Millennials Are Killing Capitalism

Abdul Alkalimat is a founder of the field of Black Studies and Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. A lifelong scholar-activist with a PhD from the University of Chicago, he has lectured, taught and directed academic programs across the US, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and China. His activism extends from having been chair of the Chicago chapter of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the 1960s, to a co-founder of the Black Radical Congress in 1998. This conversation is framed around his recent book The History of Black Studies. Alkalimat shares some of his background, and his experiences with the struggles for Black Studies in the 1960’s. We also talk about his role in the founding of the Institute of the Black World. In discussing Black Studies, we ask Dr. Alkalimat about the ideological strains that make it up, the origins of it as an academic discipline, and what Black Studies looked like before it was allowed into the academy and how it continues to look outside of the academy. A focus in this conversation is a discussion about social movements and the type of knowledge that is examined within them and the type of knowledge that is produced by them. Within this, we get into discussion about the role of cadre development and mass political education in social movements, and the role that Alkalimat thinks Black Studies can and should still play for these struggles.  We close with some discussion of the work Dr. Alkalimat is currently doing with the Southern Workers Assembly to organize the South.  In the show notes, we’ll include links to several of the resources Abdul Alkalimat talks about in the episode. Thank you again to all of the folks who continue to support us on patreon. If you want to support our work our greatest need right now is for patrons who support on a monthly basis, you can do that for as little as $1 a month. And if you don’t want the monthly payment, you can also make a yearly contribution. You can find our patreon at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism. Now here is our conversation with Abdul Alkalimat on The History of Black Studies. Links: The History of Black Studies The Future of Black Studies (forthcoming) Abdul Alkalimat's website & weekly listserv Southern Workers Assembly The Wall of Respect New Philadelphia  The cited conversation with Africa World Now Project

In this conversation we interview Steven Osuna to discuss his piece “Class Suicide: The Black Radical Tradition, Radical Scholarship, and the Neoliberal Turn” from the 2017 collection Futures of Black Radicalism. Steven Osuna is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at California State University, Long Beach. He is a scholar of racism and political economy; globalization, transnationalism, and immigration; and policing and criminalization. Steven was born and raised in Echo Park, Los Angeles and is a son of Mexican and Salvadoran working-class migrants. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Homies Unidos-Los Angeles and a member of the Philippines US Solidarity Organization (PUSO). In this episode Josh interviews Osuna, to discuss the role of the academic who sees their work as in solidarity with movements for the working class, anti-imperialist movements, and struggles for socialism and communism. Osuna talks about the concept of class suicide as put forth by Amilcar Cabral and additionally embodied in the theory and practice of figures like Frantz Fanon and Walter Rodney. Steven also talks about his own experiences as a student of Cedric Robinson. And Steven talks about Robinson’s notion of the Black Radical Tradition alongside his own background and interest coming out of the Marxist tradition through learning about the El Salvadoran communist movement and also bringing an interest in liberation theology. Ultimately the conversation is concerned with how someone taking on a petty bourgeois position, and gaining access to the resources available in a place like a university can actually use that position and those resources in material solidarity with concrete working class struggles. Osuna does not mean this to be an abstraction, for him it means participating in working class, anti-imperialist movements and doing so by lending whatever labor those movements need rather than the position that might feel most comfortable to the petty bourgeois academic. Big shout-out to our new supporters on patreon and folks who have continued to support us. Our work is totally funded by our listeners and so we appreciate every dollar folks are able to give to keep this podcast going. If you would like to become a patron you can do so at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism at whatever you can afford, and your support makes this show possible.

