Millennials Are Killing Capitalism

In this episode we welcome members of the Kenya Organic Intellectuals Network to the podcast. We discuss their most recent book Breaking the Silence on NGOs in Africa edited by Nicholas Mwangi, Lewis Maghanga and the contributors of the Kenya Organic Intellectuals Network. Today we have Gacheke Gachihi, Comrade Maghanga, Sungu Oyoo, and Wanjira Wanjiru each from various formations including the Kenya Organic Intellectuals Network.  Primarily the subject of our discussion is their book which follows on the work of Professor Issa Shivji who wrote a very important piece back in 2007 called Silences in NGO Discourse: The Role and Future of NGOs in Africa. The comrades from the Kenya Organic Intellectuals Network examine the conjuncture in which NGOs emerged in Kenya, they talk about their role in social movements, they share some of their own experiences working in NGOs or organizing in struggles where NGOs take a prominent role. And importantly they examine the contradictions, limitations  and historical role of NGOs in Africa, with a specific emphasis on Kenya. They also discuss their own efforts through organizations like the Revolutionary Socialist League, Communist Party of Kenya, Social Justice Centres, Kongamano la Mapinduzi, Mwamko, and the Ukombozi Library to cultivate progressive movements in Kenya and revitalize a larger revolutionary Pan Africanist movement with a scientific socialist orientation. Guests: Gacheke Gachihi is Coordinator at the Mathare Social Justice Center, and a member of the Social Justice Centres Working Group. Comrade Maghanga is a member of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Socialist League, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He is an activist and organizer, and an active participant in the Pan African Movement. Sungu Oyoo is a writer and organizer at Kongamano la Mapinduzi and a member of Mwamko. Wanjira Wanjiru is a co-founder of Mathare Social Justice Center, host of the Liberating Minds podcast, and Matigari book club.    Links:  Mathare Social Justice Centre  Kongamano la Mapinduzi  Mwamko  Ukombozi Library  Revolutionary Socialist League (Kenya)  Liberating Minds podcast  Pio Gama Pinto book Breaking the Silence on NGOs in Africa (Book) And if you appreciate the work that we do, we’re still work on our goal for the month to add 40 patrons to the show. We are running a little behind pace, but if a few comrades chip in we should still be able to reach it by the end of the month. You can support the show for $1 a month or more at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism.   

For this episode Orisanmi Burton returns to the podcast. This episode is about Dr. Burton’s latest article which was released today on Truthout. This new piece is called, “New Docs Link CIA to Medical Torture of Indigenous Children and Black Prisoners.” In our conversation we will talk about the connections between the Central Intelligence Agency’s MKULTRA program, former Governor Normal Rockefeller, the Rockefeller Foundation, McGill University, the Allan Memorial Institute and experiments that were conducted in New York State prisons.  There are some references in this episode to our most recent episode with Orisanmi Burton in this discussion, when Dr. Burton makes mentions to things he discussed “earlier” or “before” they are to be found in that discussion which we will link as well.  Content Warning: There is discussion of torture, rape, and other forms of state violence in this episode We also encourage folks to pre-order Dr. Burton’s forthcoming book Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt and will link that in the show notes. If you would like to support our work we are running a little behind on our goal for the month of June. For as little as $1 a month you can contribute to that effort at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism and support our ability to bring you these episodes on a weekly basis. Links:  Our Mohawk Warrior Society episode First episode with Orisanmi, 2nd episode with Orisanmi Silent Cells (referenced in the discussion) Acres of Skin Recent agreement between Mohawk Mothers and McGill

