Cosmopod

This is a narration of the introduction to Mike Macnair's groundbreaking book Revolutionary Strategy. Narration and editing by Lydia Apolinar.   The free market triumphalism of the 1990s is over. Early 21st century capitalism looks like Karl Marx’s description: growing extremes of wealth and poverty, and irrepressible boom-bust cycles. But for the moment, rightwing religious and nationalist nostalgia politics is the main beneficiary of the opposition this has spawned. The political left remains in the shadow of its disastrous failures in the 20th century. The centre-left - where it has not joined forces with the neoliberal right - clings to nationalist and bureaucratic-statist nostalgia for the social-democratic Cold War era. The far left clings to the coat-tails of the centre-left. It cannot unite itself - let alone anyone else - because it is unwilling to reinterrogate the ideas of the early Communist International, especially on the ‘revolutionary party’. To move beyond this impasse we need to re-examine critically the strategic ideas of socialists since Marx and Engels’ time. This book begins the task.   You can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Lulu. To support the project, sign up for our Patreon.

Rudy joins Paris Yeros editor of Reclaiming the Nation: The Return of the National Question in Africa, Asia and Latin America and Reclaiming the Land: The Resurgence of Rural Movements in Africa, Asia and Latin America for a discussion on the agrarian and national questions in the 21st century, with a focus on the Zimbabwe land occupations of the 2000s. We  discuss the semi-proletarization and land hunger in the Global South,  the relevance of the peasantry as a social class, national sovereignty  and South-South cooperation before moving on to discuss the land  occupations and land redistribution process in Zimbabwe that started in  2000 and how they centered the race and national questions. We also  discuss the challenges Zimbabwe has faced since then, and compare the  militancy of the Zimbabwe occupations to other movements today such as  La Via Campesina and MST in Brazil. Further reading: Paris Yeros - A New Bandung in the Current Crisis Sam Moyo - The Land Occupation Movement and Democratisation in Zimbabwe: Contradictions of Neoliberalism Sam Moyo & Paris Yeros (2007), The Radicalised state: Zimbabwe’s interrupted revolution, Review of African Political Economy, 34(111), 103–121. Sam Moyo & Paris Yeros (2013), ‘The Zimbabwe model:  Radicalisation, reform and resistance’, in S. Moyo & W. Chambati  (eds), Land and agrarian reform in Zimbabwe: Beyond white-settler capitalism (pp. 331–358). Dakar: CODESRIA.

This is a narration of the introduction to Mike Macnair's groundbreaking book Revolutionary Strategy. We have also included a preface from Parker McQueeney on what this book means in the context of 2021. Narration and editing by Lydia Apolinar.   The free market triumphalism of the 1990s is over. Early 21st century capitalism looks like Karl Marx’s description: growing extremes of wealth and poverty, and irrepressible boom-bust cycles. But for the moment, rightwing religious and nationalist nostalgia politics is the main beneficiary of the opposition this has spawned. The political left remains in the shadow of its disastrous failures in the 20th century. The centre-left - where it has not joined forces with the neoliberal right - clings to nationalist and bureaucratic-statist nostalgia for the social-democratic Cold War era. The far left clings to the coat-tails of the centre-left. It cannot unite itself - let alone anyone else - because it is unwilling to reinterrogate the ideas of the early Communist International, especially on the ‘revolutionary party’. To move beyond this impasse we need to re-examine critically the strategic ideas of socialists since Marx and Engels’ time. This book begins the task.   You can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at Lulu. To support the project, sign up for our Patreon.

