Is There a Liberal Universalist Politics in the Pandemic?

The book is a response to some of the ways in which philosophers have responded to the pandemic, including Judith Butler and Beauvoir. The authors say they wanted to show that analysis doesn't replace organizing; there's a guiding factor. They were also trying to get their thoughts in order with one other thing: There's more class-based discussion than left pundit class has brought up recently.

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In this episode we speak to three of the contributors to On Necrocapitalism: A Plague Journal, which is available from Kersplebedeb and you can find that at leftwingbooks.net.

On Necrocapitalism was collectively authored by a writing group known as M.I. Asma which included J. Moufawad-Paul, Devin Zane Shaw, Mateo Andante, Johannah May Black, Alyson Escalante, and D.W. Fairlane. In this conversation we speak with Alyson Escalante, J. Moufawad Paul and Devin Zane Shaw.

The authors introduce themselves in a little more detail in the episode, but Alyson Escalante you probably know as the co-host of Red Menace Podcast and J. Moufawad Paul and Devin Zane Shaw have both written multiple books. First written in blog form, On Necrocapitalism was written through weekly entries throughout the first year of the pandemic.

The authors approached the pandemic as an occasion to think capitalism according to what it always has been, what the pandemic reveals about its current ideological deployment, and how we can think about a communist alternative in the face of exterminism.

As we deal with the omicron surge and in the US as we deal with dimensions of capitalism that have only continued to become more necrotic after the pacification of the electoral process. This two part conversation and the book On Necrocapitalism are as timely as ever. Reminding us of the death worlds of the pandemic we’re still in, the possibilities of rebellion and the ways in which our uprisings can ultimately be pacified.

By the end of the year, we will have put out 49 episodes of Millennials Are Killing Capitalism this year. With all of the planning, outreach, reading, editing, and recording time we put into this it has become a full-time endeavor for us. A reminder that if you enjoy these conversations, and can afford to give even $1 a month towards our patreon, it all adds up and goes a long way towards sustaining the level of output we’ve been able to maintain this year.

In this part we talk about the origin of the On Necrocapitalism project. Discussing the necrosis that is always within capitalism. The bad bourgeois and “left pundit” frames that were trotted out in the beginning of the pandemic. The way the pandemic most impacted groups of people on specific margins of bourgeois society. We touch on the authors’ use of proletarian feminism and social reproduction theory. We talk about how the pandemic shifted amid rebellion, talk about the entry of abolitionist demands into the mainstream and begin to discuss the onset of pacification - an issue we will delve into more deeply in part 2.

Links to some (not all) of the work of our guests, beyond On Necrocapitalism:

Alyson Escalante - Red Menace Podcast

Some of Alyson's writings at Cosmonaut and Regeneration

Beyond Negativity: What Comes After Gender Nihilism?

J. Mouwafad-Paul - MLM Mayhem Blog

A Communist Necessity

Continuity and Rupture

Critique of Maoist Reason

Demarcation and Demystification

Methods Devour Themselves

Austerity Apparatus

Devin Zane Shaw