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Podcast

Communism, Abolition, States, and the Future of the Left

Join authors David Camfield and brian bean as they discuss a historical approach to abolition, the state, and how our side can build a genuinely liberatory alternative to capitalism.

Increasingly, people are responding to the contemporary crises underwritten by capitalism by exploring the politics of communism. Camfield and bean will draw on historical lessons and debates to bring nuance to the meaning of “solidarity” and clarity to what “abolition” and “revolution” look like in practice as they take on key questions on what this current period of radicalization means for the future of the left.

More on Red Flags:

Red Flags traces the path from the 1917 Russian Revolution to the construction of the world’s first AES society: the USSR. It also looks at the post-revolution societies created along the same lines in China and Cuba. Using the intellectual tools of historical materialism, Red Flags argues that they were not in fact moving towards communism because the social relations remained fixed in class exploitation. The workers were never liberated.

At a time of burgeoning anti-communism from both conservatives and liberals, this book is an accessible, vibrant synthesis of the history of communism that draws on the latest research to develop a rigorous analysis of the contradictions and uneasy truths the left needs to confront if it is to build a genuinely liberatory alternative to capitalism.

https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/red-flags

More on Their End is Our Beginning:

Where do cops come from and what do they do? How did “modern policing” as we know it today come to be? What about the capitalist state necessitates policing? In this clear and comprehensive account of why and how the police—the linchpin of capitalism—function and exist, organizer and author brian bean presents a clear case for the abolition of policing and capitalism.

Their End Is Our Beginning traces the roots and development of policing in global capitalism through colonial rule, racist enslavement, and class oppression, along the way arguing how police power can be challenged and, ultimately, abolished. bean draws from extensive interviews with activists from Mexico to Ireland to Egypt, all of whom share compelling and knowledgeable perspectives on what it takes to—even if temporarily—take down the cops and build a thriving community-organized society, free from the police.

Get Their End is Our Beginning: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2540-their-end-is-our-beginning

Speakers:

David Camfield’s most recent book is Red Flags: A Reckoning with Communism for the Future of the Left. David’s other books are Future on Fire: Capitalism and the Politics of Climate Change, We Can Do Better: Ideas for Changing Society, and Canadian Labour in Crisis: Reinventing the Workers’ Movement. David lives in Winnipeg and teaches in Labour Studies and Sociology at the University of Manitoba. A longtime active socialist, David is on the editorial board of Midnight Sun and hosts the podcast Victor’s Children. His website is prairiered.ca

brian bean is a Chicago-based socialist organizer, writer, and agitator originally from North Carolina. They are one of the founding editors of Rampant Magazine. Their work has been published in Truthout, Jacobin, Tempest, Spectre, Red Flag, New Politics, Socialist Worker, International Viewpoint, and more. They coedited and contributed to the book Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, and wrote Their End is Our Beginning: Cops, Capitalism, and Abolition, both from Haymarket Books.

Watch the live event recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac6I29c07N0

Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org

More Episodes

Apr 13, 2021

Salvage Live! David Graeber's Strategic Lessons for the Left w/ James Meadway & Hannah Appel

Salvage and Haymarket Books host a conversation on what we can learn about politics, capitalism, and resistance from the late David Graeber. The anarchist theorist and anthropologist David Graeber died last year—far too young—and produced an outpouring of grief across the global Left. Occurring as it did, during the last quarter of a long, bleak year, with few prospects of dramatic improvements ahead, the loss of Graeber’s optimism not only of the will, but of the intellect, was felt as a body blow. Building on James Meadway’s article in Salvage #9, Annie Olaloku-Teriba and Barnaby Raine will host a conversation between James and Hannah Appel—David Graeber’s friend and collaborator—on the lessons offered to the Left by Graeber’s life and thought. This will be the first in the new ongoing Salvage Live events series, hosted by Haymarket Books. ---------------------------------------------------- Read James Meadway's article here: https://salvage.zone/articles/acting-as-if-one-is-already-free-david-graebers-political-economy-and-the-strategic-impasse-of-the-left/ For more from Salvage: https://salvage.zone/ Speakers: James Meadway is an economist and former economic advisor to Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell. He is writing a book on the pandemic and capitalism Hannah Appel is an anthropologist and activist. She teaches at UCLA, organizes with the Debt Collective, and and is a co-author of Can't Pay Won't Pay: the Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition. Annie Olaloku-Teriba is a writer and podcaster whose research focuses on how neoliberalism has transformed the theory and practice of ‘race.’ Barnaby Raine is writing his PhD at Columbia University on visions of ending capitalism. He teaches at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research ---------------------------------------------------- This event is co-sponsored by Haymarket Books and Salvage. ---------------------------------------------------- Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/oO9dUa9b1-I Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Apr 14, 2021

