The Left Opposition Podcast

It's that time folks! Every four years we are told to elect Democrats to prevent GOP from winning, and its the most important election of our lives. The US election is days away and we wanted to explore the options given to us as socialists. Will voting Democrats make it easier to organize the working class and radical politics? What about a 3rd party candidate? Is participating in American democracy even viable or is it a Sisyphean task? Here are a few articles that caught our eyes https://independentsocialistgroup.org/2024/09/04/why-the-working-class-should-vote-for-jill-stein-and-cornel-west/ https://socialistworker.org/2016/04/26/elections-and-the-marxist-tradition https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/10/16/rwry-o16.html https://communistusa.org/class-war-2024-the-tasks-of-communists-in-the-coming-election/ Don't forget to message us to join our reading group every Tuesday night at 730 EST. This week we are reading Chapter 4 of Lenin's What is to be Done If we get to 20 patrons Doug will read and review a book by the ACP: "Why We Need American Marxism". Fixed audio glitch that had 30 seconds of silence near the beginning.

Hey folks. This week we discuss the incredible incompetent response by the federal government in the wake of Hurricane Helene which killed hundreds of Americans and displaced thousands with hundreds more still missing a week later making it the second deadliest in recent memory after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Cops guarding closed and fully stocked grocery stores, people stranded, mountain villages underwater, $750 per person in federal aid incoming! Meanwhile another $8b to Israel along with the Tennessee National Guard being deployed. We also discuss the Longshoremen strike and the colossal disappointment and missed opportunity it was. And renowned Anti-Semite Jackson Hinkle says something anti-semitic while his moron party does damage control. If we hit 20 patrons on Patreon, Doug will read Carlos Garrido's book "Why We Need American Marxism" and review it for us on the pod. Hurricane Disaster Relief: Paypal: MutualAidDisasterRelief@gmail.com Venmo: @MutualAidDisasterRelief Outro: "When I Come Back Again" by Trampled By Turtles, 2004

I hope you are well, friends! It's been another week of decades worth of news as Israel bombards Lebanon as we speak, murdering hundreds of civilians, further escalating a potential regional war drawing the US directly into conflict with Israel's neighbours while the operation in Gaza is almost a year old and not really going well. The world is bleak so we look to the working class to give us hope, and that is in the Boeing workers' strike for better wages and pensions. The student movement for Palestine must link up with these workers to support each other and deal a crippling blow to the USA's ability to export weapons to Israel. For a bit of levity we read a student newspaper discussing antisemitism on Columbia's campus with concern by Jewish students who ultimately rejected their acceptance due to being uncomfortable with their colleagues protesting genocide. We find out why and its exactly as stupid as you think it is. Lastly we check in on what renowned pervert Mark Robinson has been up to. Are you interested in learning Marxist theory? Message us on social media and we can organize a reading group where we cover the introductory and basic texts! This week's readings: https://www.marxist.com/united-states-turbulence-ahead-as-class-struggle-heats-up-at-boeing.htm https://www.leftvoice.org/boeing-workers-are-uniquely-situated-to-disrupt-the-global-economy/ https://www.leftvoice.org/the-pro-palestine-student-movement-should-unite-with-the-historic-boeing-workers-strike/ The article in question https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2024/09/23/i-already-felt-unwelcome-jewish-students-decline-admission-offers-to-columbia-over-antisemitism-concerns/ Palestine Activist Defense Fund: https://palestineaction.org/defence-fund/ Episode cover art photo (Peyton Wilson, Middle East Eye, Nov 2023)

RIP James Earl Jones. We were a bit pressed for time when we recorded this one, hope you like it! We get into the Marxist approach to mass immigration, drawing upon what Marx wrote about the Irish and English proletariat and what our task as revolutionaries is. In other news the Teamsters endorse no candidate for president! We read some liberal meltdowns Chris gathered on Threads in a new experimental segment. Opening segment is from Matewan (1987) one of the most important union movies ever made. Support us on Patreon if you like what you hear, and check out our Facebook page for all the latest leftist memes kids are sharing these days.

