Millennials Are Killing Capitalism

In this episode we talk to Louis Allday, writer, historian and founding editor of Liberated Texts.

Liberated Texts is an independent book review website which features works of ongoing relevance that have been forgotten, underappreciated, suppressed or misinterpreted in the cultural mainstream since their release.

Louis gets into a more detailed description of the site’s purpose and some of the reviews they’ve featured since its founding just over a year ago. He also talks about the importance of books to anti-imperialist struggle, and ways that the publishing industry has been targeted by counterintelligence and counterinsurgency operations by the likes of the CIA and other related agencies.

The inaugural Liberated Texts Collected Reviews volume is now available. Published by Ebb books, we’ll include links to where you can order it in the show notes.

As we mention in the episode, Liberated Texts is a resource that we use to find interesting subject matter for this podcast. We’ve previously featured a couple of discussions directly based on reviews from the site, and also featured folks who have gone on to write reviews for Liberated Texts. We’ll include some links to those in the show notes as well.

As Louis mentions in the episode, Liberated Texts is going to soon begin republishing or publishing books in English for the first time starting in July of this year. Their first book will be an English translation of Ghassan Kanafani’s On Zionist Literature. Proceeds from the sales of their first volume of collected reviews will go towards that publishing work.

And as always if you like what we do here at Millennials Are Killing Capitalism, the best way that you can support our work is to become a patron of the show. You can do that for as little as $1 a month or a yearly membership of $10.80. If you’re not able to do that right now, please do what you can to like, share, retweet and spread the word.

Links:

Liberated Texts

Order Liberated Texts from Bookshop.org

Another interview we did which talks about Walter Rodney's time in Tanzania and relationship with Nyerere.

Our episode with Bill Rolston and Robbie McVeigh

Our episode with Alex Turrall

Our previous conversation with Ju-Hyun Park.

This episode is the 4th and final session of Journalism for Liberation and Combat. 

Make sure to check out the audio from all four sessions here on Millennials Are Killing Capitalism. Or if you prefer, the videos from all four sessions are up on Black Power Media. And there’s a syllabus you can access in the show notes.

This episode is a panel discussion with Erica Caines from Hood Communist and Black Alliance For Peace, Kelly Hayes from Truthout and Movement Memos, Brian Nam-Sonenstein from Shadowproof and Beyond Prisons and Brandon Soderberg co-author of I Got A Monster and former editor-in-chief of the Baltimore City Paper. 

Each of these folks have much more extensive bios which we will include in the show notes and which get read out later in the episode after Brooke and I situate the panel a bit within the series.

We encourage you to follow and support their work and more than that we hope that more comes from our collaboration with these great folks, and through folks who either participated in the seminars or who have watched or listened to this series in video or audio form.

This is our first episode of April, we put out 5 episodes in March. So if you like what we do here at MAKC, kick $1 or whatever you can into our patreon to make sure we can continue to provide you with new episodes every week. 

Panelists:

Erica Caines is a coordinating committee of The Black Alliance For Peace and a member of the Black working-class centered Ujima People’s Progress Party in Maryland. Caines is the founder of Liberation Through Reading and is also co-editor of the Revolutionary African blog, Hood Communist.

Kelly Hayes is the host of Truthout’s podcast Movement Memos and a contributing writer at Truthout. Kelly’s written work can be found in numerous other publications and books, including the anthology Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? and Mariame Kaba's bestseller We Do This 'til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice. Kelly was an organizer with We Charge Genocide and co-founded the Chicago Light Brigade and the Lifted Voices collective. Kelly’s movement photography is featured in the “Freedom and Resistance” exhibit of the DuSable Museum of African American History. 

Brian Nam-Sonenstein is an independent journalist and editor living in Maine. He is one of the co-founders of the reader-supported news website Shadowproof.com and the Beyond Prisons podcast. Previously, Brian was the associate publisher of Firedoglake, an early and influential online forum for left journalism and organizing. There, he worked to connect journalists with movement organizers around the country working on a wide range of issues including fighting foreclosures, drug prohibition, anti war mobilizations, whistleblower defense, and environmental justice. Since around 2014, his primary focus has been to amplify abolitionist movements and thought through media, and to help cultivate and spread an abolitionist ethic among journalists. 