In this episode Josh caught up with organizers from the National Network on Cuba, Shaquille Fontenot and Tee Maloney. We will provide full bios of each guest in the show notes, but will share some highlights here. Shaquille Fontenot (she/they) is an anti-imperialist, cultural worker. Shaquille currently serves as Chief Strategy Officer at Cedar Wolf Media Group, and is co-founder of the Lowcountry Action Committee (LAC), a Black-led grassroots organization dedicated to Black liberation through service, political education, and collective action in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. Shaquille is also a member of the National Network on Cuba, the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, the Black Alliance for Peace, Charleston Climate Coalition, and others. Shaquille is also a founding member of the People’s Budget Coalition and serves the National Network on Cuba as co-chair. Tee Maloney is a revolutionary cultural worker who makes art and designs based in contributing to the global movement for African liberation and unity, and other movements related to the international struggle toward ending imperialist domination Tee is the Art Lead for the June 25th Action in DC and is a member of the Black Alliance for Peace, a work-study member of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party. They got involved in the National Network on Cuba as a brigadista from the most recent May Day delegation. In this discussion they talk about the current revitalization of the movement to end the US blockade or embargo on Cuba, a 60 year blockade that is an egregious attack on the human rights of the Cuban people by the US government. They also discuss the NNOC’s efforts to get Cuba taken off the state sponsors of terror list.    Tee and Shaquille also discuss their trips to Cuba, what they’ve learned from those experiences, they combat some misinformation and also contextualize some protests and advocate that people really need to improve their social media literacy when evaluating how to respond to protests in other countries. There are a number of events coming up as part of this renewed campaign to end the blockade and get Cuba removed from this list. The first one is tonight, June 15th at 7:30pm Eastern Time a webinar from Black Alliance For Peace which will be livestreamed on Twitter and YouTube. If you miss the livestream, a recording will be on BAP’s Youtube page after the event as well. There are a number of upcoming actions in solidarity with the Cuban people which we’ll also list in the show notes, the biggest coming June 25th in DC.  Our comrades at Prisons Kill and Massive Bookshop selected Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary to send into our incarcerated readers this month. Support that here. And if you appreciate the work that we do here, become a patron of the podcast for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism. Shout-out to each and every person who makes this show possible through your monthly or yearly donations. Thank you. Links: #OFFTHELIST CAMPAIGN NNOC.ORG TEE’S ART    

In this episode we welcome Gabriel Rockhill to the podcast to discuss his latest piece “The Myth of 1968 Thought and the French Intelligentsia: Historical Commodity Fetishism and Ideological Rollback” which is out this month, in the June issue of Monthly Review. Gabriel Rockhill is the Founding Director of the Critical Theory Workshop / Atelier de Théorie Critique, Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University, and the author or editor of nine books, as well as numerous articles and essays. Many listeners have asked us to read and possibly have a discussion about Rockhill’s recent work in particular which has included critical articles on Foucault, Žižek, the Frankfurt School and what Rockhill describes as “The Global Theory Industry” within his work.  In this conversation we largely examine his most recent piece on the promotion of a certain sect of French intellectuals in the wake of the 1968 uprisings and strikes in Paris. Rockhill discusses the relationship or lack thereof that he sees between those thinkers who have been promoted as “68 Thinkers” and the actual activities of the period, the political decisions being made on the ground, and most urgently for Rockhill’s concerns the incredibly vibrant worker movement of the period and the possibility of taking power and building a socialist project in France. We hope folks enjoy this discussion which also examines the relationship between those who organize for socialism, grassroots uprisings, and the process through which publishers, state actors, and the media recuperate and commodify upheaval and then freely associate it with thinkers that are compatible with the maintenance of the status quo which is being protested. Alongside this cultural project there is of course also the violent repression of the state both overtly and clandestinely. Along those lines Rockhill also discusses Operation Gladio.  We will include links to some of the projects that Rockhill mentions in the episode in the show notes, including the summer program at the Critical Theory Workshop. And of course if you appreciate what we do here at Millennials Are Killing Capitalism, please become a patron of the show. Our show is only possible due to the contributions of listeners like you. For as little as $1 a month or $10.80 per year you can join all of the amazing folks who make this show possible at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism. Links: The Myth of 1968 Thought and the French Intelligentsia: Historical Commodity Fetishism and Ideological Rollback Critical Theory Workshop / Atelier de Théorie Critique Some of Rockhill's other work on the Global Theory Industry specifically on Foucault, Žižek, the Frankfurt School. Thomas Sankara translations on Liberation School Iskra Books (mentioned in the episode)

