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This is Class, the official podcast of the Democratic Socialists of America’s National Political Education Committee. This is part two of our conversation with Rodrigo Nunes about what Lenin can teach us about pontaneity, organization, strategic thinking, and the current moment. Part two will be released in two weeks.

Rodrigo Nunes is a senior lecturer in political theory and organisation at the University of Essex and the author of Organisation of the Organisationless: Collective Action After Networks (Mute, 2014), Neither Vertical Nor Horizontal: A Theory of Political Organisation (Verso, 2021) and The View from Brazil: Neoliberalism, the Far Right and the Grammar of Disintegration (Verso, forthcoming), as well as several articles in multiple languages, including "It Takes Organizers to Make a Revolution." As an organiser, he has been involved in several initiatives, including the first editions of the World Social Forum in Brazil and the Justice for Cleaners campaign in the UK.

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This is Class, the official podcast of the Democratic Socialists of America’s National Political Education Committee. This is part one of our conversation with Rodrigo Nunes about what Lenin can teach us about pontaneity, organization, strategic thinking, and the current moment. Part two will be released in two weeks.

Rodrigo Nunes is a senior lecturer in political theory and organisation at the University of Essex and the author of Organisation of the Organisationless: Collective Action After Networks (Mute, 2014), Neither Vertical Nor Horizontal: A Theory of Political Organisation (Verso, 2021) and The View from Brazil: Neoliberalism, the Far Right and the Grammar of Disintegration (Verso, forthcoming), as well as several articles in multiple languages, including "It Takes Organizers to Make a Revolution." As an organiser, he has been involved in several initiatives, including the first editions of the World Social Forum in Brazil and the Justice for Cleaners campaign in the UK.

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This is Class, the official podcast of the Democratic Socialists of America’s National Political Education Committee. My name is Luke Pickrell. This is part one of our conversation with Daphna Thier about the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC)

Daphna is an organizer and educator at EWOC. In the last couple of years, she's trained a few hundred workers on the basics of workplace organizing. She is also a contributing writer and the editor of Unite and Win: the Workplace Organizer's Handbook. She's a DSA member based in Brooklyn, New York. In part two, Daphna discusses exciting labor campaigns, the intersection of labor organizing and politics, and EWOC’s future project. 

Unite and Win: the Workplace Organizer's Handbook:
workerorganizing.org/unite-and-win 

Learn more about EWOC and get involved:
workerorganizing.org/training
workerorganizing.org/support
workerorganizing.org/volunteer 

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This is Class, the official podcast of the Democratic Socialists of America’s National Political Education Committee. My name is Luke Pickrell. This is part one of our conversation with Daphna Thier about the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC)

Daphna is an organizer and educator at EWOC. In the last couple of years, she's trained a few hundred workers on the basics of workplace organizing. She is also a contributing writer and the editor of Unite and Win: the Workplace Organizer's Handbook. She's a DSA member based in Brooklyn, New York. In part one, Daphna discusses EWOC's origins and its recent book, Unite and Win: the Workplace Organizer's Handbook. 

Unite and Win: the Workplace Organizer's Handbook:
workerorganizing.org/unite-and-win 

Learn more about EWOC and get involved:
workerorganizing.org/training
workerorganizing.org/support
workerorganizing.org/volunteer 

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This is part two of our two-part interview with José Luis Granados Ceja and Kurt Hackbarth about politics in Mexico. José Luis and Kurt are journalists and activists based in Mexico and the co-hosts of Soberanía: The Mexican Politics Podcast. José Luis has written for Venezuela Analysis, and Kurt has written for Jacobin, including a recent article, “Mexico’s Lessons for the International Left.” In part two, José Luis and Kurt discuss outgoing (former as of October 1) president Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s proposed constitutional reforms, discourse around immigration in Mexico, and what activists in the U.S. should know about Mexico. 