If you caught the debate between Kamala and Trump earlier this week this should already be obvious, that as socialists, Marxists, communists we do not support neither the Republican Party nor the Democrat party, each with their violently reactionary or inaction toward key issues that affect the working class. Both are puppets for imperialism, war, genocide, strike breaking and will do nothing to halt climate change. So what do we do? What is the Marxist position on bourgeois elections? We are joined by Mark Jay of Firebrand to discuss his recent article "Why Socialists Don't Vote For 0ur Enemies." We then get into the A"C"P Patzi position on immigration regarding the debunked and slanderous Haitian migrant rumors about pet eating. https://firebrand.red/2024/08/why-socialists-dont-vote-for-our-enemies/ To watch us live record every Thursday at 730 EST https://twitch.tv/marxistarchaeologist Doug's latest article: https://firebrand.red/2024/09/wandering-in-the-void-the-dead-end-of-national-bolshevism/

Conditions are grim in Gaza as doctors, physicians, nurses and aid workers describe the scene that is hundreds of times worse than what we see on alternative media like X and TikTok. The death toll at this point is in the hundreds of thousands with no apparent help coming nor the bombing to be let up with the looming US election of Harris, who vows to continue the weapons faucet to Israel. Their other ally, Germany, is experiencing a resurgence in the far right party AfD as they climb in the polls as the crisis for the working class gets worse and worse with no viable Left option. The second half of the program, Aaron explores an article by the ISR and Matzpen on the problems of the Israeli proletariat. Are they even capable of breaking with Zionism? What would a revolution in Palestine look like and who would lead it? These are not easy questions and frankly I hope I can be convinced otherwise but I see no help coming from the Israeli proletariat either. https://www.marxist.com/explosion-of-anger-against-netanyahu-in-israel-hostages-blood-is-on-his-hands.htm https://isreview.org/issue/110/whats-matter-israeli-working-class/index.html https://youtu.be/xwsq3PIQmSI

Israel invades the West Bank, JD Vance gets boo'd by firefighters, and the American Communist Party keep doing incredible things like posting wonderful takes and then deleting them before we have a chance to dunk on them.

The boys are back together again to discuss the race riots in the UK, Venezuela, Israel, Elon Musk and Trump. It's a packed episode folks, glad we got this one out!

Apologies folks, some technical glitches with Audacity and scheduling conflicts delayed the release of this episode in which we go over the current state of the Venezuela election, our first impressions of Tim Walz. Kamala Harris girlbosses her way around. Rathbone releases another banger. Right wingers believe in magic. All this and more on this episode! Edit: Fixed a glitch that resulted in a pause in the audio 30 min in. This episode is two shorter episodes stitched together.

On the program today we have on three former members of the US military who each found their way to Marxism. Matthew you already know as a regular but we also hosted Tyler and Ben of the Denver Communists to discuss their experience in joining and serving in the military as pawns of the imperialist war machine and coming out of it as radicalized Marxists. Tyler recently had his article published on Firebrand reflecting on what potential for socialist organizing in the military and what Aaron Bushnell has to teach us about anti-imperialist resistance. The episode opens with a clip of Mike Prysner protesting Bush, and Aaron Bushnell's final words of rebellion, closing with Woody Guthrie's "So Long It's Been Good to Know You" war song. https://firebrand.red/2024/03/a-communist-military-veteran-on-aaron-bushnell-imperialist-war-and-resistance/ https://denvercommunists.org/ https://www.youtube.com/@denvercommunists Recommended reading this week is Alexandra Kollontai's "Who Needs the War?" https://www.marxists.org/archive/kollonta/1915/whoneeds.htm If you like what you hear why not throw $5 our way on our Patreon? Doug needs a new computer and we are literally useless without him. https://www.patreon.com/TheLeftOP/posts