Rudy and Brendan join Tyler Shipley, author of Canada in the World: Settler Capitalism and the Colonial Imagination,  for a discussion on the past, present and future of the Canadian state. We discuss the terms "Settler Capitalism" and "Colonial Imagination",  the formation of Canada through Confederation, the historical policy of  Canada towards indigenous people and the current debates around  residential schools and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW), how Canada is falsely posited as a gentler alternative to the U.S. and  the difference between the "Canadian mosaic" and "American melting pot" approaches to immigration. We also discuss the centrality of decolonization and the impossibility of santizing the signifier of Canada. We strongly recommend checking out American Indian voices on the topics covered. Aside from the classics by Howard Adams: Prison of Grass and A Tortured People, and Glen Sean Coulthard's Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition, the book Stringing Rosaries: the History, the Unforgivable, and the Healing of North American Indian Boarding School Survivors by Denise Lajimodiere and Mary Annette Plumber's numerous articles are good ways to continue learning.  M. Gouldhake's writings are also an invaluable source on the Canadian context and aswell as a resource on Marxism/anarchism and Indigenous people. We also recommend the following Red Nation Podcast episodes as a basic introduction to the ways indigenous people are organizing around these issues: No Apologies, Land Back (on Boarding Schools) and MMIWG2S+: No more red hand prints!  We also alluded to (non-indigenous) Patrick Wolfe's Traces of History: Elementary Structures of Race in the episode.

Rudy joins Boike Rehbein, author of Globalization, Society and Culture in Laos and Society in Contemporary Laos for a discussion on the past, present and future of the Lao People's  Democratic Republic. We start by discussing the concept of habitus and how it can be used to study Laotian society. We then talk about the  structure of pre-communist society, the communist takeover in 1975 and  the early attempts to build a centralized economy, and the market  reforms of 1986. We finish by discussing the bases of the Communist  Party and the recent events in 2016 which saw the return of hardliner socialists to power.   A brief and comprehensive introduction to his work on Laos is the chapter Capitalist Transformation and Habitus in Laos he authored in the book The Socialist Market Economy in Asia: Development in China, Vietnam and Laos.

Rudy joins Maddie and Jess from Philly Socialists to discuss the politics of disability and its relationship with organizing. We discuss different models of disability and how they operate under capitalism, what disability can teach us about organizing methods, and the disability rights movements in the US. We the dive into how to relate to accessibility in our organizing, and how to handle conflicting needs around it. We end by discussing the liberatory horizons for disabled people under socialism. Transcript available in cosmonautmag.com Resources mentioned: It takes Organizers to make a Revolution - Rodrigo Nunez Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution From Tide to Wave - Jean RD Allen & Teresa Kalisz No, you can't speak to the Manager - Mara Henao Zoe Belinsky's Medium

This is a narration of the ninth chapter and conclusion of Lars Lih's excellent book Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context. In this chapter, Lih explores the debates between Bolshevik and Menshevik RSDWP members after their infamous split at the party's Second Congress. The conclusion hammers home Lih's insightful critique of the "textbook interpretation" of Lenin broadly and WITBD in particular, revealing the former as an optimistic and dedicated Erfurtian revolutionary.   The full book contains much more content, including informative appendices and Lih's original translation of WITBD. You can purchase a physical copy of the book itself at: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/...   Narration and editing by Cliff Connolly.

Lydia, Agata, Anne and Rudy join for a discussion of Kristen Ghodsee's Second World, Second Sex: Socialist Women's Activism and Global Solidarity during the Cold War. We begin with the forgotten Communist history of International Women's Year (1975) which later became the United Nations Decade for Women (75-85), and the conflicts between the Western and Eastern blocs regarding women's liberation. We also discuss the double burden of women in Bulgaria, and how women's associations interfaced with the government. We then contrast Bulgaria to other Eastern Bloc countries, and also to the women's liberation movement in socialist Zambia, discussing how the double burden of women was alleviated but not eliminated in these countries. We also discuss the differences with Western feminism, and its pitfalls and advantages over the horizons of women's liberation under state socialism, highlighting the role of women's self-emancipation.

Renato Flores argues for a culture shift around meeting procedures that takes into account differing backgrounds to make our organizing spaces more accessible to everyone regardless of education and time available. Unoriginal Smack reads the article out loud.

Rudy and Annie join Mike Ely, a veteran of the Revolutionary Union and the wildcat strike movement in the West Virginia coalfields of the 1970s. Drawing from Ely's experiences as a communist in West Virginia, we discuss the practice of social investigation, the role of communists in strike struggles, the structural and conjectural views of revolution and the connection to Alain Badiou, and state repression of the radical left.   Contact Mike at wildcatincoal@gmail.com   References by Mike Ely: Ambush at Keystone: Inside the Coal Miners’ Great Gas Protest of 1974 Sites of Beginning Throw Open Windows: Beginning a Fresh Communism