As much of the American West burns, where should leftists struggle in order to halt the worst effects of global warming? Christian Parenti believes, since time is in short supply, that we have no choice but to use the existing institutions of the U.S. state. And to do that, he argues, we should draw lessons … Continued
Against the Grain
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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.
According to Hadar Aviram, the death penalty, life without the possibility of parole, and life with parole converged into a virtually indistinguishable regime of extreme punishment in California. She describes the roles played by the Manson family murder cases and the politicization of the parole process in the shift toward interminable incarceration. Hadar Aviram, Yesterday’s Monsters: The … Continued
The untimely death of David Graeber, anthropologist, anarchist, and one of the initiators of Occupy Wall Street, has left an immeasurable void on the radical left. His friend and collaborator Andrej Grubacic reflects on Graeber’s wide-ranging contributions, from the long history of debt and class society, to the fundamental importance of generosity, care and play … Continued
Healthcare under capitalism often involves expensive visits to trained professionals. What would a system of peer-to-peer caregiving outside the cash nexus look like? Inspired by models developed in Greek solidarity clinics, Cassie Thornton has devised a radical new approach, one that involves three people focusing on the physical, mental, and social health of a fourth … Continued
There was plenty of labor militancy in the U.S. in the early 20th century. Much of that militancy was met with violence; workers were brutalized and sometimes murdered for organizing to demand fair wages and decent working conditions. These sometimes life-and-death struggles were enshrined in song. Mat Callahan talks about the tunes he and Yvonne Moore … Continued
Each election year, politicians make endless appeals for the votes of the middle class. But who, and what, is the middle class? David Roediger looks at the political history of an unwieldy category, from its Cold War role as a bulwark against Communism to the Democratic Party’s rebranding of working class voters to the radical … Continued
How has capitalist power on the global scale evolved over the last several decades, and what are its contours today? How can forces from below challenge and overcome capitalist rule? Michael Hardt talks about what he calls Empire; he also articulates a theoretical passage from multitude to a more expansive notion of class. Michael Hardt … Continued
There is abundant evidence that the Trump administration has grossly botched the handling of the Covid pandemic. But, unfortunately, such mismanagement is not limited to the most obvious offenders. Public health expert Michael Fine discusses the mishandling of the coronavirus, from the White House to the World Health Organization to the CDC and to the … Continued
You might not expect weighty topics like class privilege and critical theory to be addressed in stories written by a science fiction and fantasy author. But Paul Park takes up these and many other issues in his latest book, a short story collection that features surreal developments and plot twists that play with readers’ expectations. (Encore … Continued
As Hurricane Laura bears down on Texas, and after Hurricanes Katrina, Harvey, and Maria, we are reminded of the power of massive storms to not only inundate cities and change landscapes, but to reshape or reinforce existing class and racial divisions. In a look backward, historian Stuart Schwartz reflects on five centuries of hurricanes and … Continued