Piper Down, Rockhill!

In this episode Aaron takes on the main body of text of one of Trotsky's best works and likely the one book of Trotsky's you should read if we had to pick only one. Part 2 will cover the history of revolutions throughout the 20th century and how Stalinism betrayed them long after the bureaucratic degeneration of the Soviet Union using Trotsky's methodology and analysis.

The boys survey different party takes on the war with Iran, how communists should respond to it, and emphasize that our main enemy is at home, the US imperialist war machine. We oppose any intervention in Iran for any reason by the US full stop. We end with a fun poke at a 2 year old article by midwestern mussolini that argues that Iran is actually existing socialism.Episode cover art is by the Organization of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class (Peykar), Iranian communist organization

In late 2025 Gabriel Rockhill released his book "Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism?" with the central argument that the Cold War wasn't fought with bombs, sanctions, coups and blockades but with ideology, ideas, theory and academia coordinated by the CIA and other nefarious government agencies in an attempt to discredit and attack so called Actually Existing Socialism. But do his arguments hold up? Why is criticizing socialist projects tantamount to collaboration? For more we turn to Doug Greene and Harrison Fluss' critique of Rockhill's book "Theory Betrayed".https://www.historicalmaterialism.org/article/theory-betrayed-an-essay-on-gabriel-rockhills-who-paid-the-pipers-of-western-marxism-part-one/

We discuss the Trotskyist position on imperialism as it relates to Iran, and what some misconceptions about our approach is since many of our comrades on the Marxist left in general haven't read or understood Trotsky's take on imperialism. Does calling for a socialist Iran mean we work for the State department and are doing the US Govt's work for them? Hardly! Then we sink our teeth further into the imperialist turning inside out as ICE further terrorizes the working class of Minneapolis, and how the working class has fought back.Closing song is Joe's new single "Is Your Hate Pure?". Give our comrade a like and follow on his channel here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q7A5xb5JBc

The 1934 Teamsters strike of Minneapolis, Trotskyists favourite victory in the USA. An event highly worth discussing in light of the general strike and oppression and murder of workers in Minneapolis today. How did the Trotskyists organize in a scab town and win? What does theory have to offer?I thought I'd try something different with this episode, making it more of a documentary that borrows heavily from Labor's Turning Point, the Diet Soap Podcast, and an article from Marxist.com.https://marxist.com/usa-the-role-of-trotskyists-in-the-1934-minneapolis-teamsters-strike.htmIf you like what you hear and want to hear more of content like this, subscribe to the Patreon! patreon.com/TheLeftOPIf you hate what you hear and wish for us to stop, subscribe to the patreon at patreon.com/TheLeftOp

Join us every Sunday at 7:00pm EST Starting January 25th 2026 as we dive chapter by chapter into Broue's brilliant book discussing the German Revolution and why it failed and its consequences and lessons for revolutionaries today.

It will never not be insane that the author of Manufacturing Consent himself turned out to be part of the very conspiracy of manufacturing consent for the US Empire as Trump distracts us from the Epstein files by attacking Venezuela and unleashing his Gestapo on American citizens resulting in multiple deaths this week. A new age is upon us where they don't even need our consent anymore. Anyway its only been a week into 2026, happy new year!Check us out on patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/TheLeftOP

Doug's new book is out where he discusses the conspiracy surrounding the Left Opposition and the Moscow show trials. Many writers have defended these trials like Dominic Losurdo, who argued they were necessary to build socialism, and Grover Furr, who advocates there was a conspiracy and has written multiple books citing the evidence for such a conspiracy. But does the evidence hold up to scrutiny? Doug weighs in to counter these accusation and defend the legacy of Trotsky.Buy his book here: https://anticapitalistresistance.org/in-stalins-shadow/If you like our show consider subbing to the Patreon to continue our project of world analysis and defending Marxism.

Hey folks its been a while, we know. We've been busy in our personal lives and Chris has been hitting the streets organizing ballot measures and building that fighting NALC! John joins us from the streets to shed some insight into his activities and to discuss the latest flotilla intercepted by Israel. Greta Thunberg continues to be an incredible activist refusing to bend to media pressures and celebrity, with more gall and bravery than I will ever have.

Aaron opens the show with a presentation on the influences of Marxism in the archaeological profession in both theories and more recently, practice. The conditions of archaeology as a profession and industry not only produced an exploited class of field workers but paved the way for unionization of archaeologists. Joining the program is our guest Sean who helped lead the initial unionizing campaign back in 2017 and continues to represent archaeologists within the broader labour movement.