Theories of Political Ecology with Max Ajl
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
Release Date: 10/06/2023
The New York War Crimes
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
In this episode Josh interviews Amba Guerguerian and Harry to discuss the New York War Crimes project and their efforts to get people to Boycott, Divest, and Unsubscribe from the New York Times. Amba Guerguerian is an associate editor at and a contributor at . Harry is a writer, educator and organizer with and a contributor at . The New York War Crimes is a project dedicated to de legitimizing the imperial mouthpiece that is The New York Times through focused contemporary and historical critique, while providing an alternative platform for Palestinian and Arab authors,...
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“History Is Not Just a Pile of Ruins” Abdaljawad Omar on a Deformed Colonialism
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
In this episode Abdaljawad (Abboud) Omar returns to the show. This is the lightly edited audio from a we recorded on March 24th Abdaljawad Omar is a writer, analyst, and lecturer based in Ramallah, Palestine. He currently lectures in the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Studies at Birzeit University. He has written extensively in Arabic. In English Abboud has contributed to Electronic Intifada, Mondoweiss, and Ebb Magazine among other outlets. We discuss his essay "," which is available open access through Duke University press. We will also talk about recent...
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“The Shadow of the Plantation” - Eugene Puryear on The Black Belt Thesis: A Reader
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
In this conversation we welcome Eugene Puryear back to the podcast to talk about the recently published book which was compiled by The Black Belt Thesis Study Group and features a foreword by Eugene Puryear. The reader itself was published by 1804 Books, and they have published a lot of really good stuff recently that I just want to take a moment to shout-out. They recently along with the Palestinian Youth Movement translated and published The Trinity of Fundamentals which hopefully we will be hosting a conversation on at some point soon. They also recently published a translation of...
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Antifascism Against Machismo with Tammy Kovich and El Jones
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
In this episode we interview Tammy Kovich and El Jones to discuss the book Antifascism Against Machismo Published by our good friends at Kersplebedeb, and described as “An intergenerational dialogue on the meaning of feminist antifascism. collects and continues a conversation begun by Tammy Kovich (as “Petronella Lee”) in 2019. Four feminist, antifascist revolutionaries jump off from each other’s reflections and bring the particularities of their varied contexts to bear on one central problem: What has and will a women’s war against fascism look like?” We pick up this...
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East African Marxism-Leninism, Pan Africanism, Imperialism and the Dar es Salaam Debates with Zeyad El Nabolsy
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
In this conversation we talk to Zeyad el Nabolsy about two of his recent pieces on Marxism-Leninism in the East African context. One piece is entitled, “” from and the other is “Questions from the Dar es Salaam Debates” which is in the book which was recently released from . is an Assistant Professor at York University, he has written extensively on African philosophy, and we hope to have many more conversations with him in the future. I will note as a caveat again that this is one of the conversations that we recorded prior to October 7th so if it feels like Palestine,...
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Standing - Ernest McMillan’s Odyssey Through the Turbulent 60’s
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
For this episode we interview Ernest McMillan to discuss his memoir which came out last summer. McMillan grew up in the highly segregated heart of Dallas, Texas. We talk to him about his childhood experiences within his segregated Black community, and his experiences organizing against white supremacy in Dallas and across the South with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). McMillan’s story is one of the power of organizing, but also of fierce state repression, police raids, trumped up charges, and a j ourney to find refuge in West Africa, time in the underground,...
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“The Cauldron of People in a Room Together” - Easily Slip Into Another World with Henry Threadgill & Brent Hayes Edwards
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
In this episode we speak to Pulitzer Prize winning composer and musician Henry Threadgill and the co-author of his autobiography Brent Hayes Edwards. The book we discuss, which was published last year is entitled . Henry Threadgill was born in Chicago in 1944. He is one of the most significant and innovative composers of the 20th and 21st Century. In addition to being an award winning composer is an amazing saxophonist and flautist. He also is known for his percussion work, in particular the invention of the hubkaphone, a marimba like instrument made out of hub caps. He has been a leader or...