Poets Stand with Kashmir w/ Nate Marshall, Jamila Woods, Ahmer,Tommy Pico & more

Join Stand with Kashmir and Haymarket Books for a collaborative event series uplifting the work of artists and activists fighting for self-determination and abolition in the face of police brutality, militarism, and settler-colonialism. We will celebrate transnational and inter-movement resistance, exploring both the similarities between the different movements and the aspects that make each unique in its way. We will feature activists, artists and scholars from each movement to tell their story of resistance and resilience, and to strengthen solidarity across borders Participants: Ahmer is a prolific rapper and producer from Srinagar, Kashmir. Since a young age, Ahmer has been acutely aware of the violence that plagues that valley, and his lyrics reflect a self-critical and self-aware artist that is trying to make sense of one of the most complex issues of our time. By diving deep into his and his family’s history in the valley. https://azadirecords.com/artist/ahmer/ Destiny Harris is a Black, queer abolitionist and organizer from the west side of Chicago. She is a sophomore, sociology major at Howard University. She believes in the power of grassroots organizing as a vehicle to building collective power and achieving liberation throughout the diaspora. Her work is at the intersection of abolition, anti-war, anti-militarism and environmental liberation. Destiny believes in the power of storytelling, poetry and culture as means of mobilization that should always be driving our movements. She has organized all throughout the city on campaigns like #DefundCPD, #CopsOutCPS and the #NoCopAcademy campaign which aimed to combat the narrative that our communities need police. She is currently a member of Dissenters. Destiny is now working around environmental liberation with Generation Green. Uzma Falak is a DAAD doctoral fellow at the Department of Anthropology, University of Heidelberg. Her work has appeared in The Economic and Political Weekly, Al Jazeera, Warscapes, The Caravan, Himal Southasian, Anthropology and Humanism, The Electronic Intifada, and anthologies like Of Occupation and Resistance, Gossamer: An Anthology of Contemporary World Poetry, among others. Her film ‘Till then the Roads Carry Her’ has been screened at numerous film festivals. She was an invited artist-scholar at Warwick’s Tate Exchange, 2018 (Tate Modern, London). Her ethnographic poem ‘Point of Departure’ won an Honourable Mention in the Society for Humanistic Anthropology’s 2017 Ethnographic Poetry Award. Tommy “Teebs” Pico is a poet, podcaster, and tv writer. He is author of the books IRL, Nature Poem, Junk, Feed, and myriad keen tweets including “sittin on the cock of the gay.” Originally from the Viejas Indian reservation of the Kumeyaay nation, he now splits his time between Los Angeles and Brooklyn. He co-curates the reading series Poets with Attitude, co-hosts the podcast Food 4 Thot and Scream, Queen! is poetry editor at Catapult Magazine, writes on the FX show Reservation Dogs, and is a contributing editor at Literary Hub. https://tommy-pico.com/ Jamila Woods is an activist, award-winning poet, and singer/songwriter whose inspirations include Gwendolyn Brooks and Toni Morrison, as well as Erykah Badu and Kendrick Lamar. As a solo artist, she specializes in an accessible yet non-commercial form of R&B that is rooted in soul and wholly modern, which can be heard on her albums HEAVN (2016) and LEGACY! LEGACY! (2019). She is also the co-editor of The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 2: Black Girl Magic. https://www.jamila-woods.com/ This event is sponsored by Haymarket Books and Stand with Kashmir. Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/YXf1wQ0ZWOM Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Apr 21, 2021

