We created this podcast in recognition that there are a number of podcasts for the American “left,” but many of them focus heavily on the organizing of social d...
“Refusing Proper Subjection” - Andrew Krinks on the Religious Function of Mass Criminalization
In this episode we speak with Andrew Krinks about his recent book White Property, Black Trespass: Racial Capitalism and the Religious Function of Mass Criminalization. The book is really interesting and I highly recommend it, this is part 1 of a 2 part discussion we recorded on it. You can pick it up from Massive Bookshop the bookstore that uses their revenue from book sales to bail people out of jail. In this discussion Krinks goes into the religious function that the mass criminalization of Black, Brown, and dispossessed peoples serves within the racial capitalist system. Engaging with Marxist and materialist explanations as well as Christian theologians and bourgeois philosophers, we get into how police and prisons are tethered deeply with religious ideology, which also finds quarter within the so-called secular theorists who provided the political philosophical underpinnings of the capitalist system. We also get into dynamics of race making and racialist thinking by way of folks like Cedric Robinson and Ruth Wilson Gilmore to examine the connection between race making and property relations. I’ll also note that last year we hosted a video conversation with Melayna Kay Lamb and Tia Trafford about the philosophical underpinnings of police power that has some important areas of overlap with this discussion as well, but focuses a bit more on European secular philosophy and policing. Starting on Monday the 6th we’ll be hosting a new live series on our YouTube channel with Mtume Gant who is a filmmaker, media critic, and professor of film, where we will be talking about Cedric Robinson’s Forgeries of Memory and Meaning. So if you like this conversation I think you’ll find a lot of resonance with those discussions as well as they really go into how and when race-making processes are instrumentalized in the media, using historical examples. And lastly it is a new year, and we have a ton of new content coming this year. Last year we published 115 video episodes, and 38 audio episodes. We hope to be similarly productive again this year, but in order to do that we do need your support to be able to put in the amount of time necessary to get all that work done. You can become a patron of the show for as little as $1 a month. We should have another study group starting up in February and that is open to all of our patrons as well. So head over to Patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism and kick in a $1 a month or more to that effort.
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“A Form of Resistance Towards Liberation” - Hala Sabbah on The Sameer Project
In this episode we speak with Hala Sabbah about the work of the Sameer Project and their various initiatives providing tents, food, water, milk, medical aid, diapers, and cash aid to Palestinians surviving amid the US-backed, zionist enacted genocide in Gaza. We are going to close the year by making a $50 contribution to the Sameer Project, and we encourage our listeners to give if they can or boost their incredible work, which you can see examples of on their instagram or twitter feeds. In this conversation Hala discusses their campaigns, responds to criticisms from the western left of mutual aid in times of genocide, talks about creative initiatives that groups like Workshops4Gaza are using to direct resources to The Sameer Project, and discusses some of their ideas for the day after a ceasefire. We also talk about some of the ways The Sameer Project’s model differs from the approaches taken by large NGOs operating in Gaza, whose work is not grounded in the horizon of Palestinian liberation. We’ll include links to the Sameer Project and Workshops4Gaza please consider groups like these as you think about your last minute holiday shopping or places to direct funds if you receive money this holiday season. We also had a previous conversation with Hala on our YouTube channel which we will link in the show description. We’ll probably have a few more audio episodes coming as we close out 2024, but we just want to thank everyone for their support of our work this year. Links: The Sameer Project Linktree (links to their fundraising campaigns and instagram), their twitter page as well. Workshops4Gaza
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Divesting From Hollywood and State Narrative: On Toni Cade Bambara & Gloria Naylor With Randi Gill-Sadler
In this episode we speak with Professor Randi Gill-Sadler about various published and unpublished works of writers and filmmakers Toni Cade Bambara and Gloria Naylor. Randi Gill-Sadler is a teacher, scholar, and writer. She received her PhdD in English and her graduate certificate in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the University of Florida. Her research and teaching interests include 20th century African American and Afro-Caribbean women's literature, U.S. Cultures of Imperialism, and theories of Black diasporic relation and anticolonialism. Her work has been published in Feminist Formations, Small Axe, Radical History Review, and Oxford American magazine. She is currently writing her first book which revisits the Black women's literary renaissance of the 1970s and 1980s to explore how Black women writers like Paule Marshall, June Jordan, Gloria Naylor, and Toni Cade Bambara reckoned with African Americans' growing conscription into U.S. imperial exploits in their fiction, poetry, and film. For this discussion Josh talks to Professor Gill-Sadler about how Bambara and Naylor navigated the academy, spaces of cultural production, while maintaining anti-imperialist politics, and putting their skills to work for local movements and causes, while also connecting the local to the international. Just a quick note that on the video side of things, due to a pipe leak my studio has been out of commission and will continue to be for about the next month. That’s why we haven’t been hosting livestreams recently. We hope to have that resolved by sometime in January and have plans to continue using the video form. But in the meantime we’ll be releasing audio episodes. You can catch up on the 139 livestreams we hosted there over the past year at YouTube.com/@MAKCapitalism If you appreciate the work that we do, please consider becoming a patron of the show. You can do so for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism This episode is edited & produced by Aidan Elias. Music, as always, is by Televangel Links: "Taking Over, Living In: Black Feminist Geometry and the Radical Politics of Repair" by R. Gill-Sadler and Erica R. Edwards "The Minister of Mercy is a Homegirl" "Toward a Radical Cinematic Horizon: The Unrealized Works of Toni Cade Bambara and Gloria Naylor" For another conversation on the Atlanta Missing & Kidnapped Children’s Case (in the context of the context of the moral panic about kidnapping in the late 70's and 1980's), see our conversation with Paul Renfro on his book Stranger Danger.
