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This episode is going to be different from prior episodes. Today we’re going to be talking about psychoanalysis. Marx esteemed scientific rationality. Many, including many socialists, reject psychoanalysis as a pseudoscience. I have my own questions, honestly. Nonetheless, there is a significant branch of Marxism grounded in Freudian psychoanalysis, including controversial yet influential thinkers like Louis Althusser and Slavoj Žižek.


On Today’s episode I asked Michael Downs to talk about his essay “Wage Labor and Jouissance, Why the Left Needs Žižek to Understand Workers”. Michael Downs is most famous for his theory blog The Dangerous Maybe. The Dangerous Maybe makes philosophers such as Žizek, Lacan, Marx and Heidegger intelligible to people with little to no background in theory. Michael Downs himself does not have a college degree, but his blog posts have been so respected that professors are assigning his them in their classrooms. In his essay “Wage Labor and Jouissance” he talks about some insights he has gotten from reading Žižek, insights that he believes socialists organizers should be aware of: we must meet workers where they are at. We will fail to bring about socialism if we force our values on the rest of the working class. Our job as organizers is to present them with the tools to take their own liberation into their own hands. This aligns with the socialist organizers from EWOC and the DSA National Labor Committee and other places that you have heard on this podcast.

• Michael Downs' theory blog The Dangerous Maybe.
• Michael Downs' essay “Wage Labor and Jouissance, Why the Left Needs Žižek to Understand Workers” in Underground Theory (2023).
• Downs’ courses on Žižek’s “For They Know Not What They Do”, and an Intro to Nick Land. 

Note: Downs' class on Nick Land is interesting because Land offers a critique of socialism, and yet he influenced some of today’s most important socialist thinkers, including Mark Fisher and Nick Srnicek.

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October 7, 2023 Hamas executed a surprise attack on military and civilian Israeli targets, killing over 1200 people and taking around 200 hostages. Israel’s response to Hamas’s horrific actions has once again been disproportionate and genocidal. We demand a ceasefire and condemn any attacks on civilians. 


In recent years DSA has made solidarity with Palestine a priority. We already had plans to do an episode on Palestine soon, but due to recent events we wanted to provide historical context as soon as possible, context that is rarely provided by the mainstream media in America.


We will have more on this topic in the future. The DSA National Political Education Committee is working on additional educational materials, including training material on how to talk to non-socialistists on Palestine. This material will be available to everyone, but will be especially designed for local DSA chapters to facilitate their own trainings.

In this episode we interview Sumaya Awad and Daphna Thier. Sumaya Awad is the Adalah Justice Project's director of strategy and communications, and coeditor of Palestine: A Socialist Introduction (Haymarket Books). You’ll recognize Daphna from a number of our previous episodes. She was previously the chair of the DSA National Political Education Committee, and is now the Labor Education Coordinator for Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC). Sumaya and Daphna have published multiple articles together in Jacobin on Palestine (see below).

Articles by Sumaya Awad and Daphna Thier:

• The Tide Is Turning Against Israeli Apartheid (Jacobin)
• Why You Should Support Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Against Israel  (Jacobin)
• The One-State Solution  (Jacobin)
• In Israel, Zionism Prevents Working-Class Solidarity  (Jacobin)
• Sorry, Anti-Zionism Still Doesn’t Equal Antisemitism  (Jacobin)

Note that Sumaya and Daphna both make reference to the number of Palestinian children that have died in the current conflict. According to the Washington Post as of yesterday, October 22,  1,873 children have died. 

Volunteer with DSA’s No Money for Massacres Phone-banks.


DSA Members and U.S. Representatives Cori Bush and Rashida Tlaib submitted a resolution to Congress titled “Ceasefire NOW”.  The NPC Steering Committee officially endorsed the resolution and is calling for all DSA members to send an email to their elected representatives demanding they sign on as co-sponsors of this resolution and end the genocide.


DSA put together a

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Sara Nelson took office as the International President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO on June 1, 2014, and she is currently serving her second four-year term.

Sara became a United Airlines Flight Attendant in 1996 and has been a union activist since nearly the beginning of her career, including serving as strike chair and leading communications for nearly 10 years at AFA’s United chapter. 

In the summer of 2019, she addressed DSA’s largest ever Convention, which occurred during a surprising wave of strikes by teachers, hotel workers, and others. Much of the convention revolved around the power of the working class when we organize -- which is what Nelson spoke about.

Nelson draws on diverse stories throughout the U.S.’s history to show how organizing at work not only improves people’s lives, individually and as a group but that rather than being just another form of activism, labor organizing is our most powerful weapon. 