Socialism and the Struggle for Palestine

A conversation about Palestine, socialism, and anti-imperialist solidarity across borders. Palestine holds a central place in socialist organizing, and the role of socialism is crucial to the struggle to free Palestine. To mark the recent publication of Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, our speakers will discuss possibilities for connecting the struggle against occupation and apartheid in Palestine, to the international solidarity movement and growing support for socialism across the globe. We will analyse the impact of recent normalization agreements between Israel and Arab states, the upcoming Palestinian Authority elections, and how we can build a global socialist movement that tackles Israeli apartheid. Join Sumaya Awad, brian bean and Yara Hawari for a discussion on these themes, chaired by Ilan Pappé. Palestine: A Socialist Introduction systematically tackles a number of important aspects of the Palestinian struggle for liberation, contextualizing it in an increasingly polarized world and offering a socialist perspective on how full liberation can be won. Contributors include: Jehad Abusalim, Shireen Akram-Boshar, Omar Barghouti, Nada Elia, Toufic Haddad, Remi Kanazi, Annie Levin, Mostafa Omar, Khury Petersen-Smith, and Daphna Thier. Order the book: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1558-palestine-a-socialist-introduction Speakers: Sumaya Awad is a Palestinian writer and socialist organizer based in New York City. Her writings focus on Palestine, anti-imperialism, Islamophobia, and immigration, and have been featured in the Feminist Wire, In These Times, Open City, and Jacobin, among others. She is currently Director of Strategy at the Adalah Justice Project. Sumaya is the co-editor of Palestine: A Socialist Introduction. brian bean is a Chicago-based socialist activist, writer, and speaker originally from North Carolina. He is one of the founding editors of Rampant magazine. His work has been published in Jacobin, Socialist Worker, Red Flag, International Viewpoint, Bel Ahmar بالأحمر) ) and other publications. He is co-editor of Palestine: A Socialist Introduction. Yara Hawari is a Palestinian writer and political commentator. She completed her PhD in Middle East Politics at the University of Exeter, where her research focused on oral history and Indigenous Studies. She currently works as a senior analyst at Al-Shabaka, a Palestinian think tank. Her first book, The Stone House, is forthcoming with Hajar Press. Ilan Pappé is the bestselling author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine: A History of Modern Palestine and The Israel/Palestine Question. Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/rZMo7NdjzF8 Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Apr 26, 2021

Imperialism and Militarism in the Sahel and East Africa

Join a panel of experts for a discussion of the growing imperialist interventions into the Sahel and East Africa, and how to fight them. The United States is escalating its military presence in Africa, with the construction of new military bases, drone facilities, and more. Both the CIA and Pentagon are conducting operations with little to no public scrutiny. France and other major powers are also increasing their presence to 'combat terrorism' and protect what it regards as its “own” strategic resources, including land, oil and uranium. The militarization and the conflict it perpetuates in and around the Sahara has created extremely dire circumstances for the people of the region, creating a major barrier to working class organizing on the continent. Understanding these dynamics is critical for building international solidarity from the Sahel to East Africa and beyond. Speakers; Samar Al-Bulushi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at University of California, Irvine. Her research is broadly concerned with surveillance, militarism, and policing in the context of the so-called 'War on Terror' in East Africa. She is a contributing editor at Africa is a Country and her work has appeared in The Guardian, Al-Jazeera, Intercepted, Jacobin, Pambazuka, and Africa is a Country. Brittany Meché is the Gaius Bolin Postdoctoral Fellow in Environmental Studies at Williams College. Brittany earned her PhD in Geography from the University of California, Berkeley, and she is currently writing a book about transnational security regimes, environmental knowledge, and the afterlives of empire in the West African Sahel. Alex Thurston is Assistant Professor Political Science at the University of Cincinnati. He is the author of three books, most recently Jihadists of North Africa and the Sahel: Local Politics and Rebel Groups, published by Cambridge University Press in 2020. Facilitator: Andom Ghebreghiorgis is a former special education teacher who recently ran for Congress in NY’s 16th District. He is active with the Eritrean justice organization One Day Seyoum and is a member of Lower Hudson Valley DSA and the DSA International Committee. This event is co-sponsored by Africa Is A Country, the DSA International Committee, and Haymarket Books. Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/gu3tZy6KLCE Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Apr 28, 2021

