Episodes
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In this episode we interview Mohammed Khatib and Thomas Hofland from the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.
This is our third interview with members of Samidoun since October 7th 2023, and we will link the others in the show description.
Mohammed Khatib is a Palestinian refugee from Ain el-Helweh camp in Lebanon. He lives in Belgium and is the European coordinator for Samidoun.
Thomas Hofland is the coordinator of Samidoun Netherlands.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network organizes solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners and their struggle for freedom and liberation. The network was founded in 2011 and since then expanded to more than a dozen countries.
As Samidoun write, “On October 15, the United States and Canada sanctioned Samidoun in an attempt to repress political organizing in support of the Palestinian people’s struggle against genocide, colonialism and occupation, and the more than 10.000 Palestinian political prisoners that are being tortured and killed by the Zionist entity. In the US, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the sanctions, while the Canadian government has listed Samidoun as a “terrorist entity” under its criminal code.” (See full release here)
November 14th Charlotte Kates - the international coordinator for Samidoun who we’ve previously interviewed on two occasions - had her house raided by Vancouver Police in British Columbia. While there is no official statement on this matter yet by Samidoun, we just want to say that we denounce this escalating repression on the Palestinian movement, and send our solidarity to Charlotte and her family, and to Samidoun and to all people who have been organizing on behalf of the Palestinian people who are facing repression by these imperialist genocide supporting states.
Nothing reveals the nature of the imperialist countries we live in, in the so-called global north, like the fact that as states like the US, Canada and Western European countries provide billions of dollars in arms to the genocidal zionist garrison that calls itself Israel that they also have to suppress civil society organizations like Samidoun who advocate for the political prisoners held by that same genocide enacting garrison.
In this interview we get into how Samidoun understands these repressive actions and how we collectively can and must fight back as the state’s efforts to quell support for Palestinians amid the attempts by western governments to complete their genocidal siege and ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people in Gaza.
As the interview mentions, Samidoun is part of the Masar Badil – The Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement. The Masar, founded in 2021, aims to organize and support the Palestinian diaspora as a crucial force of the national liberation struggle.
And as the interview mentions while these restrictions may prevent folks in some places from being able to materially support Samidoun as an organization, what you can do is continue to “Support the steadfastness of Palestinian people in Gaza by all means” and “Practice your right to resist.”
Previous Interviews with Samidoun:
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network with Charlotte Kates & Mohammed Khatib
Palestinian Prisoners, Genocide, and Repression of Pro-Palestinian Organizations with Charlotte Kates
Other Links:
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Masar Badil– The Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement
"We Keep Resisting" - US & Canada Sanction Samidoun
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This is an (almost) unedited version of our livestream with Kali Akuno from this morning (11/10/24)
Here Kali Akuno offers thoughts on where we go from here after the re-election of Trump.
Our previous video discussion with Kali Akuno provides more of the nuts and bolts of the type of organizing he's callling for, but this conversation underscores the urgency of this program now that we are in the reality (at least in terms of electoral politics and control of government) that he predicted would come to pass.
Kali Akuno is a cofounder and codirector of Cooperation Jackson. He was the director of special projects and external funding in the mayoral administration of the late Chokwe Lumumba of Jackson, MS. His focus in this role was supporting cooperative development, the introduction of eco-friendly and carbon reduction methods of operation, and the promotion of human rights and international relations for the city. Akuno has also served as the codirector of the U.S. Human Rights Network, and the executive director of the Peoples’ Hurricane Relief Fund (PHRF) based in New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina. He was a cofounder of the School of Social Justice and Community Development (SSJCD), a public school serving the academic needs of low-income African American and Latino communities in Oakland.
Previous episodes with Kali Akuno: Shifting Focus: Organizing for Revolution, Not Crisis Avoidance
"And Another Phase of Struggle Begins" - Kali Akuno and Kamau Franklin on Strategy and Liberation
To support our work, become a patron of the show for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism
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In this episode we interview 20 year old organizer Calla Walsh to talk about her experiences as a co-founder of Palestine Action US, as well as the political repression she and others have faced in the case of the Merrimack 4. She talks about why we should view their case as a win, and underlines the need for continued escalation for Palestine thirteen months into the genocidal response to Al-Aqsa Flood
In this interview she offers in-depth discussion of the importance of risk-taking, and the problems of defeatist narratives about taking direct action. It is also a sober set of reflections, criticisms, and self-criticism about the last year in the Palestine solidarity movement in the US. There are also reflections on the lack of strong ethics around movement defense in this time and principles of basic solidarity towards those facing repression even if there may be legitimate criticisms people may have of their actions. Calla also offers an analysis of some of the distinctions between Palestine Action UK and Palestine Action US and how Calla thinks we need to re-orient approaches to direct action for Palestine given these differences.
It is important to note that Palestine Action UK continues to face a lot of repression and continues to have significant successes as well in the UK. We have a recent discussion with Huda Ammori which we encourage you all to listen to, in order to learn more about that, and see ways you can support Palestine Action in the UK.
I really encourage people who listen to this, to write to Calla and other members of the Merrimack 4 while they are in jail. All of their contact information is below.
If you like what we do please become a patron of the show. You can do so for as little as $1 a month and we can only do what we do with the support of our listeners. We have an upcoming study group on George Jackson’s Blood In My Eye which will be starting up soon. Information on that will be available in the next week, but if you want to make sure you don’t miss that opportunity the best place to keep up to date with that and all our other work is by becoming a patron at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism
Related Discussions:
Ed Mead and Shaka Shakur
Support the Merrimack 4 in jail! (Mailing information)
On 14 November 2024, four Palestine actionists will begin their 60-day sentence in Valley Street Jail, Manchester, NH as punishment for dismantling the Elbit Systems facility in Merrimack, NH on 20 November 2023.
