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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.
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[Audiobook] Lenin Rediscovered: Chapter Eight

[Audiobook] Lenin Rediscovered: Chapter Eight

This is a narration of the eighth chapter of Lars Lih's excellent book Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context. In this chapter, Lih examines the culture of the Russian revolutionary underground to elucidate the world that Lenin's organizational proposals in WITBD would go on to shape.   The full audiobook is currently in production by the team at Cosmonaut Magazine. You can find more episodes (and other audio books) on our Youtube channel, and you can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Haymarket books.   Narration and editing by Cliff Connolly.  
02:07:4229/07/2021
Californian Dreams: Tech Utopia or Dystopia

Californian Dreams: Tech Utopia or Dystopia

Donald has a chat with Richard Barbrook, author with Andy Cameron of The Californian Ideology and the book Imaginary Futures. The two discuss Silicon Valley techno-Utopianism and its transformation into our current tech dystopia, the Cold War left and their attempts to use Marxism in service of capitalism, the role of China in shaping the development of modern technology, crypto-currency, why the USSR failed to develop cyber-communism, and Barbrook’s work in the Labor Party with the Digital Democracy Manifesto.
02:04:5426/07/2021
The Founding of the Chinese Communist Party with Matt Rothwell

The Founding of the Chinese Communist Party with Matt Rothwell

Matt and Rudy join Matt Rothwell from the People's History of Ideas podcast for a discussion on the founding of the Chinese Communist Party on its 100th anniversary. We base ourselves on the book From Friend To Comrade: The Founding of the Chinese Communist Party, 1920-27 by Hans J. van der Veen, and discuss issues such as the influence of the Soviet Union on its formation, how intellectuals , moving past liberalism adopted Marxism and translated it to the Chinese context, the way policy implementation and debate evolved in the party, the debates around the united front, and what can we learn for today's political landscape.
59:2423/07/2021
Vietnam: From National Liberation to Liberalization

Vietnam: From National Liberation to Liberalization

Rudy, Connor and Donald sit down to talk about Vietnamese political economy and the Vietnamese Communist Party with a particular focus on the period of reunification and market reforms. We discuss the formation of Vietnamese Communism in isolation, the history of Vietnam up to reunification and how that set up a very divided country for the VCP to rule over, the short planned economy period and how and why the market reforms took place. We also discuss the particularities of Vietnamese Socialism and the party's workings, as well as how much influence the world market has over society today. References:  Vietnam: Politics, Economics and Society - Melanie Beresford Economic Transition in Vietnam: Trade and Aid in the Demise of a Centrally Planned Economy - Melanie Beresford, Dang Phong Doi Moi in Review - Melanie Beresford   Red Brotherhood at War - Grant Evans, Kevin Rowley Vietnam at War - Mark Philip Bradley From Plan to Market - Adam Pforde, Stefan de Vylder Tradition, Revolution, and Market Economy in a North Vietnamese Village, 1925-2006 - Hy V. Luong The Socialist Market Economy in Asia: Development in China, Vietnam and Laos - Edited by Arve Hansen, Jo Inge Bekkevold, Kristen Nordhau
01:15:0519/07/2021
Neither Intersectionality nor Economism: For a Genuine Class Politics

Neither Intersectionality nor Economism: For a Genuine Class Politics

Neither a politics of identity informed by theories of intersectionality nor reductive economistic readings of Marxism are adequate for a modern socialist project, argues Donald Parkinson. Robert Fish reads the article out loud.
28:3215/07/2021
How Capitalism Produces Pandemics with Rob Wallace

How Capitalism Produces Pandemics with Rob Wallace

Djamil and Rudy join Rob Wallace, author of Big Farms Make Big Flu: Dispatches on Influenza, Agribusiness, and the Nature of Science, and Dead Epidemiologists: On the Origins of COVID-19, for a discussion on how capitalism produces mass pandemics through the destruction and creation of new ecologies. We discuss how humans 'fit' in nature, and how capitalism destroys natural barriers that prevent pandemics and creates harmful new ecologies. We also talk about what types of regulatory mechanisms are needed to prevent the mass spread of diseases. We finish off by discussing how the left should relate to topics such as the hypothesis of laboratory origins for Covid, vaccine skepticism and organizations like the CDC and the WHO.
01:23:1812/07/2021
[Audiobook] Lenin Rediscovered: Chapter Seven

