
Swampside Chats
"The best goddamn communist podcast, period."
—Tom O'Brien, From Alpha to Omega
This is Swampside Chats. The podcast where communists shoot the shit about current events, history, political economy, and theory.
"You are free not only to invite us, but to go yourselves wherever you will, even into the Swamp. In fact, we think that the Swamp is your proper place, and we are prepared to render you every assistance to get there. Only let go of our hands, don’t clutch at us and don’t besmirch the grand word freedom, for we too are 'free' to go where we please, free to fight not only against the Swamp, but also against those who are turning towards the Swamp!"
Latest episodes

Sep 7, 2018 • 1h 16min
#67 - On Practice and Contradiction
Next in our "dialectics by politicians" series, The Gang Lives Like Him! with Mao Zedong's "On Practice" and "On Contradiction" from 1937.
Ascend to a new paradigm of the immortal science with our new Discord!
For just $1/mo or more, get this and other dialectical goodies for voluntarily requisitioning funds to the world party's provisional coordinating committee.
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Aug 29, 2018 • 1h 27min
Bonus - Poststructuralism, Hippies, and Decadence
In this bonus episode we saddle up to our armchairs to discuss two bizarre contemporary cases of leftish delusion: the Avital Ronell scandal and the rise of transformational festivals.

Aug 29, 2018 • 1h 21min
#66 - The Joy of Sects IV: Redneck Revolt
We sit down with Sophia from Redneck Revolt to discuss the origins of the organization, how best to counter the far right, the rise of fascism, gun culture and more.

Aug 22, 2018 • 1h 17min
#65 - "Dialectical and Historical Materialism"
The Gang goes straight to the Gulag when we take a magic mustache ride with 1938's "Dialectical and Historical Materialism" from the "History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)", better known by its subtitle as the "Short Course". Did we mention it's written by Stalin? We read Stalin this week.
Help us get dizzy with success!
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Aug 15, 2018 • 1h 1min
#64 - "The Law of Capitalist Breakdown"
This week, in our first fan-dictated reading, we discuss "The Law of Capitalist Breakdown", the second chapter of Henryk Grossman's 1929 crisis theory classic "The Law of Accumulation and Breakdown of the Capitalist System". Not one step back, comrades!
Force us to read stuff!
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Aug 15, 2018 • 48min
Bonus - A Spectre is Haunting The View
Recorded a few weeks ago, the gang reacted to a clip of the women on The View discussing the merits of socialism, which led to a conversation about the nature of the transition to communism, social mediation under high communism, and the ethics of killing the children of royalty.

Aug 8, 2018 • 36min
#63 - The Decline of Science and Capitalism (Part 2)
This week, The Gang concludes our conversation with Amir from Cold and Dark Stars (colddarkstars.wordpress.com). We discuss electoral strategy, objective class interests, and 'small government socialism'.
Help us uphold the immortal science!
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Aug 2, 2018 • 47min
#62 - The Decline of Science and Capitalism (Part 1)
This week, The Gang welcomes Amir from the fantastic marxist science blog Cold and Dark Stars to discuss prospects for a new marxist philosophy of science, popularization of scientific socialism, and a better version of the old "decadence of capitalism" thesis. The posts we have in mind are "The Decline of Science, the Decline of Capitalism", "Ergodicity as the Solution for the Decline of Science", and "Crisis Theory" from http://colddarkstars.wordpress.com
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Jul 24, 2018 • 1h 30min
#61 - In the Enemy Camp: Uncle Ted's Excellent Adventure
The Gang ❤️s the 90s, revisiting Gen X post-left icon Theodore "The Unabomber" Kaczynski. Touching only briefly on his hit single, we get into some deep cuts from the 'Zynski catalog: "The Truth About Primitive Life", "The System's Neatest Trick" (2008), and the Twitter-sourced epistle "Letter to a Young Revolutionary" (2018).
tinyurl.com/y9m8j8d4
tinyurl.com/y9pcqqju
Help us turn the world upside down!
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Jul 16, 2018 • 1h 17min
#60 - "The National Question"
The Gang discusses Rosa Luxemburg's 1909 article series on "The National Question and Autonomy".
marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1909/national-question
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