Jacobin Radio

The Democratic Socialists of America's biennial convention is in Atlanta this weekend. The rise of the DSA is one of the most promising developments in American politics in at least half a century. I talked to Andrew Sernatinger, a member of Madison DSA, an elected delegate to the convention, and a rank-and-file member of Teamsters 695, about what's at stake at the convention.You can read Andrew's pieces about the convention and the state of DSA in New Politics: https://newpol.org/dsa-2019-convention-breakdown/ https://newpol.org/dsas-growing-pains/Also, if you're going to be in Atlanta, come to the Jacobin "Our Socialism Is International" event, featuring leftist guests from Peru, Sudan, Brazil, Japan, Germany, the Philippines, and Yemen. https://www.facebook.com/events/489420788296872/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dan is taking his first week off ever in Dig history to finish his book. Here's a classic from deep in the archives: our first interview with Aziz Rana, on his book The Two Faces of American Freedom, aka episode 62. If you've already heard this one and are hungry for more content we've got everything organized by date, guest and topic at www.thedigradio.com.Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

 Suzi talks to historian Myrna Santiago and immigrants' rights specialist Alicia Rusoja, who just returned from a week at the border, where they talked to men, women, and child migrants, sat in immigration court, and spoke to support groups — as well as deported veterans, and deported mothers of Dreamers in Tijuana. Their reflections and revelations include the way abuse and corruption are adding to the horrors these migrants face. Suzi then talks to Daniel Finn about British politics: while the Tories are deciding whether Boris Johnson will be their next leader, the Labour Party has its own dilemmas — over its attitude to Brexit, but also how to deal with the surprisingly effective smear campaign against Labour’s left-wing leadership, in particular leader Jeremy Corbyn. Finn looks at the underlying controversy, and as he wrote in Jacobin, despite Corbyn’s unprecedented efforts to expel antisemites from party ranks (no such similar move in the Conservative Party), Corbyn’s critics will never be satisfied — th

Dan's lengthy interview with two brilliant Chilean social movement organizers: Alondra Carrillo and Pablo Abufom. Carrillo organizes in the country's massive feminist movement. Abufom works in the labor-backed movement for a just pension system.Read Dan's interview with Daniel Jadue, the Communist mayor of Recoleta, in Jacobin.Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.comPlease support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Professor of philosophy Bernat Tort on Puerto Rico’s economic and political crisis. Then, sociologist Sahan Karatasli on Turkey’s economic and political crisis. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It's gotten heated this last week between Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the squad, on the one hand, and Nancy Pelosi, centrist Democrats, and the House Democratic Party leadership on the other. But this conflict isn't empty intra-party bickering. It's an actual political and moral battle, with one side, AOC's, on the right side of history and one, Pelosi's, not.Miles Kampf-Lassin wrote about the battle and what it means, in an article called "They're Not Just Mad at AOC — They're Scared of Her." https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/07/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-aoc-nancy-pelosi-democratic-partyWe also mentioned a recent Washington Post profile of AOC's chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, that's worth a read: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/magazine/wp/2019/07/10/feature/how-saikat-chakrabarti-became-aocs-chief-of-change/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dan interviews Sophie Lewis about her new book Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family. Something is deeply wrong with commercial surrogacy—but it's just not what you might think. What's wrong is the brute labor exploitation taking place at the reproductive crossroads of a racialized global capitalist order.Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at versobooks.comSupport this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The New York Times recently attacked Bernie Sanders’s record on solidarity with Nicaragua in the 1980s. It probably won’t be the last time we see red-baiting attacks against Sanders in the election season, so it’s important to establish what exactly happened in Central America in the 1980s, how brutal US intervention in the region was, what the Central American solidarity movement of that era looked like, and what side of history was the right one to be on. Hilary Goodfriend discusses all of this in her recent article ”Why Bernie Sanders Was Right to Oppose US Intervention in Central America.”Hilary is a doctoral student in Latin American Studies at the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City. You can read her article here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/07/bernie-sanders-central-america-sandinista. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

 Suzi does three stories on this episode of Jacobin Radio, beginning with Katie Halper's expose in Jacobin of the New York Times's problem with Bernie Sanders, evident in their coverage. The problem is their correspondent Sydney Ember, who has a long record of unfairly attacking Sanders — while neglecting to mention that the sources she quotes as objective authorities are corporate lobbyists and austerity ideologues. Suzi then looks at two articles in the new journal Commune, first with M. E. O’Brien. Her article, “Junkie Communism” questions how the socialist project emphasizes the dignity of work as its basis, but leaves out those who are unable to maintain stable employment — and posits a politics that includes those whose lives have been broken by the cruel conditions imposed on us all. Suzi then talks to Chloe Watlington about her powerful piece “Who Owns Tomorrow,” a devastating and revealing look at deaths of despair — from opioids, alcohol, and unemployment in crumbling neoliberal America, an all-too-