[Audiobook] Lenin Rediscovered: Chapter Seven

This is a narration of the seventh chapter of Lars Lih's excellent book Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context. In this chapter, Lih maps out Lenin's basic conception of Russian Social Democracy's present challenges and asserts that "the political poetry of WITBD is located in this larger definition of the situation".   The full audiobook is currently in production by the team at Cosmonaut Magazine. You can find more episodes (and other audio books) on our Youtube channel, and you can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Haymarket books.   Narration and editing by Cliff Connolly.
01:42:5708/07/2021
From Cochabamba to a People's Green New Deal with Max Ajl

From Cochabamba to a People's Green New Deal with Max Ajl

Rudy joins Max Ajl, author of A People's Green New Deal (Pluto Press, 2021), for a broad discussion on the themes of his book and on the agrarian question in general. We speak about Max's background in agrarian movements with a particular focus on the Arab region, the Cochabamba People's Agreement and its relevance today, the critique of the current Green New Deal and of eco-modernism, the appearing splits in the ruling class between fossil and non-fossil capital, unequal environmental exchange, climate reparations and the conflicting tendencies within the degrowth movement. We also talk about the necessity of centering land and food in our political programs, and its usefulness in providing a bridge between current iterations of the Green New Deal and the future we want to see.   References: The Cochabamba People's Agreement with Annexes  The Green New Deal and Beyond: The Road From Climate Emergency to Economic Reality - Stan Cox (Land Institute) Does the Arab region have an agrarian question? - Max Ajl
01:14:0705/07/2021
The Revolutionary Minimum-Maximum Program

The Revolutionary Minimum-Maximum Program

Donald Parkinson explains and defends the format of the  minimum-maximum program using the model established in Marx and Guesde’s Programme of the Parti Ouvier. Lydia Apolinar reads the article out loud.
31:2001/07/2021
Invisible Empire: The Global Power of Finance with Tony Norfield

Invisible Empire: The Global Power of Finance with Tony Norfield

Rudy joins Tony Norfield, author of The City: London and the Global Power of Finance (Verso Books) for a broad theoretical practical discussion on the topic of finance. We discuss Hilferding and Lenin's theories of finance and imperialism, and where they are lacking, how finance is used to enforce global domination today, the exorbitant privilege of the dollar, the discussions around the rate of profit, the role of China and the Belt & Road Initiative, cryptocurrencies and Norfield's outlook for the future.
01:16:4328/06/2021
[Audiobook] Lenin Rediscovered: Chapter Six

[Audiobook] Lenin Rediscovered: Chapter Six

This is a narration of the sixth chapter of Lars Lih's excellent book Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context. In this chapter, Lih examines the remaining three interlocuters Lenin polemicizes with in WITBD: the anonymous authors of the Joint Letter, Boris Savinkov, and L. Nadezhdin. All three are marginal historical figures in their own right, but their importance in contextualizing the debates of WITBD cannot be overstated. The full audiobook is currently in production by the team at Cosmonaut Magazine. You can find more episodes (and other audio books) on our Youtube channel, and you can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Haymarket books.   Narration and editing by Cliff Connolly.
01:51:4824/06/2021
Constitution and Class Struggle in the Early American Republic with Matt Christman

Constitution and Class Struggle in the Early American Republic with Matt Christman

Parker and Christian join Matt Christman for a discussion on the class dynamics of the founding of the US, using Charles Beard's book An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States as a jumping off point. They cover the main idea of the book: how the Founding Fathers designed the Constitution and the federal institutions to ensure their class interests after the Independence War. They also discuss how other events of the time such as Shay's Rebellion showed the limits of the Constitution, how it managed to survive even the Civil War, and what it means to call for a constitutional convention in the present.
55:1421/06/2021
A Twelve-Step Program for Democrat Addiction

A Twelve-Step Program for Democrat Addiction

Jonah Martell lays out a twelve-step program for the Democratic Socialists of America to pursue a path of independent working-class politics. Christian Cail reads the article out loud.
01:01:0717/06/2021
Cybersyn, Cybernetics and Allende's Chile with Raúl Espejo

