Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
We created this podcast in recognition that there are a number of podcasts for the American “left,” but many of them focus heavily on the organizing of social democrats, progressives, and liberal democrats. Aside from that, on the left we are always fighting a war of ideas and if we do not continue to build platforms to share those ideas and the stories of their implementation from a leftist perspective, they will continue to be ignored, misrepresented, and dismissed by the capitalist media and as a result by the general public.
Our goal is to provide a platform for communists, anti-imperialists, Black Liberation movements, ancoms, left libertarians, LBGTQ activists, feminists, immigration activists, and abolitionists to discuss radical politics, radical organizing and share their visions for a better world. Our goal is to center organizers who represent and work with marginalized communities building survival programs, defense programs, political education, and counterpower.
We also plan to bring in perspectives on and from the global south to highlight anti-capitalist struggles outside the imperial core. We view solidarity with decolonization, indigenous, anti-imperialist, environmentalist, socialist, and anarchist movements across the world as necessary steps toward meaningful liberation for all people.
Too often within the imperial core we focus on our own struggles without taking the time to understand those fighting for freedom from beneath the empire’s thumb. It is important to highlight these struggles, learn what we can from them, offer solidarity, and support with action when we can. It is not enough to Fight For $15 an hour and Single-Payer within the core, while the US actively fights against the self-determination of the people of the global economically and militarily.
We recognize that except for the extremely wealthy and privileged, our fates and struggles are intrinsically connected. We hope that our podcast becomes a meaningful platform for organizers and activists fighting for social change to connect their local movements to broader movements centered around the fight to end imperialism, capitalism, racism, discrimination based on gender identity or sexuality, sexism, and ableism.
If you like our work please support us at www.patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism
Our goal is to provide a platform for communists, anti-imperialists, Black Liberation movements, ancoms, left libertarians, LBGTQ activists, feminists, immigration activists, and abolitionists to discuss radical politics, radical organizing and share their visions for a better world. Our goal is to center organizers who represent and work with marginalized communities building survival programs, defense programs, political education, and counterpower.
We also plan to bring in perspectives on and from the global south to highlight anti-capitalist struggles outside the imperial core. We view solidarity with decolonization, indigenous, anti-imperialist, environmentalist, socialist, and anarchist movements across the world as necessary steps toward meaningful liberation for all people.
Too often within the imperial core we focus on our own struggles without taking the time to understand those fighting for freedom from beneath the empire’s thumb. It is important to highlight these struggles, learn what we can from them, offer solidarity, and support with action when we can. It is not enough to Fight For $15 an hour and Single-Payer within the core, while the US actively fights against the self-determination of the people of the global economically and militarily.
We recognize that except for the extremely wealthy and privileged, our fates and struggles are intrinsically connected. We hope that our podcast becomes a meaningful platform for organizers and activists fighting for social change to connect their local movements to broader movements centered around the fight to end imperialism, capitalism, racism, discrimination based on gender identity or sexuality, sexism, and ableism.
If you like our work please support us at www.patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism
Episodes
Mentioned books
Dec 31, 2020 • 1h 35min
Millennials Please Kill 2020
The podcast reflects on the major events of 2020, including COVID-19, anti-black state violence, the NBA strike, and the limitations of electoralism. It discusses frustration with the naturalization of death and violence, questions American understanding of democracy, and highlights issues with the prison system. The podcast emphasizes the need to release vulnerable prisoners during the pandemic and criticizes single-issue politics. It emphasizes the power of community organizations, the importance of joining radical and liberal organizations, and reflects on the impact of guests on the show.
Dec 14, 2020 • 1h
A Political History of Self-Determination in Adom Getachew's Worldmaking after Empire
In this discussion, Adom Getachew, a political theorist focusing on race, empire, and postcolonial thought, delves into her book, Worldmaking after Empire. She examines the historical context of self-determination, linking it to anti-colonial movements and the complexities of neo-imperialism. Getachew shares insights on key figures like W.E.B. Du Bois and Julius Nyerere, critiques the paradoxes of inclusion within modern frameworks, and introduces her concept of "unequal integration," urging a reevaluation of justice and equity in today's society.
