KPFA - Against the Grain

With the passage of time, some things are remembered and others forgotten. In the case of Central America, argues historian Aviva Chomsky, amnesia has been consciously fostered. The long history of United States support for repressive regimes and policies often vanishes in discussions about contemporary violence in Central America and migration from the region. Chomsky contends that the history of resistance to U.S. intervention, both in Central America and the United States, also needs to be recovered and remembered. Resources: Aviva Chomsky, Central America’s Forgotten History: Revolution, Violence, and the Roots of Migration Beacon Press, 2021 The post Amnesia and U.S. Intervention in Central America appeared first on KPFA.

Various explanations have been offered for what’s been called an anxiety epidemic among university students, but Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou believes a crucial causal factor is financialization, the way the financial sector and its logic has permeated our social, economic, and individual lives. He sees signs of optimism in the proliferation of student mobilizations around the issue of anxiety. Max Haiven and Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, “An ‘Anxiety Epidemic’ in the Financialized University: Critical Questions and Unexpected Resistance” Cultural Politics Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with Uncertainty in a Financialized World University of Chicago Press, 2022 The post Financialization & Student Anxiety appeared first on KPFA.

Veterans are a prominent symbol in U.S. politics, evoking patriotism and military might. The right recruits them and they populate the police, private security, and often militia groups. But the struggles of veterans, and those currently working for the military, should be of concern for the left, argues Suzanne Gordon and Steve Early. They discuss the always non-union labor of military work, attempts to privatize veterans’ healthcare, and the political orientation of veterans and the organizations claiming to represent them. (Encore presentation.) Resources: KPFA Event with Steve Early and Suzanne Gordon Wednesday, September 7 at 6:00 pm, Veterans Building 401 Van Ness Avenue, Room 210 in San Francisco Suzanne Gordon, Steve Early, Jasper Craven, Our Veterans: Winners, Losers, Friends, and Enemies on the New Terrain of Veterans Affairs Duke University Press, 2022 The post The Labor of Veterans appeared first on KPFA.

What happens when meditation and yoga are taught behind bars? Are the imprisoned student-practitioners prodded to view their suffering as generated solely by their thoughts and actions, or do the classes foster an awareness of the structural and systemic factors that contributed to their incarceration? Farah Godrej taught yoga and meditation in prison and interviewed both fellow instructors and formerly incarcerated practitioners. Farah Godrej, Freedom Inside? Yoga and Meditation in the Carceral State Oxford University Press, 2022 The post Contemplating Incarceration appeared first on KPFA.

The failure to unionize the South, to organize Southern workers in the 1930s and ’40s on the basis of interracial worker solidarity, had momentous and enduring consequences for race relations and worker well-being in the U.S. as a whole. So argues Michael Goldfield, who in his new book points to the marginalization of leftists within unions and federations like the CIO. (Encore presentation.) Michael Goldfield, The Southern Key: Class, Race, and Radicalism in the 1930s and 1940s Oxford University Press, 2020 The post Labor, Race, and the South appeared first on KPFA.

Retirement is something many of us don’t think much about, hoping we’ll have enough to live on when the time comes. But chances are, unless we’re lucky, we won’t. James Russell argues that the widespread shortfall in retirement income is the result of a bipartisan effort going back decades to move our savings away from traditional pensions to accounts like 401(k)s that enrich the financial services industry at our expense. (Encore presentation.) Resources: James W. Russell, The Labor Guide to Retirement Plans: For Union Organizers and Employees Monthly Review Press, 2021 The post Not Enough to Retire On appeared first on KPFA.

A 20th-anniversary edition of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, by the UCLA-based historian Robin Kelley, has just come out. Kelley spoke about his book shortly after it was published. Kelley later joined Against the Grain to talk about Aimé Césaire, one of the thinkers featured in Freedom Dreams. Robin D. G. Kelley, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination Beacon, 2022 (Image on main page by Ivan Radic.) The post Dreams of Liberation appeared first on KPFA.

What can our fantasies about space tell us about life on earth? Fred Scharman discusses competing visions for long-term space occupancy over the last century and a half, many of them emanating from Russia and the United States even before the Cold War, and now monopolized by billionaires like Elon Musk. (Encore broadcast.) Resources: Fred Scharmen, Space Forces: A Critical History of Life in Outer Space Verso, 2021 The post Conquering Outer Space appeared first on KPFA.

Is a world of nation-states desirable? If ultranationalism is pernicious, are some forms of nationalism beneficial? Should struggles framed in terms of national liberation be lauded and supported? Nandita Sharma emphasizes the exclusions inherent in all nationalist politics, exclusions dictated by considerations of who does and does not belong to the nation. (Encore presentation.) Nandita Sharma, Home Rule: National Sovereignty and the Separation of Natives and Migrants Duke University Press, 2020 (Image on main page by Joel Kramer.) The post The Nation, Reconsidered appeared first on KPFA.

Neoliberalism, centrist, radical, intersectionality, the people — these are all words that are used to mark out someone’s understanding of the world. Yet many of these words are fuzzy and obscure more than they illuminate. John Patrick Leary breaks down some of the key political words of our time. Resources: John Patrick Leary, Keywords for Capitalism: Power, Society, Politics Haymarket Books, 2022 The post The Words of Politics appeared first on KPFA.