Cybersyn, Cybernetics and Allende's Chile with Raúl Espejo

Amelia and Rudy join Raul Espejo, one of the top members of  the Cybersyn project in Allende's Chile, the founder of Syncho Research  and the president of the World Organization of Systems and Cybernetics  for a conversation. We discuss Raul's experiences, his current projects,  and what he thinks socialists should learn about Cybernetics in today's  world, especially around the concept of variety.
52:5214/06/2021
[Audiobook] Lenin Rediscovered: Chapter Five

[Audiobook] Lenin Rediscovered: Chapter Five

This is a narration of the fifth chapter of Lars Lih's excellent book Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context. In this chapter, Lih breaks down the causes and details of the intense polemical war between rival Social Democratic publications Rabochee Delo and Iskra. The context of Lenin's What Is to Be Done? cannot be understood without a thorough examination of this dispute, which ultimately ended in victory for Lenin and the Iskra faction. The full audiobook is currently in production by the team at Cosmonaut Magazine. You can find more episodes (and other audio books) on our Youtube channel, and you can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Haymarket books.   Narration and editing by Cliff Connolly.
01:45:2110/06/2021
Dialectical Materialism, Marxist Realism and Quantum Mechanics

Dialectical Materialism, Marxist Realism and Quantum Mechanics

Djamil and Rudy sit down for a hardcore episode on the interaction  between Soviet diamat philosophy and Quantum Mechanics.  We discuss the  analytic core of dialectical materialism through the lens of the  philosophy of science and the position of scientific realism. We analyze  the main propositions of this core in an attempt to extract what is  best, and most relevant to physics: those propositions and thematics which will play heavily in formulating and advancing soviet physics. We  discuss what realism is within this framework, how Lenin understood it, and how that informed his debates with the neo-positivists. We continue by outlining what parts of quantum mechanics tend to go against our  most basic intuitions, the Copenhagen interpretation and its neo-positivist roots, and how that informed the reception of quantum  mechanics in the USSR. We finish with V. A. Fock's efforts to give a  realistic interpretation of quantum mechanics consistent with dialectic  materialism which managed to change Niels Bohr's mind, which sets a prime  example for the successful application of dialectical materialism to science. Further reading: L. V. Tarasov – Basic Concepts of Quantum Mechanics Loren R. Graham – Quantum Mechanics and Dialectical Materialism D. Z. Albert – Quantum Mechanics and Experience
01:45:3906/06/2021
[Audiobook] Lenin Rediscovered: Chapter Four

[Audiobook] Lenin Rediscovered: Chapter Four

This is a narration of the fourth chapter of Lars Lih's excellent book Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context. In this chapter, Lih scrutinizes two opponents of the Russian Erfurtianism that Lenin championed: the Credo and Rabochaia mysl. This gives valuable insight into the political terrain on which What Is to Be Done? was deployed.   The full audiobook is currently in production by the team at Cosmonaut Magazine. You can find more episodes (and other audio books) on our Youtube channel, and you can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Haymarket books.   Narration and editing by Cliff Connolly.
02:08:0503/06/2021
Trade Unionism and Identity in the Israeli State with Ehud Ein-Gil

Trade Unionism and Identity in the Israeli State with Ehud Ein-Gil

Lydia and Rudy join Matzpen member Ehud Ein-Gil for a  discussion on trade unionism within the Israeli state. We discuss Ehud's  experiences around the founding of Koach LaOvdim as a new sort of  union, the history and structure of the Histadrut and how that has  affected trade unionism inside the '48 borders, his experience  organizing bus drivers, the intermediate status of the Mizraim Jews in  Israeli society, the effects of the Arab Spring on Israel, his thoughts on religion and secularism,  and his outlook about finding new identity for the six million Hebrews living in historic Palestine.
01:10:4431/05/2021
On Winning and Losing

