Cosmopod

Annie talks with Art Francisco, a rank-and-file carpenter in the Seattle area and leader of the Peter J McGuire Group, a caucus in the United Brotherhood of Carpenters that fights for accountability and class struggle in the union. They discuss the origins of the recent carpenters strike in the Pacific Northwest, corruption and bureaucracy in the UBC, City Councilor Kshama Sawant's relationship to the strike, and the Peter J McGuire Group's unique vision of unionism and how it compares to other efforts of union reform.

The Peter J McGuire Group's Gofundme for legal aid is linked.

This is a narration of the eighth chapter of Mike Macnair's groundbreaking book Revolutionary Strategy. Narration and editing by Lydia Apolinar.

The free market triumphalism of the 1990s is over. Early 21st century capitalism looks like Karl Marx's description: growing extremes of wealth and poverty, and irrepressible boom-bust cycles. But for the moment, rightwing religious and nationalist nostalgia politics is the main beneficiary of the opposition this has spawned. The political left remains in the shadow of its disastrous failures in the 20th century. The centre-left - where it has not joined forces with the neoliberal right - clings to nationalist and bureaucratic-statist nostalgia for the social-democratic Cold War era. The far left clings to the coat-tails of the centre-left. It cannot unite itself - let alone anyone else - because it is unwilling to reinterrogate the ideas of the early Communist International, especially on the 'revolutionary party'. To move beyond this impasse we need to re-examine critically the strategic ideas of socialists since Marx and Engels' time. This book begins the task.

You can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Lulu. To support the project, sign up for our Patreon.

Rudy joins Hilary Klein, author of Compañeras: Zapatista Women Stories for a discussion on the history of the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional (EZLN) from its foundation in the 1980s through their 1994 uprising and their continued existence as a social movement that holds power in areas of Chiapas. We focus on the alternative government structures of the movement: participatory democracy, economic cooperatives, transformative justice and Juntas de Buen Gobierno. Other things we discuss are : the rise and fall of Zapatismo as a north star for the American left, how Zapatismo built a mass base, the dynamics of women's liberation within the Zapatista movement and the broader population, as well as their multiple efforts to win the local population, the local splits between pro-Government and pro-Zapatistas and the future of the movement.

This is a narration of the introduction to Mike Macnair's groundbreaking book Revolutionary Strategy. Narration and editing by Lydia Apolinar.

The free market triumphalism of the 1990s is over. Early 21st century capitalism looks like Karl Marx's description: growing extremes of wealth and poverty, and irrepressible boom-bust cycles. But for the moment, rightwing religious and nationalist nostalgia politics is the main beneficiary of the opposition this has spawned. The political left remains in the shadow of its disastrous failures in the 20th century. The centre-left - where it has not joined forces with the neoliberal right - clings to nationalist and bureaucratic-statist nostalgia for the social-democratic Cold War era. The far left clings to the coat-tails of the centre-left. It cannot unite itself - let alone anyone else - because it is unwilling to reinterrogate the ideas of the early Communist International, especially on the 'revolutionary party'. To move beyond this impasse we need to re-examine critically the strategic ideas of socialists since Marx and Engels' time. This book begins the task.

You can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Lulu. To support the project, sign up for our Patreon.

Rudy sits down with Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro, author of Socialist States and the Environment, for a discussion on environmental history of socialist states, as well as on doing science from a socialist standpoint. We cover what studying soils reveals, why they had an impact on Marx, and what the history of soils shows about economic transitions in Hungary. We talk about the unfairness of comparisons done in current scholarship, the environmental record of the USSR and what happened after the collapse of the Soviet union, the effects of the economic transition of China on its environment, and the heroic achievements in Cuba to overcome the legacies of colonialism in the environment.

We apologize for the lower than usual quality on this audio. We had sound issues which are unfortunately reflected throughout the episode.

Donald, Connor, Christian and Rudy sit down for a discussion on Cambodia throughout the Democratic Kampuchea period under Pol Pot (75-79) and the People's Republic of Kampuchea period under Heng Samrin (79-89). We talk about the ideological and material origins of Pol Pot's faction within the Communist Party of Kampuchea, and clarify its relationship to the other pro-Vietnamese factions in the CPK. We discuss what the material conditions were in '75 when the CPK takes power, the events during the Pol Pot period including city evacuations, ethnic repression, party purges and the relationships of production in the countryside. We follow with talking about how the DK's aggressive border policies led to the Vietnamese invasion in '79 and the PRK period. We also discuss the PRK period, and how it ended up restoring capitalist relationships and paving the way for the return of Sihanouk and the current form of the Cambodian state.

Primary References:Red Brotherhood at War: Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos since 1975 - Grant Evans & Kelvin Rowley The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79 - Ben Kiernan The People's Republic of Kampuchea, 1979-1989: The Revolution After Pol Pot - Margaret Slocomb Cambodia, 1975-1982 - Michael Vickery

Secondary references:Kampuchea: Politics, Economics and Society - Michael Vickery What Went Wrong with the Pol Pot Regime - F.G. Kampuchea: The Revolution Rescued - Irwin Silber

The development of working-class consciousness requires more than struggles against the employer on the shopfloor, argues Marisa Miale. Mick Labas reads the article aloud.

Jackson and Rudy join Mike Gouldhawke, a Métis and Cree writer whose family is from kistahpinanihk (City of Prince Albert) and nêwo-nâkîwin (Mont Nebo) in Treaty 6 territory in Saskatchewan, for a discussion on indigenous issues in Canada with a focus on the Métis. We talk about the history of the Métis, through ethnogenesis, the Red River Resistance and the North-West Resistance. The conversation continues with cross-border organizing, the similarities and differences between Canadian and US Indian populations, the red power movement in the 60s and the origin of the Land Back demand and how that demand has become popular again. We also discuss the different meanings of Land Back in the present, solidarity across Indigenous Nations, and the recent small bouts of solidarity between unions and indigenous struggle, the George Williams affair and alliances between Canadian diasporic communities and indigenous nations, indigenous thinkers who have tried to bridge Marxism and Indigenous thought. We finish by discussing the relationships to the Quebec sovereignty movement and the new relationships between the Canadian state and indigenous nations.

Further reading Books: Prison of Grass - Howard Adams Bobbi Lee, Indian Rebel - Lee Maracle Roots of Oppression - Steve Talbot

Articles:Marxism from a Native Perspective – John Mohawk The Red Path and Socialism – ᐊᓯᓂ Vern Harper Marxism and Native Americans – Reviewed by Howard Adams Below the Barricades: On Infrastructure, Self-Determination, and Defense - Cam Scott

Donald Parkinson assesses the 2021 DSA Convention and imagines a path forward beyond its current political and strategic deadlock. Cliff Connolly reads the article aloud.