The Vast Majority

Latest Episodes:

"Chicago's Socialist Surge" with Carlos Ramirez-Rosa May 14, 2019

Show notes

Chicago recently made international headlines for the victories of six — six!! — members of the Democratic Socialists of America running for city council. It’s an astonishing victory, the biggest socialist victory in any American city in probably a century. These victories matter both for Chicago, which has seen growing working-class pushback to neoliberalism in recent years, but also for socialist organizers in cities around the country, who can learn from how Chicago won so many elections on a left platform. One of the six victors in the April elections was Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, who represents Chicago's 35th Ward, a gentrifying area on the city’s northwest side. Carlos was the only incumbent socialist city council member (or “alderman”); despite being attacked repeatedly by the area’s wealthy real-estate developers, he won re-election comfortably. You can read my interview with Carlos from two years ago, when he was kicked off a gubernatorial ticket for his support of Palestine (which we mention in our discussion) here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/09/carlos-rosa-chicago-bds-democratic-party And you can read my piece in the Guardian on the Chicago electoral victories here: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/03/americas-socialist-surge-chicago

"Bernie Sanders Wants You to Fight" with Meagan Day May 08, 2019

Show notes

If we want to transform the United States in a socialist direction, we're going to need to do much more than elect Bernie Sanders as president. Nobody harps on this point more than Bernie himself. You can see it in his "not me, us" campaign slogan, or his emphasis in stump speeches on how massive industries like health insurance companies would mobilize against Medicare for All. President Bernie couldn't do much without a mass working-class movement at his back. But that doesn't mean that such a movement and the Sanders campaign are two separate things — Bernie's campaign can help and has already helped bring those movements into being. Micah talks with Jacobin staff writer Meagan Day about it. You can read Meagan's article "Bernie Sanders Wants You to Fight" here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/03/bernie-sanders-movements-not-me-us And you can read her article "Wielding the Imperial Presidency" in the new print issue of Jacobin or here: https://jacobinmag.com/2019/02/wielding-the-imperial-presidency Subscribe to Jacobin: https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe

"The Socialist Manifesto" with Bhaskar Sunkara Apr 30, 2019

Show notes

It's the first episode of The Vast Majority, which will be bringing you conversations on American and international politics from a socialist perspective. So who better to have on than Bhaskar Sunkara, Jacobin's editor, publisher, and founder. Bhaskar is the author of The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality, which is out today, April 30. Micah talked to Bhaskar about the state of the socialist movement, socialism’s relationship to liberalism and markets, and Bhaskar’s utopian vision of a Buffalo Wild Wings on every corner.

You can order The Socialist Manifesto from your bookseller of choice or your local bookstore. And you can read Bhaskar's editorial "The Exercise of Power," where he talks about "class-struggle social democracy," in the latest issue of Jacobin: https://jacobinmag.com/2019/02/the-exercise-of-power

The Vast Majority- Promo Apr 29, 2019

Show notes

The Vast Majority- Promo