On Winning and Losing

Ellie, Amelia, Matt and Rudy discuss the life and work of Col. John Boyd, one of the foremost military strategists of the last century. We discuss how the left should relate to military science, Boyd's main ideas such as the OODA loop and the Moral & Mental domains of struggle, his influences: Clausewitz and Sun Tzu, and how Boyd was able to use them to develop his ideas on strategy, and we finish up with examples of how politicians use similar ideas to Boyd and how we should use them for winning fights.   References: John BoydA Discourse on Winning and Losing Youtube lectures on Patterns of Conflict (transcript in the description) Boyd: The Fighter Pilot who Changed the Art of War - Robert Coram OthersTrotsky's The Art of Insurrection, and How the Revolution Armed Estrategia Socialista y Arte Militar - Emilio Albamonte & Matías Maiello (unavailable in English, summary of the ideas found here) Mao's Military Writings, in particular On Guerilla Warfare and Concentrate a Superior Force to Destroy the Enemy One by One Communist Party of Peru (Shining Path) - Military Line Marine Corps MCDP-1 WarfightingFleet Tactics and Naval Operations Third Edition - CAPT Wayne P. Hughes Jr.
01:26:2723/05/2021
[Audiobook] Lenin Rediscovered: Chapter Three

[Audiobook] Lenin Rediscovered: Chapter Three

This is a narration of the third chapter of Lars Lih's excellent book Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context. In this chapter, Lih explores three crucial texts from the Iskra period of Lenin's career, December 1900 to August 1903. The first, Russia and Its Crisis, was written by liberal revolutionary Paul Miliukov and explains the context of the revolutionary situation leading up to 1905 in which Iskra was published. The second, the Bolsheviks' Amsterdam Report from 1904, looked back at the Iskra period and gave the Bolshevik's side of the story. The third, which Lih calls the Political Agitation series, is a number of Iskra articles written by Lenin which further elucidate his Erfurtian outlook. The three texts combine to present overwhelming evidence that the textbook interpretation of Lenin is seriously flawed.   The full audiobook is currently in production by the team at Cosmonaut Magazine. You can find more episodes (and other audio books) on our Youtube channel, and you can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Haymarket books.   Narration and editing by Cliff Connolly.
01:51:3320/05/2021
Building a Mass Tenants Movement with Stomp Out Slumlords

Building a Mass Tenants Movement with Stomp Out Slumlords

Annie and Rudy join Greg Afinogenov from Stomp Out Slumlords for a discussion on tenants unions, and how SoS has thought about the work of Cloward and Piven to develop ideas on how to build sustainable mass organisations. We discuss how to build mass constituencies for actions and what the goal of tenants unionism should be. Further reading: R. A. Cloward, F. F. Piven - Disruptive Dissensus: People and Power in the Industrial Age Stomp Out Slumlords's organizing report of February 2021
59:0716/05/2021
[Audiobook] Lenin Rediscovered: Chapter Two

[Audiobook] Lenin Rediscovered: Chapter Two

This is a narration of the second chapter of Lars Lih's excellent book Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context. In this chapter, Lih examines all the programmatic writings from Lenin in the 1890s and demonstrates the revolutionary leader's consistency throughout this time. This sets the stage for Lenin's later polemics at the start of the 20th century, including What Is to Be Done? The full audiobook is currently in production by the team at Cosmonaut Magazine. You can find more episodes (and other audio books) on our Youtube channel, and you can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Haymarket books.   Narration and editing by Cliff Connolly.
01:42:5513/05/2021
Cuba: Past, Present, and Future with Helen Yaffe

Cuba: Past, Present, and Future with Helen Yaffe

Christian and Connor sit down with Helen Yaffe to discuss her book We Are Cuba. We talked about the history and political economy of revolutionary Cuba before and after the post-Soviet period. Some of topics we touched on were the nature of democracy on the island, the relationship of Cuba to the United States, and how Cuba has dealt with the pandemic and coming crisis of climate change. Other resources mentioned: Emily Morris - Unexpected Cuba  The documentary Cuba & COVID 19 Public Health, Science and Solidarity and Helen's article on Cuban vaccines. Piero Gleijeses' work on Cuba, in particular Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria, and the Struggle for Southern Africa, 1976–1991 and Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington and Africa, 1959–1976.
01:50:1709/05/2021
A life in Marxist Economics and Education with Sam Bowles

A life in Marxist Economics and Education with Sam Bowles

Amelia Davenport joins Samuel Bowles for a short discussion on his life-long research on global poverty and education. They discuss Bowles's history and how this led to his orientation, his work on education "Schooling in Capitalist America", including what he has changed his mind on, his thoughts about markets, incentives, central planning and capitalist economies, as well as other theories such as the value-form abolition, neo-liberal economics. He also talks about teaching economics to undergraduates and what thinkers socialists should engage with even  if they're outside the Marxist tradition. Make sure to check out the CORE project and their completely free undergraduate level coursebook on economics.
45:4303/05/2021
[Audiobook] Lenin Rediscovered: Chapter One

