“The Shadow of the Plantation” - Eugene Puryear on The Black Belt Thesis: A Reader
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
Release Date: 03/27/2024
“Refusing Proper Subjection” - Andrew Krinks on the Religious Function of Mass Criminalization
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
In this episode we speak with Andrew Krinks about his recent book . The book is really interesting and I highly recommend it, this is part 1 of a 2 part discussion we recorded on it. You can pick it up from the bookstore that uses their revenue from book sales to bail people out of jail. In this discussion Krinks goes into the religious function that the mass criminalization of Black, Brown, and dispossessed peoples serves within the racial capitalist system. Engaging with Marxist and materialist explanations as well as Christian theologians and bourgeois philosophers, we get into how...
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“A Form of Resistance Towards Liberation” - Hala Sabbah on The Sameer Project
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
In this episode we speak with Hala Sabbah about the work of the Sameer Project and their various initiatives providing tents, food, water, milk, medical aid, diapers, and cash aid to Palestinians surviving amid the US-backed, zionist enacted genocide in Gaza. We are going to close the year by making a $50 contribution to the Sameer Project, and we encourage our listeners to give if they can or boost their incredible work, which you can see examples of on their instagram or twitter feeds. In this conversation Hala discusses their campaigns, responds to criticisms from the western left of...
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Divesting From Hollywood and State Narrative: On Toni Cade Bambara & Gloria Naylor With Randi Gill-Sadler
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
In this episode we speak with Professor Randi Gill-Sadler about various published and unpublished works of writers and filmmakers Toni Cade Bambara and Gloria Naylor. Randi Gill-Sadler is a teacher, scholar, and writer. She received her PhdD in English and her graduate certificate in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the University of Florida. Her research and teaching interests include 20th century African American and Afro-Caribbean women's literature, U.S. Cultures of Imperialism, and theories of Black diasporic relation and anticolonialism. Her work has been published...
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Left-Wing Melancholia & the Post '67 Arab Subject with Nihal El Aasar
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
[editor's note: Due to the context of rapidly developing events in the region, it is important to note that this conversation was recorded back in early October, 2024] In this episode, we speak with Nihal El Aasar about her recently penned essay, "." We speak about Palestine's importance to the Arab political subject and the need to analyze the current absence of the Arab masses in light of Israel’s genocidal onslaught. She highlights the influence of Palestinian intellectual Ghassan Kanafani on her work, particularly his broader definition of the Palestinian question and the...
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“Bobby Sands Got More Votes Than Margaret Thatcher Ever Did” C. Crowle on Attack International’s Spirit of Freedom: Anticolonial War & Uneasy Peace in Ireland
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
In this interview we talk to C. Crowle about the recently republished and expanded edition of Attack International’s text . The new edition includes the original unabridged 1989 text by Attack International and some great supplementary material compiled by Crowle. The book is a concise and powerful text on the national liberation struggle in Ireland from the perspective of radicals in the UK. It’s a text that challenges us to think critically about how people in an imperial center practice solidarity with the masses under the yoke of colonialism. We discuss different facets of the Irish...
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“Samidoun Is a Collective Act “ - On the Futility of Repressing Palestinian Organization
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
In this episode we interview Mohammed Khatib and Thomas Hofland from the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. This is our third interview with members of Samidoun since October 7th 2023, and we will link the others in the show description. Mohammed Khatib is a Palestinian refugee from Ain el-Helweh camp in Lebanon. He lives in Belgium and is the European coordinator for Samidoun. Thomas Hofland is the coordinator of Samidoun Netherlands. organizes solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners and their struggle for freedom and liberation. The network was founded in...
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Where Do We Go From Here? Featuring Kali Akuno
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
This is an (almost) unedited version of our from this morning (11/10/24) Here Kali Akuno offers thoughts on where we go from here after the re-election of Trump. Our previous provides more of the nuts and bolts of the type of organizing he's callling for, but this conversation underscores the urgency of this program now that we are in the reality (at least in terms of electoral politics and control of government) that he predicted would come to pass. Kali Akuno is a cofounder and codirector of Cooperation Jackson. He was the director of special projects and external funding in the...
