Jacobin Radio

Perhaps nothing has more defined the monstrosity of Donald Trump than his racist demonization and targeting of immigrants from Mexico, Muslim-majority countries, and those nations he deems "shitholes." But what's seldom reported is that one of the key mechanisms the administration has used to target immigrants was rolled out under Barack Obama. It's called Secure Communities, and it's the culmination of decades of policy-making and politicking that have intertwined the US systems of mass incarceration and immigrant enforcement — facilitating the growth of both. To fight both mass deportation and mass incarceration, localities and states must move beyond what's currently defined as sanctuary, as a new report by Kade Crockford from the Century Foundation and ACLU of Massachusetts argues: tcf.org/content/report/beyond-sanctuary. Also: Check out Dan’s essay on Trump’s proposal to execute drug dealers: slate.com/technology/2018/03/trumps-call-to-execute-drug-dealers-is-a-natural-progression-of-american-policy.html. And thanks to Verso Books. Check out the FREE e-book Where Freedom Starts: Sex Power Violence #MeToo versobooks.com/blogs/3635-where-freedom-starts-sex-power-violence-metoo and also Duty Free Art: Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War by Hito Steyerl versobooks.com/books/2553-duty-free-art.

Tommie Shelby and Brandon M. Terry talk about their new book, To Shape a New World: Essays on the Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr. King is often remembered for his soaring oratory. But the commonplace emphasis on his rhetoric in place of his ideas too often allows enemies of King's agenda to domesticate him or, worse, to weaponize his out-of-context words to bolster the very forces of racism and oppression that King struggled to defeat. Shelby and Terry talk about King’s theory of nonviolence (more complicated than you might think), his debate with the Black Power movement, and his thinking on gender, hope, political economy, Beloved Community, and more. Thanks to Verso Books. Check out Duty Free Art: Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War by Hito Steyerl versobooks.com/books/2553-duty-free-art and Police: A Field Guide by David Correia and Tyler Wall versobooks.com/books/2530-police. And support this podcast with $ at patreon.com/TheDig!

John Clarke of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty on what’s wrong with a universal basic income (UBI), a proposal that's become increasingly popular among part of the Left and the Right. Then, Isabel Hilton of ChinaDialogue.net on Xi Jinping’s becoming China’s president for life.

Democrat Conor Lamb's victory is a rebuke of Republicans. But Lamb is far from an ideal candidate, and so the race also raises a perennial debate between the left and liberal center over what kind of alternative to the Republican right we need. Dan’s guests are Elizabeth Fiedler, Sara Inammorato, and Summer Lee, three leftist women running for state rep in Pennsylvania — all three DSA members endorsed by their local chapters. Other stuff: Patrick Blanchfield’s article on guns and neoliberalism discussed last week is here splinternews.com/the-market-cant-solve-a-massacre-1823745509 Thanks to Verso Books. Check out the free e-book Where Freedom Starts: Sex Power Violence #MeToo versobooks.com/blogs/3635-where-freedom-starts-sex-power-violence-metoo and Police: A Field Guide versobooks.com/books/2530-police. Support us with your $ at patreon.com/TheDig!

Are we on the cusp of a new wave of worker militancy? We talk to Rebecca Cohen and Shaun Richman about the victory of West Virginia teachers (and public sector workers) and the coming Oklahoma strike as they set a date to go the West Virginia way — at the same time that the Supreme Court is likely to further weaken public sector unions with the Janus v. AFSCME decision. Shaun and Rebecca talk about the possible unintended consequences that ruling could bring about. Then Dean of Boalt Law School (UC Berkeley) and constitutional scholar Erwin Chemerinsky joins us to untangle the Trump administration’s lawsuit against the state of California over three state laws the California legislature has passed to ensure that the state isn’t complicit with the Trump administration’s use of ICE raids, detention, and deportation — which the state sees as unconstitutional and “un-American.”

In West Virginia, a focal point of Trump-era liberal armchair ethnography, teachers have won a historic state-wide strike just as the Supreme Court is poised to rule in Janus, a case that will mark the culmination of a long right-wing effort to gut public sector unions. It's a scary time — but maybe, just maybe, also an exciting one. Dan’s guests today are Sarah Jaffe, Nation Institute fellow and author of Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt, and labor historian Gabriel Winant. Thanks to our supporters at Verso Books. Check out The Right to Have Rights by Stephanie DeGooyer, Alastair Hunt, Lida Maxwell, Samuel Moyn and Astra Taylor versobooks.com/books/2424-the-right-to-have-rights and Greece and the Reinvention of Politics by Alain Badiou versobooks.com/books/2560-greece-and-the-reinvention-of-politics. And support this podcast with $ at patreon.com/TheDig!

Neoliberal culture expects little from government and everything from plucky individuals — including, apparently, the self-sacrificing courage to charge an AR-15 wielding gunman while your classmates cower behind bulletproof backpacks. Writer Patrick Blanchfield returns to the show to discuss his recent essays on guns for New York magazine (forthcoming) and The Intercept (theintercept.com/2018/02/28/parkland-florida-school-shootings-arming-teachers). Thanks to our supporters at Verso Books. Check out Greece and the Reinvention of Politics by Alain Badiou versobooks.com/books/2560-greece-and-the-reinvention-of-politics. And support this podcast with $ at Patreon.com/TheDig!

How does gun culture get built from the ground up? What are the everyday politics of guns? Sociologist Jennifer Carlson does ethnographic fieldwork that provides answers to these questions, showing how men see guns as a way to be a protector in a time of economic precocity and how the NRA’s massive training operation helps shape the racialized identity of “citizen protectors” defending “sheeple” against the “wolves.” Thanks to our supporters at Verso Books. Check out The Right to Have Rights by Stephanie DeGooyer, Alastair Hunt, Lida Maxwell, Samuel Moyn and Astra Taylor versobooks.com/books/2424-the-right-to-have-rights and Greece and the Reinvention of Politics by Alain Badiou versobooks.com/books/2560-greece-and-the-reinvention-of-politics. And support this podcast with $ at patreon.com/TheDig!

Liza Featherstone, author of Divining Desire, on the history and meaning of focus groups [disclosure alert: Featherstone is the host’s wife].

Nomiki Konst, a correspondent for The Young Turks and Sanders appointee to the DNC’s Unity Reform Commission, talks about the Berniecrat struggle against a corrupt neoliberal establishment to democratize the Democratic Party. This is the first in a series on electoral politics over the next couple of months that will include conversations about DSA’s electoral strategy, an interview with Jackson, Mississippi Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, and more. Thanks to our supporters at Verso Books. Check out Greece and the Reinvention of Politics by Alain Badiou versobooks.com/books/2560-greece-and-the-reinvention-of-politics and The Progress of This Storm: Nature and Society in a Warming World by Andreas Malm versobooks.com/books/2575-the-progress-of-this-storm. And support this podcast with $ at patreon.com/TheDig.