Episodes
On November 9th, 2024 the Independent Labor Club of NY hosted a panel at Woodbine in Ridgewood, Queens. Sean moderated this discussion between: Aaron Lelonde of the International Longshoremen's AssociationSou Mi of WGA-East and Left VoiceGregory Butler of Int'l Union of Operating Engineers and Gangbox NewsEllie Pfeffer of Maoist Communist Union, formerly of Amazonians UnitedWhat accounts for the realignment seen in 2024? Did large swathes of workers (including Black and Hispanic) vote Trump...
Published 11/13/24
Published 11/13/24
Our roundtable discusses the meaning of Trump's victory--the election's stakes, its international reverberations, what it tells us about the crisis of capitalist accumulation, how economics connect with the the race/class/gender demographic voting shifts, and the historic characters of the Republican and Democratic Parties. In Part 2, available for patrons at http://patreon.com/theantifada, we plot THE RESISTANCE! Panelists: C. Derick Varn Zhandarka Kurti Reid Kane Song: Los 3 de La Habana -...
Published 11/08/24
Sean and Andy are joined by Sean, prolific poster and blogger and short fiction writer, to talk about the changes he has seen over the last decade as an expat worker in both mainland China and Hong Kong. What shifts in politics, the economy and social life has he seen? What is the material basis for Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign? In what ways is the 'reform and opening up' period of 'market Stalinism' similar to Tony Blair's New Labour Britain? What does the imperial and...
Published 11/04/24
Sean is joined by labor activist and historian Jeff Schuhrke to discuss his new book Blue Collar Empire: The Untold Story of US Labor's Global Anticommunist Crusade out now from Verso Books. Why did American unions become a junior partner in US Empire during the Cold War ? How did anti-communists come to control US labor organizations in the 20th Century? What sort of high jinx were the AFL-CIO up to in Europe and the developing world? What did union activists do to expose this class...
Published 10/30/24
Aidan Beatty, author of The Party is Always Right: The Untold Story of Gerry Healy and British Trotskyism joins us to trainspot the British Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP), a Trotskyist cult that was tight with Qaddafi, boasted Vanessa Redgrave as a member, and collapsed after the revelation of years of its leader's sexual abuse of membership. Sign up at http://patreon.com/theantifada for the bonus where we talk about Irish peacekeepers in Lebanon, the shared historical dynamics of the...
Published 10/23/24
Jason, Daniel, and Andy talk about Fight Club to celebrate to the 25th anniversary of the movie and the Battle of Seattle that followed it. We look at the history of the book and Chuck Palahniuk's situationist influence and his embrace of his rightwing fans, the Gen-X ennui behind the creation of Tyler Durden, the politics of Project Mayhem, and Marla Singer's character as the story's ethical core. The full episode is available for free at http://patreon.com/theantifada. Sign up to support...
Published 10/21/24
Sean and Andy are joined by returning guest and cofounder of ILC-Chicago Jamie Merchant (@pathtopraxis) to discuss his new full-length monograph, out now from Reaktion Books, called Endgame: Economic Nationalism and Global Decline. In it, Jamie provides a masterful, insightful and readable account of the political economy of the present moment. What is the connection between the functioning of the profit system and the world-historic shift away from globalization? How do ruling class ideas...
Published 10/16/24
&nders Lee and AP &y guest on the Quorators podcast to field questions about UFOs, cyptids, Pompeii, and, of course, ampersands. video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udhh_BrLui8
Published 10/09/24
NEWS EP! We talk about the hurricane disaster, the Middle East disaster, the Ukraine disaster, and the Longshoremen's strike as a prelude to the war on Christmas. Sign up at http://patreon.com/theantifada for the fun half! We look at a proletarian get-rich quick scheme, an LAPD robbery gone wrong, and speculate on the REAL reason the Feds are taking down Mayor Eric Adams. Organized abandonment & campaign strategy in Appalachia:...
Published 10/02/24
While Marxist friend and historian Cosimo Pataleoni was in town from Italy, Sean decided to bring along Ross Wolf to get a taste of some badass history of piracy. We discuss Cosimo's work on the Uskoks, Croatian rebel sailors of the early modern period, as a lens for understanding the rise of commercial capitalism, proletarianization, debt bondage, and incarceration on the frontiers and the high seas. How do Cosimo's studies-inspired by figures like Eric Hobsbawm, Peter Linebaugh and Marcus...
Published 09/25/24
Sean and Varn are joined by special guest, A.P. Andy of the Antifada podcast, to round out their previous conversation on current impasses on the left. For access to the full episode, and all our years of great bonus content, become a patron today at www.patreon.com/theantifada How did Andy’s Platypus Affiliated Panel go? What’s new with the American Communist Party and how have they Stalinized Bordigism? What has happened to make Marxism-Leninism into an anachronistic meme ideology? And,...
Published 09/18/24
NEWS ep! We talk about Sean's upcoming well-deserved Alaska vacation before shifting into some preliminary analysis on Israel's brief anti-Netanyahu general strike, the contradictions of the Israeli working-class and war economy, and the legacy of labor Zionism. Support the show at http://patreon.com/theantifada for the second half, in which we talk about AfD's victory in Thuringia and the meaning of the cleavages within neoliberalism, including Brazil banning Twitter and the absence of left...
