Jacobin Radio

Two interviews on the results of the May 26 European Parliamentary elections, which did not cleanly match predictions that there would be a further shift to to authoritarian hard-right parties. The biggest losers across the continent were the center-right neoliberal mainstream parties, but the shift to the Right was not as pronounced as feared. First, Sebastian Budgen, contributing editor for Jacobin, analyzes the election across Europe, especially in France, where the failed policies of the center were critical in understanding the results. We also get his take on the continuing protest and promise of the gilets jaunes social movement. Then Kevin Ovenden takes a deeper look at the vote in Great Britain, where the upset couldn’t have been more pronounced in the wake of the repeated failure by the Tories’ Theresa May to implement Brexit. The Conservative Party had its worst result in history, but Labour also lost votes, as Jeremy Corbyn tried to bridge the divide between those in favor and those against Brexit

The radical left has been unable to electorally capitalize on the Yellow Vest movement, a massive revolt against a vicious, unequal and alienating neoliberal order. Instead, French electoral politics has pit an insurgent far-right against a zombie liberal center that presents itself as a bulwark against the nationalist tide. Dan interviews Sebastian Budgen and Danièle Obono, a member of the National Assembly with La France insoumise.Check out War over Peace: One Hundred Years of Israel's Militaristic Nationalism by Uri Ben-Eliezer ucpress.edu/book/9780520304345/war-over-peaceSupport this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Brexit has so dominated UK politics that it has put the Labour Party in a profoundly difficult and perhaps untenable position of strategic ambiguity toward how to handle the never-ending matter of leaving the EU. Today, in part two of our five-part series on European politics, Dan discusses this all with Grace Blakeley, Maya Goodfellow, and Richard Seymour.Thanks to Verso Books, which has loads of great left-wing titles 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.

This week and next, we're bringing you five episodes on European politics. Today, we're starting things off with Chris Bickerton and Jerome Roos for an overview of the European situation and the debate on the European left over how to approach Europe and the EU. Then, an interview on British politics with Grace Blakeley, Maya Goodfellow, and Richard Seymour. After that, a discussion of French politics with Sebastian Budget and Danièle Obono, a member of France's National Assembly with the left-wing La France insoumise. Then, an interview on Spanish politics with Carlos Delclós and Magda Bandera. And finally, an interview with David Broder and Marta Fana on Italy.Thanks to n+1. To get 25% off a one-year subscription, go to nplusonemag.com/thedig and enter THEDIG at checkoutCheck 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.

The teachers strike wave of the last year and a half is the most important development in US working-class politics in decades. And nobody has covered that strike wave closer than Eric Blanc.Eric has been Jacobin's man on the ground for most of these strikes, and he was there when they kicked off in West Virginia, then spread to Arizona and Oklahoma. (Since then, he's written many articles about strikes in Denver, Oakland, Los Angeles, Baton Rouge, and elsewhere.)He wrote the "red-state" strike wave in a new book, Red State Revolt: The Teachers Strikes and Working-Class Politics, published by Verso as part of the Jacobin series. I can't recommend this book enough — it's one of the best labor books published in recent years in the United States, of interest both to rank-and-file workers looking to organize their workplaces but also anyone seeking to understand how and why these strikes came about.This is the first of two Vast Majority episodes with Eric. This one talks about the role of the Bernie Sanders camp

US Rep. Rashida Tlaib on the local struggles that guide her work on behalf of the working class in Congress, the urgent need for a politics that puts people over profit, the question of impeachment, and why American people are coming around to supporting a free Palestine.Go to the Socialism 2019 conference in Chicago July 4-7! Register now at socialismconference.org Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Tim Shorrock (Nation page here) on the US conflict with North Korea. Then, Vijay Prashad, director of the Tricontinental Institute, on Modi’s recent victory in India. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dan has in-depth discussion on Bernie's approach to race and what he must do to win over Black voters with Malaika Jabali and Wendi Muse. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Sanders isn't unpopular with Black voters. In fact, he has done rather well with young Black people. But to win the primary and beat Biden, he must do a lot better. In particular, Malaika and Wendi argue that Bernie must integrate racial justice into the core of his class struggle agenda, rather than emphasizing it as a separate and siloed issue.Read Dan's critique of Bernie's immigration agenda jacobinmag.com/2019/04/bernie-sanders-immigrant-rights-border-policyThanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.comGo to the Socialism 2019 conference in Chicago July 4-7! Register for the early-bird rate now at socialismconference.org Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Here, before a live audience at United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) headquarters, Suzi talks to Canadian sociologist and labor activist Barry Eidlin about socialist politics and the many issues facing radicals oriented to the working class. The interview is followed by a lively, well informed discussion from the largely DSA audience. The result is a remarkable “town hall” meeting that could serve as a primer for socialist politics in the present moment. Some of the issues discussed: the Democratic Party vs. Canada’s labor party or NDP (New Democratic Party); the potential of today’s labor upsurge and teachers' strike wave; the labor bureaucracy and the rank-and-file strategy required to combat it; how to develop a “militant minority” within the workers' movement; the relationship between organizing in the traditional industrial working class and new struggles oriented around problems of social reproduction; and how to relate to Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Party, and electoral politics. See acast.com/privacy