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Left-Wing Melancholia & the Post '67 Arab Subject with Nihal El Aasar
[editor's note: Due to the context of rapidly developing events in the region, it is important to note that this conversation was recorded back in early October, 2024] In this episode, we speak with Nihal El Aasar about her recently penned essay, "Left Wing Melancholia, the Arab Political Subject." We speak about Palestine's importance to the Arab political subject and the need to analyze the current absence of the Arab masses in light of Israel’s genocidal onslaught. She highlights the influence of Palestinian intellectual Ghassan Kanafani on her work, particularly his broader definition of the Palestinian question and the importance of not isolating it from the wider struggle against capitalism and imperialism in the so-called Middle East and beyond. Nihal critiques the narrow framing of the Palestinian struggle vis-a-vis Israel and stresses the need to consider the wider Arab and regional dimensions of the struggle. We also explore the role of reactionary Arab regimes play in weakening the National Liberation Movement and preying on the masses' instincts toward national and class liberation. Nihal provides historical context, discussing the impact of the 1967 defeat on Arab socialism and pan-Arabism, and the subsequent rise of neoliberal policies that have continued to govern certain segments of the region. Through a materialist lens, she critiques the current political paralysis that can be observed throughout the Arab world, attributing it to severe repression and systemic depoliticization. We cross-reference this paralysis and juxtapose the phenomenon across similar instances happening across the world—including for Black folks in the US. She emphasizes the need to grapple with defeat as a material reality and learn from past struggles to reactivate the colonized masses and reengage in political struggle. Nihal is an Egyptian writer, researcher and radio host. She mainly writes about politics, political economy and culture. Her work has appeared in various Arabic and English language publications. If you like what we do and want to support our ability to have more conversations like this. Please consider becoming a patron. You can do so for as little as a 1 Dollar a month. This episode is edited & produced by Aidan Elias. Music, as always, is by Televangel Links: "Left Wing Melancholia, the Arab Political Subject." For another related conversation on Nasser, the context of Arab regimes today, and some of the same dynamics that Nihal outlines in this conversation, we recently hosted Ameed Faleh discussing among other things Anouar Abdel-Malek’s Egypt: Military Society.
