Jacobin Radio

Jacobin Radio welcomes its newest show! Michael and Us, from co-hosts Will Sloan and Luke Savage, is one of our favorite film and comedy podcasts. We're joining Will and Luke at episode 164, "Mo Money Mo Problems."Everyone agrees that money in politics is a problem, but in MEET THE DONORS: DOES MONEY TALK? (2016), filmmaker Alexandra (daughter of Nancy) Pelosi asks: is it really? She interviews some of the biggest political donors in America to find out why they donate and what they expect for their donations, and finds out... not a whole lot. Politics - what a concept! PLUS: we discuss the state of the left in electoral politics, and definitively identify the worst Twitter feed in the world.Support the show and get exclusive subscriber-only episodes on the Michael and Us Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus/overview

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. This week features Tobita Chow on the roots and dangers of Sinophobia in the US and Donna Murch, author of Living for the City, on the emergence of the Black Panther Party out of early 1960s campus study groups.

Dan's 2018 interview with Matthew Frye Jacobson on Roots Too: White Ethnic Revival in Post–Civil Rights America. With a new intro from Dan on the Columbus myth and the politics of white ethnicity.Support this podcast with money at Patreon.com/TheDig

Micah and Meagan speak with sociologist Barry Eidlin, author of Labor and the Class Idea in the United States and Canada, and Jacobin contributing editor Chris Maisano on why the US doesn't have a labor party and why that matters. Barry's book: https://www.cambridge.<wbr />org/core/books/labor-and-the-<wbr />class-idea-in-the-united-<wbr />states-and-canada/<wbr />356399CB43939B0B259AE018615D55<wbr />87 Barry's article "The Phantom Limb": https://www.jacobinmag.<wbr />com/2016/11/labor-third-party-<wbr />us-canada-ccf-ndp-democrats-<wbr />unions/ Chris's review of Barry's book: https://jacobinmag.com/<wbr />2020/06/labor-party-in-the-<wbr />usa-workers-party-history

In this episode we discuss Chapter 15, "Demagogues and Martyrs." The period immediately after peace in 1815 saw both a rapid rise in militancy and intense repression, such that an increasingly agitated and radicalized population had no organizational capacity to express its militancy. This gave rise to personalized leadership around individual demagogues and to an oscillation between insurrectionary and constitutionalist approaches. We also discuss the Peterloo massacre, which is narrated in this chapter, and Mike Leigh's recent film Peterloo on the subject.

In this special tribute episode of Weekends, Ana is joined by Nando Vila and many friends and colleagues to remember Michael Brooks. Guests include: Bhaskar Sunkara, Matt Lech, David Griscom, Dustin Guastella, Joshua Kahn Russell, Ben Burgis, and our own super-producer Cale Brooks.Weekends on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxlNhP2f0kULVe45TbPaF-uLuMQYMJcLkKasparian on Twitter https://twitter.com/AnaKasparian

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. This show features Jason Wilson on the protests and storm troopers in Portland. Then, Forrest Hylton on COVID-19, repression, corruption, and drug gangs in Latin America.

Our police system is a product of Cold War US imperialism too. Dan interviews Stuart Schrader on Badges Without Borders: How Global Counterinsurgency Transformed American Policing.Support this podcast with your money at patreon.com/TheDig

Every Saturday starting at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Michael Brooks have been broadcasting live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. This week features an interview with professor Vivek Chibber on the state and the left's road to power. Sadly and very unexpectedly, Michael passed away the Monday after recording this episode.---Read more on our website:"Remembering Our Friend and Comrade Michael Brooks" by Bhaskar Sunkara https://jacobinmag.com/2020/07/remembering-our-friend-and-comrade-michael-brooks"'Michael Brooks Was My Absolute Political Inspiration'," a series of reflections collected by Micah Uetricht https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/07/michael-brooks-viewers-listeners-reflections"Michael Brooks Was a True Internationalist" by Daniel Bessner https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/07/michael-brooks-internationalist-remembrance---Weekends archive on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxlNhP2f0kULVe45TbPaF-uLuMQYMJcLk