Originally they were facing 5 felonies and 37 years in prison. See below information on how to send them letters, books, and commissary $ in jail! Make sure to follow all the jail's mailing guidelines or your letters won't be received.
Bridget's Address: Bridget Shergalis #67968, 445 Willow St, Manchester, NH 03103
Calla’s Address: Calla Walsh #67970, 445 Willow St, Manchester, NH 03103
Book wishlist: tinyurl.com/callabooklist
Paige’s Address: Paige Belanger #68132, 445 Willow St, Manchester, NH 03103
Book wishlist: tinyurl.com/paigebooklist
Sophie's address: Sophie Ross #67969, 445 Willow St, Manchester, NH 03103They would love to receive books, letters, poems, and updates on the movement and world events.
Mailing Guidelines: https://hcnh.org/Departments/Department-of-Corrections/Administration
“Items considered contraband include, but is not limited to, the following: postage stamps, letter writing supplies, mail order catalogs, Polaroid photos, paintings, perfumed paper, use of any marker, crayon, highlighter, or any questionable inks, tape, glue, Whiteout, glitter, stickers, body hair or fluids, newspaper/magazine clippings, pages cut/ripped out of any publication, unauthorized inmate to inmate correspondence, third party mail, gang graffiti or tagged correspondence (i.e., language, signs, symbols), anything laminated or spiral bound, posters and wall calendars.
Newspapers – Must be delivered via the US Postal Service and must include the inmate’s name and CCN otherwise it is considered undeliverable and will be disposed of.
Photos – only photos deemed acceptable for inmate possession will be forwarded to the inmate. Photos depicting gang symbols/signs, illegal activity, nudity, partial nudity, or exposure of genitalia is not allowed.
Books/Magazines – must be in NEW condition and directly from the publisher or a book store that sells ONLY new publications shipped via the US Postal Service. Used booksellers or third party retailers will not be accepted and returned to sender. Inmates are allowed only a minimal amount of books and magazines at a time. Any books or magazines received that exceed the amount allowed will be placed in the inmates property and can be requested by the inmate at a later date. [i.e. only ship from Amazon and Barnes & Nobles]
Publications that contain articles or subject matter considered detrimental to the good order of the facility, contain nudity, partial nudity or exposure of genitalia, or publications that are oversized or considered bulky are not allowed and will not be forwarded to the inmate but placed in their property until their release. Soft cover books are recommended.”
Commissary – Add money at accesscorrections.com (NH -> Hillsborough County -> search inmate name or CCN)
All letters are inspected before delivery; do not discuss any details of their case or anything you would not want to be read by a cop.
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This is part two of our conversation with Jason W. Moore, a historical geographer at Binghamton University. In this discussion we delve into the concept of "substance fetishism" within Marxian social theory, the dangers it poses, and its implications for understanding the web of life.
Part 1: Against Climate Doomism and the Bourgeois Character of American Environmentalism
Moore raises concerns about the misguided focus on substance fetishism, which prioritizes the management of substances over the revolutionizing of labor relations. The conversation also touches on the historical and contemporary implications of this perspective, including its impact on understanding energy histories, class formation, and imperialism. He critiques the narrow focus of some environmental and Marxist scholars, advocating for a more integrated approach that considers the socioecological dynamics of labor and class struggle. We also discuss the role of intellectuals and the limitations of academic discourse in addressing these antagonismss. Our conversation concludes with reflections on the potential for revolutionary change and the importance of historical materialism in understanding and addressing the current ecological and social crises. Special Co-host Casey is a historian and organizer based in New York and Chicago. He is focused on the politics, economy, and connected histories in South Asia and the Middle East, specifically the Arab Gulf. His work focuses on questions of development, ecology, and political resistance, as well as connecting global-scale events to local diaspora communities within the US.
As always, If you like what we do and want to support our ability to have more conversations like this. Please consider becoming a patron. You can do so for as little as 1 Dollar a month. We bring you these conversations totally independently with no corporate, state, or grant funding. This episode is edited & produced by Aidan Elias. Music, as always, is by Televangel Links: Global Capitalism in the Great Implosion: From Planetary Superexploitation to Planetary Socialism?
How to Read Capitalism in the Web of Life
Opiates of the Environmentalists
Power, Profit, & Promethianism, Part 1
Power, Profit, & Promethianism, Part 2
The Fear and the Fix -
In this interview, we are joined by friend and special co-host Casey where we are in conversation with Jason Moore discussing the historical and ideological roots of contemporary environmentalism, tracing its origins to the post-Civil War era in the United States. He argues that environmentalism has historically been an elite-driven movement, often serving the interests of capitalism by promoting resource management and conservation in ways that benefit economic growth. Moore critiques the mainstream environmentalism of the 1960s and 1970s, describing it as a form of "benign reformism" that ultimately aligned with capitalist interests and suppressed more radical elements. Moore also addresses the role of the professional-managerial class in shaping environmental discourse, particularly through the expansion of the biosecurity state and the integration of national security and big tech. He also critiques the historical and ideological underpinnings of bourgeois naturalism, which he argues has been used to justify racial and gender oppression as well as colonial-imperialism.
The discussion touches on the role of foundations like the Ford Foundation in co-opting and neutralizing radical struggles. Moore problematizes climate doomism, fearmongering, and crisis rhetoric that have come to dominate climate change discourses.
Jason W. Moore is an environmental historian and historical geographer at Binghamton University, where he coordinates the World-Ecology Research Collective. He is author of multiple books including Capitalism in the Web of Life. His books and essays on environmental history, capitalism, and social theory have been internationally recognized. He frequently writes about the history of capitalism in Europe, Latin America, and the United States, from the sixteenth century to the neoliberal era.
