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Cosmonaut Magazine
Cosmopod is the official podcast of Cosmonaut Magazine, a project dedicated to expanding the project of scientific socialism in the 21st Century. In our feed we have a combination of podcast episodes and audio articles from our website.
The Contradictions and Confusions of “Democratic Socialism”
Renzo Llorente engages with contemporary advocates of Democratic Socialism and argues that they ultimately fail to demarcate between liberal and socialist visions of democracy, resulting in capitulation to the liberal status quo. Read By: Will Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.
53:2420/07/2023
The World System and The Beautiful Game ⚽ with Sam Parry
Rudy and Djamil join Sam Parry, author of The Ugly Economics of the Beautiful Game for a discussion on how capitalism interacts with the sport most of the world knows as football. We talk about the many ways in which capitalism interacts with international football from a world-systems perspective including how the periphery ends up supplying talent to the economic core, the tendencies towards vertical integration, the stickiness of capital, the historic patterns of club ownership, and the recent irruption of oil-money clubs. We also briefly talk about the ways national teams, race and football interact.
01:31:3617/07/2023
The Question of Worldview and Class Struggle in Philosophy
Daniel Tutt looks to the philosophy of Georg Lukács and his critique of bourgeois irrationalism to explicate the role of intellectuals and worldviews in the class struggle. Read By: Allen Lanterman Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.
59:5613/07/2023
The African Blood Brotherhood, its Relations and Legacy
Combining the insights of previous scholarship with information gathered from Bureau of Investigation (BOI, predecessor of the FBI) surveillance documents, Ian Szabo presents a new angle on the history of the African Blood Brotherhood (ABB), illustrating the organizations’ particular synthesis of Black radical politics and Marxism, as well as revealing the racial fantasy through which contemporaneous mainstream U.S. media and the state understood its methods and goals. Read by: Luke Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.
41:5806/07/2023
The U.S. Constitution and the Struggle for Democracy with Robert Ovetz
Luke and Donald join Robert Ovetz, author of We the Elites: Why the Constitution Serves the Few, for a discussion on the Constitution as a potent obstacle to political and social democracy in the United States. They begin with a discussion about the history and context of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and the various anxieties the Framers held toward indigenous resistance, slave rebellions, and debtor revolts. They explore the document’s inner workings, including the various minoritarian checks scattered throughout. They comment on previous critiques of the Constitution and where those critiques have gone. They conclude by emphasizing why people concerned with any of the numerous problems of contemporary society should position the Constitution at the heart of their attack.
01:15:3004/07/2023
ACT UP, Fight Back
Charlie Frank gives an overview of the forms of social mobilization that developed as a response to the AIDS pandemic as well as what lessons the left can draw from this chapter of history. Read by Will Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.
01:23:5429/06/2023
The People's Republic of Mozambique with Colin Darch
Rudy joins Colin Darch, author of several books on Mozambique and curator of Mozambique History Net for a discussion on Mozambique from the colonial period to the unraveling of the socialist period. We discuss Portuguese colonialism and the economic system the country had, the liberation movement FRELIMO with attention to its origins and its historical leader Eduardo Mondlane, before talking about Samora Machel, the first leader of an independent Mozambique. We discuss the Machel period and its achievements, and also what changes after Machel's death and Joaquim Chissano's take over.
01:34:4526/06/2023
Socializing Care: Against Domestic Realism
The Cibcom Collective take aim at domestic realism, arguing that feminist planning of the domestic economy is necessary to the communist project. This is a translation of an article originally published in Jacobin América Latina. Read By: Luke Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.
24:0922/06/2023
Karl Marx and Radical Indigenous Critiques of Capitalism
Nodrada explores the tensions and resonances between Marxism and Indigenous thought, putting the writings of Native theorists such as Vine Deloria Jr., Luther Standing Bear, Winona LaDuke, and many others in dialogue with those of Marx. Read By: Aliyah Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.
