Jacobin Radio

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

Michael Seltzer is a cultural anthropologist and professor emeritus at Oslo University in Norway. There is a sharp contrast in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic between Norway, Finland, and Denmark, where isolation and quarantine are in effect, as compared to Sweden, where the economy is open, and the death rate is much higher. Mike says learning from the experience of Scandinavia is instructive for the United States as some states open for business, while others stay locked down. Mike looks at the history and politics behind these different approaches. Michael Goldfield<font color="#000000"> discusses his new book,</font>The Southern Key: Class Race & Radicalism in the 1930s and 1940s. He argues that the political economic evolution of the South has been the key to determining the peculiar nature of American politics. Today the South is the center of reaction, leading the fight against choice, women and LGBTQ rights, the right to unionize — and even in the fight against the lockdown and quarantine necessary to halt the spread of coronavirus. It didn’t have to be this way and Goldfield holds that the experience (and failure) of organizing the working class in the South explains the origins of the current state of the United States and the world; and that the defeats from that time closed off the possibilities for meaningful class and anti-racist politics — as well as for a successful labor movement for decades to come.

No book better captures what it's like to be a socialist who has jumped headlong into the fight for a better world than Vivian Gornick's The Romance of American Communism. Thankfully, Verso has reissued it after the book was out of print for decades. Micah Uetricht talks to Alyssa Battistoni, Sean Estelle, and Meagan Day about it. You can buy Romance from Verso here: https://www.versobooks.<wbr />com/books/3110-the-romance-of-<wbr />american-communism Read Alyssa's review here: https://www.<wbr />dissentmagazine.org/article/<wbr />bad-romance Buy Bigger than Bernie for just $12.95 here: https://jacobinmag.com/<wbr />store/product/69

Dan interviews Aaron Benanav, who argues that the problem isn't that robots are stealing our jobs but rather that capitalist growth is finding its limits and making jobs worse.Read "Automation and the Future of Work" in New Left Review. Parts one and two.Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig.

We cover chapters three and four—"Satan's Strongholds" and "The Free-Born Englishman." With guest John Bohstedt (author of The Politics of Provisions: Food Riots, Moral Economy, and Market Transition in England, 1550-1850) we discuss the history and logic of riots in early modern England: why did riots occur so frequently? What did they mean? And how did they relate to the widely held ideas about English liberties, which both contributed to and inhibited the development of popular radicalism? Secondary Readings: John Bohstedt, Riots and Community Politics in England and Wales, 1790–1810. John Bohstedt, The Politics of Provisions: Food Riots, Moral Economy, and Market Transition in England, 1550–1850. Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France. Douglas Hay, Peter Linebaugh, John G. Rule, E.P. Thompson, and Cal Winslow, Albion's Fatal Tree: Crime and Society in Eighteenth-Century England. Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution. George Rudé, The Crowd in History: A Study of Popular Disturbances in France and England, 1730–1848. Charles Tilly, "Collective Violence in European Perspective." E.P. Thompson, "The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century.” E.P. Thompson, Whigs and Hunters: The Origins of the Black Act.

There are too many bad takes out there about the end of the Bernie Sanders campaign. Thankfully, Hadas Thier and Paul Heideman wrote one that is good: "Bernie's Campaign Strategy Wasn't the Problem." Read it here: https://jacobinmag.com/<wbr />2020/04/bernie-sanders-<wbr />campaign-strategy-democratic-<wbr />party-biden-trump Find Hadas's book here: https://www.<wbr />haymarketbooks.org/books/1481-<wbr />a-people-s-guide-to-capitalism And Paul's book here: https://www.<wbr />haymarketbooks.org/books/946-<wbr />class-struggle-and-the-color-<wbr />line And you can still get Micah Uetricht and Meagan Day's 'Bigger Than Bernie' for only $12.95 from Jacobin: https://jacobinmag.<wbr />com/store/product/69

Vijay Prashad on China (and Sinophobia), Kerala, and the crucial importance of social organization. Then, Meagan Day and Micah Uetricht, authors of Bigger than Bernie, on Bernie Sanders, socialism, electoralism, and where it all goes from here.

Dan interviews Meagan Day and Micah Uetricht, the authors of Bigger Than Bernie: How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism, to assess the campaign and the way forward.Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Suzi talks with her brother Irv Weissman, director of Stanford University’s Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine about the science and politics of coronavirus, and with Sheheryar Kaoosji, director of the Warehouse Workers Resource Center, about the dangerous working conditions at Amazon fulfillment centers and the threat they pose to the company’s workers and to public health. Irv explains why coronavirus is so devastating, how our immune system has responded to it, and why the disease is more dangerous for those who are older. He also discusses the fragility of our public health infrastructure, what safe practices are needed to protect the population now, and the barriers to scientific research posed today by the political and religious right. Sheheryar reports on the walkouts taking place by Amazon workers in the Inland Empire, and elsewhere around the country over the lack of safety equipment and practices in their workplaces.

Yanis Varoufakis talks about life under COVID-19, the economic crisis, vultures stripping Greece, and democratizing the European Union (includes bonus audio clip of Jim Cramer recalling his Trotskyist past).

Dan interviews the makers of a new podcast series telling the history of the Iraq War.Blowback is available only on Stitcher Premium—and for a month you can listen for free. Go to stitcherpremium.com and sign up with the code BLOWBACK.Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

We cover chapters one and two — "Members Unlimited" and "Christian Apollyon" — on this week's episode. Rachel Foxley, a professor of history at the University of Reading and author of The Levellers: Radical Political Thought in the English Revolution, joins us to talk about the English Revolution. Secondary Reading: Rachel Foxley, The Levellers (Manchester University Press, 2013). Christopher Hill, The Experience of Defeat(Verso, 2017). Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker, The Many-Headed Hydra(Verso, 2014). CB Macpherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism (Oxford University Press, 2011). Barrington Moore, Jr., Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (Beacon Press, 1993). Ellen Meiksins Wood, Democracy Against Capitalism(Cambridge University Press, 1995).

