How We Do It

Max Shanly joins us to talk about the history of the Labour Party and how subsequent generations have produced the conditions that both allowed the Corbyn project to flourish and resulted in its demise. Many of these valuable lessons about party democracy are applicable to the US context as well, so listen up!

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The book under consideration is Leo Panitch and Colin Leys, Searching for Socialism: The Project of the Labour New Left from Benn to Corbyn (https://www.versobooks.com/books/3161-searching-for-socialism)

** This episode has been reposted, as an earlier version was truncated for some reason... **

Joining us today is Sam Gindin, who gives a master class on the origins of our modern capitalist system along the way of paying tribute to his late friend and mentor, Leo Panitch.

"Still a Marxist After All" (2009) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ot4UgatUDE

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Steve Maher, assistant editor of The Socialist Register, joins us to talk about the life, work, and legacy of Leo Panitch.

Check out the updated version of The Socialist Challenge Today, which was co-authored by Maher, as well as Sam Gindin and Leo Panitch: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1473-the-socialist-challenge-today

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this week's A-Side features a chat with Eric Levitz, staff writer at New York Magazine. We're discussing the "Force the Vote" controversy as outlined in his article, "The Left’s Most Naïve Cynics Have Turned on AOC" (https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/12/jimmy-dore-aoc-medicare-for-all-strategy.html)

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Elements inside the Democratic Party establishment raised a mutiny against AOC last week and we should probably talk about it... Joining us to do just that is Alex Samman, staff writer at The American Prospect. We break it down and try to suss out just what the hell is going on.

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See his article here:

https://prospect.org/politics/establishment-strikes-back-aoc-versus-centrist-democrats/

I am utterly gutted by the recent passing of Leo Panitch, who was the editor of The Socialist Register and a mentor to so many people like me, so I did what odd-ball podcast hosts do and I turned to the mic to get out my feelings about his legacy and what he meant to me. After a 25-minute eulogy, I replay a B-Side chat that I did with Leo back in 2017. I tricked him into talking about his life by asking him questions about people who were near and dear to him, like Ralph Miliband, Tony Benn, Jeremy Corbyn, and so on.

Rest well, Leo. And may the rest of us re-engage with his work and legacy.

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Thomas Frank joins us to dig into the history of populism in the U.S. and tell us why it matters in today's political moment.

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Find out more about his book here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250220110

On this week's B-Side, we're joined by Moira and Conrad of DSA's Class Unity Caucus. We discuss its formation, the context that it came up in, as well as its goals in the coming years.

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Find more info about Class Unity here: https://classunity.org/

Daniel Marans joins us to decipher the election results and talk about what this means for the US political scene going forward. We dish up some harsh realities and pull no punches along the way -- consider this the first of many in-depth looks at the political realignment that's underway in the United States, which is one that the left will either benefit from or be crushed by.

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This week, we're joined by David Dayen, executive editor at American Prospect, to discuss the COVID situation along with what a Biden administration could do even without Democratic control over the Senate. Don't let these excuses and malarky re: his powerlessness fool you!

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Find the Day One Agenda here: https://prospect.org/day-one-agenda

The essays discussed in the opening can be found here:

-https://prospect.org/day-one-agenda/make-progress-on-all-fronts-a-response-to-jacobin/

-https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/12/executive-orders-supreme-court-law-college-debt

-https://jacobinmag.com/2020/11/biden-canceling-student-debt-loans-schumer/