Hegemonicon - An Investigation Into the Workings of Power

Hegemonicon will be taking an intermission to record a few more episodes and wrap up this present series on internationalism. We're very much looking forward to bringing you more important and necessary discussions to tie together what we're learning about internationalism, the global role of the United States, and what that means for organizers in the belly of the beast.

Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. William does this show on top of his daily organizing and other political work because he believes in the value of open-ended, rigorous, non-dogmatic dialogue about strategy and organizing on the Left. If you find that in this show and enjoy it, please share it with your friends and collaborators.

And while you're at it, rate the show and leave a review on your podcast app. We'll be back in October.

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Khury Petersen-Smith joins the show to discuss internationalist organizing and ideologies among Black communities in the US.

Khury Petersen-Smith is the Michael Ratner Middle East Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. He researches US empire, borders, and migration and strategizes with activists to work against the violence that the US carries out and supports around the world. Khury's work focuses especially on US militarism in the Middle East and in the Pacific, and movements that resist it. He is one of the co-authors and organizers of the 2023 Black Voices for Ceasefire statement, which was signed by over 6,000 Black activists, artists, and scholars, and he is the co-founder of Black 4 Palestine.

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This episode features a conversation with two experienced unionists about the history of, and barriers to, solidarity between US workers and those abroad.

Carl Rosen is the General President of UE, the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America. UE is a famously democratic, progressive, and independent union, and they have done arguably the best work of any US union in building mutual alliances of solidarity with labor unions abroad over the last several decades, including a long collaboration with the Mexican Frente Auténtico de Trabajo.

Bob Master recently retired after 45 years in the labor movement, the last 36 with the Communications Workers of America. He was a founding co-chair of the New York State Working Families Party, and remains a member of the WFP National Executive Committee. Bob is also a big-picture strategic thinker, strategist and writer about matters of US politics, political economy, and class struggle.

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Cindy Wiesner of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance joins the show to share reflections on her 35 years of internationalist organizing on the US Left—from the global justice movement of the 1990s and early 2000s, through the antiwar movement of the 2000s, to the growing international climate justice movement of the 2000s–2010s. Throughout that journey, she has been working to build power from the grassroots in the US, and with allies across the globe, especially in the Americas. She shares her perspective on that trajectory, and where we find ourselves now.

Cindy Wiesner is the Executive Director of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance (GGJ). She helped co-found the Climate Justice Alliance and the Rising Majority and has been a leader in many cross-border movement-building initiatives.

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David Adler (@davidrkadler) returns to the show to share the work of Progressive International, including its election observatory, its research portal on the "Reactionary International," its online advocacy campaigns, and, most ambitiously, its efforts to cohere ideas and people that could guide a "New" New International Economic Order. David shares his perspective on where allies are to be found in the pursuit of a just global system. David Adler is a political economist and the co-General Coordinator of Progressive International. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the Colegio de México and a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford. He writes regularly for The Guardian.

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Tim Sahay returns to the show provide a world tour of the flows and chokepoints of goods and finance that make up our global economy. 

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Van Jackson (@realvanjackson) joins the show to discuss the dangerous strategy of global primacy that drives US foreign policy. Van Jackson is a scholar of international relations specializing in East Asian and Pacific security, critical analysis of defense issues, and the intersection of working-class interests with foreign policy. He worked in the Department of Defense during the Obama administration and has since become an outspoken critic of US foreign policy. He writes the Un-Diplomatic newsletter and is the author of several books.

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Will talks with Tobita Chow to set the stage for our series on internationalism. We talk about the breakdown of US global authority, the twilight of the neoliberal era, and the turn to economic nationalism in the United States and abroad. Toby helps us to see Bidenomics as a response by US capitalists to a global crisis of profitability. We try to understand the likely consequences of Bidenomics: Whether it is likely to succeed or fail on its own terms, and what either would mean for the shape of global politics to come. We speculate about the prospects for building a left internationalist power bloc from within the United States.

Tobita Chow is a writer and organizer focused on questions of international political economy and transnational solidarity. He was a co-founder of Justice Is Global, a US-based progressive internationalist organization and he is also an editorial board member at Convergence Magazine, the publisher of this podcast.

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Hegemonicon will return Tuesday, July 30 with interviews focusing on internationalist organizing and analysis on the US Left.

Foreign policy is back on the agenda in a big way in US politics, and promises to be a top concern for the foreseeable future. Issues around Gaza, Ukraine, and China have impacted domestic politics under the Biden administration and will factor in the November election.

The US Left has taken an internationalist turn, especially given the outrage and horror of the live-streamed modern genocide in Gaza. This has created rifts among left and progressive forces, and within the Democratic Party coalition. Some new or renewed configuration of forces on the Left must be struck.

We are witnessing genocide and have cause to fear the threat of World War Three. We see the rise of authoritarians around the world and are coming to uunderstand their global linkages. This leaves us no choice but to develop a thorough internationalist analysis and program, and incorporate it into our political practice. Season 2 of Hegemonicon will bring you conversations with people who have something to teach us about these topics. We can't wait to hear what you think!

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This episode wraps up the current season of Hegemonicon with one more look at "What We're Building." William sits down with Milena Velis and Jayanni Webster, who were both deeply engaged with LeftRoots, an organization that operated for about 10 years before intentionally sunsetting at the end of 2023.

LeftRoots's major mission was training and preparing people to become cadre. The organization's sunset has now made way for one, maybe two, successor organizations that intend to be disciplined networks of cadre moving a coherent strategy from various corners of the US institutional landscape.

Terms like "cadre" might be initially confusing to some listeners. This episode explains how LeftRoots understood the nature and importance of cadre, and what it did in its 10 years of work. Milena Velis is the former cadre training director of LeftRoots, and a communicator and media maker from Philadelphia. Jayanni Webster is a labor and community organizer from Memphis, Tennessee, and is now a founding member of North Star, one of the cadre organizations growing out of the LeftRoots process. Milena is a member of the Convergence Editorial Board, and Jayanni worked on the weekly live show Frontline Dispatches that was produced under our previous name, Organizing Upgrade.

Please be sure to subscribe to Hegemonicon wherever you listen to podcasts so you'll be alerted when new episodes publish this spring.

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