All tagged Activism
Author and activist Xander Dunlap joins me in this wide-ranging interview to discuss permanent ecological conflict, as theorized and documented via numerous case studies in his new book, This System is Killing Us: Land Grabbing, the Green Economy and Ecological Conflict, published through Pluto Press.
Ben Lorber and Shane Burley, co-authors of Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism, join me to discuss the absolutely timely moment and context this book is being published in. They raise the need for, and the strong historical legacies of, Jewish anti-Zionist solidarity with pro-Palestine movements, while articulating and bringing forward critical analysis of the shape, character, and histories of antisemitism in primarily Western Christian societies. With antisemitism and Islamophobia on the rise, Shane and Ben articulate a vision and present a radical guide to fight antisemitism and build safety through solidarity for Jewish and non-Jewish peoples and communities alike.
Journalist and filmmaker Eleanor Goldfield joins me to discuss her documentary To the Trees, which documents humankind’s relationship to the sacred Redwoods and the tactics tree defenders use to protect old-growth forests from the clear-cutting practices of the lumber industry. In our discussion, Eleanor disputes the claims made by the industry of practicing sustainable harvesting practices in the Pacific Northwest, and how it is part and parcel of a larger global effort by extractive industries to greenwash ecologically destructive practices in the name of sustainability and the "green energy" transition.
Author and journalist Shane Burley returns to the podcast to discuss the anthology No Pasaran: Antifascist Dispatches from a World in Crisis, published this fall through AK Press. Burley is the editor and a contributor to this collection.
In catching up since our last interview, I ask Shane to clarify where the far-right stands in a "post-Trump" context. What inroads have far-right, and explicitly fascist, ideologues made in political discourse and policy in the United States over the past two years? How coherent is the far-right agenda, and who are their targets? What are the paths to power? And most importantly, how can various subcultural spaces, as well as rural and urban communities, each build effective resistances to this threat? No Pasaran, with its broad collection of voices, provides some of the most comprehensive answers to these questions.
Anarchist writer and activist Peter Gelderloos returns to the podcast to discuss ecological revolution from below, beautifully documented in his book The Solutions are Already Here: Strategies for Ecological Revolution from Below, published this year by Pluto Press.
Nothing short of revolution is required to address the global ecological crisis. The technocratic solutions presented to us by various capitalist nation-states are less than sufficient in mitigating the most dire consequences of biospheric collapse and runaway climate change. In fact, more than just merely insufficient, these top-down so-called “solutions” reimpose the dominant socioeconomic and political order producing the crisis to begin with. As Gelderloos describes and points to The Solutions are Already Here, numerous land-based movements around the world are rising to the occasion — actively protecting territories from extractive capitalist enterprises, reclaiming what has been taken and exploited for industry, and building resilient autonomous communities and networks, many of which that span the artificially imposed rural-urban divide. To really grasp the scale and scope of this ecological revolution from below, Gelderloos lets representatives of these movements speak for themselves, weaving them into a tapestry that enlivens a radical imagination of what a post-capitalist world may hold.
Michael Beyea Reagan, historian and activist, joins me to discuss his book Intersectional Class Struggle: Theory and Practice, an "innovative study [that] explores the relevance of class as a theoretical category in our world today, arguing that leading traditions of class analysis have missed major elements of what class is and how it operates."
In our time of increasing wealth disparity and widespread socioeconomic precarity for the working class (dubbed the "Second Gilded Age"), how can intersectionality, as a theoretical framework and practice, help us more deeply understand and appreciate the liberatory struggles of racial, economic, and feminist movements? Reagan, through his excellent historical documentation in Intersectional Class Struggle, has provided a more nuanced, and richer, view of class consciousness that does not fit into crude boxes.
Political strategist and organizer Akin Olla joins me to discuss the history of the FBI’s assault on left-wing activists over the decades and the absolute necessity for organizers to have operational security in today’s political climate as Big Tech companies “depoliticize” their platforms in the wake of the Capitol siege last month. We address several of his recent articles published at The Guardian, including The FBI can't investigate white extremism until it first investigates itself, Facebook is banning leftwing users like me – and it's going largely unnoticed, and The US Capitol riot risks supercharging a new age of political repression.