All of us at Jacobin are devastated and in deep shock about the untimely death of our collaborator, comrade, and friend Michael Brooks. Michael was truly a one-of-a-kind figure, warm and loving and smart and hilarious and completely irreplaceable. Jacobin's Meagan Day, Micah Uetricht, Luke Savage, and Ben Burgis talked about Michael's impact on them and legacy on the Left. We'll miss you, Michael. Bhaskar Sunkara's remembrance of Michael: https://jacobinmag.<wbr />com/2020/07/remembering-our-<wbr />friend-and-comrade-michael-<wbr />brooks Meagan's remembrance: https://<wbr />jacobinmag.com/2020/07/<wbr />michael-brooks-remembrance

Suzi talks to Joel Jordan and Constance Penley who make the case against school reopening for K-12 and the Universities. <u>JoelJordan</u>,ret<wbr />ired LAUSD teacher and former UTLA strategist, is helping to coordinate a coalition of the largest teacher unions in California who are leading the fight by teachers, parents, and students against school reopening at the K-12 level. The teachers and their allies have won an initial victory -- Los Angeles and San Diego counties have just announced they will not open in the Fall. The resurgence of the deadly pandemic in the region underscores the danger of going back to school until the curve is flattened and the disease brought under control, giving the unions a temporary breathing space. The Trump administration, along with its corporate and political allies, have made reopening the economy the only priority and are stepping up the pressure to reopen so parents can be freed from childcare responsibilities and go back to work. Joel Jordan fills us in on the class-wide counter-organizing that is taking place.Constance Penley, President of the Council of UC Faculty Associations and Professor at UC Santa Barbara discusses the rush to bring students back to campuses at the university level in some form this fall. The issues are somewhat different for higher education than for K-12, but faculties across the board have questioned their institutions, who have presented an ever changing series of plans, rationales and procedures for bringing people back to campus without explaining why this is the right approach -- and more importantly, have left faculty input out of the equation in making the decisions that will affect their livelihood and health security. Constance Penley and the Council of UC Faculty Associations are also fighting the Trump administration’s efforts to force in-person classes by threatening to expel international students who don’t attend physical classrooms. We get her take on what is behind this push and the fight to prevent putting everyone’s health at risk.

This is an incredible moment to learn about the Young Lords from historian Johanna Fernández, the author of The Young Lords: A Radical History.Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

Every Saturday starting at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Michael Brooks broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. On this episode, Michael is on break and Nando Vila is filling in. Ana and Nando speak with Nomi Prins, Journalist and author of Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World.Weekends on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxlNhP2f0kULVe45TbPaF-uLuMQYMJcLkBrooks on Twitter https://twitter.com/_michaelbrooksKasparian on Twitter https://twitter.com/AnaKasparian

Dan talks to @loggins__ and @MuseWendi about why people are reading White Fragility and ten books about racism, capitalism, and Black radicalism that you should read instead. Check out Left POCket Project @LeftPOC Blacks In and Out of the Left by Michael C Dawson Dig interview with Michael Dawson Democracy Remixed by Cathy Cohen Dig interview with Cathy Cohen, Jasson Perez, Malaika Jabali Mapping Diaspora: African American Roots Tourism in Brazil by Patricia de Santana Pinho Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life by Karen E. Fields and Barbara J. Fields Dig interview with the Fields sisters Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, Mississippi by Kali Akuno and Ajamu Nangwaya Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement by Akinyele Omowale Umoja The Meaning of Freedom by Angela Davis Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California by Ruth Wilson Gilmore

Things have been pretty bleak across the US lately, so Meagan Day and Micah Uetricht were eager to talk to a socialist who actually won something recently: Nikil Saval, a democratic socialist who recently won the Democratic Primary for a state senate seat in Pennsylvania's first district. A profile of Nikil: https://www.jacobinmag.<wbr />com/2020/05/pennsylvania-<wbr />nikil-saval-rick-krajewski-<wbr />reclaim-philadelphia Nikil's 2016 article about Bernie: https://nplusonemag.<wbr />com/issue-26/the-intellectual-<wbr />situation/canvassing/