Casey is a historian and organizer based in New York and Chicago. He is focused on the politics, economy, and connected histories in South Asia and the Middle East, specifically the Arab Gulf. His work focuses on questions of development, ecology, and political resistance, as well as connecting global-scale events to local diaspora communities within the US.
As always, If you like what we do and want to support our ability to have more conversations like this. Please consider becoming a patron. You can do so for as little as 1 Dollar a month. We bring you these conversations totally independently with no corporate, state, or grant funding. We are going to include a set of links in the show notes to Dr. Moore’s articles that we based our conversation on. Please check those out for further information. Now, here is Jason Moore discussing some of his work!
This episode is edited & produced by Aidan Elias. Music, as always, is by Televangel
Links: Global Capitalism in the Great Implosion: From Planetary Superexploitation to Planetary Socialism?
How to Read Capitalism in the Web of Life
Opiates of the Environmentalists
Power, Profit, & Promethianism, Part 1
Power, Profit, & Promethianism, Part 2
The Fear and the Fix -
In this episode we interview Austin McCoy to discuss his piece “'Disorganize the State': The Black Workers Congress’s Visions of Abolition-Democracy in the 1970’s", which Austin wrote for the Labor and Employment Relations Association’s publication A Racial Reckoning in Industrial Relations: Storytelling as Revolution from Within.
Austin McCoy is a historian of the 20th Century United States with specializations in African American History, labor, and cultural history. He is currently working on two books: The Quest for Democracy: Black Power, New Left, and Progressive Politics in the Post-Industrial Midwest and a cultural and personal history of De La Soul.
The conversation allows us to once again return to the current of radical anti-imperialist, anti-colonial, anti-racist labor organizing that emanated from organizations like DRUM (the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement), the League of Revolutionary Black Workers and - the focus of McCoy’s essay - the Black Workers Congress.
In this episode we talk about the BWC’s radical vision, which McCoy describes as in the tradition of what W.E.B. Du Bois called “abolition democracy.” And we discuss some of the organizing history of the various individuals and organizations associated with the League of Revolutionary Black Workers as well as what happened to their vision over time.
We recorded this discussion on December 18th of 2023 so while we discuss the solidarity that these revolutionary Black organizers had with Palestinians and discuss the UAW’s ceasefire call and their proposal to examine divestment, there are some notes that are important to add as we release this discussion almost a year later (a delay that is entirely my fault).
The UAW has endorsed Kamala Harris despite her role in the genocide of Palestinians and her refusal to call for an arms embargo and they did so with no concessions whatsoever on that issue. This stance by the UAW in this moment in many ways reflects the very currents of racist and imperialist union organizing that groups like the League and the BWC were organizing against. So while we can talk about the folks within the UAW who organized for those statements and resolutions within their union as operating within the traditions we discuss in this episode, it is important to note - at least in my view - that the UAW as a whole has ultimately shunned that radical legacy and replicated the historical role of the labor aristocracy in this moment as they and other major unions in the US have done over and over again.
Nonetheless, I do think that it is important to not dismiss the power or potential of labor organizing in moments like this, even if that potential remains unfulfilled. I think about the lessons that Stefano Harney and Fred Moten pull from people like General Baker when they called us to “wildcat the totality” several years ago.
I’d like to send much appreciation to Austin McCoy for this discussion. If you would like to support our work please become a patron of the show for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism
Links and related or referenced discussions:
Our two part conversation with Herb Boyd about this period and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers (Part 1, Part 2)
"Finally Got the News" (film about the League)
Some archival documents related to the League of Revolutionary Black Workers (visit FreedomArchives.org for more)
Our discussion with J. Moufawad-Paul on "Economism" which deals with some of the imperialist and racist trends within the labor movement (and within Communist or Socialist approaches to organizing the labor movement within empire at various times).
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In July of 2023, we published a conversation on the Iskra Books translation of Domenico Losurdo’s Stalin: History and Critique of a Black Legend with Henry Hakamäki and Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro (book/listen to part 1 here).
We found the book really fascinating and had lots of questions, so we were only able to cover about half of our questions in our first conversation. This conversation is essentially the part 2 of that conversation, in which Henry and Salvatore are joined by Iskra editors David Peat and Ben Stankhe. Of course by the time we got around to recording this episode in late October, we were three weeks into Israel’s genocidal counterinsurgency campaign against Palestinians, after the heroic uprising known as Al-Aqsa Flood. Obviously, I didn’t intend to delay the release of this episode for almost a year, but at the time I kept telling myself there would eventually be a ceasefire and a new normal would be established. One year later that hasn’t happened yet, and doesn’t necessarily seem and closer than it was a year ago.
All that is really by way of an apology to Ben, David, Henry, and Salvatore for not getting this episode out sooner. It absolutely warrants your attention and it actually relates in many ways to not only the struggle of Palestinians today, but to all struggles for national liberation, socialism, and communism.
We also just hosted another conversation on Domenico Losurdo’s work last week on our YouTube channel. In that one, Gabriel Rockhill discusses the English translation of Losurdo’s ‘Western Marxism: How it was Born, How it Died, How it can be Reborn,’ which he edited and was just released on Monthly Review Press (book/episode).
There are a number of references in the episode which I have tried to link in the show notes. First and foremost head over to Iskra books and check out their catalogue of books. As Henry mentions all of their books are available as free pdfs, but I definitely also encourage you to support their work. They’re doing really important stuff, and we plan to highlight more of their work going forward.
I’ve also linked a conversation we had a couple months ago on another Iskra Books release Ruehl Muller’s Building a People’s Art which is about the role of art and artists in the Vietnamese liberation struggle (book/episode)
As Henry and Salvatore mention at the end of the episode, Communism: The Highest Stage of Ecology, which is an agroecological history of the Soviet Union and Cuba, which will be out via Iskra later this year. You can follow all of Iskra’s releases on Iskrabooks.org and just a reminder that free PDFs are available for this book and all of their others on their website.
