Sean and David Parsons, host of the excellent history podcast Nostalgia Trap, take a dive into the politics and ideology of fossil fuels through the lens of the 2005 George Clooney and Matt Damon film 'Syriana'. They go back to the 1990s and 2000s, especially the wake of 9/11 and the runup to the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions, to look at the sometimes troubled and myopic, but always fraught, way that Americans understand their relationship to oil and geopolitics. Out later this week will be fol...
Jan 26, 2022•1 hr
Continuing our discussion from the main episode, we go deeper into the denialism mess with Pavlos and ask ourselves what COVID and society's response might tell us about a possible revolutionary horizon. How do approach the real issues in the world without seeing like a state? We also discuss a second article written by an Italian collective, Wu Ming, that has a different take on the backlash against mandates: https://illwill.com/conspiracy-and-social-struggle To access this and a ton more bonus...
Jan 21, 2022•8 min
The gang is back with returning guest, Pavlos Roufos , for a spicy discussion about ever-contentious pandemic politics and how the left should relate to it: Why has SARS-COVID 19 and the state response to it caused such an uproar in parts of Europe and the United States? What contradictory functions does the capitalist state perform in class society, and how has this led to disaster? What is the attraction of denialism among the populist right and, increasingly, parts of the left? Is there a rat...
Jan 19, 2022•1 hr 18 min
We continue our discussion on the J6 "insurrection" with a reading of a NYT piece about a shadowy rightwing group you may not have heard of... likely because it's all a grift. For the full episode and all our other bonus content support the show at http://patreon.com/theantifada song: John Cale - Praetorian Underground
Jan 14, 2022•5 min
On the one-year anniversary of the media spectacle that was the Jan 6 Capitol Hill 'insurrection,' the Antifada crew look back on what happened on that fateful day, how it compared to the George Floyd uprising, what's going on with liberal democracy, and how the anti-capitalist left should relate to all of it. Outro song: Sick of it all - Insurrection Fundraiser for families affected by Bronx fire: https://www.gofundme.com/f/relief-for-families-at-333-e-183rd-st...
Jan 12, 2022•1 hr 9 min
After the election of self-described libertarian socialist Gabriel Boric, we talk to Isabel from the Valparaiso anarchist assembly and Rara Senal anarchafeminist podcast network about the election, constitutional referendum, and what, if anything, these things have to do with the massive uprising in Chile in 2019. We also discuss the relationship of indigenous groups to the new constitution, the status of political prisoners, and the many riot dogs (and other animals) of Chile. Follow effort to ...
Jan 05, 2022•1 hr 9 min
We continue our discussion of Mindfuckers: The Rise of Acid Fascism with the story of the Lyman Family--a folk music collective turned into a creepy cult of astrology-obsessed devotees to a toothless harmonica-playing manchild. Afterwards we discuss cults today--why they are so intriguing in popular culture yet seem to be on the decline. Finally we talk about acid. If it's a CIA psyop, does that mean we shouldn't take it? The full episode is available for patrons at Patreon.com/TheAntifada...
Dec 25, 2021•4 min
Were the Manson and Lyman families apocalyptic cults, misunderstood revolutionaries, or media distortions created to delegitimize the revolutionary communalism of the '60s? Parallax Views host JG Michael joins us to discuss Mindfuckers: The Rise of Acid Fascism , a collection of early-'70s Rolling Stone Magazine articles, to ponder cultism, psychedelic culture, hippy racism, The Beatles, and much more. Part two about the Lyman Family available for Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theantifada T...
Dec 22, 2021•1 hr 1 min
A new special collaboration series for VarnVlog and Antifada patrons featuring Sean and C. Derrick Varn. In this first episode we tackle to outlines of the present moment: what is the state of geopolitics? How does China fit into the world system? What is the state of American decline? How is US politics reflecting this decadence? What do the Democrats and Republicans stand for at the present moment, if anything? And more! The full episode is available for patrons now at our Patreon: https://www...
Dec 15, 2021•1 hr 11 min
A conversation about r/antiwork with @highriselowlife . Where did it come from? Why does it appeal to people? Is it the antidote to culture war? Will it organize a revolutionary general strike? For the full episode and all our other bonus material support the show at patreon.com/theantifada Song: Johnny Paycheck - Take This Job and Shove It
Dec 10, 2021•6 min
Along with Red May and History Against Misery we interview communist collective Chuang about their new book the Social Contagion (sort of). Expanding on the 2020 essay about the origins of the pandemic in China, the anonymous collective living in and outside of China uses on-the-ground interviews, reports and analysis to show the fragile reality between China's authoritarian Marxist facade. Buy Social Contagion from AK Press Support the Antifada on Patreon for bonus episodes, prize packs, and ou...