In this episode we welcome back Olúfẹmi O. Táíwò. Táíwò is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University. Earlier this year we interviewed him to talk about his book Reconsidering Reparations. In this episode we talk about his latest book Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else) which hits book stores this week.  In this conversation we talk about elite capture as a concept. We talk about how elite capture has morphed dominant understandings of what folks mean by the term “identity politics” in stark contrast to the version of it put forth in the Combahee River Collective Statement back in 1977.  Femi dispels notions that the ways elites have captured and reappropriated this term are unique to identity politics, and argues persuasively that in fact elite capture is a system behavior that shows up in all kinds of places and ways within our social systems, and that social movements and our radical ideas are not immune to this process.  We also talk about some other examples and versions of elite capture big and small that are occurring all the time, and talk about how we might best fight back against this phenomenon.  In addition we get some discussion of what Táíwò refers to as deference politics, as well as politics that are based around trauma. Including some of the things that he thinks these approaches get right, and some of the things that they get wrong and ways we might differently engage the problems they seek to address. And we also get into some discussions around the attention economy and Femi touches on privilege discourse as well.  We’ve continued to take some hits to our patronage for the show lately. We just want to say that we know times are tough for everyone financially right now and we just really want to give a shout-out to everyone who is continuing to give what they can to support the show. If you haven’t become a patron yet, it’s the best way you can support our ability to bring these conversations week after week. You can do that at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism for as little as $1 a month or $10.80 per year. Now here is our conversation with Olúfẹmi O. Táíwò on Elite Capture Elite Capture from Haymarket Books Elite Capture from Pluto Press Other items referenced in the show: How We Get Free by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor The conversation between Asad Haider and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on socialism and identity politics. Our own discussions with Barbara Smith of the Combahee River Collective  

In this episode we interview David Austin, and discuss his book Moving Against The System: The 1968 Congress of Black Writers and the Making of Global Consciousness. David Austin is the author of Fear of a Black Nation: Race, Sex, and Security in Sixties Montreal and Dread Poetry and Freedom: Linton Kwesi Johnson and the Unfinished Revolution. He has also produced radio documentaries for CBC Ideas on the life and work of both CLR James and Frantz Fanon. A former youth worker and community organizer, he currently teaches in the Humanities, Philosophy and Religion Department at John Abbott College and in the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada.  For Moving Against The System Austin provided an introduction and compiled and edited the speeches from the Congress of Black Writers. In this conversation we talk with David Austin about the context of this historic gathering in Montreal, Canada in 1968, amid the rising tide of the Black Power Movement. We ask Austin about the involvement of key figures from the congress including Kwame Ture, Walter Rodney, CLR James, James Forman, and Richard B. Moore among many others. David Austin also shares some great insights from the intellectual and political practice of CLR James, and the proliferation of study circles with which James engaged directly. We ask about some of the contradictions and debates that come up in the Congress around the presence or role of whites, questions of Black Nationalism and socialism, varying analyses around class and race, lessons to be derived from African history, the omission of women from the group of presenters, and some of the generational divides.  Finally, David shares some great reflections on the vibrancy of Black internationalism in the middle of the 20th Century, further highlighting figures like CLR James and Walter Rodney, and discussing Claudia Jones as an example as well. If you’re interested in picking up this book, its part of the Black Critique series from Pluto Press. And if you like the work that we do and are able to support, we definitely need new patrons to continue to sustain our work. You can support the show over on patreon for as little as $1 a month and it’s a great way to keep up with the podcast, and also you get notified when new rounds of our study group open up. Several of Austin's works, including Moving Against The System are available also through Canadian publisher Between The Lines.