We plan to highlight more Iskra Books publications going forward. Including a soon to be scheduled episode on a book they published on Yugoslavian film, and on October 28th at 10 AM EDT we’ll host Conor McCabe to discuss The Lost & Early Writings of James Connolly, the Irish revolutionary (book/livestream)
And lastly, this is our third audio episode of October, and we are trying to get back to releasing audio content with more regularity. To that end it would be really helpful if some of our listeners who do not yet support the show on patreon, became patrons for as little as $1 a month. The main purpose of becoming a patron is of course to support our work, but we do have a recent patreon-exclusive episode with several folks from Black Liberation Media including Jared Ball from IMIXWHATILIKE, Renee Johnston from Saturday’s with Renee, and Geechee Yaw from Earn Your Liberation. Shout-out to all of them and if you become a patron of the show you will get access to that recent conversation which primarily focuses on social media, YouTube and censorship. Sign up at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism
Guest bios:
Henry Hakamäki is best known as the co-host of the Guerrilla History podcast. And of course among many other things, he is also the co-translator and editor of the book we will be discussing today. You can follow him on Twitter at @huck1995.Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro is Professor at the Geography Department of SUNY New Paltz and is chief editor for the journal Capitalism Nature Socialism. His book Socialist States and the Environment is available from Pluto Press.
Ben Stahnke is an educator, organizer, and artist working on the intersection of political ecology, education, and print. Ben holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in environmental studies, a M.A. in political philosophy, and is currently pursuing a second doctorate in education.
David Peat serves as an editor and copy-editor for both Iskra Books and Peace, Land, and Bread, is a student of Marxism-Leninism from Lancashire, England, who organises with Red Fightback. He has a B.A. in philosophy and is interested in political economy, ecology, and revolutionary education.
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In this interview, we are joined by Mary Turfah who discusses a couple of her recent articles including the broader context of medical neutrality and the targeting of healthcare workers in Gaza. She addresses the historical context of medical neutrality, which emerged in the mid-1800s as a means to ensure medical immunity on the battlefield. Turfah explains how this concept has racialized limitations, particularly in colonial contexts where colonizers often do not need the medical facilities of the colonized and thus feel justified in targeting them.
Turfah highlights the systematic targeting of healthcare workers in Gaza by Israeli forces, noting that nearly 500 healthcare workers had been killed as of May 15th, often through targeted bombings or summary executions. She emphasizes that this targeting is part of a broader strategy to control the Palestinian population by eliminating those who can provide life-saving care. This strategy not only cripples the current medical infrastructure but also undermines the future training and development of medical professionals in Gaza.
The interview also touches on the personal experiences of healthcare workers in Gaza, who often have to change out of their scrubs to avoid being targeted and face abductions and other forms of violence. Turfah underscores the importance of recognizing the humanity and professional integrity of these healthcare workers, who are often put on the defensive in Western media narratives that seek to justify Israeli actions.
Turfah also problematizes the psychological and biomedical explanations used to justify the behavior of Israeli Zionists, arguing that the roots of this violence lie in the Zionist ideology and colonial project, not individual psychosis.
We conclude by reflecting on Mary’s experiences as a surgical resident and the broader implications for medical professionals working in conflict zones.
You can follow Mary Turfah on Twitter and Instagram at @MaryTurfah to keep up with her work and insights.
Mary Turfah is a writer and resident physician trained in Middle Eastern South Asian and African Studies at Columbia, where her research focused on trauma memory and the margins of the Nakba. She has written about medical neutrality and settler psychosis for The Baffler, the (mis)uses of Edward Said's famous 'permission to narrate' for Protean, the destruction of medical infrastructure in Gaza for The Nation, and other things for other places. She is working on an essay collection about medicine and imperialism, explored through the life of a Lebanese ob-gyn who inspired her to pursue medicine.Giving direct aid to people in Gaza is a way of directly intervening against the genocidal policy of zionist settler colonialism and US imperialism. We recommend the Sameer Project as a a grassroots direct-aid organization that provides tents, water, food and medical aid to Palestinians in Gaza, including areas of the north where the Zionist entity does not allow NGOs to function. We’ll link a recent livestream we hosted with Hala from the Sameer Project as well as links to their funds.
To support our work become a patron of the show for as little as $1 per month. We will have a patreon-member only release tomorrow (October 8th)
This episode is edited & produced by Aidan Elias. Music, as always, is by Televangel
Links:
https://www.maryturfah.com/
Running Amok The feeds of the IDF depict what Zionism can’t see
No Side to Fall In Medical neutrality in Gaza
What It’s Like on the Front Lines of Gaza’s Hospital Hell Talking to Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan -
In this episode Fathi Nimer and Abdaljawad Omar rejoin the podcast to talk about recent events including the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, the assassination of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and the Iranian retailatory strikes, which took place on October 1st. We conclude by talking a bit about the meaning of October 7th, 2023 one year later. Here is a video version of the episode if you prefer to watch the conversation.
Despite the difficulty in fully drawing meaning from something we’re still in the midst of, Fathi and Abboud do offer excellent analysis of the current state of the war, and of the importance of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
Fathi Nimer is Al-Shabaka’s Palestine policy fellow. He previously worked as a research associate with the Arab World for Research and Development, a teaching fellow at Birzeit University, and a program officer with the Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies. Fathi holds a master’s degree in political science from Heidelberg University and is the co-founder of DecolonizePalestine.com, a knowledge repository for the Palestinian question. Fathi’s research revolves around political economy and contentious politics. His current focus is on food sovereignty, agroecology, and the resistance economy in Palestine.
