Victor's Children

Announcement for listeners in Winnipeg

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This is an announcement about a socialist discussion happening in Winnipeg on Jan. 15,

hosted by the Winnipeg Tempest Organizing Committee

email: [email protected]

Tempest website: https://tempestmag.org/

Party Time?

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Socialists need to organize as socialists to be as effective as we can. Does this mean that small socialist organizations can be parties or start to build parties? How can we best work towards much larger and more effective socialist political organizations? Charlie Post joins David on this episode to discuss what genuine parties are, the history of socialist party-building efforts, the micro-party model and alternative approaches.

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Related reading:

Charlie Post and Kit Adam Wainer, Socialist Organization Today

https://solidarity-us.org/sot/

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A LETTER FROM CANADIAN COMRADES

https://www.prairiered.ca/archive/a-letter-from-canadian-comrades

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Duncan Hallas: Towards a Revolutionary Socialist Party (1971)

https://www.marxists.org/archive/hallas/works/1971/xx/party.htm

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about the Democratic Socialists of America:

https://tempestmag.org/2025/01/dsa-never-recovered-from-bowman/

https://tempestmag.org/2023/09/the-dsa-moment-is-over/

https://cosmonautmag.com/2025/11/traveling-through-purgatory/

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about YourParty in Britain:

Your Party must trust its members

https://revsoc21.uk/2025/12/08/your-party-must-trust-its-members/

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A new podcast recommended for listeners in Britain or who’re interested in socialist discussion of Your Party and the Green Party in Britain:

https://proletarianblues.substack.com/p/brand-new-podcast-series-life-of

The Philippines and its Left: What the Global Left Needs to Know

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The Philippines has one of the largest populations in the world, there are large diasporic Filipino communities in North America, and there's a sizeable left that's also present in the diaspora. This episode is an interview with a guest in the Philippines who's active in the anti-Stalinist radical left.

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If you're unfamiliar with the history of the Philippines, this timeline is useful:

Philippines profile - Timeline

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-15581450

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To learn more:

Alex de Jong, After decades, an insurgency falters

https://tempestmag.org/2025/01/after-decades-an-insurgency-falters/

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Rasti Delizo, Priming the Philippines for a “globalized NATO”

https://tempestmag.org/2024/01/priming-the-philippines-for-a-globalized-nato/

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Hunting Specters: A Political History of the Purges in the Communist Party of the Philippines

https://libcom.org/article/hunting-specters-political-history-purges-communist-party-philippines

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Two Filipino anti-Stalinist socialist political organizations:

Partido Sosyalista

https://sosyalista.ph/

» About the RPM-M

https://www.grenzeloos.org/jl/?page_id=2

McCarthyism and its lessons for the left today

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The Trump administration's repressive moves have sparked talk of a "new McCarthyism" so this episode presents an interview with Alan Wald about McCarthyism -- the "Second Red Scare" in the US in the late 1940s and 1950s -- and its lessons for the left in our time.

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UPDATE - Helpful clarification from one of our listeners on information mentioned in this episode's intro: "Of the two recent faculty firings in Texas, only one of them (Tom Alter’s case) was at Texas State. The other was at Texas A&M. And, of course, there have been numerous other cases around the country."

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Readings and Resources

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Ashley Smith, Against the New McCarthyism

https://tempestmag.org/2025/09/against-the-new-mccarthyism/

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United States: Texas State Terminates Alter, National Campaign Fights Back

https://lis-isl.org/en/2025/10/united-states-texas-state-terminates-alter-national-campaign-fight-back/

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Alan Wald Homepage

https://sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/alan-wald-homepage/

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Bill Keach, Rehabilitating McCarthyism

https://tempestmag.org/2025/10/rehabilitating-mccarthyism/

Defying the Law: The Air Canada Strike & How Labour Law Restricts Strikes and What Workers Can Do About It, w/ A King and D Camfield

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The historic law-defying strike by Air Canada flight attendants August 16-19 caught the attention of many people in the Canadian state and beyond. In the first part of this episode, David interviews Adam King about the strike and questions it raises. This is followed by a public talk (planned before the flight attendants' strike) David gave in Winnipeg on August 26, presented by the 1919 Workers' Collective, about the history of state restrictions on workers' freedom to strike, their impact, workers' defiance of these restrictions, and what conclusions people who want a powerful working-class movement should draw from this history. The talk was entitled "Against the Law? How Labour Law Restricts Strikes and What Workers Can Do About It."

David's talk begins at 59:23.