Dec 08, 2021•1 hr 7 min
Jamie and Sean continue with Jason Myles ( @lafinabsolute ) and Pascal Robert ( @probert06 ) of the podcast and YouTube show This is Revolution ( @TIRShowOakland ) to critique the American left, talk shit and analyze the intersection of music and politics. For this bonus content and access to our huge archive of good content, become a patron at www.patreon.com/theantifada ....
Dec 03, 2021•6 min
Jamie and Sean are joined by Jason Myles ( @lafinabsolute ) and Pascal Robert ( @probert06 ) of the podcast and YouTube show This is Revolution ( @TIRShowOakland ) for a wide-ranging discussion of black politics, media, and organizing in the modern age. Pascal's Newsweek article: https://www.newsweek.com/black-political-elite-serving-corporate-interests-misrepresenting-our-community-opinion-1652384 Jason's Medium article: https://jasonmyles.medium.com/i-was-a-teenage-anarchist-e918b00bb13 What T...
Dec 01, 2021•55 min
Enjoy this unlocked bonus ep! Happy Thanks-taking, we'll be back next week. -jamie Meme Militant Meg and Andy read the essay Memes Without End by Adrian Wohlleben, in which he argues that elements of recent uprisings like the Yellow Vests of France, turnstile hopping of Chile, the umbrella-wielding frontliners of Hong Kong were memes that help them spread in a way that traditional social movements cannot. Can we meme revolution into reality? Or is it impossible to force a meme? We discuss Richar...
Nov 24, 2021•1 hr 2 min
Notes from the great impasse.... the boys are back to take you for a wild ride from supply chains, to the Great Resignation, to culture wars, to cryptocurrency, to NFTs to terminal crisis. Why is nothing working and why does everything feel bad? It's the decadence of capitalism as a functioning social system and Sean and Matt explain why. Be sure to listen to the end as Matt, like a similarly bearded guy before him, reaches into the misty depths of theology to try to analogize the impersonal dom...
Nov 19, 2021•11 min
Jamie is joined by pal-of-the-show Aaron Thorpe ( @paradoomer ) to discuss Lizzie Borden's 1983 feminist sci-fi film "Born In Flames." Ten years after a "war of liberation" that established a social democratic government in the United States, things are still not great for women, especially queer, black, working class women! In a story that remains relevant to this day, the film follows the radical organizers of the Women's Army as they fight for true equality. Outro song - "Born In Flames," Red...
Nov 17, 2021•1 hr 19 min
Greetings, Antifada super soldiers! This week, we're cross-posting an episode of Jamie's new show Everybody Loves Communism, wherein she and co-host Jorge do the reading so you don't have to. In this edition, Jamie and Jorge begin their mini-series on the Paris Commune as a prelude to chapter 3 of Lenin's "State and Revolution," because you need to know about it to understand that chapter. It's also just an important event in the history of class struggle; Marx called it "the dawn of the great s...
Nov 10, 2021•59 min
As "Striketober" becomes "Strikevember," Sean and Jamie discuss the ongoing wave of strikes and labor actions, and what they might mean for class struggle in the US. Outro song: Strike Anywhere - You're Fired
Nov 03, 2021•1 hr 12 min
Happy Halloweekend! Jamie and Leslie are back with a seasonally appropriate discussion of two takes on the same tale from two towering directors: "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992), directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and "Nosferatu the Vampyre" (1979), written and directed by Werner Herzog. Which film contains the more convincing worldview? Which Dracula is incel, and which is volcel? Does Mina come off cooler than she should because she's played by Winona Ryder? All will be revealed. Subscribe to Th...
Oct 29, 2021•41 sec
After the GSA convention (Gothic Socialists of America) the Antifidada crew spends a night at a hotel made famous by the book The Palmer Hotel, a collection of spooky short stories set over a century at a downtown hotel. $20. Venmo: Rick-Paulas, PayPal: RickPaulas@gmail, CashApp: $RickPaulas. Include address. Please help pay for our ptsd therapy by becoming a patron NYC listeners come to Jamie's Halloween cover bands show 10/31!: https://bit.ly/3besiBW...
Oct 27, 2021•47 min
In the second part of our first episode of Armed Love, Peter Coyote discusses his interest in Zen, how it came to be so influential to the beatniks and hippies, and his background with indigenous solidarity, particularly the campaign to free Leonard Peltier . Coyote recommends Peter Matthiessen's In the Spirit of Crazy Horse regarding Peltier, and The New Buddhism by David Brazier and How the Swans came to the Lake by Rick Fields about Zen Buddhism. The full episode is available free at Patreon....