NPEC Curriculum - Sara Nelson’s “Solidarity is a Force Stronger than Gravity" 

YouTube video of Sara Nelson’s “Solidarity is a Force Stronger than Gravity" 

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Vivek Chibber is the guest on today’s episode, discussing his essay “Why the Working Class?” which maybe not so coincidentally is the name of our series. In this episode Vivek not only answers the question he proposes to answer, but he talks some about what socialism could look like, and DSA’s role to getting there.

Vivek Chibber is a professor of sociology at New York University. He is the editor of Catalyst: a Journal of Theory and Strategy.

NPEC Curriculum - Vivek Chibber’s “Why the Working Class?” 

NPEC Presents: Imperialism: the US and Mexico 

The relationship between the United States and Mexico, both today and historically, constitutes a significant feature of U.S. imperialism. Speakers at this panel event will discuss concepts of imperialism; the long drive by U.S. capital and the U.S. government to dominate Mexico and seize economic benefits at the expense of Mexico and the working class of both countries; and Mexican/Chicano labor in the U.S. including the ways in which the U.S. imperialist relation to Mexico has tended to divide the working class and responses to those divisions. This unequal relationship continues today, affecting workers on both sides of the border.

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Early forms of socialism envisioned a better world for everyone, and before socialist theory workers fought for autonomy and respect from their bosses, but Marx and Engels played an important role uniting the workers movement and socialist movement. Marx’s pamphlet “Wage Labor and Capital” is a concise text for articulating how capitalism functions, and how it exploits the workers. Marx had not yet fully developed his concept of labor power, which he explored in far greater detail in Das Kapital, or Capital in English.

David Kotz is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Senior Research Fellow in the Political Economy Research Institute. He is the author of the book Socialism for Today: Escaping the Cruelties of Capitalism, Polity Press, forthcoming 2024. He also wrote The Rise and Fall of Neoliberal Capitalism, Harvard University Press, 2015 and 2017. He is a member of DSA’s National Political Education Committee.

NPEC “Why the Working Class?” Curriculum, including Marx’s ‘Wage Labor and Capital’

https://dsa-education.pubpub.org/pub/why-the-working-class/release/6

Foundational Political Education Series: Socialism

September  17, 2023

https://actionnetwork.org/events/foundational-political-education-series-socialism?source=direct_link&link_id=4&can_id=6e32bd9fc928173c7c4f64fb3a5b58ab&email_referrer=email_2027248&email_subject=red-letter-your-npec-newsletter

Foundational Political Education Series: Class

September  24, 2023

https://actionnetwork.org/events/foundational-political-education-series-class?source=direct_link&link_id=5&can_id=6e32bd9fc928173c7c4f64fb3a5b58ab&email_referrer=email_2027248&email_subject=red-letter-your-npec-newsletter

Volunteer Wanted: Podcast Audio Editor

Class is looking for an Audio Editor to help with podcast production. We want to expand our team. Duties include: editing and processing recorded interview audio for clarity, sound quality, and flow; mastering to podcast loudness specifications; editing theme music for intro/outro; providing remote audio tech support for recording sessions when necessary; communicating with team to coordinate file exchanges, content, and release dates. Must be proficient in a DAW like Pro Tools, Reaper, or equivalent. Previous podcast experience is preferred. If you're interested, please contact [email protected].

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If you’ve been listening to this podcast for very long you probably already know the answer to the question “why the working class?” In some ways this question is the reason for existence for the podcast. We want to raise class consciousness. As members of the working class we have interests that do not align with the large business owners and investors. Only by coming together can we serve our interests: to live and flourish on this planet with each other sustainably. 

This episode will be the first in a series answering the question why the working class? Subsequent episodes will be covering each of the texts in the NPEC “Why the Working Class?” curriculum (link below). 

This episode is edited down from multiple episodes recorded back in June 2022. We tried to get them out a long time ago, but we had a variety of technical and audio issues. We’ve decided to record new episodes, but there were some pieces so good that we wanted to release them out of context. 

Today’s episode is hosted by Daphna Thier, who was the chair of DSA’s national political education committee at the time. She is now the Labor Education Coordinator for Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC). It also includes Kari Thompson (UE Director of Education, Director of International Strategies, Member of UE Local 896) and Justin Freeman (an NYC-DSA member, father, CUNY graduate, and Director of Community Affairs for the New York State Assembly).

NPEC Curriculum “Why the Working Class?”

Credits:
Producer: Elton LK
Logo by Michaela Brangan
Sound Engineer & Opening Music by Casey Stikker
Additional Assistance, including content by Palmer Conrad

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Today’s episode part 2 of a 2 episode series on the National Convention, one of the primary democratic mechanisms within the structure of DSA. To discuss the national convention Justin Charles from the NPC will return. We’ll also be joined by Renée Paradis. Both are members of the Platform and Resolutions Subcommittee.