Abdaljawad Omar is a writer, analyst, and lecturer based in Ramallah, Palestine. He has written extensively in Arabic. In English Abboud has contributed to Electronic Intifada, Mondoweiss, and Ebb Magazine among other outlets. This is his 13th episode on MAKC. All of those episodes are collected in this playlist.
Giving direct aid to people in Gaza is a way of directly intervening against the genocidal policy of zionist settler colonialism and US imperialism. We recommend the Sameer Project as a a grassroots direct-aid organization that provides tents, water, food and medical aid to Palestinians in Gaza, including areas of the north where the Zionist entity does not allow NGOs to function. We’ll link a recent livestream we hosted with Hala from the Sameer Project as well as links to their funds.
We also just passed our 7th anniversary at Millennials Are Killing Capitalism, this episode today marks our 275th audio episode of MAKC. In addition, in just the last year we’ve hosted 126 livestreams on our YouTube channel. With me primarily operating in the video realm over the past year in order to respond more quickly to developing events, we have had to pay for some outside support on some of the audio production but also that process has slowed a bit. Our most recent payment for October from patreon was our lowest level of support from patrons since May of 2023. There are a variety of factors contributing to that I’m sure, but if people are able to become patrons of the show we can really use your support to support what we’re already doing and to pay for production work as well to get more audio episodes released. Join for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism.We will have a patreon member exclusive episode this week on the contradictions of using Youtube as a platform for this work. Jared Ball, Renee Johnston, and Geechee Yaw who I recently did a two part video collaboration with about elections, will join us for that conversation as well. I recently participated in a two part discussion with them on elections which we held on MAKC & Black Liberation Media. We’re hosting our discussion on censorship on patreon so we can speak totally freely about YouTube as a platform.
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In this episode we discuss the role of Black liberalism in the US political landscape, particularly its relationship with the Democratic Party. And how Black liberalism often neglects the interests of the black working poor in service of the ruling class. We contemplate the influence of social media on political discourse and the Black elite’s capturing and commodification of Black cultural expressions in service of empire at the expense of the global working-poor. We touch on Black apathy towards internationalism and passive or active support for imperialism and how this behavior of betraying the interests of the oppressed is learned domestically before being applied internationally. We touch on the petit-bourgeois character of electoral politics and how the poor are largely disappeared in mainstream political discussions and processes.
Too Black's recent essay: Unburdened by Palestine: Shedding Black liberalism for anti-imperialism Momodou Taal's recent essay: Dear Black liberals: Palestine TikTok activists aren't the enemy There is also a video version of this episode which was released by Black Liberation Media.
Momodou Taal is a PhD student in the Africana department at Cornell university. He is also the host of The Malcolm Effect podcast.
Too Black is a poet, member of Black Alliance For Peace, host of The Black Myths Podcast which can be found on Black Liberation Media, he’s also the author of Laundering Black Rage, and one of the organizers of the Campaign to Free the Pendleton 2.
If you like what we do and want to support our ability to have more conversations like this. Please consider becoming a Patron. You can do so for as little as a 1 Dollar a month. We bring you these conversations totally independently with no corporate, state, or grant funding. You can do that at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism -
In this episode we speak with Lydia Pelot-Hobbs, about her book Prison Capital: Mass Incarceration and Struggles for Abolition Democracy in Louisiana.
Lydia Pelot-Hobbs is an assistant professor of Geography and African American & Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky. In addition to Prison Capital, she is the co-editor of The Jail Is Everywhere: Fighting the New Geography of Mass Incarceration (Verso Books 2024). Her research, writing, and teaching is grounded in over 15 years of abolitionist organizing and political education facilitation in New Orleans and beyond.
Every year between 1998 to 2020 except one, Louisiana had the highest per capita rate of incarceration in the nation and thus the world. This book is the first detailed account of Louisiana's unprecedented turn to mass incarceration from 1970 to 2020.
In this discussion we talk about the dynamics that contributed to that history. It’s a fascinating conversation that gets into Louisiana’s shifting political economy, the policing of New Orleans, the importance of sheriff power in Louisiana, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and various forms of anti-carceral organizing from the streets of New Olreans to Louisiana State Penitentiary, better known as Angola.
Massive Bookshop has Prison Capital if people are interested in picking up a copy and delving more deeply into this conversation, as I mentioned a couple times during the episode there is a lot of really interesting analysis in the book that we didn’t have time to adequately address in this conversation.
I would be remiss if I didn’t say we’re releasing this conversation during Black August, find some local or online political education about that, write to political prisoners, get involved in their campaigns.
If you want to support our work please consider contributing a $1 a month or more to our patreon at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism. We do have a Trinity of Fundamentals study group that starts this coming week and you can find details about that on our patreon as well.
Links:
Prison Capital: Mass Incarceration and Struggles for Abolition Democracy in Louisiana.
The Jail Is Everywhere: Fighting the New Geography of Mass Incarceration
Trinity of Fundamentals study group
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In this episode, we speak with Roderick Ferguson about two of Josh's all-time favorite books, One-Dimensional Queer and Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique.
The former which problematizes single-issue politics that came to dominate, disrupt, capture, and destroy the gay liberation movement—and has continued to plague queer (anti-) politics today.
And the latter which discusses the regulation of sexual difference and its role in circumscribing Black-African culture.
Throughout the conversation, we discuss the concept of one-dimensionality—which Ferguson borrows from Herbert Marcuse—and how the mobilization of the concept in queer struggles “[drove] a wedge between queer politics and other progressive formations.” We also discuss how the structural realities imposed through capitalism, racialized violence and neglect, have made the nuclear family unit a “material impossibility” for non-white people—namely Black-African people.
