This Wreckage

It's been four years since the demise of Sandersism in the United States. It's been two years since the COVID-19 crisis upended society and Russia invaded Ukraine. Socialist politics is, if anything, even more fractured and impotent than it was last decade.

What do we make of the deep melancholy gripping politics today? How have the various political solutions on offer been delegitimated? And why is Sean KB seemingly immune to this melancholy? (Hint: it's the Independent Labor Club.)

This is an extended preview of the full three-hour discussion. To access the whole audio file, become a patron at www.patreon.com/theantifada

And for a video version of the recording become a supporter of C. Derick Varn's work at www.patreon.com/varnvlog

It's been four years since the demise of Sandersism in the United States. It's been two years since the COVID-19 crisis upended society and Russia invaded Ukraine. Socialist politics is, if anything, even more fractured and impotent than it was last decade.

What do we make of the deep melancholy gripping politics today? How have the various political solutions on offer been delegitimated? And why is Sean KB seemingly immune to this melancholy? (Hint: it's the Independent Labor Club.)

This is an extended preview of the full three-hour discussion. To access the whole audio file, become a patron at www.patreon.com/theantifada and for a video version of the recording become a supporter of C. Derick Varn's work at www.patreon.com/varnvlog

Sean and Andy are joined by Reid Kane to discuss the tortured legacy of the Socialist Party of America. Why doesn't the United States have a nominally working class party like the UK, where unions formed the institutional base for an independent party? How come state repression was so effective in undermining working class self-organization in the early-20th century? In which ways did the Old Left and the New Left fail to learn the lessons of the SPUSA and why are we still stuck with the Stalin-era Popular Front? Reid gives a powerful account of American socialism past and how we might vindicate the struggles of past generations.

This is an extended preview of the full episode. To access this bonus content and much more, become a patron today at www.patreon.com/theantifada

Works by Reid:

YouTube series on American socialism

Writings in Sublation Magazine

Sean is joined by friend of the show, Ted Reese, to discuss his brand new book: Abundant Material Wealth for All. How does Henryk Grossman's breakdown theory help us understand the economics and politics of this current moment? In what ways are crisis tendencies affecting the United States and the UK? What type of program should socialists offer as a way out of the crisis? Join us in fleshing out Ted's expansive vision for how we might overcome the current crisis and build a world with abundant material wealth for all as its basis.

Order the book: https://grossmanite.medium.com/new-book-abundant-material-wealth-for-all-out-now-7d1ec5e9ac05

Free PDFs for all coming out this month!

Song: Kendrick - Humble

For the tenth episode of our series about the revolutionary culture of the sixties, Andy talks to China scholar Ralf Ruckus about the Cultural Revolution in China, during which large factions of youth competed to renew and complete the revolutionary vision of Mao. The result was a seizure of power by the PLA and an estimated 2.8 million death between 1966-1976.

For more episode of Armed Love, and all other bonus material and Discord access, please become a patreon at http://patreon.com/theantifada

Ralf Ruckus recently published The Left in China, an excerpt of which can be read here: http://illwill.com/mapping-the-left-in-china

He previously published The Communist Road to Capitalism: How Social Unrest and Containment Have Pushed China's (R)evolution since 1949

Other resources mentioned: Darren Byler - Terror Capitalism https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/4/monograph/book/97897

Chuang: https://chuangcn.org/about/

Gonggchao: https://www.gongchao.org/en/the-left-in-china/

China strike-map: https://maps.clb.org.hk/?i18n_language=en_US&map=1&startDate=2023-11&endDate=2024-05&eventId=&keyword=&addressId=&parentAddressId=&address=&parentAddress=&industry=&parentIndustry=&industryName=&pageEmbed=

Wu Yiching - Cultural Revolution from the Margins https://files.libcom.org/files/Yiching%20Wu-The%20Cultural%20Revolution%20at%20the%20Margins_%20Chinese%20Socialism%20in%20Crisis-Harvard%20University%20Press%20(2014).pdf

Telegram Link for Southwest ILC: https://t.me/+TNXgQOPkV18yOGRh

Song: Sailing the Seas Depends On The Helmsman

We report on our visits to pro-Palestine encampments and take listener questions

Join our Discord community by signing up to our Patreon! http://patreon.com/theantifada