In this episode, Gabe talks with Gavin Mueller about Luddism. (Alex's internet died, so she's not part of this one.) What can an insurrection of machine breaking tell us about how solidarity develops? How should we relate to technology, and what role does technology — and opposition to it — play in the development of solidarity? Secondary readings: Eric Hobsbawm, "The Machine Breakers," https://www.jstor.org/stable/<wbr />649989 Sophie Lewis, Full Surrogacy Now (https://www.versobooks.com/<wbr />books/2951-full-surrogacy-now) Salar Mohandesi, "Class Consciousness or Class Composition?" https://<wbr />guilfordjournals.com/doi/abs/<wbr />10.1521/siso.2013.77.1.72 Online library of Johnson-Forest Tendency writings: https://libcom.org/<wbr />tags/johnson%E2%80%93forest-<wbr />tendency

Aziz Rana interviews Dan Denvir on how policing and mass incarceration became core features of the war on immigrants and on his book All-American Nativism: How the Bipartisan War on Immigrants Explains Politics as We Know It.Please support this podcast wit $ at Patreon.com/TheDigBuy Dan's book at versobooks.com/books/2858-all-american-nativism

Suzi talks toRobert Brenner,who has just published “Escalating Plunder” in New Left Review 123, about the federal response to the shutdown of the economy in the wake of the coronavirus. The punchline is that the COVID-19 bailout, or Cares Act, not only escalates plunder, it is predation on steroids in a stalled economy in worsening decline. In other words, the bipartisan establishment has concluded that they can only intervene — and call it rescue — by underwriting the rip-off already in motion, bailing out the top 0.1 percent in the face of plunging production, employment, and profits. Brenner calls out predation. We get his analysis.

Debating a "dirty break" from the Democrats, with Kim Moody, Eric Blanc, and co-hosted by Meagan Day. You can read Eric’s article about the Minnesota Farmer-Labor party and dirty break strategy here: https://www.jacobinmag.<wbr />com/2017/12/democratic-party-<wbr />minnesota-farmer-labor-floyd-<wbr />olson Read Kim Moody’s rebuttal here: https://newpol.org/<wbr />dirty-break-for-independent-<wbr />political-action-or-a-way-to-<wbr />stay-stuck-in-the-mud/

Every Saturday starting at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Michael Brooks broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. This week, June 27, 2020, New York State Senator Julia Salazar joins the show to discuss democratic socialists' recent election wins as well as movements outside the electoral arena. Weekends on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxlNhP2f0kULVe45TbPaF-uLuMQYMJcLkBrooks on Twitter https://twitter.com/_michaelbrooksKasparian on Twitter https://twitter.com/AnaKasparian

Mike Davis on his classic book about why the US has long lacked strong socialist and labor politics. One recurrent answer: racism.Read Dan's essay on the moment: jacobinmag.com/2020/06/donald-trump-war-american-democracy-riots-coronavirusNot in the mood for a long, complex Dig interview? Check out Antibody, which is like commie This American Life: thedigradio.com/antibodySupport this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

On this episode, we offer readers an extra week to read Chapter Fourteen. Instead, we speak with Labour MP John McDonnell about the coronavirus pandemic, economic crises, and how he's liking The Making of the English Working Class on this reading.

Suzi talks to two student activist/leaders of #StudentsDeserve, Sarah Djato at Dorsey high school, and Asia Bryant, who just graduated from Hamilton High, about their organizing, in partnership with Black Lives Matter LA, to defund school police and reallocate the money ($70 million of the LAUSD budget) to bring in counselors, services, and programs that serve black and brown youth as “students, not suspects.” That idea has now been endorsed by UTLA (United Teachers of Los Angeles), and will be taken up at the LAUSD School Board meeting this week. Suzi then talks to Los Angeles Times legal affairs columnist, former US Attorney Harry Litman to discuss AG William Barr and President Trump against Manhattan US Attorney Geoffrey Berman. Friday night Barr announced Berman would resign, but Berman refused, and Saturday afternoon Trump fired Berman. But it doesn’t stop there, and Harry Litman helps us understand the dizzying array of legal and practical questions this raises. We also talk to Harry about the surprising decision on the Bostock v. Clayton Country Georgia case announced last week that saw our very conservative Supreme Court come to an unexpected rule, by a vote of 6-3 that says Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act forbids discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or transgender status — a hugely significant result.