Africa Uprising: Activism and Resistance on the Continent

Join a panel of experts for a discussion of the insurgent social movements sweeping across Africa. Across the continent, social movements are rising up and taking to the streets. Organizing against police brutality, militarism, budget and subsidy cuts and for democracy, human rights and liberation, activists are building on a long tradition of struggle to demand change. Join us for a live conversation with organizers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Nigeria and Sudan on lessons from their movements and building international solidarity. Speakers: Fred Bauma is a leader of the pro-democracy youth group LUCHA, which advocates for nonviolent, community-level change and governmental reform in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was arrested in March 2015 and spent 18 months in prison, where he faced the death penalty for organizing peaceful protests calling for rule of law. Lai Brown is the Organising Secretary of Automobile, Boatyards, Transport, Equipment and Allied Senior Staff Association (AUTOBATE), a writer and the National Secretary of Socialist Workers and Youth League (SWL) Amar Jamal is a Sudanese writer, translator, post-graduate student of anthropology, and part of the inaugural class of Africa is a Country Fellows. Mzalendo Wanjira Wanjiru is a Co-founder of Mathare Social Justice Center and a member of Women in Justice Centres and Social Justice Movements. Facilitator: Nanre Nafziger-Mayegun is Executive Committee Co-Chair, DSA AfroSocialist and Socialists of Color Caucus. This event is co-sponsored by Africa Is A Country, the DSA International Committee, the DSA Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus, and Haymarket Books. Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/q1l-XHJOJv0 Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
May 3, 2021

Uprising Against the Coup: Myanmar and the Regional Struggle for Democracy

Join Haymarket Books and Spectre for a discussion of the ongoing struggle for democracy in Myanmar and beyond. On February 1st, the military in Myanmar annulled democratic elections and seized power in a coup. In response, the country’s people have risen up, staging an unending wave of mass protests and strikes against the regime. The military has responded with brutal repression, killing hundreds throughout the country. This struggle comes on the heels of similar uprisings in Hong Kong and Thailand. Join this Spectre Live! webinar to hear speakers discuss the uprising and its implications for the fight for democracy throughout the region. Speakers: Thiti Jamkajornkeiat is a Ph.D. candidate in South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently involved with the Association for Thai Democracy (ATD) based in the US. His doctoral research investigates anti-capitalist praxis, decolonization, and leftist internationalism in post-war Indonesia with an endeavor to conceptualize Marxism from the periphery. Me Me Khant is from Yangon, Myanmar and is a candidate for Master’s in International Policy (MIP) and Knight-Hennessy Scholar at Stanford University. She began her activism for democratic cause in Myanmar as a Students’ Union leader before coming to the United States. A poet and activist, she has written and spoken out about human rights challenges in Myanmar – especially regarding women’s rights, ethnic minority issues, and freedom of speech. She's a co-founder of Virtual Demonstrations Movement and has been organizing both virtual and in-person rallies in the Myanmar diaspora community, including Milk Tea Alliance rallies and global protests. Kevin Lin writes about China's labor movement and the Hong Kong protest movement. Geoffrey Aung is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University. Zachary Levenson is an editor of Spectre. He teaches sociology at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro and is a senior research associate at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. This event is sponsored by Spectre Journal and Haymarket Books. Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/1DnxfeAcRKI Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks