Cosmopod

Amelia and Rudy join Raul Espejo, one of the top members of the Cybersyn project in Allende's Chile, the founder of Syncho Research and the president of the World Organization of Systems and Cybernetics for a conversation. We discuss Raul's experiences, his current projects, and what he thinks socialists should learn about Cybernetics in today's world, especially around the concept of variety.

This is a narration of the fifth chapter of Lars Lih's excellent book Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context. In this chapter, Lih breaks down the causes and details of the intense polemical war between rival Social Democratic publications Rabochee Delo and Iskra. The context of Lenin's What Is to Be Done? cannot be understood without a thorough examination of this dispute, which ultimately ended in victory for Lenin and the Iskra faction.

Djamil and Rudy sit down for a hardcore episode on the interaction between Soviet diamat philosophy and Quantum Mechanics. We discuss the analytic core of dialectical materialism through the lens of the philosophy of science and the position of scientific realism. We analyze the main propositions of this core in an attempt to extract what is best, and most relevant to physics: those propositions and thematics which will play heavily in formulating and advancing soviet physics. We discuss what realism is within this framework, how Lenin understood it, and how that informed his debates with the neo-positivists. We continue by outlining what parts of quantum mechanics tend to go against our most basic intuitions, the Copenhagen interpretation and its neo-positivist roots, and how that informed the reception of quantum mechanics in the USSR. We finish with V. A. Fock's efforts to give a realistic interpretation of quantum mechanics consistent with dialectic materialism which managed to change Niels Bohr's mind, which sets a prime example for the successful application of dialectical materialism to science.

Further reading: L. V. Tarasov – Basic Concepts of Quantum Mechanics Loren R. Graham – Quantum Mechanics and Dialectical Materialism D. Z. Albert – Quantum Mechanics and Experience

Lydia and Rudy join Matzpen member Ehud Ein-Gil for a discussion on trade unionism within the Israeli state. We discuss Ehud's experiences around the founding of Koach LaOvdim as a new sort of union, the history and structure of the Histadrut and how that has affected trade unionism inside the '48 borders, his experience organizing bus drivers, the intermediate status of the Mizraim Jews in Israeli society, the effects of the Arab Spring on Israel, his thoughts on religion and secularism, and his outlook about finding new identity for the six million Hebrews living in historic Palestine.

Ellie, Amelia, Matt and Rudy discuss the life and work of Col. John Boyd, one of the foremost military strategists of the last century. We discuss how the left should relate to military science, Boyd's main ideas such as the OODA loop and the Moral & Mental domains of struggle, his influences: Clausewitz and Sun Tzu, and how Boyd was able to use them to develop his ideas on strategy, and we finish up with examples of how politicians use similar ideas to Boyd and how we should use them for winning fights.

References: John BoydA Discourse on Winning and Losing Youtube lectures on Patterns of Conflict (transcript in the description) Boyd: The Fighter Pilot who Changed the Art of War - Robert Coram

OthersTrotsky's The Art of Insurrection, and How the Revolution Armed Estrategia Socialista y Arte Militar - Emilio Albamonte & Matías Maiello (unavailable in English, summary of the ideas found here) Mao's Military Writings, in particular On Guerilla Warfare and Concentrate a Superior Force to Destroy the Enemy One by One Communist Party of Peru (Shining Path) - Military Line Marine Corps MCDP-1 WarfightingFleet Tactics and Naval Operations Third Edition - CAPT Wayne P. Hughes Jr.

Annie and Rudy join Greg Afinogenov from Stomp Out Slumlords for a discussion on tenants unions, and how SoS has thought about the work of Cloward and Piven to develop ideas on how to build sustainable mass organisations. We discuss how to build mass constituencies for actions and what the goal of tenants unionism should be.

Further reading: R. A. Cloward, F. F. Piven - Disruptive Dissensus: People and Power in the Industrial Age

Stomp Out Slumlords's organizing report of February 2021

This is a narration of the second chapter of Lars Lih's excellent book Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context. In this chapter, Lih examines all the programmatic writings from Lenin in the 1890s and demonstrates the revolutionary leader's consistency throughout this time. This sets the stage for Lenin's later polemics at the start of the 20th century, including What Is to Be Done?

Christian and Connor sit down with Helen Yaffe to discuss her book We Are Cuba. We talked about the history and political economy of revolutionary Cuba before and after the post-Soviet period. Some of topics we touched on were the nature of democracy on the island, the relationship of Cuba to the United States, and how Cuba has dealt with the pandemic and coming crisis of climate change.

Other resources mentioned:

Emily Morris - Unexpected Cuba

The documentary Cuba & COVID 19 Public Health, Science and Solidarity and Helen's article on Cuban vaccines.

Piero Gleijeses' work on Cuba, in particular Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria, and the Struggle for Southern Africa, 1976–1991 and Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington and Africa, 1959–1976.