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“A Model for Socialist Construction” - Chris Gilbert’s Commune or Nothing! Venezuela’s Communal Movement and Its Socialist Project
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
In this episode we welcome Chris Gilbert back to the podcast to discuss his new book, . Chris Gilbert is a professor of political studies at the Universidad Bolivariana de Venezuela and creator and co-host of Escuela de Cuadros, a Marxist educational television program and podcast. Gilbert is co-author with Cira Pascual Marquina of (Monthly Review, 2020). We’ve hosted three previous discussions with Chris Gilbert, one related to an essay that is a chapter of this book, which discusses the theoretical work behind seeing communes as building blocks of a socialist metabolism....
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"Showing Palestinians to Each Other Everywhere" with Haydar of The Resistance Report
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
For this episode I’m joined by Haydar of which is a podcast that was launched after October 7th by a Palestinian news organization known as the Media Network or AFMN. In this discussion we talk to Haydar about AFMN, their approach, their media work including The Resistance Report, and their efforts to uplift the analyses of Palestinians from Palestine to those in the diaspora. We talk a little bit about their analysis of the resistance’s position and of the unfolding genocidal depravity of the zionist occupation in Palestine. We talk about the suppression of AFMN as an outlet which has...
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“Decolonization Is Not a Discourse, It Is a Material Process” - Leila Shomali and Lara Kilani on Anti-Zionism as Decolonization
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
For this week’s episode we interview Leila Shomali and Lara Kilani Leila Shomali is a Palestinian PhD candidate in International Law at Maynooth University Ireland and a member of the Good Shepherd Collective. Lara Kilani is a Palestinian-American researcher, PhD student, and is also a member of the Good Shepherd Collective. We interviewed them on January 12th to talk about their recent piece “Anti-Zionism As Decolonisation” which is published in the brand new debut of Ebb Magazine. We will also link a of the article in the show notes. I will also say quickly that just recently we...
info_outlineIn this episode Max Ajl returns to the podcast.
Max Ajl is an educator and a researcher and the author of A People’s Green New Deal, which we highly recommend and had a previous discussion of back in 2021. He is also the associate editor of Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy.
We caught up with Max back in early August to talk about one of his recent pieces, from Agrarian South. The article is entitled “Theories of Political Ecology: Monopoly Capital Against People and the Planet.”
It’s a very interesting article that covers a range of ostensibly left-wing approaches to ecology and the ecological crisis through a critical lens. Recording this conversation in the middle of summer there were a number of events and conversations we reference that folks will recall. This will be a two-part release.
In this first portion we talk about the theory of ecologically unequal exchange, wheat and cereal grains as weapons of imperialism, bananas and fresh fruits in the first world, and get into some of Alj’s critiques of different strains of political ecology. In particular in this episode Max talks about Andreas Malm’s formulation of “Fossil Capitalism,” and also critically engages with the frameworks of eco-modernism and extractivism.
Ajl challenges the euro-centric variants of Marxism that dominate much of the first-world Marxist engagement with ecological questions, raising the importance of bringing anti-imperialist analysis, a world-system level understanding of capitalism and solidarity with national liberation movements into the theory and practice of ecological movements.
We will link the article we discuss in the show notes as well as some of the articles that Max mentions in the discussion.
In part two of this conversation which will come out in a few days, we will talk a little more about eco-modernism and get into degrowth as well.
This is our first episode of the month of October, we thankfully hit our goal of new patrons for the last month. And have set a goal once again to add 40 new patrons this month to keep up with nonrenewals and hopefully slowly increase our base of support for the show. Thanks to everyone who contributes. You can become a patron of the show for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism
Links/Citations:
“Theories of Political Ecology: Monopoly Capital Against People and the Planet.” by Max Ajl (the subject of the episode)
Patrick Higgins articles referenced
Charlotte Kates article referenced