Victor's Children

The Politics of the Pandemic

A discussion with Nora Loreto, Daniel Sarah Karasik and Corvin Russell about the politics of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Canadian state, how the NDP and the radical left have responded, and the politics we need going forward.

Nora Loreto (@nolore)'s new book Spin Doctors: How Media and

Politicians Misdiagnosed the COVID-19 Pandemic.

https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/spin-doctors

Daniel Sarah Karasik (@JoyAndDefiance)'s new article "Against Pandemic Realism"

https://www.midnightsunmag.ca/against-pandemic-realism/

Transgender Liberation, Transgender Marxism

An interview with Jules Joanne Gleason, co-editor of Transgender Marxism, about gender, the politics of trans liberation and their universal implications, and transgender marxism.

If you're unfamiliar with the subject of this episode, this is worth reading:

Notes on women, men, trans and intersex: "the gender binary does not fit the facts"

https://www.rs21.org.uk/2016/10/24/notes-on-women-men-trans-and-intersex-the-gender-binary-does-not-fit-the-facts/

To learn more:

Transgender Marxism

https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745341668/transgender-marxism/

Shanice McBean, "'I Was Born a Baby, Not a Boy:' Sex, Gender and Trans Liberation"

https://www.rs21.org.uk/2020/07/21/i-was-born-a-baby-not-a-boy-sex-gender-and-trans-liberation-2/

Three essays mentioned by Jules in the episode:

Gayle Rubin, "The Traffic in Women: Notes on the 'Political Economy' of Sex"

https://summermeetings2013.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/rubin-traffic.pdf

Nat Raha, "The Limits of Trans Liberalism"

https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/2245-the-limits-of-trans-liberalism-by-nat-raha

Jules Joanne Gleason and Nathaniel Dickson, "The Future of Trans Politics"

https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4269-the-future-of-trans-politics

China Today & the Politics of China in Canada w/ Ralf Ruckus and Vincent Wong

China's growing power in the world and the worsening rivalry between "Western" states and China make it ever-more important for leftists to understand China. This episode presents an interview with Ralf Ruckus, author of the new book The Communist Road to Capitalism: How Social Unrest and Containment Have Pushed China's (R)evolution Since 1949, about China today.

Ideas about China are becoming more prominent in politics in the Canadian state. Vincent Wong, author of a recent article on China and the left in Canada in Briarpatch, looks at how China is being discussed, anti-Chinese racism, and China and the left.

If you want to learn more:

Ralf Ruckus, The Communist Road to Capitalism: How Social Unrest and Containment Have Pushed China's (R)evolution since 1949

https://pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1149

Vincent Wong, China, the Canadian left, and countering state capitalist apologia

https://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/china-the-canadian-left-and-countering-state-capitalist-apologia

Lausan Collective

https://lausan.hk/

Ralf Ruckus's site 闹清楚 [nau̯ tɕʰiŋ ʈʂʰu]

https://nqch.org

工潮 [gʊŋ'ʧaʊ] | gongchao.org | info + debate on china

https://www.gongchao.org

Chuangcn.org journal and blog

https://chuangcn.org/

China Labour Bulletin

https://clb.org.hk/

Wu Yiching, The Cultural Revolution at the Margins

https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674728790

Vincent Wong And Kennes Lin on Anti-Asian racism and workers struggles in Canada

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2021/09/01/the-racist-history-of-chinese-labour-in-canada-shows-not-much-has-changed-deemed-essential-but-still-invisible.html

Imperialism, w/ Todd Gordon

An interview with Todd Gordon about imperialism today and Canadian imperialism. This is a rerelease of a recent episode of the Solidarity Winnipeg Podcast.

