Gramsci and the Struggle for Democratic Communism

Michael Wayne
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Politics
  • Updated Weekly

Across nine 25-30 minute episodes this podcast gives an introduction to the arguments I set out in my book 'Gramsci and the Struggle for Democratic Communism' published by Bloomsbury in 2026.

Episodes

  1. Jun 1

    9. Gramsci and the Contradictions of the Coming Revolution

    In the final episode of the podcast I sketch an answer to the question: what form of political rule can facilitate a democratic transition out of capitalism?

    27 min

  2. May 17

    8: Gramsci and the Venezuelan Revolution

    What might revolutionary hegemony look like in a modern setting? In this episode we travel to the Venezuelan revolution under the leadership of Hugo Chavez and explore its affinities with Gramsci's philosophy of revolution.

    25 min

  3. May 11

    7. Gramsci and the British Cultures of Neo-Liberalism

    In this, episode 7, I explore the British cultures of neo- liberalism between 1997 until the present day, using a Gramscian optic to understand the British crisis, political and economic.

    27 min

  4. May 4

    6. Gramsci, Stuart Hall and Thatcherism

    In this, episode 6, I discuss Stuart Hall's Gramscian analysis of Thatcherism in the 1980s as a way of developing Grasmci's analysis of the political management of antagonisms in class democracies.

    33 min

  5. Apr 27

    5. Gramsci and the Philosophers of the Western Public Sphere

    In this, episode 5. I discuss Gramsci's thinking in relation to three of his contemporaries from the United States - all New Yorkers. They are the philosopher John Dewey, the public relations genius Edward Bernays and the newspaper man and philosopher Walter Lippmann. None of these figures are interested in developing the kind of working class public sphere that we saw Trotsky wanted to develop. But coming from the most advanced and dense mass communications space on the planet, they have plenty to tell us about how elite hegemony works in class democracies.

    36 min

  6. Apr 20

    4. Gramsci & Trotsky on Culture

    In this, episode 4, I am going to look at Leon Trotsky’s book Problems of Everyday Life, which explores the importance of culture in the context of revolutionary political change. Along the way we can compare his thinking with Antonio Gramsci for whom culture was also a critical political question.  This episode illustrates the profound democratic ethos of communism, which has yet to find a political form of rule that can express that ethos while managing a transition away from capitalism.

    26 min

  7. Apr 13

    3. Gramsci, Lenin & Hegemony

    In this, episode 3, I am going to be talking about Lenin’s contribution to the concept of hegemony,  how he developed it as a critique of what he called ‘economism’, and as a strategic guide for revolutionary practice. But there are limits to Lenin’s thinking about hegemony and I will use Gramsci's take on it to explore these limits and their practical political consequences.

    31 min

  8. Apr 6

    2. Gramsci & Capitalist State Development

    In this, episode 2, I am going to give a brief introduction to Gramsci’s biography and then talk about his analysis of Italian history from the mid-nineteenth century through to the 1920s and the rise of fascism.  I will talk of elite hegemony, revolutionary hegemony and passive revolution: key Gramscian terms.

    29 min
  9. 1. The Democratic Deficit

    Mar 30

    1. The Democratic Deficit

    In this, episode 1, I will consider how it was that communism and democracy diverged so radically in the twentieth century – to the extent that putting those two words, communism and democracy, together, is likely to raise at the very least, a sceptical eyebrow or two, if not outright guffaws of laughter.

    27 min

  10. Season 1, Episode 1 Trailer

    Trailer

    How can Gramsci help us re unite the words 'democracy' and 'communism'? I explore this question in a series of 9 episodes based on my recently published book.

    1 min

Trailer

About

Across nine 25-30 minute episodes this podcast gives an introduction to the arguments I set out in my book 'Gramsci and the Struggle for Democratic Communism' published by Bloomsbury in 2026.

Information

You Might Also Like