Red Start Podcast

An edited live recording of comrade Joseph's Red Start session on the first half of Lenin's "Imperialism: Highest Stage of Capitalism" (recorded August 31, 2022).

An edited live recording of comrade Greg's Red Start session on George Jackson's "Blood In My Eye" (recorded August, 2022).

An edited live recording of our 7/2022 Red Start session on "Organizing Methods in the Steel Industry" by William Z. Foster.

00:00:03 Introduction

R. Palme Dutt was born in the U.K. in 1896, and came of age during the lead up to World War I.  He was a conscientious objector, and after the war ended, he joined the newly-formed Communist Party of Great Britain.  He was a strong supporter of the Soviet Union, and was an important figure in the Comintern, where he eventually rose to leadership of the CPGB and also served as an advisor to the Communist Party of India.

In Fascism and Social Revolution Dutt places the emergence of fascism in Europe in the context of the capitalist liberal democracies that spawned it, and carefully lays out the conditions of its emergence and the functions it performs.  Drawing on Leninist ideas about Imperialism, Dutt sees fascism as another step in Capitalism’s degeneration.  Writing well before the Second World War and the atrocities that carved the word Fascism into history, Dutt’s analysis is prophetic, both for his time and our own.

This recording covers Part 1 of the reading for the Red Start discussion.

TIMESTAMPS

(00:03) Introduction

This is an unabridged audiobook-style reading of William Z. Foster's 1936 pamphlet 'Organizing Methods in the Steel Industry,' the first known how-to guide for organizers. In the years following the violently-busted 1919 steel strike, of which Foster had been a lead organizer, steel organizing in the USA had ground to a halt. After the signing of the National Labor Relations Act by President Roosevelt, a new generation of organizers were ready to give it another go and Foster shared what he had learned through the previous failed drive, carefully politicizing the courses of action that would be required in order to achieve union militancy.

Reading by Megan

Listen to this recording of our discussion of "Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised In Brief," a summarized version of the parliamentary rules most DSA chapters operate under.

After a brief hiatus, Red Start is back on! We'll aim to host a session about once a month. Stay tuned for updates at https://twitter.com/redstarsf

Listen to this recording of an introduction to "Dialectical and Historical Materialism" by Joseph Stalin, as well as a Q&A that touches on DSA's national platform, the difference between Marxism and anarchism, and whether things do, in fact, exist.

The LAST Red Start Session (at least for this phase). Plus a nice discussion on "the party" and the state of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Register for next time at https://bit.ly/redstartreg

NOTE: When Sam says that one of the priorities resolutions is to give everyone a dog, this is a JOKE because on the zoom screen, several participants had dogs. There are only four priorities resolutions going up for chapter consideration, and the chapter remains neutral on the position of cats vs. dogs.