[Audiobook] Lenin Rediscovered: Chapter One

This is a narration of the first chapter of Lars Lih's excellent book Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context. In this chapter, Lih explains how the legacy of figures like Marx, Engels, Lassalle, Kautsky, and others influenced Lenin. There's also a wonderful exploration of how the pre-war SPD served as the original model for the "vanguard party" (though in a very different way from how the term is used today).   The full audiobook is currently in production by the team at Cosmonaut Magazine. You can find more episodes (and other audio books) on our Youtube channel, and you can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Haymarket books.   Narration and editing by Cliff Connolly.
02:25:5829/04/2021
Organizing Amazon: AU's Shop Floor Alternative

Organizing Amazon: AU's Shop Floor Alternative

Rudy joins Zama and Jonathan from Amazonians United to discuss their shop floor alternative which has organized walkouts in Chicago, and started a national fight for PTO.  They discuss the way they bond with co-workers on the shop floor, what their next steps are, and how different their organizing looks like to that of RWDSU which organized the Bessemer (Alabama) unionization effort. We also discuss medium- and long-term goals, as well as how they relate to the existing socialist movement.
01:21:0126/04/2021
Cults of our Hegemony: An Inventory of Left-Wing Cults

Cults of our Hegemony: An Inventory of Left-Wing Cults

Destructive cults are usually considered the domain of religious movements. The Left, however, has its own track record of cults. Gus Breslauer sympathetically examines this history in search of the political questions that produce such groups, how they operate, and how to overcome them. Robert Fish reads the article out loud.
55:4222/04/2021
Strikes & Boycotts: The Two Souls of the United Farm Workers with Frank Bardacke

Strikes & Boycotts: The Two Souls of the United Farm Workers with Frank Bardacke

Roger and Rudy join Frank Bardacke, author of Trampling out the Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers for a discussion on the UFW, its history, its tactics, its structure and its slow loss of relevance. We focus on the boycott as a tactic: how the UFW pioneered the use of boycotts, how winning the 1965-70 Delano grape campaign through a boycott shifted the power in the union from workers to staffers, and how both tactics, and what they represented in the union, would come into conflict in the 1979 Salinas Lettuce struggle. We also talk about Cesar Chavez the man, the UFW's changing relationship to undocumented migrants, present-day farm organizing and what lessons we can draw from the UFW for today, in particular on the use of boycotts and on union democracy.
01:30:0719/04/2021
[Audiobook] Lenin Rediscovered: Introduction

[Audiobook] Lenin Rediscovered: Introduction

This is a narration of the 37-page introduction to Lars Lih's excellent book Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context. Going against conventional wisdom, Lih presents a detailed study that paints Lenin as an optimist inspired by the capacity of the working class and determined to guide them to carry out their historic mission. Furthermore, Lih identifies the German Social Democratic Party as Lenin's ideal model of a revolutionary party, which he tried to implement to the greatest extent possible in Russia.   The full audiobook is currently in production by the team at Cosmonaut Magazine. You can find more episodes (and other audio books) on our Youtube channel, and you can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Haymarket books.   Narration and editing by Cliff Connolly.
01:22:2015/04/2021
The Class Struggle in Contemporary China with Yueran Zhang

The Class Struggle in Contemporary China with Yueran Zhang

Parker and Matthew sit down with sociologist and labor activist Yueran Zhang to discuss workers' struggles in contemporary China. Topics discussed include public memory of Tiananmen Square, the Chongqing model, trade unionism and labor activism in the Pearl River Delta, the Jasic workers' struggle, and prospects for the revolutionary left. ------ Check out Yueran's articles on The Forgotten Socialists of Tiananmen Square and Leninists in a Chinese Factory
01:19:2712/04/2021
From Ruins to Ruins in East Germany

