Enjoy this blast from the distant pass: January 2023! Check out all the other Histories is a Weapon on our patreon In light of the depressing denouement of 2022's railroad conflict, Sean and Matt sit down, in person at last, to discuss the deep history behind how American organized labor got so disorganized and why the labor movement hasn't moved in decades. Why was it that, in the United States, workers institutions had trouble evolving past the infancy of narrow, sectoral, decentralized craft ...
Apr 10, 2024•2 hr 9 min
Part 2 of our discussion with Middle East scholar Arya Zahedi of Insurgent Notes about the essay Class Struggle, Autonomy, and the State in Iran from Ill Will Editions. He talks about the uprisings in Iran, including the murder of Mahsa Amini , and his feelings about Iran's role in the proxy wars surrounding the siege of Gaza. Full episode available at http://patreon.com/theantifada Read the essay here: https://illwill.com/iran...
Apr 05, 2024•12 min
Middle East scholar Arya Zahedi of Insurgent Notes discusses his new essay Class Struggle, Autonomy, and the State in Iran from Ill Will Editions. In part 1, he talks about what the left gets wrong about Iran and its political history through the 1979 revolution, hostage crisis, and counterrevolution. For Part 2 of the episode, about the uprisings against the Islamic Republic and expanding conflict in the Middle East today, support the show at http://patreon.com/theantifada Read the essay here: ...
Apr 03, 2024•1 hr 15 min
Anselm Jappe is a professor of philosophy, former member of the Krisis Group, and author of the newly-translate book THE SELF-DEVOURING SOCIETY: CAPITALISM, NARCISSISM, AND SELF-DESTRUCTION with Eric-John Russell. The book’s tagline is: “Everyone can feel that the world is getting angrier. The Self-Devouring Society provides an original and rigorous explanation of why.” Buy the book from Common Notions: https://www.commonnotions.org/the-self-devouring-society More work by Anselm at Brooklyn Rai ...
Mar 27, 2024•54 min
For the first ever edition of Party Girls Zine Club, Sam and Jamie discuss Inhabit: Instructions for Autonomy, a 2018 broadside (or little orange book, if you will) from Inhabit, which is not a mere media project, but "a collectively and anonymously written strategy emerging from a network of autonomous projects across North America." What do we make of Inhabit's steps to revolution? Why present speculative fiction in a programmatic context? What does this work of ultra-left thought get right, a...
Mar 22, 2024•1 hr 37 min
IfNotNow activist Ignacio Choi chats about the Pro-Palestine movement, which has, like Finkelstein and Rabbani , won the debate within the framework of international law and human rights. But how far does that get us, and where else could the movement go? In the bonus we talk about Israel's leftwing defenders in Germany and the US. For the full episode subscribe at http://patreon.com/theantifada If you're a in NYC, join us Saturday March 23 at 5pm at Woodbine for a meeting of the Independent Wor...
Mar 20, 2024•55 min
Sean and Varn return with part four of their series on nationalism and the nation state. This episode is about the vexing questions of class and nation that arose in the 20th century and are unresolved today. Why did both the reformist and revolutionary wings of the classical workers movement turn towards state developmentalism? How did really existing class develop to conflict with Marxist theories of working class emancipation? What mistakes from past movements are we still making today whethe...
Mar 13, 2024•1 hr 3 min
NEWS EP! We discuss Aaron Bushnell, voting uncomitted and hopelessness, UAW and Starbucks union victories, the MTA wildcat strike and working-class demands for safety. For the full discussion become a patron today at www.patreon.com/theantifada Sign up or upgrade your membership at the discounted $10/month annual membership and DM your mailing address on Patreon for a free postage paid copy of the PM Press George Floyd Uprising book, with contributions by Andy and many past and future friends of...
Mar 04, 2024•57 min
Sean is joined by political theorist William Roberts to discuss his excellent 2017 book, Marx's Inferno: The Political Theory of Capital which excavates not just Marx's use of the structure of Dante's Inferno but the radical political theory that undergirds it. What is the relationship between the analysis in Capital and the debates within the workers movement of the time typified by the likes of Proudhon, Saint-Simon and Owens? What is the place of radical republicanism in Marx's theory? How ha...
Feb 28, 2024•50 min
Sean and Andy are joined by Mike Macnair, member of the Provisional Central Committee of the Communist Party of Great Britain, columnist at Weekly Worker and author of Revolutionary Strategy (2008) and many other works. We discuss the legacy of Marxist political movements of the 19th and 20th centuries, the role of the party, the importance of patience and republicanism to the working class struggle and what might be salvaged from the thought of great historical Marxists including... the renegad...
