12:00 PM Pacific Time: Mondays - Wednesdays
Acclaimed program of ideas, 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 produced and hosted by Sasha Lilley.
Did the Freedmen’s Bureau, established in 1865, help or harm the formerly enslaved? Priya Kandaswamy traces the Bureau’s activities in relation to vagrancy legislation and the placement of Black domestic workers in white people’s homes. Labor discipline and white surveillance, she argues, took precedence over public assistance and meaningful forms of freedom for African Americans. … Continued
Innovation, grit, creativity, flexibility, choice — these words are ubiquitous in US society and yet, according to John Patrick Leary, they’re not neutral. Leary weighs in on the language of 21st century capitalism and how certain keywords are a slippery way to avoid calling thing what they are. (Encore presentation.) Resources: John Patrick Leary, Keywords: … Continued
Trusted, impartial and independent? Or largely unaccountable and part of the Establishment? Sociologist Tom Mills considers the evidence on the enormously influential British Broadcasting Corporation or BBC, which is much revered by progressives in the United States and elsewhere. (Encore presentation.) Resources: Tom Mills, The BBC: Myth of a Public Service Verso, 2020 photo: Jones … Continued
Who is standing up to environmental plunder, land grabbing, and crony capitalism? On a southern Philippines island, indigenous people, migrant settlers, and NGOs have combined forces to resist the extractivist activities of commercial interests and political elites. Many environmental defenders, reports Wolfram Dressler, have been murdered by illegal operatives and hired hitmen. Critical Asian Studies … Continued
Great powers rise and fall. But when their power wanes, as Britain’s did in the early 20th century and the U.S. is arguably waning now, who shoulders the costs of their decline? Is it elites or those on the bottom? Sociologist Richard Lachmann discusses what the past can tell us about the future of empires … Continued
What views did Gandhi hold about education and human development? Was the importance he attached to manual skills-building and vocational training justified? And what role did the Mahatma’s conceptions of nonviolence and truth play in his pedagogy? Purushottama Bilimoria has written extensively about Gandhian thought and practice. Purushottama Bilimoria, ed., History of Indian Philosophy Routledge, … Continued
While the Trump Administration’s policy of separating children from their parents at the US-Mexico border drew intense condemnation, the practice has been going on in this country for centuries. Historian Laura Briggs argues that it has been part of strategy of counterinsurgency, as during the anti-communist wars in Latin America, in which rebellious populations are … Continued
Demands for police reform that emphasize accountability, transparency, respect for civil liberties, or the restructuring of police agencies miss the point. So argues Mark Neocleous, who lays out what he calls a critical theory of police power, linking it to the war power, vagrancy legislation, and the exigencies of capital. Social Justice Mark Neocleous, A … Continued
Racism is finally getting the attention it deserves, including the violence that people of color experience at the hands of the police. But can contemporary racism be understood outside of capitalism? Historian Touré Reed argues against artificially separating race from class — what he terms race reductionism. (Encore presentation.) Resources: Touré F. Reed, Toward Freedom … Continued
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
