All That's Left

In this episode, Oden speaks to Sam Carliner, an editor at Left Voice, about the bipartisan war on immigrants that has been a dominant issue in the 2024 presidential race. We discuss what this war looks like from both the Democrats and Republicans, why it's happening, and why only an independent, working-class party with a socialist program can provide solutions to the crises facing migrants. 

Learn More:
- The Bipartisan War on Immigrants Is Heating Up
- The Presidential Debate Showed the Time Is Now to Build a Party that Fights for Immigrant Rights, Workers' Needs, and Socialism
- The DNC's Message to Migrants: Don't Come
- Open Borders Require Socialism: A Debate with John Washington

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In this episode, Oden speaks to Philippe Alcoy, an editor of Revolution Permanente's international section, about the War in Ukraine. Philippe describes how the war has developed into a stalemate, how pessimism is setting in among Ukraine's allies in the West, and how we need an independent, working-class solution out of the conflict — in this proxy war, in which NATO and the U.S. are fighting Russia on Ukrainian territory, there are no progressive sides. We also discuss the broader global context, including an increasingly dangerous world where imperialist powers are being drawn back into the Middle East.

Learn More:
- Stalemate in Ukraine
- Five Theses on the War in Ukraine
- Understanding the Global Context of the Ukrainian Conflict
- The U.S. Working Class Must Organize against the Reactionary War in Ukraine

Check out our previous episode with Philippe on Spotify or Apple, as well as our episode with Juan Ferre on imperialism. 

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Will socialism create a society of freeloaders? Are socialists hypocritical for using iPhones? Does socialism mean we  have to give up all our possessions and live under totalitarianism? These are the kinds of questions leftists get asked all the time, and that Oden and Left Voice member Madeleine Freeman tackle in this episode.

Happy Holidays!

Learn More:
- 5 Questions About Socialism You'll Get at the Holiday Dinner Table (And How to Answer Them)
- Stalinism, Anti-Communism, and the Fate of the Soviet Union

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Follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram and Twitter as @left_voice, on TikTok as @leftvoice. Follow us on Bluesky at leftvoice.bsky.social.

In this episode, Oden speaks to Left Voice member and Princeton Postdoctoral Fellow in Latin American Studies Juan Ferre about Javier Milei, the far-right libertarian economist who has just been inaugurated as president of Argentina. Juan describes how Argentina's economic and political crises set the stage for Milei's rise, the parallels that this moment has with the 1990s, and the failures of the establishment parties to pose an alternative to the status quo. We also discuss what lessons this situation has for leftists internationally and in the United States, and the importance of organizing an independent, working-class resistance to capitalism and imperialism.

Learn More:
- What Explains the Rise of the Far Right in Argentina?
- International Statement in Support of the Left and Workers Front - Unity (FIT-U) in the Argentinian Elections
- Building "A Real Alternative to the Bosses' Parties": Interview with Argentinian Socialist Congresswoman Myriam Bregman

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In this episode, Oden speaks to Left Voice editor and PSC-CUNY member James Hoff and Left Voice member and native Detroiter Tristan Taylor about the historic UAW victory against the Big 3 automakers. James and Tristan explain the context of the strike, how the UAW won, and some of the strike's limitations. Importantly, they discuss what the victory means for U.S. labor and for the working class, and what lessons we can draw from fight.  

Unions, including the UAW, need to break free from both the ideological and structural chains of the Democratic Party and the state. Rank-and-file members need to be empowered, and we need self-organization of the labor movement to build the power to challenge the bosses and the tyranny of capital. Labor must use its full power to wage political struggles for the whole working class, and to build a working-class party that fights for socialism.

Learn more:
- The UAW Won Big. What Does It Mean for the U.S. Labor Movement?
- To win, the UAW Strike Must Be Organized from Below
- What Are Unions and Why Do They Matter?
- Why Are There So Few Large Strikes? Blame the Democratic Party
- Now, More than Ever, the Working Class Needs Independent, Democratic Unions

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Follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok as @left_voice and Facebook as @leftvoice. Follow us on Bluesky at leftvoice.bsky.social.

In this episode, Oden talks to Nathaniel Flakin, a historian in Berlin, about the history of socialist anti-Zionist Jews. Nathaniel explains the context surrounding the rise of Zionism, including the age of nationalism, imperialism, and colonization, as well as why socialism is fundamentally incompatible with Zionism. Importantly, Oden and Nathaniel explore the lessons we can draw from this history, and why the solution to the conflict is to fight for a single, secular, socialist Palestine on its historic territory, with democratic rights for all its inhabitants. 

