Fund Drive Special: The Life and Times of Eugene Debs
“American Socialist” is a documentary film about Eugene Debs, who garnered almost a million votes when he ran for President from prison in 1920.
Against the Grain
12:00 PM Pacific Time: Mondays to Wednesdays
In-depth analysis and commentary on a variety of matters — political, economic, social, and cultural — important to progressive and radical thinking and activism. Against the Grain is co-produced and co-hosted by Sasha Lilley and C.S. Soong.
Fund Drive Special: Manufacturing Consent
Journalist Matt Taibbi updates Chomsky and Herman’s analysis of the United States media system, arguing that the news is designed to be an addictive consumer product.
[Preempted]
Against the Grain is preempted by impeachment hearings coverage.
When we think of the Teamsters union, we often think of the mob and the figure of Jimmy Hoffa, memorialized by countless Hollywood films. Yet Ken Paff reminds us that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters should also conjure up in our minds rank and file militancy and enormous worker power in key sectors of the … Continued
Zombies are almost the mascots of our dark times. Hard to avoid in popular culture, they have become so ubiquitous that even the Centers for Disease Control put out a tongue in cheek guide to surviving the zombie apocalypse. Sarah Juliet Lauro discusses the origins of the zombie, from enslaved worker to liberated rebel in … Continued
Erik Olin Wright (1947-2019) was an influential anticapitalist scholar and a leading proponent of unconditional basic income. He wrote and spoke about capitalism’s defects, anticapitalist visions, and socialism’s priorities and agendas. Erik Olin Wright, How to Be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty-First Century Verso, 2019
A century ago, out of the carnage of World War One and the wave of revolutions that swept Europe, came an artistic movement that put personal and societal liberation at its center: surrealism. Penelope Rosemont, a later member of the movement, discusses the art and politics of surrealism — and her own personal history within … Continued
In her novel The Book of Disappearance, the Palestinian writer and journalist Ibtisam Azem explores themes of memory, loss, and ideology in the context of the 1948 Nakba and of an imagined sudden disappearance of all Palestinians living in Israel. Also: more with Michael Robertson about his book The Last Utopians. Ibtisam Azem, The Book … Continued
A remarkable revolution has been taking place in Northern Syria, based on women’s liberation, ecological sustainability, and democratic confederalism. Yet it’s in danger of being wiped out by the Turkish state, which has long wanted to annihilate the Kurdish population of the region. Scholars Laura Fantone and Andrej Grubacic discuss what’s at stake in Rojava … Continued
First grade, second grade — schooling as we know it divides children and classes into grades according to age and ability. This hasn’t always been the case, says Eli Meyerhoff. He links the advent of grade-divided schools in fourteenth-century Europe to a mindset and imaginary that fueled the emergence and development of capitalism. Eli Meyerhoff, … Continued