Jacobin Radio

Chapters eight and nine of EP Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class. Additional reading: Aaron Benanav, "Automation and the Future of Work—1" https://newleftreview.<wbr />org/issues/II119/articles/<wbr />aaron-benanav-automation-and-<wbr />the-future-of-work-1 Aaron Benanav, "Automation and the Future of Work—2"https://newleftreview.<wbr />org/issues/II120/articles/<wbr />aaron-benanav-automation-and-<wbr />the-future-of-work-2 E.P. Thompson, "Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism" https://www.sv.<wbr />uio.no/sai/english/research/<wbr />projects/anthropos-and-the-<wbr />material/Intranet/economic-<wbr />practices/reading-group/texts/<wbr />thompson-time-work-discipline-<wbr />and-industrial-capitalism.pdf

Suzi talks to historians Mike Davis and Jon Wiener, touching on some of the many intersecting stories they tell in their long awaited and absolutely compelling history, Set the Night on Fire: Los Angeles in the Sixties.Here we see Los Angeles as a hotbed of political, social and cultural upheaval — from the Watts rebellion to the Chicano Blowouts, the anti-war movement, youth protests and strikes, the women’s and gay movements, the cultural flowering and media expressions, including KPFK, the Los Angeles Free Press and the Ashgrove — as well as the ferocious, racist and violent police response at every turn. Their account of the ever increasing mass protests and the movements behind them convey that “special excitement that occurs when a group of people can see and visibly measure their potential power for the first time.”

Dan interviews anthropologist Adia Benton on the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa and what its politics reveal about the Covid-19 pandemic today.Please support this podcast with your money at patreon.com/thdig

We're on to Part II of The Making of the English Working Class. We cover chapter six and seven--"Exploitation" and "The Field Labourers," plus discuss the 1986 film Comrades, which follows the Tolpuddle Martyrs, a group of laborers who were transported to Australia for organizing an early trade union.No secondary reading this week, though if you can find Comrades online, watch it! In the United States at least, it's available on Vimeo.

Thea Riofrancos, co-author of this book, on why the Green New Deal is more urgent than ever. Then, Alexander Zaitchik, author of this article, on how the profit-driven drug industry is an obstacle to developing a vaccine.

Dan interviews Frank Rosenthal on the history of the radical science organization Science for the People and Nafis Hasan on everything about a left-wing politics of science.Subscribe to Science for the People at magazine.ScienceForThePeople.orgPlease support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

With guest Asad Haider, we discuss at length the theoretical polemic of E.P. Thompson against Louis Althusser. What was the historical context for each side of this conflict (in which Althusser never participated directly)? What was Thompson’s critique? Asad argues that Thompson did not understand Althusser correctly, or even provide a satisfactory conceptual account of what was best about his own empirical research. The two, may have been closer to each other than Thompson understood. A humanist, he preferred the young Marx; Althusser, an anti-humanist, argued systematically for the importance of the mature Marx. Both, however, were reacting to the Stalinist ossification of their respective national Communist parties.Readings discussed in this episode:Louis Althusser, For Marxhttps://www.versobooks.com/&lt;wbr /&gt;books/35-for-marxLouis Althusser, “Contradiction and Overdetermination” (from For Marx)https://www.marxists.org/&lt;wbr /&gt;reference/archive/althusser/&lt;wbr /&gt;1962/overdetermination.htmLouis Althusser, Etienne Balibar, Roger Establet, Pierre Macherey, and Jacques Rancière, Reading Capitalhttps://www.versobooks.com/&lt;wbr /&gt;books/2042-reading-capitalLouis Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”https://www.marxists.org/&lt;wbr /&gt;reference/archive/althusser/&lt;wbr /&gt;1970/ideology.htmPerry Anderson, “Origins of the Present Crisis”https://newleftreview.org/&lt;wbr /&gt;issues/I23/articles/perry-&lt;wbr /&gt;anderson-origins-of-the-&lt;wbr /&gt;present-crisisPerry Anderson, Arguments Within English Marxismhttps://www.versobooks.com/&lt;wbr /&gt;books/576-arguments-within-&lt;wbr /&gt;english-marxismAsad Haider, Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump https://www.versobooks.com/&lt;wbr /&gt;books/2716-mistaken-identityKarl Marx, Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economyhttps://www.marxists.org/&lt;wbr /&gt;archive/marx/works/1859/&lt;wbr /&gt;critique-pol-economy/appx1.htmE.P. Thompson, “The Peculiarities of the English”<u>https://www.marxists.org/&lt;wbr /&gt;archive/thompson-ep/1965/&lt;wbr /&gt;english.htm</u>E.P. Thompson, “An Open Letter to Leszek Kolakowski” https://www.marxists.org/&lt;wbr /&gt;archive/thompson-ep/1973/&lt;wbr /&gt;kolakowski.htmE.P. Thompson, “The Poverty of Theory:Or, An Orrery of Errors” https://www.marxists.org/&lt;wbr /&gt;archive/thompson-ep/1978/pot/&lt;wbr /&gt;intro.htmE.P. Thompson, “Outside the Whale”https://www.marxists.org/&lt;wbr /&gt;archive/thompson-ep/1978/&lt;wbr /&gt;outside-whale.htm