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“Opening as Many Fronts as Possible” - Reflections on Palestine Action Us & the Merrimack 4 With Calla Walsh
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
In this episode we interview 20 year old organizer Calla Walsh to talk about her experiences as a co-founder of Palestine Action US, as well as the political repression she and others have faced in the case of the Merrimack 4. She talks about why we should view their case as a win, and underlines the need for continued escalation for Palestine thirteen months into the genocidal response to Al-Aqsa Flood In this interview she offers in-depth discussion of the importance of risk-taking, and the problems of defeatist narratives about taking direct action. It is also a sober set of reflections,...
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Substance Fetishism or Historical Materialism With Jason W. Moore
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
This is part two of our conversation with Jason W. Moore, a historical geographer at Binghamton University. In this discussion we delve into the concept of "substance fetishism" within Marxian social theory, the dangers it poses, and its implications for understanding the web of life. Moore raises concerns about the misguided focus on substance fetishism, which prioritizes the management of substances over the revolutionizing of labor relations. The conversation also touches on the historical and contemporary implications of this perspective, including its impact on...
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Against Climate Doomism and the Bourgeois Character of American Environmentalism with Jason W. Moore
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
In this interview, we are joined by friend and special co-host Casey where we are in conversation with Jason Moore discussing the historical and ideological roots of contemporary environmentalism, tracing its origins to the post-Civil War era in the United States. He argues that environmentalism has historically been an elite-driven movement, often serving the interests of capitalism by promoting resource management and conservation in ways that benefit economic growth. Moore critiques the mainstream environmentalism of the 1960s and 1970s, describing it as a form of "benign reformism" that...
info_outlineIn this conversation we welcome Eugene Puryear back to the podcast to talk about the recently published book The Black Belt Thesis: A Reader 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 Ghassan Kanafani’s The Revolution of 1936-1939 in Palestine and of course the collection of Hugo Chavez’s speeches that we discussed with Manolo de los Santos last year and much more. So I just say that to say if you go pick this book up from them, that there is a bunch of really good stuff you can grab while you’re there.
Eugene Puryear is a journalist, activist, politician, and host on Breakthrough News. He is a founding member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and is the author of Shackled and Chained: Mass Incarceration in Capitalist America.
In this discussion we ask Eugene to contextualize the origins of the Black Belt thesis, to discuss some of the articulations and development of the thesis as undertaken by Comintern and the CPUSA. We discuss some of the organizing implications of it, its role in the development of the US communist movement particularly with regards to Black people, and the challenging of the problem of white racism as it exists within the history of the US left and white workers as well. Also Eugene discusses the centrality of national oppression within the political economy of US capitalism.
Along the way we talk about some of the contributions from figures like W.E.B. Du Bois, Harry Haywood, Louis Thompson Patterson, Claudia Jones and others.
A couple of other things I want to highlight is that we have been hosting a lot of conversations over on our YouTube page recently the majority of which we have not released as audio episodes. We will link that in the show notes, but also you can just find it by searching Millennials Are Killing Capitalism on YouTube.
The other thing I want to note is we do have another round of our study group starting back up. For this cycle we will be reading Orisanmi Burton’s amazing book Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression and the Long Attica Revolt. I can’t wait to read that text and discuss it with folks so sign up for that if you’re interested it will be on Wednesday nights at 7:30 PM ET starting on April 17th it is for patrons of the show and we’ll put a link to that in the show notes as well. And as always the best way to support our work is to become a patron of the show for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism
The Black Belt Thesis: A Reader
Millennials Are Killing Capitalism on YouTube
Tip of the Spear Reading Group (for patrons)
Credits:
This episode is co-hosted by Joshua Briond and Jared Ware. It is co-produced by Aidan Elias and Jared Ware. Our guest for this episode is Eugene Puryear. Our music is from Televangel.