This Wreckage

Sean and Matt take a look around the American landscape - from the pandemic, to the economic collapse, to the failing political system - and discuss how the hell we got here and what the hell we might expect going forward. Whether it's the coming climate disaster or the incipient crack-up of US power, one thing is for sure: there's no way out now but through it! To listen to the remainder of this episode and the rest of our excellent bonus content, become a patron today at www.patreon.com/theantifada

Jamie and Sean speak with Asad Haider (@generalityiii), editor at Viewpoint Magazine and author of "Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump" about depoliticization, the left post-Bernie, and that eternal question, "what is to be done?" Contains spicy (read: nuanced and informed) takes on "mass politics" vs "subcultural politics," the necessity of abolishing markets, the party question, and our favorite thing besides communism, punk rock. Further reading: https://www.viewpointmag.com/2019/12/16/on-depoliticization/ https://www.viewpointmag.com/2020/03/16/what-is-political-power/ https://dsaemerge.org/reflections-on-bernies-loss/ Jamie and Andy will be moderating a panel for Red May (virtual edition) entitled "Corona Virus and the Future of Work" w/ Aaron Benanav, Magally Miranda and Annie McClanahan on Thursday, May 7 at 9pm ET! Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0m0_CwVDzM Outro music: The Ramones - "I'm Against It"

In this edition of Vampire Castle, Jamie and Leslie discuss the 1997-2003 TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Become a patron at patreon.com/theantifada to unlock this and all other premium content!

To celebrate the release this week of AP Andy's I WANT TO BELIEVE: J. Posadas, UFOs, and Apocalypse Communism, we've unlocked one of our favorite bonus episodes from 2018. Along with head propagandist of the Intergalactic Workers' League - Posadist, Comrade Communicator, we read one of Posadas's unpublished essays that Andy discovered in archives: "On the Function of the Joke in History." Antifada fans can get a 20% discount on the book using code POSADAS20 from the Pluto Website. For more Real ___ Hours episodes, and all back episodes of History is a Weapon, Vampire Castle, and Proletkult, please support us on Patreon.

We subject our brains to more Sp!king as we read through some recent hits. For the full episode become a patron at http://patreon.com/theantifada

Trashifada continues with a deep dive on the origin of the Koch-funded British anti-PC-hysteria-hysteria blog Sp!ked. We go through their origins in seventies Trotskyism to the bizarre posh ultraleftism in the eighties until they emerged as the magazine Living Marxism, famous for satirizing the nanny state and denying the genocide of Bosnian Muslims. From there they formed the Institute of Ideas, a collection of tiny front groups that have helped them along to mainstream media prominence. But to what ends? We offer a range of theories. Listen this Friday for a Bonus Real Sp!ked hours to hear some hot takes on goths, Karen-bashing, and Jimmy Saville. Support the show at http://patreon.com/theantifada Follow us on Twitch! Follow Alice and Riley and Trash Future Jenny Turner's fantastic essay on Institute of Ideas: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v32/n13/jenny-turner/who-are-they Account of RCP's political shift in the eighties: https://hatfulofhistory.wordpress.com/2019/05/21/the-revolutionary-communist-party-living-marxism-and-the-road-to-free-speech-absolutism/ Brendan on Dave Rubin calling himself a Marxist Libertarian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHUjZd63z9U Songs: Whistling in the Dark and Come out Fighting by Easterhouse

It's a Trash-a-Fada crossover extravaganza! We had a delightful discussion with Alice, Riley and Milo of TrashFuture about labour organising at the end of the world, and then we venture back into the mind of Toby Young as he weighs the lives of the British public against a feather and decides if they live or die to appease the great and powerful Economy. Listen to TF: https://trashfuturepodcast.podbean.com/ Follow TF: @trashfuturepod

Jacobin columnist and Four Futures: Life after Capitalism author Peter Frase indulges us in some speculation about the world of tomorrow--which will be anything but a return to "normal." Those changes will be dependent on type of class and ideological struggles that emerge in the next several months. With exterminationism looming around the ideology of "scarcity and hierarchy," it is up to us to imagine what kind of better reality might come out of this dark moment. Frase's article from Jacobin, the Party of Death: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/03/coronavirus-economy-public-health-exterminism Please support us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/theantifada Closing song: Gun Club - Death Party

Amanda from Twitter Dot Com (@catcontentonly) was kind enough to break quarantine to sit down with Sean and discuss the politics of pandemic. How has the COVID-19 virus affected life in NYC? How seriously are people taking it compared to how seriously they should? How come our president is calling it The Chinese Virus? How is anti-Chinese xenophobia attached to the larger dynamic of power politics in a globalized capitalist world? Follow Amanda: @catcontentonly Outro: Bob Dylan - Shelter From The Storm

Teen Vogue politics editor Lucy Diavolo joins us to discuss what will hopefully be the story of this crisis: neighbors organizing themselves into mutual aid networks to support each other against the virus and the capitalist system's attempts to profit from the disorder. We talk about the concept of mutual aid historically, how it's emerged in the last 15 years in the front lines of disaster relief, and some of the new ways its emerging in these early days of the pandemic. There's a lot to cover, but we talk about grocery funds and distribution, food pantries, rent strikes, squatting, childcare, self-care, and much more. Then we talk a bit about the philosophy of mutual aid: does it provide an image of a better world, or just help us survive through the collapse of civilization? Find Lucy's work @SatansJacuzzi or on Teen Vogue: https://www.teenvogue.com/contributor/lucy-diavolo Her article we discuss: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/people-fighting-coronavirus-mutual-aid-efforts-help-each-other Also see: https://mutualaiddisasterrelief.org/ and their Mutual Aid Safety Guide https://gothamist.com/news/neighbors-mobilize-help-each-other-during-coronavirus-pandemic Article in Commune about Rent Strike and disaster relief: https://communemag.com/rent-and-its-discontents/ Vacant homes seized in LA: https://itsgoingdown.org/a-dozen-vacant-homes-reclaimed-by-unhoused-tenants-in-la-as-calls-for-rent-strike-grow-across-us/ IGD round-up of mutual aid initiatives: https://itsgoingdown.org/autonomous-groups-are-mobilizing-mutual-aid-initiatives-to-combat-the-coronavirus/ LA Tenants Union demands: https://medium.com/@LATenantsUnion/declaraci%C3%B3n-sobre-el-covid-19-demands-in-response-to-the-covid-19-crisis-f7353925d298 Sex Worker Organizing Project mutual aid fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/z6w8v5 -Black and Pink penpal signup: https://www.blackandpink.org/penpal-sign-up Anarchist Black Cross guide to letter writing: https://nycabc.wordpress.com/write-a-letter/ DSA grocery fund: bit.ly/covid19aid Unity and Separation from Endnotes 4: https://endnotes.org.uk/issues/4/en/endnotes-preface Closing song: Devendra Banhart and Beck - Life During Wartime