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
Jun 5, 2018 • 51min
Episode 17 - As Black As Resistance with Zoé Samudzi and William C Anderson
This week we have two really exciting guests Zoé Samudzi is a writer and doctor student in Medical Sociology at the University of California, San Francisco. William C. Anderson is a freelance writer. His work has been published by the Guardian, MTV, Truthout, and Pitchfork among others. We had Zoé on the show all the way back in episode 2, and for William we’ve been wanting to have him on the show for a long time and this was a great opportunity. This week we’re talking to them about their new book which comes on today June 5th on AK Press. So please, if you haven’t already bought a copy, log on to AKpress.org or visit your local radical bookstore and get yourself a copy. "As Black As Resistance makes the case for a new program of self-defense and transformative politics for Black Americans, one rooted in an anarchistic framework that the authors liken to the Black experience itself. This book argues against compromise and negotiation with intolerance. It is a manifesto for everyone who is ready to continue progressing towards liberation."
May 9, 2018 • 47min
Episode 16: #StudentPowerHU - The A-Building Occupation with HUResist Organizers
On March 29th over 300 students took over the Administration Building at Howard University. The occupation was in response to a list of demands they had drafted, but also spontaneously seized upon widespread student concern following both housing shortage and a financial aid scandal. After occupying all floors of the A-Building, students liberated the building, turning it into the Kwame Ture Student Center, a nod to a long unfulfilled promise of a student center on Howard’s campus. They held the space for nine days - the longest occupation in Howard University history - until the college’s board of trustees had agreed to address their demands to the satisfaction of the students. Today we have two organizers from HU Resist, the student group who led the occupation, Jason Ajiake and another student who has asked that her name be removed from the description for privacy reasons.
Apr 25, 2018 • 1h 6min
Episode 15 - Sankofa Brown - "Black Folks Have Been Resisting Ever Since We Were Captured From The Shores of Africa”
This week we’re really excited to bring on Sankofa Brown. We talk to him about Black Radicalism, the appeal of Liberalism, armed self-defense, socialist organizing, and the urgent need to build revolutionary praxis. As a speaker, organizer, and writer, Sankofa Brown fights to raise consciousness across the globe. Growing up in Kinston, North Carolina he learned the impact of inquality and injustice, After seeing several friends fall victim to street violence and the prison industrial complex, Sankofa decided to dedicate his life to social change. Sankofa is an engaging public speaker, and provides daily commentary on social issues dealing with race, class, and gender on twitter @SankofaBrown. Currently, Sankofa is a PHD student studying sociology at North Carolina State University where his research interests include Marxist Theory, Critical Theory, and Black Political Thought. He is also an affiliated researcher at the Center for Housing and Community Studies at University of North Carolina at Greenboro.
Apr 9, 2018 • 1h 7min
Episode 14: No More Heroes Part 2 (Moderated by Da'Shaun Harrison)
This is part two of the two part interview with Josh and Jared about their own politics and experiences. Josh and Jared discuss the churches they went into growing up and their thoughts on religion in general. They also share their opinions on the complex role of religion in political life, revolutionary movements, and a post revolutionary society. Josh and Jared also answer a couple of listener questions, discussing approaches to dealing with anticommunist propaganda, talking a little bit about the relationship between anarchists and socialists and the immediate need for leftists of all types to continue to be increasingly prioritize praxis over post-revolutionary theoretical debates. They answer a listener question about abusers within organizing spaces and some strategies for people to deal with those things at an organizational level or as a participants, depending on the dynamics within the setting.
