Jacobin Radio: Louisiana Labor Struggle w/ Jesse Baum & David Williams

Grab your coffee and your backpack — it's time for Professor Chibber's Office Hours! On this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek answers YOUR questions. We received so many interesting and thoughtful emails from listeners, we decided to dedicate a whole podcast to them. Vivek talks about how socialists should confront discrimination in their organizing, the relevance of the concept of monopoly capitalism, and the class implications of home ownership. The latest issue of Catalyst is out and you can subscribe for just $20 using the code CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM: https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM Have a question for us? Write to us by email:  [email protected] Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Suzi talks to Capital & Main reporter Jesse Baum and David Williams, a Dollar General stocker and organizer with Step Up Louisiana, about how workers are fighting for dignity and better working conditions in “right-to-work” states — places where an anti-union climate, legal roadblocks, and intimidation make winning union recognition nearly impossible. Dollar Store workers in Louisiana organized with Step Up Louisiana and won tangible gains despite the system being rigged against them. They used the Pre-Majority Unionism strategy — acting like a union without having one — walking out, marching on shareholders, and forcing companies to raise wages and improve safety and respect on the job. We talk about whether this organizing could chart a path forward for labor in the US’s low-wage sectors, short of unionizing. Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Ilan Pappé, author of Israel on the Brink, gives an update on the ceasefire and how the deepening crisis of Israeli society could lead to something better. Jennifer Berkshire examines the appalling Trump educational agenda. Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Jake Werner of the Quincy Institute analyzes Trump’s creeping softness on China, and how that country sees its role in the world. Jeet Heer, author of a recent book review for the Nation, talks about the slick but odious William F. Buckley Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Professor Tom Alter, a tenured historian at Texas State University, was recently fired for speaking at an online socialism conference. His remarks were secretly recorded and doctored by a self-proclaimed fascist influencer who launched a smear campaign. There was no due process, a blatant violation of his First Amendment and academic freedom rights. The president of Texas State University upheld the firing of Tom Alter after a court ordered his reinstatement. A broad coalition has formed to “Defend Tom Alter.” Tom joins Suzi to describe what happened and why his case has become a flashpoint in the new McCarthyism sweeping US campuses. Then, longtime Chicano activist Bill Gallegos tells the story of how Los Angeles united to defeat Trump’s deployment of troops to enforce ICE raids and terrorize immigrant communities. Unions, immigrant organizations, artists, faith leaders, and even business groups built a united front demanding troops out — and they won. Trump’s troops were forced to withdraw. LA showed the country what resistance and broad solidarity can achieve: when people organize and stand firm, even a president bent on repression can be pushed back. LA was supposed to be Trump's model for his authoritarian power grab, but instead it was the template for defeating it. Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Featuring Melinda Cooper on Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance. Balanced budget conservatism and supply side populism engineered a politics of austerity and budget deficits. Deep cuts to the social wage like welfare reform disciplined labor so severely that Fed chair Alan Greenspan opened the floodgates of easy money confident it would juice the price of assets alone. Assets like homes, the value of which spiraled ever upward until the global financial crisis. The crash made the politics of revolutionary conservatism that dominate us today with MAGA. But the crisis also revealed powerful monetary tools that we could wield to make socialism—if only we organize the power necessary to seize them. The second in a two-part series. Call in to leave a question for The Dig’s mailbag episode: speakpipe.com/ListenerMailbag Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Get your first month free at OVID.tv using promo code DIG25 Visit dropsitenews.com/DIG20 for 20% off an annual Drop Site subscription The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

In this tumultuous political era, it’s common to hear that the Left needs to rebuild its historic sources of power. But it’s more accurate to say that the Left is essentially in the process of starting over again. On this episode of Confronting Capitalism, we share Vivek Chibber’s keynote address at the Jacobin conference, “Socialism in Our Time,” which marked the 15th anniversary of the magazine. He discusses how capitalism has changed since the turn of the century, how the Left has been neoliberalized, and why Zohran Mamdani’s campaign may point in a new direction. The latest issue of Catalyst is out and you can subscribe for just $20 using the code CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM: https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM Have a question for us? Write to us by email:  [email protected] Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

At the end of September, political theorist Ilya Matveev joined the Critique editorial board to present his ideas about imperialism in the 21st century. Suzi Weissman moderated that enlightening discussion and brings it now to Jacobin Radio. Matveev examines the emerging era of inter-imperialist rivalry and asks what’s really driving the strategies of Russia, China, and the United States. China has risen as a manufacturing superpower, with national capital tightly fused to the party-state. Russia, in a neo-fascist turn, has shattered the global free-trade order with its invasion of Ukraine. The United States, still unmatched in military and financial power, confronts both as rivals even as Trump’s second administration dismantles the alliances and institutions that once underpinned American primacy. What theories of imperialism can help us make sense of this fractured world order? Matveev argues that to grasp today’s disjointed global system, we must reckon not only with the structural contradictions of capitalism but also with the sovereign decisions and ideological projects of political elites. Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Erin Thompson considers the politics of public monuments as Trump talks of restoring Confederate statues. Mouin Rabbani returns for a look at Trump’s dubious Gaza peace scheme. Ted Hamm, author of Run Zohran Run!, discusses Mamdani’s campaign for NYC mayor. Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

This week’s episode of Long Reads is the second in a two-part interview. In our last episode, we spoke to Catarina Príncipe about the politics of Portugal since 2015. Today we’re going to cover developments from 2022 onward. One of the main themes in that period has been the rise of the far right. In 2022, the parties of the radical left, the Communist Party and the Left Bloc, lost ground and were no longer part of the governing majority. In this year’s general election, the right-wing Chega Party became the second-largest force in the Portuguese parliament. Chega’s breakthrough came at the expense of the Portuguese Socialist Party, which now had the third-largest group of MPs. For the Socialists, it represented a dramatic fall in the space of three years. Catarina Príncipe is a contributing editor for Jacobin and she co-edited the book Europe in Revolt. She’s also a member of the Left Bloc. Listen to the first part of the interview here: https://apple.co/4mmUUec Read Catarina’s article “How Portugal’s Right Won the Election” here: https://jacobin.com/2024/03/portugal-right-wing-chega-election Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies with music by Knxwledge.