Cosmopod

For our 100th episode, we go back to our roots. Djamil, Virginia and Rudy sit down to discuss the launch of Sputnik, using Asif A. Siddiqi's The Red Rockets Glare: Spaceflight and the Soviet Imagination 1853-1957 to ground the discussion. We talk about the intellectual origins of the Soviet space program in Cosmism, the figures in the space race, the science-from-below and from-above aspects of the space program, how the space program evolved through the eras of NEP, Five Year Plans, Purges and the Zhdanov doctrine, the influences of WW2 and Nazi Germany and the Cold War, and how the launch of Sputnik became a global event which started the Space Race. We finish by reflecting on 'science from below' in today's context, and on space exploration, its links to colonialism and our imaginaries.

Is the economic calculation problem a valid argument against planned economies? Max Black argues that this so-called problem is based on flawed reasoning and that a world beyond markets is possible. Robert Fisher reads aloud.

Donald and Rudy join Jairus Banaji, author of Theory as History and A Brief History of Commercial Capitalism to discuss his theoretical  contributions around the mode of production debates. We begin with his  political starts in the UK and in India, and how he saw the  organizational and cultural failures of the left in both countries, the  debates on the mode of production in India and what he brought to this  debate using the theories of formal and real subsumption. We turn to his  analysis of the modes of production in Ancient Rome, the method of  historical materialism, the origins of capitalism and the moments of  truth in the existing camps, the very particular emergence of capitalism  in the US, the importance of vertical integration and how all of this  plays in to the debates around merchant capitalism. Finally, we discuss  capitalism in the Islamic world, imperialism and unequal exchange, and  the importance of having open theoretical debate in Marxism.

Parker McQueeney introduces two of Paul Costello’s essays on the topic of Stalin and Stalinism: Stalin and Historical Reality and Stalin and the Problem of Theory.

Matt and Rudy join Dongping Han, author of The Unknown Cultural Revolution: Life and Change in a Chinese Village for a discussion on his experiences growing up in Maoist China. We  discuss his hometown in Jimo County, his experiences with the Great Leap  Forward and how they compare to common historiography of the period,  the attitude of Communist Party officials and how the Cultural  Revolution changed the long tradition of politics in rural China by  empowering the common people to fight back against corrupt officials,  the educational reforms during the Cultural Revolution and how it helped  bridge the urban-rural divide. We finish by discussing the end of the  Cultural Revolution and how the Deng reforms set back the countryside.

Historiographical debates around the French Revolution are ultimately political debates, not just debates about the facts. Donald Parkinson argues for revitalizing the tradition of the social historians against the new revisionist orthodoxy. Myk Labas reads aloud. https://cosmonautmag.com/2019/09/historiography-wars-the-french-revolution/ 

Rudy and Giacomo Bianchino join Boe Spearim, host of Frontier Wars and Kieran from the Australian Communist Party and the NSW Aboriginal Land Council association for an introductory discussion on indigenous  Australians. We discuss the history of indigenous Australians before the  arrival of Europeans, what the "Frontier Wars" were and the  "historiography wars" around their story, how the indigenous struggle  changed after the "end" of these wars, including the day of mourning  protests, the Freedom rides, the Springbok boycott and the tent embassy,  and how land back was put into the Australian political agenda. They  tell us about the international relationships of the black Australian  struggle including their the US Black Panthers and  solidarity with other indigenous groups around the world.  We also discuss the  relationship between indigenous struggles and Marxism, the history of solidarity among oppressed groups in Australia, before finishing with the prospects for anti-colonial solidarity and the issues aboriginal people usually face when trying to build this solidarity.

The history of the British communist novel is ultimately the story of the political degeneration of the Communist Party of Great Britain. By Lawrence Parker. Narration by LC.

Connor, Christian and Donald sit down to discuss the collapse of the Soviet Union. They begin by situating the economic and political problems of the system, such as the siege economy and the centralization/decentralization dichotomies which led to the general malaise of the late Brezhnev period. They continue by discussing the rise of Andropov and Gorbachev, and what reforms they tried to implement: bans on alcohol and the opening of political discussion, and how those reforms ended up backfiring.   They follow up by discuss the Five Year Plan of 86-90, the two stages of economic reforms and their adverse effects, the coalition that appears which pushes for the dismantling of the Soviet Union, the rise of Boris Yeltsin and his association to Russian nationalism and the failed coup and how it signaled the transition of sovereignty and the end of the USSR. They also discuss what happened after the collapse, including shock therapy, the 1993 bombing of the parliament and the legacy of the USSR's collapse in Russia's present political system and economical situation, before finishing with an evaluation of all attempts to reform the Soviet Union. References: The Russian Revolution 1917-1932 - Sheila Fitzpatrick Revolution from Above: The Demise of the Soviet System - David M. Kotz Inside Gorbachev's Kremlin: The Memoirs of Yegor Ligachev - Yegor Ligachev Soviet Baby Boomers: An Oral History of Russia's Cold War Generation - Donald J. Raleigh Everything was Forever, Until it was No More: The Last Soviet Generation - Alexei Yurchak

Sam Miller polemicizes against the delusions of the left in the Biden administration and proclaims the necessity for a class independent approach to politics. Myk Labas reads aloud. https://cosmonautmag.com/2021/10/bismarck-browder-biden-joes-hegemony-versus-ours/