Fund Drive Special: Blacks and the Master/Slave Relation
According to Frank Wilderson, III, all Blacks are socially dead and continuously vulnerable to gratuitous (as opposed to reasoned) violence.
Against the Grain
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.
What do you get when you bring together two luminaries on the left — oral historian and broadcaster Studs Terkel and historian from below Howard Zinn — and then add in writer and poet Alice Walker? You get an illuminating evening, recently digitalized and preserved for posterity, which reminds us of the importance of KPFA … Continued
Fund Drive Special: Alan Watts on Buddhist Thought
Alan Watts on the fundamentals of Buddhism, plus portions of a talk he gave called “Insight and Ecstasy.”
Consumer capitalism and the focus group appear to go hand in hand. But Liza Featherstone argues that the focus group has radical origins and, in convoluted ways, points to the potential for collective input in an egalitarian society. She discusses the history of focus groups for consumer goods and electoral politics. (Encore presentation.) Resources: Liza … Continued
What if workers, not bosses, collectively made all the important decisions in and about their workplaces and production processes? Victor Wallis examines whether and how workers’ control was achieved in past periods of revolution and upheaval, including the Russian Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, and Chile under Salvador Allende. Victor Wallis, Socialist Practice: Histories and Theories Palgrave Macmillan, 2020
It’s easy to view the last 250 or even 600 years as a period of an ascendant capitalism, conquering everything in its wake. But the work of historian Peter Linebaugh reminds us that resistance was present from the birth of capitalism and that working class movements for a better world have profoundly shaped our histories. … Continued
What stands in the way of the urgently needed transition to clean energy? What is energy democracy, and what role can it play in the struggle against fossil capitalism? According to Ashley Dawson, a decisive shift toward renewable energy is impossible without a collective struggle to take control of the grid. He says much can … Continued
Socialist Yugoslavia was born out of resistance to fascist occupation during WW2 and ended in dismemberment and civil war. Today, Yugoslavia’s demise is much better remembered than what came before it. Yet socialist Yugoslavia forged a different path from that of the Soviet Union, which broke with it, and experimented with a form of workers’ … Continued
Why does poetry seem so impenetrable to so many of us? Do poets say something and mean something else? Matthew Zapruder talks about what sets poetry apart from other forms of expression; he also suggests ways to approach, read, and get the most out of poems. Matthew Zapruder, Why Poetry Ecco, 2017 Matthew Zapruder, Father’s Day Copper Canyon Press, 2019
From radium poisoning to lead in gasoline, from cigarettes to global warming, corporations have responded to revelations of grave harm with denial and concealment. As environmental lawyer Barbara Freese notes, a familiar pattern emerges of blaming victims, refuting evidence, alleging witch-hunts, and attacking the motives of their critics. She discusses the long history of corporate … Continued