Feb 14, 2024•50 min
NEWS EPISODE! We talk about the crisis of liberalism in the US and worldwide through the context of the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the formation of BRICs as a challenge to US-based global order, the economic spiral of Germany and China, class war at the border, and betrayal of every millennial's favorite grocery store. For the full episode, sign up on patreon! If you sign up at the at the discounted $10/month annual membership a nd DM your address on Patreon for a free postage paid cop...
Feb 05, 2024•50 min
Sean and Varn return with part three of their series on nationalism and the nation state. This episode is about the only really existing internationalism left: the capitalist infrastructure of globalization. Special emphasis is made of the history of state formation in the Middle East as it pertains to the current conflict. In the second half, the discussion turns to the rise and decay of what is called the "Rules Based International Order". For access to this and all of our years of bonus conte...
Jan 31, 2024•1 hr 6 min
Sean and Andy finish reading Settlers, Chapters 13 and 14 For the full episode, support us on patreon: http://patreon.com/TheAntifada + Sign up or upgrade your membership at the discounted $10/month annual membership and DM your mailing address on Patreon for a free postage paid copy of the PM Press George Floyd Uprising book, with contributions by Andy and many past and future friends of the show! BLA's Message to the Black Movement: https://archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/AmRad/messageblackmovement.pd...
Jan 26, 2024•7 min
Ex-Militant of the Homosexual Front of Revolutionary Action (FHAR) Lola Mieseroff is our guest on this installment of the Antifada sideproject on the revolutionary culture of the sixties. We talk about growing up in gay South France in the sixties, her experience in May '68 and after, the resonance of Stonewall, what it meant to be a pro-situ and her run-in, with Debord, the revolutionary politics of homosexuality and queerness, her relationship with Guy Hocquenhghem and the rest of the revoluti...
Jan 24, 2024•1 hr 6 min
In part two of our discussion on the essay Forest and Factory , we foray into fourierism and the whimsical world of life under global communism. Topics include: the mushroom mafia, nomadic pleasure duels, gender orgies, capitalist fantasy camp, and communist santa! For the full episode, sign up on patreon! If you sign up at the at the discounted $10/month annual membership a nd DM your address on Patreon for a free postage paid copy of the PM Press George Floyd Uprising book, with contributions ...
Jan 19, 2024•8 min
What will production, consumption, supply chains, and climate policy on a global scale look like under communism? Phil Neel and Nick Chavez has published a compelling vision of the future in their Endnotes essay Forest and Factory Also check out Nick Chavez's piece Technical Expertise and Communist Production in Brooklyn Rail For part 2 of the episode , sign up on patreon! If you sign up at the at the discounted $10/month annual membership a nd DM your address on Patreon for a free postage paid ...
Jan 17, 2024•1 hr 2 min
News episode! We start 2024 by talking about Houthis and global shipping, the Uniparty, the Harvard presidency, and the backlash against Pro-Palestinian protesters as part of the broader backlash against progressive liberalism. *NEW YEARS PROMOTION! * Sign up or upgrade your membership at the discounted $10/month annual membership and DM your address on Patreon for a free postage paid copy of the PM Press George Floyd Uprising book, with contributions by Andy and many past and future friends of ...
Jan 08, 2024•54 min
A sneak peak at this new VarnVlog series featuring guest spots from Sean KB and Jason from great post-Trot podcast The Regrettable Century . We read Alexander Dugin's most famous work, 'The Fourth Political Theory' to understand why all sorts of people, from the right to the left, are looking to this eclectic, irrationalist Russian post-fascist to understand this particular moment in world history. For the full episode and much more bonus content, become a patron today at www.patreon.com/theanti...
Jan 03, 2024•58 min
Vincent Bevins chats about lessons of the uprisings of 2010s, as outlined in his book If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution For the full episode support the show at http://patreon.com/theantifada Song: Kacey Musgraves - Slow Burn
Dec 27, 2023•59 min
Sean KB and C Derick Varn return with part two of their series on nationalism and the nation state. In this episode, the discuss various Marxist conceptions of the state including Otto Bauer, Rosa Luxembourg but especially Vladimir Lenin. What is the relationship between people and nation? Class and nation? And what is to be done? This is an extended preview. For access to the entire two-hour audio episode become a patron at www.patreon.com/theantifada Or to view the video recording subscribe al...
Dec 22, 2023•53 min
Anders & Andy interview the unmasked McKinsey whistleblower and journalist Garrison Lovely about consulting with Rikers and ICE. Other topics include bread fixing, opiates, McKinsey 4chan, and Mayor Pete. In the second Garrison takes our answers on being a leftist Effective Altruist. For the full episode, support the show at http://patreon.com/theantifada Garrison's podcast: https://mostinterestingpeople.podbean.com Original whisteblower article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2019/02/mckins...