Nov 12, 2020 • 1h 30min
“The Criminal Enterprise Is The Baltimore Police Department “ - A Case Study in Police Terror with Brandon Soderberg, Author of I Got A Monster
In this episode we interview Brandon Soderberg who along with Baynard Woods co-authored the book I Got A Monster, The Rise And Fall of America’s Most Corrupt Police Squad. Soderberg is a reporter living Baltimore and was previously the Editor in Chief of the Baltimore City Paper and a contributing writer to SPIN. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Vice, The Village Voice and many other publications. In this episode we talk about the remarkable corruption of Baltimore PD’s Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF), which is the subject of Brandon’s recent book and discuss how this exceptional example is a logical manifestation of the very system of US policing. Soderberg also talks about all the ways in which the political and justice systems reinforce unconstitutional policing as a matter of course. We also discuss how police undermine methods of violence interruption.
Nov 1, 2020 • 1h 17min
The Movement to #EndSARS with Ani Kayode Somtochukwu
In this episode we discuss the movement to #EndSARS with Ani Kayode Somtochukwu, a 21 year old openly gay Queer Liberation activist, writer and journalist living in Enugu state Nigeria. His work focuses on using visibility, and journalism to combat the pathologization and demonization of queer identities in Nigeria. He is the founder of the Queer Union for Economic and Social Transformation( QUEST), an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist radical queer organization working to combat homophobia, transphobia, and the degeneration of Nigeria into a neo-fascist police state. In this episode we talk to Ani Kayode about the #EndSARS movement, its relationship to the fight for dignity for queer people in Nigeria. We also talk about the absurdity of calls for redress from countries with their own ongoing regimes of anti-Black state violence and ongoing neocolonial relations in Africa. He also discusses the role of AFRICOM, IDF, and the World Bank in creating the conditions Nigerians are protesting against. Embeddied in this all is a deep critique of the colonial construct of policing itself.
Oct 22, 2020 • 48min
Becoming Kwame Ture with Amandla Thomas-Johnson
In this episode we interview Amandla Thomas-Johnson, about his new book, Becoming Kwame Ture. Amandla Thomas-Johnson is a British-born writer of African-Caribbean descent. He is based in Dakar, Senegal, from where he covers West Africa. He has reported from a dozen countries, and has covered social movements from Trinidad and Tobago to Chile to Mauritania. He has worked for the BBC, The Guardian, Al-jazeera, and Channel 4, among others. Amandla discusses the myopic historical view US historiography has of Kwame Ture (who the US generally remembers as SNCC activist Stokely Carmichael), limiting his life’s work predominantly to the 16 years he lived in the US rather than looking at it from a wholistic and international perspective. In the conversation, we cover Ture’s Pan Africanism, his relationship to Sékou Touré and Kwame Nkrumah, and the development of the All African People’s Revolutionary Party (AAPRP). We talk about his commitment to Palestinian solidarity and support for social movements around the world. We also discuss Ture's involvement in attempts to return Kwame Nkrumah to power in Ghana, and his involvement in the Democratic Party of Guinea (PDG). Along the way Amandla tells fascinating stories, including Ture’s connections to the lives of figures such as Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro and Amilcar Cabral. This conversation and the book, reveal pats of the life, politics and organizing of Kwame Ture that have largely been neglected by most biographers operating from a US centric lens.
Oct 20, 2020 • 26min
“An Instrument For The Sovereignty Of Peoples” Camila Escalante On MAS’s Return To Power
This is a quick special report. In this episode we interview TeleSUR English presenter and Kawsachun News co-founder Camila Escalante. Camila shares with us the latest news coming out of Bolivia today October 19th, after the Movement Toward Socialism seemingly had a resounding victory at the polls yesterday October 18th, returning to power just a year after a US backed coup d’etat removed Evo Morales from power. We talk to Camila about the past year, the election, and concerns to watch for in the restoration of power for MAS. We also talk about the base of MAS and western mainstream narratives that have been disrupted by this overwhelming display of democratic support for this socialist movement in Bolivia. Camila also discussed the critical importance of movement journalism to counter western mainstream propaganda and US state department imperialist objectives against socialist movements.
