This is the conclusion of our two-part discussion with Dr. Jared A. Ball on the release of the second edition of his book The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power. Part one can be found here.

Once again, Jared Ball is the host of imixwhatilike and co-host of Earn Your Liberation and the RemiX Morning Show over on Black Power Media. 

He works as Professor of Africana and Communication Studies at Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD. His decades of journalism, media, writing, and political work can be found at imixwhatilike.org. 

In this part of the discussion we talk a little bit about hip hop and its modern relation to corporations and social media influencers. Content warning on that conversation especially for fans of modern hip hop music, as Jared Ball and Jared Ware both turn into old men shaking our fists at clouds and telling children to get off our lawns during that portion of the discussion.

Jared Ball talks a bit more about how nonsensical it is to confront his work around “Black Buying Power” with a demand for an alternative solution. From there we get into the After Party concept that Dr. Ball has shared on his platforms over the years, and get into some discussion of Green Party politics and Dr. Cornel West’s campaign. All in all it’s a pretty free ranging conversation where we discuss a variety of different topics. We had a lot of fun doing it and we hope you enjoy it half as much as we enjoyed recording it. 

We did record it a month ago back on June 20th. So you’ll note at the end we referenced the launch party for the second edition, which unfortunately we weren’t able to get this episode out in time to help promote, but we will link a recording of that in the show notes.

We will link to some other places folks can learn more about the book, as well as a link to where you can purchase a copy. 

We do want to mention that Black Power Media did get a strike from YouTube for their H8 Awards so their new content this week will be on Twitch, Twitter and Facebook, until they have served their 7 day sentence for that. You can also find all of the relevant links and information at blackpowermedia.org including ways to donate and support their work.

And last but not least if you like what we do, please become a patron of the show if you have the means to do so. You can do that for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism

Links:

Launch Party for the second edition of The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power

Our first conversation with Dr. Ball on the The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power

Discussions on the Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power

Purchase the hardback or e-book of The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power

Our conversation with Dr. Ball from the Journalism For Liberation and Combat Session 1: Internal Colonialism & Emancipatory Journalism with Dr. Jared A. Ball

"A Threat To This Day" Jared Ball on the Distortion and Erasure of Black Revolutionaries in Corporate Media

In this episode we welcome Dr. Jared A. Ball back to the podcast.

Of course we know Jared Ball as a host of imixwhatilike and co-host of Earn Your Liberation and the RemiX Morning Show over on Black Power Media. 

In addition he is of course Professor of Africana and Communication Studies at Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD. His decades of journalism, media, writing, and political work can be found at imixwhatilike.org. 

He has previously joined us for multiple discussions which we will link in the show notes.

For this conversation we talk about the newly released second edition of his book The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power. We should note that we do have a previous conversation on the first edition and if you missed that it would be helpful to understand the work more holistically. Today we talk about some of the new sections in the second edition, including the chapter on Cryptocurrency and Cryptoganda targeted at Black audiences. We also talk to him about what it has been like to confront various promoters of the concept of Black Buying Power in the promotion of the book. 

There will be a second half of this conversation which we will release later this week where we wrap up our discussion of the second edition and get into some other topics.

We will link to some other places folks can learn more about the book, as well as a link to where you can purchase a copy. 

And if you like what we do of course as always, support our ability to continue to do it. You can become a patron of the show for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism

Links:

Our first conversation with Dr. Ball on the The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power

Discussions on the Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power

Purchase the hardback or e-book of The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power

Our conversation with Dr. Ball from the Journalism For Liberation and Combat Session 1: Internal Colonialism & Emancipatory Journalism with Dr. Jared A. Ball

"A Threat To This Day" Jared Ball on the Distortion and Erasure of Black Revolutionaries in Corporate Media

In this episode we welcome Thandisizwe Chimurenga and Yusef “Bunchy” Shakur to have a conversation that revolves around Sanyika Shakur’s final book, Stand-Up, Struggle Forward: New Afrikan Revolutionary Writings on Nation, Class and Patriarchy.

Thandisizwe Chimurenga is an award-winning Los Angeles-based journalist. Having worked in print and radio/broadcast journalism, she is the author of No Doubt: The Murder(s) of Oscar Grant; Reparations … Not Yet: A Case for Reparations and Why We Must Wait; the soon-to-be-published Some Of Us Are Brave: Interviews and Conversations with Sistas on Life, Art and Struggle, published by Daraja Press, and Nobody Knows My Name: Coming of Age in and Resilience After the Black Power Movement co-written with Deborah Jones, to be published by Diasporic Africa Press.

Her commitment to infusing radical Black feminist/womanist politics within Revolutionary New Afrikan Nationalism, which she believes is key to destroying capitalism, patriarchy and white supremacist imperialism, has been informed by Aminata Umoja, Assata Shakur, Pearl Cleage, bell hooks, Angela Davis, Queen Mother Moore, Gloria Richardson, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, Claudia Jones, Ida B Wells and the “Amazons” of Dahomey.

Yusef “Bunchy” Shakur is a father, neighborhood organizer, author of multiple books, educator and a member of Community Movement Builders. He organizes in Detroit, Michigan. Yusef wrote the foreword to Sanyika’s Stand Up, Struggle Forward which we’re discussing today and Sanyika Shakur wrote the foreword to Yusef Shakur’s book Redemptive Soul. 

