Victor's Children

Staying in the Struggle for the Long Haul

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What can we do to help more radicals stay politically active and effective over the course of our lives? Chris Dixon's new book For the Long Haul: How to Stay in the Fight for a Better World draws on the insights of many people to answer that question, and Chris is the guest on this episode of VC.

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To order For the Long Haul in the Canadian state: For the Long Haul

https://btlbooks.com/book/for-the-long-haul

To order it anywhere else:

https://www.akpress.org/for-the-long-haul.html

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Jeff Schmidt's book Disciplined Minds, which both Chris and David highly recommend to people

considering going to graduate or professional school (though anyone going to university can

benefit from reading it), is mentioned at one point. https://archive.org/details/disciplinedminds00schm

Feminism for Our Time

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The reactionary right attacks liberalism's equal rights for cis women and 2SLGBTQIA

people in a capitalist world that's getting worse for almost everyone. What kind of feminism

is needed in these times? Ira Hybris draws on her experience as a marxist-feminist active

in the Spanish state over the last decade to discuss that and related theoretical and political

questions, including how we should counter the right's gendered appeals to working-class

men.

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Some related reading:

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Ira Hybris, "A Revolutionary Transfeminism In and Against Our Time"

https://revsoc21.uk/2026/06/26/a-revolutionary-transfeminism-in-and-against-our-time/

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Bhattacharya, Arruzza and Fraser, Feminism for the 99%

https://www.versobooks.com/en-ca/products/774-feminism-for-the-99

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Cinzia Arruzza, “Remarks on Gender”

https://viewpointmag.com/2014/09/02/remarks-on-gender/

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Pride official trailer #1 (2014):

https://share.google/6TJHO3up7ekswEer5

What is socialism from below?

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Victor's Children is a podcast "talking socialism from below." What matters isn't the term but the politics it refers to. This episode is an introduction to this kind of revolutionary-democratic socialism, with guests Aileen and Kristen. They talk about what this approach to changing the world is, how it differs from more common kinds of socialist politics, why it's worth committing to, and what people who support it should be doing in the here and now.

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To learn more:

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Sean Larson, What is socialism from below?

https://tempestmag.org/2020/11/what-is-socialism-from-below/

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David McNally, "Socialist Politics in the Age of Trump"

https://www.prairiered.ca/uploads/6/9/3/7/69371873/socialist_politics_in_the_age_of_trump.pdf

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Hal Draper, Hal Draper: The Two Souls of Socialism (1966)

https://www.marxists.org/archive/draper/1966/twosouls/index.htm

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David Camfield, How should socialists think about political tradition?

https://tempestmag.org/2024/04/how-should-socialists-think-about-political-tradition/

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and various past episodes of Victor's Children!

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Also: watch out for a new pamphlet by Natalia Tylim that makes the case for a socialism from below response to the situation in the USA today, coming soon from the Tempest Collective

https://tempestmag.org/

The Russia-Ukraine war and the Left

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With Russia's all-out war against Ukraine now in its fifth year, Simon Pirani and Volodymyr Artiukh discuss the complex character of the war, the main stances to the war on the left, aspects of Ukrainian society today, and more.

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Related reading, viewing and other resources:

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Simon Pirani, In Mexico, people fear one imperialist aggressor. In Estonia, it’s a different one

https://peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2026/06/26/in-mexico-people-fear-one-imperialist-aggressor-in-estonia-its-a-different-one/#more-7216

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Simon Pirani (ed.), Voices against Putin’s war

https://resistancebooks.org/product/voices-against-putins-war/

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V. Artiukh and T. Fedirko, War and dependent state formation in Ukraine.

https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/focaal/2025/102/fcl1020105.xml?rskey=5xbawE&result=2

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D. Dzenovska, V. Artiukh, D. Martin, M. Gunko, and M. Chew. Living Emptiness: Place, power, and meaning-making from the Baltic to the Russian Far East.

https://emptiness.eu/news-and-events/living-emptiness-place-power-and-meaning-making-from-the-baltic-to-the-russian-far-east-multimodal-book/

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TRY ME FOR TREASON: anti-war protesters' speeches in Russian courts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FHacVH8tK8

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Commons, a Ukrainian left journal Main Page - Спільне Commons

https://commons.com.ua/en/

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Ukraine Solidarity Information

https://ukrainesolidarityinformation.ca/

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Ukraine Solidarity Network

https://www.ukrainesolidaritynetwork.us/

Learning To Change The World

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Alan Sears draws on his research and personal experience to reflect on how people become radical organizers, the challenges they encounter, the different kinds of learning involved in being an effective radical organizer, and more.