Eric Reinhart on jails as COVID-19 spreaders (article here, AER article on pretrial detention here). Then, Erin Hatton on “coerced” workers, from prisoners to grad students.

Every Saturday starting at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Michael Brooks broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. The episode from June 20, 2020, features Sean Jacobs, founder and editor of Africa is a Country and associate professor of international affairs at The New School, to discuss recent BLM protests and their links to protests in Africa.Weekends on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxlNhP2f0kULVe45TbPaF-uLuMQYMJcLkBrooks on Twitter https://twitter.com/_michaelbrooksKasparian on Twitter https://twitter.com/AnaKasparian

A Dig special: the recording of a Zoom forum Dan hosted with leading defund police organizers from around the country. For more info:blackvisionsmn.orgbyp100.orgdaretowin.orgreclaimRI.orgblmla.orgIf you live in RI, support the fight for a people's budget: actionnetwork.org/petitions/say-no-to-a-brutal-austerity-budget-in-rhode-islandDan's essay on Trump's origins in ordinary bipartisan security politics: jacobinmag.com/2020/06/donald-trump-war-american-democracy-riots-coronavirus

In this episode, we talk with historian and socialist-feminist Sheila Rowbotham about her own political and intellectual development. Rowbotham was a close friend of Edward and Dorothy Thompson, a participant in the radical movements of the 1960s and 1970s, and a prominent political writer and historian. We also discuss Chapters 12 and 13: the different meanings of discipline in working-class life, the Irish presence, and class-struggle elections in ninteenth-century Westminster.References:Sheila Rowbotham, Hilary Wainwright, and Lynne Segal, Beyond the Fragments: Feminism and the Making of Socialism (https://books.google.com/<wbr />books/about/Beyond_the_<wbr />Fragments.html?id=<wbr />OlYqAAAAYAAJ&source=kp_book_<wbr />description)Sheila Rowbotham, Woman's Consciousness, Man's World (https://www.versobooks.com/<wbr />books/1768-woman-s-<wbr />consciousness-man-s-world)Sheila Rowbotham, Women, Resistance, and Revolution: A History of Women and Revolution in the Modern World (https://www.versobooks.<wbr />com/books/1558-women-<wbr />resistance-and-revolution)Sheila Rowbotham, Hidden from History: 300 Years of Women's Oppression and the Fight Against It (https://www.plutobooks.com/<wbr />9780904383560/hidden-from-<wbr />history/)"How Science Can Tell If Your Great-Grandparents Were Strikebreakers" https://www.<wbr />motherjones.com/environment/<wbr />2014/12/inquiring-minds-<wbr />christine-kenneally/Black Dwarf https://www.marxists.<wbr />org/history/etol/newspape/<wbr />black-dwarf/index.htm

Antibody is a narrative series about how Covid-19 has changed everything and nothing at all. In this episode: All Cops Are Idiots (featuring Kafui Attoh, you can buy his book here: ugapress.org/<wbr />book/9780820354217/rights-in-<wbr />transit) A Few Basic Demands (produced by Chenjerai Kumanyika (twitter.com/<wbr />catchatweetdown) After the Peak (by Karim Sariahmed (twitter.com/sariahmed<wbr />), along with Alex Azan, Belicia Ding, Nijmie Zakkiyyah Dzurinko , Vanessa K. Ferrel, Michelle Gonzalez, Musaub Khan, and Marc Shi) What We Talk About When We Talk About Mutual Aid (produced by Jackson Roach and Caroline Kanner (twitter.com/_<wbr />idontCaroline) Get in touch with DCH1 Amazonians United (facebook.<wbr />com/DCH1United) Support Put People First! Pennsylvania (putpeoplefirstpa.org) The mutual aid groups featured in this episode include: Ground Game LA (groundgamela.org) K Town For All (ktownforall.org) The Red Nation (therednation.org) <wbr />Brave Space Alliance (bravespacealliance.org) and the Indigenous Kinship Collective (indigenouskinshipcollective.<wbr />com). Further reading on mutual aid: Regan De Loggans' mutual aid zine (mutualaiddisasterrelief.org/<wbr />wp-content/uploads/2020/05/<wbr />LOGGANS-mutual-aid-zine.pdf) The complete text of Kropotkin's book Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (theanarchistlibrary.org/<wbr />library/petr-kropotkin-mutual-<wbr />aid-a-factor-of-evolution) Mutual Aid Hub (mutualaidhub.org)

