Prof. Bob Buzzanco with Karl Marx on “the immiseration of humanity,” from the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, 1844.
Video below text of the quote.
“By reducing the worker’s need to the barest and most miserable level of physical subsistence, and by reducing his activity to the most abstract mechanical movement; thus he says: Man has no other need either of activity or of enjoyment. For he declares that this life, too, is human life and existence.
Happy New Year, Tender Comrades! In our last episode of 2020, we talk about the past year.
Listen in: http://bit.ly/HopeRuins2020GandR
We discuss what we’ve learned, the worsening precarity, the absence of community and a rewarding life, the barriers posed by the Professional Left (NGO Industrial Complex, labor leadership, etc), the often-unhinged, conspiratorial left, but also the inspiring moral courage and bold action we saw in the streets, the role of organizers and activists, and what we can do moving forward.
In this episode, we go myth busting. Our target is “Camelot” itself.
It’s the 60th anniversary of the election of John F. Kennedy and since his untimely death in 1963, he has been elevated to liberal sainthood by all parts of the establishment. We discuss JFK’s legacy, and debunk the many enduring lies that people–from Oliver Stone to QAnon to today’s liberal scholars and media– still believe about John Kennedy’s saintly acts, whose politics have lived on in Clinton, Obama, and now Joe Biden.
Listen in: https://bit.ly/MythsofJFKGandR
We get into John and Robert Kennedy’s relationship with the red-baiting Joe McCarthy; and JFK’s role as a civil rights “hero” (while simultaneously wire-tapping Martin Luther King). We also pierce the myth, perpetuated by Oliver Stone’s film “JFK”, that Kennedy wanted to withdraw troops from Vietnam and end the Cold War.
December 20th is also the 29th anniversary of the release of Oliver Stone’s film and we take particular aim at its falsehoods.
In this episode, we talk with progressive congressional candidate Shahid Buttar about his challenging of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the 2020 election. We discuss the history of Pelosi’s rise, the San Francisco “progressive prevention” coalition of San Francisco and the recent attacks on the “Squad” by centrist Democrats. We then talk about Shahid’s other work as a constitutional lawyer around digital liberties and dangers we’re all facing from the surveillance state.
Listen here:https://bit.ly/ShahidGandR
In 1906, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) began the first ever sit down strike at the General Electric plant in Schenectady, New York
Three thousand IWW members stopped work at a General Electric plant by remaining seated in the building. This action was taken in response to the firing of three IWW members and the company’s refusal to rehire them. This is the first record of a sit-down strike of the 20th Century. When management called in scabs, the striking workers stood in place and took control of the machinery, making it impossible for the plant to be run by scabs.
One of the principal organizers of the action was the famous Irish Marxist, James Connolly.
An IWW leaflet retorted, “…the question of numbers does not enter into the matter. For the simple reason that if discrimination is permitted in one case. Who then can feel protected? The principle of organization is that protection reaches down to the last man.”
cross-posted from G&R’s Facebook page
Before the internet was a thing, before social media ruled our lives and before there were a million podcasts talking about about left politics, David Barsamian through Alternative Radio brought the voices of radical thinkers like Noam Chomsky, Howard Zimm and Arundhati Roy into our lives through Alternative Radio.
Listen: https://bit.ly/BarsamianGandR
In this episode, we’re over-the-moon excited to talk to Alternative Radio’s founder David Barsamian about his new book ReTargeting Iran, building Alternative Radio over the past 30+ years and working with Noam Chomsky. We discuss the importance of independent media and he tells us that Green and Red is “welcome intervention into the media landscape.” We also talk about the politics around Iran, the middle east and his new book. And since it is the week of Noam Chomsky’s 92nd birthday, we ask David to share some of his favorite recollections of the world’s top public intellectual.
Today is Noam Chomsky’s 92nd birthday. In this special episode, Bob goes solo and interviews Prof. Clinton Fernandes of the University of New South Wales, Australia about the influence of radical thinker, author, political commentator and activist Noam Chomsky, in particular with regard to the Indonesian occupation of East Timor and the American air war on Laos.
Listen here:https://bit.ly/NoamChomskyDayGandR
Professor Clinton Fernandes is a former Australian Army officer who served in the Australian Intelligence Corps. A professor at the University of New South Wales, Australia, he has published on the relationship between science, diplomacy and international law, intelligence operations in foreign policy, the political and regulatory implications of new technology and Australia’s external relations more generally. He is the author of several publications including “Island off the Coast of Asia: Instruments of Statecraft in Australian Foreign Policy,” and “What Uncle Sam Wants: U.S. Foreign Policy Objectives in Australia and Beyond.”
cross-posted from Afflict the Comfortable
On December 7th, 1975, Indonesia invaded East Timor, the first step in what would become a brutal 24-year occupation in which it would kill over 210,000 East Timorese, over 30 percent of the population, with significant U.S. support throughout the entire period.
Up to April 1974, “Portuguese Timor” was a colonial outpost of the central government in Lisbon, but then the left-wing “Carnation Revolution” occurred and Portugal withdrew its administrators and troops from East Timor (and Mozambique and Angola). West Timor was under Indonesian control.
What’s it gonna take to build a better world when 74 million people voted for Trump?
Listen in here: https://bit.ly/laborwaveradioGandR
In this episode, we dive deep into this question with Alex Riccio, host of the podcast Laborwave Radio (@LaborwaveRadio). We talk about workplace organizing, meeting people where they are at, imagining the world “Beyond the Revolution” and much more.
Alex is the host and producer of Laborwave Radio. He also is a labor organizer and sometimes a writer.
Sign up to get updates on scrappy politics, scrappy history and our scrappy podcast.
We’ll send you periodic updates and information about our latest episodes, videos, articles and other media we’re working on.
