Just how broken is capitalism in the U.S.? What is the right stance for socialists and progressives towards "reopening the economy?"
Guest: Doug Henwood of Behind the News and Left Business Observer, and author of My Turn: Hillary Clinton Targets the Presidency
Robert Graham Center projection of excess deaths in the U.S., by state, due to covid-related unemployment
The 2020 Presidential election in the U.S. shows that the country’s electoral politics has entered a period of open “regime contention” between the two major political parties. One of these parties is coalescing around a nakedly anti democratic and racist resolve to subvert the electoral process by any means necessary. Neither of them is interested in actually deepening mass political involvement. I discuss these developments with Amel Ahmed, Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. She is author of “Democracy and the Politics of Electoral System Choice: Engineering Electoral Dominance” (Cambridge University Press, 2013). In a new book-length project, entitled Conflict and Cooperation: Institutional Sequencing and Regime Stability in Early Democratizers, she examines the long-term impact of institutions on democratic stability. Capitol Siege panel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT9D8Z7q0Co Capital Siege footage: https://www.newyorker.com/video/watch/a-reporters-footage-from-inside-the-capitol-siege ...
To help us make sense of Marx’s Capital, and therefore capitalism, Hadas Thier has just published the book ‘A people’s guide to capitalism: An introduction to Marxist economics.’ Its fresh, contemporary prose makes Marx’s concepts more accessible without sacrificing their depth. In this episode we discuss the continued relevance of the concept of ‘surplus value,’ which occupies much of the first volume of Capital. Hadas Thier is a member of the New York City branch of DSA. She writes for Jacobin, In these Times and other publications. Like many New Yorkers, she is also a mother struggling with issues of child care and schooling during the pandemic. ...
Daphna Thier of DSA's National Political Education Committee, and Austin Hayes from Olympia DSA, discuss the how and why of political education in the context of DSA's 2019 resolution to "build and implement a socialist education program." Several chapters of DSA already have robust political education programs of their own, for example Olympia DSA Night School. ...
