopianism and its transformation into our current tech dystopia, the Cold War left and their attempts to use Marxism in service of capitalism, the role of China in shaping the development of modern technology, crypto-currency, why the USSR failed to develop cyber-communism, and Barbrook's work in the Labor Party with the Digital Democracy Manifesto.

Matt and Rudy join Matt Rothwell from the People's History of Ideas podcast for a discussion on the founding of the Chinese Communist Party on its 100th anniversary. We base ourselves on the book From Friend To Comrade: The Founding of the Chinese Communist Party, 1920-27 by Hans J. van der Veen, and discuss issues such as the influence of the Soviet Union on its formation, how intellectuals , moving past liberalism adopted Marxism and translated it to the Chinese context, the way policy implementation and debate evolved in the party, the debates around the united front, and what can we learn for today's political landscape.

Rudy, Connor and Donald sit down to talk about Vietnamese political economy and the Vietnamese Communist Party with a particular focus on the period of reunification and market reforms. We discuss the formation of Vietnamese Communism in isolation, the history of Vietnam up to reunification and how that set up a very divided country for the VCP to rule over, the short planned economy period and how and why the market reforms took place. We also discuss the particularities of Vietnamese Socialism and the party's workings, as well as how much influence the world market has over society today. References: Vietnam: Politics, Economics and Society - Melanie Beresford Economic Transition in Vietnam: Trade and Aid in the Demise of a Centrally Planned Economy - Melanie Beresford, Dang Phong Doi Moi in Review - Melanie Beresford Red Brotherhood at War - Grant Evans, Kevin Rowley Vietnam at War - Mark Philip Bradley From Plan to Market - Adam Pforde, Stefan de Vylder Tradition, Revolution, and Market Economy in a North Vietnamese Village, 1925-2006 - Hy V. Luong The Socialist Market Economy in Asia: Development in China, Vietnam and Laos - Edited by Arve Hansen, Jo Inge Bekkevold, Kristen Nordhau

Neither a politics of identity informed by theories of intersectionality nor reductive economistic readings of Marxism are adequate for a modern socialist project, argues Donald Parkinson. Robert Fish reads the article out loud.

Djamil and Rudy join Rob Wallace, author of Big Farms Make Big Flu: Dispatches on Influenza, Agribusiness, and the Nature of Science, and Dead Epidemiologists: On the Origins of COVID-19, for a discussion on how capitalism produces mass pandemics through the destruction and creation of new ecologies. We discuss how humans 'fit' in nature, and how capitalism destroys natural barriers that prevent pandemics and creates harmful new ecologies. We also talk about what types of regulatory mechanisms are needed to prevent the mass spread of diseases. We finish off by discussing how the left should relate to topics such as the hypothesis of laboratory origins for Covid, vaccine skepticism and organizations like the CDC and the WHO.

This is a narration of the seventh chapter of Lars Lih's excellent book Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context. In this chapter, Lih maps out Lenin's basic conception of Russian Social Democracy's present challenges and asserts that "the political poetry of WITBD is located in this larger definition of the situation". The full audiobook is currently in production by the team at Cosmonaut Magazine. You can find more episodes (and other audio books) on our Youtube channel, and you can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Haymarket books. Narration and editing by Cliff Connolly.

Rudy joins Max Ajl, author of A People's Green New Deal (Pluto Press, 2021), for a broad discussion on the themes of his book and on the agrarian question in general. We speak about Max's background in agrarian movements with a particular focus on the Arab region, the Cochabamba People's Agreement and its relevance today, the critique of the current Green New Deal and of eco-modernism, the appearing splits in the ruling class between fossil and non-fossil capital, unequal environmental exchange, climate reparations and the conflicting tendencies within the degrowth movement. We also talk about the necessity of centering land and food in our political programs, and its usefulness in providing a bridge between current iterations of the Green New Deal and the future we want to see. References: The Cochabamba People's Agreement with Annexes The Green New Deal and Beyond: The Road From Climate Emergency to Economic Reality - Stan Cox (Land Institute) Does the Arab region have an agrarian question? - Max Ajl

Donald Parkinson explains and defends the format of the minimum-maximum program using the model established in Marx and Guesde's Programme of the Parti Ouvier. Lydia Apolinar reads the article out loud.

Rudy joins Tony Norfield, author of The City: London and the Global Power of Finance (Verso Books) for a broad theoretical practical discussion on the topic of finance. We discuss Hilferding and Lenin's theories of finance and imperialism, and where they are lacking, how finance is used to enforce global domination today, the exorbitant privilege of the dollar, the discussions around the rate of profit, the role of China and the Belt & Road Initiative, cryptocurrencies and Norfield's outlook for the future.

