The Antifada

For the full episode: https://www.patreon.com/posts/antifadas-is-15-77698515 In light of the depressing denouement of last year's railroad conflict, Sean and Matt sit down, in person at last, to discuss the deep history behind how American organized labor got so disorganized and why the labor movement hasn't moved in decades. Why was it that, in the United States, workers institutions had trouble evolving past the infancy of narrow, sectoral, decentralized craft unionism towards...

For the full episode, support the show at patreon.com/theantifada! Ian Svenonius is a rock singer (Nation of Ulysses, The Make-Up, Chain and the Gang) now turned Marxist polemicist with his new book Against the Written Word. We discuss his theory of literacy as a tool of the bourgeoisie and how rock n' roll reeducation camps might be the antidote, and why that might not go far enough for as to completely devolve to our neanderthal origins. Buy Against the Written Word from Akashic...

Andy guests on a weird films podcast and forces them to talk about Marx and revolution for an hour. Movies discussed include: The Menu, Triangle of Sadness, Sorry to Bother You, Young Karl Marx, The Spook Who Sat by the Door, Don't Look Up, Snowpiercer, Tar, Spirited Away by Agnes Varda, and much much more For the full episode support the show at http://patreon.com/theantifada and/or follow Twitch of the Death Nerve on Instagram and Patreon

For the full episode and the rest of the Diving into the Wreckage series, support the show at Patreon.com/TheAntifada Taking a break from the ongoing debt crisis analysis, Sean and Varn lay out a series of first principles. This miniseries is meant to lay out some basics for how to think about the world and act within/upon it, what differentiates our particular political bent from others on the left and ultimately what is to be done with the social knowledge and beliefs that all of us hold...

We ring in the New Year by answering all the questions posed to us on our Discord! Topics include: the terminal crisis of capitalism, pushing Biden to the left, Brenner's recent NLR article, John Brown, animal testing, ecosocialism, and of course, what is to be dun. For the full episode support the show at patreon.com/theantifada Brenner dust-up: https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii138/articles/dylan-riley-robert-brenner-seven-theses-on-american-politics Closing song: Flower - Filth of...

Old friend Eric-John Russell wanders with us through a variety of topics including critical theory of art and culture, the maturation and end of the Situationist International, and our traditional holiday discussion of antisemitism. After the paywall we talk about Triangle of Sadness and Walter Benjamin's Emergency Brake, and if George Costanza is Jewish. For the full episode support the show at patreon.com/theantifada Check out Cured Quail and the interview in Book Forum Read:...

For the 7th episode of Talkin' Tina, the Antifada side project where we discuss the history and politics of America Latina, we chat with a comrade from Oakland about the uprising that occurred in Cuba on July 11th, 2021, via his interview with an anarchist from the island. The interview can be read in full here: https://www.sm28.org/articles/j11-the-return-of-the-cuban-proletariat/ Support the show at Patreon.com/TheAntifada Check out Tamarack in Oakland Song: Afro Cuban Allstars -...

Sean and Varn take a brief intermission from their long-running debt crisis series to check in on the state of the American Left. (Tl;dr it's not looking good.) Where have the forces unleashed by the Bernie wave gone? Why has the social-democratic left become merely an adjunct to the Democratic Party? How come revolutionary organizations have either liquidated themselves into the DSA or remained marginal micro-sects? In what ways might these two coeval paths be overcome and what part might...

It's an unhappy 200th birthday for us, we do a postmortem of the little rail strike couldn't. Is the blame on the squad, Brandon, the unions, or the workers themselves? And what comes next for rail workers and class struggle in general? In the second half we propose a few theories of Musk's Twitter takeover: Thiel-pilled fascist Musk, Hannah Arendt high-liberalism Musk, Gordon Gecko-style corporate raider Musk, Henry Ford productivist-futurist Musk (and why ultimately we believe none of it...

Sean and Rax King of Low Culture Boil talk about Baz Luhrmann's 2022 masterpiece Elvis and suggest that Baz Luhrmann should in fact be tasked with directing the biopics of every single notable person until he dies from exhaustion. We also read a 1956 NYT review of an Elvis performance, where the reviewer says "teenagers" a lot, and bits of Priscilla Presley's memoir Elvis and Me, where Priscilla talks about Elvis' kinks a lot. Check out more great cultural commentary and fun times at...

