Class Unity

In our latest speaker series, Class Unity discusses class, capitalism and higher education with Mitch Hernandez and Adam Rensch. Mitch Hernandez is a doctoral candidate in the cultural studies and comparative literature department of the University of Minnesota. His general interests include the history of neoliberalism and the development of  subjectivity in its regimes. His dissertation focuses on the university as a site of clandestine social reproduction.  Adam Rensch received his PhD in English and creative writing from the University of Illinois, Chicago. He writes for the Brooklyn Rail on class politics and inequality. His current book project traces the historical relationship between the university creative writing programs and the decline of working class literature.  Links to the articles discussed in the video: Hernandez — Managerialism, Debt, and the Class Composition of the University Rensch — Academic Serfdom & the End of Higher Education For more info about becoming a member of Class Unity, go to https//classunity.org 

The discussion highlights Trump’s waning support from his core base and the rise of right populism. Iran's nuclear threats and shifting U.S. foreign policy take center stage, along with the complexities of U.S.-Iran-Israel relations. Political dynamics reveal a factional shift within the Republican Party, while a populist movement emerges in the Democratic primary. The potential impact of local political changes, like the NYC mayoral election, emphasizes class interests and economic concerns, urging a coalition approach to tackle inequalities.

Class Unity speaks with Warren Mosler, a leading voice and theorist of Modern Monetary Theory. He spent much of his career in the business world as entrepreneur and investor, founding and operating a successful hedge fund. Later he became an author on economics and along with others founded a new school of economic thought that we now know as Modern Monetary Theory or MMT. “Soft Currency Economics” https://moslereconomics.com/mandatory-readings/soft-currency-economics/ “The Seven Deadly Innocent Frauds of Economic Policy.” https://moslereconomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Seven-Deadly-Innocent-Frauds-of-Warren-Mosler.pdf https://moslereconomics.com Twitter/X @wbmosler For more info go to https//classunity.org 

Professors Radhika Desai and Paul Gottfried discuss Marxism, “Woke” ideology”, and whether Marxism is “woke”. Professor Desai teaches political economy and political science at the University of Manitoba. You can find her here: https://radhikadesai.com https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/author/radhika-desai/ https://x.com/raddesai?lang=en In her recent book, “Capitalism, Coronavirus and War: A Geopolitical Economy” (2022), she makes the following statement on the topics of class and left politics today: “With the conversion of the historic parties of the working class to neoliberalism, all mainstream politics has turned into a politics of neoliberalism. The main parties form a solid cross-party phalanx, a veritable establishment, operating across parties, corporate foundations, think tanks and even countries. Their unified discourse is policed by forms of censorship more effective than any in the most dystopian vision of allegedly totalitarian societies. Operating with the carrots of preferment and pay, and the sticks of being silenced (as Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden most famously have been) or shunned, as with so many critical writers branded ‘conspiracy theorists’ or ‘dangerous’ or simply loony. The neoliberal establishment also equates the politics of a Johnson or Trump with the class politics of left leaders such as Corbyn or Sanders or Maduro as versions of populism, striking at both major forms of challenge to their power. Many sections of the left also act as freelance vigilantes for this establishment, particularly by attacking those questioning this neoliberal consensus, whether they call radical supporters of the rights of Palestinians ant-Semitic or accuse critics of wars of ‘democracy promotion’ of dictator-philia. [/] In this context, action on the political battlefield of the major capitalist countries is largely confined to the right. Biden’s government of the Democratic neoliberal establishment representing big corporate and financial capital was opposed most strenuously by the Trumpist right representing only slightly smaller and even less scrupulous capital with a lower tolerance for regulation, a higher propensity to squeeze wages and a greater antipathy to taxes. […] …by the second decade of the twenty-first century, the principal opposition to socially liberal corporate neoliberalism comes not from any left force but from an enrageée hard right.” Professor Gottfried taught for many years in the humanities at Elizabethtown College, has published many books on politics and the history of political thought, and is the editor of Chronicles. You can find his thoughts on the topic of this discussion here: https://chroniclesmagazine.org/view/marx-was-not-woke/

Mattie is a social and political historian of the United States and southern Africa in the twentieth century. She is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University’s Johnson Center for the Study of American Diplomacy at the Jackson School of Global Affairs. She earned her Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2023 and is an incoming assistant professor at VMI. Mattcwebb.com Twitter/X: @mattcwebb

Robert C. Hockett, Professor of law at Cornell law school, joins Class Unity for part 2 of the discussion on money: how it works and how it relates to banking, capital, and investment. He makes the case for a new set of reforms designed to socialize investment. His research lies in the fields of organizational financial, and monetary law, and economics. In this episode we discuss his papers: Modern, Pre-Modern, Or Post-Modern Money? A Brief Guide For The Perplexed. https://www.forbes.com/sites/rhockett/2020/10/26/modern-pre-modern-or-post-modern-money-a-brief-guide-for-the-perplexed/ The ‘Socialization of Investment’ https://einaudi.cornell.edu/research/publications/socialization-investment Professor Hockett’s recent books include “Making capital democratic” and “Spread the Fed: Distributed Central Banking for Productive-Republican Finance” Follow Robert Hockett on Twitter/X @rch371 Screenshot For more information on Class Unity: https://classunity.org

Robert C. Hockett, Professor of law at Cornell law school, joins Class Unity to discuss money: how it works and how it relates to banking, capital, and investment. He makes the case for a new set of reforms designed to socialize investment. His research lies in the fields of organizational financial, and monetary law, and economics. In this episode we discuss his papers: Modern, Pre-Modern, Or Post-Modern Money? A Brief Guide For The Perplexed. https://www.forbes.com/sites/rhockett/2020/10/26/modern-pre-modern-or-post-modern-money-a-brief-guide-for-the-perplexed/ The ‘Socialization of Investment’ https://einaudi.cornell.edu/research/publications/socialization-investment Professor Hockett’s recent books include “Making capital democratic” and “Spread the Fed: Distributed Central Banking for Productive-Republican Finance” Follow Robert Hockett on Twitter/X @rch371 For more information on Class Unity: https://classunity.org

In this episode, Jamal, Heph, Daniel, and Martin speak with Ben Thomason on USAID, the Middle East, the new Trump administration, tariffs and more. Ben Arthur Thomason is an expert on twentieth and twenty-first century US empire and international relations and completed his PhD in American Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University in 2024. Ben can be followed on Twitter/X @benthomason95  

FTC Manning Talks to Class Unity about Rent, Land, Class, and Politics. Support Class Unity by making a donation today: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?h… You can find the essay we discussed at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/… You can find their work at: https://independent.academia.edu… https://academicworks.cuny.edu/c… You can find us at: https://classunity.org Join us, subscribe, and donate today!

Class Unity members cover the reaction of the Democratic Party to Kamala Harris’ loss and discuss what we can expect in Donald Trump’s next presidency.