02:09:3915/06/2023
The People's Republic of Bulgaria: From the Fields to the Cyberstars with Victor Petrov
Rudy joins Victor Petrov, author of Balkan Cyberia: Cold War Computing, Bulgarian Modernization, and the Information Age behind the Iron Curtain for a discussion on The People's Republic of Bulgaria and its computing industry and offshoots. They discuss the history of socialism in Bulgaria, how it changed the country's productive basis from an agricultural nation to one that could produce an all-Bulgarian satellite in 1981 and be a worldwide leader of computing. We talk about how the computing industry took advantage of Comecon and of intelligence services to grow, how Bulgaria related to other countries like Japan and India, Bulgarian modernization and the cultural space the computing industry took including sci-fi and the Bulgarian laws of robotics. We end by talking about how reformers tried to use computers to reform socialism, and industry professionals took a role in the fall of socialism in Bulgaria.
01:02:4612/06/2023
Cop City will never be built with Kei and Leila
Isaac joins Kei and Leila from Stop Cop City/Defend Atlanta Forest for a discussion on the movement, its strategy and its ultimate goals. They discuss what brought them into the movement, what the Weelaunee coalition and the Atlanta Police Foundation are, how the movement uses three prongs to aim for victory, and how it relates to the political landscape in Atlanta. They also touch on the centrality of care in a movement which has seen someone murdered, as well as the links to contemporary ecosocialism and abolitionism. You can donate to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund here.
01:15:5105/06/2023
Letter: "Lines of flight" for undeniable problems
Cibcom Collective's Response to Luke P Read by: Will Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.
11:5001/06/2023
Entropy and the Capitalist System with Robert Biel
Rudy joins Robert Biel, author of The Entropy of Capitalism, The New Imperialism and Sustainable Food Systems for a discussion on systems approaches to analyzing capitalism. They cover Robert's earlier work on entropy and capitalism, how the capitalist system externalizes disorder on the periphery, the role of China in the world-system, the potentialities of agriculture and much more.
01:57:1829/05/2023
Letter: On Sortition and Democratic Decision-making
This letter is in response to Conquering Democracy, Abolishing Political Representation by the Cibcom Collective. I appreciated the comrades’ thought-provoking work and the opportunity to clarify my ideas in response. I have several peripheral agreements regarding the importance of democracy and the utility of workers’ councils, and one fundamental disagreement about the nature of the democratic republic. Read by: Will Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.
14:0825/05/2023
Neither Vertical nor Horizontal: A Theory of Political Organization with Rodrigo Nunes
Rudy and Harry join Rodrigo Nunes, author of Neither Vertical nor Horizontal: A Theory of Political Organization for a discussion on Rodrigo's approach to thinking about the problem of organization. We cover the need to move beyond certain dichotomies like vertical and horizontal, self-organized vs organized from the outside, the need for understanding organization ecologically, the problem of organizational fitness, and discuss the potential applications of the ideas in this book.
01:25:3621/05/2023
The Beijing Revolutionary Women’s Conference of '49 with Elisabeth Armstrong
Annie joins Elisabeth Armstrong, author of Bury the Corpse of Colonialism: The Revolutionary Feminist Conference of 1949 for a discussion of the Beijing conference and the international women's movement of the period. They discuss the composition and politics of the Women’s International Democratic Federation, the key figures in the WIDF who played a role in the Asian Women’s Conference, the different rhetorical strategies formulated through the conference, including revolutionary motherhood and women’s anti-colonialism, as well as the political and interpersonal dynamics between women in the WIDF from the imperial core and women from colonized countries. They then discuss the place of the conference in the broader communist movement, the role of state repression, and how the terrain of feminist politics has changed since the peak of the WIDF, drawing lessons for contemporary feminist and socialist movements.
01:20:3208/05/2023
Is This the Left that Jacobin Wants?: Chris Maisano’s Perilous Drift Towards Post-Marxism
A recent Jacobin piece by Chris Maisano argues that building “a Left that matters” requires focusing on Democratic Party electoral work, but we must be clear about the consequence of such an orientation: a middle-class Left that remains disconnected from the proletariat and abandons the fundamentals of Marxism. By Jacque Erie. Read By: Keir Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.