Dec 18, 2023•1 hr 19 min
Sean and Andy are joined by Volodymyr Ishchenko, Ukrainian Marxist and sociologist, to discuss his upcoming collection of essays "Toward the Abyss" from Verso Books. (You can and should preorder here .) How does a 'civilizational' or 'cultural' or 'decolonial' understanding of the Russia-Ukraine conflict obscure the underlying class conflict at its heart? What is the political economy of 'corruption' and anti-corruption? How has the delegitimization of the post-Soviet political capitalist ruling...
Dec 13, 2023•51 min
Andy and Sean are joined by returning champion Jason Myles of This is Revolution podcast and industrial metal maniacs Bitter Lake to discuss his recent Damage Magazine article about Ibram X Kendi and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion grift. How has identity politics been used to subsume class politics? What's left of a socialist left after the failure of Sandersism? Without the crutch of a social democracy more impossible by the day what might we build? We also discuss the war on Gaza and why ...
Dec 06, 2023•1 hr 16 min
We read chapters X and XI of Settlers about the decline of the CPUSA and postwar settlers parasitism on a global scale. For the full episode, support the show at Patreon.com/TheAntifada And find previous chapters of Reading Settlers on our Reading Settlers Collections page: https://www.patreon.com/collection/241791?view=expanded Read Along: https://readsettlers.org/ch10.html https://readsettlers.org/ch11.html Info about Yokinen Trial./ White Chauvinism purges: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokin...
Dec 01, 2023•7 min
For the full episode support the show at http://patreon.com/theantifada NEWS EP: Musk's trip Israel and the elections of Milei, Wildes, and the Dublin riots. Israeli labor shortage. How worried we should be about Trump's Plan 2025? Why Bidenist social-democracy won't help. Civil Socety vs. Social Humanity. PSL and block the boat criticism. The rise of AMLOnomics and Avocado wars in Mexico Labor shortage in Israel: https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/26/middleeast/israel-farms-foreign-workers-crisis-intl...
Nov 29, 2023•59 min
We visit Argentina, where the extremely online anarcho-capitalist Bolsonarista and MAGA Chud Javier Milei has just been elected their new president. Will it be a return to the Anti-communist dictatorship of the 70s and 80s, the neoliberal dollarization era of the 90s, or will it turn Argentina into one big AnarchApulco? To find out, Andy interviews members of anarchist-communist collective based in the Biblioteca y Archivo Alberto Ghiraldo from Rosario, Argentina. Recently they put out a new tex...
Nov 22, 2023•30 min
This is audio of CRUSH reading series no.37, Benefit for Palestine featuring Kamelya Youssef , Jenna Hamed , Tenaya Nasser, Tilghman Goldsborough , and Aristilde Kirby , with musical accompaniment by Paco Cathcart . Recorded at Woodbine Nov 3, 2023. The reading was a benefit for Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA). Donate here- https://secure.everyaction.com/3aJf-w9toEewrIbfQf-XtA2 See a short clip of the performance here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CzUJSiOuNtd/ CRUSH reading series is curat...
Nov 10, 2023•45 min
The arcane numbering system is gone, but Sean and Varn have (surprise!) a new miniseries. Inspired by current events - such as the Russo-Ukrainian War, Israel's ongoing atrocities in Gaza, and the turn towards post-neoliberal economic nationalism - we're going to explore all manner of Marxist and non-Marxist theories on the nation state to help get our heads around the current mess the world is in and hopefully chart a pathway out. How did the nation-state rise in the early modern world? what ro...
Nov 08, 2023•58 min
For the full episode support us on patreon at http://patreon.com/theantifada J. Sakai's Settlers Chapter 9 - Neocolonial Pacification in the US discusses how the Settler Nation integrated Native American and Black leaders into its ranks. Topics include: Native American self-governance, the rise of Marcus Garvey's UNIA, international solidarity with Ethiopia after Italy's 1935 invasion, the STFU (Southern Tenant Farmers Union), A. Phillip Randolph, the March on Washington, Black Power, and Settle...
Nov 06, 2023•49 min
Sean is joined by @DaneilTutt , host of the @torsion_groups and @emancipations_ podcast , to talk about the life of Friedrich Engels through the Tristam Hunt's 2009 biography Marx's General . Is there truth to the argument, developed in the 1920s, that Engels was responsible for a serious distortion of Marx's theory? What do we make of his 'double life' as both a carousing bourgeois and a disciplined revolutionary? How did the political views of Marx and Engels change over he course of the 19th ...
Oct 25, 2023•1 hr 9 min