Nathaniel has published the anticapitalist guide book “Revolutionary Berlin,” as well as a biography of the Jewish Trotskyist resistance fighter Martin Monath, both available from Pluto Press. He writes for Left Voice, for our German sister site Klasse Gegen Klasse, and for the German publication ND. 

Learn More:
- A Brief History of Anti-Zionist Jews
- Does the State of Israel Protect Jews from Antisemitism?
- A New Nakba against the Palestinian People

Support this podcast on Patreon at https://patreon.com/leftvoice

Follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok as @left_voice and Facebook as @leftvoice. Follow us on Bluesky at leftvoice.bsky.social.

On today’s episode, Oden talk to Maryam Alaniz, a PhD student and writer for Left Voice’s international section, about the struggle in Palestine. Maryam explains how the rightward shift in Israeli politics and decline of U.S. hegemony globally has sowed the seeds for the current conflict. They discuss how support for Palestinian liberation does not mean supporting the tactics and strategy of Hamas, and why popular support for the struggle in Palestine has surged around the world. Finally, they discuss they see as the solution to this conflict and what the role is of the working class and the Left. 

Workers across the world have the power to mobilize to grind the war machinery to a halt, and to unite to fight for a single, secular, socialist Palestine on its historic territory, with democratic rights for all its inhabitants. 

To Learn More:
- The Israeli War on the Palestinian People
- Does Supporting Palestinian Resistance Mean Supporting the Strategy and Methods of Hamas?
- Bipartisan Support for Israeli Aggression Shows Leftists Must Break with the Democrats
- Does the State of Israel Protect Jews from Antisemitism?
- The Senate Is Demonizing Pro-Palestine Protests at Universities — They're Scared of Our Power

Support this podcast on Patreon at https://patreon.com/leftvoice

Follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok as @left_voice and Facebook as @leftvoice. Follow us on Bluesky at leftvoice.bsky.social.

This episode is a reading of an article by two Chilean socialists from the Revolutionary Socialist Party (PTR), Pablo Torres and Dauno Totoro, about the CIA-backed military coup in Chile in 1973.  Salvador Allende’s election was the most radical attempt to achieve socialism through elections and gradual reforms. This article, titled “Chile 1973: Was victory possible?” examines what was behind the coup, the lead-up to Allende's overthrow, and what the lessons are for the Left.

To learn more:
- https://www.leftvoice.org/chile-73-was-victory-possible/
- https://www.leftvoice.org/47th-anniversary-of-the-1973-coup-in-chile-lessons-of-a-revolutionary-process/
- https://www.leftvoice.org/letter-from-the-cordones-industriales-to-president-salvador-allende/
- https://www.leftvoice.org/september-11-in-chile-how-reformism-disarmed-the-working-class-in-the-face-of-cia-backed-coup/
- https://www.leftvoice.org/does-lenin-apply-today-historical-lessons-from-chile/

Support this podcast on Patreon at https://patreon.com/leftvoice

Follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok as @left_voice and Facebook as @leftvoice. Follow us on Bluesky at leftvoice.bsky.social. 

In this episode, Oden is joined by Left Voice member Enid Brain to discuss the ongoing entertainment industry strikes by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA). They discuss the key lessons this struggle has for the labor movement, what the tasks are for the Left, and why entertainment workers need to go beyond just fighting for a better contract in the here and now.

To learn more:
- https://www.leftvoice.org/entertainment-industry-strikes-show-the-power-and-potential-of-worker-solidarity/

Support this podcast on Patreon at https://patreon.com/leftvoice

Follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok as @left_voice and Facebook as @leftvoice. Follow us on Bluesky at leftvoice.bsky.social. Follow Enid on twitter @enidbrain. 

In this episode, Oden talks to author and independent Marxist historian Doug Greene about his new book “Stalinism and the Dialectics of Saturn: Anti-Communism, Marxism, and the Fate of the Soviet Union.” They discuss what characterized Stalinism, the approaches to understanding it which incorrectly framed it as an inevitability, and how these explanations fail to take a historical materialist perspective.

Most importantly, Greene explains why Stalinism is not the inevitable end road of socialism: “The Stalinist outcome in Russia was not a fated outcome as if preordained by some god of history. Stalinism can only be claimed as inevitable by ignoring the communist roads not taken.”

Read our interview with Doug in Left Voice magazine: https://www.leftvoice.org/does-the-revolution-eat-its-children/

Read more of Doug’s work: https://blanquist.blogspot.com/
https://www.patreon.com/enaa_doug_blanqui

Follow Doug on Twitter: @DougGreene1917

Check out his book: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781666930900/Stalinism-and-the-Dialectics-of-Saturn-Anticommunism-Marxism-and-the-Fate-of-the-Soviet-Union

Support this podcast on Patreon at https://patreon.com/leftvoice.

Follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok as @left_voice