Mar 29, 2018 • 1h 9min
Episode 13: No More Heroes (An Interview with Jared & Josh, Moderated by Da'Shaun Harrison)
This episode was recorded as a reward for us reaching 25 patrons on patreon. Sorry that it took us a while to find the time to record it, but we want to personally thank all of you who are patrons, you have no idea how much that means to us and encourages us to keep the podcast going. If you haven’t become one yet, we will be setting a new goal of one hundred patrons and we will be setting a new reward for when we reach that goal. We’re looking for your thoughts on what the reward should be so feel free to hit us up on twitter @MAKCapitalism if you have some ideas. Jared and Josh discuss the degree to which they had or didn’t have political mentors growing up. Jared talks about Kwame Ture's (f/k/a Stokley Carmichael) influence on his father, and how that shaped some of the actions his father took during his own period of radicalization. Jared talks about how his father’s confrontation with the state at the 1968 DNC in Chicago lead to his basic refutation of armed revolution within a US context. Josh discusses how he learned to analyze politics not so much from mentors, but by observing different relationships growing up. Both Jared and Josh discuss how state violence compelled them into political activism, organizing and protest. Josh also talks about how for him the murder of Trayvon Martin and the lack of justice in that case was very impactful for him, growing up in same area of South Florida. Josh spoke about the dangers of reformism as it applies to state violence and the short-sightedness of many of the reformist demands that came out certain strains of the Black Lives Matter movement, including the big push for body cameras. Both Josh and Jared discuss how working within anti-racist and state violence reform organizing and watching the rise of hyper visible (neo)liberal figures out of those platforms who built their own fame sometimes at the expense of the movement as a whole.
Mar 22, 2018 • 1h 26min
Episode 12: Anoa Changa On Puerto Rican Disaster Relief, Mutual Aid & Growing Up With Radical Parents
Anoa Changa is an attorney in the Greater Atlanta Metropolitan area. She holds a Master in City and Regional Planning from The Ohio State University as well as a Juris Doctorate from West Virginia University College of Law where she was a W.E.B Dubois fellowship recipient. Anoa serves on the board of the National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL). Aside from her life as an attorney, Anoa has been a grassroots digital organizer providing strategic support to several progressive organizations. A growing presence in the world of independent progressive media, Anoa hosts The Way with Anoa, a weekly talk show and podcast, focusing on politics, news, and community engagement. Anoa serves as the Director of Political Advocacy and co-Managing Editor at The Progressive Army. She also recently launched a Georgia focused blog Peach Perspective. In this episode we talk to Anoa about her trip to Puerto Rico a couple months after Hurricane Harvey, we talk about mutual aid, and the specific challenges and relations in Puerto Rico. We also talk about growing up in a radical family, and her family’s relationships with the Republic of New Afrika which is celebrating it’s 50th anniversary, and other radical organizations and individuals including Critical Resistance and Mutulu Shakur. She also talks to us about parenting her own children and the challenges faced by parents who are politically active, particularly within radical circles and activist spaces. Anoa talks about her work with Progressive Army and her podcast The Way With Anoa Lastly she talks briefly about the connections between the Republic of New Africa and the connection to Cooperation Jackson, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, the Jackson-Kush plan, and Chokwe Lumumba and his son Chokwe Antar Lumumba.
Mar 6, 2018 • 1h 13min
Episode 11: "Barbershop Talk" with Da'Shaun Harrison
Da'Shaun Harrison is a student at Morehouse College studying Sociology and African-American Studies. He is a Black Queer organizer and abolitionist in Atlanta, GA, where he also has the privilege of serving as Editor-in-Chief of the newly-founded digital publication, Queer Black Millennial. We talk to Da’Shaun about the time period in which he went from mainstream to more radical politics, his involvement with the first major protest against Hillary Clinton with #AUCShutItDown during the 2016 election cycle. Da’Shaun talks about his time as a sex worker, while being homeless after coming out to his family and how these experiences shaped his praxis as an organizer and a writer. Da’Shaun talks about Rainbow Capitalism and Pinkwashing in relation to Israel and the US and how the limited notions of what queer liberation looks like within mainstream lesbian and gay organizing has lead Da’Shaun to embrace a more anti-capitalist politic. Finally we talk to Da’Shaun in-depth about his piece “The Black barbershop is both toxic and intimate for cashed Black men,” and the reactions to it.
