Cosmopod

[ARCHIVE] The Border is a Mirror: Europe and the politics of migration with Iker Suarez

In view of the political situation, we have reuploaded a podcast with Iker Suarez on the border situation in Spain. We hope to have an updated episode soon. ------ In this episode, Rudy joins Iker Suárez, author of The Migrant Genocide: Toward a Third World Analysis of European Class Struggle, to delve into the politics of migration and borders in Europe, examining how imperialism, class, and race intersect in what our guest describes as a "genocide at sea." We explore who the people migrating to Europe are, why they move, and how their journeys expose the contradictions at the heart of European liberalism. Our guest argues that immigration today represents the return of Europe's colonial past, and critiques how both the right and the nominal left continue to enforce violent border regimes -from the Tarajal massacre to ongoing state repression- while masking them as "human rights" issues. We also discuss the limits of NGO-led antiracism, the weak state of immigrant organizing across Europe, how the concept of race is undeveloped, and how citizenship itself becomes a new class divide.

The Long Red Scare: Inside the FBI's Secret War on American Communism with Aaron Leonard

Aaron Leonard and Donald Parkinson sit down for a conversation on Leonard's recent book 'Menace of Our Time: The Long War Against American Communism'. Relating this history to current events, Leonard and Parkinson discuss the various ways that the U.S. government, and in particular the FBI, subverted civil liberties and indulged in state repression according to the ebbs and flows of geopolitics while never abandoning its agenda of surveillance and subversion of the Communist Movement. From the early days of Criminal Syndicalism laws and the Palmer Raids to the rise of the New Left and the marginalization of the Party, the long arc of a campaign of espionage that utilized legal and extra-legal tactics provides an important window into the nature of state repression against left-wing dissidents in a country that is supposedly a bastion of political liberty.

What Was Bolshevism? (Part I)

Christian, Donald and Parker sit down to discuss Lars Lih's new book What was Bolshevism? They situate the context of the book, and discuss what this new manuscripts adds to Lih's existing oeuvre. Topics discussed include Lih's use of narrative to frame the continuities in Bolshevism from begging to end, the centrality of Vlast and sovereignty to Bolshevism, how Lih exposes the misunderstanding of past historians about war communism, the importance of Bukharin and Preobrazhensky's ABCs of Communism and the nature of Bolshevik policies such as the grain monopoly, requisition, and sowing committees during the Civil War.

Corbynism vs Partyism: the rise and demise of Your Party

Charlie and Bryce rejoin Donald and Jack for a recap on what has transpired since the Your Party founding conference. We discuss the recent local elections, which show massive losses for Labor and gains for Reform and Greens. Then we go into the challenges around the formation of Your Party, divided between a grassroots left and Corbynism. Was this project a complete failure? Is there any hope that it can be salvaged and the project of building a principled mass socialist party carried forward? Links: Please Support University of Sheffield striking staff! Democratic Socialists – Campaign for a Democratic Socialist Party

Communism = Soviets + Electrification: The Electric Grid

Matt and Rudy join RK to discuss several facets of the electric grid. We talk about the USSR's and China's attempts at electrification, how a modern grid looks like, the current US grid and its governing authorities, and a discussion on possible futures for electricity. References: RK's thoughts con rural cooperatives: https://jnanayuddha.wordpress.com/2022/08/16/reflections-on-rural-electric-cooperatives-and-socialist-organizing/ Matt T. Huber & Fred Stafford's articles: Socialist Politics and the Electricity Grid, The Utility of Utilities and Won't Somebody Please Think of the Grid? Further recommendations, National: The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future by Gretchen Bakke, 2016 Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle Over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States by Leah Stokes, 2020 California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas & Electric, and What It Means for America's Power Grid by Katherine Blunt, 2022 The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet by Brett Christophers, 2024 International: The Low-Carbon Contradiction: Energy Transition, Geopolitics, and the Infrastructural State in Cuba by Gustav Cederlof, 2023 Recharging China in War and Revolution, 1882-1955 by Ying Jia Tan, 2021  Sinews of Power: The Politics of the State Grid Corporation of China by Yi-chong Xu, 2017 Electrifying India: Regional Political Economies of Development by Sunila S. Kale, 2014 The Electrification of Russia, 1880-1926 by Jonathan Coopersmith, 1992 Electrical Palestine: Capitalism and Technology From Empire to Nation by Fredrik Meiton, 2019