This is part 2 of our 2 part conversation with Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba on their new book Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care. (Part 1 is available here). In this episode we continue our conversation with Kaba and Hayes on the idea that organizing is not match-making. They each talk about organizing across difference and dealing with some of the contradictions that can come up within struggles around shared objectives. They talk about some of the differences between friends and comrades and the transformation that can happen within the waging of struggle.  We discuss about the phrase “hope is a discipline,” what it means and doesn’t mean, whether hope is a useful framework for people, and the notion of active hope that weaves through a lot of the book. We also talk about seasonality within organizing, avoiding burn out, and how to deal with increasing visibility and remain responsible to the social movements you’re in. Mariame Kaba is currently raising funds for the Online Abortion Resource Squad, if folks are able to support that effort we encourage them to do so.  Once again we want to thank Kelly and Mariame for having this conversation with us. You can pick up Let This Radicalize You from Haymarket Books, our friends at Massive Bookshop or your local radical bookstore. We will include a link to the resources mentioned in the episode and a few other items in the show notes. We do want to thank all of the folks who support us on an ongoing basis or for however long they can. And we invite new listeners and those who haven’t become patrons yet to do so. You can become a patron of the show for as little as $1 a month or $10.80 per year. We receive no revenue from foundations or advertisers, so it is only through the support of our listeners that we are able to bring you conversations like this on a weekly basis and often more frequently than that. Become a patron of the show at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism Links: Mariame Kaba is currently seeking to raise $50,000 for abortion funds. Support here. Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care (resources page). When We Fall Apart (mentioned in the discussion)  The Prison Culture Blog Movement Memos Lifted Voices Survived and Punished Our first conversation with Mariame Kaba (2019) Our previous (panel) discussion with Kelly Hayes (2022)  

For this conversation we are honored to welcome Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba back to the podcast.  This is part 1 of a 2 part conversation on their latest book Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care. For both of these folks, I’m going to read shorter bios today, and then link to more of their work, because for each of them I could easily spend 10 to 15 minutes just talking about their backgrounds. Kelly Hayes is a Menominee author, organizer, movement educator and photographer. She is also the host of Truthout's podcast Movement Memos. Kelly is a co-founder of the direct action collective Lifted Voices and the Chicago Light Brigade. Mariame Kaba is an organizer, educator and curator who is active in movements for racial, gender, and transformative justice. She has founded or co-founded a number of organizations including but not limited to the Chicago Freedom School, Project NIA, We Charge Genocide, and Survived and Punished. She is also the author or co-author of many books and zines including but not limited to No More Police and We Do This ’Til We Free Us. Both of our guests today are known for their extensive organizing around, writing about, and advocacy of prison-industrial-complex abolition and all that entails as a liberatory horizon and arena of radical organizing. Much like this conversation, the book is a radical invitation for folks to organize and take action in big and small ways, but most importantly in collective ways. We really appreciated this book and encourage all of our listeners to get a copy. The book is an excellent resource, it’s funny, it’s engaging, and no matter where you are coming from I’m sure you will find it useful for your organizing, activism and radical engagement with others.  We want to extend our gratitude to Mariame and Kelly for this conversation and part 2 which we will release in a few days, for their organizing and writing and for the many ways that they invite people into abolitionist practice. We will include links to some free companions created for the book as well. These can deepen your study of the book, hopefully collectively, offer reading lists, reading questions and many other really great resources. This episode marks our first episode of June, we released seven episodes in the month of May. That is only possible because of the support of our listeners. We have been experiencing a lot of folks unable to renew pledges lately on the show, which is understandable during harder financial times. We do want to thank all of the folks who support us on an ongoing basis or for however long they can. And we invite new listeners and those who haven’t become patrons yet to do so. You can become a patron of the show for as little as $1 a month or $10.80 per year. We receive no revenue from foundations or advertisers so it is only through the support of our listeners that we are able to bring you conversations like this on a weekly basis and often more frequently than that. Become a patron of the show at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism. Links: Mariame Kaba is currently seeking to raise $50,000 for abortion funds. Support here. Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care (look to resources heading on middle of page for the free workbook and discussion guide) The Prison Culture Blog Movement Memos Lifted Voices Survived and Punished Our first conversation with Mariame Kaba (2019) Our previous (panel) discussion with Kelly Hayes (2022)