This is part 2 of a 2 part conversation with the editors and contributors to a book called How We Stay Free: Notes on a Black Uprising. This book is edited by Christopher R. Rogers, Fajr Muhammad and the Paul Robeson House & Museum and is a great testament to the local dimensions of the Black uprising in Philadelphia in the months after the murder of George Floyd.  In this part of the conversation we talk to Gabriel Bryant and Abdul-Aliy Muhammad. These conversations were recorded separately, just due to availability, but are presented here as a unified whole.  Gabriel Bryant is an organizer and youth advocate for groups that have included Sankofa Community Empowerment and Philadelphia Community Bail Fund.  Abdul-Aliy Muhammad is a Philadelphia-born writer and organizer. They often write about Blackness, bodily autonomy and medical surveillance. In this conversation both Gabe and Abdul-Aliy offer reflections on the Philly Black Radical Collective and on the long work of organizing outside of the spectacle of the mass mobilization. Gabe talks about some of the nuts and bolts of community organizing and building power as well as some recent developments in solidarity organizing for political prisoners including Mumia Abu Jamal’s latest campaign #LoveNotPhear. Abdul-Aliy talks about their piece from How We Stay Free, which is titled “Black Trans Lives Matter.” They talk about organizing in defense of Black Trans and Black Queer lives and working with Dominque “Rem’mie” Fells’ family after Dominque was murdered in 2020. Featured in this conversation are also two songs from Gabe, whose stage name is Gabriel Prosser, a nod to the enslaved abolitionist who planned a massive slave rebellion in Virginia at the turn of the 19th Century. We’ll include links to Gabe’s bandcamp in the show notes. After the interviews with Abdul Aliy and Gabriel, How We Stay Free editors Christopher Rogers and Fajr Muhammad rejoin a discussion of other struggles ongoing in Philadelphia. In the show notes, we’ll include links to buy How We Stay Free, and possibly get a solidarity copy for a student, elder, organizer or political prisoner. And if you like what we do, we’re still trying to get our patreon back where it was a few months ago. We’re only down about $20 this month as we release this episode, so if a few of you can commit to $1 a month or more, or a small yearly pledge, we should be able to make that up. Black Philly Radical Collective Abdul-Aliy's piece "As Philadelphia mourns Dominique ‘Rem’mie’ Fells, Black trans lives still matter" Our previous conversation with BPRC organizers Megan Malachi & Robert Saleem Holbrook Abdul-Aliy Muhammad's latest on the struggle for MOVE family members to recover their children's remains Gabriel Prosser Bandcamp Songs featured in the episode: “New Season” Gabriel Prosser featuring Verse Mega  “F.U.T.U.R.E.” Gabriel Prosser featuring Blak Rapp Madusa - 

This is part 1 of a 2 part conversation with the editors and contributors to a book called How We Stay Free: Notes on a Black Uprising. This book is edited by Christopher R. Rogers, Fajr Muhammad and the Paul Robeson House & Museum and is a great testament to the local dimensions of the Black uprising in Philadelphia in the months after the murder of George Floyd.  In this conversation Chris and Fajr introduce themselves and talk about the book and its contents and authors, which include many important activists and organizers here in Philadelphia. After that, we talk to organizers Sterling Johnson and Wiley Cunningham from Philadelphia Housing Action.  They talk about the monumental housing struggles in Philadelphia during 2020, giving credit to their fellow housing activist Jennifer Bennetch, who passed away just recently at only 36 years old. They talk about many aspects of this complicated struggle which included a squatting movement as well as multiple encampments and complex negotiations with both Philadelphia Housing Authority and the City of Philadelphia. Although they offer understandable caution with regard to what they actually won, this struggle was historic in its scale as well as in the agreements that were leveraged through direct action. It is a struggle that warrants deeper examination by housing activists in Philadelphia and around the world, as the forces of capitalism continue to dispossess the most vulnerable. At the end of the discussion Chris brings in a note on one of the big housing campaigns currently underway in Philly, the struggle to Save the UC Townhomes, a public housing facility that the owner is attempting to sell, a move that will cause dozens of Black families to be evicted by July 22nd if it cannot be stopped through organization and direct action.  You can buy How We Stay Free, and possibly get a solidarity copy for a student, elder, organizer or political prisoner. And if you like what we do, we’re still trying to get our patreon back where it was a few months ago. We’re  only down about $20 this month as we release this episode, so if a few of you can commit to $1 a month or more, or a small yearly pledge, we should be able to make that up.  Links: How We Stay Free Paul Robeson House & Museum Website/Paul Robeson House & Museum Twitter Philadelphia Housing Action/Philadelphia Housing Action Twitter/Timeline Save The UC Townhomes/Save UC Townhomes Twitter

