Behind the News – March 4, 2021
Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.
Upcoming Episode
Behind the News
12:00 PM (Noon) Pacific Time: Thursdays
Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.
Republican devolution and Ferlinghetti reads
Fundraising special: former Republican Congressional staffer Mike Lofgren talks about the cultural devolution of the GOP, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti reads his poetry (from a 1956 KPFA broadcast).
Behind the News – February 18, 2021
Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.
Who is the Russian dissident Alexi Navalny? And what are the limitations of “mutual aid”?
Katya Kazbek, a Russian-born, New York-based writer, explores the unsavory background and politics of Alexi Navalny, the fashionable Russian dissident. And Marianela d’Aprile, a member of DSA’s National Political Committee, offers a socialist critique of the anarchist concept of mutual aid.
Sarah Buehler, a BC-based climate activist, talks about Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone pipeline and his climate politics more generally. And Jacobin contributing editor Chris Maisano reviews the work of the political scientist Leo Panitch, who died in December. (His article is here.) photo: Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Economist Réka Juhász looks at the move from home to factory in early 19th century for precedents for today’s move to working from home: will it stick? And Brookings fellow Vanessa Williamson explores the roots of the concept of “taxpayers,” popular in conservative discourse, in Southern elites’ successful efforts to disenfranchise black citizens and undo … Continued
Political scientist Jodi Dean reflects on whether Trump is a fascist and the future of the right in the US. And historian Quinn Slobodian, co-author of this article, looks at the “Querdenker”—the odd coalition of out-of-the-box thinkers in Germany who hate masks and lockdowns. photo: LOGAN WEAVER via Unsplash
Indian farmer strikes, minimum wage, tech worker union
• Vijoo Krishnan on the Indian farmer strikes • Yannet Lathrop, author of this report, on state and local minimum wage increases • Alex Peterson on the Alphabet Workers Union [if you’re interested in organizing a union at your tech workplace, contact the CWA’s tech worker project]
Indian strikes, a new feminist magazine
Vijay Prashad, historian, journalist, and director of The Tricontinental, on the general strike and farmer protests in India; Sarah Leonard and Natalie Adler on Lux, a new feminist magazine they are among the editors of
A memorial to Leo Panitch
A tribute to Leo Panitch, who died on December 19: excerpts from 2012 and 2018 interviews.
Why Republican judges voted against Trump, and a look at a brutal “release” house for prisoners
The conservative legal commentator Walter Olson explains why all those Republican judges, including those on the Supreme Court, voted against Trump’s ridiculous lawsuits to overturn the election. And journalist Lindsay Beyerstein looks at Passages, a brutal “release” house for women prisoners in Montana.