Episodes
NEWS EPISODE! We talk about the the 4hr Star Wars Youtube video, and strike updates, Russian War Keynesian updates, COVID propaganda updates, and a preview of Sean's new AI show. Labor: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/13/business/economy/supreme-court-starbucks-nlrb.html?smi https://www.labornotes.org/2024/06/teamsters-and-amazon-labor-union-announce-affiliation-member-vote-still-ahead ...
Published 06/17/24
Daniel returns to tell us about the Chicago encampments, Andy reports back from the New School occupation, and we re-read two Moishe Postone essays on anti-zionism and antisemitism in light of the new movement. For the full episode, all bonus content, and access to ongoing discussion and debate in our Discord community, support the show at http://patreon.com/theantifada New School divestment...
Published 06/12/24
Published 06/12/24
For the full episode and all other bonus content, support the show at http://patreon.com/theantifada Anarcho-Anon Film Critic Daniel and Andy discuss the politics of Furiosa and the rest of the Mad Max franchise through the theories of Pierre Clastres, Donna Haraway, Maggie Nelson, Bruno Latour, Nick Land, Hillary Clinton, punk, and disaster anarchism. I considered calling this episode "Anya Taylor Armed Joy" but decided against it.
Published 06/07/24
Sean KB welcomes to the show two teachers (Carolyn Hietter and Ian Seda) from the John Jay College Department of Economics (Marxist) to discuss their program and the goings-on at the City University of New York since the beginning of the atrocities in Gaza: the McCarthyite administration's war on free speech, the massive shifts within the bourgeois university over preceding decades which led to it, and how John Jay's Econ department is pushing in another direction. We ask the essential...
Published 06/05/24
It's been four years since the demise of Sandersism in the United States. It's been two years since the COVID-19 crisis upended society and Russia invaded Ukraine. Socialist politics is, if anything, even more fractured and impotent than it was last decade. What do we make of the deep melancholy gripping politics today? How have the various political solutions on offer been delegitimated? And why is Sean KB seemingly immune to this melancholy? (Hint: it's the Independent Labor Club.) This is...
Published 05/29/24
Sean and Andy are joined by Reid Kane to discuss the tortured legacy of the Socialist Party of America. Why doesn't the United States have a nominally working class party like the UK, where unions formed the institutional base for an independent party? How come state repression was so effective in undermining working class self-organization in the early-20th century? In which ways did the Old Left and the New Left fail to learn the lessons of the SPUSA and why are we still stuck with the...
Published 05/22/24
Sean is joined by friend of the show, Ted Reese, to discuss his brand new book: Abundant Material Wealth for All. How does Henryk Grossman's breakdown theory help us understand the economics and politics of this current moment? In what ways are crisis tendencies affecting the United States and the UK? What type of program should socialists offer as a way out of the crisis? Join us in fleshing out Ted's expansive vision for how we might overcome the current crisis and build a world with...
Published 05/15/24
For the tenth episode of our series about the revolutionary culture of the sixties, Andy talks to China scholar Ralf Ruckus about the Cultural Revolution in China, during which large factions of youth competed to renew and complete the revolutionary vision of Mao. The result was a seizure of power by the PLA and an estimated 2.8 million death between 1966-1976. For more episode of Armed Love, and all other bonus material and Discord access, please become a patreon at...
Published 05/08/24
We report on our visits to pro-Palestine encampments and take listener questions Join our Discord community by signing up to our Patreon! http://patreon.com/theantifada Check out the ILC BBQ in McCarren park in Williamsburg 3-7 followed by a party/screening at Woodbine: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6Rj8UzuoYs/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== First We Take Columbia text: https://illwill.com/columbia...
Published 05/01/24
Boris and Rey from the anti-nationalist Empire Never Ended podcast and Antipolitika journal chat about the far rights in the US and ex-Yugoslavia, the legacy of Balkan nationalism, cursed Balkan Youtube comments and Greater Idaho. For the full episode, support the show at http://patreon.com/theantifada Empire Never Ended patreon: https://www.patreon.com/tenepod Antipolitika journal: Read: https://antipolitika.noblogs.org/ Buy: https://pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1440 Songs:...
Published 04/24/24
And(y) & And(ers) smoke a hash joint and read selections from the "Protocols of Drug Experiments" in which German Marxist philosopher Walter Benjamin ate a hash edible and wandered around Marseille being weird. For the full episode subscribe at http://patreon.com/theantifada PDF: https://anarch.cc/uploads/walter-benjamin/on-hashish.pdf New Yorker review of On Hashish: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/08/21/the-philosopher-stoned
Published 04/19/24
The communist milieu lost a titan last week. Our kind friend and mentor, Loren Goldner (1949-2024), passed away on Friday, April 12th 3:00am, at age of 76. As a tribute to his life and legacy we were able to gather a handful of people who were close to him to share stories, memories and inspirations. Special thanks to Arya Zahedi, Zhana Kurti, Jarrod Shanahan, Joe Lombardo, Ross Wolfe and Billy O'Conner for coming on to memorialize a great thinker and a great friend. Copious Loren Goldner...
Published 04/17/24
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...
Published 04/10/24
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
Published 04/05/24
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...
Published 04/03/24
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...
Published 03/27/24
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...
Published 03/22/24
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...
Published 03/20/24
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...
Published 03/13/24
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...
Published 03/04/24
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...
Published 02/28/24
An interview with Eric King, who was recently released after being incarcerated since 2014, five of those in segregation. He was charged with using an incendiary device to commit arson after throwing a molotov cocktail at an empty Federal Building in Kansas City, Missouri during the uprising in Ferguson. Today he is out on probation and talking with us about his history with the anarchist movement, his time inside and release, and how and why to support prisoners To support the show, sign up...
Published 02/21/24
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...
Published 02/14/24
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 and DM your address on Patreon for a free postage paid...
Published 02/05/24