RARE TUESDAY RELEASE DUE TO 'SCABBIN' JOE BIDEN'S ANNOUNCEMENT TO HAVE CONGRESS PUT THE RAIL WORKERS IN CHAINS National rail strike impending, Sean is joined by Justin Roczniak (@who_shot_jgr) of Well There's Your Problem, your favorite engineering disaster podcast - with slides. If the December 9th deadline for strike action is only the capstone of decades of mismanagement, decline and consolidation of private freight service in the United States, how did things get this way? What...

A preview taste of the spicy half of our episode with Brett from Rev Left about the possibility of communist regeneration in China and MAGA Communism in the US with Brett by supporting the show at patreon.com/theantifada. All patrons receive discord access, bonus material, and, if you DM me your mailing address, a signed letterpress Antifada postcard and stickers from collectively-owned union printshop Radix Media! https://www.patreon.com/posts/ep-198-vs-w-rev-74931782

"Bunker Brett" of Rev Left Radio comes on the show for the first time in years to debate and discuss the contemporary moment for the left, electoralism, the war in Ukraine, China, an what we can learn from First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania Enver Hoxha. For the second half of the episode support the show at Patreon.com/theantifada! Patrons get all bonus material, access to our Discord, and can DM your address for Antifada stickers and a letterpress postcard from Radix...

Jenny Brown is an organizer with National Women’s Liberation, the author of Without Apology: The Abortion Struggle Now, and a former collaborator with the Redstockings. We talk about the how radical feminism/women's liberation went from a splinter of the New Left to shaping the course of women's struggles around the world, how their politics are misunderstood today, how their demands for repealing all laws on abortion was recuperated by a supreme court in need of legitimacy, and why the...

Sean's STRIKE update returns! We talk about the UC academic workers strike, Starbucks, the rail strike, Toronto teachers, and much more. Sean is optimistic we are heading towards an independent working class movement. Andy thinks we'll lose again. In the full episode we tell some spooky Halloween stories about a Thing Under the Bridge, a death rock band destroyed by lesbian cop love, and a very "shitty" Halloween cover band. Support the show at http://patreon.com/theantifada to...

Sports writer and Mets Sicko Richard Staff joins us to talk about the Philadelphia Phillies World Series triumph, the unionization of the minor leagues and other labor conditions of ballplayers, and how the Mets are are the sinew that ties the world of sports and proletarian politics together. For the [full episode]( full episode), including some illicit stories about Keith Hernandez too hot for public consumption, support the show at patreon.com/theantifada The Secret History of Richard...

Jarrod Shanahan is back with an audio essay about his trip to Chicago's Riot Fest to see the Original Misfits--an experience filled not only with the horror of Glenn Danzig's dark lyrics, but also his political rants, the gentrification and recuperation inherent in these reunion festivals themselves, and the fear of getting old. Read the full essay at Hard Crackers Journal: https://hardcrackers.com/hybrid-moments/ Listen to the first episode of Hardcore History on our patreon:...

Sean is joined by the notorious Kevin Rogan, urbanism blogger extraordinaire and Marxist scourge of landlord Twitter, to talk about how housing, development and rent under capitalism. How do housing markets work? (Hint: not at all) Why are landlords objectively both evil and stupid? (Hint: it's baked in) What do NIMBYs/YIMBYs represent? (Hint: two competing factions of capital) How do we fight the land owners and win? And how do tenant unions fit into the broader struggle against...

Part three of our epic (and expanding) examination of the coming sovereign debt crisis with Sean and Derick. In this episode, we focus in on Europe, Italy and Great Britain in particular. What were the contradictions that were papered over in the 2008 financial crisis and the 2010 Eurozone debt crisis? How have various ruling classes tried to cope with secular stagnation of the economy? Will the post-fascist turn be able to overcome the crisis? Could the dying center left do any better? All...

Sean and Andy talk about our various malaises: personal, political, and economic. Why does everything feel like shit in the present moment? Is it just us or... Listen to the full 2 hour episode by supporting the show at https://www.patreon.com/posts/ep-194-gilt-trip-72890666 Topics covered include the ideological seduction of 'the left wing of the possible', the near collapse of pension funds in the UK from zombie Thatcherism, what its like working inside a secure state facility behind...