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Adam King's article on the AC strike: Air Canada Flight Attendants Have Made Labour History

https://www.readthemaple.com/air-canada-flight-attendants-have-made-labour-history

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Article by former flight attendant Ann Hui in the Globe And Mail mentioned in this episode (paywalled): https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-air-canada-flight-attendant-job-experience-labour-unpaid-work/

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Use Promo code "RF15" until Oct. 19, 2025 to receive a 15% discount when ordering David's book, Red Flags, here: https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/red-flags

Taiwan: What the Left Needs to Know

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Taiwan is a flashpoint for US-China rivalry so radicals internationally need to be able to see

through the misleading views about Taiwan spread by both Western and Chinese rulers to

develop a consistently internationalist anti-imperialist approach. Ralf Ruckus, who discussed

China today on episode 11 of this podcast, returns with an introduction to Taiwanese society

and politics.

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To learn more:

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Ralf Ruckus, "What Everyone on the Left Should Know about Taiwan (at the Minimum)

https://spectrejournal.com/what-everyone-on-the-left-should-know-about-taiwan-at-the-minimum/

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An interview with Taiwanese leftist Brian Hioe

https://therealnews.com/taiwans-future-will-shape-the-whole-global-economy-will-taiwanese-people-have-a-say-in-that-future

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Some Taiwanese sources:

https://tiwa.org.tw

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https://www.spa.org.tw

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https://newbloommag.net

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https://eventsinfocus.org

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https://sites.google.com/site/peaceforthesea/home

Anti-Racism, Class and History w/ David Roediger

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Historian David Roediger discusses some of the people who've influenced him,

white workers and Black struggles in the U.S., and some aspects of anti-racist

theory and politics today.

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David Roediger's new memoir An Ordinary White: My Antiracist Education

https://www.fordhampress.com/9781531509583/an-ordinary-white/

An adapted excerpt from the book is available here:

https://www.versobooks.com/en-ca/blogs/news/critical-studies-of-whiteness-an-autobiographical-defence

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In the episode David Camfield mentions this article: Kim Moody, "Cedric Johnson and the Other Sixties Nostalgia"

https://newpol.org/cedric-johnson-and-the-other-sixties-nostalgia/

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Related to an issue that comes up in the interview: David Camfield, "The PMC Does Not Exist and Why It Matters

for Socialists"

https://newpol.org/the-pmc-does-not-exist-and-why-it-matters-for-socialists/

The Right, Unions and the Working Class

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Right-wing politics are gaining support in the working class and within unions in so-called Canada.

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What's happening and how can we fight it more effectively? Steven Tufts and a CUPE member

discuss.

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An article worth reading:

Martin Lukacs, How Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives seduced working-class voters

https://breachmedia.ca/how-pierre-poilievres-conservatives-seduced-working-class-voters/

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If you listen to the end of the episode, there's a discount code you can use to order David's book Red Flags

anywhere in the world from Fernwood Publishing. The code will be valid until mid-September 2025.

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instagram @ victors_children

Todd Gordon and Jeff Webber join David on a deep dive into understanding the far right, including fascism, as a phenomenon of capitalist society. The interview was recorded on April 13, 2025.

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In this episode, Todd and Jeff discuss ideas they develop in a book they're writing. If you have access to the print edition or subscriber-only online access to the journal Spectre, you can read their article in issue 8 (2023), “The Authoritarian Disposition: Capitalism, Liberalism, Fascism." If not, they've also published this brief piece: Todd Gordon and Jeffery R. Webber: The Return of Fascism? https://www.focaalblog.com/2024/01/29/todd-gordon-and-jeffery-r-webber-the-return-of-fascism/

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Mentioned in the episode:

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Thomas Hummel, "For revolutionaries, the period must be defined by the international fight against the far right"

https://tempestmag.org/2025/03/for-revolutionaries-the-period-must-be-defined-by-the-international-fight-against-the-far-right/

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Topics covered (times are approximate):

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capitalism and liberalism 0:06:13

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democracy 0:20:24

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the Right 0:35:36

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fascism 0:45:15

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"populism," popular front anti-fascism, and the casualization of "fascism" 1:00:10

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left strategy against the far right 1:09:32

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Brazil and Argentina 1:15:07

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Trump's second administration 1:20:50

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Canada 1:37:01

Workplace Organizing for Radicals

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Why should workplace organizing matter for the radical left? What kind of unionism should radicals try to foster? How should we go about doing it? How should people who want to do workplace organizing think about where to work for pay? An interview with two experienced activists, retired New York transit worker Steve Downs and Ontario public sector worker Katherine Grezjszczak, about these and related questions.

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If you listen to the end of the episode, there's a discount code you can use to order David’s book Red Flags anywhere in the world from Fernwood Publishing. The code will be valid until mid-September 2025

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To learn more:

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Secrets of a Successful Organizer, from Labor Notes

https://labornotes.org/secrets

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Tim Goulet, Unions and the rank and file strategy

https://tempestmag.org/2023/07/unions-and-the-rank-and-file-strategy/

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Steve Downs, Hell On Wheel Pamphlet

https://archive.org/details/hellonwheelpamphlet

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Steve Downs, Socialist Strategies in Unions:Twenty Years in Transport Workers Union Local 100

https://solidarity-us.org/transit_working_paper/

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