KPFA - Against the Grain

Capitalism has transformed the world like no other force, which historian Sven Beckert calls a fundamental break in human history. Beckert traces the emergence and expansion of capitalism, arguing that we can best understand the present by coming to terms with its past.

Please donate in support of KPFA and Against the Grain.

The post Fund Drive Special: Global Capitalism appeared first on KPFA.

A year into Trump’s second term, the power and fortunes of the ultra-wealthy have only grown — following half a century of policies boosting the rich. Economist Rob Larson discusses Trump’s economic agenda, the pillars of his support in tech, and the ways the 1% exercises power, including through the media.

The post Fund Drive Special: The Fortunes of the Wealthy appeared first on KPFA.

Last autumn Italian workers shut down their country in opposition to the Gaza genocide. In the United States, in contrast, labor activists wanting to take a stand in solidarity with Palestinian workers are frequently chastised for trying to involve their unions in the affairs of other countries. Yet labor historian Jeff Schuhrke illustrates that U.S. unions have long been involved in Palestine — for almost a century supporting Zionism and then the state Israel. (Encore presentation.)

National Labor Network for Ceasefire

Jeff Schuhrke, No Neutrals There: US Labor, Zionism, and the Struggle for Palestine Haymarket Books, 2025

Photo by Nikolas Gannon on Unsplash

The post Zionism and U.S. Unions appeared first on KPFA.

Employers regularly check the background of potential workers for criminal records, even though claims that such checks predict their diligence or trustworthiness are dubious. Anthropologist Melissa Burch reflects on how criminal background checks became commonplace — and what vested interests maintain their ubiquity.

Afterlives of Conviction Project

Melissa Burch, The Criminal Record Complex: Risk, Race, and the Struggle for Work in America Princeton University Press, 2026

The post The Long Shadow of Criminal Records appeared first on KPFA.

Did Charles Darwin influence Karl Marx? Joel Wainwright argues that Darwin significantly shaped Marx’s understanding of historical change — with implications for how we meet the ecological crisis today. And he reflects on the potential role of strikes and boycotts in moving beyond capitalism.

Joel Wainwright, The End: Marx, Darwin, and the Natural History of the Climate Crisis Verso, 2025

The post Darwin and Marx appeared first on KPFA.

Was the populist far right a reaction to neoliberal free market fundamentalism? Or, as historian Quinn Slobodian argues, did such rightwing currents come out of the ideas of neoliberalism itself? Slobodian reflects on neoliberal thinkers’ preoccupation with racist and misogynistic ideas of human nature and intelligence, borders and gold — all in service to their war on the left. (Encore presentation.)

Quinn Slobodian, Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right Zone Books, 2025

The post The Neoliberal Roots of Rightwing Populism appeared first on KPFA.

The Trump administration uses antifascism as a term of abuse and has branded Antifa domestic terrorists. Yet antifascism has a long but often little known history in the U.S.  Journalist Christopher Mathias describes the efforts of radicals to unmask and dismantle the far right.

Christopher Mathias, To Catch a Fascist: The Fight to Expose the Radical Right Atria Books, 2026

The post Exposing the Far Right appeared first on KPFA.

The groundswell of opposition to Trump’s deportation agenda has been astounding. But there has been a long history of immigrants opposing the U.S. state’s efforts to terrorize and deport them. Historian Adam Goodman discusses the struggles mounted by immigrant workers in the 1970s, the 2006 immigrant workers general strike, and the necessity of organizing lasting movements for change.

Adam Goodman, The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Expelling Immigrants Princeton University Press, 2021

Adam Goodman, “Barring the Gates: A History of Political Exclusion and Family Separation in Cold War America,” Labor (2021) 18 (1): 54–66.

The post Immigrants Fighting Back appeared first on KPFA.

At every step of the process in which communities are policed and punished, states, localities and other public entities benefit financially, along with their partners in the private sectors. Scholars Joe Soss and Joshua Page describe the multitude of ways in which the poorest people — not just individuals, but the communities around them — became a cash cow for extracting revenue for the state.

Joshua Page and Joe Soss, Legal Plunder: The Predatory Dimensions of Criminal Justice University of Chicago Press, 2025

The post Siphoning Revenue from the Poor appeared first on KPFA.

It’s largely invisible to most of us, but without the industries and workers that drill or mine the world’s raw materials, and the arteries of transport that bring petroleum and other resources across the seas, global capitalism would sputter to a halt. Scholar and writer Laleh Khalili has traveled on the system’s massive container ships and describes in unflinching terms the inner workings of resource extraction.

Laleh Khalili, Extractive Capitalism: How Commodities and Cronyism Drive the Global Economy Verso, 2025

Photo credit: NOAA’s National Ocean Service

The post Extraction and Global Capitalism appeared first on KPFA.