WeAreMany.org: Recently posted audio

Coronavirus, Capitalism, and Class Struggle

seanlarson — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 01:08:45 +0000

Coronavirus, Capitalism, and Class Struggle

Dennis Kosuth

David McNally

Sherry Baron

Jessica Hansen-Weaver

Sean Petty

Healthcare

Seemingly overnight, the world as we know it has been fundamentally transformed into an unrecognizable, dystopian nightmare. The coronavirus has brought to the surface an underlying, insoluble and system-wide economic crisis, not in the form we expected, and even more terrifying than we could have imagined.

Queering Social Reproduction

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 21:01:44 +0000

Queering Social Reproduction

Kate Doyle Griffiths

Aaron Jaffe

Barms Armstrong

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

LGBT

Social feminism has been revitalised in recent years by a revived interest in ‘social reproduction’, which an increasing number of Marxist theorists have used both to explain changes continuing to take place in our era of capitalism, and strategise effective responses led by worker action.

The Revolutionary Left and Broad Parties

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 20:58:55 +0000

The Revolutionary Left and Broad Parties

Aaron Amaral

Aldo Sauda

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

International

The revolutionary left has participated in broad parties in many parts of the world in an attempt to build an alternative to capitalist and social democratic parties that have adopted neoliberalism. This panel will look at examples of such efforts in Quebec, Greece and Brazil but also refer to other efforts throughout the world.

Leninism, Social Democracy, and the State

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 20:56:47 +0000

Leninism, Social Democracy, and the State

Juan Ferre

Stephen Maher

Jordan House

Wladek Flakin

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Socialism & Marxism

Socialists and elections: what way forward for the US left?
- Juan Ferre, Left Voice

100 Years After the German Revolution: Luxemburg, Kautsky and Lenin
- Wladek Flakin, Left Voice

Toward a constructive antagonism: trade unions, social movements, political parties, and transforming the state
- Stephen Maher and Jordan House

The Role of Socialists in Building the Labor Movement and the Labor Movement in Building Socialism

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 20:53:15 +0000

The Role of Socialists in Building the Labor Movement and the Labor Movement in Building Socialism

Zyad Hammad

Jia Lee

Sarah Dowd

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Labor & Unions

This panel discussion will focus on current and prospective organizing efforts in several key NYC industries: education, healthcare, and telecommunications.

The Menace of the Workers: Self-Organization and Recomposition in the US, Mexico, and South Africa Today

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 20:51:24 +0000

The Menace of the Workers

Self-Organization and Recomposition in the US, Mexico, and South Africa Today

Immanuel Ness

Patrick Gun Cuninghame

Robert Ovetz

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Economics

Class struggle is slowly back on the agenda around the world. In the US, wildcat teachers strikes, worker resistance to the government shutdown, strike threats, and everyday forms of resistance are widely reported but little explored. With unions in a tailspin and social movements harnessed to advocacy and electoral politics, class struggle is coming back into focus.

Case Studies in the Origins of Capitalism

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 20:48:43 +0000

Case Studies in the Origins of Capitalism

Charles Post

Xavier LaFance

Nicole Leach

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Socialism & Marxism

As Marxist economist Anwar Shaikh puts it, ‘capitalism's sheath mutates constantly, but its core remains the same’. To understand the distinct core logic of capitalism is crucial to grasp the political terrain on which socialists are struggling today.

What's at Stake in the Fight for Abortion Access

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 20:47:04 +0000

What's at Stake in the Fight for Abortion Access

Jenny Brown

Lillian Cicerchia

Kate Castle

Phoebe Abramowitz

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Women

Abortion access is critical to bodily autonomy and women's liberation, and that access has been chipped away at since Roe v. Wade was passed in 1973. Since 2010 alone, over 400 new restrictions on abortions have been passed across the country, and 87% of US counties lack abortion providers.

New Ways of Thinking

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 20:42:54 +0000

New Ways of Thinking

Campbell Jones

Willie Johnson

AK Thompson

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Socialism & Marxism

Rethinking Economic Planning
—Campbell Jones

A Radical New Approach to the Socialist Study Group
—Willie Johnson

Marxist Responses to Christianity Today
—AK Thompson

Abundant Futures for Whom: Possibilities for (and Despite) a Scarred Earth

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 20:41:10 +0000

Abundant Futures for Whom

Possibilities for (and Despite) a Scarred Earth

Kate Aronoff

Alyssa Battistoni

Daniel Aldana Cohen

Jesse Goldstein

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Environment

The implications of Green New Deal politics for left organizing:

Socialist feminist perspectives bring important insights to our understanding of what abundance means and what kinds of work, done by who, it requires
—Alyssa Battistoni

Aesthetics of Resistance/Defense

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 20:38:18 +0000

Aesthetics of Resistance/Defense

Jason Loebs

Alan Ruiz

Park McArthur

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Art & Culture

Leftists have long lamented the depoliticization of art in our so-called “post-critical” era. However, Trump’s election has renewed attention to the complicity of the arts with the legitimating discourses and infrastructures of neoliberal class rule, sparking protests at museums and galleries. How have artists responded to this repoliticized context within their work?