Published 09/09/24
Rachel Kushner joins us to talk about her new novel Creation Lake--the story of an American agent provocateur infiltrating a rural commune in France. We go through some of the inspirations behind her characters in this and past books (including Jacques Camatte, Julian Coupat, and Ben Morea), a Soviet historian's theory of the Neanderthal origins of class war, and the RKCU (Rachel Kushner Cinematic Universe) The full episode is FREE at http://patreon.com/theantifada. While you're there,...
Published 09/04/24
REUPLOAD of our collaborative commentary with Swampside Chats of S3ep11 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine In this two part episode, the crew goes back in time to a San Francisco homeless camp at the time of the a riot against neo-liberalism on September 1, 2024 that spiraled into international revolution. Written in the '90s, the episode presciently predicts the economic crises of the current day, Trump's plan of rounding California's homeless population into camps, and the coming lumpen...
Published 09/01/24
Enjoy this seventh episode of a sideproject with Varn, Sean, and Regrettable Century, where they "explain right-wing thought to you so you can actually do something with it." For the full episode subscribe on http://patreon.com/theantifada or view the episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f_qKnAxV2I&list=PL3jOfuAY4QruaeI1PbA6aTHNzYpi4yI_A&index=1 In this episode they read chapter 5 of Dugin's Fourth Political Theory" Previous episodes:...
Published 08/30/24
Bronx expat Zhana Kurti reports back from the Chicago DNC and the protests against it. We go through the context of the 1924 and 1968 DNCs, the issues of Palestine and race in the election, how the left should relate to the elections, and if we should even be talking about it all. Check out last week's episode of Party Girls podcast for more in depth discussions of the protests in Chicago, and why some found them underwhelming. Support the Antifada for all bonus content and discord community...
Published 08/26/24
Situ-Punk Bill Brown of "NOT BORED!" zine fame chats with Andy about Raoul Vaneigem's The Revolution of Everyday Life and its influence on the punk subculture of the seventies, eighties, and nineties. Towards the end of the episode we talk about his Vaneigem's prediction of the "End of Christianity" in relation to heresy and queerness. Greil Marcus’s Liptick Traces https://monoskop.org/log/?p=12932 Bill Brown's Not Bored! anthology:...
Published 08/21/24
Sean and Varn are back to talk about the various paroxysms of the American left: why are the sects getting weirder and weirder? Why do we have to pay attention to capitalist politics while realizing we have no stake in it? Why do we focus on labor and what the hell is the Independent Labor Club trying to do? This is an extended preview of the complete episode. To listen to this, the rest of the DitW series and years worth of bonus content become a subscriber at...
Published 08/14/24
Ross Wolfe, Alex Gendler, Morgan, and Matthew Donovan join us for an extensive review and analysis of last week's Hegelian E-Girl Symposium and a discussion of fascist mystique in counterculture, social alienation, and different interpretations of Hegel For the full episode support the show at http://patreon.com/theantifada Matthew Donovan's review/analysis of the party: https://matthewdonovan.substack.com/p/i-hosted-the-hegelian-e-girl-party Sanje call-out:...
Published 08/09/24
Our France correspondent Henry J. Wallis returns to give updates since the New Popular Front's surprise victory on July 7. Will Macron block them from power after the Olympics? Will the French return from vacation in fighting mode? And how does Kamala's emergence compare to the antifascist electoral block? Support the show at http://patreon.com/theantifada First episode with Henry: https://www.patreon.com/posts/e253-populaire-w-106800367 Check out Henry's Forms Podcast and his post-election...
Published 08/05/24
Our favorite engineers of the fouriest future return! We talk about an obscure marxist concept, dispel some myths of multipolarity, and provide some updates on the US Fire Festival-esque attempts to onshore/friendshore/reshore tech manufacturing. In the bonus half, available to supporters at http://patreon.com/theantifada, we share our utopian visions for the would to come when the children of Bordigists, instead of Gramscians, take over the Democratic Party to lead the communization...
Published 07/31/24
The world is ending. Home Depot workers are responsible, and Alexander Edward and Tony Boswell of Minion Death Cult join Sean to document it. For the full episode, all other bonus content, and Discord access, support the show at http://patreon.com/theantifada Check out Sean's other appearance on MDC this week Support MDC on patreon
Published 07/26/24
&ers, &y, and Sean look at the career of New Left sociologist JACK SCOTT, who founded a "Jock Liberation Army," overhauled the Oberlin Athletics Department, and linked up with the Symbionese Liberation Army. For all our bonus content and access to our Discord community support the show at http://patreon.com/theantifada Jack Scott: https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/kw/jack-scott-the-athletic-revolution/...
Published 07/24/24
Sean sits down with Los Angeles-based Antifada political economy correspondent, Jason Smith of the Brooklyn Rail, to discuss demographic decline, a hot button issue relatively untouched by the Marxist left. Why has fertility gone up in the past? Why has it gone down in the developed world? What do Marx, Adam Smith and Keynes have to say about this phenomenon? Why has the potential for population decline made the capitalists so crazy? For the complete episode and much more bonus content become...
Published 07/17/24