From Ruins to Ruins in East Germany

Alex, Rudy and Christian sit down to discuss the history of the German Democratic Republic from its foundation atop the ruins of WW2 to the prelude of reunification. They discuss the challenges of building socialism in the fourth of ruined country, the challenges of brain drain, the economy before and after the Wall was built, the intelligentsia/worker divide, the varying responsiveness of the ruling party to criticism and how the GDR was able to provide a normal life to most of its population for decades.   Main References: The People's State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker - Mary Fulbrook A Socialist Defector: From Harvard to Karl-Marx-Allee - Victor Grossman The Human Rights Dictatorship: Socialism, Global Solidarity and Revolution in East Germany - Ned Richardson-Little Complementary references: The Making of the GDR, 1945-53 - Gareth Pritchard Where was the Working Class?: Revolution in Eastern Germany - Linda Fuller Dissolution: The Crisis of Communism and the End of Eastern Germany - Charles S. Maier
01:36:2604/04/2021
Fight the Constitution! Demand a New Republic!

Fight the Constitution! Demand a New Republic!

Jonah Martell proposes a radical New Union Act to throw the antiquated US Constitution into the dustbin of history. Cliff Connolly reads the article out loud.
33:3301/04/2021
Ethiopia: From the '74 Revolution to the present with Ian Scott Horst

Ethiopia: From the '74 Revolution to the present with Ian Scott Horst

Sam and Rudy join Ian Scott Horst, author of Like Ho Chi Minh! Like Che Guevara! The Revolutionary Left in Ethiopia, 1969–1979 (Foreign Languages Press) for a discussion on the 1974 revolution in Ethiopia and  the relationship to the Ethiopian present, as well as what we can learn and apply from it for today's world. We talk about the questions of Eritrean and Ethiopian nationalism, the role of the military in a revolution, the student  movements in Ethiopia and their role, with a comparison to the current young US left, definitions of fascism, the role of the USSR & Cuba in propping up the Derg military dictatorship and how to relate to past and failed socialist projects.   ---   Further reading:   Ian Scott Horst's Cosmonaut article on this topic "Which side are you on? The Challenge of the 1974 Ethiopian Revolution" as well as his translation "The struggle for democracy in Africa" by Iyasou Alemayehu.   John Markakis and Nega Ayele, Class and Revolution in Ethiopia is a good complement to Ian's book and goes deeper into the social classes that formed Ethiopia.
01:29:3128/03/2021
The Early Communist Women's Movement with Daria Dyakonova

The Early Communist Women's Movement with Daria Dyakonova

Lydia and Anne sit down with Daria Dyakonova to discuss the often neglected history of the Communist Women's Movement (1920-22). They talk about the origins of the movement, its most important figures, the debates around what the base of the CWM would be, and what would be the main issues it tackled, its changing relationship to the Comintern and its recurring fight against male chauvinism within the communist and broader workers movement. The discussion finishes with the slow eclipse of the CWM until its final demise and how that affected the future generations of communist women.   Daria and Mike Taber have an upcoming book on this topic through Brill's Historical Materialism series.   -------   Other resources:   Interview with Daria and Mike Taber on the CWM, and their upcoming book on it.   The Communist Women's Movement - John Riddell
01:06:1421/03/2021
Organizing our Organizations

Organizing our Organizations

Amelia, Jake, Steve and Rudy sit down for a discussion of what experiences in organizing brought them to be interested in Cybernetics and Beer's viable system model, and how they try to think through the structures of the organizations they currently are members of in Beerian terms. They discuss the dichotomies of centralization/de-centralization and here/now vs then/there, and how to balance them as well as the need for regulation in organization in the shape of arbitration and policies. ------------------ Stafford Beer's Designing Freedom Massey Lectures and his Falcondale Lectures are good places to begin with his work. A 10-min explanation is also provided by Auxiliary Statements. The General Intellect Unit podcast also features prominently in our discussion as a resource.
01:18:4214/03/2021
Create a Mass Party!

Create a Mass Party!

