The Antifada

It's an unhappy 200th birthday for us, we do a postmortem of the little rail strike couldn't. Is the blame on the squad, Brandon, the unions, or the workers themselves? And what comes next for rail workers and class struggle in general? In the second half we propose a few theories of Musk's Twitter takeover: Thiel-pilled fascist Musk, Hannah Arendt high-liberalism Musk, Gordon Gecko-style corporate raider Musk, Henry Ford productivist-futurist Musk (and why ultimately we believe none of it really matters.) Support the show at patreon.com/theantifada to hear it! Song: Annie Lennox - Train in Vain

Sean and Rax King of Low Culture Boil talk about Baz Luhrmann's 2022 masterpiece Elvis and suggest that Baz Luhrmann should in fact be tasked with directing the biopics of every single notable person until he dies from exhaustion. We also read a 1956 NYT review of an Elvis performance, where the reviewer says "teenagers" a lot, and bits of Priscilla Presley's memoir Elvis and Me, where Priscilla talks about Elvis' kinks a lot. Check out more great cultural commentary and fun times at www.patreon.com/lowcultureboil

RARE TUESDAY RELEASE DUE TO 'SCABBIN' JOE BIDEN'S ANNOUNCEMENT TO HAVE CONGRESS PUT THE RAIL WORKERS IN CHAINS National rail strike impending, Sean is joined by Justin Roczniak (@who_shot_jgr) of Well There's Your Problem, your favorite engineering disaster podcast - with slides. If the December 9th deadline for strike action is only the capstone of decades of mismanagement, decline and consolidation of private freight service in the United States, how did things get this way? What conditions are rail workers fighting against? How have so many profits been squeezed out of the industry only to see service degrade? What does it mean for US politics that much of these shifts have been happening through conflict within different sectors of the capitalist class? All this (and a big reveal on Justin's corrupt relationship with Big Hawaiian Roll) in part one of this two part episode. To get access to the second half - including a special Antifada edition of 'Safety Third' and a deposition on Norfolk Nazi Southern's 1990s shit bag scandal - become a patron at www.patreon.com/theantifada Intro music: Godspeed You Black Emperor - Government Came, edited with testimony from rail emperor E Hunter Harrison at Surface Transportation Board Public Hearing, October 2017

A preview taste of the spicy half of our episode with Brett from Rev Left about the possibility of communist regeneration in China and MAGA Communism in the US with Brett by supporting the show at patreon.com/theantifada. All patrons receive discord access, bonus material, and, if you DM me your mailing address, a signed letterpress Antifada postcard and stickers from collectively-owned union printshop Radix Media! https://www.patreon.com/posts/ep-198-vs-w-rev-74931782

"Bunker Brett" of Rev Left Radio comes on the show for the first time in years to debate and discuss the contemporary moment for the left, electoralism, the war in Ukraine, China, an what we can learn from First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania Enver Hoxha. For the second half of the episode support the show at Patreon.com/theantifada! Patrons get all bonus material, access to our Discord, and can DM your address for Antifada stickers and a letterpress postcard from Radix media! Songs: Days N Daze - Instra Mental Days N Daze - I Wanna See It Burn

Jenny Brown is an organizer with National Women’s Liberation, the author of Without Apology: The Abortion Struggle Now, and a former collaborator with the Redstockings. We talk about the how radical feminism/women's liberation went from a splinter of the New Left to shaping the course of women's struggles around the world, how their politics are misunderstood today, how their demands for repealing all laws on abortion was recuperated by a supreme court in need of legitimacy, and why the political class today strips those rights. Jenny Brown in Jacobin: https://jacobin.com/2022/08/capitalism-low-birth-rate-labor-abortion-contraceptives-childcare Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America by Alice Echols: https://archive.org/details/daringtobebadrad0000echo Shout Your Abortion Pledge to Aid and Abet abortion Song: Janis Ian - Too Old to Go Away Little Girl

Sean's STRIKE update returns! We talk about the UC academic workers strike, Starbucks, the rail strike, Toronto teachers, and much more. Sean is optimistic we are heading towards an independent working class movement. Andy thinks we'll lose again. In the full episode we tell some spooky Halloween stories about a Thing Under the Bridge, a death rock band destroyed by lesbian cop love, and a very "shitty" Halloween cover band. Support the show at http://patreon.com/theantifada to listen! More: Downstate NY Starbucks worker solidarity fund: https://opencollective.com/sbsolidarity Terror in Trumbull: https://twitter.com/EclecticHams/status/1589281938530967552 https://www.trumbulltimes.com/news/article/Move-people-quicker-Trumbull-seeks-action-16149765.php Halloween GG Allin cover band mystery: https://hellgatenyc.com/spooky-season-postscript Lesbian cop relationship breaks up ACAB Death Rock band: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/05/us/politics/politics-impacts-relationships.html Songs: Rodecaster generic podcast theme song DUMP - New York City Tonight Episode image: https://twitter.com/UnionDrip/status/1589756790539161600

Sports writer and Mets Sicko Richard Staff joins us to talk about the Philadelphia Phillies World Series triumph, the unionization of the minor leagues and other labor conditions of ballplayers, and how the Mets are are the sinew that ties the world of sports and proletarian politics together. For the [full episode]( full episode), including some illicit stories about Keith Hernandez too hot for public consumption, support the show at patreon.com/theantifada The Secret History of Richard Nixon, Mets Sicko by Richard Staff: https://defector.com/the-secret-history-of-richard-nixon-mets-sicko/ Inside the Drive: The Minor Leaguers Who Sprung a Union on MLB by Emma Baccellieri: https://www.si.com/mlb/2022/09/22/minor-league-baseball-union-daily-cover Robert Moses' epic Shea Stadium groundbreaking speech: https://www.wnyc.org/story/flushing-meadow-stadium-groundbreaking-ceremonies-october-28-1961-address-by-robert-moses Mets and Marlins walk-off field in protest after Kenosha shooting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LJfSQAO2cg Other audio clips throughout the episode come from "The New Breed: The Story of the Fans of the '62 Mets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjqcVwCx_9U Opening song: Blasterjaxx and Timmy Trumpet - Narco

Jarrod Shanahan is back with an audio essay about his trip to Chicago's Riot Fest to see the Original Misfits--an experience filled not only with the horror of Glenn Danzig's dark lyrics, but also his political rants, the gentrification and recuperation inherent in these reunion festivals themselves, and the fear of getting old. Read the full essay at Hard Crackers Journal: https://hardcrackers.com/hybrid-moments/ Listen to the first episode of Hardcore History on our patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50262903

Sean is joined by the notorious Kevin Rogan, urbanism blogger extraordinaire and Marxist scourge of landlord Twitter, to talk about how housing, development and rent under capitalism. How do housing markets work? (Hint: not at all) Why are landlords objectively both evil and stupid? (Hint: it's baked in) What do NIMBYs/YIMBYs represent? (Hint: two competing factions of capital) How do we fight the land owners and win? And how do tenant unions fit into the broader struggle against capital? This is part one of an extended discussion. For the second half - a whole hour of takes on Matt Yglesias, intra-petit bourg warfare over the soul of city, and Mr Skanska looking over the back of US building capital - become a patron today at www.patreon.com/theantifada Kevin's Substack: https://kevinrogan.substack.com/ Song: Mirah - Dear Landlord