Describes the objectives of the show as an analytical resource for socialist and progressive organizing during the pandemic.
Guests in May include Doug Henwood, writer and host of the podcast Behind the News, Frances Boyes and Eric Blanc, organizers with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Mike Elk, editor of the Payday Report, and Ruth Milkman, labor sociologist at the City University of New York.
What are unions in the U.S. doing in response to the pandemic, and is it enough? What is the right balance for the left between being "deferential" and "hypercritical" towards unions? Frances Boyes is former union representative with Unite Here and board member of Mass-Care, as well as member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Background: Culinary Union vs Bernie Sanders, American Prospect; Medicare vs COBRA, Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at University of Massachusetts-Amherst ...
In the first of two special election-related episodes this week, I talk with Vivek Chibber. You may already be familiar with Chibber’s popular pamphlets called ‘The ABCs of capitalism.’ In this episode I asked Chibber to expand on these, taking the “why” of class struggle as a given, but venturing into questions of who, where and how. We also discuss the stakes in the upcoming election. Finally we talk about Chibber’s forthcoming book on “the cultural turn” in Marxism, in particular the idea of ‘whiteness.’ Vivek Chibber is Professor of Sociology at New York University and editor of Catalyst, which is published by Jacobin. He is the author of several books, including two due next fall, which we discuss here. The ABCs of Capitalism https://catalyst-journal.com/vol1/no1/cultural-turn-vivek-chibber ...
The Trump administration’s naked callousness poses a unique challenge for socialists in the U.S. We’ve accurately described the Democrats’ betrayal of workers, their complicity in the unraveling of welfare and in the sharp increase in income inequality. So now we're finding it hard to assess the differences between the two parties that really matter. But this is just as much our responsibility as is laying bare the limits of bourgeois democracy. Here’s my case for why socialists should organize to defeat the Trump administration in November, with incidental birdsong. Comments welcome Covid mortality projection Migratory Bird Treaty Act ...
