Actually Existing Socialism

Latest Episodes:

Remembering Soviet Georgia's Healthcare w/ Sopo Japaridze May 21, 2024

Show notes

In this episode we'll be discussing Sopo's article on Jacobin entitled "How Free-Market Ideologues Dismantled Health Care in Post-Soviet Georgia". In doing so we will be talking about not only her memories of Soviet Georgia, but the memories of her family members and Georgian workers, doctors and nurses. We delve into the origins of the soviet socialist healthcare system, its operations, its historic outcomes, as well as its catastrophic dismantling in the 1990s.

Sopiko Japaridze is cofounder of Georgia's Solidarity Network, an independent union. She has been a labor and community organizer in the United States and the post soviet Easten European nation of Georgia. I highly recommend you follow her work on twitter at @sopjap - to get excellent analysis on modern Georgian events from a communist perspective. I also recommend giving Sopo's podcast Reimagining Soviet Georgia a listen!

Support the show at patreon.com/aesthepodcast.

Find me on twitter @AESThePodcast

China & Palestine: A Revolutionary Solidarity w/ Qiao Collective Apr 30, 2024

Show notes

In this episode, Charles Xu of the Qiao Collective (a diaspora Chinese media collective challenging U.S. aggression) joins to walk us through the long history of solidarity between China and Palestine.

We do this through discussing "The Gates of the Great Continent: Palestine, China, and the War for Humanity's Future" which is Charles' recent article published on the Qiao Collective website. We're going to be talking about the origins and basis of this revolutionary solidarity between the people of China and Palestine, how this relationship has changed over the years, China's stance today on Palestinian resistance and how this revolutionary history manifests in the present.

If you found this episode useful - Charles and I had an extended discussion on the state of China's support for other global south countries in general which is accessible via Patreon.

www.patreon.com/aesthepodcast

www.twitter.com/aesthepodcast

The Gates of the Great Continent: Palestine, China, and the War for Humanity's Future

Qiao Collective Twitter

The American Ambassador Who Supported Stalin w/ Dominique Petit-Wagner Apr 16, 2024

Show notes

This episode features Dominique Petit-Wagner discussing her masters thesis entitled: "Briefing the Ambassador: Joseph Davies and the U.S. Press Corps in Moscow, 1936-1938."

Our discussion focuses on American Ambassador Joseph E. Davies and a few American journalists who bought into the socialist realist presentation of the Soviet Union during the tumoulotus 1930s. We talk about what socialist realism was, why and how these eminent Americans supported the Soviet Union, and what this tells us about modernization during the Stalin period.

Dominique Petit-Wagner is a PhD Candidate in History at the University of Ottawa, specializing in Soviet, Canadian, and intellectual history. Whereas her MA thesis explored American perceptions of the Soviet Union and their controversial immersion in socialist realist culture in the late 1930s, her doctoral research seeks to contrast and compare these findings against the experiences of Canadians touring the USSR in the interwar period.

Link to Dominique's paper: https://ruor.uottawa.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/175e024b-31d4-478f-8453-39578212230e/content

To support the show you can join the patreon at patreon.com/aesthepodcast

You can follow the show on twitter @aesthepodcast

Class Based Affirmative Action in Socialist Poland w/ Agata Zysiak Apr 02, 2024

Show notes

This episode features sociologist Dr. Agata Zysiak talking about her recent work "Limiting Privilege: Upward Mobility Within Higher Education in Socialist Poland" (2023), which examines first-generation students' struggles with reluctant academia in a developing socialist world that was looking for equality.

We talk about the successes and failures of this ambitious socialist program, its similarities and differences to race based affirmative action in North America, and what this tells us about social reproduction and the zombie impact of social systems even in the face of dramatic social revolution.

Agata Zysiak, PhD, is a historical sociologist working at Vienna University in Austria and the University of Łódź in Poland. You can get 30% off Limiting Privilege: Upward Mobility Within Higher Education in Socialist Poland and any other Purdue University Press book by ordering from their website and using the code PURDUE30 at checkout.

How to Visit North Korea w/ Zoe Stephens Mar 12, 2024

Show notes

This episode features Zoe Stephens (@Zoediscoversnk), an experienced tour guide to North Korea (DPRK). Using her own experience, knowledge, footage and education - Zoe's goal is to present a image of North Korea that aims to humanize the people of the DPRK in ways that are rarely seen in the West.

She tells us what is required to visit on a guided tour, what to expect, what are some common misconceptions, and even the fascinating opportunity to stay for a few days with a North Korean family outside of Pyongyang. This episode was recorded in 2023 - before the re-opening of the border for tourism - so while we speak to the expectation of re-opening it has now happened as of early 2024.

