Join the Haymarket Book Club to take 50% off Everything!

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

Jun 2, 2021

Free, Free, Palestine! Biden, Israel and the Fight for Palestinian Liberation

Join Tithi Bhattacharya, Sumaya Awad, Khury Petersen-Smith, and Nerdeen Kiswani for a discussion of Israel, US Empire, and the struggle for Palestinian liberation. Despite Israel’s brutal occupation of Palestine, the Biden administration continues to support it to the hilt, whatever qualms it has with Netanyahu’s far right regime. This webinar will explain the reasons for Washington’s alliance with Israel, what it means for the for Palestinian liberation struggle, and the tasks of the international Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. ---------------------------------------------------- Speakers: Tithi Bhattacharya, Editor, Spectre Journal Sumaya Awad, Co-Editor, Palestine: A Socialist Introduction Nerdeen Kiswani, President, Students for Justice in Palestine at CUNY School of Law Khury Petersen-Smith, Middle East Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies ---------------------------------------------------- This event is sponsored by Spectre Journal and Haymarket Books. Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/yK1o1WV5EuQ Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Listen now
Jun 3, 2021

PIC Abolition, the War on Terror, and the Deportation Machine

Join Amna Akbar, Aziz Rana, Darakshan Raja, and Silky Shah for a discussion of how the War on Terror fuels our deportation machine and how to dismantle both. Immigrant and racial justice organizers are calling for the abolition of the war on terror and the deportation machine. This panel will discuss how recent campaigns change the terrain of debates within policy spheres and create new openings for organizing. The panel will analyze developments within contemporary abolitionist organizing and put it in conversation with the internationalism of 20th century left social movements. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Speakers: Silky Shah is the Executive Director of Detention Watch Network, a national coalition building power to abolish immigration detention in the United States. She has worked as an organizer on issues related to immigration detention, the prison industrial complex, and racial and migrant justice for nearly 20 years. Darakshan Raja is the co-director of the Justice For Muslims Collective, a community-based organization that works to dismantle structural Islamophobia through community organizing and empowerment, raising political consciousness and narrative shifting, and building strategic alliances across movements. Aziz Rana is a professor of law at Cornell University, and his research focuses on how shifting notions of race, citizenship, and empire have shaped American legal and political identity. He is the author of The Two Faces of American Freedom (Harvard University Press, 2014). Amna Akbar is a professor of law at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. She writes about policing and social movements, with a focus on grassroots demands for social change. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/o2IER14CyMA Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Listen now
Jun 4, 2021

Lawyering for Liberation w/ Derecka Purnell and Amna Akbar

Join Law for Black Lives, Amna Akbar and Derecka Purnell for a discussion about what it means for lawyers to build the power of the law. Law for Black Lives is a national community of radical lawyers and legal workers committed to transforming the law and building the power of organizing to defend, protect and advance Black Liberation across the globe. ---------------------------------------------------- Speakers: Amna Akbar is a professor of law at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. She writes about policing and social movements, with a focus on grassroots demands for social change. Derecka Purnell is is a human rights lawyer, writer, and organizer. Since graduating from Harvard Law School, she has worked to end police and prison violence nationwide by providing legal assistance, research, and trainings to community based organizations through an abolitionist framework. Derecka is currently a columnist at The Guardian and Deputy Director of Spirit of Justice Center. She is the author for the forthcoming book Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom. Marbre Stahly-Butts, Executive Director of Law for Black Lives works closely with organizers and communities across the country to advance and actualize radical policy. Marbre is currently a member of the Advisory Committee for National Bail Out Collective, the group behind Black Mama's Day Bail Out. She currently serves on the Leadership Team of the Movement For Black Lives Policy Table and helped develop the Vision for Black Lives Policy Platform. Since graduating from Yale Law School in 2013, Marbre has supported local and national organizations from across the country in their policy development and advocacy. She joined the Center for Popular Democracy as a Soros Justice Fellow in Fall 2013. Her Soros Justice work focused on organizing and working with families affected by aggressive policing and criminal justice policies in New York City in order to develop meaningful bottom up policy reforms. While in law school, Marbre focused on the intersection of criminal justice and civil rights and gained legal experience with the Bronx Defenders, the Equal Justice Initiative and the Prison Policy Initiative. Before law school Marbre received her Masters in African Studies from Oxford University and worked in Zimbabwe organizing communities impacted by violence and then in South Africa teaching at Nelson Mandela’s alma mater. Marbre graduated from Columbia University, with a BA in African-American History and Human Rights. ---------------------------------------------------- This event is co-sponsored by Haymarket Books and Law for Black Lives. Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/Jxvem9THmsc Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Listen now
Jun 7, 2021