Every Saturday starting at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Michael Brooks broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. This week, June 13, 2020, features the socialist councilwoman from Seattle, Kshama Sawant, who has been active at the recently formed Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ).Weekends on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxlNhP2f0kULVe45TbPaF-uLuMQYMJcLkBrooks on Twitter https://twitter.com/_michaelbrooksKasparian on Twitter https://twitter.com/AnaKasparian

Dan interviews returning guests Aslı Bâli and Aziz Rana on the long history behind the crisis of American imperial legitimation that has become so manifest amid the pandemic.Some works by Bâli and Rana cited in this interview:bostonreview.net/war-security-politics-global-justice/asl%C4%B1-u-b%C3%A2li-aziz-rana-sanctions-are-inhumane%E2%80%94now-and-alwayslawreview.uchicago.edu/publication/constitutionalism-and-american-imperial-imaginationPlease support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Chapters ten and eleven — "Standards and Experiences" and "The Transforming Power of the Cross" — plus guest Jane Humphries, professor of economic history at Oxford University.Supplementary Reading:Jane Humphries. ChildhoodandchildlabourintheBritishIndustrialRevolution(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010).

The demand to "defund the police" has become central to the protests that have kicked off all around the United States over the last two weeks. We talked with Chicago socialist city council members Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez and Jeanette Taylor about it. Rodriguez-Sanchez and Taylor are two of the four coauthors of the op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times calling to defund the police, which you can read here: https://chicago.<wbr />suntimes.com/2020/6/8/<wbr />21284037/chicago-police-<wbr />department-unfunding-cpd-city-<wbr />council-budget

Every Saturday starting at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Michael Brooks broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. Ana's out this week, June 6, 2020, but we have the writer Touré Reed to discuss recent protests, Amy Cooper, and race essentialism.Weekends on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxlNhP2f0kULVe45TbPaF-uLuMQYMJcLkBrooks on Twitter https://twitter.com/_michaelbrooksKasparian on Twitter https://twitter.com/AnaKasparian

Suzi talks to Philip V. McHarris about defunding and disbanding the police. Just two weeks ago the call to defund the police would have been thought of as hopelessly utopian. Now, after the public lynching of George Floyd on May 25, that demand is part of the national conversation. Mayor Garcetti in Los Angeles, along with mayors elsewhere, has said he'll redirect $250 million from the LAPD police to jobs, health, and other programs supporting communities of color. That would have been unthinkable before demonstrators marched to his house with one demand: "Defund the Police." The Minneapolis City Council has announced with a veto-proof majority that it will disband the police and start over. We get insights and innovative ideas for reform fromMcHarris, who has written widely on the questions of race, policing, and the criminal justice system.

Alex Vitale, author of The End of Policing, on why cops are being so brutal and what should be done with them. Then, Ben Tarnoff, co-founder of Logicmagazine, on tech worker organizing (essay here).

Antibody is a narrative series about how Covid-19 has changed everything and nothing at all.In this episode:The Corner (featuring Pablo Alvarado and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network)Stranger Pleasure (featuring Samuel Delany; produced by David Gutherz)One House in Oakland (produced by Sophie Kasakove)Role Call (produced by Andrea Long Chu)Support day laborer economic survival with a contribution at ndlon.org

Dan interviews Cathy Cohen, Jasson Perez, and Malaika Jabali on this uprising, the conditions that made it possible, and where it might be headed.Support Black Visions Collective at blackvisionsmn.orgCheck out Malaika's short film Left Out.