In this discussion Thandisizwe and Yusef talk about their own personal and political relationships with Sanyika Shakur and to his writings. We talk a little bit about New Afrikan political thought as it emanated from the New Afrikan Prisoners Organization particularly as was elaborated by Owusu Yaki Yakubu formerly known under the names James “Yaki” Sayles and Atiba Shanna. We discuss the importance of terminology within the New Afrikan Independence Movement and the contributions of Yaki and Sanyika to this body of political thought. 

Thandisizwe Chimurenga and Yusef “Bunchy” Shakur share reflections on Sanyika’s writings on patriarchy, homophobia and transphobia and on revolutionary transformation. They discuss the difficulties of re-entry for politicized and political prisoners in an environment without a strong political home to return to, as well as the use of solitary confinement and control units as weapons against politicized figures.

Since the publication of our last episode Dr. Mutulu Shakur has transitioned beyond this realm and we want to send our condolences to all of his loved ones and co-strugglers, we also want to take this moment to recognize his indelible contributions to the New Afrikan Independence Movement and the cause of Black Liberation.

In the show notes we will link to the book we discuss which can be found through Kersplebedeb or leftwingbooks.net along with the writings of Yaki. We highly, highly recommend both. We will also include a link to many more related writings available digitally through Freedom Archives. 

And of course if you like what we do, bringing you these episodes on a weekly basis, become a patron of the show. You can do so for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism

Links:

Thandisizwe's website (includes ways to support her work)

Yusef "Bunchy" Shakur's website (includes a store with his books)

Stand-Up, Struggle Forward: New Afrikan Revolutionary Writings on Nation, Class and Patriarchy

Meditations on Frantz Fanon's Wretched of the Earth: New Afrikan Revolutionary Writings by James "Yaki" Sayles

Freedom Archives: New Afrikan Prisoner Organization Archives

"Pathology of Patriarchy: A Search for Clues at the Scene of the Crime" by Sanyika Shakur

Beneath My Surface - Thandisizwe Chimurenga (includes reflection on Sanyika's passing as discussed in the episode)

Day of the Gun (George Jackson Doc)

The Political Theory of Dr. Mutulu Shakur with Thandisizwe Chimurenga, Kalonji Changa, & Akinyele Umoja

This past May David Chávez, Steven Osuna, Alejandro Villalpando, and Jared Ware (co-host of MAKC) gave a panel presentation at the Abolitions Conference in DC. We wanted to have a conversation to share some of what we talked about, some of our reflections on the conference, discuss some of the possibilities, limitations and contradictions of Abolition within Academic spaces, as well as some of the potential ways that these spaces, jobs within them, or alternatives to them might be useful in advancing the abolitionist struggle. Before we get into this conversation we would like to thank organizers Whitney Pirtle and Tanya Golash-Boza for putting the conference together and welcoming us to it. And also shout out all the folks we were able to connect with there and the people who gave talks and shared their insights and their research.

We will include links to our presentation from the conference and encourage folks to check out others from the conferences if they’re interested. There is a lot of good work that was presented and good discussions that were had. 

Joining J for this conversation: 

David Chávez teaches History & Ethnic Studies at Compton College. With his dissertation, “From Delinquents to Street Terrorists: L.A.’s War on Black and Chicanx Youth, 1945-1965,” Chávez has studied the policing and criminalization of those populations in Greater Los Angeles. He also has many years of organizing experience, including with Critical Resistance.

Steven Osuna is an associate professor of Sociology at CSU Long Beach. He has written extensively on street organizations, policing, the so-called war on drugs, and the ravages of capitalism and neoliberalism. He also has experience organizing in the Philippine solidarity movement and other struggles. 

Alejandro Villalpando is an assistant professor in the Department of Pan-African Studies and the Latin American Studies Program at Cal State LA. He earned his Ph.D. in Critical Ethnic Studies from UC Riverside, and an M.A. from Latin American Studies at Cal State LA. His work lies at the intersection of Black, Central American, and Ethnic Studies. He also organizes with the Coalition for Community Control Over the Police.

We have had previous conversations with Alejandro and Steven and will link those in the show notes as well.

It is July. Over the months of June and May we released over 14 new episodes of material. We probably will not be able to keep that pace up for this month, but we could definitely use some support from our listeners. We unfortunately just missed our sustainability goal for June. So if you are listening and are able to support the show become a patron for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism

Links:

Our presentation at the UCDC Abolitions Conference “Advancing the Abolitionist Struggle, Everywhere” (starts at approximately 4:31:30 into the recording)

“The Day in Day Out Commitment to Abolition” - Alejandro Villalpando on Organizing, Building Connection, and the Abolitionist Horizon 

"We Need To Be Active In The Working Class Struggle For Socialism Globally" - Steven Osuna on Class Suicide 

One alternative to an academic conference is the recent Black Radical Organizing Conference, you can find video of it on Black Power Media 

Photos of panelists taken by Charles H.F. Davis III at the Abolitions Conference

In this episode we welcome on multiple activists and organizers involved in the struggle to stop cop city.

