This week, we read two essays on the early Bolshevik education minister Anatoly Lunacharsky: " The Legacy of Lunacharsky and Aristic Freedom in the USSR" by Howard R Holter (1970) and Roland Boer's "Religion and Socialism: A.V. Lunacharsky and the God-Builders" (2014). Can we build god? Yes we can! patreon.com/swampsidechats
Recorded just before Christmas, we revisited the thought of the ultimate pessimist of post-modernism, Jean Baudrillard. We read In the Shadow of the Silent Majorities (1978), along with “The Procession of Simulacra” and “On Nihilism” from Simulacra and Simulation (1981). Benzi chibna looble bazebni gweb! patreon.com/swampsidechats
This week, an anonymous donor has put The Gang on the forced march through the first two chapters of Melinda Cooper’s 2017 book “Family Values: Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism". We take a look back at how a focus on the family survived the unraveling of the ultimate class compromise, and why it can never be the basis for socialism. Ни шагу назад! patreon.com/swampsidechats
In the latest installment of Swamp Trek, we set genders to none! We welcome Chief Science Officer Sophia Dax back to the bridge to watch and talk over The Next Generation S05E17: “The Outcast”. We touch on non-binary xenogenitalia, douchey but solid Klingon bros, and the ultimate second-waver woke leviathan. Help us crush gender once and for all by subscribing to our Patreon patreon.com/swampsidechats Watch Lexi & Sophia play games and flirt: twitch.tv/transtransrevolution
Donald recently attended the Marxist Center Conference in Colorado and provides a report back. We go on to discuss the points of unity, and what significance this event may have for the American Marxist left.
This week, The Gang gets subsumed to the value-form (not that there’s anything wrong with that!) as we read three essays by the late Canadian marxist Moishe Postone : "Critique and Historical Transformation" (2004) "History and Helplessness" (2006) "Rethinking 'Capital' in Light of the 'Grudrisse'" (2008) Donate to Swampside, yada yada, abolish the heteronomous dialectic: patreon.com/swampsidechats
It's Thanksgiving yet again, and your favorite communist podcast is serving up a cornucopia of bullshit. Angela Nagle on borders, Mexicans against the caravan, climate hell and more!
Following up our conversation on Marcuse's "One Dimensional Man" we read Paul Mattick Sr's response, "One Dimensional Man in Class Society." Not One Step Back!
The Gang gets into the mindset of the NPCs, the sheeple, and other dupes of instrumental reason as they explore Herbert Marcuse's seminal work "One-Dimensional Man."
Recorded on October 28th, we talk Bolsonaro, the migrant caravan, right wing violence, and more!
The Gang upholds Gonzalo Thought when we tackle "The Shining Path and the Future of Peru", a RAND Corporation report by Gordon McCormick in 1990 on the Peruvian Maoist insurgency led by Abimael Gúzman aka Comrade Gonzalo. Push it to the limit! patreon.com/swampsidechats
New donation rules for custom episodes: starting in January, the price doubles to $60 per episode. Any donation or subscription that starts in 2018 gets the old price of $30. patreon.com/swampsidechats PayPal.me/swampsidechats
The Gang seizes the means of craft beer production with a forced march into chapters 3–5 of Richard D. Wolff's 2012 book "Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism". Not One Step Back! Take the fast track to an FBI watchlist! patreon.com/swampsidechats
The Gang responds to the grim findings of the UN Climate Report. Jake becomes a prepper, Lexi becomes a Sorelian, Donald doubles down on Leninism, Rosa rages against the dying of the light, and some of that rage ends up landing on Grant.