In this episode we interview Dhoruba bin Wahad. A leading member of the New York Black Panther Party, a Field Secretary of the BPP responsible for organizing chapters throughout the East Coast, and a member of the Panther 21. He is a veteran and co-founder of the Black Liberation Army and a former political prisoner. He - and Geronimo ji Jaga Pratt - are, we believe, the only two Black political prisoners to use COINTELPRO documents to secure their release from political imprisonment. Both the FBI and NYPD settled with Dhoruba in lawsuits he filed against them for framing him. There are a number of great writings and conversations with Dhoruba bin Wahad out there. But we asked Dhoruba to do this episode to discuss his political philosophy. He found our approach to that a bit humorous at times, but as one of our favorite thinkers, and someone who embodies their theory in social practice to a degree few of us can imagine, we hoped to contribute to his legacy in this way. In this conversation we cover some common themes in Dhoruba’s writing, we ask about his ideology, his frequent use of the term “whirlwind,” Democratic Fascism, his emphasis on humanism, and the differing historical destinies of white and Black people in the US. Dhoruba talks about demands, encapsulation, the local nature of politics, Black sovereign thinking, solidarity, united fronts and political consequences for injustice. We also discuss the iconification of Assata Shakur and what it means to support the right of self-determination and the people who become political prisoners for exercising that right. There were other questions and follow-ups we wanted to ask, but time did not allow for it. We hope that if possible we will be able to record a part 2 in the future. More importantly, we want to note that we are not requesting financial support for our platform for this episode. Instead what we hope our listeners will do is contribute to the GoFundMe that Community Movement Builders has set up for Dhoruba bin Wahad’s medical fund. Dhoruba has stage 4 cancer and is in need of financial support. The GoFundMe will only be up for two more weeks, so if you can give something to that, please do so now. We’ll include a link to that in the show notes. Links: The GoFundMe Dhoruba's website  Dhoruba's content on imixwhatilike. Dhoruba's content on Black Power Media. Still Black, Still Strong Look For Me In The Whirlwind Dhoruba bin Wahad's Political Writings (in French, English and German)

In this episode we talk to Louis Allday, writer, historian and founding editor of Liberated Texts. Liberated Texts is an independent book review website which features works of ongoing relevance that have been forgotten, underappreciated, suppressed or misinterpreted in the cultural mainstream since their release. Louis gets into a more detailed description of the site’s purpose and some of the reviews they’ve featured since its founding just over a year ago. He also talks about the importance of books to anti-imperialist struggle, and ways that the publishing industry has been targeted by counterintelligence and counterinsurgency operations by the likes of the CIA and other related agencies. The inaugural Liberated Texts Collected Reviews volume is now available. Published by Ebb books, we’ll include links to where you can order it in the show notes. As we mention in the episode, Liberated Texts is a resource that we use to find interesting subject matter for this podcast. We’ve previously featured a couple of discussions directly based on reviews from the site, and also featured folks who have gone on to write reviews for Liberated Texts. We’ll include some links to those in the show notes as well. As Louis mentions in the episode, Liberated Texts is going to soon begin republishing or publishing books in English for the first time starting in July of this year. Their first book will be an English translation of Ghassan Kanafani’s On Zionist Literature. Proceeds from the sales of their first volume of collected reviews will go towards that publishing work. And as always if you like what we do here at Millennials Are Killing Capitalism, the best way that you can support our work is to become a patron of the show. You can do that for as little as $1 a month or a yearly membership of $10.80. If you’re not able to do that right now, please do what you can to like, share, retweet and spread the word. Links: Liberated Texts Order Liberated Texts from Bookshop.org Another interview we did which talks about Walter Rodney's time in Tanzania and relationship with Nyerere. Our episode with Bill Rolston and Robbie McVeigh Our episode with Alex Turrall Our previous conversation with Ju-Hyun Park.