For this discussion Kamau Franklin from Community Movement Builders, and Micah Herskind return to the podcast, and K from Unity and Struggle, and Matthew Johnson from the Stop Cop City Faith Coalition join them to talk about various facets of the movement to stop cop city current strategic and tactical questions and concerns.

They each provide brief introductions during the show itself. We catch folks up on some of the important recent events in this struggle since our conversation on the movement last Fall. We discusss the repression of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, the use of domestic terrorism charges, and against firm and nearly unanimous public opposition the Atlanta City Council’s recent allocation of the funding for the building of Cop City. 

We also get into the new referendum initiative and some of the tactical and strategic debates around that effort. Further all of our guests offer up multiple ways that people can get involved and plug into the struggle against cop city wherever they are. This week is a week of action in the struggle to Stop Cop City so we will include links with more information on ways people can get involved in that as well.

UPDATES which occurred after the recording (which are relevant to some discussions within the episode): The referendum effort is now underway, the county clerk approved the ability of organizers to begin collecting signatures a couple of hours after we recorded this conversation. Dekalb County DA Sherry Boston has withdrawn her office from the prosecution of 42 cases against stop cop city activists due to movement pressure. 

And we are almost at the end of the month, this is our 7th and final episode for the month of June. We are unlikely to hit our goal for new patrons of the month, as we are still over new 10 patrons away from reaching it. But any support you can offer is very much needed and appreciated. You can become a patron of the show for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism

Links:

Week of Action in Atlanta June 24 - July 1 

Contribute to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund

Referendum Effort - Cop City Vote (thread on helping with referendum)

stopcopcitysolidarity.org

communitymovementbuilders.org's Stop Cop City Page

Unity and Struggle's Three Theories of Victory in Atlanta

This is the Atlanta Way: A Primer on Cop City by Micah Herskind

defendtheatlantaforest.org

atlpresscollective.com

Our prior episode on the movement to Stop Cop City

In this episode we welcome members of the Kenya Organic Intellectuals Network to the podcast.

We discuss their most recent book Breaking the Silence on NGOs in Africa edited by Nicholas Mwangi, Lewis Maghanga and the contributors of the Kenya Organic Intellectuals Network.

Today we have Gacheke Gachihi, Comrade Maghanga, Sungu Oyoo, and Wanjira Wanjiru each from various formations including the Kenya Organic Intellectuals Network. 

Primarily the subject of our discussion is their book which follows on the work of Professor Issa Shivji who wrote a very important piece back in 2007 called Silences in NGO Discourse: The Role and Future of NGOs in Africa. The comrades from the Kenya Organic Intellectuals Network examine the conjuncture in which NGOs emerged in Kenya, they talk about their role in social movements, they share some of their own experiences working in NGOs or organizing in struggles where NGOs take a prominent role. And importantly they examine the contradictions, limitations  and historical role of NGOs in Africa, with a specific emphasis on Kenya. They also discuss their own efforts through organizations like the Revolutionary Socialist League, Communist Party of Kenya, Social Justice Centres, Kongamano la Mapinduzi, Mwamko, and the Ukombozi Library to cultivate progressive movements in Kenya and revitalize a larger revolutionary Pan Africanist movement with a scientific socialist orientation.

Guests:

Gacheke Gachihi is Coordinator at the Mathare Social Justice Center, and a member of the Social Justice Centres Working Group.

Comrade Maghanga is a member of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Socialist League, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He is an activist and organizer, and an active participant in the Pan African Movement.

Sungu Oyoo is a writer and organizer at Kongamano la Mapinduzi and a member of Mwamko.

Wanjira Wanjiru is a co-founder of Mathare Social Justice Center, host of the Liberating Minds podcast, and Matigari book club. 

Links: 

Mathare Social Justice Centre 

Kongamano la Mapinduzi 

Mwamko 

Ukombozi Library 

Revolutionary Socialist League (Kenya) 

Liberating Minds podcast 

Pio Gama Pinto book

Breaking the Silence on NGOs in Africa (Book)

And if you appreciate the work that we do, we’re still work on our goal for the month to add 40 patrons to the show. We are running a little behind pace, but if a few comrades chip in we should still be able to reach it by the end of the month. You can support the show for $1 a month or more at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism. 

For this episode Orisanmi Burton returns to the podcast.

This episode is about Dr. Burton’s latest article which was released today on Truthout. This new piece is called, “New Docs Link CIA to Medical Torture of Indigenous Children and Black Prisoners.”

In our conversation we will talk about the connections between the Central Intelligence Agency’s MKULTRA program, former Governor Normal Rockefeller, the Rockefeller Foundation, McGill University, the Allan Memorial Institute and experiments that were conducted in New York State prisons. 

There are some references in this episode to our most recent episode with Orisanmi Burton in this discussion, when Dr. Burton makes mentions to things he discussed “earlier” or “before” they are to be found in that discussion which we will link as well. 

Content Warning: There is discussion of torture, rape, and other forms of state violence in this episode

We also encourage folks to pre-order Dr. Burton’s forthcoming book Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt and will link that in the show notes.

If you would like to support our work we are running a little behind on our goal for the month of June. For as little as $1 a month you can contribute to that effort at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism and support our ability to bring you these episodes on a weekly basis.