What should the Left say about borders? Free flow of people across borders has always been a key topic for leftists, perhaps never more so than right now — especially given the realities of climate change. Some on the Left advance a maximalist demand of completely open borders; others (including, recently, Sen. Bernie Sanders) argue that social-democratic policies like Medicare for All require some restriction on the flow of people who can enter a country and access those goods.Suzy Lee is no fan of the latter argument. In "The Case for Open Borders" in the Winter 2019 issue of our journal Catalyst, she argues that the Left can't give any credence to restrictionist arguments by accepting the need to restrict people from entering the US or any other country.You can read Suzy Lee's essay "The Case for Open Borders" here: https://catalyst-journal.com/vol2/no4/the-case-for-open-bordersYou can also read Daniel Denvir's piece in Jacobin, "How Bernie Should Talk About Borders": https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/04/ber

DSA's explosive growth continues; it has already, in a few short years, become the center of a renewed American socialist movement. Dan interviews Doug Henwood, who recently published a lengthy article in The New Republic entitled "The Socialist Network: Inside DSA's struggle to move into the political mainstream."Check out Lisa Duggan's Mean Girl: Ayn Rand and the Culture of Greed ucpress.edu/book/9780520294776/mean-girlGo to the Socialism 2019 conference in Chicago July 4-7! Register for the early-bird rate now at socialismconference.orgSupport this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Three interviews: historian Seth Rockman, scholars Crystal Eddins and Zachary Sell, and public historians Akeia Benard, Joey La Neve DeFrancesco, Elon Cook Lee and Marco McWilliams.Dan conducted six interviews on capitalism and slavery at The Dig’s recent Slavery’s Hinterlands symposium here in Rhode Island. This second of two episodes begins with Seth Rockman on the role of slavery in American capitalism. Then, scholars Crystal Eddins and Zachary Sell on revolution and counter-revolution across the racial capitalist global order. Finally, public historians Akeia Benard, Joey La Neve DeFrancesco, Elon Cook Lee and Marco McWilliams on teaching slavery today.Go to the Socialism 2019 conference in Chicago July 4-7! Register for the early-bird rate now at socialismconference.orgCheck out Next Left, a new podcast from The Nation magazine. Their first interview is with Rep. Ilhan Omar. thenation.com/next-left/Support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out in

Socialism: The Movie with Yael BridgeYael Bridge is one of the filmmakers behind the forthcoming documentary Socialism: An American Story. She talks with Micah about what she's trying to do with the film as well as her own transformation from a liberal into a socialist through the Bernie Sanders campaign.You can read more about Socialism: An American Story and chip in a donation for it here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/socialismmovie/socialism-an-american-story-post-production See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Eric Blanc, author of Red State Revolt, on the teachers' strikes. Then, Catherine Kaiman, environmental lawyer, on community-based reparations (paper here). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Three interviews: historians Linford Fisher, Christy Clark-Pujara and Joanne Melish, and Emily Owens.Dan conducted six interviews on capitalism and slavery at The Dig's recent Slavery's Hinterlands symposium here in Rhode Island. This first of two episodes begins with historian Linford Fisher, who explains that the English settlement of North America was a settler-colonial project that required genocidally dispossessing indigenous people of their lands. What you might not know is that a central tactic for that dispossession, in New England and Virginia alike, was the threat and actual enslavement of native people, including the widespread practice of forcing native youth to labor in English homes. Then historians Christy Clark-Pujara and Joanne Melish, who pick up where Fisher leaves off: slavery wasn't the South's peculiar institution; it was the bedrock of the northern economy. And finally, historian Emily Owens on sexual labor under slavery: what, Owens' work explores, did slavery and freedom mean for wome