In this episode we welcome Orisanmi Burton back to the podcast. For this conversation, we discuss Dr. Burton’s latest article, “Targeting Revolutionaries: The Birth of the Carceral Warfare Project, 1970 – 1978.” Which he describes as a supplement to his forthcoming book, Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt. This piece was recently published in the May issue of Radical History Review which is on Political Imprisonment and Confinement. In this discussion we pick up on our previous episode with Orisanmi Burton on carceral warfare. Here Burton talks about the role of Black Panther and Black Liberation Army veteran and former political prisoner Dhoruba bin Wahad’s role in illuminating and analyzing the FBI’s little known Prison Activists Surveillance Program (PRISACTS). Burton situates this program amid a broad set of counterinsurgency programs which operated in multiple theaters of war both internationally and domestically. Burton illustrates how within this international terrain of counterrevolutionary war, figures slipped between various programs, moving between military, intelligence, private defense contract, and domestic law enforcement and prison systems. Importantly, Burton reminds us that many state actors, including congressional bodies, presidents and governors recognized a threat of revolutionary activity in the streets in the 1960’s and by the late 60’s and early 70’s they understood there to be a threat of revolutionary activity behind prison walls as well. To respond, they sought to use programs like PRISACTS to specifically undermine incarcerated revolutionaries. The legacy of this struggle offers a great deal to help us understand the role of US prisons today as sites of domestic warfare. Just a note that there is a second portion of this conversation which we hope to release at a later date. It is briefly referenced in the opening question. Currently we are just waiting for the publication of that second article.   Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt is available for pre-order you can find a link for that in the show notes. And the publisher does have a 40% off sale that goes through the end of May. I can’t wait to have more discussion on that book upon its release. This is our 7th episode of the month of May. We are still behind on our goal for the month. As of publication today we need 7 more patrons to hit that goal. You can become a patron of the show for as little as $1 a month or $10.80 per year at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism.  Links to references from the episode: “Targeting Revolutionaries: The Birth of the Carceral Warfare Project, 1970 – 1978.” Previous MAKC interview with Orisanmi Burton  Previous MAKC interview with Dhoruba bin Wahad  Our Interview with Damien Sojoyner  Interview with Orisanmi Burton and Dhoruba on BPM “Resisting Living Death at Marion Federal Penitentiary, 1972" by Alan Eladio Gómez You can pre-order Tip of the Spear at UC Press. It is 40% off through the end of May (with the promo code May40)  

In this episode we interview Professor Elisabeth B. Armstrong. Armstrong is a professor of the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College. She teaches courses on feminist political praxis, with a focus on transnational feminist movements seeking social, economic and environmental transformation. Her courses include Marxist feminism, Women, Money and Transnationalism, decolonial feminist archives and gendered movements about the land, food and survival. Many of her courses are community-based research courses linked to regional and international community movements for the basic needs of land, food, labor, and embodied self-determination. In addition to the book we discuss in this episode Armstrong is the author of The Retreat From Organization: U.S. Feminism Reconceptualized, and Gender and Neoliberalism: The All-India Democratic Women’s Association and Its Strategies of Resistance. In this conversation we are here to talk about her latest book Bury The Corpse of Colonialism: The Revolutionary Feminist Conference of 1949. In 1949, revolutionary activists from Asia hosted a conference in Beijing that gathered together their comrades from around the world. The Asian Women’s Conference developed a new political strategy, demanding that women from occupying colonial nations contest imperialism with the same dedication as women whose countries were occupied. This book tells the remarkable story of how these bold activists constructed a blueprint for anti-imperialist feminist internationalism and shows how movements create a revolutionary theory over time and through struggle. The book is a great discussion of conjunctural analysis, the dedication of these women militants, from communist parties and other antifascist, anticolonial, and anti-imperialist formations in the 1940’s. We talk to Dr. Armstrong about how these women developed their strategy, what they were experiencing in their struggles, and how they sought to put their strategy of an inside/outside approach to anti colonialism and anti-imperialism into practice in the middle of the 20th century as the international anticolonial movement was developing. Also May is winding down and we’re just 9 patrons away from hitting our goal for the month. This is our 6th episode for the month of May. If you appreciate the work we do releasing episodes like this on a weekly basis and running study groups, kick in $1 a month or more and help us sustain the work, which is only possible through the support of everyday folks like yourself. You can become a patron of the show at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism Purchase the book from Massive Bookshop  