01:03:1704/05/2023
Conquering Democracy, Abolishing Political Representation
The Cibcom Collective argues that Communist society will require an overcoming of political representation in favor of forms of direct democracy like sortition and referendum. Read By: Will Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.
23:3827/04/2023
Cultivating the City with George Martin and Salvatore Engel
Rudy joins Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro and George Martin, authors of Urban Food Production for Ecosocialism: Cultivating the City for a discussion on urban agriculture. We talk about the history of food and the city, the ways the Global North/South divide is reflected in food, before focusing on the authors' fieldwork on what the political uses as well as limitations of urban food gardens are. We discuss examples in Ghana, Italy, the US, China and Cuba, and what is done right and wrong in each of these cases.
01:40:0624/04/2023
American Socialism from 1892 to 1908
Transcription and commentary by SA Reed. Read by Cliff Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.
36:5820/04/2023
H. T. Odum's Environment, Power and Society
Amelia, RK, Harry and Rudy sit down for a discussion on systems approaches to ecology using as a basis H. T. Odum's Environment, Power, and Society for the Twenty-First Century: The Hierarchy of Energy . We talk about Odum's innovations in the field of ecology, his ideas about the hierarchies of energy and matter, how to use Odum's framework to extend Marxist analysis of society towards constructing an eco-socialist program, and use that to critically evaluate several current political proposals including degrowth, unequal ecological exchange and eco-modernism. Other references: “Limits to growth” in communism? Bonaiuti, M. From bioeconomics to degrowth. London: Routledge, 2011. http://www.georgescuroegen.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/From_Bioeconomics_to_Degrowth_def.pdf Cockshott, Paul. "Calculation in-Natura, from Neurath to Kantorovich." University of Glasgow(2008). https://www.academia.edu/download/68627453/standalonearticle.pdf Foster, J. B., and Holleman, H. "The theory of unequal ecological exchange: a Marx-Odum dialectic." Journal of Peasant Studies41.2 (2014): 199-233. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03066150.2014.889687 Kikstra, J. S., Mastrucci, A., Min, J., Riahi, K., & Rao, N. D. (2021). Decent living gaps and energy needs around the world. Environmental Research Letters, 16(9) https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac1c27 O’Neill, John. "Socialist calculation and environmental valuation: money, markets and ecology." Science & Society66.1 (2002): 137-151. https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/pdf/10.1521/siso.66.1.137.21006 Pirgmaier, E. (2018) Value, Capital and Nature. Rethinking the foundations of ecological economics. PhD thesis, University of Leeds. https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/22895/
01:34:0511/04/2023
Letter: MUG and R&R’s Joint Resolutions for the 2023 DSA National Convention
links to read and sign resolutions here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfXgSds8qpoyqfwY-wXfs00htSRExsofCdvgLDRN-_Zn82IsQ/viewform https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc_9gWNbmroeapzEBICuZotHoLElzUalW_jD84jxqqkVF8L-w/viewform
12:3809/04/2023
Democracy and Socialism, the Two Edges of Marxism’s Knife
Gil Schaeffer responds to Ben Grove’s “Twelve-Step Program for Democrat Addiction” and its arguments about the need for a mass party, critiquing Mike Macnair, Ben Lewis and Lars Lih’s concept of Erfurtian Marxism. Read By: Will Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.
01:12:4803/04/2023
Unite the Pro-Party Wing to Revolutionize the DSA!!
Shuvu Bhattarai of the Marxist Unity Group outlines an overview of the recent history of DSA and finds a demarcation between pro-party and anti-party tendencies, calling on those sympathetic to the former to join the fight for a mass socialist party in the United States of America. Read by: Aliyah Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment. Part 2 of Shvu's response to Lazare will deal with building a United Front Campaign of the Working Class in time for the 2024 US Presidential Elections. Special thanks to members and sympathizers of the Marxist Unity Group, Reform and Revolution, Tempest, and Socialist Alternative for helping compile some of the information here about the DSA and other socialist groups, as well as providing some resources to help build this article’s argument.