Dan interviews historian Kim Phillips-Fein about her book Fear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics and about how the destruction of social democracy made today's city where coronavirus is killing its poor and working-class people.In other news: Dan's Jacobin essay on keeping the Bernie infrastructure alive is here and the volunteer petition to do so, which you should sign, is here.Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Welcome to Casualties of History, a podcast from Jacobin magazine. We’ll be working our way through EP Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class. In this first episode, Alex and Gabe introduce themselves and cover the book’s preface, as well as outline the context in which it was written. Who was Thompson, and what was he aiming to do in writing this book? Who was he arguing with, and why?Reference is made to secondary literature:Perry Anderson, “Origins of the Present Crisis,” New Left Review 1, no. 23 (Jan-Feb 1964).EP Thompson, “The Peculiarities of the English,” Socialist Register (1965). Thompson, “Time, Work Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism,” Past & Present no. 38 (Dec 1967).Frederick Cooper, “Work, class and empire: An African historian's retrospective on E. P. Thompson,” Social History 20, no. 2 (1995).Geoff Eley, A Crooked Line(University of Michigan, 2006).Madeleine Davis, “Reappraising British socialist humanism,” Journal of Political Ideologies 18, no. 1 (2013).Davis, “Edward Thompson's Ethics and Activism 1956–1963: Reflections on the Political Formation of The Making of the English Working Class,” Contemporary British History 28, no. 4 (2014).

Bernie Sanders is out of the race. We can’t go on; we must go on. Micah talked about it with Jacobin contributor Eric Blanc and Democratic Socialists of America National Political Committee member Marianela D’Aprile. Read Eric’s piece on Bernie dropping out here:https://jacobinmag.com/2020/<wbr />04/bernie-sanders-campaign-<wbr />supporters-2020-election Buy ‘Bigger than Bernie’ here:https://jacobinmag.com/store/<wbr />product/69

Dan interviews veteran organizer Jasson Perez and journalist Sarah Jaffe on left organizing amid covid and where it might go.Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Suzi talks to James K. Galbraith on the economic policies we need, and Aaron Benanav on the crisis of unemployment. James K Galbraithresponds to the multiple crises and challenges brought by the coronavirus pandemic, laying out the economic policy we need now, and the mobilization necessary to get it. He proposes concrete measures, like a Health Finance Corporation, that could be an efficient one-stop shop for all the resources needed. We ask why the economy as currently organized has been unable to deal with the challenges of the pandemic. Galbraith's watchwords: solidarity, organization, and determination.Aaron Benanav writes about employment, especially the irregular, informal and precarious forms of employment — the ones that fall through the large holes in the shredded safety net. His article, “Crisis and Recovery” looks at the cataclysmic economic crisis unfolding in tandem with the public health crisis. We get his findings.

'Bigger than Bernie: How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism' is out this week, and coauthors Micah Uetricht and Meagan Day are talking about it today. Buy it from Jacobin for $12.95 here: https://jacobinmag.com/<wbr />store/product/69

Dan interviews Amy Kapczynski and Gregg Gonsalves on the politics of public health and what we can learn from ACT UP.Please support The Dig with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

Dan interviews New York magazine writer Eric Levitz on the big corporate bailout that gave workers precious little to survive the corona crisis.Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Dan interviews Marxist economist Grace Blakeley on coronavirus economics.Please support this podcast with money at Patreon.com/TheDig

David Himmelstein of Physicians for a National Health Program and CUNY on how US health policy got us to this desperate pass. Then, Helen Yaffe on Cuban interferon and COVID-19, and the country’s biotech industry and health system (YUP article here).

Podcasting in the time of coronavirus: Suzi's new episode of Jacobin Radio features interviews with Marxist greats Mike Davis and Robert Brenner. Mike Davis is writing widely on the COVID-19 pandemic in Jacobin and the Nation. Fifteen years ago, Davis published The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu, and he sees the coronavirus pandemic as the familiar monster now at our door. We get his views on the huge challenges coronavirus poses for humanity, and the impotence of global capitalism in the face of biological crisis. He calls it a “Medical Katrina” that exposes the woeful unpreparedness of our disinvested public health system as well as the stark class divide of health care in the United States. <o:p></o:p> Suzi then turns to Robert Brenner for his analysis of the deepening crisis and its political implications. Brenner says that the economic meltdown was triggered by COVID-19 but not caused by it. We get his account of the politics — that is of the way wealth is now attained by political rather than the old-fashioned means: how an alliance of top corporate managers and the very rich, plus leading politicians from both political parties, have rigged the political economy in favor of the 1 percent. It is from the standpoint of this transition from capitalism (back) to feudalism that we need to understand how the crisis is unfolding and the various political responses to it, from the establishment and from the Left. <o:p></o:p>

Coronavirus is decimating the planet right now, and it's made far worse by the fact that we don't have a public healthcare system. We talked to Adam Gaffney, president of Physicians for a National Health Program and a doctor at Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School, about this. Forgive the self-promo in a time of society-wide breakdown, but: the book by host Micah Uetricht and Jacobin staff writer Meagan Day, Bigger than Bernie: How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism, has had its release date bumped up to March 24. Please preorder it! It's 20% off from Verso: https://www.versobooks.<wbr />com/books/3167-bigger-than-<wbr />bernie