Jacobin Radio

The US has played a major role in fomenting violence across Yemen, backing the Saudi and United Arab Emirates-led forces attacking the country while also conducting a direct war against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula under the guise of counterterrorism. But while it's understandable that US involvement is the top focus for the American left, understanding the war in Yemen requires a much broader analysis. The Yemeni conflict not only includes multiple outside actors but also multiple groups of Yemenis pursuing different outcomes, rooted in a complex history that few outside of Yemen understand. Explaining that context is what this show, in partnership with the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP), is all about. This special episode includes two interviews with contributors to Middle East Report, MERIP's print publication. First, up is Yemeni journalist Afrah Nasser and political scientist Stacey Philbrick Yadav; and then, Dan speaks with political-economist Adam Hanieh.

Check out The Fight for Yemen, the latest issue of Middle East Report at merip.org/magazine/289

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Our guest Yoav Peled argues that Netanyahu is the only issue in the April 9 election. Netanyahu is under indictment for one case of bribery and two cases of fraud, but Yoav says he is likely to win even though his party and their bloc — with far-right, racist and religious parties — is more or less tied with the anti-Bibi “Blue and White” coalition or bloc. Yoav also discusses his new book, The Religionization of Israeli Society — which sheds light on how the country has moved from secular Zionism to an increasingly far-right expansionist religious Zionism, and how that helps us understand the election, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — and the relation between culture, politics, nationalism, secularization, and new social movements.

Suzi then talks to Micah Uetricht in Chicago, where 5–6 socialists were just elected to the City Council. Micah argues they will have outsize influence in determining the political issues — much as we have seen nationally with the election of democratic socialists to Congress. In his aptly titled article in the Guardian “America's socialist surge is going strong in Chicago” Micah writes that the socialist victories in Chicago were not a fluke, people are miserable with the status quo of austerity — and if Chicago’s elections are any indication, it just may be that people are ready to try socialism.

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In the US, China is often viewed at best as a nefarious and enigmatic rival and at worst as a civilizational enemy. But these stories of national rivalry that permeate both major parties and the mainstream media function as a mystification, shrouding the global supply chain that connects capitalist exploitation from East to West. When we cut through the noise, a rather different picture emerges: China is home to a massive portion of the world's working-class, a class that is struggling against the combined forces of state and global capital for dignified lives. And these struggles, contrary to conventional wisdom, are deeply connected, rather than opposed to, worker struggles in the West. Dan interviews sociologist Jenny Chan on China's class conflict and labor movement.

Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com

Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

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Car dominance, public transit austerity, and the neoliberal political-economy within which both are embedded have fomented what Marx called idiocy, in its classical sense of privatized social isolation. Dan talks to geographer Kafui Attoh, the author of Rights in Transit: Public Transportation and the Right to the City in California's East Bay, about the political-economy of public transit and why the fight for transportation justice must be part of a broader struggle for the right to the city.

André Gorz's "The social ideology of the motorcar" unevenearth.org/2018/08/the-social-ideology-of-the-motorcar/

Two upcoming live Dig tapings in Providence!

April 23: Dan interviews Sam Stein on his book Capital City facebook.com/events/2164662790291372/

May 2-4: Slavery’s Hinterlands: Capitalism and bondage in Rhode Island and across the Atlantic world facebook.com/events/661508874305008/

And check out the Philadelphia Socialist Feminist Convergence, April 26-28 socfemphilly.wordpress.com

Thanks to Verso Books. Peruse their massive selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.