Jacobin Radio

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.com/2020/05/pennsylvania-nikil-saval-rick-krajewski-reclaim-philadelphiaNikil's 2016 article about Bernie: https://nplusonemag.com/issue-26/the-intellectual-situation/canvassing/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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/649989Sophie Lewis, Full Surrogacy Now (https://www.versobooks.com/books/2951-full-surrogacy-now)Salar Mohandesi, "Class Consciousness or Class Composition?" https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/abs/10.1521/siso.2013.77.1.72Online library of Johnson-Forest Tendency writings: https://libcom.org/tags/johnson%E2%80%93forest-tendency See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Suzi talks to Robert 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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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.com/2017/12/democratic-party-minnesota-farmer-labor-floyd-olsonRead Kim Moody’s rebuttal here: https://newpol.org/dirty-break-for-independent-political-action-or-a-way-to-stay-stuck-in-the-mud/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 surprisin

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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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/books/about/Beyond_the_Fragments.html?id=OlYqAAAAYAAJ&source=kp_book_description)Sheila Rowbotham, Woman's Consciousness, Man's World (https://www.versobooks.com/books/1768-woman-s-consciousness-man-s-world)Sheila Rowbotham, Women, Resistance, and Revolution: A History of Women and Revolution in the Modern World (https://www.versobooks.com/books/1558-women-resistance-and-revolution)S

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/book/9780820354217/rights-in-transit)A Few Basic Demands (produced by Chenjerai Kumanyika (twitter.com/catchatweetdown)After the Peak (by Karim Sariahmed (twitter.com/sariahmed), 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/_idontCaroline)Get in touch with DCH1 Amazonians United (facebook.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) Brave Space Alliance (bravespacealliance.org) and the Indigenous Kinship Collective (indigenouskinshipcollective.com)

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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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. Childhood and child labour in the British Industrial Revolution (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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.suntimes.com/2020/6/8/21284037/chicago-police-department-unfunding-cpd-city-council-budget See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 from McHarris, who has written widely on the questions of race, policing, and the criminal justice system. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.