Episodes
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I wrote an essay on John and Barbara Ehrenreich’s concept of the PMC, and how it relates to Mark Fisher’s concept of the Vampire Castle, which I read in this episode. You’ll hear the full version of the essay, but a shortened version will be included in a book titled Underground Theory, which will be available at Amazon to order a print copy September 4. The link is below.
I’m proud to say that this essay will be included with essays by some smart and controversial thinkers including Žižek, Norman Finkelstein, Alenka Zupančič, Todd McGowan, Catherine Liu, Chris Cutrone, Daniel Tutt and Michael Downs of the Dangerous Maybe blog.
In my essay I argue Mark Fisher makes the same mistake many Marxists have made. They conflate the petite bourgeoisie with the professional managerial class. This is an understandable mistake, but it is time for Marxists to begin using the Ehrenreich’s definition of the professional managerial class in their class analysis. At another time I will quibble further with the Ehrenreichs. I think they make a few mistakes, but on the whole I think they have brought a tremendous improvement to the discipline of class analysis. The future of the socialist struggle must account for the distinctions between the petite bourgeoisie and the professional managerial class.
Underground Theory
https://a.co/d/3yPyo6J
“PMC Consciousness & Ideology”
Theory Underground
https://theory-underground.com/courses/pmc/
WAYPOINT: Timenergy, critical media theory, and culture war
Theory Pleeb (a.k.a. Dave McKerracher of Theory Underground)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09M8QG8B9/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_ZYBSX12JJPFGJP9VETMK
Class, an official podcast of the Democratic Socialists of America National Political Education Committee
https://education.dsausa.org/class-the-npec-podcast/
Barbara and John Ehrenreich’s PMC part 1 (1977)
https://library.brown.edu/pdfs/1125403552886481.pdf
Barbara and John Ehrenreich’s PMC part 2 (1977)
https://files.libcom.org/files/Rad%20America%20V11%20I3.pdf
Barbara and John Ehrenreich’s PMC part 3 (2013)
https://www.rosalux.de/fileadmin/rls_uploads/pdfs/sonst_publikationen/ehrenreich_death_of_a_yuppie_dream90.pdf -
This episode merely contains a couple announcements. The first is an online class I’m going to be teaching with Dave McKerracher on the PMC, also known as the Professional Managerial Class. The second announcement is about my DSA NPEC podcast, Class.
Class: Democratic Socialists of America National Political Education Committee podcast
https://education.dsausa.org/class-the-npec-podcast/
Theory Underground: Professional Managerial Class Consciousness
8 week course, meet every other Wednesday starting January 25, 2022
https://theory-underground.com/courses/pmc/?fbclid=IwAR0hh3FS2PedZ5_ApjYoV796Vp_pY4-jg6uivMk3d1RPiPahlFXOmvtACk4#learndash-course-content
Theory Underground Courses
https://theory-underground.com/courses/
Michael Downs, the Dangerous Maybe
https://link.medium.com/sMvhw6PgSvb -
Missing episodes?
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I started this podcast in order to extract strategy and insight from Gramsci’s writings. This Gramsci-inspired manifesto calls for a recalibration of the term “working class” per Marx’s Das Kapital, Volume 1 in order to build the foundation for a renewed international working class struggle for socialism grounded on a socialist mode of production and empowerment of the working class, de-emphasizing reliance on a vanguard of revolutionaries. How should socialists relate to the PMC?
“Waypoint: Timenergy, critical media theory, and culture war” by Theory Pleeb
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09M8QG8B9/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_ZYBSX12JJPFGJP9VETMK
Wikipedia article on “Mode of Production”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mode_of_production
Economics of Fascism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_fascism
Germanic People (Barbarians)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_peoples#Migration_Period_(ca._375–568)
Merchants in the Middle Ages
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant#Merchants_in_the_medieval_period
PDFs of Erik Olin Wright’s books
https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/
DSA National Political Education event with Meagan Day that discusses some overlapping content about Non-Reformist Reforms
https://youtu.be/GcHMGRKNobY
André Gorz’s “Reform and Revolution”
https://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/article/view/5272/2173 -
I heard this podcast episode from the Cosmonaut podcast. It is an audio version of an article from the online magazine. I am sharing it because it complements our last episode on Jamaal Bowman, what the authors of this episode refer to as the Bowman Affair, but with much more rigorous analysis as it relates to the internal debate and structures of DSA.
The CosmoPod Podcast Episode
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cosmopod/id1469843985?i=1000558965755
The Original Article “Socialism of the Oppressed: The Stakes of the Bowman Affair” by Jean Allen and Marisa Miale
https://cosmonautmag.com/2022/04/socialism-of-the-oppressed-the-stakes-of-the-bowman-affair/ -
Today’s episode is about proletarian discipline, party discipline. DSA has recently had an internal debate about Jamaal Bowman’s refusal to support the Palestinian solidarity movement BDS.
GRAMSCI
Gramci’s Concept of Subaltern
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaltern_(postcolonialism)
DISCIPLINE
Jodi Dean’s Article on Discipline
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/11/comrades-political-organizing-discipline-jodi-dean
Republican Party Discipline of Liz Cheney
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/15/liz-cheney-wyoming-republican-party-trump
DSA’s ban on democratic centralism
https://www.dsausa.org/about-us/constitution/#P1N
Leninist Discipline
https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Party+dicipline
Know Your Enemy #36 on Jan 6
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/know-your-enemy/id1462703434?i=1000529390998
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DSA CAUCUSES AND ELECTION SLATES
Libertarian Socialist Caucus
https://dsa-lsc.org/2021/07/19/lsc-democratic-socialism-a-short-history/
Bread & Roses Caucus
https://breadandrosesdsa.org/
https://breadandrosesdsa.org/convention-2021-slate/
The Green New Deal Slate
https://keywiki.org/DSA_Green_New_Deal_Slate
Socialist Majority
https://www.socialistmajority.com/
Renewal Slate
https://www.dsarenewal.org/our-npc-slate/
Other DSA Caucasus
https://reformandrevolution.org/2021/09/08/whos-who-in-dsa-a-guide-to-dsa-caucuses/
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PALESTINE & BDS
History of Palestine
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/throughline/id1451109634?i=1000523361687
Israeli Settlements
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_settlement
Natural Resource Extraction during British Mandate
https://trafo.hypotheses.org/30714
1936-1939 Arab Revolt
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936%E2%80%931939_Arab_revolt_in_Palestine
Palestinians have sovereign authority over their natural resources
https://imemc.org/article/wafa-un-general-assembly-passes-vote-affirms-palestinian-sovereignty-over-their-natural-resources/
DSA departed from the Socialist International
https://www.leftvoice.org/DSA-Votes-for-BDS-Reparations-and-Out-of-the-Socialist-International/
NY DSA Revolutions Per Minute podcast on the BDS Movement
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/revolutions-per-minute-radio-from-new-york-city-democratic/id1450411809?i=1000524165027
J Street’s Rejection of the BDS Movement
https://jstreet.org/wrong-way-oppose-bds/#.YcFAIy-cZQI
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JAMAAL BOWMAN
DSA “Unity For Unity, not Unanimity: Palestine, Jamaal Bowman, and DSA”
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d_FBOWt5JqyFvQn5BQuqDBvLe67rLCXKbI0CABhJHx4/edit
Jamaal Bowman
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/11/democratic-socialists-j-street-bds-israel-palestine-iron-dome-aoc
Jamaal Bowman Tempest Timeline
https://www.facebook.com/tempestmag/photos/a.144058903928771/411153303885995/?type=3
DSA Caucus’s Response to Jamaal Bowman
https://www.tempestmag.org/2021/12/on-not-expelling-jamaal-bowman/
DSA BDS & Palestine Solidarity WG
https://palestine.dsausa.org/bowmans-j-street-zionist-propaganda-trip-to-apartheid-israel-must-not-stand/
DSA Statement
https://www.dsausa.org/statements/on-the-question-of-expelling-rep-bowman/ -
This is my first bonus episode. By bonus, I mean that it isn’t really tied to Gramsci, though I will mention him a few times eventually.
But this episode will be about the building of a working class intelligentsia. In this episode I will read the forward I wrote for a new book called Waypoint. Waypoint is theory pleeb’s first book. It is a collection of essays they wrote both academically, as well as those written critiquing the academy.
Amazon.com - WAYPOINT: Timenergy, critical media theory, and culture war https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09M8QG8B9/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_ZYBSX12JJPFGJP9VETMK
Theory Pleeb’s Website
https://www.theorypleeb.com/
Theory Pleeb’s Podcasts
https://www.spreaker.com/user/theorypleeb
Theory Pleeb’s YouTube
https://youtube.com/c/theorypleeb -
Gramsci had a strand of Italian patriotism. His patriotism was a Marxist patriotism that believed in international cooperation of the working classes around the world, but he took pride in being Italian. He wrote this article about the Cotton Workers Strike trike of 1906 because it provided the workers an example of working class strength from their own history. Gramsci's narrative was intended to convince them that if they had done it before, they could do it again.
Remembering the History of the Cotton Workers’ Struggle
Il Grido del Popolo
December 9, 1916
Selections from Political Writings 1910-1920
- [ ] ITALY 1903-1906
- [ ] JANUARY - APRIL 15, 1906
- [ ] APRIL 22 - JULY 18, 1906
- [ ] POSTSCRIPT: SEATTLE GENERAL STRIKE of 1919
1904 General Strike
Italy’s first general strike. It was called by Chamber of Labour
“The country would experience many general strikes in the years following 1904, with additional general strikes in 1905, 1906, 1909, 1911, and 1914.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1904_Italian_general_strike
Inter-Mountain Republican, May 9, 1906
https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=4073112
Inter-Mountain Republican, May 10
https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=4075101
Oldest Trade Union in Italy, formed in 1906
https://www.etui.org/covid-social-impact/italy/industrial-relations-in-italy-background-summary
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Confederation_of_Labour_(Italy)
Wikipedia entry for the Seattle General Strike
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_General_Strike
“When Workers Stopped Seattle” by Cal Winslow
https://jacobinmag.com/2019/07/seattle-general-strike-1919-union-organizing
A bourgeois paper warning against the Seattle General Strike
https://depts.washington.edu/labhist/strike/images/news/Star/STAR_19190204_P1.jpg
A bourgeois paper calling the strikers dangerous revolutionaries
https://depts.washington.edu/labhist/strike/images/news/Star/STAR_19190205_P1.jpg
Anna Louise Strong “No One Knows Where”
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/strong-anna-louise/1919/laborspeech.htm
“General Strikes, Mass Strikes” by Kim Moody
https://solidarity-us.org/atc/160/p3679/ -
Socialism and Co-operation
Published on: October 30, 1916
Published in: L’Alleanza Cooperativa
Source: Pre-Prison Writings
This podcast exists to strategize how the working class could replace the capitalist class as the hegemonic class. If we are to replicate their strategy we would need a socialist mode of production in place, and in operation, and a working class intelligentsia spreading a vision of a better world. As the working class takes control of the levers of power of the government it will need to scale up a socialist mode of production, a mode of production that aligns with the grand vision of socialism, a mode of production of which Gramsci believes has the potential of being far more productive than capitalism. We’ll discuss some alternatives towards the end, but on October 30, 1916 Gramsci published an article on the Italian Cooperative movement called “Socialism and Cooperation” in which he proposed cooperatives as a prototype of what a socialist mode of production could look like.
- [ ] The Italian Cooperative Movement
- [ ] Base & Superstructure
- [ ] Gramsci’s Article
- [ ] Postscript
Know Your Enemy: The Windbag City
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/know-your-enemy/id1462703434?i=1000471890262
About Modern Northern Italy’s thriving worker-owned coops
https://www.yesmagazine.org/economy/2016/07/05/the-italian-place-where-co-ops-drive-the-economy-and-most-people-are-members
Turin Cooperative Alliance History
https://www.fondazionedonguetti.org/wp/the-nature-of-the-cooperative-enterprise/glossary/consumers-cooperative/
Emilia Romagna region coops 10%
https://geo.coop/articles/cooperating-we-mean-it-co-operative-movement-northern-italy
Social Cooperatives in Italy: Lessons for the UK
http://socialeconomyaz.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/SocialCooperativesInItaly.pdf
The emergence of social coops for social care: Italy and beyond
https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/the-emergence-of-social-coops-for-social-care-italy-and-beyond/2013/07/30?__cf_chl_managed_tk__=pmd_cUemBDzpXCGVzheCxG.XrCCBAxMtPxKUc0HBAGeBOcs-1633440125-0-gqNtZGzNAxCjcnBszRJl
Base and Superstructure
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_and_superstructure
Microsoft’s Net Income from 2002-2021
https://www.statista.com/statistics/267808/net-income-of-microsoft-since-2002/ -
The foundation of Gramsci’s ideas about cultural hegemony are grounded in the French Revolution. Before the Revolution no one could have predicted it. No one believed it was actually possible. According to Gramsci it happened because the Enlightenment created a vision of a better world. The French people stormed the Bastille because the National Convention made the impossible seem possible. Before the National Convention a French Republic was impossible. After the National Convention made the impossible possible, the French Republic became historically predetermined. The King did not realize it yet, but his resistance to the French Republic triggered the storming of the Bastille because the genie was out of the bottle. It was too late. The dream of the Enlightenment was now within reach. The king could not stop it.
Show Notes
“14 July”
July 15, 1916
Avanti!
Selections from Political Writings, 1910-1920
- [ ] Background
- [ ] 1789
- [ ] 1790
- [ ] 1791-1792
- [ ] 1793
- [ ] 1794
- [ ] Gramsci’s Article
- [ ] Postscript
Storming of the Bastille
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storming_of_the_Bastille
the French Revolution
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution
The Dig podcast on Occupy Wall Street with Astra Taylor
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dig/id1043245989?i=1000536617311
Black Lives Matter George Floyd Protests: 15-26 million
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Floyd_protests -
The Ottoman Empire joined World War I in 1914. A minority of an ethno-religious community within their borders, a group of revolutionary Armenians, threatened independence, putting at risk the Empire’s ability to defend itself from the Russians. To this day Turkey claims the Ottoman Empire responded proportionately in their national interest, but the truth is that they deployed a massive logistical effort to kill and concentrate over a million Armenians in camps in the Syrian desert in 1915-1916. In 1916 Gramsci wrote a brief article attempting to bring awareness of the horrific event. Today we’re going to discuss the Armenian genocide, and Gramsci’s Article.
- [ ] Turkey’s Denial
- [ ] The Armenians
- [ ] Ottoman Empire Program to Reduce the Armenian Population
- [ ] The Bulkan Wars and World War I
- [ ] The Deportations
- [ ] Gramsci’s Article
- [ ] Postscript
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_genocide
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_genocide_recognition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_recognition_of_the_Armenian_genocide
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How did a kid from a village on the island of Sardinia, far from modern civilization, not only shape Italian history, but also become a groundbreaking philosopher innovating in the domain of cultural theory? The backwards peasant became a famous art critic in Italy’s hippest city. Gramsci developed a refined appreciation of art and literature, while retaining a desire to share his love of high culture with the peasants and factory workers of Italy. He became cultured and the smartest guy in the room without becoming arrogant. How did he do that? That’s what we’re going to discuss today.
Published on: January 29, 1916
Published in: Il Grido del Popolo
Source: The Antonio Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings 1916-1935, translated by David Forgacs
- [ ] Anti-Intellectualism, Today and Italy in 1916
- [ ] Gramsci’s Biography
- [ ] Know Thyself & The Enlightenment -
In the last few episodes we have been talking about the scientific, religious, philosophical and political aspects of the Enlightenment. Today we will cover the Industrial Revolution.
The Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution were each distinct movements that overlap so significantly that it is hard to imagine one without the others. The Scientific Revolution lasted from 1543 with Copernicus’s earth-centric model to 1687, ending the historical age with Newton’s laws of motion and gravity. Many call out Descartes’ Cogito Ergo Sum in 1637 as the beginning of the Enlightenment, and the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789 as the end. Today’s topic, the Industrial Revolution, especially in England, is tied to the social changes occurring as science, technology and a growing capitalist class emerged unlike anytime before in human history, from about 1780 to 1840.
There is no immediate causal relationship between the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. Gramsci believed the Enlightenment was the moment in history when the capitalist intellectuals built solidarity and laid the foundation for a successful capitalist revolution. The capitalist class dethroned the aristocracy throughout Europe as the ruling class, and then stretched out to all ends of the earth. Concluding the Industrial Revolution and the coming to power of the capitalist class as the ruling class was the consequence of all of this is reasonable.
The actual events of history are not so transparent, but I find Gramsci’s narrative to be quite plausible. He returns to it over and over throughout his writings, so we will spend a lot more time on it in the future. Today we will discuss the economic significance of the Industrial Revolution, and then spend some time critiquing the Enlightenment from the perspective of class analysis, and then talk about how socialism seeks to overcome capitalism’s failed attempt to fulfill the promises of the Enlightenment. -
Last time we talked about the Enlightenment in preparation for an episode in which we’ll cover Gramsci’s rejection of a working class brand of anti-intellectualism. Having a familiarity with the Enlightenment will not only provide background for understanding working class anti-intellectualism, it will provide context to many other topics we will cover in the future, including the French Revolution and cultural hegemony.
Last week we specifically discussed the Scientific Revolution as a key ingredient of the Enlightenment. Today we’re going to discuss philosophy’s response to the problems created by the Scientific Revolution. In the next episode we will begin to discuss the cultural impacts of the Enlightenment.
The Enlightenment, Part II
- [ ] Philosophy’s accounting for sciences shared reality, truth and reason -
At the end of the last episode I said we would be discussing Gramsci’s response to strands of anti-intellectualism among the working class. I realized we need a little context to understand the significance of their anti-intellectualism, in part as a rejection of intellectuals of the capitalist class, and more specifically, intellectuals of the Enlightenment.
The Enlightenment was not exclusively nor explicitly capitalist, but after describing the Enlightenment, I will attempt to draw the connection between the Enlightenment and capitalism, a connection that Gramsci took for granted. I will also argue that capitalism failed to fulfill the promises of the Enlightenment, and socialism is a renewed attempt to truly fulfill its promises.
There is no consensus about the boundaries of the Enlightenment, though there is agreement about the ideas at the center of the movement. I will prioritizes the philosophical ideas driving it. I see philosophy as the discipline struggling to solve the problems created by each of the other disciplines that defined the Enlightenment: the scientific revolution and its challenges to Christianity, the political debates arising out of growing capitalist and working classes, and the complex interdependent international economies that emerged as a consequence.
We will spend at least two episodes on the Enlightenment.
Part I
- [ ] Scientific Revolution -
The Light Which Went Out
Published: November 20, 1915
In Il Grido del Popolo
I will read a little from a translation of it in Pedro Cavalcanti and Paul Piccone’s History, Philosophy and Culture in the Young Gramsci.
At the death of an Italian literary critic Gramsci pays his respect by acknowledging his skill of writing about poetry that was accessible to the uninitiated, the uneducated. In this episode we will discuss:
- [ ] Catholic Scholasticism in the Middle Ages vs. St. Francis of Assisi and the Franciscan Movement as a metaphor for…
- [ ] …The working class and the gatekeepers that keep them from being able to appreciate high culture
#catholicism
#dante
#workingclassculture -
October 31, 1914
Il Grido del Popolo
In this episode I’ll finally cover one of Gramsci’s essays, one of the first essays Gramsci published. In it he defends Mussolini, the same Benito Mussolini that invented Fascism. Before inventing Fascism Mussolini was a respected Marxist. As World War I was heating up Mussolini protested the war, but only a few months later his opposition to the war was softening. He was beginning to appeal to Italian nationalist sentiments. Many criticized Mussolini’s softer position, but Gramsci defended it.
This episode will also hit on a few other topics. We will discuss
- [ ] Red Week, a week of major labor upheaval in Italy just before the war
- [ ] World War I
- [ ] The Second International, an international socialist organization
- [ ] Mussolini
- [ ] And Angelo Tasca
#fascism #worldwari #nationalism #internationalism #roleoftheparty #therevolution #hegemony #solidarity #secondinternational
http://www.internationalgramscisociety.org/resources/pre-prison-index/index.html
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/07/second-international-bernstein-rosa-luxemburg-unions-world-war
https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/pre-war_socialist_pacifism
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Mussolini
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Week_(Italy)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_unification
http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Germany/mussolini.htm -
Many future episodes presuppose a grasp of some basic socialist theory, including the centrality of the working class, Marx’s concept of “Internal Contradiction”, trade unions, strikes, and general strikes.
Employee-Owned Companies
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_employee-owned_companies
The General Strike
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_strike -
NOTE: this episode is pretty rough. I plan on releasing a new recording of this episode eventually. This episode is a brief biography about a peasant that became an influential writer for socialist newspapers, then helped organize a split from the Italian Socialist Party to form the Communist Party of Italy, became a member of parliament, was arrested by the Fascists, and wrote some of philosophy’s most interesting cultural analysis from prison, where he spent the rest of his short life.
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