Imperialism and the Nation-State

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 20:35:45 +0000

Imperialism and the Nation-State

Michael Bray

Walter Daum

Chris Gilligan

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

War & Antiwar

Having No Country and Constituting the Nation: Towards the Coherence of Popular Politics
—Michael Bray

Imperialism Today: Super-Exploitation and Marxist Theory
—Walter Daum

Critique of the strand of the Left that argue in favor of strengthening state sovereignty, in the face of neoliberalism and/or globalization
—Chris Gilligan

Socialism and the International Fight for Reparations

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 20:32:19 +0000

Socialism and the International Fight for Reparations

Edna Bonhomme

Bianca Cunningham

Justin Charles

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Racism & Civil Rights

Revisiting Marxist Economics

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 20:30:14 +0000

Revisiting Marxist Economics

Fred Moseley

Rebecca Carson

Jared Sacks

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Economics

Unequal Turnover Times: Another Cause of Deviations of Prices of Production from Values
—Fred Moseley

Using the sphere of reproduction to rethink Marx's category of surplus-value
—Jared Sacks

Returning to Suzanne de Brunhoﬀ’s Marxist monetary theory, to conceptualize the relationship between production and social reproduction
—Rebecca Carson

America's Opioid Epidemic: Profiting from Pain

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 20:28:02 +0000

America's Opioid Epidemic

Profiting from Pain

Nikki Blazek

Helen Redmond

Jacob Clary

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Healthcare

In the United States, 145 people die every day from opioid overdose. Drug overdose is the #1 cause of preventable death among people younger than 55 and average life expectancy has fallen for the last three years due to diseases of despair--alcoholism, drug addiction, and suicide--in the longest sustained decline since World War I.

The Struggle to Abolish Private Health Insurance and Establish Medicare for All

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 20:25:05 +0000

The Struggle to Abolish Private Health Insurance and Establish Medicare for All

Natalie Shure

Adam Gaffney

Dustin Guastella

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Healthcare

The demand for Medicare for All has captured the political limelight. Since 2016 no other transformative demand has garnered nearly the same amount of attention and enthusiasm from American workers, nor the same amount of scrutiny and criticism from the business press, establishment politicos and the ire of the business community.

Institutions and Left Strategy

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 20:19:47 +0000

Institutions and Left Strategy

Michael Hirsch

Shannon Walsh

Steve Lyons

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Socialism & Marxism

In the past 50 years, the right has outgamed the left, engineering a broad-scale takeover of media and public institutions. To rebuild left power, we need institutions that represent our interests, but what should our institutions look like? This panel considers the challenge of building institutional power for the left, proposing new tactics, strategies, and forms of organization.

Abolish Silicon Valley: Technology and Working-Class Recomposition

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 20:16:37 +0000

Abolish Silicon Valley

Technology and Working-Class Recomposition

Magally Miranda

J. S. Chen

Sarah Mason

Jason Prado

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Economics

Moderated by Wendy Liu.

Political and Social Crisis in Germany and Beyond: A Discussion of Oliver Nachtwey's "Germany's Hidden Crisis"

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 20:13:03 +0000

Political and Social Crisis in Germany and Beyond

A Discussion of Oliver Nachtwey's "Germany's Hidden Crisis"

Oliver Nachtwey

Ajay Singh Chaudhary

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

International

What are the origins and causes of the current political crisis and the rise of right-wing populism in Germany and around the globe? How has neoliberal policy fueled this breakdown? Oliver Nachtwey and Ajay Singh Chaudhary discuss the collapse of the post-war social order in Germany and beyond.

How America Became Capitalist: Imperial Expansion and the Conquest of the West

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 20:10:28 +0000

How America Became Capitalist

Imperial Expansion and the Conquest of the West

Charles Post

John Clegg

James Parisot

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

U.S. Politics

Has America always been capitalist? Today, the US sees itself as the heartland of the international capitalist system, its society and politics intertwined deeply with its economic system.