The Power of Community-Generated Research in our Work for Justice

Join Haymarket Books, and a coalition of partners for a discussion of the power of community-led research, education, & knowledge creation. This is a panel discussion with speakers and groups whose deep commitment to work grounded in community, in liberatory processes, and in challenging injustice at its core, are deeply inspiring and so relevant for this moment. Speakers will share their wisdom, experience, and analysis as we think together about the ways that our work for justice is strengthened and deepened by truly embodying a commitment to community-rooted and community-generated processes --and what that looks like in practice. ---------------------------------------------------- About the groups: Makan is a Palestinian-led educational organization based in the UK. Through its knowledge and capacity-building programs, Makan strengthens voices calling for Palestinian rights across the grassroots and advocacy sphere. https://www.makan.org.uk/ Justice For Muslims Collective is a grassroots organization that works to dismantle structural and institutionalized forms of Islamophobia in the greater Washington region through political consciousness and narrative shifting, community organizing and healing justice, and building alliances. https://www.justiceformuslims.org/ Confronting white supremacy, hegemonic masculinity, heteronormativity, & colonial heritages, the Democratizing Knowledge Project focuses on producing transformative knowledges & collectivities that result in inclusive publics in higher education. Feminist Freedom Warriors (FFW) is a first of its kind digital video archive that uses oral history to document the lives & work of feminist scholar-activists of the later 20th century to today. https://democratizingknowledge.syr.edu/ http://feministfreedomwarriors.org/ PARCEO is a resource and education center, rooted in principles of Participatory Action Research, that partners with community groups & institutions seeking to deepen their work for justice. https://parceo.org/ ---------------------------------------------------- Speakers: Tamara Ben-Halim, co-founder and co-director, Makan Darakshan Raja, co-director, Justice for Muslims Collective Chandra Talpade Mohanty and Linda Carty, co-founders Democratizing Knowledge & Feminist Freedom Warriors Nina Mehta, co-director, PARCEO (Moderator) ---------------------------------------------------- Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/gdOOsPz5048 Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Listen now
Jun 11, 2021

Celebrating Black Women's Leadership w/ Angela Davis, Barbara Ransby, & more

Join Barbara Ransby, Angela Davis, Andrea James, LaTosha Brown, and M Adams for “Celebrating Black Women’s Leadership, Then & Now” part of the 11th annual Beyond the Bars Conference. Beyond the Bars - Towards Freedom: Violence, Safety and Abolition in 2021 This year marks the 11th annual Beyond the Bars Conference, coming one year after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in which multiple crises have unfolded, and the growth of social movements struggling for a more just and safe world have increased significantly. Given this, we hope to create deep and thoughtful conversations about the many forms of violence that our society has experienced; to surface and examine the ways in which movements are pushing for community and public safety in ways that do not reenforce the carceral state; and to explore why abolition has become so prevalent in the conversations, strategies and demands in the work of transforming approaches to justice and safety. In addition, we will take time to honor and celebrate the leadership of women impacted by incarceration, and the leadership of Black women, and all that we have and can learn from their work. And we will spend time building and amplifying the work of grassroots organizing. Conference Sponsors The Ford Foundation, Trinity Church Wall Street, the New York Women's Foundation, Columbia School of Social Work Student Services, Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Diversity and Inclusion, the Eric H. Holder Jr. Inititiave for Civil and Political Rights, the Division of Social Science, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Columbia University. Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/pX4C0fucXjk Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Listen now
Jun 12, 2021

Celebrating Black Women's Leadership, Then & Now (Part II)

Join Roberta Meyers Douglas, Fallon McClure, Fenika Miller, and Tiffany Roberts for Part 2 of “Celebrating Black Women’s Leadership, Then and Now” part of the 11th annual Beyond the Bars Conference. Beyond the Bars - Towards Freedom: Violence, Safety and Abolition in 2021 This year marks the 11th annual Beyond the Bars Conference, coming one year after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in which multiple crises have unfolded, and the growth of social movements struggling for a more just and safe world have increased significantly. Given this, we hope to create deep and thoughtful conversations about the many forms of violence that our society has experienced; to surface and examine the ways in which movements are pushing for community and public safety in ways that do not reenforce the carceral state; and to explore why abolition has become so prevalent in the conversations, strategies and demands in the work of transforming approaches to justice and safety. In addition, we will take time to honor and celebrate the leadership of women impacted by incarceration, and the leadership of Black women, and all that we have and can learn from their work. And we will spend time building and amplifying the work of grassroots organizing. Conference Sponsors The Ford Foundation, Trinity Church Wall Street, the New York Women's Foundation, Columbia School of Social Work Student Services, Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Diversity and Inclusion, the Eric H. Holder Jr. Inititiave for Civil and Political Rights, the Division of Social Science, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Columbia University. Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/pX4C0fucXjk Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Listen now