Link to all of Zoe's social media/project pages: https://linktr.ee/zoediscovers

Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic 102: Post-World War II to Present w/ Iskolat Feb 28, 2024

Show notes

Iskolat, a Latvian communist, returns to teach us more about the shrouded history of Latvia, which was a part of the Soviet Union, officially known as the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic continuously from 1944 to 1990.

In this second and final part we'll be discussing the post-World War II era of building socialism in Latvia and the Baltics at large. We cover the successes of socialist construction, its weaknesses, and ultimately the downfall of soviet system in Latvia in the early 1990s and how that played out. Iskolat also delves into present day realities of Latvia that don't always make international news.

www.patreon.com/aesthepodcast

Isoklat twitter: twitter.com/iskolat

Workers' Struggle (English/Latvian/multilang): https://t.me/StradniekuCina

BalticSSRs (Reddit): https://reddit.com/r/BalticSSRs/

Riga History Group (Russian): https://t.me/RigaHistoryGroup…

School of Scientific Communism/Ruslan Dzugov Channel (Russian section): https://t.me/rusdzugov

Dictatorship of the Proletariat (YT channel of the Russian section of the Political School): https://youtube.com/@user-xk6xj4xm4n

Anna Louise Strong's The New Lithuania: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89017381948&seq=5

The Baltic Riddle by Greg Meiksins: https://archive.org/details/TheBalticRiddle

Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic 101: Pre-history to World War II w/ Iskolat Jan 30, 2024

Show notes

Iskolat, a Latvian communist, joins to show to teach us about the shrouded history of Latvia, which was a part of the Soviet Union (officially known as the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic) continuously from 1944 to 1990.

In this first part we'll be discussing the pre-history of the socialist republic by delving into the conditions of what would become Latvia in the early 20th century to the eventual socialist revolution of the early 1940s. When I say the history covered here from the Communist POV is almost impossible to find in English, I am not exaggerating, I hope you find this discussion as informative and enlightening as I have.

Isoklat twitter: twitter.com/Iskolat

BalticSSRs (Reddit): https://reddit.com/r/BalticSSRs/

Telegram: Workers' Struggle (English/Latvian/multilang): https://t.me/StradniekuCina

Telegram: Riga History Group (Russian): https://t.me/RigaHistoryGroup…

Telegram: School of Scientific Communism/Ruslan Dzugov Channel (Russian section): https://t.me/rusdzugov

Telegram: Dictatorship of the Proletariat (YT channel of the Russian section of the Political School): https://youtube.com/@user-xk6xj4xm4n

The Propaganda War Against China w/ Carlos Martinez Jan 16, 2024

Show notes

Carlos Martinez (@agent_of_change) joins the show to talk about his excellent book "The East Is Still Red: Chinese Socialism in the 21st Century".

In this final part of a three part discussion we'll be discussing the propaganda war against China and the socialist developments all leftists should be following.

Carlos Martinez is an author and political activist from London, Britain. His first book, The End of the Beginning: Lessons of the Soviet Collapse, was published in 2019 by LeftWord Books. He is a co-editor of Friends of Socialist China, a co-founder of No Cold War, and a coordinating committee member of the International Manifesto Group. He writes regularly in the Morning Star, Global Times, China Daily and CGTN.

Carlos' website: https://invent-the-future.org/

Carlos' youtube: https://www.youtube.com/inventthefuture

Support this podcast at www.patreon.com/aesthepodcast

Podcast twitter @aesthepodcast

Intro/Outro Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUPx2jKjkwE

Is China a democracy? w/ Carlos Martinez Dec 19, 2023

Show notes

Carlos Martinez (@agent_of_change) joins the show to talk about his excellent book "The East Is Still Red: Chinese Socialism in the 21st Century".

In this second part of a three part discussion we'll be delving into how China operates as a socialist democracy. We'll be answering what that means, talk about some accomplishments as well how it differs from Western liberal democracies.

Carlos' website: https://invent-the-future.org/

Carlos' youtube: https://www.youtube.com/inventthefuture

Support this podcast at www.patreon.com/aesthepodcast

Podcast twitter @aesthepodcast

Intro/Outro Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbBBnNW6EMA

How China Avoided The Soviet Union's Fate w/ Carlos Martinez Dec 12, 2023

Show notes

Carlos Martinez (@agent_of_change) joins the show to talk about his excellent book "The East Is Still Red: Chinese Socialism in the 21st Century".

In this first part of this three part discussion on China we'll be delving into why socialist China remains but the USSR doesnt. We'll be tackling this question through the lens of how these two communist juggernauts approached the necessity of controversial political and economic reforms in the 1970s in China under Deng Xiaoping and in the USSR under Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s. Next episodes in this series will look at Chinese socialist democracy, and the propaganda war against it!

Carlos' website: https://invent-the-future.org/

Carlos' youtube: https://www.youtube.com/inventthefuture

Support this podcast at www.patreon.com/aesthepodcast

Podcast twitter @aesthepodcast

Intro/Outro Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jP5r2b7hew