Links: 

Our Mohawk Warrior Society episode

First episode with Orisanmi, 2nd episode with Orisanmi

Silent Cells (referenced in the discussion)

Acres of Skin

Recent agreement between Mohawk Mothers and McGill

In this episode Josh caught up with organizers from the National Network on Cuba, Shaquille Fontenot and Tee Maloney.

We will provide full bios of each guest in the show notes, but will share some highlights here.

Shaquille Fontenot (she/they) is an anti-imperialist, cultural worker. Shaquille currently serves as Chief Strategy Officer at Cedar Wolf Media Group, and is co-founder of the Lowcountry Action Committee (LAC), a Black-led grassroots organization dedicated to Black liberation through service, political education, and collective action in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. Shaquille is also a member of the National Network on Cuba, the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, the Black Alliance for Peace, Charleston Climate Coalition, and others. Shaquille is also a founding member of the People’s Budget Coalition and serves the National Network on Cuba as co-chair.

Tee Maloney is a revolutionary cultural worker who makes art and designs based in contributing to the global movement for African liberation and unity, and other movements related to the international struggle toward ending imperialist domination Tee is the Art Lead for the June 25th Action in DC and is a member of the Black Alliance for Peace, a work-study member of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party. They got involved in the National Network on Cuba as a brigadista from the most recent May Day delegation.

In this discussion they talk about the current revitalization of the movement to end the US blockade or embargo on Cuba, a 60 year blockade that is an egregious attack on the human rights of the Cuban people by the US government. They also discuss the NNOC’s efforts to get Cuba taken off the state sponsors of terror list.   

Tee and Shaquille also discuss their trips to Cuba, what they’ve learned from those experiences, they combat some misinformation and also contextualize some protests and advocate that people really need to improve their social media literacy when evaluating how to respond to protests in other countries.

There are a number of events coming up as part of this renewed campaign to end the blockade and get Cuba removed from this list. The first one is tonight, June 15th at 7:30pm Eastern Time a webinar from Black Alliance For Peace which will be livestreamed on Twitter and YouTube. If you miss the livestream, a recording will be on BAP’s Youtube page after the event as well.

There are a number of upcoming actions in solidarity with the Cuban people which we’ll also list in the show notes, the biggest coming June 25th in DC. 

Our comrades at Prisons Kill and Massive Bookshop selected Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary to send into our incarcerated readers this month. Support that here.

And if you appreciate the work that we do here, become a patron of the podcast for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism. Shout-out to each and every person who makes this show possible through your monthly or yearly donations. Thank you.

Links:

#OFFTHELIST CAMPAIGN

NNOC.ORG

TEE’S ART

In this episode we welcome Gabriel Rockhill to the podcast to discuss his latest piece “The Myth of 1968 Thought and the French Intelligentsia: Historical Commodity Fetishism and Ideological Rollback” which is out this month, in the June issue of Monthly Review.

Gabriel Rockhill is the Founding Director of the Critical Theory Workshop / Atelier de Théorie Critique, Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University, and the author or editor of nine books, as well as numerous articles and essays.

Many listeners have asked us to read and possibly have a discussion about Rockhill’s recent work in particular which has included critical articles on Foucault, Žižek, the Frankfurt School and what Rockhill describes as “The Global Theory Industry” within his work. 

In this conversation we largely examine his most recent piece on the promotion of a certain sect of French intellectuals in the wake of the 1968 uprisings and strikes in Paris. Rockhill discusses the relationship or lack thereof that he sees between those thinkers who have been promoted as “68 Thinkers” and the actual activities of the period, the political decisions being made on the ground, and most urgently for Rockhill’s concerns the incredibly vibrant worker movement of the period and the possibility of taking power and building a socialist project in France.

We hope folks enjoy this discussion which also examines the relationship between those who organize for socialism, grassroots uprisings, and the process through which publishers, state actors, and the media recuperate and commodify upheaval and then freely associate it with thinkers that are compatible with the maintenance of the status quo which is being protested. Alongside this cultural project there is of course also the violent repression of the state both overtly and clandestinely. Along those lines Rockhill also discusses Operation Gladio. 

We will include links to some of the projects that Rockhill mentions in the episode in the show notes, including the summer program at the Critical Theory Workshop.

And of course if you appreciate what we do here at Millennials Are Killing Capitalism, please become a patron of the show. Our show is only possible due to the contributions of listeners like you. For as little as $1 a month or $10.80 per year you can join all of the amazing folks who make this show possible at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism.

Links:

The Myth of 1968 Thought and the French Intelligentsia: Historical Commodity Fetishism and Ideological Rollback

Critical Theory Workshop / Atelier de Théorie Critique

Some of Rockhill's other work on the Global Theory Industry specifically on Foucault, Žižek, the Frankfurt School.

Thomas Sankara translations on Liberation School

Iskra Books (mentioned in the episode)

This is part 2 of our 2 part conversation with Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba on their new book Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care. (Part 1 is available here).

In this episode we continue our conversation with Kaba and Hayes on the idea that organizing is not match-making. They each talk about organizing across difference and dealing with some of the contradictions that can come up within struggles around shared objectives. They talk about some of the differences between friends and comrades and the transformation that can happen within the waging of struggle. 