Check out the ILC BBQ in McCarren park in Williamsburg 3-7 followed by a party/screening at Woodbine: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6Rj8UzuoYs/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

First We Take Columbia text: https://illwill.com/columbia https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/2979646/pro-palestinian-activists-spread-occupation-guidebook-overrun-schools/

Communique From an Absent Future: https://illwill.com/print/communique-from-an-absent-future

Adam Tooze - Columbia University's "crisis" - a political economy sketch map https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-279-columbia-universitys

Unrest in the MLBPA: https://theathletic.com/5352704/2024/03/18/mlbpa-unrest-players-bruce-meyer/

Big Sean - Control

Boris and Rey from the anti-nationalist Empire Never Ended podcast and Antipolitika journal chat about the far rights in the US and ex-Yugoslavia, the legacy of Balkan nationalism, cursed Balkan Youtube comments and Greater Idaho.

For the full episode, support the show at http://patreon.com/theantifada

Empire Never Ended patreon: https://www.patreon.com/tenepod

Antipolitika journal:

Read: https://antipolitika.noblogs.org/ Buy: https://pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1440 Songs: Infracrvena - Politika Ultima Videosex - Detektivska Priča

And(y) & And(ers) smoke a hash joint and read selections from the "Protocols of Drug Experiments" in which German Marxist philosopher Walter Benjamin ate a hash edible and wandered around Marseille being weird.

For the full episode subscribe at http://patreon.com/theantifada

PDF: https://anarch.cc/uploads/walter-benjamin/on-hashish.pdf

New Yorker review of On Hashish: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/08/21/the-philosopher-stoned

The communist milieu lost a titan last week. Our kind friend and mentor, Loren Goldner (1949-2024), passed away on Friday, April 12th 3:00am, at age of 76. As a tribute to his life and legacy we were able to gather a handful of people who were close to him to share stories, memories and inspirations. Special thanks to Arya Zahedi, Zhana Kurti, Jarrod Shanahan, Joe Lombardo, Ross Wolfe and Billy O'Conner for coming on to memorialize a great thinker and a great friend.

Copious Loren Goldner Links:

Website archive https://breaktheirhaughtypower.org/category/articles/

Melville book https://libcom.org/article/herman-melville-between-charlemagne-and-antemosaic-cosmic-man-loren-goldner

Insurgent Notes Journal http://insurgentnotes.com/author/loren/

Articles mentioned in order

• Arya
  • Turkish history- https://libcom.org/article/agrarian-question-russian-revolution-material-community-productivism-and-back-loren-goldner
  • Bolivia- https://libcom.org/book/export/html/58156
  • Fictitious capital for beginners https://www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/fictitious-capital-beginners-imperialism-anti-imperialism-and-continuing-relevance-rosa-luxemburg
• Ross
  • Race and the enlightenment https://libcom.org/article/race-and-enlightenment-part-i-anti-semitism-white-supremacy-1492-1676
  • Critic of post-colonial theory https://cominsitu.wordpress.com/2014/05/10/the-universality-of-marx/
  • Revolution in the Air critique https://libcom.org/article/review-revolution-air-max-elbaum-loren-goldner
• Sean
  • Bordiga https://files.libcom.org/files/Loren%20Goldner%20-%20Amadeo%20Bordiga,%20the%20Agrarian%20Question,%20and%20the%20International%20Revolutionary%20Movement.pdf

Audio clips from: https://libcom.org/article/loren-goldner-audio

Songs: Monsieur Jack - The Internationale Leonard Cohen - Solidarity Forever

Enjoy this blast from the distant pass: January 2023!

Check out all the other Histories is a Weapon on our patreon

In light of the depressing denouement of 2022's railroad conflict, Sean and Matt sit down, in person at last, to discuss the deep history behind how American organized labor got so disorganized and why the labor movement hasn't moved in decades.

Why was it that, in the United States, workers institutions had trouble evolving past the infancy of narrow, sectoral, decentralized craft unionism towards broad-based, nationally-coordinated industrial unionism? How did capital, in the face of militant organizing, help choose the weaker of the two as their partner to bargain with? In what ways is worker self-organization in this country truly, as our enemies always say, anti-American? And importantly what is to be done now that private sector union density is so low, workers institutions so captured and the national labor relations regime has fallen apart?

STAY TUNED AFTER THE OUTRO MUSIC FOR A SPECIAL LAST MINUTE ADDENDUM