01:42:3027/03/2023
Marxist approaches to International Law with Robert Knox
Anton joins Robert Knox for a discussion of Marxist approaches to law, with a focus on international law. We discuss critical legal studies, international law and how it compares to other branches of law, its origins and how it has evolved through the years focusing on the cases of Haiti, the USSR and decolonization movement, and law and neocolonialism. We also discuss how Marxists can approach law in general through principled opportunism.
01:58:5820/03/2023
Why Socialists Must Reject the Yimby-Nimby Binary
Harry Zehner analyzes the discourse and politics of the YIMBY-NIMBY divide and argues that socialists should reject this binary entirely. Read By: Aliyah Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.
32:0417/03/2023
The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen
Rudy, Carson, Eric and Rob sit down to talk about the only socialist state in the Arab peninsula, and arguably in the Arab world: The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, also known as South Yemen. We discuss its origins, the struggles of the left factions to pursue a socialist path, its economic policies and political turns, as well as the factors that led to its demise through reunification with the north. We also briefly talk about the revival of South Yemeni sentiment during the present war. References: Articles: Helen Lackner - Yemen’s Socialist Experiment Was a Political Landmark for the Arab World Books: Anne-Linda Amira Augustin - South Yemen's Independence Struggle: Generations of Resistance Noel Brehony - Yemen Divided: The Story of a Failed State in South Arabia Fred Halliday - Revolution and Foreign Policy: The Case of South Yemen, 1967-1987 Joseph Kostiner - The Struggle For South Yemen Joseph Kostiner - South Yemen's Revolutionary Strategy, 1970 1985: From Insurgency To Bloc Politics Helen Lackner, Husayn Abd Allah Amri - P. D. R. Yemen: Outpost Of Socialist Development In Arabia Miriam M. Müller - A Spectre Is Haunting Arabia: How the Germans Brought Their Communism to Yemen
01:21:0009/03/2023
The Problem of Unity
In a comparative study of Austro-Marxism, the French Socialist movement, and Bolshevism, Medway Baker argues for the left to seek unity around a programme of constitutional disloyalty. Read By: Will Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.
51:3006/03/2023
Montreal is an Island: 1968 and the Black International Left with David Austin
Isaac and Jackson join David Austin, author of Fear of a Black Nation and Dread Poetry and Freedom: Linton Kwesi Johnson and the Unfinished Revolution, for a discussion of the Afro-Caribbean diasporic left, focusing on Montreal in the late 60s. They discuss the influence of the U.S. black power movement on the world, the black left in Montreal, and in particular the confluence between Caribbean nationalism and Quebec nationalism. They discuss the Congress of Black Writers, Walter Rodney's presence in it and how the development of the Afro-caribbean left literature creates a fertile ground for the development of politics.
01:07:4427/02/2023
The Rise of Revolutionary Abolitionism with Jesse Olsavsky
Cliff and Isaac join Jesse Olsavsky, author of The Most Absolute Abolition: Runaways, Vigilance Committees, and the Rise of Revolutionary Abolitionism, 1835–1861, for a discussion on his book on the early abolitionist movement. They discuss the textbook history of abolition, and how this masks the role of runaways and other radicals substituting them for a white middle-class leadership, what Vigilance Committees were and how they acted, the exchange of ideas between different social groups in the abolitionist movement, the role runaway interviews had on the movement and its parallels today. They also talk about the Fugitive Slave Act and its effect on the Committees, the international dimension of abolitionism, the abolitionist view of the U.S. republic and the links between abolitionism and other movements. Prof. Olsavsky recommended these texts as good primary sources on revolutionary abolitionism. Thomas Smallwood (https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/smallwood/smallwood.html) Harriet Jacobs (https://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html) Phillip Foner's edited collection of speeches by Frederick Douglass (https://archive.org/details/DouglassSelectionsWritings) Frances Ellen Walker's poems (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/frances-ellen-watkins-harper) Martin Delany's novel Blake (https://archive.org/details/blakeorhutsofame00dela) Harriet Beecher Stowe's second novel Dred (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55012)
01:27:5020/02/2023
Naming The System
Isaac KD and Jack L defend their critique of DSA’s dominant strategic orientation towards reform campaigns in a response to Sam Lewis’ “In Defense of Campaigns“. Read by: Allan Lanterman Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.
