Jacobin Radio

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Red Star Over Palestine: Ghassan Kanafani & Leila Khaled May 03, 2025

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For many years, Palestine had one of the strongest left-wing movements in the Arab world, represented by prominent figures such as Emile Habibi, Leila Khaled, and Ghassan Kanafani. At the beginning of the First Intifada in the 1980s, Palestinian left groups were still the main challengers to the hegemony of Fatah, although the Left has lost much of its influence in the period since then.

Red Star Over Palestine: Histories of the Palestinian Left is a six-part series from Long Reads exploring radical movements and progressive organizations of the region. The podcast examines the experience of Palestinian communism and the left-wing currents inside the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization. We also look at the outsized impact of the Left on Palestinian cultural life.

In our third episode, we discuss two of the most prominent figures associated with Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine: Ghassan Kanafani and Leila Khaled.

Get a digital subscription to Jacobin for just $1, or $10 for the print magazine, by following this link: https://jacobin.com/subscribe/?code=MAYDAY2025

Red Star Over Palestine is hosted by Daniel Finn and produced by Conor Gillies. Music provided by Fadi Tabbal.

Happy May Day! May 01, 2025

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To celebrate International Workers’ Day, we’re offering solidarity digital subscriptions for $1 and print subscriptions for $10.

Subscribers get four new issues a year and access to our entire back catalog.

At Jacobin, we’re trying our best to reach millions with the argument that creating a better world requires challenging those who profit from the misery and exploitation of others. Over the past decade, we’ve put out over 15,000 articles, and, thanks to the support of subscribers like you, we’ve made thousands of those articles available for free online.

Help support our work by subscribing today. And if you've already subscribed, get a gift subscription for a friend or comrade.

Use the code MAYDAY2025 at checkout or follow this link: https://jacobin.com/subscribe/?code=MAYDAY2025

New York listeners: Join Jacobin in Brooklyn for a special May Day celebration tonight! Featuring Bhaskar Sunkara, Matt Bruenig, and Nancy Fraser: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/may-day-2025-charting-a-socialist-future-tickets-1308797010089

Behind the News: The Constitution v. Democracy w/ Aziz Rana Apr 28, 2025

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Aziz Rana, author of The Constitutional Bind, describes how the system crafted by the US Constitution led to Donald Trump and has constricted our ability fight him.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html

The Dig: Black Power, Cold War w/ Aziz Rana Apr 26, 2025

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Featuring Aziz Rana on the making of the American project and its legitimation through popular worship of the US Constitution. This episode, the third in what is now a four-part series, looks at how black movements responded as the Vietnam War and the limits of formal civil rights victories combined to explode the Cold War's contradictions.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Buy Reconsidering Reparations at Haymarketbooks.com

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The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Confronting Capitalism: The True History of the Vietnam War Apr 23, 2025

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April 30th marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. But although the conflict still looms large in American memory, the reasons why the US went to war have been distorted in the mainstream account.

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber and Melissa Naschek explain the real imperialist history and remember the courageous struggles of both the Vietnamese resistance and the US anti-war movement.

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Jacobin Radio: Trump’s War on Free Speech & Higher Ed w/ Alan Wald Apr 22, 2025

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Suzi talks to Alan Wald, Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan and a member of the academic council of Jewish Voice for Peace, to unpack the Trump offensive against higher education — a campaign that escalated after last spring’s clampdown on student encampments protesting the Israel–US war on Gaza.

Since October 7, universities have cracked down on protests under the guise of protecting “Jewish student safety.” What does it mean when many of those protesting are themselves Jewish? And, despite the repression, these crackdowns haven’t earned universities any favor with the government. Congressional hearings forced the resignation of university presidents, and now the Trump administration is threatening to withdraw federal research funds. Columbia University buckled, while Harvard, Princeton, and others are holding the line and fighting back.

At the center of it all is the redefinition and weaponization of antisemitism as a political tool used to quash criticism of Israeli policy and chill speech. This isn’t just censorship. It’s an authoritarian bid to impose ideological control over the academy.

Alan Wald has tracked this turn — its roots, its enablers, and its eerie echoes of McCarthyism. He helps us understand where we are — and what it means.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Behind the News: Race and Neoliberalism w/ Quinn Slobodian Apr 21, 2025

Show notes

Quinn Slobodian, author of Hayek’s Bastards, talks about the IQ- and race-obsessed goldbugs of second generation neoliberalism.

The Dig: Liberal Hegemon w/ Aziz Rana Apr 20, 2025

Show notes

Featuring Aziz Rana on the making of the American project and its legitimation through popular worship of the US Constitution. This episode, the second in a three-part series, takes the story from World War I’s hyper-nationalist, xenophobic First Red Scare, through the convulsions of the middle decades of the 20th century: the Communist Party USA, the New Deal, World War II, the civil rights movement, the Warren Court, and ultimately the Cold War, when American liberalism, anti-communism, and empire triumphed.

Buy Iran in Revolt at Haymarketbooks.com

Subscribe to Jacobin in print for $15/yr at bit.ly/digjacobin and Catalyst in print for $20/yr at bit.ly/digcatalyst

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Red Star Over Palestine: The PLO Left Apr 19, 2025

Show notes

Red Star Over Palestine: Histories of the Palestinian Left is a six-part series from Long Reads exploring radical movements and progressive organizations of the region. We’ll be looking at the experience of Palestinian communism and the left-wing currents inside the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization. We’ll also be looking at the outsized impact of the Left on Palestinian cultural life.

This second episode examines the left-wing movement that took shape under the banner of the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the role of figures such as George Habash and Nayef Hawatmeh.

Red Star Over Palestine is hosted by Daniel Finn and produced by Conor Gillies. Music provided by Fadi Tabbal.

Behind the News: Ways Out of a Global Crisis w/ Malcolm Harris Apr 14, 2025

Show notes

Charlie Eaton and Alina Gibadullina, coauthors of a recent paper, discuss the increasing prominence of hedge fund and private equity titans on elite university boards. Malcolm Harris, author of What’s Left, lays out a trio of political approaches to the climate crisis.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html

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