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[TEASER] China Pt. 2: Socialist Democracy and Democratic Centralism w/ Ken Hammond

Release Date: 03/04/2025

NATO Pt. 2: The Long War on the Third World w/ Pawel Wargan

Upstream

It’s not hyperbole to suggest that the imperialist wars waged upon the Global South by the United States and the imperialist bloc that it leads are akin to a protracted genocide. The sheer amount of death, carnage, destruction, immiseration, crushed dreams, is almost unfathomable. But it’s real. And it’s the status quo for what we love to refer fondly to as "Western Civilization." And there’s no other force more responsible for implementing this protracted genocide on the Third World than NATO. And in today’s conversation—Part 2 of our ongoing series on NATO—we’re going to...

[TEASER] Alliance of Sahel States Pt. 2: A View from Within w/ Inem Richardson

Upstream

This is a free preview of the episode "Alliance of Sahel States Pt. 2: A View from Within w/ Inem Richardson." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: As a Patreon subscriber you'll get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. access to bi-weekly bonus episodes ranging from conversations to readings and more. Signing up for Patreon is a great way to make...

NATO Pt. 1: An Anti-Imperialist Introduction w/ Elina Xenophontos

Upstream

NATO—The North Atlantic Treaty Organization—far from being just a defensive alliance between the United States and Europe, is actually the spear tip of imperialism’s military arm. It’s the force used to discipline any global actor who dares to defy US hegemony and dominance on the world stage. From Greece to Libya to Ukraine—NATO is where we must look to understand how destabilization occurs and how defiant states across the globe are subjugated and opened up to Western markets and capital. And we’re lucky enough to have a terrific guest on today to tell us all about how it all...

[TEASER] Immigration, ICE, and Working Class Rebellion w/ Cecilia Guerrero

Upstream

This is a free preview of the episode "Immigration, ICE, and Working Class Rebellion w/ Cecilia Guerrero." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: As a Patreon subscriber you'll get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. access to bi-weekly bonus episodes ranging from conversations to readings and more. Signing up for Patreon is a great way to make Upstream a...

Iran Pt. 1: A Socialist Introduction w/ Séamus Malekafzali [BONUS]

Upstream

As seems to be the case with most of the countries that the United States goes to war with—much of the population here doesn’t know very much about those countries. And what they do know is usually Western propaganda, misinformation, or outright lies. This couldn’t be more true with Iran, where if it were up to our political leaders and corporate media, the story that Iran was a perfectly happy democracy that was abruptly and rudely destroyed by a rabid and power hungry group of Ayatollahs would never go unquestioned. They certainly wouldn’t want you to know about the Western backed...

Post Capitalist Parenting Pt. 3: A Dialectical Perspective w/ Breht O'Shea

Upstream

One of the most radical things you can do is live your life in direct opposition to the forces that control our society. Not just fighting for policies or organizing your community, although those are certainly important parts of it, but also living with values that oppose the values of our dominant society. And even more importantly, raising the next generation to embody those values—not in a coercive way, but through organic parenting and role modeling that make radicalism irresistible. This is how we raise revolutionaries: instilling community, love, egalitarianism, and a need for justice...

[TEASER] China Pt. 6: The Long Transition Towards Socialism w/ Gabriel Rockhill

Upstream

This is a free preview of the episode "China Pt. 6: The Long Transition Towards Socialism w/ Gabriel Rockhill." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: As a Patreon subscriber you'll get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. access to bi-weekly bonus episodes ranging from conversations to readings and more. Signing up for Patreon is a great way to make...

[UNLOCKED] Alliance of Sahel States Pt. 1: Burkina Faso – An Anti-imperialist Introduction w/ Prudence Iticka

Upstream

Imperialism is the primary contradiction facing the globe—and the split of the world into two poles, the imperialists and the anti-imperialists, is going to continue to shape our revolutionary struggles moving forward. This anti-imperialist struggle is occurring all over the Global South, and perhaps nowhere quite as prominently as in Africa's Sahel region, where the countries of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have been waging a struggle against neocolonialism and building a movement towards pan-Africanism through the Alliance of Sahel States—an alliance that has received the praise of...

How to Fall in Love with the Future w/ Rob Hopkins

Upstream

If you look around at the state of the world—and the despair that comes with the reality of climate change, fascism spreading its tentacles around the world, the ethnic cleansing of Gaza—it’s very difficult to feel hope. It begins to feel like the forces of destruction and death have colonized our futures, limiting our dreams and stifling our imaginations. It’s in these times specifically that it’s essential we remember that the future, our dreams, our imagination—that these things are political. And that exercising our hope for a just and beautiful future is an important, in...

[TEASER] Alliance of Sahel States Pt. 1: Burkina Faso – An Anti-imperialist Introduction w/ Prudence Iticka

Upstream

This is a free preview of the episode "Alliance of Sahel States Pt. 1: Burkina Faso – An Anti-imperialist Introduction w/ Prudence Iticka." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: As a Patreon subscriber you'll get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. access to bi-weekly bonus episodes ranging from conversations to readings and more. Signing up for Patreon...

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This is a free preview of the episode "China Pt. 2: Socialist Democracy and Democratic Centralism w/ Ken Hammond." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast

As a Patreon subscriber you'll get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. access to bi-weekly bonus episodes ranging from conversations to readings and more. Signing up for Patreon is a great way to make Upstream a weekly show, and it will also give you access to our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes along with stickers and bumper stickers at certain subscription tiers. You’ll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us to keep this project going.

“China is an authoritarian dystopia.” That’s probably the totality of your understanding when it comes to Chinese society and the political system it’s governed by if all you know about China is what you hear on MSNBC or Fox News. But is that really accurate? Is China a dystopian, authoritarian police state? Or is that just propaganda force fed to the mass of Americans because it serves the interests of Western capital? Well—the answer is an obvious and emphatic “no.” China is not authoritarian—in fact, the opposite is true. Their system of democracy is arguably and demonstrably much, much deeper and more effective than ours here in our bourgeois society. Don’t believe us? Well, we’ve brought on an expert on China to help explain why.

Ken Hammond is Professor of History at New Mexico State University, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, or PSL, and the author of several books, including China’s Revolution and the Quest for a Socialist Future and most recently, China and the World.

In this conversion we dispel the myth that China is not a democratically run society. We take a deep dive into the mechanisms of democracy in China, exploring how democratic centralism and the mass line shape how the Communist Party of China and Chinese society practice and participate in democracy. We look at the history of Chinese democracy, get into the nuts and bolts of how democratic decision making and policy proposals take place, and end with an analysis of current geopolitical events when viewed within a historical materialist context.

This episode is Part 2 of our Patreon series on China. Part 1, A Socialist Introduction with Jason Hickel, was published two weeks ago. Part 3, if all goes as planned, will feature Vijay Prashad and will build on today’s conversation to really focus in on the differences between bourgeois democracy and socialist democracy—so stay tuned, we’ve got a lot of material on China planned for the coming months.

Artwork: The cover art for today’s episode is from 1804’s publication of Ken’s 2003 book, China’s Revolution and the Quest for a Socialist Future, designed by Hannah Craig.

Further resources:

China's Revolution and the Quest for a Socialist Future, by Ken Hammond
China and the World, by Ken Hammond
Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL)
Pivot to Peace

Related episodes:

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