Vijay Prashad on the CoronaShock Imposed Planetary General Strike

In this episode we interview Vijay Prashad. Prashad is an Indian historian and journalist. He is also the author of thirty books, including Washington Bullets, Red Star Over the Third World, The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World and The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South. He is the Chief Correspondent for Globetrotter and a Columnist for Frontline (India). He is the Chief Editor of LeftWord Books (New Delhi). 

We speak to Prashad mainly about his recent work over at the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, where he serves as the Director. We discuss the concept of CoronaShock and the responses of capitalistic states and socialistic states to the virus. Prashad also discusses racist and anti-communist depictions of China in the western media. We discuss the demands that Tricontinental and the International People’s Assembly have compiled, including demands around universal basic income, the cancellation of debt, the suspension of the dollar as an international currency, an end to housing payments and a guarantee of housing as a human right among others. Finally we discuss Lenin’s 150th birthday and the forthcoming anti-imperialist week of struggle.

Artwork by Ingrid Neves / Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research