Auxiliary Statements

Alright here it is friends, the episode where we solve the JFK assassination. Not much else to say. Think we solved this one forever. Not that complicated tbh. This was recorded in a marathon podcasting session and next week's episode will be the fourth and final part on our series on The Devil's Chessboard. But don't worry, we'll be back with more crankery sometime down the line. We barely even talked about the B*shes! Reading: Part III, The Devil’s Chessboard (2015), David Talbot

This week, we sat down to watch BBC's Cuba! Africa! Revolution!, a documentary all about Cuba's internationalist adventures in the African continent. And tell you what, we here at Auxiliary Statements are not above admitting this is the first time we've been exposed to this absolutely kick ass era of history. Turns out Cuba was involved not only in helping out Congolese freedom fighters after friend of the podcast Patrice Lumumba was assassinated, but they also got involved in Burkina Faso and Angola in dramatic fashion. We do our best this week to relate those stories as we kick of a bit of a "Cuba series"....what could that mean? Only time will tell. But let's just say it doesn't end well for one very plucky and sickly Boston Irishman. Watching: Cuba! Africa! Revolution (aka Cuba, an African Oddessy, dir. Jihan El-Tahri (2007).

Those few faithful listeners will know we've been flirting with the idea of worker's parties and how on earth we're supposed to build a mass movement recently...and we haven't really gotten anywhere those questions. So we did the sensible thing and brought on someone who actually knows what they're talking about. That's right everybody we got the one and only Cliff Connolly to talk about two articles he wrote for Cosmonaut Magazine - "Build a Mass Party!" and "Revolutionary Discipline and Sobriety". Topics include autonomism vs. the mass party, the role of the cadre, socialist cultural institutions and sobriety amongst revolutionaries. This one's a good'un, folks! Check out Cliff's articles below: https://cosmonautmag.com/2021/02/create-a-mass-party/ https://cosmonautmag.com/2020/08/revolutionary-discipline-and-sobriety-2/

Jack and Dan continue their adventure through the classical Marxists modes of production. This week the lads find themselves in the slave states of ancient Athens and Rome once again under the trusted tutelage of Ellen Meiksins Wood. To what extent does this ancient civilisations mode of production deserve the descriptor ‘slave’? To what extent was production dominated by slavery and how did the peculiar and unique civil, legal and political status of the free citizen affect class relations. Contrast is also drawn between the democracy that defined politics in the ancient world and its modern iteration. In what way do the economic class relations of capitalism and particularly its historically unique form of exploitative class relation preclude in a modern context a form of democracy analogues to that found in the ancient world. Reading: Ellen Meiksins Wood, Labour and Democracy, Ancient and Modern. From Democracy Against Capitalism, Renewing Historical Materialism (1995)

Jack and Dan might well be flirting with primitivism once again this week as the lads find themselves asking the question, was the Neolithic agricultural ‘revolution’ ultimately a mistake for human civilisation; a back step and not the moment of its genesis? For it turns out, according to Marshall Sahlins, Palaeolithic humans may well have had it made! For Sahlins, pre-agricultural life, far from being haunted by want, hunger and privation, was in fact a form of life that provided both food and leisure time in abundance. This isn’t to say that everything was rosy for our primitive communist forbears, life certainly had its hardships. But it’s certainly not the case that this early mode of production was simply a hurdle to be overcome on the onward march of civilisation. Palaeolithic life was as rich, stable and cultured as any other mode of human economic existence. Also up for discussion, black holes, baseball trades and some considerations on emo! Reading: Marshall Sahlins, The Original Affluent Society (1968) https://libcom.org/files/Sahlins%20-%20Stone%20Age%20Economics.pdf

Another 10 episodes, another recap. Well folks, we like to think we've come a long way since out first few episodes. This week we talk about what's changed our thinking in the last ten episodes, specifically in regard to the system of socialism outlined in the Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution. How do we materialize working class anger? How can we help bring the class struggle to its conclusion? Well, Dan and Jack sit down this week and attempt to answer just those very questions. Reading: The sum total of the human experience.

What is it with all these billionaire and why do they keep going to space? Your stalwart hosts have decided its long passed time we put a stop to these antics! How you ask. By putting an end to the dictatorial reign of capitalism that enforces the conditions necessary for the existence of your Bransons and your Bezoses and by implementing a new class based regime in its place, one that will set the conditions necessary for socialism. That’s right, this week Jack and Dan discuss the concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat. They discover that in actual fact it wasn’t all that important a term to Marx and Engels who use it only under specific conditions and in certain debates. Far from representing the authoritarian core of Marx’s thought and his ultimate culpability in the horrors of the soviet union, the term, when put in proper context, represents his commitment to democracy and his horror at the dictatorial aspirations of some of his revolutionary peers. In the end the lads find that in reality it’s a term that needn’t feature prominently in socialist political discourse; unless of cause you find yourself in frequent debate with Blanquists! Reading: Hal draper, The ‘Dictatorship of the Proletariat’ in Marx and Engels (1987)

The third and final part of our Emmy award winning Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution series HAS ARRIVED! It's been a dang good read folks, and in this ep you'll hear our concluding thoughts on this whole communism thing, just how viable it is, how much faith we have in the general system of councils and what the Dictatorship of the Proletariat might actually look like. We also apologize for killing Donald Rumsfeld with our bad vibes and set that energy to work in other spheres of the American capitalist aristocracy. Once again...this book rocks!!! Reading - Chapters 12-17 of "Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution" by the Group of International Communists (1930?).

Well folks for the first time in Aux Statements history we won't be bringing you our scheduled programming. However! Fear not. Jack is bringing you a half-assed Adjunct Statements to give you something. In this ep, Jack reads an essay he wrote for no discernible reason about discontentment with capitalism in fantasy. He compares Ursula Le Guin's "A Wizard of Earthsea" with Tolkien's "The Silmarillion" to make the point that yeah...we all hate capitalism. Reading: Some crap. Read it here - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XR85aC3EZoo2KszKE9mlYNtwSSkP9NvI/view?usp=sharing

You've been waiting long enough, folks...here it is - part 2 of our episode on the dang CIA. Have we gone loopy? Have we become conspiracy chuds? Tbh not really. In this episode we try and parse the faff from the not-faff as we uncover the hidden purpose behind American Cold War foreign policy. Turns out it wasn't that great! It was pretty bad, in fact! Reading: Part II, The Devil’s Chessboard (2015), David Talbot