Cliff Connolly critiques CounterPower’s vision of the “party of autonomy” and offers an alternative vision of the mass party.  Cliff reads his article aloud.
51:5811/03/2021
Class and race in Israel/Palestine with Emmanuel Farjoun

Class and race in Israel/Palestine with Emmanuel Farjoun

Lydia, Isaac and Rudy join Emmanuel Farjoun from Matzpen for a discussion on his 1983  piece Class divisions in Israeli society and how the divisions have changed in the present day. We  discuss the changing strength of the Palestinians inside Israel and how that is reflected in their changing political aims, the differences between whiteness in the US and the construction of race in Israel, and the BDS movement internationally.
01:31:0107/03/2021
Mission Statement of the Marxist Unity Slate

Mission Statement of the Marxist Unity Slate

Matt Strupp reads aloud the a reprint of the mission statement of Marxist Unity Slate, a set of proposals for the 2021 DSA convention with the aim of fostering democratic discipline and principled election campaigns, as well as uniting Marxists in DSA around a vision of a mass socialist party. The proposals can be read and signed here, 100 signatures are needed to bring these to the convention. Most of the participants in Marxist Unity Slate are associated with Cosmonaut Magazine, either as contributors or board members. However, this should not be seen as an effort by Cosmonaut itself, but rather an attempt by like-minded comrades active in DSA to advocate for a specific direction. Cosmonaut hosts a diversity of views and Marxist Unity Slate is one of a number of personal initiatives of individuals associated with Cosmonaut.
15:1504/03/2021
A Marxist Education with Wayne Au

A Marxist Education with Wayne Au

Donald and Rudy sit down with Wayne Au, author of A Marxist Education. They discuss his experiences on providing a critical education, how education in the US currently stands and how Covid has just brought to the forefront issues faced by students. They discuss the Au's work on Paulo Freire and Lev Vygotsky, and end up envisioning how a socialist school could look like.
01:00:5928/02/2021
Beyond Work? The Shortcomings of Post-Work Politics

Beyond Work? The Shortcomings of Post-Work Politics

Mikael Lyngaas argues that post-work theorists ranging from Bob Black to Srnicek and Williams are utopian socialism for the current era. Sam Wiles reads the article out loud.
33:0124/02/2021
Reparations and Self-Determination: Loosening the Black-Belt

Reparations and Self-Determination: Loosening the Black-Belt

Renato Flores argues for self-determination and reparations for Black Americans as a key part of the revolutionary struggle in the USA. Robert Fisher reads the article out loud.
24:5019/02/2021
Republicanism and Freedom in Marx with William Clare Roberts

Republicanism and Freedom in Marx with William Clare Roberts

Ian and Donald join William Clare Roberts (@MarxInHell), author of Marx's Inferno for a discussion on the wider themes of his book: republicanism,  non-domination, theories of freedom, the early communist movement, and  how to read capital both politically and scientifically.
59:3215/02/2021
The origins of Matzpen: the Israeli Anti-Zionist New Left with Moshé Machover

The origins of Matzpen: the Israeli Anti-Zionist New Left with Moshé Machover

Isaac and Rudy join Moshé Machover, one of the four founding members of the Israeli Socialist Organization, better known as Matzpen after the name of their publication for a discussion on the group's  origins, how their anti-zionist consciousness originated and developed,  their marginalization by Israeli society during the 1967 war and how  Arab/Jewish solidarity was built. The conversation then pivots to how  the Israeli Class Structure has changed since its early analysis by Matzpen and what that bodes for the future. They also address the topics  of diasporism and how Israel compares to other settler (and  non-settler) societies in the world. ----- Further resources: Youtube documentary on Matzpen, Anti-Zionist Israelis  Moshé's articles on Belling the Cat, Colonialism and the Natives and Hebrew self-determination . Check out his Weekly Worker archive. Matzpen's archives 
01:49:2107/02/2021
The Revolutionary Karl Kautsky with Ben Lewis

The Revolutionary Karl Kautsky with Ben Lewis

Parker and Alex have a conversation with the editor and translator of Karl Kautsky on Democracy and Republicanism  (Haymarket, 2020) on the legacy of Karl Kautsky before he turned  renegade. They discuss the convergence of various conflicting political views, from 'Leninists' to Social Democrats and Cold War Warriors, into what Ben Lewis calls in his book a "peculiar consensus" that fundamentally misrepresents the historical figure of Kautsky.   Please support Ben Lewis's work Marxism Translated on Patreon as he strives to bring classical texts of German Marxism to an English audience for a first time.
59:4731/01/2021
The Family is Dead, Long Live the Family

