What has capitalism done to and with time? How does it regulate and discipline workers from the standpoint of time? And what would a principled struggle to take back time — to reappropriate it — look like? Engaging with the ideas of Marx, E. P. Thompson, and others, Bryan D. Palmer reflects on work, life, … Continued
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.
Covid has exposed the precarious health of working class people and people of color in this country. And the climate disaster is laying bare the vulnerability of so many around the world on a changing planet. What’s the connection? Political economist Raj Patel and physician Rupa Marya argue that capitalism, with its roots in colonialism, … Continued
Is policing in the U.S. primarily about catching criminals, maintaining order, or brutalizing African Americans? Ben Brucato locates the origins of U.S. police in the early slave patrols, patrols whose mandate was to uphold white racial domination over Blacks. He argues that the institutions of police and of race were created in tandem. Social Justice … Continued
Donald Trump infamously targeted immigrants — and many rejoiced when he left office. But, as historian Elliott Young points out, the criminalization of immigrants has been a bipartisan affair, going back 140 years. He discusses the intersection of mass incarceration and the detention of immigrants. Resources: Elliott Young, Forever Prisoners: How the United States Made … Continued
What happens when socialist struggle intersects with struggles for national liberation? What role did Marxist theory play in anticolonial movements? Are movements that target hierarchies other than class properly considered Marxist? Vijay Prashad discusses the entwined traditions of Marxism and national liberation. “Dawn: Marxism and National Liberation”, a dossier of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research … Continued
How should we understand the historical and ideological roots of the widespread crisis of nature? Historian of science David Kubrin argues that, in the midst of great popular social upheaval, the Scientific Revolution displaced older, pagan ideas that nature was a living force. The consequences, he argues, were deep and long lasting, including on what … Continued
Conversations with Joseph Levine about moving from orthodox Judaism to atheism and with Eric Keenaghan about Ralph Waldo Emerson are part of the twelve-interview Philosophy and the Good Life compilation. Louise Antony, ed., Philosophers without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life Oxford University Press, 2010 Branka Arsic and Carey Wolfe, eds., The Other … Continued
Prisons, jails, immigrant detention centers. We know them as places of unfreedom, but we don’t often think about them as places of work. Yet compulsory labor is a key part of incarceration in this country. Sociologist Erin Hatton discusses the state of coerced work in prisons, the lack of worker protections, and how work has … Continued
Against the Grain – July 28, 2021
A radio and web media project whose aim is to provide in-depth analysis and commentary on a variety of matters — political, economic, social and cultural — important to progressive and radical thinking and activism.
Could humans ever live together without warring? Did half of us evolve to start wars and dominate the rest of us? Biological anthropologist Agustín Fuentes separates myths from the facts about aggression, genes, human nature, and evolution, in this interview from the collection “Big Picture Ideas: The Best of Against the Grain”.