31:3117/02/2023
The Hungarian Tragedy of '56: Origins, Events and Consequences
James, Cliff, Chas and Rudy join for a discussion on the events that take place in Hungary in 1956. We discuss the origins of the revolt, talking about the short lived Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919, the People's Democracy period under Rakosi, the New Course and the roots of discontent. We then discuss the events themselves, as well as the reactions of the USSR and the wider Eastern Bloc and those of the West. We also talk about the program of the uprising, and what possible consequences it could have had had it succeded, and how it reshaped Hungary after the Soviet intervention. References: Csaba Békés - Hungary's Cold War: International Relations from the End of World War II to the Fall of the Soviet Union Peter Fryer - Hungarian Tragedy Charles Gati - Failed Illusions: Moscow, Washington, Budapest, and the 1956 Hungarian Revolt Bennett Kovrig - Communism in Hungary: From Kun to Kádár William Lomax - Hungary 1956 Mark Pittaway - From the Vanguard to the Margins: Workers in Hungary, 1939 to the Present
01:57:3609/02/2023
To Talk of Organization - On Nunes' Neither Vertical nor Horizontal
Alex James reviews Rodrigo Nunes’ latest book Neither Vertical nor Horizontal, finding a refreshing new vocabulary for talking about organization that raises difficult questions rather than providing simple answers. Narrated by Aliyah Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.
39:4306/02/2023
Cuba in Africa with Piero Gleijeses
Rudy joins Piero Gleijeses, author of Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington and Africa, 1959–1976 and Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria, and the Struggle for Southern Africa, 1976–1991 for a short discussion on Cuba's internationalist efforts in Africa. We discuss the start of Piero's project, and how he was allowed access to the Cuban archives and his interactions with Cuban official Jorge Risquet during his research on Cuba in Algeria. We then talk about what moved Cubans to focus on solidarity work in Africa, why Cuba intervened in Angola, and what was the USSR's role in this. We discuss the significance of the Angolan struggle, as well as the end of the Cold War and Apartheid and how they were related. We finish by discussing the memory of Cubans in Africa. Further interviews: The Dig Radio Radio War Nerd EP #232 — Cuba in Angola Wars, with Piero Gleijeses Cadre Journal's Podcast Episode from 25 May 2022: Cuba's War Against Apartheid: The Heroic Cuban Operation in Angola, with Piero Gleijeses
44:0030/01/2023
Knowledge: Power and Emancipation
Renato Flores discusses the privatization of scientific knowledge and examines efforts of revolutionary movements to democratize this knowledge to help develop a communist approach to science. Narrated By: Allen Lanterman Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.
01:02:0623/01/2023
The Twilight of the Sweatshop Age: Labor, Monopsony and Supply Chains with Ashok Kumar
Rudy joins Ashok Kumar author of Monopsony Capitalism: Power and Production in the Twilight of the Sweatshop Age for a discussion on global sweatshops, labor and commodity chains. We start off by comparing the Triangle Shirtwaist fire of 1912 and the Rana Plaza disaster of 2013, and explaining what has changed and what has stayed the same. We talk about the particular role of the textile industry in capitalism, how it changed under globalization and what it reveals for the capitalist system focusing on the topic of monopsony, i.e. single buyer markets. We discuss the position of labor in the textile industry, how it has shaped global supply chains, and what types of organizing have won concessions from capital in the past and present.
52:1121/01/2023
Legislative Campaigns and Policy Feedback
With a focus on the recent organizing work of New York City Democratic Socialists of America, Comrades Isaac KD and Jack L critique the notion of a “policy feedback” loop as the guiding element of DSA’s legislative strategy, as well as provide an alternative socialist framework for how DSA can engage with reform campaigns. Narrated by: Aliyah Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.
