Victor's Children Victor's Children

Palestine 101: 75 years of Colonialism, Imperialism, and Resistance

This episode is made up of presentations from a Nov. 12 online event organized by the Tempest Collective https://www.tempestmag.org, a revolutionary socialist project based in the US that now also accepts members from Canada.

Speakers:

Shireen Akram-Boshar, a contributor to Palestine: A Socialist Introduction
Brian Bean, co-editor of Palestine: A Socialist Introduction
https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1558-palestine-a-socialist-introduction
Sherry Wolf, anti-Zionist Jewish socialist; former press officer for the Russell Tribunal on Palestine

Germany 1923: A New Perspective on a Failed Revolution (& a Poem for Palestine)

One hundred years ago, a socialist revolution came close to happening in Germany. This episode is an interview with Sean Larson, who has written an article that draws on original research to illuminate what happened and why:
https://spectrejournal.com/germany-1923/

For further reading:
On the revolution of 1918:
https://jacobin.com/2018/11/german-revolution-centennial-rosa-luxemburg-social-democrats

On Germany 1918-1933:
Germany’s Counterrevolution Paved the Way for the Rise of Nazism
https://jacobin.com/2022/02/german-revolution-november-weimar-republic-luxemburg-nazis

On an important German marxist: Ernst Meyer, Theorist of Revolutionary Realpolitik
https://jacobin.com/2019/09/ernst-meyer-germany-weimar-republic-communism-realpolitik-rosa-luxemberg

On the history of the global workers’ movement:
https://salvage.zone/what-happened-to-the-workers-movement/

***Israel's war on Gaza is on our minds and I hope listeners are involved in Palestine solidarity activity wherever you are.***

At this time, I recommend reading the classic document by Palestinian marxist Jabra Nicola: Theses on the revolution in the Arab East
https://matzpen.org/english/1972-09-14/theses-on-the-revolution-in-the-arab-east-a-said-jabra-nicola/

While obviously over-optimistic, and much has changed in the half-century since it was written, Nicola's analysis helps us understand the impasse into which the PLO led the Palestinian struggle, which allowed Hamas's rise to begin, and why ultimately, because of the specific character of Israeli settler-colonialism, the possibility of radical change within Israel depends on the struggles of the masses in the region, outside as well as inside its borders.

Episode 33: Chinese Imperialism

Episode 31 of this podcast looked at the imperialism of the US, which despite its relative decline is still the most powerful component of global capitalism. In this episode Kevin Lin and Ashley Smith look at the rise of China and US-China rivalry.

Suggestions for Reading:

Ashley Smith, "As US-China Tensions Mount, We Must Resist the Push Toward Interimperialist War"
https://truthout.org/articles/as-us-china-tensions-mount-we-must-resist-the-push-toward-interimperialist-war/

Todd Gordon and Jeff Webber, "Complex Stratification in the World System: Capitalist Totality and Geopolitical Fragmentation" in the academic journal, Science and Society(unfortunately paywalled but the file may be findable elsewhere online), isn't an easy read but suggests a better way of understanding imperialism today than the more influential frameworks. https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/10.1521/siso.2020.84.1.95

Is BRICS+ an Anti-Colonial Formation Worth Cheering From the Left? Far From It.
https://truthout.org/articles/is-brics-an-anti-colonial-formation-worth-cheering-from-the-left-far-from-it/

Taiwan Shouldn't Be Used As A Geopolitical Pawn
https://jacobin.com/2022/11/taiwan-geopolitical-pawn-china-us-international-relations-cold-war-history

Lausan Collective
https://lausancollective.com

New Bloom Magazine -- Radical Perspectives On Taiwan And The Asia Pacific
https://newbloommag.net

The War in Ukraine Drags On: A Conversation with a Russian and a Ukrainian Socialist

A year and a half after Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine, the war
goes on and unfortunately the war is still not well understood
by much of the left outside of those countries. Hanna Perekhoda and
Ilya Matveev discuss Putin's war, some common political
ideas about it on the Western left, the situation in Ukraine and Russia
today, and what people on the left elsewhere can do to help
socialists in Ukraine and Russia.

Hanna and Perekhoda and Ilya Matveev will be participating in a
speakers' tour in several US cities in September 2023
sponsored by the Ukraine Solidarity Network. For details see
https://linktr.ee/ukrainesolidaritynetwork

For a list of groups in Ukraine to support, see:
https://www.midnightsunmag.ca/support-the-left-in-ukraine-and
solidarity-with-the-peoples-of-turkey-kurdistan-and-syria/

Posle, a site of the Russian anti-war left with some content in English:
https://posle.media/language/en/about/

On the arrest of Russian socialist Boris Kagarlitsky:
https://newpol.org/im-a-ukrainian-leftist-this-is-why-i-support-boris-kagarlitsky/

A July 2023 article by Gilbert Achcar worth reading:
https://newpol.org/ukraine-and-the-abstraction-of-violence-my-reply-to-tom-dale/

Episode 31: U.S. Imperialism Today

Although no longer the world's unchallenged dominant power, the
U.S. remains the most powerful state in the economic and political
system of global capitalism. Ashley Smith discusses U.S. imperialism
from the end of the Cold War to today.

Articles by Ashley Smith:

After Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
https://againstthecurrent.org/atc219/after-russias-invasion-of-ukraine/

Biden’s Chip War With China Is an Imperial Struggle for High-Tech Supremacy
https://truthout.org/articles/bidens-chip-war-with-china-is-an-imperial-struggle-for-high-tech-supremacy/

Biden’s National Security Strategy Is a Defense of US Domination, Not Democracy
https://truthout.org/articles/bidens-national-security-strategy-is-a-defense-of-us-domination-not-democracy/

The Politics of the Family, w M.E. O'Brien

Families are political -- part of how most people survive under
capitalism, places of love and support as well as often violence, other
forms of oppression, and suffering. ME O'Brien's new book "Family
Abolition: Capitalism and the Communizing of Care" is an important
radical analysis of families in capitalist society and communist politics
of the family from the mid-1800s to today. David thinks it's one of the
best books of marxist theory he's read in a while, and this episode is
an interview with ME O'Brien about the politics of families and care.

Family Abolition Capitalism and the Communizing of Care
by M. E. O'Brien
https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745343846/family-abolition/