For much of the twentieth century, Cold War politics defined socialism as the antithesis of democracy. Today, an insurgent democratic-socialist movement is transforming US politics. It is socialism that is at the forefront of a fight for a radical deepening of democracy, one in which ordinary people exercise control over our political, economic, and social lives — and one in which the people is expansively defined to include those excluded by racist immigration law and mass incarceration. Dan discusses this, and more, with filmmaker and writer Astra Taylor.Read Astra's article on socialism here: newrepublic.com/article/153804/reclaiming-future-growing-appeal-socialism-age-inequalityCheck out her film, What is Democracy? on your preferred streaming service.And her book, Democracy May Not Exist, But We'll Miss It When It's Gone, here: us.macmillan.com/books/9781250179845.Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Elizabeth Warren is, by American political standards, a very strong presidential candidate. She has taken up a robust domestic social-democratic agenda — one that, while not as strong as Bernie Sanders’s, is pretty damn good.Foreign policy, however, is a different story. Here, Elizabeth Warren is far from the most hawkish in her party. But she still leaves much to be desired, as Sarah Lazare recently wrote in a piece titled “Elizabeth Warren Can and Should Do Better on Foreign Policy.”Sarah Lazare is a web editor at In These Times. You can read her piece on Elizabeth Warren’s foreign policy here. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What is a socialist society going to look like? Like, actually look like? We have to have some answers to this question. Luckily, Sam Gindin has some. He talks to Micah about his article in Catalyst, “Socialism for Realists,” which you can read here.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dan's lengthy interview with Nick Estes on his remarkable book Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance. The problem that settler colonialism was repeatedly trying to solve by unleashing such terrific violence — through massacres, by nearly eliminating the buffalo, in reservation confinement, in dominating the Missouri River — was not just indigenous people being in the way but also the existence of a larger relationship between indigenous people and the land, water, and animals. The history of resisting this capitalist and colonialist dispossession has endured through the Water Protectors' struggle at Standing Rock — which will, in retrospect, be remembered as a pivotal moment in the global struggle against climate catastrophe.Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com.Please support this podcast with money at Patreon.com/TheDig. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out

Bernie Sanders has been talking a lot about the New Deal lately, mentioning it in his recent speech on democratic socialism. Ironically, the response from many liberals has been to argue that the New Deal wasn’t really socialism. Jacobin’s Seth Ackerman has a few quibbles. Plus, we talk about why the idea that the New Deal was racist doesn’t fully capture its relationship to white supremacy.Read Seth’s article on Bernie’s New Deal rhetoric here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/06/new-deal-socialism-bernie-sanders-democratic-primary Read an interview with New Deal historian Richard Walker, who discusses the charge that the New Deal was racist, plus many other aspects of the New Deal’s wide-ranging policies, here: https://jacobinmag.com/2019/03/green-new-deal-roosevelt-public-works See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this episode of Jacobin Radio, Suzi focuses on the intensifying US-Iranian crisis and war brinkmanship that saw us about ten minutes away from military strikes, before Trump pulled back. We get MIT historian Pouya Alimaghum’s analysis of the crisis, the implications and goals of the increasing bluster and ever more draconian sanctions, and what they mean for domestic dissent in Iran. Then Suzi talks to UCI professor of Chinese history Jeff Wasserstrom, who has just returned from Hong Kong and has written in the Atlantic about the gigantic protest movement that was met with extreme violence, only bringing more people into the streets. The protestors were fighting against a bill that would allow the extradition of suspects to mainland China, a further threat to Hong Kong’s partial autonomy, and for the right to assemble without persecution, to speak freely, and enjoy freedom of information. For the moment the bill has been shelved, thanks to the massive protests in the streets, but not the efforts to erode t

Russia intervened and Trump is a criminal who committed obstruction of justice and is surrounded by constant criminality. But it's no doubt also true that this situation and the hawkish liberal response to it have dangerously damaged US-Russia relations. At the core of Western misunderstanding is the way we think about Vladimir Putin, which is what Dan is discussing today with Tony Wood, the author of Russia Without Putin: Money, Power and the Myths of the New Cold War.Thanks to Verso. Check out their massive left-wing book selection at versobooks.comGo to the Socialism 2019 conference in Chicago July 4-7! Register now at socialismconference.orgSupport this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Political scientist Rune Møller Stahl on the Danish elections, which the Left won but partly by going anti-immigrant. Then, Heidi Matthews, author of this article, on Canada’s genocidal treatment of its indigenous people. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There is perhaps no more depressing situation in Western Europe than that which prevails in Italy: a coalition government between the far-right Lega party and the now subordinate, bizarre, amorphously anti-corruption, internet-fetishist, pseudo-directly democratic Five Star Movement. In other words, Italian politics is dominated by a viciously racist anti-migrant politics; the left, along with most traditional forces, is in utter disarray. Today, Lega, led by Interior Minister Mateo Salvini, runs Italian politics. But the bad news is maybe also the good news: Salvini has not solved Italy's deep rooted economic problems, and so it's quite possible that the very same instability that abetted his rise will ultimately lead to his downfall. Dan interviews David Broder, Lorenzo Zamponi and Marta Fana.Thanks to Verso. Check out their massive left-wing book selection at versobooks.comSupport this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In Spanish politics, the center-left Socialist Party has demolished the conservative Popular Party and checked risk of a major far-right surge. But meanwhile, the once very plausible-feeling dream of an insurgent radical left Podemos gaining power has faded. And fast. Dan discusses the Spanish situation with Carlos Delclós and Magda Bandera.Go to the Socialism 2019 conference in Chicago July 4-7! Register now at socialismconference.orgCheck out Next Left, a new podcast from The Nation magazine: thenation.com/next-leftSupport this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Part two of our discussion with Eric Blanc on his new book Red State Revolt: The Teachers Strike Wave and Working-Class Politics. We discuss the role of a "militant minority" of rank-and-file radicals in Arizona and West Virginia's teachers strikes — as well as what it means when that militant minority wasn't present, as in Oklahoma.This episode is of particular interest to rank-and-file union members who are interested in making their unions more democratic and militant, as well as members of socialist groups who support unions but want to figure out how to get personally involved in the labor movement.Read Micah's article (coauthored with Barry Eidlin) in Labor Studies Journal, "US Union Revitalization and the Missing 'Militant Minority,'" here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0160449X19828470 (Sorry, you'll need academic access.)Buy Eric's book here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2955-red-state-revolt See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.