This is a narration of the sixth chapter of Lars Lih's excellent book Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context. In this chapter, Lih examines the remaining three interlocuters Lenin polemicizes with in WITBD: the anonymous authors of the Joint Letter, Boris Savinkov, and L. Nadezhdin. All three are marginal historical figures in their own right, but their importance in contextualizing the debates of WITBD cannot be overstated. The full audiobook is currently in production by the team at Cosmonaut Magazine. You can find more episodes (and other audio books) on our Youtube channel, and you can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Haymarket books. Narration and editing by Cliff Connolly.

Parker and Christian join Matt Christman for a discussion on the class dynamics of the founding of the US, using Charles Beard's book An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States as a jumping off point. They cover the main idea of the book: how the Founding Fathers designed the Constitution and the federal institutions to ensure their class interests after the Independence War. They also discuss how other events of the time such as Shay's Rebellion showed the limits of the Constitution, how it managed to survive even the Civil War, and what it means to call for a constitutional convention in the present.

Jonah Martell lays out a twelve-step program for the Democratic Socialists of America to pursue a path of independent working-class politics. Christian Cail reads the article out loud.

Amelia and Rudy join Raul Espejo, one of the top members of the Cybersyn project in Allende's Chile, the founder of Syncho Research and the president of the World Organization of Systems and Cybernetics for a conversation. We discuss Raul's experiences, his current projects, and what he thinks socialists should learn about Cybernetics in today's world, especially around the concept of variety.

This is a narration of the fifth chapter of Lars Lih's excellent book Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context. In this chapter, Lih breaks down the causes and details of the intense polemical war between rival Social Democratic publications Rabochee Delo and Iskra. The context of Lenin's What Is to Be Done? cannot be understood without a thorough examination of this dispute, which ultimately ended in victory for Lenin and the Iskra faction. The full audiobook is currently in production by the team at Cosmonaut Magazine. You can find more episodes (and other audio books) on our Youtube channel, and you can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Haymarket books. Narration and editing by Cliff Connolly.

Djamil and Rudy sit down for a hardcore episode on the interaction between Soviet diamat philosophy and Quantum Mechanics. We discuss the analytic core of dialectical materialism through the lens of the philosophy of science and the position of scientific realism. We analyze the main propositions of this core in an attempt to extract what is best, and most relevant to physics: those propositions and thematics which will play heavily in formulating and advancing soviet physics. We discuss what realism is within this framework, how Lenin understood it, and how that informed his debates with the neo-positivists. We continue by outlining what parts of quantum mechanics tend to go against our most basic intuitions, the Copenhagen interpretation and its neo-positivist roots, and how that informed the reception of quantum mechanics in the USSR. We finish with V. A. Fock's efforts to give a realistic interpretation of quantum mechanics consistent with dialectic materialism which managed to change Niels Bohr's mind, which sets a prime example for the successful application of dialectical materialism to science. Further reading: L. V. Tarasov – Basic Concepts of Quantum Mechanics Loren R. Graham – Quantum Mechanics and Dialectical Materialism D. Z. Albert – Quantum Mechanics and Experience

This is a narration of the fourth chapter of Lars Lih's excellent book Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context. In this chapter, Lih scrutinizes two opponents of the Russian Erfurtianism that Lenin championed: the Credo and Rabochaia mysl. This gives valuable insight into the political terrain on which What Is to Be Done? was deployed. The full audiobook is currently in production by the team at Cosmonaut Magazine. You can find more episodes (and other audio books) on our Youtube channel, and you can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Haymarket books. Narration and editing by Cliff Connolly.

Lydia and Rudy join Matzpen member Ehud Ein-Gil for a discussion on trade unionism within the Israeli state. We discuss Ehud's experiences around the founding of Koach LaOvdim as a new sort of union, the history and structure of the Histadrut and how that has affected trade unionism inside the '48 borders, his experience organizing bus drivers, the intermediate status of the Mizraim Jews in Israeli society, the effects of the Arab Spring on Israel, his thoughts on religion and secularism, and his outlook about finding new identity for the six million Hebrews living in historic Palestine.

Ellie, Amelia, Matt and Rudy discuss the life and work of Col. John Boyd, one of the foremost military strategists of the last century. We discuss how the left should relate to military science, Boyd's main ideas such as the OODA loop and the Moral & Mental domains of struggle, his influences: Clausewitz and Sun Tzu, and how Boyd was able to use them to develop his ideas on strategy, and we finish up with examples of how politicians use similar ideas to Boyd and how we should use them for winning fights. References: John BoydA Discourse on Winning and Losing Youtube lectures on Patterns of Conflict (transcript in the description) Boyd: The Fighter Pilot who Changed the Art of War - Robert Coram OthersTrotsky's The Art of Insurrection, and How the Revolution Armed Estrategia Socialista y Arte Militar - Emilio Albamonte & Matías Maiello (unavailable in English, summary of the ideas found here) Mao's Military Writings, in particular On Guerilla Warfare and Concentrate a Superior Force to Destroy the Enemy One by One Communist Party of Peru (Shining Path) - Military Line Marine Corps MCDP-1 WarfightingFleet Tactics and Naval Operations Third Edition - CAPT Wayne P. Hughes Jr.