The Gang sits down to discuss the 1977 essay version of "The Alternative in Eastern Europe" by Rudolf Bahro. Help us turn the world upside down! patreon.com/swampsidechats
In the latest installment of our "Not One Step Back!" reading series, we take a listener recommendation and look at the introduction to "Marx and the Earth: An Anti-Critique" by John Bellamy Foster and Paul Burkett. Make us read cool stuff at metaphorical gunpoint! patreon.com/swampsidechats
The Gang reads Part 4 of Samir Amin's 1988 classic '"Eurocentrism", "Towards a Non-Eurocentric View of History and a Non-Eurocentric View of Social Theory". Amin's radical revision of historical materialism impresses the hell out of everyone. Help us turn the world upside down…literally! patreon.com/swampsidechats
The Gang courts Madame Guillotine In the Enemy Camp with C Derick Varn! We read Joseph de Maistre’s metal af 1797 ur-reactionary tract “Considerations on France”. Help us drive down demand for powdered wigs! patreon.com/swampsidechats patreon.com/symptomaticredness
The Gang goes full natlib with Chapter 3 of Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth, "The Pitfalls of National Consciousness". We reluctantly acknowledge the role of a nationalist stage in historical development and marvel at his tragic predictions for developmental socialism. https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/fanon/pitfalls-national.htm Help us turn the world upside down! patreon.com/swampsidechats paypal.me/swampsidechats
This week we read the 1957 piece by E.P. Thompson, "Socialist Humanism: An Epistle to the Philistines." https://www.marxists.org/archive/thompson-ep/1957/sochum.htm
Next in our "dialectics by politicians" series, The Gang Lives Like Him! with Mao Zedong's "On Practice" and "On Contradiction" from 1937. Ascend to a new paradigm of the immortal science with our new Discord! For just $1/mo or more, get this and other dialectical goodies for voluntarily requisitioning funds to the world party's provisional coordinating committee. patreon.com/swampsidechats paypal.me/swampsidechats
In this bonus episode we saddle up to our armchairs to discuss two bizarre contemporary cases of leftish delusion: the Avital Ronell scandal and the rise of transformational festivals.
We sit down with Sophia from Redneck Revolt to discuss the origins of the organization, how best to counter the far right, the rise of fascism, gun culture and more.
The Gang goes straight to the Gulag when we take a magic mustache ride with 1938's "Dialectical and Historical Materialism" from the "History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)", better known by its subtitle as the "Short Course". Did we mention it's written by Stalin? We read Stalin this week. Help us get dizzy with success! patreon.com/swampsidechats paypal.me/swampsidechats
Recorded a few weeks ago, the gang reacted to a clip of the women on The View discussing the merits of socialism, which led to a conversation about the nature of the transition to communism, social mediation under high communism, and the ethics of killing the children of royalty.
This week, in our first fan-dictated reading, we discuss "The Law of Capitalist Breakdown", the second chapter of Henryk Grossman's 1929 crisis theory classic "The Law of Accumulation and Breakdown of the Capitalist System". Not one step back, comrades! Force us to read stuff! patreon.com/swampsidechats paypal.me/swampsidechats
This week, The Gang concludes our conversation with Amir from Cold and Dark Stars (colddarkstars.wordpress.com). We discuss electoral strategy, objective class interests, and 'small government socialism'. Help us uphold the immortal science! patreon.com/colddarkstars patreon.com/swampsidechats paypal.me/swampsidechats
This week, The Gang welcomes Amir from the fantastic marxist science blog Cold and Dark Stars to discuss prospects for a new marxist philosophy of science, popularization of scientific socialism, and a better version of the old "decadence of capitalism" thesis. The posts we have in mind are "The Decline of Science, the Decline of Capitalism", "Ergodicity as the Solution for the Decline of Science", and "Crisis Theory" from http://colddarkstars.wordpress.com Help us uphold the immortal science! p...
The Gang ❤️s the 90s, revisiting Gen X post-left icon Theodore "The Unabomber" Kaczynski. Touching only briefly on his hit single, we get into some deep cuts from the 'Zynski catalog: "The Truth About Primitive Life", "The System's Neatest Trick" (2008), and the Twitter-sourced epistle "Letter to a Young Revolutionary" (2018). tinyurl.com/y9m8j8d4 tinyurl.com/y9pcqqju Help us turn the world upside down! patreon.com/swampsidechats paypal.me/swampsidechats
The Gang discusses Rosa Luxemburg's 1909 article series on "The National Question and Autonomy". marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1909/national-question Donate and help us turn the world upside down: patreon.com/swampsidechats paypal.me/swampsidechats