We discuss about the phrase “hope is a discipline,” what it means and doesn’t mean, whether hope is a useful framework for people, and the notion of active hope that weaves through a lot of the book.

We also talk about seasonality within organizing, avoiding burn out, and how to deal with increasing visibility and remain responsible to the social movements you’re in.

Mariame Kaba is currently raising funds for the Online Abortion Resource Squad, if folks are able to support that effort we encourage them to do so. 

Once again we want to thank Kelly and Mariame for having this conversation with us. You can pick up Let This Radicalize You from Haymarket Books, our friends at Massive Bookshop or your local radical bookstore. We will include a link to the resources mentioned in the episode and a few other items in the show notes.

We do want to thank all of the folks who support us on an ongoing basis or for however long they can. And we invite new listeners and those who haven’t become patrons yet to do so. You can become a patron of the show for as little as $1 a month or $10.80 per year. We receive no revenue from foundations or advertisers, so it is only through the support of our listeners that we are able to bring you conversations like this on a weekly basis and often more frequently than that. Become a patron of the show at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism

Links:

Mariame Kaba is currently seeking to raise $50,000 for abortion funds. Support here.

Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care (resources page).

When We Fall Apart (mentioned in the discussion) 

The Prison Culture Blog

Movement Memos

Lifted Voices

Survived and Punished

Our first conversation with Mariame Kaba (2019)

Our previous (panel) discussion with Kelly Hayes (2022)

For this conversation we are honored to welcome Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba back to the podcast. 

This is part 1 of a 2 part conversation on their latest book Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care.

For both of these folks, I’m going to read shorter bios today, and then link to more of their work, because for each of them I could easily spend 10 to 15 minutes just talking about their backgrounds.

Kelly Hayes is a Menominee author, organizer, movement educator and photographer. She is also the host of Truthout's podcast Movement Memos. Kelly is a co-founder of the direct action collective Lifted Voices and the Chicago Light Brigade.

Mariame Kaba is an organizer, educator and curator who is active in movements for racial, gender, and transformative justice. She has founded or co-founded a number of organizations including but not limited to the Chicago Freedom School, Project NIA, We Charge Genocide, and Survived and Punished. She is also the author or co-author of many books and zines including but not limited to No More Police and We Do This ’Til We Free Us.

Both of our guests today are known for their extensive organizing around, writing about, and advocacy of prison-industrial-complex abolition and all that entails as a liberatory horizon and arena of radical organizing.

Much like this conversation, the book is a radical invitation for folks to organize and take action in big and small ways, but most importantly in collective ways. We really appreciated this book and encourage all of our listeners to get a copy. The book is an excellent resource, it’s funny, it’s engaging, and no matter where you are coming from I’m sure you will find it useful for your organizing, activism and radical engagement with others. 

We want to extend our gratitude to Mariame and Kelly for this conversation and part 2 which we will release in a few days, for their organizing and writing and for the many ways that they invite people into abolitionist practice. We will include links to some free companions created for the book as well. These can deepen your study of the book, hopefully collectively, offer reading lists, reading questions and many other really great resources.

This episode marks our first episode of June, we released seven episodes in the month of May. That is only possible because of the support of our listeners. We have been experiencing a lot of folks unable to renew pledges lately on the show, which is understandable during harder financial times. We do want to thank all of the folks who support us on an ongoing basis or for however long they can. And we invite new listeners and those who haven’t become patrons yet to do so. You can become a patron of the show for as little as $1 a month or $10.80 per year. We receive no revenue from foundations or advertisers so it is only through the support of our listeners that we are able to bring you conversations like this on a weekly basis and often more frequently than that. Become a patron of the show at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism.

Links:

Mariame Kaba is currently seeking to raise $50,000 for abortion funds. Support here.

Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care (look to resources heading on middle of page for the free workbook and discussion guide)

The Prison Culture Blog

Movement Memos

Lifted Voices

Survived and Punished

Our first conversation with Mariame Kaba (2019)

Our previous (panel) discussion with Kelly Hayes (2022)

In this episode we welcome Orisanmi Burton back to the podcast.

For this conversation, we discuss Dr. Burton’s latest article, “Targeting Revolutionaries: The Birth of the Carceral Warfare Project, 1970 – 1978.” Which he describes as a supplement to his forthcoming book, Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt. This piece was recently published in the May issue of Radical History Review which is on Political Imprisonment and Confinement.

In this discussion we pick up on our previous episode with Orisanmi Burton on carceral warfare. Here Burton talks about the role of Black Panther and Black Liberation Army veteran and former political prisoner Dhoruba bin Wahad’s role in illuminating and analyzing the FBI’s little known Prison Activists Surveillance Program (PRISACTS). Burton situates this program amid a broad set of counterinsurgency programs which operated in multiple theaters of war both internationally and domestically. Burton illustrates how within this international terrain of counterrevolutionary war, figures slipped between various programs, moving between military, intelligence, private defense contract, and domestic law enforcement and prison systems. Importantly, Burton reminds us that many state actors, including congressional bodies, presidents and governors recognized a threat of revolutionary activity in the streets in the 1960’s and by the late 60’s and early 70’s they understood there to be a threat of revolutionary activity behind prison walls as well. To respond, they sought to use programs like PRISACTS to specifically undermine incarcerated revolutionaries. The legacy of this struggle offers a great deal to help us understand the role of US prisons today as sites of domestic warfare.

