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.
Does capitalism fail to deliver the enjoyment it promises? Cultural critic Todd McGowan believes that true enjoyment, rather than being located in acquisition and accumulation, needs to be reformulated by the Left. He also assails the notions that nostalgia or cynicism are effective responses to the status quo.
A conversation about film noir, the dark, disturbing, and powerful movie genre of the 1940s, much of it made by Hollywood Leftists.
A discussion about the history, present, and future of the Iraqi labor movement with historian Peter Slugett, labor organizer Michael Eisenscher, and ILWU member Clarence Thomas who has just returned from Iraq.
A conversation with anthropologist Devon Pena about workers at the assembly plants in Mexico known as maquiladoras, and about an unsolved crime wave known as the Maquiladora Murders.
Will Syria be the next target of US military aggression? Perhaps it’s time to take a deeper look at Syria in all its complexity — its history, politics, economy, culture, and religious landscape. Professors Beshara Doumani (U.C. Berkeley) and Fred Lawson (Mills College) present a primer on this key player in the Middle East.
Social movements without a solid theoretical foundation can be disjointed or, worse, misdirected. So what theory can help guide the Left through the complexities of today’s world? Author and educator Cynthia Kaufman offers up ideas and analyses, and examines ongoing debates among activists on the Left.
It’s the other September 11th: the brutal overthrow of the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile, orchestrated by Henry Kissinger and the CIA. "Chile: Promise of Freedom" captures the voices of the Chilean people in rebellion, repression and exile.
The war in Iraq may lead some to think that another age of colonial occupation has begun. Yet eminent Marxist scholar Ellen Meiksins Wood believes that imperialism under capitalism is distinguished by a new sort of militarism — that of war without end. The drive for endless war results from the tension between capitalism’s global … Continued
Neoliberal prescriptions applied around the globe have left many progressives skeptical of orthodox economic theory. And yet what alternative theories exist? Labor economist Michael Yates argues that Marxism provides us with a means of understanding our world, with all its poverty and inequality, in a way that isn’t abstracted from reality.
Noted writer, filmmaker and public intellectual Tariq Ali has extensively studied the history of resistance in Iraq from the days of the British empire. In a speech provided by Working TV, he talks about why we should be hopeful in these dark times.
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