Chicago recently made international headlines for the victories of six — six!! — members of the Democratic Socialists of America running for city council. It’s an astonishing victory, the biggest socialist victory in any American city in probably a century.These victories matter both for Chicago, which has seen growing working-class pushback to neoliberalism in recent years, but also for socialist organizers in cities around the country, who can learn from how Chicago won so many elections on a left platform.One of the six victors in the April elections was Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, who represents Chicago's 35th Ward, a gentrifying area on the city’s northwest side. Carlos was the only incumbent socialist city council member (or “alderman”); despite being attacked repeatedly by the area’s wealthy real-estate developers, he won re-election comfortably.You can read my interview with Carlos from two years ago, when he was kicked off a gubernatorial ticket for his support of Palestine (which we mention in our discussi

Donna Haraway's work defies disciplines, combining insights from both biology and feminist thought, and drawing on her own involvement in political projects organized around feminism and radical science. Haraway’s most recent book, Staying With the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene, takes up these questions as the fragility of earth’s webs of life is becoming frighteningly and increasingly apparent. What are the ethical and political demands in the face of the most pressing threat of our era—catastrophic climate change? To stay with the trouble, Haraway argues, is to reject technofixes that will save us from doom on the one hand, and on the other, to reject the pessimistic idea that “it’s too late” to make the world better. The book outlines a view of what Haraway calls “multispecies flourishing” and the obstacles to achieving it through theoretical insights and speculative fiction imaginings. Interviewed by Jacobin editorial board member Alyssa Battistoni.Thanks to n+1. To get 25% of a one-year subscrip

If we want to transform the United States in a socialist direction, we're going to need to do much more than elect Bernie Sanders as president. Nobody harps on this point more than Bernie himself. You can see it in his "not me, us" campaign slogan, or his emphasis in stump speeches on how massive industries like health insurance companies would mobilize against Medicare for All. President Bernie couldn't do much without a mass working-class movement at his back.But that doesn't mean that such a movement and the Sanders campaign are two separate things — Bernie's campaign can help and has already helped bring those movements into being. Micah talks with Jacobin staff writer Meagan Day about it.You can read Meagan's article "Bernie Sanders Wants You to Fight" here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/03/bernie-sanders-movements-not-me-usAnd you can read her article "Wielding the Imperial Presidency" in the new print issue of Jacobin or here: https://jacobinmag.com/2019/02/wielding-the-imperial-presidencySubscribe t

What is gentrification? It isn't just about what was once known as the hipster and is still known as the artist, the telltale warning signs of impending demographic change. It's part of an entire political-economic order that has made real estate global capitalism's most prized asset for storing wealth—one that has helped bend place-based urban governments to the will of mobile, and thus more powerful, capital. Dan interviews Samuel Stein on his book, Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State.Come to The Dig's Slavery's Hinterlands symposium Thursday through Saturday in Rhode Island: facebook.com/events/661508874305008/Check out the English transcript of last week's Spanish-language interview with Communist Chilean Mayor Daniel Jadue jacobinmag.com/2019/04/communist-party-chile-left-governance-recoletaThanks to Verso. Check out their massive left-wing book selection at www.versobooks.comPlease support us with your cash at Patreon.com/TheDig See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out informatio

Alan Minsky, producer of Jacobin Radio, is the guest on this episode. He wears multiple hats and one of them is Executive Director of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA). We talk about the Democratic primary field, and Alan reports on conversations he had on his recent trip to the European Parliament as part of a contingent of the American left. Then, a conversation with Mitch Abidor, translator of Victor Serge's just-published Notebooks, about the Belgian-Russian anarcho-Bolshevik and lifelong Left Oppositionist, who was one of the great writer-thinker-activists of the twentieth century. Serge's contribution is especially attractive today because he never compromised his commitment to the creation of a society that defends human freedom, enhances human dignity, and improves the human condition — and insisted that democracy was at the heart of the socialist project. This makes him both a contemporary as well as a man for our future. Serge’s life as a maverick and renegade relegated him to the margins. He w