Dan is playing catch up. Here's a fav interview from the archives: critical theorist Nancy Fraser on how a total analysis of capitalism requires analyzing capitalism's totality, including socially reproductive work that makes possible the world that capitalism exploits. This is painfully relevant today as people everywhere do the work of staying at home and social distancing to beat this pandemic while capitalists reap the rewards of the world's reproduction.Please support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

We cover Chapter Five, but first have an extensive discussion of the debate between Thompson and Perry Anderson and Tom Nairn over the history of social class and economic development in England, with sociologist Jonah Stuart-Brundage. What should we make of liberalism in England at the end of the eighteenth century and what it meant for the prospects of revolution? Secondary readings: Perry Anderson, “Origins of the Present Crisis” https://newleftreview.org/&lt;wbr /&gt;issues/I23/articles/perry-&lt;wbr /&gt;anderson-origins-of-the-&lt;wbr /&gt;present-crisis Perry Anderson, “Socialism and Pseudo-Empiricism,” https://newleftreview.org/&lt;wbr /&gt;issues/I35/articles/perry-&lt;wbr /&gt;anderson-socialism-and-pseudo-&lt;wbr /&gt;empiricism Arno Mayer, The Persistence of the Old Regime: Europe to the Great War https://www.versobooks.com/&lt;wbr /&gt;books/475-the-persistence-of-&lt;wbr /&gt;the-old-regime Tom Nairn, “The British Political Elite” https://newleftreview.org/&lt;wbr /&gt;issues/I23/articles/tom-nairn-&lt;wbr /&gt;the-british-political-elite Tom Nairn, “The British Working Class” https://newleftreview.org/&lt;wbr /&gt;issues/I24/articles/tom-nairn-&lt;wbr /&gt;the-english-working-class Tom Nairn, “The Anatomy of the Labour Party: Part I” https://newleftreview.org/&lt;wbr /&gt;issues/I27/articles/tom-nairn-&lt;wbr /&gt;the-nature-of-the-labour-&lt;wbr /&gt;party-part-i Tom Nairn, “The Anatomy of the Labour Party: Part II” https://newleftreview.org/&lt;wbr /&gt;issues/I28/articles/tom-nairn-&lt;wbr /&gt;the-nature-of-the-labour-&lt;wbr /&gt;party-part-ii E.P. Thompson, “The Peculiarities of the English” https://www.marxists.org/&lt;wbr /&gt;archive/thompson-ep/1965/&lt;wbr /&gt;english.htm#n1

Michael Seltzer is a cultural anthropologist and professor emeritus at Oslo University in Norway. There is a sharp contrast in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic between Norway, Finland, and Denmark, where isolation and quarantine are in effect, as compared to Sweden, where the economy is open, and the death rate is much higher. Mike says learning from the experience of Scandinavia is instructive for the United States as some states open for business, while others stay locked down. Mike looks at the history and politics behind these different approaches. Michael Goldfield<font color="#000000"> discusses his new book,</font>The Southern Key: Class Race & Radicalism in the 1930s and 1940s. He argues that the political economic evolution of the South has been the key to determining the peculiar nature of American politics. Today the South is the center of reaction, leading the fight against choice, women and LGBTQ rights, the right to unionize — and even in the fight against the lockdown and quarantine necessary to halt the spread of coronavirus. It didn’t have to be this way and Goldfield holds that the experience (and failure) of organizing the working class in the South explains the origins of the current state of the United States and the world; and that the defeats from that time closed off the possibilities for meaningful class and anti-racist politics — as well as for a successful labor movement for decades to come.