Class Unity

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.

Join Speaker 2, an astute commentator on political dynamics, as they delve into the 2024 elections and the frustrations in the current electoral landscape. They address the disillusionment voters feel toward both parties, critiquing the influence of donors on candidates. Explore the evolution of culture wars in mobilizing political support, along with the challenges of re-industrialization amid economic shifts. The discussion extends to the complexities of class dynamics and shifting loyalties, revealing a landscape rife with skepticism towards established political structures.

Radhika Desai talks with Class Unity about geopolitical economy, imperialism, realism, the state of the left, and and dollar hegemony. She is the author of “Geopolitical Economy: After US Hegemony, Globalization and Empire” (2013) and “Capitalism, Coronavirus and War” (2022). You can find Class Unity here: https://classunity.org Please consider making a donation or joining today!

In this episode, Jamal, Heph and Daniel speak to Ben Thomason, an expert on American culture and politics, on so-called “democracy promotion,” and the way in which the US uses media and civil society to manipulate other countries in furtherance of corporate interests. Here is some of Thomason’s recent work: 2022 article, “Save the Children, Launch the Bombs: Propaganda Agents Behind The White Helmets (2016) Documentary and Media Imperialism in the Syrian Civil War” – https://www.theprojectorjournal.com/save-the-children 2022 blog post, “directing the moderat rebels: Syria as a Digital Age Crucible for Information and propaganda warfare” – https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/directing-the-moderate-rebels-syria-as-a-digital-age-crucible-for-information-and-propaganda-warfare 2024 article, “The moderate rebel industry: Spaces of Western public–private civil society and propaganda warfare in the Syrian civil war” – https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352241239142 2024 dissertation on democracy promotion, “Making Democracy Safe for Empire: A History and Political Economy of the National Endowment for Democracy, United States Agency for International Development, and Twenty-First Century Media Imperialism” – http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1711480290212777 References: Marcie Smith (2019), “Change Agent: Gene Sharp’s Neoliberal Nonviolence” https://nonsite.org/change-agent-gene-sharps-neoliberal-nonviolence-part-one/ Thomason can be followed on Twitter/X @BenThomason95.