Every Saturday starting at 1 PM ET, Ana Kasparian and Michael Brooks broadcast live from the Jacobin YouTube channel. The guest on May 30, 2020: culture writer at The Athletic, Wosny Lambre on the protests against police brutality, politics in the NBA, and more.Weekends on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxlNhP2f0kULVe45TbPaF-uLuMQYMJcLkBrooks on Twitter https://twitter.com/_michaelbrooksKasparian on Twitter https://twitter.com/AnaKasparianLambre on Twitter https://twitter.com/BigWos

Antibody is a new narrative series about how Covid-19 has changed everything and nothing at all.In this episode:Zoom Canvass (featuring Nikil Saval)Hardwood Flesh (produced by Ari Mejia)Dial 3 to Admit Your Personal Failure (produced by Ian Lewis and Caroline Kanner)You Can't Go Home Again (written by Alex Press)The International Trans Person Helpline (produced by Cass Adair and Arlie Adlington)

We talked with longtime socialist thinker Leo Panitch about key socialist concepts beyond the basics. The conversation is based on Leo's book The Socialist Challenge Today: Syriza, Corbyn, Sanders (coauthored with Sam Gindin and Stephen Maher). You can read Eric Blanc's review of the book here: https://jacobinmag.com/<wbr />2020/05/the-socialist-<wbr />challenge-today-corbyn-sanders You can buy the book here: https://www.<wbr />haymarketbooks.org/books/1473-<wbr />the-socialist-challenge-today And you can watch Leo's lecture on Ralph Miliband here: https://www.youtube.com/<wbr />watch?v=oBJR3xfmgA4

From The Dig and Jacobin: a new narrative series about how COVID-19 has changed everything and nothing at all. The first of three episodes is coming soon.

Chapters eight and nine of EP Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class. Additional reading: Aaron Benanav, "Automation and the Future of Work—1" https://newleftreview.<wbr />org/issues/II119/articles/<wbr />aaron-benanav-automation-and-<wbr />the-future-of-work-1 Aaron Benanav, "Automation and the Future of Work—2"https://newleftreview.<wbr />org/issues/II120/articles/<wbr />aaron-benanav-automation-and-<wbr />the-future-of-work-2 E.P. Thompson, "Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism" https://www.sv.<wbr />uio.no/sai/english/research/<wbr />projects/anthropos-and-the-<wbr />material/Intranet/economic-<wbr />practices/reading-group/texts/<wbr />thompson-time-work-discipline-<wbr />and-industrial-capitalism.pdf

Suzi talks to historians Mike Davis and Jon Wiener, touching on some of the many intersecting stories they tell in their long awaited and absolutely compelling history, Set the Night on Fire: Los Angeles in the Sixties.Here we see Los Angeles as a hotbed of political, social and cultural upheaval — from the Watts rebellion to the Chicano Blowouts, the anti-war movement, youth protests and strikes, the women’s and gay movements, the cultural flowering and media expressions, including KPFK, the Los Angeles Free Press and the Ashgrove — as well as the ferocious, racist and violent police response at every turn. Their account of the ever increasing mass protests and the movements behind them convey that “special excitement that occurs when a group of people can see and visibly measure their potential power for the first time.”

Dan interviews anthropologist Adia Benton on the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa and what its politics reveal about the Covid-19 pandemic today.Please support this podcast with your money at patreon.com/thdig

We're on to Part II of The Making of the English Working Class. We cover chapter six and seven--"Exploitation" and "The Field Labourers," plus discuss the 1986 film Comrades, which follows the Tolpuddle Martyrs, a group of laborers who were transported to Australia for organizing an early trade union.No secondary reading this week, though if you can find Comrades online, watch it! In the United States at least, it's available on Vimeo.

Thea Riofrancos, co-author of this book, on why the Green New Deal is more urgent than ever. Then, Alexander Zaitchik, author of this article, on how the profit-driven drug industry is an obstacle to developing a vaccine.

