KPFA - Against the Grain

The banks and financiers are a common target of the left — and often the right — purportedly sucking the lifeblood out of the real industrial economy. Stephen Maher argues that while the financialization of the economy has intensified under neoliberalism, finance has played a central role in the growth of capitalism — and the disciplining of labor — from at least the Gilded Age. He discusses the recent rise of asset management companies Vanguard, State Street, and BlackRock, which have concentrated ownership at a level unprecedented in the history of capitalism. Resources: Scott Aquanno and Stephen Maher, The Fall and Rise of American Finance: From J.P. Morgan to BlackRock Verso, 2024 Photo credit: Lee De Cola The post The Fall and Rise of U.S. Finance appeared first on KPFA.

What does May Day, as an anarchist and socialist political project, commemorate? Nicolas Lampert and Paul Buhle share historical background; Cindy Milstein reviews anarchist principles; Richard Lichtman considers what Marx called alienation; and Paul C. Gray discusses the importance of identifying workers’ issues of concern and creating democratic structures. (Encore presentation.) (Image on main page by Washington Area Spark.) The post May Day Meanings appeared first on KPFA.

What did the abrupt transition from socialism to capitalism in the former Soviet Bloc mean for residents, radicals, and the social order? Helena Sheehan, a Marxist thinker, educator, and activist, devotes a portion of her latest book to the impact and legacy of the momentous events of 1989 and 1990. Helena Sheehan, Until We Fall: Long Distance Life on the Left Monthly Review Press, 2023 The post Socialism to Capitalism appeared first on KPFA.

Over the last forty years, bottled water consumption has exploded. Once a rarefied item, global sales of bottled water dwarf every other beverage — totaling $300 billion a year. Environmental sociologist Daniel Jaffee argues that packaged water doesn’t only imperil our oceans and bodies with plastic waste, but undermines safe public water even more than water privatization. (Encore presentation.) Resources: Daniel Jaffee, Unbottled: The Fight against Plastic Water and for Water Justice UC Press, 2023 The post Commodifying Water appeared first on KPFA.

What insights into Israel/Palestine, and what visions for the region, were articulated by Edward Said? Under what conditions did the Palestinian-American scholar, critic, and activist believe reconciliation and a just coexistence are possible? Jonathan Graubart considers a number of Said’s assertions; he also brings up Ella Shohat’s claims about Zionism’s impact on Mizrahi Jews. (Encore presentation.) Jonathan Graubart, Jewish Self-Determination beyond Zionism: Lessons from Hannah Arendt and Other Pariahs Temple University Press, 2023 The post Edward Said’s Vision appeared first on KPFA.

As the plight of the Palestinians, many of them refugees in their native lands, dominates world headlines, a look at the ways that international policy, though entities like the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, has not been driven by altruistic motives. Instead, as historian Laura Robson argues, much of what takes place under the guise of humanitarian assistance has served to keep a lid on displaced populations, while profiting from their captive labor. Resources: Laura Robson, Human Capital: A History of Putting Refugees to Work Verso, 2023 Photo credit: Mrbrfast The post Exploiting Refugees appeared first on KPFA.

Degrowthers, Half Earthers, advocates of green growth – what distinguishes the ecological left’s various camps? Does it matter if an approach appears impracticable? Is only a post-capitalist future a sustainable one? And which thinkers are driving the debate, or trying to? Benjamin Kunkel considers a range of strategies advanced by contributors to New Left Review. Benjamin Kunkel and Lola Seaton, eds., Who Will Build the Ark? Debates on Climate Strategy from New Left Review Verso, 2023 The post Left Climate Strategies appeared first on KPFA.

U.S. higher education is in the grips of a new McCarthyism over criticisms of Israel. Sociologist William Robinson, himself the target of an unsuccessful campaign by the Anti-Defamation League, considers reports that the Israeli state is directly intervening to stoke repression on U.S. campuses and in U.S. society. He also discusses the political economic conjuncture and why the Palestinians have come to be regarded by elites as a dispensable population. Resources: William I. Robinson, “Israel Has Formed a Task Force to Carry Out Covert Campaigns at US Universities,” Truthout, March 23, 2024 Photo: Jersey Noah via AROC Bay Area The post Repressing Opposition to Israel appeared first on KPFA.

Of what use is utopian thinking? Is hope something we need to cultivate, or rediscover? Jon Greenaway looks at how the German philosopher Ernst Bloch (1885-1977) thought about history, human consciousness, revolution, Marxism, religion, and fascism. Jon Greenaway, A Primer on Utopian Philosophy: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Ernst Bloch ZerO Books, 2024 Mat Callahan and Yvonne Moore, Working-Class Heroes PM Press/Free Dirt, 2019 The post Ernst Bloch’s Utopianism appeared first on KPFA.

Radio is a medium with extraordinary propagandistic power — seductively transmitting ideas into the quotidian intimacy of one’s home and life. That power and potential was recognized early on by the state following the First World World. It was also appreciated by opponents of war, including the anarchist pacifists who founded KPFA Radio and the Pacifica network. As KPFA Radio celebrates its 75th anniversary, historians Matthew Lasar and Iain Boal reflect upon the origins of the legendary station, the mother of listener-sponsored radio. The post Fund Drive Special: War, Peace, and KPFA Radio appeared first on KPFA.