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“Bobby Sands Got More Votes Than Margaret Thatcher Ever Did” C. Crowle on Attack International’s Spirit of Freedom: Anticolonial War & Uneasy Peace in Ireland
In this interview we talk to C. Crowle about the recently republished and expanded edition of Attack International’s text The Spirit of Freedom: Anticolonial War & Uneasy Peace in Ireland. The new edition includes the original unabridged 1989 text by Attack International and some great supplementary material compiled by Crowle. The book is a concise and powerful text on the national liberation struggle in Ireland from the perspective of radicals in the UK. It’s a text that challenges us to think critically about how people in an imperial center practice solidarity with the masses under the yoke of colonialism. We discuss different facets of the Irish context, including the revitalization of the armed movement in Ireland in the 1960’s, the prisoner hunger strikes, and some of the different strands of Irish Nationalism and Ulster Unionism. We also talk about Attack International’s critical analysis of the shortcomings, and problems with the anti-imperialist solidarity movement in Great Britain during the period of Irish armed struggle. This episode was recorded back on November 7th 2023 so while we discuss western liberalism, media and the western left with regards to Palestine, many of the questions we raised but didn’t fully flesh out are topics we’ve covered more deeply since then. Having said that, one cannot help but ponder the resonances between the failures of the British left in supporting Irish liberation to the failures of the western left to materially impact the genocide on Palestinians & to support the Palestinian liberation struggle. We close by talking about the very real prospects for a United Ireland, what that might mean, and some of Crowle assessments of Irish Republicanism today. Kersplebedeb published this book, and their online bookstore is leftwingbooks.net. They are based in Canada, and are having a sale of 25% off during the Canada Post strike, because shipments will be delayed (solidarity to the striking postal workers). I highly encourage people to check out their catalogue, and in addition to The Spirit of Freedom, I will include some books I love from them in the show description. We have a current discount for new patrons, you can get 20% off your first month if you sign up for a monthly membership, or off your first year if you sign up for a yearly membership by using the code A7E32 when you sign up on patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism. You also can now give a membership to our patreon as a gift if you know someone who would enjoy that this holiday season. We’ll include a link for that in the show description as well Our George Jackson Blood In My Eye study group will be available for patrons who support the show at any level. We are going to meet to discuss the book weekly on Thursday nights at 7:30 PM Eastern Time starting December 12th. Comrades from the George Jackson Organizing School will also join us for these discussions. Links: The Spirit of Freedom: Anticolonial War & Uneasy Peace in Ireland Leftwingbooks.net Give the gift of a patreon subscription Use promo code A7E32 to get 20% off the first month (if you sign up for a monthly subscription) or year (if you sign up for yearly) at https://www.patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism Other conversations we've had on Ireland: Ireland, Colonialism and the Unfinished Revolution with Robbie McVeigh and Bill Rolston (Jared also references this book multiple times in the conversation) The Lost & Early Writings of James Connolly 1889-1898 with Conor McCabe Irish Women's Prison Writing: Mother Ireland's Rebels, 1960's-2010's with Red Washburn Books Casey references: Three Way Fight Book Confronting Fascism - Discussion Documents for a Militant Movement - A few book recommendations from Leftwingbooks/Kersplebedeb (there are many more, but these are just a few we love): On Necrocapitalism Riding the Wave - Torkil Lauesen A Soldier's Story - Kuwasi Balagoon Lumpen: The Autobiography of Ed Mead Stand Up, Struggle Forward - Sanyika Shakur Night Vision - Butch Lee & Red Rover Conversations we've held on Palestine that flesh out some of the points raised: The Question of Hamas and the Left by Abdaljawad Omar Western Theory and the Demonization of the Palestinian Resistance with Max Ajl Palestine & The Problem of Narrative with The Good Shepherd Collective Time for Autonomous Action for Palestine with Within Our Lifetime
We created this podcast in recognition that there are a number of podcasts for the American “left,” but many of them focus heavily on the organizing of social democrats, progressives, and liberal democrats. Aside from that, on the left we are always fighting a war of ideas and if we do not continue to build platforms to share those ideas and the stories of their implementation from a leftist perspective, they will continue to be ignored, misrepresented, and dismissed by the capitalist media and as a result by the general public.
Our goal is to provide a platform for communists, anti-imperialists, Black Liberation movements, ancoms, left libertarians, LBGTQ activists, feminists, immigration activists, and abolitionists to discuss radical politics, radical organizing and share their visions for a better world. Our goal is to center organizers who represent and work with marginalized communities building survival programs, defense programs, political education, and counterpower.
We also plan to bring in perspectives on and from the global south to highlight anti-capitalist struggles outside the imperial core. We view solidarity with decolonization, indigenous, anti-imperialist, environmentalist, socialist, and anarchist movements across the world as necessary steps toward meaningful liberation for all people.
Too often within the imperial core we focus on our own struggles without taking the time to understand those fighting for freedom from beneath the empire’s thumb. It is important to highlight these struggles, learn what we can from them, offer solidarity, and support with action when we can. It is not enough to Fight For $15 an hour and Single-Payer within the core, while the US actively fights against the self-determination of the people of the global economically and militarily.
We recognize that except for the extremely wealthy and privileged, our fates and struggles are intrinsically connected. We hope that our podcast becomes a meaningful platform for organizers and activists fighting for social change to connect their local movements to broader movements centered around the fight to end imperialism, capitalism, racism, discrimination based on gender identity or sexuality, sexism, and ableism.
If you like our work please support us at www.patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism
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