Feb 13, 2018 • 24min
Episode 10: Charlene Carruthers - "We Come In The Lineage of Folks Like Claudia Jones"
This episode's guest Charlene A. Carruthers is a Black, queer feminist community organizer and writer with over 10 years of experience in racial justice, feminist and youth leadership development movement work. As the founding national director of the Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100), she has worked alongside hundreds of young Black activists to build a national base of activist member-led organization of Black 18-35 year olds dedicated to creating justice and freedom for all Black people. Her passion for developing young leaders to build capacity within marginalized communities has led her to work on immigrant rights, economic justice and civil rights campaigns nationwide. Charlene’s forthcoming book Unapologetic. We talked about the Black Queer Feminist Lens which is an organizing praxis used by the BYP100. Charlene discusses the Agenda to Build Black Futures and why their platform is taken up by organization’s like the DSA, and touches on the history of Black women communists and socialists like Claudia Jones who have worked to ensure that the US left understand the overlapping systems of oppression that impact Black women, queer, and trans folks. We also talk about the importance of political education, the non-permanency of allyship, prison organizing, why Charlene is clear BYP 100 cannot dismiss engagement in electoral politics, and her upcoming book Unapologetic. (photo credit to Sara Ji) field audio samples of BYP100: (intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmF3mVCtANE) (outro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMTCU0G9y94)
Jan 29, 2018 • 55min
Episode 9 - Palestinians And Jews Decolonize featuring Zev Wolf and Lina Assi
This week we caught up to Zev Wolf and Lina Assi to talk about their organization Palestinians and Jews Decolonize and provide listeners with some context for the current situation in Palestine including responses to the US declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the arrest and detainment of Ahed Tamimi and how Lina and Andrew see their organization’s role within Jewish and Palestinian politics. Palestinians and Jews Decolonize (PJD) is a socialist, anti-racist, and anti-imperialist organization supporting a decolonized and liberated Palestine. The organization is a Palestinian and Jewish led solidarity movement firmly rooted in anti-Zionism. That focuses on education, awareness, and militant action. Zev is a queer and Disabled Mizrahi Jewish writer and organizer. Zev graduated from UC Santa Barbara with B.A. in Middle Eastern History. They plan to pursue a PhD in History with an emphasis on Palestine/Israel. They co-founded Palestinians and Jews Decolonize and are currently involved in queer, Disability, and pro-Palestinian activism. Lina Assi is an undergraduate student pursuing a double major in Labour Studies and Political Science. Lina is also the President of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McMaster (SPHR) and Co-Founder of Palestinians and Jews Decolonize. She has been involved in Palestinian activism in Ontario for over four years, organizing events such as Israeli Apartheid Week and other initiatives.
Jan 11, 2018 • 1h 15min
Episode 8: The Land Is Stolen, Full Stop - William J Richardson on Nkrumah-Toureism and Decolonization
In this episode William Jamal Richardson joins the show to talk about Nkrumah-Toureism and the relationship between settler colonialism, slavery, and capitalism in American society. William talks about how his parents involvement in the All African People's Revolution Party” shaped some of his politics growing up. He also gives a brief overview of who Kwame Nkrumah and Sekou Toure were and how their different personal backgrounds, perspectives and philosophies complimented each other. He also discusses how the Pan-Africanist movement informed their politics and was enriched by their contributions. William speaks about how Nkrumah-Toureism informs his own socialist thought and digs into some of Kwame Nkrumah’s contributions to socialist theory and how, where, and why they necessarily expand upon, and diverse from, preceding Marxist theory. We ask William to discuss nationalism with regard to African nations or in relation to indigenous sovereignty, and how it can function completely differently than the exploitative and exclusionary nationalisms that we see from Europe and the US. We also talk about Palestine and how US Leftists are better at showing solidarity to movements against settler colonialism outside the imperial core, than we are those that occur within the US. As William digs into that discussion, he gets to the heart of why white leftists cannot just build socialism in the US without relinquishing control of stolen land and changing settler relations. He also states that the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign in South Africa had a limited role in South Africa's anti-Apartheid movement and cautions against the fetishization of Palestine's BDS movement if Palestinians are to achieve meaningful liberation. Finally, William talks about his work with Decolonized Tech and Rebel Researchers and roles that academics and people within tech spaces can do to further revolutionary causes or reduce harm. William put together a great collection of Nkrumah readings for our listeners to go along with this podcast, please take advantage of the free knowledge that he curated for you all: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BjB0oTqobBHF-wn2dFBrfuDWdlSyCldh