What does bold and militant action in the face of climate calamity look like? What sorts of individual and collective actions should the movement encompass, embrace, or at least tolerate? Chuck Collins explores these questions in a provocative novel packed with information about real-life activists and iconic campaigns. (Encore presentation.) Chuck Collins, Altar to an Erupting Sun Green Writers Press, 2023 Inequality.org DivestInvest The post Fueling Change appeared first on KPFA.

How did a Scottish moral philosopher of the Enlightenment become an apostle of the libertarian right in this country? Political theorist Glory Liu traces the uses of the complex ideas Adam Smith in the United States — from the establishment of the U.S. state, through debates about slavery and inequality, to justifying the ostensible retreat of the state in our era. Resources: Glory M. Liu, Adam Smith’s America: How a Scottish Philosopher Became an Icon of American Capitalism Princeton University Press, 2022 Image: Nicole Marie Photography The post Claiming Adam Smith appeared first on KPFA.

Urban renewal processes and projects have wreaked havoc on many communities of color. Lindsey Dillon reveals how Black San Franciscans have responded to exclusionary forms of development and, more specifically, how Hunters Point residents worked to establish community control over how their neighborhood was redesigned and rebuilt. (Encore presentation.) Camilla Hawthorne and Jovan Scott Lewis, eds., The Black Geographic: Praxis, Resistance, Futurity Duke University Press, 2023 Lindsey Dillon, Toxic City: Redevelopment and Environmental Justice in San Francisco University of California Press, 2024 The post Race & Redevelopment appeared first on KPFA.

Film brings to us — with unparalleled rawness — what feels like the intimate experience of war. But how true is that visceral feeling? And how do the tension and excitement of war on screen ultimately affect our sympathy toward each other and our humanity? David Thomson, one of the greatest film historians of our time, argues that movies — even those with antiwar intentions — perpetuate war. Resources: David Thomson, The Fatal Alliance: A Century of War on Film Harper, 2023 The post War and Film appeared first on KPFA.

What happened to California’s prisons and jails when the Covid pandemic struck? Why did so many people die behind bars, and why were so many on the outside affected (and afflicted)? Hadar Aviram sheds light on multiple aspects of California’s Covid-19 correctional disaster, including activist efforts to prevent it. Hadar Aviram and Chad Goerzen, Fester: Carceral Permeability and California’s COVID-19 Correctional Disaster University of California Press, 2024 (Image on main page by Annette Teng.) The post Covid Carceral Calamity appeared first on KPFA.

The pandemic highlighted the vital importance of care work—whether childcare, nursing home care, medical care or schooling – and the struggles many people face to get sufficient care. Would more public investment solve the crisis? Historian Premilla Nadasen argues that the problem lies with contemporary capitalism itself, as care has become an enormous arena for corporate profit, in which the state is often deeply complicit. (Encore presentation.) Resources: Premilla Nadasen, Care: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (Haymarket Books, 2023) The post Profiting from Care appeared first on KPFA.

While the Supreme Court considers restricting abortion pills, feminists in the Global South have shown the way forward for safe abortions outside of the law. Sociologist Naomi Braine has documented the efforts of networks and collectives of activists, some formed in the struggles against dictatorship in Latin America, who provide information, pills, and support in ending unwanted pregnancies without the need for medical personnel. Resources: Naomi Braine, Abortion Beyond the Law: Building a Global Feminist Movement for Self-Managed Abortion Verso, 2023 If/When/How Digital Defense Fund The post Lessons in Self-Managed Abortion appeared first on KPFA.

What if Earth were furious with humanity? What if revolutionaries took their cues from an unruly planet? Anne Stewart examines depictions of terrestrial upheaval and grassroots rebellion in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead, and other works. Anne Stewart, Angry Planet: Decolonial Fiction and the American Third World University of Minnesota Press, 2022 The post Angry Planet appeared first on KPFA.

Hostility to unions, lax environmental regulations, and –- perhaps less obviously –- far flung rural communities: all of these helped give birth to our express-delivery, buy-on-credit economy. Environmental historian Bart Elmore considers the importance of the American South to the genesis, reach, and ecological damage of five outsized corporations: Walmart, Coca-Cola, FedEx, Bank of America, and Delta Airlines. Resources: Bart Elmore, Country Capitalism: How Corporations from the American South Remade Our Economy and the Planet University of North Carolina Press, 2023 The post Contemporary Capitalism’s Road Through the U.S. South appeared first on KPFA.

Are countries like India and South Africa still committed to coal extraction? What plans are afoot to make a just transition to renewable power? Ashley Dawson describes and evaluates struggles against extractivism and for publicly owned and democratically managed renewable energy. Ashley Dawson, Environmentalism from Below: How Global People’s Movements Are Leading the Fight for Our Planet Haymarket Books, 2024 The post Fossil Fuel Fights appeared first on KPFA.