Roderick A. Ferguson is the William Robertson Coe Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and American Studies at Yale University.
He is also faculty in the Yale Prison Education Initiative. He is the author of One-Dimensional Queer, We Demand: The University and Student Protests, The Reorder of Things: The University and Its Pedagogies of Minority Difference, and Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique. He is the co-editor with Grace Hong of the anthology Strange Affinities: The Gender and Sexual Politics of Comparative Racialization. He is also co-editor with Erica Edwards and Jeffrey Ogbar of Keywords of African American Studies (NYU, 2018). He is the 2020 recipient of the Kessler Award from the Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS).
If you like what we do and want to support our ability to have more conversations like this. Please consider becoming a patron. You can do so for as little as a $1 a month.
This episode was produced and edited by Aidan Elias
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In this episode we welcome Dani Manibat to the podcast.
Dani Manibat is an organizer in the National Democratic Movement in the Philippines and this article was written for the journal Material. Recently we hosted another conversation with J. Moufawad-Paul on Settler Ideology on our YouTube channel.
A little bit about Material from their website:
“Material’s editorial framework is guided by a Maoist perspective, and so, this journal is a platform for contending schools of thought with non-antagonistic contradictions—for revolutionary communist thought: the kind of thinking that agrees capitalism cannot be reformed, that actual revolutionary work is required, and that collaboration with any kind of liberal or conservative thinking is exactly that, collaboration.”
Dani’s essay, “The Marxist Framework and Attitude on Social Investigation and Class Analysis” is available for free online and I’ve linked it in the show notes. I have also included a link to Foreign Languages Press, which is a great press for Marxist work, particularly from the Maoist perspective, but also including many classics of Marxism and Marxism-Leninism in their webshop.
From the article description: “This essay is an ongoing product of discussions and conferences among Filipino Marxist and national democratic youth organizers as we attempt to deepen our understanding of Social Investigation and Class Analysis (SICA) work. It is in this light that not only is there a necessity to underline the importance of SICA work for the Filipino youth, but also to give some pointers on what to look for, what to watch out for, as well as have theoretical discussions on social classes.”
I’ll add that this conversation and the essay work well together, you can get more of the theory behind SICA and how one might think about the process perhaps from the essay itself, where as here we have a wider ranging conversation on practice and some examples of how these things might look in the day to day.
There is a portion of the conversation where Dani references a graphic, I will note that section when we get there. I have uploaded the video from that section of the interview so people can see the graphic that Dani is describing as he is talking about that. And I will link that in the show notes.
To support our work please become a patreon of the show at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism
Links:
the video of Dani explaining class alignments
“The Marxist Framework and Attitude on Social Investigation and Class Analysis”
Foreign Languages Press
FLP's webshop.
Material's webpage
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This is part two of a two-part discussion on two of Joy James' recent books. This part of the discussion is focused on Contextualizing Angela Davis: The Agency and Identity of an Icon Part one of the conversation was on New Bones Abolition: Captive Maternal Agency and the (After)Life of Erica Garner (Common Notions). MAKC Host Josh Briond is joined by special guest hosts Akua N and Noah Tesfaye for this conversation. Joy James is the Ebenezer Fitch Professor of the Humanities at Williams College. A political philosopher who works with organizers seeking social justice and an end to militarism, James is the editor of The Angela Y. Davis Reader; Imprisoned Intellectuals; and co-editor of The Black Feminist Reader. James’s most recent books include: In Pursuit of Revolutionary Love; New Bones Abolition: Captive Maternal Agency and the (After)Life of Erica Garner; and, Contextualizing Angela Davis: The Agency and Identity of an Icon. Her forthcoming volumes ENGAGE: Indigenous, Black, Afro-Indigenous Futures and Beyond Cop Cities will be published this summer and fall. James' website and instagram page (@captivematernalstruggles) which we are using to update and archive talks, events, essays, etc. Please feel free to follow and tag us/post collab when the episode is live. Akua N is a Chicago-based doctoral student in education policy studies, exploring the intersection of mass media, counterinsurgency, white supremacy, and schooling in capitalist contexts. Noah Tesfaye is a researcher and organizer based in the Bay Area. His work focuses on the political philosophy of the Republic of New Afrika and New Afrikan Independence Movement, particularly in its relationship to contemporary organizing around self-determination for Black people within the "United States." This episode is edited and produced by Aidan Elias Links: Steinem Papers Pendleton 2 (our episode with links on ways to support/connect) Sekou Odinga & James at the Death Penalty Conference: This is the exchange Prof. James mentioned with the young Black activist and the panel. I have linked the video below with the time stamps The young activist question: (1:55:00) Baba Sekou's Response: (2:08:00) James' Response: (2:16:18) How to Live (after we die): On Protest, Social Media, and queer Black death - Logos Journal Slave Rebel or Citizen (Inquest) Our roundtable on Kuwasi Balagoon Marcuse's Most Famous Student: Angela Davis On Critical Theory and German Idealism by Joy James Links for Book Purchasing: New Bones Abolition (2023) Contextualizing Angela Davis (2024) Beyond Cop Cities (August 2024)
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This is part one of a two-part discussion on two of Joy James' recent books. This part of the discussion is focused on New Bones Abolition: Captive Maternal Agency and the (After)Life of Erica Garner (Common Notions) as well as a recent essay How to Live (after we die): On Protest, Social Media, and queer Black death - Logos Journal by Isaiah Blake. MAKC Host Josh Briond is joined by guest hosts Akua N and Noah Tesfaye for this conversation. Joy James is the Ebenezer Fitch Professor of the Humanities at Williams College. A political philosopher who works with organizers seeking social justice and an end to militarism, James is the editor of The Angela Y. Davis Reader; Imprisoned Intellectuals; and co-editor of The Black Feminist Reader. James’s most recent books include: In Pursuit of Revolutionary Love; New Bones Abolition: Captive Maternal Agency and the (After)Life of Erica Garner; and, Contextualizing Angela Davis: The Agency and Identity of an Icon. Her forthcoming volumes ENGAGE: Indigenous, Black, Afro-Indigenous Futures and Beyond Cop Cities will be published this summer and fall. James' website and instagram page (@captivematernalstruggles) which we are using to update and archive talks, events, essays, etc. Please feel free to follow and tag us/post collab when the episode is live. Isaiah Blake is an incoming PhD student in Geography at the University of California, Berkeley. As an artist, thinker, and educator, Blake is committed to producing work that prioritizes critical thinking combined with a devotion to Black ways of knowing and being. You can find Isaiah on IG.