Crises and Hegemonic Transitions: From Gramsci's Quaderni to the Contemporary World Economy

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 20:08:46 +0000

Crises and Hegemonic Transitions

From Gramsci's Quaderni to the Contemporary World Economy

Lorenzo Fusaro

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Economics

Crises and Hegemonic Transitions reworks the concept of hegemony at the international level and analyses its relation to world market crises.

China and the US: Inter-Imperial Rivalry and Solidarity from Below

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 20:07:32 +0000

China and the US

Inter-Imperial Rivalry and Solidarity from Below

Au Loong Yu

Kevin Lin

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

International

The intensifying rivalry between the US and China fills the daily news. The US remains the world’s predominant political and economic power, but it now views China’s growing economic influence as a potential geopolitical challenger, leading it adopt Barack Obama’s Pivot to Asia and Donald Trump’s trade war and threats of a new Cold War.

Energy for the People: The Green New Deal and the Technical/Political Potentials of Grid Transformation

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 20:03:25 +0000

Energy for the People

The Green New Deal and the Technical/Political Potentials of Grid Transformation

Ashley Dawson

Irene Shen

Josh Karpoff

Lia Soorenian

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Environment

The US electric grid is often described as “the largest machine in the world.” Under a Green New Deal, how could this machine be brought under public ownership and social control - and rapidly re-engineered to eliminate carbon emissions?

The People’s Republic of Walmart: How the World’s Biggest Corporations are Laying the Foundation for Socialism

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 19:59:20 +0000

The People’s Republic of Walmart

How the World’s Biggest Corporations are Laying the Foundation for Socialism

Michal Rozworski

Leigh Phillips

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Economics

Since the demise of the USSR, the mantle of the largest planned economies in the world has been taken up by the likes of Walmart, Amazon and other multinational corporations. For the left and the right, major multinational companies are held up as the ultimate expressions of free-market capitalism.

Forging New Radical Traditions in Europe

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 19:55:34 +0000

Forging New Radical Traditions in Europe

Kate Seidel

Daniel Finn

Kathleen Brown

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

International

Waiting for the Post-post-Soviet: Old and New Challenges to Building a Left in Russia Today
- Kate Seidel

Ireland’s Radical Tradition? The IRA and Left Politics in Modern Ireland
- Daniel Finn

After Aufstehen: Prospects for the German Left
- Kathleen Brown

Critical Perspectives on the Venezuelan Crisis

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 19:53:33 +0000

Critical Perspectives on the Venezuelan Crisis

Gabriel Hetland

George Ciccariello-Maher

Andreina Torres

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

International

As the political, economic, and humanitarian crises in Venezuela continue to unfold amid a protracted power struggle between the Maduro regime and the Juan Guaidó-led opposition, how do we contextualize the current moment and what possibly lies ahead?

Sponsored by the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA).

Women's Oppression and Care Work

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 19:50:43 +0000

Women's Oppression and Care Work

Marta Baradic

Edna Bonhomme

Anamarija Šiša

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Women

The relation between political and economic crises and mass female labour migration through history
—Marta Baradic

On the international women's movement in Germany
—Edna Bonhomme

Providing a Marxist-feminist theoretical framework for the understanding of dating practices
—Anamarija Šiša

Critical Perspectives on Law from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 19:48:00 +0000

Critical Perspectives on Law from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century

Camila Vergara

Sam Menefee-Libey

Rob Hunter

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Socialism & Marxism

Law and capitalism are co-constitutive. Commodities, property, and the wage relation are all legally constructed. The relations and conditions of production are also elaborated through law, as Marx described in Chapter 10 of Capital. The critique of capitalism and the articulation of socialism are both improved by recognizing that law is a social relation.

The Question That Never Goes Away: Imperialism, Revolution, and the Agrarian Question in East Asia

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 19:44:52 +0000

The Question That Never Goes Away

Imperialism, Revolution, and the Agrarian Question in East Asia

Tiffany Yang

Harlan Chambers

Benjamin Kindler

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

International

How China's Communist Party approached taxation, particularly grain extraction, from the late 1930s-early 1940s
—Tiffany Yang

The role of cinema in colonialism-induced ecological change during Japanese rule in Taiwan, 1889-1905
—Harlan Chambers

The Chinese Communist Party under Mao Zedong, and the challenge of collective labour through the figure of the "small producer"
—Benjamin Kindler