Just a note that there is a second portion of this conversation which we hope to release at a later date. It is briefly referenced in the opening question. Currently we are just waiting for the publication of that second article.  

Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt is available for pre-order you can find a link for that in the show notes. And the publisher does have a 40% off sale that goes through the end of May. I can’t wait to have more discussion on that book upon its release.

This is our 7th episode of the month of May. We are still behind on our goal for the month. As of publication today we need 7 more patrons to hit that goal. You can become a patron of the show for as little as $1 a month or $10.80 per year at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism. 

Links to references from the episode:

“Targeting Revolutionaries: The Birth of the Carceral Warfare Project, 1970 – 1978.”

Previous MAKC interview with Orisanmi Burton 

Previous MAKC interview with Dhoruba bin Wahad 

Our Interview with Damien Sojoyner 

Interview with Orisanmi Burton and Dhoruba on BPM

“Resisting Living Death at Marion Federal Penitentiary, 1972" by Alan Eladio Gómez

You can pre-order Tip of the Spear at UC Press. It is 40% off through the end of May (with the promo code May40)

In this episode we interview Professor Elisabeth B. Armstrong. Armstrong is a professor of the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College. She teaches courses on feminist political praxis, with a focus on transnational feminist movements seeking social, economic and environmental transformation. Her courses include Marxist feminism, Women, Money and Transnationalism, decolonial feminist archives and gendered movements about the land, food and survival. Many of her courses are community-based research courses linked to regional and international community movements for the basic needs of land, food, labor, and embodied self-determination. In addition to the book we discuss in this episode Armstrong is the author of The Retreat From Organization: U.S. Feminism Reconceptualized, and Gender and Neoliberalism: The All-India Democratic Women’s Association and Its Strategies of Resistance.

In this conversation we are here to talk about her latest book Bury The Corpse of Colonialism: The Revolutionary Feminist Conference of 1949. In 1949, revolutionary activists from Asia hosted a conference in Beijing that gathered together their comrades from around the world. The Asian Women’s Conference developed a new political strategy, demanding that women from occupying colonial nations contest imperialism with the same dedication as women whose countries were occupied. This book tells the remarkable story of how these bold activists constructed a blueprint for anti-imperialist feminist internationalism and shows how movements create a revolutionary theory over time and through struggle.

The book is a great discussion of conjunctural analysis, the dedication of these women militants, from communist parties and other antifascist, anticolonial, and anti-imperialist formations in the 1940’s. We talk to Dr. Armstrong about how these women developed their strategy, what they were experiencing in their struggles, and how they sought to put their strategy of an inside/outside approach to anti colonialism and anti-imperialism into practice in the middle of the 20th century as the international anticolonial movement was developing.

Also May is winding down and we’re just 9 patrons away from hitting our goal for the month. This is our 6th episode for the month of May. If you appreciate the work we do releasing episodes like this on a weekly basis and running study groups, kick in $1 a month or more and help us sustain the work, which is only possible through the support of everyday folks like yourself. You can become a patron of the show at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism

Purchase the book from Massive Bookshop

This episode is focused on the campaign to free Sundiata Jawanza.

Sundiata Jawanza is a New Afrikan, abolitionist and human rights activist currently incarcerated in the South Carolina.

Today we have four guests, Audrey Bomse and Jenipher Jones both co-chairs of the Mass Incarceration Committee of the National Lawyers Guild, Darren Mack of Prison Lives Matter, and Roc, the Jailhouse Lawyers Speak Housing Program Coordinator. 

In this discussion J shares a bit about the Sundiata Jawanza’s freedom campaign, a bit about the case itself, and primarily we focus on a political discussion of Sundiata Jawanza’s work in part discussing his individual contributions, but primarily through the political work that he and his comrades have done through Jailhouse Lawyers Speak. As part of that discussion, we also discuss the overall importance of jailhouse lawyers to the legal education and opportunities at freedom and defense of human rights within US prisons. 

We want to ask all of our listeners to please get involved, to connect with Sundiata Jawanza, and to support his freedom campaign by writing the parole board on his behalf. Full details on how to do that can be found at SundiataJawanza.com.

To learn more about Jailhouse Lawyers Speak.

People can write JLS by mail at: 

JAILHOUSE LAWYERS SPEAK

PO BOX 673

MERCER, PA 16137

Or email jailhouselawyersspeak@protonmail.com or outthemud.jls@gmail.com

Some prior episodes with (or in solidarity with) Jailhouse Lawyers Speak:

Jailhouse Lawyers Speak's 2020 Call To Action 

“In The Spirit of Abolition” - Jailhouse Lawyers Speak Calls For Shut ‘Em Down Demonstrations

"Building Infrastructure: Identifying Tactics for Sustainable Formations": A Panel Discussion Supporting Jailhouse Lawyers Speak's #SHUTEMDOWN2021 Demos

This is part 2 of our 2-part conversation with Felicia Denaud.