Akua N is a Chicago-based doctoral student in education policy studies, exploring the intersection of mass media, counterinsurgency, white supremacy, and schooling in capitalist contexts. Noah Tesfaye is a researcher and organizer based in the Bay Area. His work focuses on the political philosophy of the Republic of New Afrika and New Afrikan Independence Movement, particularly in its relationship to contemporary organizing around self-determination for Black people within the "United States." This episode is edited and produced by Aidan Elias
Links: Steinem Papers Pendleton 2 (our episode with links on ways to support/connect) Sekou Odinga & James at the Death Penalty Conference: This is the exchange Prof. James mentioned with the young Black activist and the panel. I have linked the video below with the time stamps The young activist question: (1:55:00) Baba Sekou's Response: (2:08:00) James' Response: (2:16:18) How to Live (after we die): On Protest, Social Media, and queer Black death - Logos Journal Slave Rebel or Citizen (Inquest) Our roundtable on Kuwasi Balagoon Links for Book Purchasing: New Bones Abolition (2023) Contextualizing Angela Davis (2024) Beyond Cop Cities (August 2024) -
In this episode Damien Sojoyner returns to the podcast to talk about his book First Strike: Educational Enclosures in Black Los Angeles.
This episode was recorded in November and unfortunately its release was delayed due to the circumstances of the world today, which have necessitated for us a lot of media work in solidarity with Palestinian resistance, and against the genocide being enacted on Palestinians most visibly and egregiously in Gaza.
I also had the chance to catch up with Damien Sojoyner at the Archives Unbound conference at UC Santa Barbara a few weeks ago, and you can find a brief interview I conducted with them here.
This book First Strike (Currently 50% of with the code: MN91620 through June 30th) is one that I had been wanting to discuss with Damien since I learned of it, because it very much relates to various intersecting interests of mine, the Black Radical Tradition, abolition, the prison industrial complex, and public education. Disrupting common framing of a school-to-prison pipeline Sojoyner really examines how we might understand public schools, and different regimes of education as enclosures upon more radical possibilities. And we get into a discussion of the warehousing function of schools, the psychological warfare aspects and more. As there is a lot of connection between this discussion and the discussion we had with Damien last year on his book Against the Carceral Archive, we have linked that in the show notes as well.
We will have more audio content coming for you later this week as well as more video content on our YouTube channel.
We've created playlist from the Cedric and Elizabeth Robinson Archives Unbound conference.
If you appreciate the work we do at Millennials Are Killing Capitalism the best way you can support our work is as always to become a patron of the show. We are still working to find better solutions to getting all of the audio content we have backlogged released to you as quickly as possible. This has meant paying for some additional help in many cases. All that is to say, we really appreciate all of you who have been contributing to our work some of you for many years now. If people are not patrons of the show yet and are able to give $1 a month or more that’s deeply appreciated as well. You can become a patron at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism
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In this episode Josh was joined by special co-host Noah Tesfaye and they interviewed several organizers from Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) who have been organizing solidarity encampments this spring. This interview took place about a month ago, so the events they describe are not reflections of the most current activity on their campuses, but nonetheless this conversation is a useful look into the organizing going on in student encampments across the country.
We also hosted livestreams recently with organizers at UCLA and Cornell, as well as multiple scholars who have faced repression or arrests for their involvement with organizing on their campuses.
Thanks to Josh and Noah for hosting this conversation and to Seth Gunter for work editing this episode.
If you like the work that we do please become a patron of the show, even if just a small annual or monthly contribution. Recently we’ve had more people lowering their support or cancelling than we’ve had people signing up. So first of all just a shout-out to everyone who supports our work and makes it possible, but secondly we are trying to increase the amount of audio content we’re releasing again which has led us to expanding the number of people we’re working with as guest hosts and audio editors. And we would like to have the resources to also pay these folks for their work and continue to make some equipment upgrades. This week Noah and I will be out at a conference on the life’s work of Cedric Robinson and we hope to capture some good audio and video content while we’re out there as well that we can share with you all. Become a patron for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism.
SDS's National Instagram and UMN SDS's twitter.
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In this episode we speak with Paul Renfro about his book Stranger Danger: Family Values, Childhood, and the American Carceral State
Paul Renfro is an associate professor of history and an affiliate faculty in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program at Florida State University. In addition to Stranger Danger, He is also the coeditor of Growing Up America: Youth and Politics since 1945, and the author of the forthcoming book The Life and Death of Ryan White: AIDS and Inequality in America which comes out this fall on UNC Press.
Stranger Danger tells the story of how bereaved parents of missing and slain children turned their grief into a mass movement and, alongside journalists and policymakers from both major political parties, propelled a moral panic. Leveraging larger cultural fears concerning familial and national decline, these child safety crusaders warned Americans of a supposedly widespread and worsening child kidnapping threat, erroneously claiming that as many as fifty thousand American children fell victim to stranger abductions annually. The actual figure was (and remains) between one hundred and three hundred, and kidnappings perpetrated by family members and acquaintances occur far more frequently.