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Some readings:

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Alan Sears, The Next New Left: A History of the Future

https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/books/the-next-new-left

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Katy Fox-Hodess and Rafeef Ziadah,"Community picket lines and social movement unionism on the

U.S. docks, 2014–2021: Organizing lessons from the Block the Boat campaign for Palestine"

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/08969205251375053

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Jeff Schmidt's book Disciplined Minds is a very good look at the real world of graduate and professional schooling

Disciplined minds : Jeff Schmidt : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

https://archive.org/details/disciplinedminds00schm

How Should Socialists Organize Today?

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This episode is a sequel to episode 60 "Time to Party?" with guests Charlie Post in New York (Tempest)

and Andreu Coll in Barcelona (Anticapitalistas).

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Listeners unfamiliar with politics in the Spanish state may find it useful to read Andreu's brief section of this article for background: Revolutionary Socialist Organizations in the 21st Century

https://tempestmag.org/2023/03/revolutionary-socialist-organizations-in-the-21st-century/

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Tempest Collective

https://tempestmag.org/

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Anticapitalistas

https://www.anticapitalistas.org/

What Does Avi Lewis's Win Mean for Socialists?

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The election of Avi Lewis as leader of the federal New Democratic Party is a small political earthquake in the Canadian state. Lewis is the first person from the left wing of the party to be elected leader, and he was opposed by most of the party establishment. Left candidates also took office on the party's executive. Right after Lewis's win was announced two provincial NDP leaders distanced themselves from him. Lewis's win has raised the morale of many people on the Left, with many hoping that major change is coming to the NDP.

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On this episode, Martin Lukacs and Deena Newaz discuss how Lewis won, the significance of what's

happened, how the NDP is positioned in relation to fighting the Carney government's agenda, and what socialists and other anti-capitalists should do now.

What should internationalism mean today?

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Revolutions of Our Times: An Internationalist Manifesto is a thoughtful and inspiring collectively

written text from The Peoples Want, an international network of supporters of "internationalism from

below." It will be published in English in book form in April 2026 (and is available in other languages

too). This episode is an interview with three people involved with The Peoples Want about the

manifesto and their project.

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This episode was recorded in February 2026, before the US & Israeli war on Iran, which has only made it made more relevant.

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Revolutions of Our Times

https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2732-revolutions-of-our-times

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The Peoples Want

https://thepeopleswant.org/

A critical review of Vincent Bevins' book If We Burn mentioned in this episode Organize, yes, but how?

https://tempestmag.org/2023/12/organize-yes-but-how/

What does Zohran Mamdani's win mean for socialists?

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Zohran Mamdani's election as mayor of New York City is being widely discussed both in and outside the US. What political conclusions should we draw from it? Two socialists in NYC, Sherry Wolf and Robert Cuffy, talk about the impact of Mamdani's win, what made it possible, the obstacles he faces to implementing the reforms he promised, and building working-class power in NYC.

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Some readings:

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Zohran's Endorsement of Hochul Isn’t “Pragmatic” — It’s Self-Defeating - The Call

https://socialistcall.com/2026/02/06/zohrans-endorsement-of-hochul-isnt-pragmatic-its-self-defeating/

Municipal Socialism’s “YIMBY” Problem – Spectre Journal

https://spectrejournal.com/municipal-socialisms-yimby-problem/

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People interested in the history of the mayoralty of La Guardia, whom Mamdani hailed as the greatest mayor in the history of NYC, and its implications today should check out this article.

“The Greatest New York City Mayor of All Time” – Spectre Journal

https://spectrejournal.com/the-greatest-new-york-city-mayor-of-all-time/

Covering Up Rape & Suppressing Opposition: Learning from the SWP's 2013 Crisis

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In 2013 the Socialist Workers Party, the largest far left group in Britain and the dominant group in the International Socialist Tendency, experienced a crisis rooted in the efforts of its leadership to protect one of their own from allegations of sexual violence and to stifle criticism of its handling of the situation. The lessons of this experience are relevant for radicals internationally. Former SWP members David Renton and Sadia Jabeen discuss what happened in the SWP and some of its implications.

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David Renton's book on the SWP's 2013 crisis will be published in 2026: Comrade Delta

https://www.ebb-books.com/books/p/comrade-delta

David Renton's blog: lives; running

https://livesrunning.wordpress.com/

David Renton's Substack: D K Renton | Substack

https://davidrenton590934.substack.com/

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Some readings and resources:

Episode 23 of Victor's Children: Sexual Violence, Feminism and Socialist Organizing

https://soundcloud.com/user-737267994/vc-ep-23

David Camfield, Why Socialists Need Feminism

https://www.prairiered.ca/archive/why-socialists-need-feminism

Abigail Bakan, Marxism, Feminism, and Epistemological Dissonance

https://socialiststudies.com/index.php/sss/article/view/23546/17430