This episode is focused on the campaign to free Sundiata Jawanza. Sundiata Jawanza is a New Afrikan, abolitionist and human rights activist currently incarcerated in the South Carolina. Today we have four guests, Audrey Bomse and Jenipher Jones both co-chairs of the Mass Incarceration Committee of the National Lawyers Guild, Darren Mack of Prison Lives Matter, and Roc, the Jailhouse Lawyers Speak Housing Program Coordinator.  In this discussion J shares a bit about the Sundiata Jawanza’s freedom campaign, a bit about the case itself, and primarily we focus on a political discussion of Sundiata Jawanza’s work in part discussing his individual contributions, but primarily through the political work that he and his comrades have done through Jailhouse Lawyers Speak. As part of that discussion, we also discuss the overall importance of jailhouse lawyers to the legal education and opportunities at freedom and defense of human rights within US prisons.  We want to ask all of our listeners to please get involved, to connect with Sundiata Jawanza, and to support his freedom campaign by writing the parole board on his behalf. Full details on how to do that can be found at SundiataJawanza.com. To learn more about Jailhouse Lawyers Speak. People can write JLS by mail at:  JAILHOUSE LAWYERS SPEAK PO BOX 673 MERCER, PA 16137 Or email jailhouselawyersspeak@protonmail.com or outthemud.jls@gmail.com Some prior episodes with (or in solidarity with) Jailhouse Lawyers Speak: Jailhouse Lawyers Speak's 2020 Call To Action  “In The Spirit of Abolition” - Jailhouse Lawyers Speak Calls For Shut ‘Em Down Demonstrations "Building Infrastructure: Identifying Tactics for Sustainable Formations": A Panel Discussion Supporting Jailhouse Lawyers Speak's #SHUTEMDOWN2021 Demos

This is part 2 of our 2-part conversation with Felicia Denaud. In this part of the discussion Denaud talks about what the category of political prisoner might do politically, in thinking about movement building through a lens of movement defense in this moment. We also continue our conversation on her work on the Master-State Complex and thinking about the state capacity for violence and the private outsourcing of that "sovereign" power that comes about with the slave trade, plantation economy and settler colonialism. It’s worth saying that this conversation happened a week before Jordan Neely was murdered, but that case also relates deeply to these dynamics described in this conversation. Denaud talks about the use of light and darkness in Fanon’s work and talks about his concept of social treason as a potentially more robust language to deal with those who leverage political struggles for their own personal, political and monetary gain on the backs or at odds with the social movements that propel them to levels of power and accumulation. This is our 4th episode of the month of May. We are behind on our goal for the month and looking to add 26 more patrons this month to hit our goal. If you’re able to kick in at least a $1 a month or $10.80 per year you can become a patron of the show and join the amazing community of folks who make this show possible at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism Links: Lawrence Jenkins Campaign to Free the Pendleton 2 // Our episode on this struggle “Into The Clear, Unreal, Idyllic Light of the Beginning | A Will of the Night" ­­­­­­­"we’ve barely begun to speak/scream/sing: on frankétienne’s dézafi" Renegade Gestation: Writing Against the Procedures of Intellectual History  Cooperation Jackson's Kali Akuno on the lessons of and the ongoing struggle in Jackson MS More on political prisoners: The Jericho Movement (political prisoners) uprisingsupport.org/ atlsolidarity.org/