Oct 24, 2021•4 min
We begin our new series on the revolutionary counterculture of the sixties by interviewing Peter Coyote , founding member of the Diggers -- an anarchist group from San Francisco whose free stores, tie-died shirts, free concerts, and activist street theater opened the gates of the Haight to tens of thousands of dropouts and helped define the sixties aesthetic. But by '67, the Diggers were already trying to escape the hippie movement by forming a network of revolutionary communes. Joining Andy for...
Oct 20, 2021•1 hr 15 min
Jamie and Sean are joined by superproducer Paul Channelstrip ( @aufhebenkultur ) (Antifada twitch channel, Everybody Loves Communism, many more) for a laid back episode about the zoo, a high profile bird murder, and the tendency of the rate of treats to fall over time. Why is the supply chain having a normal one and what does it mean for the current phase of capitalism? You can watch this trio shoot the shit from 3pm-5pm ET every Wednesday and Friday at Twitch.tv/TheAntifada ! Check out Paul's m...
Oct 13, 2021•1 hr 17 min
The madlads from TrashFuture are back! Sean is joined by Riley (@raaleh) and Nate (@inthesedeserts) to discuss the very public meltdown of, well, you know, the entire British civilization. As it turns out, things in the UK are even more bleak than they appear from across the pond: supply chains breaking down, petrol stations empty, services being cut, etc. But even more dire, and darkly funny, is the reaction of the British ruling class' which absolutely refuses to rule. Put on your schadenfreud...
Oct 06, 2021•1 hr 26 min
Jamie and Andy are joined by Natasha Lennard ( @NatashaLennard ), contributing writer at The Intercept and author of " Being Numerous: Essays on Non-Fascist Life ," to commemorate Occupy Wall Street's ten-year anniversary. What are people erasing when they remember Occupy solely as something that "changed the conversation" around wealth inequality? How did the occupiers demonstrate anarchist politics in action? And what lessons can we carry into the future as we fight not merely to shore up the ...
Sep 29, 2021•1 hr 19 min
Sean is joined by special guest Adam H Johnson (@adamjohnsonnyc), writer and host of the excellent Citations Needed podcast, to discuss the political economy of mass media, how consent is manufactured and the myriad ways in which the capitalist press is complicit even in a declining US empire. Then, with some extra time, Sean gives a briefing of several recent strikes and what they might mean for organized labor going forward. Links: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/09/13/the-other-afghan...
Sep 22, 2021•1 hr 9 min
The crew discuss some of the cultural changes that happened in New York City and the country following the attacks of September 11th through the lens of the biggest band of that era, The Strokes. Sign up as a member at Patreon.com/theAntifada to unlock this episode and all of our fine bonus content!
Sep 17, 2021•4 min
We share our stories of 9/11 (some more harrowing than others) and commemorate some of the lesser known actions of the NYPD and FDNY with one of the anonymous members of Research and Destroy NYC Check out our bonus episode on the Strokes and NYC after 9/11 by becoming a patron at http://patreon.com/theantifada Download Research and Destroy's free zine New York's Worst Responders free: https://researchdestroy.com/new-yorks-worst-responders-nypd-and-9-11.pdf Music: Bruce Springsteen - Into the Fir...
Sep 15, 2021•1 hr 1 min
Meme Militant Meg and Andy read the essay Memes Without End by Adrian Wohlleben, in which he argues that elements of recent uprisings like the Yellow Vests of France, turnstile hopping of Chile, the umbrella-wielding frontliners of Hong Kong were memes that help them spread in a way that traditional social movements cannot. Can we meme revolution into reality? Or is it impossible to force a meme? We discuss Richard Dawkins, Susan Blackmore, Darwin, and more! For the full episode, all our other b...
Sep 10, 2021•4 min
The late Noel Ignatiev's comrades Zhana Kurti (from Hard Crackers ) and Dave Ranney and Kingsley Clarke from the Sojourner Truth Organization discuss the release of Acceptable Men , a memoir of Noel's time in the '70s as militant worker in the larger US Steel Mill in Gary Indiana. Buy Acceptable Men from Charles H. Kerr Books or AK Press And follow Kerr Books on Twitter Please SUPPORT THE SHOW at PATREON.COM/THEANTIFADA Show notes: Dave Ranney's Living and Dying on the Factory Floor review: http...
Sep 08, 2021•1 hr 4 min