31:3216/01/2023
The Conservative Party and the Decline of Tory Britain with Phil Burton-Cartledge
James and Harry join Phil Burton-Cartledge, author of Falling Down: The Conservative Party and the Decline of Tory Britain for a discussion on his book. They discuss the Tories' crisis of political reproduction, how the party set the grounds for this with the Thatcher reforms, the class basis of the Conservative party before turning to explaining why understanding the Conservative party is important for the left not only in the United Kingdom but in the world. They follow by talking about the Tory reinvention during the New Labour period of dominance, the class dynamics behind the Brexit votes and how that was reflected in the two following general elections, how Phil would extend the book to cover Boris Johnson's downfall, Liz Truss's short interregnum and Rishi Sunak's rise before reflecting on what the future holds for the Tories and the possible ways they could reinvent themselves.
01:10:3312/01/2023
Coalitions of the Liberal and Socialist Left
How should socialists engage in coalitional politics? Jack L draws conclusions based on historical lessons and recent experiences in the housing struggle. Narrated by: Cliff Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.
34:5608/01/2023
Soviet Cybernetics and the Promise of Big Computer Socialism
Amelia, Djamil, Christian, and Rudy join for a discussion on the history of Soviet Cybernetics and the use of computers for socialist planning. We discuss the origins of Cybernetics, its role as a reform movement in the sciences, and why cybernetics became attractive to the Soviet academy in the 50s, before moving to the biographies and projects of Anatoly Kitov and Viktor Glushkov. We reflect on the failures of OGAS, and what could have been done better, as well as its positive legacy and finish by discussing the ways in which cybernetics was kept alive until the collapse of the USSR and the remaining possibilities for computerized planning. References: B. Peters - How Not to Network a Nation: The Uneasy History of the Soviet Internet L. Graham - Science, Philosophy and Human Behavior in the Soviet Union S. Gerontovich - InterNyet: Why the Soviet Union did not build a nationwide computer network S. Gerontovich - From Newspeak to Cyberspeak: A History of Soviet Cybernetics O. V. Kitova & V. A. Kitov - Anatoly Kitov and Victor Glushkov: Pioneers of Russian Digital Economy and Informatics V. Pikhorovich - Glushkov and His Ideas: Cybernetics of the Future Y. Revich - The Story of How the USSR Did Not Need the Pioneer of Cybernetics D. West - Cybernetics for the command economy: Foregrounding entropy in late Soviet planning
01:52:2403/01/2023
Probabilistic Approaches to Political Economy and Labor with Machover, Farjoun & Zachariah
Rudy joins Emmanuel Farjoun, Moshé Machover and David Zachariah for a discussion on their two books Laws of Chaos: A Probabilistic Approach to Political Economy (EF&MM only) and How Labor Powers the Global Economy: A Labor Theory of Capitalism . We cover the origins of the project to develop a probabilistic approach to political economy and how it has developed, what are its basic assumptions, what sort of theory of value it proposes, why it treats labor preferentially and how it compares to other schools. We also discuss ways of extending the project to account for imperialism and other factors. We mention in the podcast Moshé's lecture How Labour Powers the Global Economy which gives an introduction to the book.
01:26:1114/12/2022
The Workers' Opposition in the Russian Communist Party with Barbara C. Allen
Annie and Lucas join Barbara C. Allen, editor of the recent collection of documents The Workers' Opposition in the Russian Communist Party: Documents, 1919-30 and author of Alexander Shlyapnikov, 1885-1937: Life of an Old Bolshevik for a conversation on the Workers' Opposition in the Russian Communist Party. They discuss what the Workers' Opposition was, as well as the biographies of the more important members such as Alexander Shlyapnikov and Sergei Medvedev, what the Workers' Opposition stood for, focusing on its relationship to specialists and to purges and the peasantry and the Workers' Opposition. They finish with the story of the eclipse of the Workers' Opposition, the fate of the trade unions and of Alexandra Kollontai after the demise of the organization.