In this part of the discussion Denaud talks about what the category of political prisoner might do politically, in thinking about movement building through a lens of movement defense in this moment. We also continue our conversation on her work on the Master-State Complex and thinking about the state capacity for violence and the private outsourcing of that "sovereign" power that comes about with the slave trade, plantation economy and settler colonialism. It’s worth saying that this conversation happened a week before Jordan Neely was murdered, but that case also relates deeply to these dynamics described in this conversation.

Denaud talks about the use of light and darkness in Fanon’s work and talks about his concept of social treason as a potentially more robust language to deal with those who leverage political struggles for their own personal, political and monetary gain on the backs or at odds with the social movements that propel them to levels of power and accumulation.

This is our 4th episode of the month of May. We are behind on our goal for the month and looking to add 26 more patrons this month to hit our goal. If you’re able to kick in at least a $1 a month or $10.80 per year you can become a patron of the show and join the amazing community of folks who make this show possible at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism

Links:

Lawrence Jenkins

Campaign to Free the Pendleton 2 // Our episode on this struggle

“Into The Clear, Unreal, Idyllic Light of the Beginning | A Will of the Night"

­­­­­­­"we’ve barely begun to speak/scream/sing: on frankétienne’s dézafi"

Renegade Gestation: Writing Against the Procedures of Intellectual History 

Cooperation Jackson's Kali Akuno on the lessons of and the ongoing struggle in Jackson MS

More on political prisoners:

The Jericho Movement (political prisoners)

uprisingsupport.org/

atlsolidarity.org/

This is part one of a two part conversation with Felicia Denaud.

Felicia Denaud is a writer, poet, and professor of Africana Studies at the University of Cincinnati. She writes, in the words of Sylvia Wynter, toward the end of empire, war, and accumulation by elimination. She’s listens, in the words of Dhoruba bin Wahad for “the last of the loud.”

In this part of the discussion we get into Denaud’s work around two key and very interesting concepts within her work. One she describes as the “Unnameable War,” and the other the “Master-State Complex.” We also begin to talk about the piece that spurred this conversation, Denaud’s recent essay “Into The Clear, Unreal, Idyllic Light of the Beginning | A Will of the Night,” which was published by The Caribbean Philosophical Association. In our discussion of that essay here we ask Denaud about what she draws from revolutionary Grenada and Safiya Bukhari. And we close this part of the discussion with Denaud sharing some of the areas of Haitian history that are not examined and appreciated with the care and inquiry they should be if we truly have a dedication to defending revolutions.

Felicia wanted us to highlight the fundraising campaign for Lawrence Jenkins, an incarcerated abolitionist who will be coming home soon in Washington state and the campaign to Free the Pendleton 2. We will include links to both of those campaigns .

And as always if you appreciate the work that we do bringing you conversations like this on a weekly basis, please become a patron of the show. You can do so for as little as $1 a month, our work is only possible through - and only funded by - the support of listeners just like you. Support at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism

Part two of this conversation with Felicia Denaud will be released this coming week.

Links:

Lawrence Jenkins

Campaign to Free the Pendleton 2 // Our episode on this struggle

“Into The Clear, Unreal, Idyllic Light of the Beginning | A Will of the Night"

­­­­­­­"we’ve barely begun to speak/scream/sing: on frankétienne’s dézafi"

Renegade Gestation: Writing Against the Procedures of Intellectual History 

In this episode we interview Dr. Kris Manjapra.

Kris Manjapra works at the intersection of transnational history and the critical study of race and colonialism.  He is the author of five books, in this episode we discuss his comparative study of global emancipation processes and the implications for reparations movement today: Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation.  

In addition to his scholarly work, he is the founder of a site-based nonprofit, Black History in Action, dedicated to the restoration and reactivation of a Black cultural heritage center in Cambridge, MA.  Kris also co-organizes a free online community certificate course, entitled Black Futures Matter, serving people’s assemblies across the US and the Caribbean.

Our conversation with Manjapra focuses on Black Ghosts of Empire and on unsettling our mystified and highly inaccurate dominant views of emancipation processes globally. Dr. Manjapra walks us through the origin and history of the legal apparatus of emancipation and takes a materialist approach to analyzing whose interests were served through these processes to demonstrate how these historical shifts preserved and upheld the interests of slave owners. He also demonstrates the various ways that emancipation processes were designed to place Black people into a state of indebtedness and delay their freedom from bondage. This is an excellent discussion for thinking through the ways that the white supremacist capitalist state and the property owning classes  seek to respond to crises in ways that preserve existing hierarchies and power relations.

We also discuss many of the vibrant Black abolitionist movements that demanded, organized, and struggled for alternative futures. Taking a look at some of the earliest Pan Africanist and Black Feminist thinkers, cultural workers, and organizers Manjapra stitches together a rich tapestry of movement lineage that carries into the current ongoing struggles for reparations for slavery and its long afterlives.