Anti-Communism and "Taliban Governance" in Pakistan Afghanistan

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 19:42:45 +0000

Anti-Communism and "Taliban Governance" in Pakistan Afghanistan

Zenab Ahmed

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

International

Queer and Trans (Counter)Cultural Marxism

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 19:40:10 +0000

Queer and Trans (Counter)Cultural Marxism

Jordy Cummings

Jules Joanne Gleeson

Omnia Sol

Anja Weiser Flower

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

LGBT

This panel brings together Red Wedge, the only English language Marxist journal with a mission of engaging cultural production as a whole, and the Leftovers communist discussion group. Approaching its eighth anniversary, Red Wedge Magazine makes it a point, as goes our slogan, to “rekindle the revolutionary imagination”, towards what we refer to as a Popular Avant-Garde.

What Would Happen If Bernie Won?: Strategic Opportunities and Challenges for Social Democracy Today

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 19:35:12 +0000

What Would Happen If Bernie Won?

Strategic Opportunities and Challenges for Social Democracy Today

Meagan Day

Nantina Vgontzas

Kate Doyle Griffiths

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

U.S. Politics

The idea of social democracy is regaining popularity in the capitalist core, finding mass expression in two of its most liberalized economies through the campaigns of Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn. In the US, this electoral insurgency has been matched by an even more unexpected growth of the socialist movement. This fledgling Left is faced with enormous opportunities and challenges.

Opioids, Unions, and the Socialist Project: Interrogating Connections, Strategizing Activism

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 19:32:56 +0000

Opioids, Unions, and the Socialist Project

Interrogating Connections, Strategizing Activism

Honoria Guarino

Peter Ikeler

Samuel Friedman

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Labor & Unions

In 2017, opioid overdoses claimed 49,068 lives in the US. This epidemic now surpasses the mortality of the HIV/AIDS crisis at its peak, annual deaths by car accident, suicide, gun violence or chronic kidney disease. Death by opioid also accounts for two thirds of all US overdose deaths, which totaled 72,000 in 2017.

Labor and the Fight for Single Payer Healthcare

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 19:29:41 +0000

Labor and the Fight for Single Payer Healthcare

Sean Petty

Laura Gabby

Jeff Mikkelson

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Healthcare

Academic Workers: Worker-Student Solidarity

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 19:27:14 +0000

Academic Workers

Worker-Student Solidarity

Amelia Horgan

Edward Remus

Sara Swerdlyk

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Labor & Unions

New forms of disciplining at work, and new disciplinary forms of work in the academy, are made invisible by the inability to understand academic work as a form of work.
—Amelia Horgan

One episode in the failure of the New Left to leave a political party for socialism behind
—Edward Remus

Gestational Labor Pains: A Discussion of Sophie Lewis's "Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family"

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 19:24:31 +0000

Gestational Labor Pains

A Discussion of Sophie Lewis's "Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family"

Sophie Lewis

Jules Joanne Gleeson

Natasha Lennard

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Women

A panel on social reproduction, gestation as labor, family abolition, and struggles for reproductive justice, and sex worker rights.

The surrogacy industry is worth over 1 billion dollars a year, and many of its surrogates work in terrible conditions, while many gestate babies for no pay at all. Should it be illegal to pay someone to gestate a baby for you?

Subjectivity and Strategy Against Accursed Austerity

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 19:20:59 +0000

Subjectivity and Strategy Against Accursed Austerity

Bruno Gulli

Despina Lalaki

Chris Knight

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Socialism & Marxism

An examination of the possible ways that new political subjectivities can be conceived and created at the present moment of capitalist austerity, democratic decay, and ideological malaise. In particular, questions of trans-individuation, counter-hegemony, and ecological demands are addressed.

Revolution and Counter-Revolution in the Middle East

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 19:17:28 +0000

Revolution and Counter-Revolution in the Middle East

Yasser Munif

Frieda Afary

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

International

Ten Theses on Science and Research Under a Left Government

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 19:14:38 +0000

Ten Theses on Science and Research Under a Left Government

Cliff Conner

Chris Dols

Seshat Mack

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Environment

Government support for science, industry R&D, and other technical research has been a longstanding feature of American capitalism. Modern science has expanded possibilities for human welfare through incredible advances in medicine, agriculture, and other fields.

Marx at the Arcade

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 19:09:15 +0000

Marx at the Arcade

Jamie Woodcock

John McDonald

Historical Materialism 2019 (NY): Socialism in Our Time

Art & Culture

A book launch panel for Jamie Woodcock's "Marx at the Arcade: Consoles, Controllers, and Class Struggle," published by Haymarket Books.