Historian Quinn Slobodian makes a return appearance to talk about neoliberals: their opposition to the European Union (essay in Mutant Neoliberalism ), their hatred of the 1960s , and their embrace of racial and culturalist politics....
Two of the most pressing questions facing humanity are as follows: 1. What exactly has changed and what has stayed the same about the global capitalist economy in the 21st century? 2. Are we gonna have a Prime Minister Jezza in the UK before Christmas? Micah posed these questions and others to Grace Blakeley, a socialist economist, economics commentator at the New Statesman, and research fellow at the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR). She's also the author of a new book, Stolen: How to...
Suzi talks to Tariq Ali , author of The Extreme Center , about the UK election, Jeremy Corbyn, and the Labour Party campaign. Unlike the endless US presidential election campaign, the British general election is run on a mercifully concentrated, if intense political timetable of just twenty-five working days once the election is called by Parliament. The stakes couldn’t be higher, and if the Conservatives, the Brexit party. and the Lib Dems have their way, the campaign will focus on Brexit, whic...
Mathew Lawrence, founder and director of the left-wing UK think tank Common Wealth, explains why ownership must be socialized, what that might look like, and how to make it happen. Thanks to UNC Press. Check out Stirrings: How Activist New Yorkers Ignited a Movement for Food Justice By Lana Dee Povitz uncpress.org/book/9781469653013/stirrings Please support this podcast with money at Patreon.com/TheDig...
What a time to be alive, when there are so many socialists running for Congress that it's difficult to schedule them all. We've interviewed two socialists running for House recently: Heidi Sloan, who's running in Texas, and Cathy Kunkel, who's running in West Virginia. Today, we're interviewing a third socialist House candidate: Rebecca Parson in Washington's sixth district. Rebecca is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, an activist with the Tacoma Tenants Organizing Committee, and...
Grace Blakeley , author of Stolen , on where financialized capitalism came from and how we could get out of it. Then, economist Emmanuel Saez , co-author of The Triumph of Injustice , on how the rich got richer while paying less of their income in taxes than the working class (Tax Justice website here )....
The divide between Latin American and the United States was not always so evident. Across the hemisphere, creoles—the descendants of European settlers, born in the Americas—launched revolutions to cast off European rule and preserve their own elite position over black and indigenous people. Joshua Simon explains how rival settler-colonial projects became today's status quo of US dominance. Thanks to n+1. Dig listeners can take 25% off a year’s subscription. Go to nplusonemag.com/thedig to subscr...
René Rojas, author of this article , on the social explosion in Chile. Then, Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven , author of this article , on the little problems, little answers approach of this year’s economics Nobelists ....
It's safe to say that Julia Salazar's campaign for state senate in New York was the most watched and most brutal state legislature race in recent history, maybe in all of US history. But what she's done in office since then hasn't received as much attention. Micah sat down with Salazar to talk about what she's been up to since heading to Albany. jacobinmag.com/subscribe
Gabriel Winant , author of this article , on the professional–managerial class and its decomposition (the 1977 Ehrenreich papers are here and here ; their 2013 follow-up is here ). Then, Alan Beattie , author of this paper , on the US-led global order and its decomposition....
Suzi talks to Pablo Abufom and Gilbert Achcar about the ongoing massive protest movements in Chile and Lebanon, where for more than two weeks the mobilization and demonstrations have spread spectacularly in breadth and depth. In Chile 1.2 million took to the streets on Oct 25 and in Lebanon protestors formed a human chain from one end of the country to another, in both places protesting the inequity of the status quo, a generalized protest against neoliberalism, and an unjust order. Protestors h...
Adom Getachew explains how anticolonial leaders from across the black Atlantic tried to not only cast off European rule but also end empire by constructing an egalitarian global political and economic order in its place. Thanks to University of North Carolina Press. Check out Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor uncpress.org/book/9781469653662/race-for-profit/ Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/T...
<style></style> What could a Bernie Sanders presidency do for racial justice in America? Last month at Riverside Church in New York City, we hosted a discussion on this question with Briahna Joy Gray and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, moderated by Ariella Thornhill. <o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> Briahna Joy Gray is Bernie Sanders’s national press secretary. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor is an assistant professor of African American Studies at Princeton and a Jacobin columnist. ...
Jodi Dean , author of Comrade , on the sense of political belonging formed by and essential to common struggle.
Corey Robin , author of The Enigma of Clarence Thomas , on the life and thought of a conservative black nationalist.
Perhaps nowhere is the far right stronger than in India. There, the Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, continues in power under Prime Minister Narendra Modi after winning a huge victory in this year’s elections. The BJP, however, isn’t just a party. It’s the electoral wing of a Hindu nationalist movement that constitutes the largest and most organized far-right force on earth. A deep dive with Indian scholar Achin Vanaik. Read some of his recent work: newleftreview.org/issues/II112/articles/achin-v...
