Doug Enaa Greene argues that in Trotsky's work a theory of cultural revolution can be found, one which differs from Mao Zedong's that was developed in the context of the Russian Revolution and its struggle against bureaucracy.

Narrated by: Will

Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix

Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.

Eric, Rob and Rudy join for the second part of the Afghanistan podcast, which covers the start of the Afghan civil war, the birth of the Taliban and their takeover of the country, 9/11 and the US Invasion, the period of the occupation government and the Taliban resurgence and return. We discuss the origins of the Taliban, and what has made them popular throughout the decades, what the US occupation government meant to the Afghan people, the differences between the first and second Emirates, the enigmatic figure of Mullah Omar, as well as the Taliban-Bin Laden relationships. We conclude with thoughts on what can we learn from this whole period, including thoughts on the topics of stageism and ethnicity.

References: Betty Dam - Looking for the Enemy: Mullah Omar and the Unknown Taliban Antonio Giustozzi - The Islamic State in Khorasan Anand Gopal - No Good Men Among The Living: America, the Taliban and the War through Afghan Eyes; The Other Afghan Women Alex van Linschoten, Felix Kuehn - An Enemy We Created: The Myth of the Taliban-Al Qaeda Merger in Afghanistan, 1970-2010

Rudy joins Darko Suvin, author of many books and pieces on science-fiction and also, an Splendour, Missery and Possibilities: An X-Ray of Socialist Yugoslavia for a discussion on his life-long work. We talk about the role of science fiction in socialist politics, Bertolt Brecht and the estrangement effect, and what emancipation means. We also talk about his life in Yugoslavia, and what he saw as positive and negative from the Yugoslav experience, and what were ultimately the hurdles that prevented Yugoslavia from achieving full emancipation.

Revolution won't follow a neat and clean schema, fitting easily into one stage or another, argues Tom Frome. Instead, revolution will be a long process, a process that cannot always be categorized with preconceived definitions. The ideal of revolutionary vision never fully survives contact with the messy and unpredictable realities of political change.

Narrated by: Riley

Intro Music: ворожное озеро Гроза vwqp remix Outro Music: We are Friends Forever performed by Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.

Rudy joins Esme and Lizette, from the LA Tenants Union for an introductory discussion on language justice. We discuss what language justice and linguicism are and what kind of barriers people face, before discussing the ways the LATU tries to bridge these barriers through their language justice work. We talk about interpretation, how it can be categorized as a service, how to adequately relate to bilingual members in organizing and why they can often feel alienated or burnt out. We finish by discussing where to start with language justice in an organization that has no prior experience with it.

Links / Resources mentioned: Antena Aire's Language Justice Resources Language Justice Curriculum at the Center for Participatory Change Simultaneous Interpretation Drives the LA Tenants' Movement

Donald Parkinson sits down with Mike Taber, editor of 'Under the Socialist Banner', a collection of resolutions from the Congresses of the Second International's revolutionary period (1889-1912). Donald and Taber go through the various Congresses and discuss their approaches to a variety of issues such as imperialism, the general strike, immigration, women's emancipation, colonialism, and cooperatives. Struggles between reformists and revolutionaries, militarists and militarists, orthodox Marxists and revisionists would culminate in the collapse of the International with the outbreak of World War One. Taber and Parkinson discuss these struggles and the overall strengths and weaknesses of the Second International.