Some of Todd's writing on imperialism:

Todd Gordon, Imperialist Canada

https://arpbooks.org/Books/I/Imperialist-Canada

Todd Gordon and Jeffery Webber, Blood of Extraction

https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/blood-of-extraction

Todd Gordon and Jeffery Webber, Complex Stratification in the World System: Capitalist Totality and Geopolitical Fragmentation

https://www.academia.edu/41453902/Complex_Stratification_in_the_World_System_Capitalist_Totality_and_Geopolitical_Fragmentation

Dialectics Demystified, w/ David McNally

Marxism is usually associated with the concept of dialectics, but what is dialectics? Is Marxist theory "dialectical materialism"? Should dialectics be rejected as "unscientific," as mainstream academics argue? Or should it be discarded as part of European Enlightenment ideology that makes false claims to universal truth, as others claim? David McNally discusses these issues in a clear and accessible way.

*Producer's Note*

Any audio glitches or dropouts are the result of internet issues at the time of recording. The content of the discussion was not edited or altered in any way.

David McNally's website:

https://www.davidmcnally.org

Suggested reading

If you're interested in reading about the topic, try "The Philosophy of Internal Relations," Chapter 3 of Bertell Ollman's book Alienation.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170706054213/http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ollman/docs/a_ch03.php

Is The Enemy of My Enemy My Friend? Campism and Emancipatory Politics Today, w/Barnaby Raine

In recent years the influence of "campist" politics within the left has grown. Barnaby Raine goes beyond explaining what's wrong with campism by explaining why its influence has grown and discussing what this says about our times and some implications for emancipatory politics today.

Background reading:

John Clarke, "The class struggle and geopolitics"

https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/the-class-struggle-and-geopolitics

Jason Schulman and Dan La Botz, "Against Campism, for International Working-Class Solidarity"

https://socialistforum.dsausa.org/issues/winter-2020/against-campism-for-international-working-class-solidarity/

Should Socialists Take Union Staff Jobs?

Katherine Grzejszczak, Gene McGuckin and Sherry Wolf, three socialists with a lot of union experience, discuss this question.

If you want to learn more:

Kim Moody's writing on "the rank-and-file strategy" is a must-read for socialists. For a start, check out "In Defense of the Rank-and-File Strategy"

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/06/rank-and-file-strategy-kim-moody-labor-unions

Kate Doyle Griffiths, "The Rank and File Strategy on New Terrain."

https://spectrejournal.com/the-rank-and-file-strategy-on-new-terrain/

On bureaucracy and unions, see David Camfield, "What is Trade Union Bureaucracy? A Theoretical Account."

https://spectrejournal.com/the-rank-and-file-strategy-on-new-terrain/

In this episode, Alex de Jong discusses Stalinist politics, including Maoism, outside the so-called "Communist" societies, and why it's still important to understand them today.

If you haven't listened to Episode 3: Stalinism and the Future of Socialism (Part I), which deals with the history of the USSR and China, you might want to listen to that first.

By Alex de Jong:

"The Philippine Left in a Changing Land" - New Politics

https://newpol.org/issue_post/the-philippine-left-in-a-changing-land/

If you want to learn more:

A good book on the early years of Stalinist politics outside the USSR is Duncan Hallas, The Comintern. On these politics later in the 20th century, see Ernest Mandel, From Stalinism to Eurocommunism. On Maoism, start with Elliott Liu, Maoism and the Chinese Revolution: A Critical Introduction.

On the Communist Party of Canada, listen to Episode 4 of Victor's

Children.

An interview with Harsha Walia about the politics of Canadian nationalism, including left-nationalism, followed by a discussion about Midnight Sun, a new online magazine, with Daniel Sarah Karasik, Lina Nasr El Hag Ali, and David.

Harsha Walia's Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism and the Rise of

Racist Nationalism

https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/border-and-rule

Midnight Sun

https://www.midnightsunmag.ca

May 2021 marks the centenary of the formation of the Communist Party of Canada (CPC), so David interviews marxist historian Bryan Palmer about the CPC's history.

If you want to read about the CPC:

David Camfield, "The History and Politics of the Communist Party of Canada: An Overview"

https://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/the-history-and-politics-communist-party-of-canada

Ian Angus, Canadian Bolsheviks

Socialist History Project

https://www.socialisthistory.ca/Publications/pubs.htm