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In this episode, we talk with José Luis Granados Ceja and Kurt Hackbarth about politics in Mexico. The interview is divided into two parts, and part two will be released in two weeks. José Luis and Kurt are journalists and activists based in Mexico and the co-hosts of Soberanía: The Mexican Politics Podcast. José Luis has written for Venezuela Analysis, and Kurt has written for Jacobin, including a recent article, “Mexico’s Lessons for the International Left.” In part one, José Luis and Kurt discuss Claudia Sheinbaum’s victory in the June presidential elections, the reaction to her victory in Mexico and abroad, and the history of Sheinbaum’s party, Morena.

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We're happy to share a bonus episode with you: the first episode of Haymarket Book’s Originals project, Fragile Juggernaut. 

Haymarket Originals brings in-depth, series-length audio treatments of a wide range of historical and contemporary political subjects to podcast listeners worldwide. Haymarket Originals is a new home for audio deep dives, by and for the left. The first Haymarket Originals project is Fragile Juggernaut: What Was the CIO? — an important collaboration with labor writers, historians, and organizers.

Through a limited run of twenty episodes, they will revisit and reflect on the near-mythical history of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)—and the high water mark of US labor activity in the 1930s and 1940s—in the context of today’s critical juncture in the labor movement. Join Tim Barker, Andrew Elrod, Ben Mabie, Alex Press, Emma Teitelman, Gabriel Winant, and special guests as they explore the trajectory of the American working class through a period of its greatest drama and political possibility.

You can Listen to and subscribe to Fragile Juggernaut on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and help us spread the word! You can read an introduction to this collective inquiry into the history of the US workers’ movement and support the show on Patreon.

I hope you enjoy the first episode of Fragile Juggernaut. 

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This is part two of our two-part conversation with Manisha Sinha about Reconstruction. Part one is here. In part two, Manisha discusses the historiography of reconstruction, the afterlives of “reconstruction and its discontents,” the eventual defeat of Reconstruction as the U.S. rose to become an imperial power, and the lessons contemporary activists can draw from the Reconstruction period.

Dr. Manisha Sinha is a history professor at the University of Connecticut. She is the author and co-author of several books, including The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition (2016) and The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920, published this year. 

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In this episode, we talk with Dr. Manisha Sinha about Reconstruction and the interconnectedness of social movements between the beginning of the Civil War in 1860 and the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.  The interview is split into two parts.  Part two will be released in two weeks.  You can now click on the “Send us a Text Message” link at the top of the episode description to share your thoughts on the episode.  This episode's prompt: Do you think the history presented by Manisha is relevant to current political and social struggles in the U.S.? If so, how? 

Dr. Manisha Sinha is a history professor at the University of Connecticut. She is the author and co-author of several books, including The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition (2016) and The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920, published this year. In part one, Manisha explains why it’s important to expand the chronology of Reconstruction to include labor struggles in the North, wars against Indigenous people, and the struggle for female suffrage; how Radical Republicans like Thaddeus Stevens interpreted the Constitution, fought for the Reconstruct Ammenendemts, and grappled with President Johnson; and how workers in the South and North struggled for rights during the Gilded Age.

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This is part two of our two-part interview with Aziz Rana.  To share your thoughts on the episode, click on the “Send us a Text Message” link at the top of the episode description.  

Aziz Rana is a professor of law at Boston College.  He’s the author of two books, The Two Faces of American Freedom, published in 2014, and The Constitutional Bind, published in April of this year.  In 2022, Aziz spoke at the Socialism Conference in Chicago about the need for a democratic constitution.  That recording is available in the class episode archive.  Aziz recently published an op-ed in the New York Times titled “The Constitution won’t save us from Trump,” which drew a response from Nacy Pelosi. 

In part two, Aziz talks about the Consitution as creating a political playing field within which American politics operates. Aziz also talks about the contradiction between a growing realization that the Constitution is harmful and the power of "constitutional realism."  Finally, Aziz talks about our current moment and how it compares to previous periods of constitutional critique. 

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