If you appreciate the work that we do we are on a push to add 40 patrons again this month. We are just a little bit behind the pace on our monthly goal so any support people can give is much appreciated. You will be joining a community of folks who make this show possible every week with their donations at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism

Links to some companion conversations:

Rinaldo Walcott - On Black Freedom and the Abolition of Property

Saidiya Hartman - Scenes of Subjection at 25

Robin DG Kelley - Freedom Dreams at 20

In this episode we interview Matyos Kidane and Shakeer Rahman two organizers with the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, a community organization founded in 2011, working to build community power toward abolishing police surveillance. They are rooted in the Skid Row neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles, based out of the Los Angeles Community Action Network. 

Recently the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition has been thrust into the spotlight due to backlash against their creation of the website watchthewatchers.net, which complies police data from multiple public records requests originally made by journalist Ben Camacho best known for his work with KNOCK-LA. While this so-called controversy is interesting and warrants some debunking of the lies being put forward by LA police, politicians and their allies, we also wanted to use the opportunity to highlight the organizing of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition and learn from their process of collective study and how to use state archives, public records requests, community knowledge and analyses of police and local political economy to produce resources for abolitionist movements.

Along the way we talk about how Watch The Watchers has grown out of a longer history of Cop Watch practices and ways that this tool already been used by activists, journalists and community members.

In the show notes we’ll include links to support the work of Stop LAPD Spying, to a toolkit opposing the Robot Dogs being proposed by the LAPD and a link to some examples of their work.

And if you appreciate the work that we do bringing you an assortment of discussions with organizers, activists, scholars and movement veterans on a weekly basis become a patron of the show. We have a goal to add 40 new patrons again this month to help us sustain the work that we do. You can join the amazing folks who make this show possible for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism

Links:

Stop LAPD Spying Coalition (Donation Page)

Toolkit for opposing Robot Dogs in LA (meeting on Friday May 5th)

automatingbanishment.org

Automating Banishment: The Data-Driven Policing of Stolen Land (Haymarket discussion) with Mike Davis and Stop LAPD Spying 

In this episode we welcome Damien Sojoyner to the podcast. 

Damien M. Sojoyner is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of First Strike: Prison and Educational Enclosures in Black Los Angeles and Joy and Pain: A Story of Black Life and Liberation in Five Albums.

For this episode we invite Dr. Sojoyner to the podcast to discuss his latest work Against the Carceral Archive: The Art of Black Liberatory Practice which offers a distillation of critical, theoretical, and Black organizing and activist work over the past three decades. Working from collections at the Southern California Library the book examines the study and practice of the LA chapter of the Black Panther Party,  the Coalition Against Police Abuse, Urban Policy Research Institute, Mothers Reclaiming Our Children, and the collection of geographer Clyde Woods. 

We ask Sojoyner about how he thinks about carcerality and the archive in relation to domestic warfare, and discuss the collections and documents he examines in the book and what they reveal about the practices of organizations grounded in the struggle for Black Liberation in Los Angeles. 

Against the Carceral Archive is a great text to come to grips with the level of rigorous study, analysis and dedication that are required for effective organizing agains  t the forces of racial capitalism and the imperialist state.

Thank you to Dr. Sojoyner for this book and for joining us for this conversation. We’ll include links to the Southern California Library which provided collections for Sojoyner’s research here and continues to be an amazing resource for people in struggle in Los Angeles.

And if you appreciate the work that we do, we strongly encourage you to become a patron of the show, you can so for as little as $1 a month & all of your support adds up to make this show - and our own study groups - possible on a weekly basis. 

Links:

Southern California Library

Pick-up a copy of Against the Carceral Archive: The Art of Black Liberatory Practice

In this conversation we welcome Dr. Nazia Kazi to the podcast.

Dr. Nazia Kazi is an anthropologist and educator based in Philadelphia. Her work explores the role of Islamophobia and racism in the context of global politics. 

She is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Stockton University in New Jersey, where she teaches courses on race, ethnicity, immigration, and Islam in the U.S. She is the author of Islamophobia, Race, and Global Politics. Kazi is also a faculty affiliate of the Rutgers Center for Security, Race, and Rights. 

This episode came about in response to the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, which should be widely understood as a crime against humanity and an egregious violation of even the most basic application of international and human rights law.

We invited Dr. Kazi on the show to discuss how US media continues to cover this war, and the broader so-called “War on Terror” over 20 years later. Kazi demystifies some of the liberal multicultural discussion of Islamophobia and examines a more complex history of the US’s relationship to Islam specifically by looking at CIA operations. She also examines the impact of post-9/11 policy making on government surveillance, the political expressions of Muslims in the US, inclusionary nonprofit politics, and extrajudicial political repression. 

We also discuss what it is that we are to #neverforget when it comes to 9/11 and how mainstream media and K-12 education have been a part of a political assault on both historical and political analysis around that day and around the impacts of the “war on terror” on politics and state repression both domestically and internationally.

And if you like what we do bringing you conversations like this every week then please become a patron of the show. Our show is 100% funded by our patrons and you can become one for as little as $1 a month. We’re just 8 patrons away from hitting our goal for the month. So sign up and become a patron at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism 

Links:

How the 'war on terror' obscures America's alliance with right-wing Islam

What We Forget by Nazia Kazi and Anuj Shrestha

Dr. Nazia Kazi's website

Islamophobia, Race, and Global Politics (Updated) By Nazia Kazi