We get into all of that and focus intently in this conversation on how Stranger Danger functioned from its inception as a moral panic or a sex panic. A panic Renfro argues we’ve never emerged from, one that still animates the reality of mass incarceration today, but is often less discussed than other contributing factors to the largest system of carceral control and punishment in the world.
This conversation was originally recorded all the way back on September 8th and was slated to be released on Halloween to time it up with the ridiculous annual copaganda about strangers lacing children’s candy a reliable myth propelled by the child safety regime. Obviously that timeline was dramatically derailed by our focus on work around Palestine which has largely taken the form of videos on our YouTube channels. My apologies to Paul Renfro for taking so long to get this excellent conversation edited and released. Even though the conversation certainly has nothing to do with Palestine directly, as I was finalizing the edit for this episode, it was interesting to think in this moment about the demonization of student protesters, the notion that student encampments have been somehow been infiltrated by so-called “terrorists” who are poisoning their minds with radical islam, teaching them anti-semitic rhetoric, and guerrilla warfare tactics. Certainly this has many of the hallmarks of a moral panic. And there are others we discuss in the show the panic around schools teaching sex education, the dangers of drag balls, or concerns about transgender kids in sports. It is important to be able to recognize attempts to manufacture panics, and to think critically about how we respond to these multifaceted propaganda efforts.
If you want to support our work, the best way to do so is to become a patron of the show. You can do so for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism
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In the episode members of the Kenya Organic Intellectuals Network returns to the podcast. Folks will recall that we had a conversation with them last year on their book Breaking the Silence on NGOs in Africa.
This conversation started thinking about the situation in Haiti. We previously had a discussion with Dr. Jemima Pierre on the current situation and the western backed invasion of Haiti for which Kenya is sending police. But also I was interested in how the struggle in Palestine was being received in Kenya both at a governmental level and among the masses. Along those lines, often Sudan, Congo, and Haiti are raised up as other examples of genocide, of imperialism, of terrible violence and humanitarian catastrophe as people seek to expand our analysis of what’s happening in Palestine beyond that individual conflict. I wanted to get their perspectives on all of these situations as folks who organize from a Pan African Scientific Socialist perspective from the Kenyan context.
Just a note that May 25th is African Liberation Day and we also hosted a conversation with the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party on our YouTube channel the other day.
Our guests are Gacheke Gachihi, Lewis Maghanga, Okakah Onyango, and Wanjiru Wanjira.
Gacheke Gachihi is the Coordinator of Mathare Social Justice Centre and a member of the Organic Intellectuals Network.
Lewis Maghanga is a member of the Organic Intellectuals Network and an organiser with the Revolutionary Socialist League based in Kenya.
Okakah Onyango is a member of the Revolutionary Socialist League, Organic Intellectuals Network and Social Justice Movement. He is a dedicated tech-driven community organizer, blending roles of revolutionary intellectualism and communications strategist.
Wanjira Wanjiru is a social justice advocate and artivist with a decade of experience as a grassroot human rights defender. She is Co- founder of the Mathare Social Justice centre and coordinator of Matigari kids book club where children learn about pan-african history. She is a writer with the Kenya Organic Intellectuals Network and co-host of Liberating Minds podcast, a history channel on Youtube. She is also working with the African Social Justice Network team in South Africa and Zambia.
After we recorded this episode Mathare experienced major floods. We’ve included a video of Wanjira discussing the floods. There was also a mass arrest of human rights defenders at the Mathare Social Justice Centre. We encourage folks to reach out to the Mathare Social Justice Centre to see if there are ways that we can provide support. And I would just note that in this discussion obviously we focused so much on struggles elsewhere and its important to connect and look for ways to support these comrades in their struggles as well.
We hope that people will connect with these comrades to discuss how they can learn more from them and coordinate struggles with them as they suggest in the episode.
I will just note I know a majority of our work has been on the Youtube side in recent months, make sure you subscribe to our YouTube feed so that you can access all of that content as well. We do have a lot of audio work that needs to be edited and released as well and we’re working to find the right balance to get that work done. To support our work as always become a patron of the show at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism
This episode was recorded on March 28, 2024
Music is provided as always by TelevangelLinks:
Mathare Social Justice Centre
Revolutionary Socialist League (Kenya)
Liberating Minds podcast
Pio Gama Pinto book
Breaking the Silence on NGOs in Africa (Book)
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In this episode Josh interviews Amba Guerguerian and Harry to discuss the New York War Crimes project and their efforts to get people to Boycott, Divest, and Unsubscribe from the New York Times.
Amba Guerguerian is an associate editor at The Indypendent and a contributor at The New York War Crimes.
Harry is a writer, educator and organizer with Writers against the War on Gaza and a contributor at The New York War Crimes.
The New York War Crimes is a project dedicated to de legitimizing the imperial mouthpiece that is The New York Times through focused contemporary and historical critique, while providing an alternative platform for Palestinian and Arab authors, poets and artists — precisely what you won’t find in the pages of The Times.
If you would like to support our work the best way to do so as always is to become a patron of the show for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism. We are also still working to increase our subscriber base over on the YouTube channel so subscribing to that feed is another great way. We have four, possible five live episodes coming this upcoming week so make sure you are subscribed there or on patreon to catch all of that content.
This episode was recorded on March 31, 2024
This episode was co-edited/produced by Aidan Elias and Jared Ware
Music is provided as always by Televangel
Links:
The New York War Crimes
The Indypendent
Writers Against the War on Gaza
U.S. Media Control and October 7th with Bryce Greene
Electronic Intifada
Mondoweiss
The Anti-Empire Project with Justin Podour
MAKC YouTube Channel
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