Dan interviews Frank Rosenthal on the history of the radical science organization Science for the People and Nafis Hasan on everything about a left-wing politics of science.Subscribe to Science for the People at magazine.ScienceForThePeople.orgPlease support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

With guest Asad Haider, we discuss at length the theoretical polemic of E.P. Thompson against Louis Althusser. What was the historical context for each side of this conflict (in which Althusser never participated directly)? What was Thompson’s critique? Asad argues that Thompson did not understand Althusser correctly, or even provide a satisfactory conceptual account of what was best about his own empirical research. The two, may have been closer to each other than Thompson understood. A humanist, he preferred the young Marx; Althusser, an anti-humanist, argued systematically for the importance of the mature Marx. Both, however, were reacting to the Stalinist ossification of their respective national Communist parties.Readings discussed in this episode:Louis Althusser, For Marxhttps://www.versobooks.com/<wbr />books/35-for-marxLouis Althusser, “Contradiction and Overdetermination” (from For Marx)https://www.marxists.org/<wbr />reference/archive/althusser/<wbr />1962/overdetermination.htmLouis Althusser, Etienne Balibar, Roger Establet, Pierre Macherey, and Jacques Rancière, Reading Capitalhttps://www.versobooks.com/<wbr />books/2042-reading-capitalLouis Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”https://www.marxists.org/<wbr />reference/archive/althusser/<wbr />1970/ideology.htmPerry Anderson, “Origins of the Present Crisis”https://newleftreview.org/<wbr />issues/I23/articles/perry-<wbr />anderson-origins-of-the-<wbr />present-crisisPerry Anderson, Arguments Within English Marxismhttps://www.versobooks.com/<wbr />books/576-arguments-within-<wbr />english-marxismAsad Haider, Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump https://www.versobooks.com/<wbr />books/2716-mistaken-identityKarl Marx, Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economyhttps://www.marxists.org/<wbr />archive/marx/works/1859/<wbr />critique-pol-economy/appx1.htmE.P. Thompson, “The Peculiarities of the English”<u>https://www.marxists.org/<wbr />archive/thompson-ep/1965/<wbr />english.htm</u>E.P. Thompson, “An Open Letter to Leszek Kolakowski” https://www.marxists.org/<wbr />archive/thompson-ep/1973/<wbr />kolakowski.htmE.P. Thompson, “The Poverty of Theory:Or, An Orrery of Errors” https://www.marxists.org/<wbr />archive/thompson-ep/1978/pot/<wbr />intro.htmE.P. Thompson, “Outside the Whale”https://www.marxists.org/<wbr />archive/thompson-ep/1978/<wbr />outside-whale.htm

Dan is playing catch up. Here's a fav interview from the archives: critical theorist Nancy Fraser on how a total analysis of capitalism requires analyzing capitalism's totality, including socially reproductive work that makes possible the world that capitalism exploits. This is painfully relevant today as people everywhere do the work of staying at home and social distancing to beat this pandemic while capitalists reap the rewards of the world's reproduction.Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

We cover Chapter Five, but first have an extensive discussion of the debate between Thompson and Perry Anderson and Tom Nairn over the history of social class and economic development in England, with sociologist Jonah Stuart-Brundage. What should we make of liberalism in England at the end of the eighteenth century and what it meant for the prospects of revolution? Secondary readings: Perry Anderson, “Origins of the Present Crisis” https://newleftreview.org/<wbr />issues/I23/articles/perry-<wbr />anderson-origins-of-the-<wbr />present-crisis Perry Anderson, “Socialism and Pseudo-Empiricism,” https://newleftreview.org/<wbr />issues/I35/articles/perry-<wbr />anderson-socialism-and-pseudo-<wbr />empiricism Arno Mayer, The Persistence of the Old Regime: Europe to the Great War https://www.versobooks.com/<wbr />books/475-the-persistence-of-<wbr />the-old-regime Tom Nairn, “The British Political Elite” https://newleftreview.org/<wbr />issues/I23/articles/tom-nairn-<wbr />the-british-political-elite Tom Nairn, “The British Working Class” https://newleftreview.org/<wbr />issues/I24/articles/tom-nairn-<wbr />the-english-working-class Tom Nairn, “The Anatomy of the Labour Party: Part I” https://newleftreview.org/<wbr />issues/I27/articles/tom-nairn-<wbr />the-nature-of-the-labour-<wbr />party-part-i Tom Nairn, “The Anatomy of the Labour Party: Part II” https://newleftreview.org/<wbr />issues/I28/articles/tom-nairn-<wbr />the-nature-of-the-labour-<wbr />party-part-ii E.P. Thompson, “The Peculiarities of the English” https://www.marxists.org/<wbr />archive/thompson-ep/1965/<wbr />english.htm#n1