This episode is the 4th and final session of Journalism for Liberation and Combat.  Make sure to check out the audio from all four sessions here on Millennials Are Killing Capitalism. Or if you prefer, the videos from all four sessions are up on Black Power Media. And there’s a syllabus you can access in the show notes. This episode is a panel discussion with Erica Caines from Hood Communist and Black Alliance For Peace, Kelly Hayes from Truthout and Movement Memos, Brian Nam-Sonenstein from Shadowproof and Beyond Prisons and Brandon Soderberg co-author of I Got A Monster and former editor-in-chief of the Baltimore City Paper.  Each of these folks have much more extensive bios which we will include in the show notes and which get read out later in the episode after Brooke and I situate the panel a bit within the series. We encourage you to follow and support their work and more than that we hope that more comes from our collaboration with these great folks, and through folks who either participated in the seminars or who have watched or listened to this series in video or audio form. This is our first episode of April, we put out 5 episodes in March. So if you like what we do here at MAKC, kick $1 or whatever you can into our patreon to make sure we can continue to provide you with new episodes every week.  Panelists: Erica Caines is a coordinating committee of The Black Alliance For Peace and a member of the Black working-class centered Ujima People’s Progress Party in Maryland. Caines is the founder of Liberation Through Reading and is also co-editor of the Revolutionary African blog, Hood Communist. Kelly Hayes is the host of Truthout’s podcast Movement Memos and a contributing writer at Truthout. Kelly’s written work can be found in numerous other publications and books, including the anthology Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? and Mariame Kaba's bestseller We Do This 'til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice. Kelly was an organizer with We Charge Genocide and co-founded the Chicago Light Brigade and the Lifted Voices collective. Kelly’s movement photography is featured in the “Freedom and Resistance” exhibit of the DuSable Museum of African American History.  Brian Nam-Sonenstein is an independent journalist and editor living in Maine. He is one of the co-founders of the reader-supported news website Shadowproof.com and the Beyond Prisons podcast. Previously, Brian was the associate publisher of Firedoglake, an early and influential online forum for left journalism and organizing. There, he worked to connect journalists with movement organizers around the country working on a wide range of issues including fighting foreclosures, drug prohibition, anti war mobilizations, whistleblower defense, and environmental justice. Since around 2014, his primary focus has been to amplify abolitionist movements and thought through media, and to help cultivate and spread an abolitionist ethic among journalists.  Brandon Soderberg is a Baltimore-based reporter who covers dirty cops, harm reduction, direct action, and guns. He is the coauthor of I Got a Monster: The Rise and Fall of America's Most Corrupt Police Squad. He is the former editor-in-chief of Baltimore City Paper and is the co-founder of Baltimore Beat, a community-focused nonprofit media outlet. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Intercept, Vice, The Appeal, Filter Magazine, and many other publications. Currently he writes about Baltimore for The Real News.

This is the 3rd session of Journalism for Liberation and Combat. This session is hosted by Too Black. Too Black is a poet, member of Black Alliance For Peace, producer of The Last Dope Intellectual Podcast, and host of The Black Myths Podcast on Black Power Media. He is based in Indianapolis, IN. This session focuses on The League of Revolutionary Black Workers newspaper work as a living example and case study for the examination of emancipatory journalism. In this episode Too Black breaks down comparisons of The South End under the editorship of John Watson in comparison with the coverage of the same events by The Detroit Free Press. This juxtaposition illuminates the possibilities of emancipatory journalism in practice. Shout out to Austin McCoy for sharing examples of articles from The South End with us for this presentation. Too Black also discusses the work he and his co-hosts do over at the Black Myths Podcast and the process they use to engage and debunk popular myths. Finally Too Black touches on methods of corporate counterinsurgency. Too Black’s presentation is followed by a Q&A from the Journalism for Liberation and Combat course participants. In the Q&A Brooke Terpstra from Oakland Abolition and Solidarity and I begin a conversation with Too Black about prisons and profit that we continue during an episode of IMIXWHATILIKE that came out this past Monday March 28th.  There’s a brief introductory conversation by Brooke and me. As we ground the discussion within the overall context of the Journalism for Liberation and Combat seminar series. All of the Journalism for Liberation and Combat sessions have video versions as well and you can find those on Black Power Media, we’ll provide a link to the playlist with all four sessions in the show notes. This particular session has a decent length powerpoint presentation with examples of articles from The South End so it is beneficial to watch it over on BPM. If you like the work that we do here at MAKC all of our work is solely funded by our listeners so please become a patron of the show, you can do that for as little as $1 a month over at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism. Check out and support: Black Myths Podcast (show, patreon) The Last Dope Intellectual (show, patreon) Oakland Abolition and Solidarity Black Power Media (channel, patreon)