Oct 6, 2020 • 1h 31min
“Solidarity Doesn’t Mean Making Statements” - Laura Whitehorn On The Material Practice Of Anti-Racism
In this episode we interview Laura Whitehorn. Laura Whitehorn is a co-founder and organizer with the RAPP Campaign (Release Aging People in Prison). Whitehorn is a veteran organizer of numerous organizations, including Friends of SNCC, the Weathermen, Prairie Fire Organizing Committee, the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee, the May 19th Communist Organization, and the Madame Binh Graphics Collective among others. A committed anti-imperialist, Laura Whitehorn spent 14 years incarcerated in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy and destruction of Government property in what has been called the “Resistance Conspiracy” case. We talk to Whitehorn about her organizing history, anti-racism, the work of the RAPP Campaign, freeing political prisoners, COINTELPRO, and some of the errors made by white activists during the New Left era that we must still grapple with today. Whitehorn also discusses Zoom, youtube, and Facebook, banning a recent talk she gave with Leila Khaled. Along that topic, Whitehorn talks about being an anti-Zionist Jew, and the violence of settler colonialism in the US and the Israeli state.
Sep 30, 2020 • 1h 4min
“Abolition is Inherently Experimental” Craig Gilmore on Fighting Prisons and Defunding Police
In this episode we interview Craig Gilmore. Gilmore is a prison abolitionist, cofounder of California Prison Moratorium Project, and a member of the Community Advisory board of Critical Resistance. Gilmore shares practical examples of prison abolitionists stopping new prison construction in California and how those examples have helped inform organizer approaches to stopping new prisons and jails. We also talk about possible lessons these abolitionist fights have to the fight to defund police. Gilmore also addresses various recent critiques of abolition on the left. And talks about work he uses to orient his abolitionist practice, including explaining what he thinks the relevance of Amilcar Cabral and the PAIGC is to abolitionist fights in the US. In conversation we also talk about violence, harm, self defense, and the opportunities and threats of this moment.
Sep 24, 2020 • 1h 5min
"It's Really Up To Us" Barbara Smith on Combahee, Coalitions and Dismantling White Supremacy
Barbara Smith co-founded the seminal Black Feminist Socialist organization the Combahee River Collective and Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. She is an educator, organizer, scholar and publisher and theorist of Black Feminist politics. In this episode we talk about Barbara Smith’s latest piece on the Hamer-Baker plan to dismantle white supremacy. We also discuss the work of the Combahee River Collective and Kitchen Table. Smith talks about the challenges of coalitional politics and the need for white political groups to desegregate their personal lives as a necessary precondition to desegregating their political spaces. She also discusses some of her role models including Lorraine Hansberry, James Baldwin, and Howard Zinn and her comradeship with Audre Lorde and others. Smith also discusses the term identity politics, which first appeared in the Combahee River Collective Statement and her own opinion on its current use and demonization.
Sep 17, 2020 • 1h 11min
Black Communists Against US Racial Capitalism with Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly
In this episode we talk to author, scholar and educator Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly. Burden-Stelly is currently a visiting scholar in the Race and Capitalism Project at the University of Chicago. She also serves as an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and Political Science at Carleton College. Along with Dr. Gerald Horne, Burden-Stelly co-authored the book W.E.B. Du Bois: A Life in American History. We talk to Charisse about her work studying the political theory of Black Marxist Leninists from the mid-20th Century. We also discuss her work on defining anti-Blackness and anticommunism as co-constitutive structures of repression in the US. Burden-Stelly also discusses her work on Modern US Racial Capitalism, and the lineage and archive that she draws upon to put forth her analysis. This includes examining the theoretical contributions of Claudia Jones, W.E.B. Du Bois, Oliver Cromwell Cox, Louise Thompson Patterson, and others. We also talk about how the US’s ongoing legacies of anticommunism and anti-Blackness still dictate the terms of state insurgency against material progress for Black people and a majority of the US population and people around the world.