Links:
2023 DSA Convention

2023 DSA Convention Compendium (Resolutions)

Register for NPEC's Comradely Disagreement and Debate Training: July 27th
Join the National Political Education Committee on Thursday, July 27th, from 5:30-7pm PT/8:30-10pm ET for our pre-convention Comradely Disagreement and Debate Training!

New NPEC Curriculum Module: Labor History
We're proud to announce our latest out-of-the-box curriculum module: The US Labor Movement and the Socialist Role. This introductory and ready-to-use module traces the role socialists have historically played in labor organizing, focusing on the 1934 West Coast Longshore Strike as an example of a multiracial, cross-industry, and community-based working-class alliance, characterized by democratic decision making, creative and powerful tactics, refusal to concede to union/government “mediation,” and a general strike.

Credits:
Producer: Elton LK
Logo by Michaela Brangan
Sound Engineer & Opening Music by Casey Stikker
Additional Assistance, including content by Palmer Conrad

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Today’s episode will be the first of a 2 episode series on the National Convention, one of the primary democratic mechanisms within the structure of DSA. To discuss the national convention Justin Charles from the NPC will return. We’ll also be joined by Renée Paradis. Both are members of the Platform and Resolutions Subcommittee.

Justin Charles is a member of North Brooklyn DSA, and has been a member of the DSA National Political Committee since July 2020.

Renée Paradis is a member of East Bay DSA, and has served on the Resolutions and Platform convention committee for the last two conventions. She’s also a member of the CA-DSA State Committee and a past chair of DSA's National Electoral Committee.

2023 DSA Convention

https://convention2023.dsausa.org

2023 DSA Convention Compendium (Resolutions)

https://s3.amazonaws.com/actionkit-dsausa/dsa/2023_DSA_Convention_Compendium.pdf

Not be confused with the 2023 Socialism Conference 

https://socialismconference.org

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Something big has been happening in Chicago. If you have not heard, Chicago recently elected the most progressive mayor in the country. Brandon Johnson was endorsed by a variety of unions, especially the Chicago Teachers’ Union, of which he was previously a member and an organizer. He was also endorsed by Bernie Sanders. 

In this episode we have Miles Kampf-Lassin, a journalist from In These Times that followed the Brandon Johnson campaign, to talk about something we have talked about a number of times on this podcast: when workers come together they can fight back against the capitalist class. 

Miles Kampf-Lassin is a writer and editor at In These Times magazine. Follow him on Twitter @MilesKLassin

Brandon Johnson Defeated Paul Vallas’s Austerity Agenda Last Night

https://jacobin.com/2023/04/brandon-johnson-mayoral-election-paul-vallas-austerity-agenda-left-victory

Why Chicago’s Mayoral Election Is One of the Most Important Races of 2023

https://perfectunion.us/why-chicagos-mayoral-election-is-one-of-the-most-important-races-of-2023/

Chicago’s Political Revolution

https://inthesetimes.com/article/chicagos-political-revolution

Credits:
Producer: Elton LK
Logo by Michaela Brangan
Sound Engineer & Opening Music by Casey Stikker
Additional Assistance, including content by Palmer Conrad

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What would a socialist economy look like? Sam Gindin stresses the importance of establishing the feasibility of an alternative socialist society for the development of a strong socialist movement. He presents a vision of a future socialism, and poses important questions that a socialist society will have to figure out.

In this episode members of DSA’s National Political Committee (NPC) discuss Sam Gindin's essay.

José La Luz is a lifelong labor organizer and campaigner with roots in the New Left in the late 60’s and early 70’s. He was a founding member of DSA after joining DSOC prior to the merger with NAM in the mid 80’s. He is the most senior member of the NPC (in age) adding a multigenerational presence to the national leadership.

Sofia Cutler is a member of North New Jersey DSA, and has been a member of the DSA National Political Committee since 2021 as part of the Bread and Roses Slate. She is a rank-and-file member of Unite Here Local 33.

Justin Charles is a member of North Brooklyn DSA, and has been a member of the DSA National Political Committee since July 2020.

DSA NPEC Curriculum

https://dsa-education.pubpub.org/modules

DSA’s Leadership and Structure

https://www.dsausa.org/about-us/structure/

NPEC Curriculum on Sam Gindin’s "Socialism for Realists"

https://dsa-education.pubpub.org/pub/what-is-socialism/release/6#reading-c-socialism-for-realists-abridged-by-sam-gindin

Credits:
Producer: Elton LK
Logo by Michaela Brangan
Sound Engineer & Opening Music by Casey Stikker
Additional Assistance, including content by Palmer Conrad

Become a member of Democratic Socialists of America.