Jacobin Radio

Latest Episodes:

Jacobin Radio: The Chilean Coup, 50 Years Later (Part 2) Sep 15, 2023

Show notes

Suzi talks to journalist Marc Cooper, Salvador Allende's former translator, for part two of our commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the September 11, 1973 coup in Chile. Marc returned to Chile for a month this year to probe what has and has not changed in 50 years, and to understand why the new leftist millennial government of Gabriel Boric is having such a hard time. His multipart series for Truthdig, "Chile's Utopia Has Been Postponed," features articles, photo essays, interviews and discussions looking at the ways Pinochet's legacy continues to haunt Chile. Chilean society is once again deeply polarized, with up to 40% of the population saying the coup was a good thing. Was Allende’s Popular Unity government from 1970-1973 a stab at utopia that has been postponed, or was the trauma inflicted by the Pinochet years so deep as to cancel future attempts at a more just and profoundly democratic social order? You can read Marc's personal testimony, evoking the atmosphere and strategic debates within the left before the coup d'état in Jacobin America Latina, also part of our discussion.

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

The Dig Presents: Alien Jerky Sold Here Sep 14, 2023

Show notes

If you look, you'll see. Most people don't look.

Produced by Stephen Cassidy Jones and Liza Yeager.

Edited by Mitchell Johnson, with editorial oversight from Daniel Denvir.

Featuring Mark Pilkington, Valerie Kuletz, and Trevor Paglen.

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Buy Blood Red Lines at haymarketbooks.org

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Behind the News: Cold War Liberalism w/ Samuel Moyn Sep 11, 2023

Show notes

Sam Gindin, writer and activist on labor issues, outlines the shortcomings of the UPS-Teamster deal (read his article, and a follow-up, on The Bullet website). Then Samuel Moyn, author of Liberalism Against Itself, discusses how the Cold War crushed the tendency’s emancipatory side.

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.

The Dig: Seizing Labor's Moment w/ Alex Press & Eric Blanc Sep 09, 2023

Show notes

Featuring Alex Press and Eric Blanc on surging labor militancy and why US unions must seize this historic moment.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and ask our guests follow-up questions!

Learn more about Haymarket’s Book Clubs at haymarketbooks.org.

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Michael and Us: Airport Paperback Sep 08, 2023

Show notes

Widely described as "Hollywood's response to the Lewinsky scandal," THE CONTENDER (2000) imagines a Vice Presidential confirmation process derailed by sexism and moral prudishness. We excavate some Oscar bait from the very tail end of the Clinton Era and find... yes, another Politics Movie™.

Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.

Jacobin Radio: The Chilean Coup, 50 Years Later (Part 1) Sep 05, 2023

Show notes

Suzi talks to Oscar Mendoza about the Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende that came to an abrupt and bloody end 50 years ago on September 11, 1973. Pinochet's coup inaugurated a wave of violence, death and repression that shocked the world—and sparked an enormous international solidarity movement as many thousands of Chileans were forced to leave their country, their families, and their dreams of a democratic, egalitarian future. Oscar Mendoza's life was upended on that day nearly 50 years ago, when, in his words, his carefree days of youth came to an abrupt halt, followed by detention, torture and imprisonment. Two years later, in May 1975, Oscar was expelled from Chile and exiled to Scotland as a political refugee, where I greeted him along with other members of the Chile Solidarity movement in Glasgow. We get Oscar’s overview of the Chilean revolutionary process from 1970-1973, one that posited a peaceful transition to socialism with vino tinto (red wine) and empanadas, using the ballot box and constitutional means to achieve the profound economic, social, and political transformations working people demanded. Oscar asks himself two questions, and we take them up too: What are we commemorating 50 years later, and does Allende’s dream of a fairer and better Chile live on today?

We’ll continue this two-part series next week with Marc Cooper, looking at the legacy of Pinochet’s dictatorship and the impediments it poses for the leftist government of Gabriel Boric today.

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

The Dig: AOC on US Hegemony and Latin American Sovereignty Sep 01, 2023

Show notes

Featuring Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the Latin American left and the long history of US intervention in the region.

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Buy War Made Invisible thenewpress.com/books/war-made-invisible

Buy Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge versobooks.com/products/2981-quick-fixes

Long Reads: The Hidden Rosa Luxemburg w/ Peter Hudis Aug 31, 2023

Show notes

More than a century after her death in 1919, Rosa Luxemburg is unquestionably one of the most celebrated Marxist thinkers. But until very recently, most of her work had never appeared in English translation. Verso Books and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation have set out to fill the gap by publishing her collected works. Peter Hudis, a professor of philosophy and humanities at Oakton Community College and the author of several books, including Frantz Fanon: Philosopher of the Barricades, is one of the editors who’s been working on that project.

Peter joins Long Reads to discuss Luxemburg's collected works. Read his essays, "Rosa Luxemburg Anticipated the Destructive Impact of Capitalist Globalization" and "Rosa Luxemburg Was the Great Theorist of Democratic Revolution," on the Jacobin website.

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. Music by Knxwledge.

Behind the News: A Social History of the Internet w/ Taylor Lorenz Aug 29, 2023

Show notes

Lisa Corrigan, author of a recent Nation article, explains what the savage cuts at West Virginia University mean for higher ed. Taylor Lorenz, author of Extremely Online, discusses the social history of the internet.

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.

The Dig: Emergent Terrain w/ Akbar, Winant, & Riofrancos Aug 24, 2023

Show notes

Featuring Amna Akbar, Gabriel Winant, and Thea Riofrancos on the emerging terrain of struggle. Is American liberalism exhausted or revitalized? What are the successes and limits of the new US left electoral strategy? Is there a new anti-electoral mood amongst socialists? Why don't we have a powerful climate movement? What forces are making and remaking the American working class today? The second and final part of a very wide-ranging interview.

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Buy Reform, Revolution, and Opportunism: Debates in the Second International, 1900-1910 haymarketbooks.org/books/2109-reform-revolution-and-opportunism