01:40:5807/12/2022
New York City Food Worker Organizing, 1912-37 with Kevin Bruce
Last week, over 100 Starbucks stores went on strike, the latest step in the astonishing growth of organizing in the restaurant industry. Astonishing now, but as Kevin Bruce writes in his excellent new book We Have Fed You All For A Thousand Years: New York City Food Worker Organizing, 1912-1937, in the long run of working class history, this is nothing new. Kevin is joined by Jackson and Isaac for a discussion on present and past labor organizing in the restaurant industry.
01:25:3428/11/2022
Twilight of World Trotskyism with John Kelly
Warning: Sexual abuse is discussed in this episode. Brendan and James join John Kelly, author of Contemporary Trotskyism and The Twilight of World Trotskyism for a discussion on the history of world Trotskyism. They talk about the primacy of doctrine, the structure of Trotskyist parties around the world and their difference in structures and tactics, Trotskyism's lack of success in building mass parties, Latin American Trotskyism and the outlook of world Trotskyism. They also discuss the small-scale organizational dynamics of Trotskyist parties, their charismatic leaders, and their historical struggles to develop an understanding of topics outside the canon such as gender and sexuality.
01:25:2221/11/2022
From Guerrilla Mime to Brecht & Ecology: An Interview with Ron G. Davis
Rudy joins Dr. Ron G. Davis, founder of the San Francisco Mime Troupe in 1959, for a reflection of a life in art and politics. We discuss the SFMT's beginnings during the civil rights era, how it turned into a "guerilla" operation, the relationship to Teatro Campesino, civil rights and the black radical movement, why his time with the SFMT came to an end, and the influence of Brecht and his PhD work on a Brechtian ecology.
01:21:2914/11/2022
Addiction is not a Crime
Beyond failing at preventing the ills of addiction, the War of Drugs has served as a war on those dispossessed by capitalism. Billy Anania argues that a socialist approach is needed. Read by: Riley Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.
29:4510/11/2022
The Goal: Scientific Management, Lean and Safe Organizations
Matt, Rudy, and Amelia sit down for a critical discussion about contemporary scientific management practices and frameworks, ranging from Lean, the Theory of Constraints, Improvement Kata to safety culture. Drawing on The Goal by E. M. Goldratt, Toyota Kata by Mike Rother, The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim et al., and other works, they explore what socialists can learn from scientific management to apply in their organizations and in economic planning. They also discuss critiques of scientific management by associates of the Monthly Review School including Harry Braverman and Michael D Yates, explore how J Sakai's idea of organizational Kata and security culture fits in with Toyota's Katas, and finish with the connections between the theories behind Lean/ToC and ecological theory and economic planning.
02:12:5307/11/2022
Larouche: a Warning for us All
Donald Parkinson argues the seeds of what Lyndon LaRouche would become were present from the very beginnings of his organization in this analysis of the early days of his career. Read By: Riley Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.
24:1131/10/2022
Ecological Leninism with Kai Heron
Rudy joins Kai Heron for a discussion on ecological political strategy. We discuss his political background, how to develop an ecological program out of the different ecology schools, the agrarian and land questions and how to approach liberal climate movements and trade unions. We also talk about the Green New Deal, the debates around focusing on production or consumption, eco-modernism and degrowth. We finish by talking about Kai's articles on Ecological Leninism. Links: Revolution or Ruin and Climate Leninism and Revolutionary Transition co-authored with Jodi Dean. We also mentioned the books Colin Duncan's The Centrality of Agriculture, and David Noble's Progress Without People: In Defense of Luddism.
01:03:5326/10/2022
State, Democracy, and Transition: Is There a “Democratic Road” to Socialism?
Maxi Nieto critiques the perspectives of the “new democratic socialism” and argues they are based on a misunderstanding of capitalism as a structural totality. Read By: Riley Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.
01:04:5621/10/2022