This is a narration of the third chapter of Lars Lih's excellent book Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context. In this chapter, Lih explores three crucial texts from the Iskra period of Lenin's career, December 1900 to August 1903. The first, Russia and Its Crisis, was written by liberal revolutionary Paul Miliukov and explains the context of the revolutionary situation leading up to 1905 in which Iskra was published. The second, the Bolsheviks' Amsterdam Report from 1904, looked back at the Iskra period and gave the Bolshevik's side of the story. The third, which Lih calls the Political Agitation series, is a number of Iskra articles written by Lenin which further elucidate his Erfurtian outlook. The three texts combine to present overwhelming evidence that the textbook interpretation of Lenin is seriously flawed. The full audiobook is currently in production by the team at Cosmonaut Magazine. You can find more episodes (and other audio books) on our Youtube channel, and you can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Haymarket books. Narration and editing by Cliff Connolly.

Annie and Rudy join Greg Afinogenov from Stomp Out Slumlords for a discussion on tenants unions, and how SoS has thought about the work of Cloward and Piven to develop ideas on how to build sustainable mass organisations. We discuss how to build mass constituencies for actions and what the goal of tenants unionism should be. Further reading: R. A. Cloward, F. F. Piven - Disruptive Dissensus: People and Power in the Industrial Age Stomp Out Slumlords's organizing report of February 2021

This is a narration of the second chapter of Lars Lih's excellent book Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context. In this chapter, Lih examines all the programmatic writings from Lenin in the 1890s and demonstrates the revolutionary leader's consistency throughout this time. This sets the stage for Lenin's later polemics at the start of the 20th century, including What Is to Be Done? The full audiobook is currently in production by the team at Cosmonaut Magazine. You can find more episodes (and other audio books) on our Youtube channel, and you can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Haymarket books. Narration and editing by Cliff Connolly.

Christian and Connor sit down with Helen Yaffe to discuss her book We Are Cuba. We talked about the history and political economy of revolutionary Cuba before and after the post-Soviet period. Some of topics we touched on were the nature of democracy on the island, the relationship of Cuba to the United States, and how Cuba has dealt with the pandemic and coming crisis of climate change. Other resources mentioned: Emily Morris - Unexpected Cuba The documentary Cuba & COVID 19 Public Health, Science and Solidarity and Helen's article on Cuban vaccines. Piero Gleijeses' work on Cuba, in particular Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria, and the Struggle for Southern Africa, 1976–1991 and Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington and Africa, 1959–1976.

Amelia Davenport joins Samuel Bowles for a short discussion on his life-long research on global poverty and education. They discuss Bowles's history and how this led to his orientation, his work on education "Schooling in Capitalist America", including what he has changed his mind on, his thoughts about markets, incentives, central planning and capitalist economies, as well as other theories such as the value-form abolition, neo-liberal economics. He also talks about teaching economics to undergraduates and what thinkers socialists should engage with even if they're outside the Marxist tradition. Make sure to check out the CORE project and their completely free undergraduate level coursebook on economics.

This is a narration of the first chapter of Lars Lih's excellent book Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context. In this chapter, Lih explains how the legacy of figures like Marx, Engels, Lassalle, Kautsky, and others influenced Lenin. There's also a wonderful exploration of how the pre-war SPD served as the original model for the "vanguard party" (though in a very different way from how the term is used today). The full audiobook is currently in production by the team at Cosmonaut Magazine. You can find more episodes (and other audio books) on our Youtube channel, and you can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Haymarket books. Narration and editing by Cliff Connolly.

Rudy joins Zama and Jonathan from Amazonians United to discuss their shop floor alternative which has organized walkouts in Chicago, and started a national fight for PTO. They discuss the way they bond with co-workers on the shop floor, what their next steps are, and how different their organizing looks like to that of RWDSU which organized the Bessemer (Alabama) unionization effort. We also discuss medium- and long-term goals, as well as how they relate to the existing socialist movement.

Destructive cults are usually considered the domain of religious movements. The Left, however, has its own track record of cults. Gus Breslauer sympathetically examines this history in search of the political questions that produce such groups, how they operate, and how to overcome them. Robert Fish reads the article out loud.

Roger and Rudy join Frank Bardacke, author of Trampling out the Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers for a discussion on the UFW, its history, its tactics, its structure and its slow loss of relevance. We focus on the boycott as a tactic: how the UFW pioneered the use of boycotts, how winning the 1965-70 Delano grape campaign through a boycott shifted the power in the union from workers to staffers, and how both tactics, and what they represented in the union, would come into conflict in the 1979 Salinas Lettuce struggle. We also talk about Cesar Chavez the man, the UFW's changing relationship to undocumented migrants, present-day farm organizing and what lessons we can draw from the UFW for today, in particular on the use of boycotts and on union democracy.