KPFA - Against the Grain

One of conservation’s greatest achievements happened mostly by accident and is still hiding in plain sight for most of us. When settlers established cities in the United States, they decimated the existing ecosystems. But in recent decades, as environmental historian Peter Alagona illustrates, there has been a remarkable return of wildlife to urban areas across the country. (Encore presentation.) Resources: Peter S. Alagona, The Accidental Ecosystem: People and Wildlife in American Cities UC Press, 2023 The post The Fall and Rise of Urban Wildlife appeared first on KPFA.

Following the attacks of September 11th, the administration of George W. Bush instituted the widespread use of coercive interrogations of detainees, as well as kidnapping, forced disappearance, and sham commission proceedings. Yet for the first several years of the “war on terror” little was known about what the U.S. state was doing to prisoners, until hundreds of lawyers—some from the left, but others even from the military itself—challenged the U.S. government in court. Sociologist Lisa Hajjar describes the legal fight against torture and its legacy now. (Encore presentation.) Resources: Lisa Hajjar, The War in Court: Inside the Long Fight against Torture UC Press, 2022 The post Litigating Torture appeared first on KPFA.

Perhaps best known for his advocacy of “propaganda by the deed,” Johann Most (1846-1906) was a committed socialist before turning toward anarchism. What spurred that shift? Why did Most advocate violence – and later abandon that position? Tom Goyens is writing a biography of the fiery orator and influential editor who immigrated to the U.S. in 1882. Anna Elena Torres and Kenyon Zimmer, eds., With Freedom in Our Ears: Histories of Jewish Anarchism University of Illinois Press, 2023 Anarchistories: Uncovering the World Anarchists Made Tom Goyens, Beer and Revolution: The German Anarchist Movement in New York City, 1880-1914 University of Illinois Press, 2014 (paper)   The post Anarchist Firebrand appeared first on KPFA.

The Industrial Workers of the World, or Wobblies, are celebrated on the left for their militant opposition to capitalism, their broad church unionism across race and gender lines, and their ability to organize migrant and other precarious workers. As Ahmed White documents, they were crushed by unprecedented violence and vigilantism, which cast a long shadow over the U.S. labor movement and the left. (Encore presentation.) Resources: Ahmed White, Under the Iron Heel: The Wobblies and the Capitalist War on Radical Workers UC Press, 2022 The post The War on the Industrial Workers of the World appeared first on KPFA.

Throwing away the key is what the criminal punishment system – and, by extension, the U.S. public – does to tens of thousands of people behind bars. Why does the acclaimed public interest lawyer Bryan Stevenson attend to and represent those serving extreme sentences? What does Joseph G. Ramsey mean when he refers to Stevenson’s “compassionate radicalism”? Ramsey talks about Stevenson’s transformative ideas, and his own. Joseph Ramsey, “Never Throw Away the Key” Portside Joseph Ramsey, “Don’t Judge an Issue Just by Its Cover – 12 Important Points from Jacobin’s Latest Issue ‘Reduce the Crime Rate,’” The Multiracial Unity Blog (Image on main page by Ron Lach.) The post Beyond Condemnation appeared first on KPFA.

Fossil fuels lie at the center of contemporary life — powering, despoiling, and altering everything around us. And that includes environmentalism itself, according to anthropologist David Bond. He discusses how concepts like toxic thresholds and environmental impact assessments are an accommodation to the continued existence of the oil and petro-chemical industries, rather than ways to address their inherent harms. (Encore presentation.) Resources: David Bond, Negative Ecologies: Fossil Fuels and the Discovery of the Environment UC Press, 2022 The post The Environmentalism of the Fossil Fuel Industry appeared first on KPFA.

What does the expansion and intensification of nighttime labor say about the workings of capitalism, and what did Marx say about wage labor done in the wee hours? Paul Apostolidis draws from the working-day chapter in Marx’s Capital an emphasis on social reproduction, which he believes should be a key focus of contemporary worker struggles. Paul Apostolidis, The Fight for Time: Migrant Day Laborers and the Politics of Precarity Oxford University Press, 2019 (Image on main page by Rwendland.) The post Nighttime Labor appeared first on KPFA.

Israel is one of the world’s most important producers of military hardware and surveillance technology, honed in its occupation of Palestine, and exported around the globe to various brutal regimes. Journalist and filmmaker Antony Loewenstein traces the history of Israel’s military tech sector, refined after the invasion of Lebanon and again following September 11th, and discusses its tools of mass surveillance today. Resources: Antony Loewenstein, The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World Verso, 2023 The post Exporting Israel’s Technology of Occupation appeared first on KPFA.

Can white people truly grasp how deeply racism is embedded in U.S. society, and in people’s psyches? According to David Mura, the stories that white people tell themselves about race make the recognition of Blacks as equals impossible. Also: more from Elisabeth Jay Friedman about intergenerational mobilizing. David Mura, The Stories Whiteness Tells Itself: Racial Myths and Our American Narratives University of Minnesota Press, 2023 Elisabeth Jay Friedman and Ana Laura Rodríguez Gustá, “‘Welcome to the Revolution’: Promoting Generational Renewal in Argentina’s Ni Una Menos,” Qualitative Sociology (Image on main page by Kelly.) The post White Lies, Black Lives appeared first on KPFA.

Mass shootings and other forms of person-on-person violence dominate the headlines, but what less visible, and perhaps more insidious, kinds of violence exist? Barbara Chasin identifies and describes two types of violence that affect large numbers of people: organizational violence and structural violence. She also connects the dots between violence and economic inequality. (Encore presentation.) Barbara Chasin, Inequality & Violence in the United States: Casualties of Capitalism, 3rd ed., Lexington Books, 2022 (Image on main page from Pix4free.) The post Structural & Organizational Violence appeared first on KPFA.