Suzi talks to Tel Aviv University professor YoavPeled , whose latest book is The Religionization of Israeli Society , about the still unclear outcome of the September 17 Israeli election — the second election this year. Likud prime minister Bibi Netanyahu got thirty-two seats and Benny Gantz of Blue and White got thirty-three, but so far Netanyahu has not been able to form a coalition that would get the 61 seats out of 120 needed to rule, and the clock is ticking toward the October 24 deadline. ...
'Joker' is not an ode to the alt right. It is a film about the devastating consequences of austerity. This is an objective fact, which I spoke with Jacobin story editor Connor Kilpatrick about. You can read my review of 'Joker,' which touches on many of the themes we talk about in this discussion, for the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/10/joker-far-right-warning-austerity Eileen Jones's piece about 'Joker' and America's long history of movie moral panics is here: ht...
Dan interviews Alex Gourevitch about how 19th century US labor radicals remade the idea of freedom into a principle of working-class social transformation. If you want more on the debate over Lexit, which they only touched on briefly, check out this June interview with Chris Bickerton and Jerome Roos www.thedigradio.com/podcast/the-european-situation-with-chris-bickerton-and-jerome-roos Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com Please support this ...
Suzi talks to UCSB Labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein about the ongoing UAW strike against General Motors, the first strike since 2007, with 50,000 workers on the picket lines. Lichtenstein shares his views of the strike, the union leadership, and the impact he thinks this strike can have on politics and work life, in reviving and reshaping industries and workplaces — and the political order. Suzi then talks to Daniel Aldana Cohen about the Green New Deal (GND) in the wake of worldwide climate ...
Samuel Moyn (author of this article and this ) on the political snares of impeachment. Then, Tom Athanasiou on the Sanders climate plan and the need for a global Green New Deal (article here )...
Dan interviews Noura Erakat, the author of Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine, a new book that analyzes the history of settler-colonialism in Palestine and the Palestinian struggle for liberation from just before the British mandate to the present through the lens of the law. Thanks to Haymarket Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at haymarketbooks.org Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig . We need those of you who can support us to do so becau...
Our newest print issue is “War Is a Racket,” focused on war and imperialism. At the Chicago issue release party, I spoke with two organizers and writers who appear in the issue: Rory Fanning and Sarah Lazare. Rory is a former Army Ranger who fought in Afghanistan and became a war resister there. He’s the author of the book ‘Worth Fighting For’ and now works at Haymarket Books. He was profiled by our assistant editor Alex Press in the new issue. Sarah is a web editor at In These Times. She has an...
Joel Schalit , co-founder and editor of The Battleground , on the Israeli election . Then, Martin Lukacs, author of The Trudeau Formula , on that slippery Canadian prime minister.
Lisa Duggan wrote a book that explains everything you need to know about Ayn Rand and why she became so enormously consequential so that you don't have to read Rand's work yourself. Mean Girl: Ayn Rand and the Culture of Greed is out now from University of California Press. Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com Please support this podcast with money at Patreon.com/TheDig...
Sam Gindin on the UAW’s strike against GM, and the possibilities for the green repurposing of a plant GM is abandoning. Then, Robin Einhorn on the role of slavery in shaping tax politics in the early United States (article here ).
The history of suburbanite reactions to school integration in Atlanta and Charlotte reveal the class power underpinning both racism and the demolition of the New Deal order. Dan interviews Matt Lassiter, discussing suburbanite resistance to school busing, why Nixon's Silent Majority was the the product of a suburban strategy rather than a Southern one, and why the class base of all politics matters. Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com Support...
As we trudge closer to 2020, candidates are emerging for elected office beyond the presidency. And, thank God, they don't all suck. Like Cathy Kunkel, who is running for Congress in West Virginia's second district. Cathy is an energy analyst, cochair of the Working Families Party in West Virginia, an activist during the 2018 West Virginia teachers strike, and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. She's also a contributor to Jacobin, where she's written half a dozen articles about Wes...
Suzi talks to Paul Mason on Brexit and George Kerevan on Brexit in Scotland — to unravel the complexities and many political-economic ramifications of the issue. The Brexit crisis is as consuming for the United Kingdom as Trump is for the United States. Paul Mason calls it "Brexhaustion," and says chaos is being normalized … albeit manufactured. The daily ins and outs are confusing, especially to outside spectators, but we shed light on this now constitutional crisis with British journalist and ...
Margaret Corvid, city councilor in Plymouth, England, on Boris Johnson and Brexit madness. Then, John Clegg on slavery’s profound effects on the US political structure.