The Family is Dead, Long Live the Family

With family abolition a controversial topic in the current-day leftist discourse, Alyson Escalante argues for a more nuanced and sensitive approach to the topic by looking at the works of Karl Marx and Alexandra Kollontai while exploring the relation of colonialism to the family. Sam Wiles reads the article aloud.
53:1829/01/2021
The Chinese Rural Commune with Zhun Xu

The Chinese Rural Commune with Zhun Xu

Matt and Christian join Zhun Xu, author of From Commune to Capitalism: How China’s Peasants Lost Collective Farming and Gained Urban Poverty for a discussion on China's communes from their construction to their dismantling. They contextualize land reform globally, elaborate on how the Chinese land reform process looked different from the Soviet one, discuss how the  communes looked and functioned, and what services they provided as well  as their achievements and their points of failure. They then take a general look at the cultural revolution, and how it was slowly reversed after Mao's death, why and how the rural communes were targeted first for reform, and they finish by looking at the fate of the urbanized peasantry and why they have not  yet joined the urban struggles in China.
01:35:1024/01/2021
Holocaust Capitalism

Holocaust Capitalism

Richard Hunsinger argues that migrant concentration camps represent a descent into fascist barbarism and are related to the inherent tendencies of capitalism. Remi Debs reads the article aloud. -------------------- Find more information about Richard's case in: https://twitter.com/DefendRichard/ , and please donate to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund
29:2812/01/2021
An X-Ray of the Yugoslav Experiment in Self-Management

An X-Ray of the Yugoslav Experiment in Self-Management

For the latest episode of our series on Actually Existing Socialism, Christian, Rudy, Donald and Connor join forces for a discussion on the Yugoslav self-management in its different iterations. We use Darko Suvin's Splendor, Misery and Possibilities: An X-Ray of Socialist Yugoslavia as a background to outline an exploration of the successive reforms where self-management was first brought in as a response to the failures of the command economy to take advantage of plebian creativity, and how slowly the market and decentralizations became a magic bullet for solving all problems, a fetish which caused the arising of significant inefficiencies, consumerist culture and inequalities both between republics and between workers and managers in the factories. We analyze why successive waves of marketization were supported, and how this led to the formations of new classes that would eventually disintegrate Yugoslavia. Other Sources: Yugoslav Marxists B. Horvat, "Towards a Theory of a Planned Economy" B. Kidric, "Some Theoretical Questions of the New Economic System" E. Kardelj, "Directions of the Development of the Political System of Socialist Self-Administration" Other Marxists E. Mandel, "Self-Management: Dangers and Possibilities" E. Hoxha, "Yugoslav "Self-Administration" - Capitalist Theory and Practice" Academic D. Granick, "Enterprise Guidance in Eastern Europe: A Comparison of Four Socialist Economies" P. H. Patterson, "Bought & Sold: Living and Losing the Good Life in Socialist Yugoslavia"  
01:26:5802/01/2021
Radio Free Punjab

Radio Free Punjab

Rudy is joined by Jasdeep and Sangeet to talk about the recent farmers protests going on in Northern India, especially around the regions of Punjab and Haryana. They discuss the origins of the movement and of the farmers union, how the movement relates to workers and urban dwellers and how the questions of caste, religion and gender are dealt with. The conversation then examines the total participation of society in the movement and how this was achieved, and what we can learn from it. We finalize by discussing the future of the movement, and what we can do to help it from anywhere. Check out Sangeet's work on women's participation in the ongoing movement and on another historical movement hundred years ago, and how religion plays a role in the culture of defiance.
45:3627/12/2020
Attic Communists of the Netherlands

Attic Communists of the Netherlands

Parker and Alex join Emil Jacobs of the Socialist Party of the Netherlands to discuss the factional struggle and expulsion of the Communist Platform group. They discuss the party's bureaucratic centralism and opposition to open democratic struggle by the party's parliamentary fraction. Should communists bother to try to push for principled politics within the broader workers movement? Why or why not? Emil also asks for context on the struggle for socialism in the US and the Democratic Socialists of America as well as Marxist Center groups. Weekly Worker articles added for context and updates to the struggle within the Dutch SP: Bureaucratic Control Freakery Youth Section Will Win Communist Platform website ROOD fundraiser
57:5721/12/2020