Brandon Soderberg is a Baltimore-based reporter who covers dirty cops, harm reduction, direct action, and guns. He is the coauthor of I Got a Monster: The Rise and Fall of America's Most Corrupt Police Squad. He is the former editor-in-chief of Baltimore City Paper and is the co-founder of Baltimore Beat, a community-focused nonprofit media outlet. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Intercept, Vice, The Appeal, Filter Magazine, and many other publications. Currently he writes about Baltimore for The Real News.

This is the 3rd session of Journalism for Liberation and Combat.

This session is hosted by Too Black. Too Black is a poet, member of Black Alliance For Peace, producer of The Last Dope Intellectual Podcast, and host of The Black Myths Podcast on Black Power Media. He is based in Indianapolis, IN.

This session focuses on The League of Revolutionary Black Workers newspaper work as a living example and case study for the examination of emancipatory journalism. In this episode Too Black breaks down comparisons of The South End under the editorship of John Watson in comparison with the coverage of the same events by The Detroit Free Press. This juxtaposition illuminates the possibilities of emancipatory journalism in practice. Shout out to Austin McCoy for sharing examples of articles from The South End with us for this presentation.

Too Black also discusses the work he and his co-hosts do over at the Black Myths Podcast and the process they use to engage and debunk popular myths. Finally Too Black touches on methods of corporate counterinsurgency.

Too Black’s presentation is followed by a Q&A from the Journalism for Liberation and Combat course participants. In the Q&A Brooke Terpstra from Oakland Abolition and Solidarity and I begin a conversation with Too Black about prisons and profit that we continue during an episode of IMIXWHATILIKE that came out this past Monday March 28th. 

There’s a brief introductory conversation by Brooke and me. As we ground the discussion within the overall context of the Journalism for Liberation and Combat seminar series.

All of the Journalism for Liberation and Combat sessions have video versions as well and you can find those on Black Power Media, we’ll provide a link to the playlist with all four sessions in the show notes. This particular session has a decent length powerpoint presentation with examples of articles from The South End so it is beneficial to watch it over on BPM.

If you like the work that we do here at MAKC all of our work is solely funded by our listeners so please become a patron of the show, you can do that for as little as $1 a month over at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism.

Check out and support:

Black Myths Podcast (show, patreon)

The Last Dope Intellectual (show, patreon)

Oakland Abolition and Solidarity

Black Power Media (channel, patreon)

This is session 2 of Journalism for Liberation & Combat. If you missed session 1, Journalism for Liberation & Combat was a mini-course that Jared Ware (Jay from MAKC) helped convene along with Brooke Terpstra who is an organizer with Oakland Abolition & Solidarity. We worked closely to put this together with Jared Ball from imixwhatilike and Black Power Media, and with a number of other radical journalists who you will hear from throughout the series. 

Brooke Terpstra titled Session 2: “From Survival to Winning - Hegemony and Liberation on the Ground.” Both Brooke and Jared Ware cover the presentation in this session and the Jared Ball returns for a Q&A answering questions from the participants in the Journalism for Liberation & Combat course on the heels of Session 1 which Jared Ball gave the main presentation.

This conversation is really about making the concepts of culture and hegemony real for folks and about sharing a media struggle from the coverage of the Prison Strike in 2018 which Brooke and Jay were very involved in as members of the Prison Strike Media Relations team for that action. There is a brief introductory conversation from Brooke and Jay on this session, and there is a lengthy Q&A with Jay, Brooke and Jared Ball at the end of the conversation.

These sessions took place over zoom, and you can watch this session in its totality over on Black Power Media (session 1 also!) which is a great channel on Youtube with tons of amazing content from a Black Left perspective. 

There was also a syllabus to the course, which we recommend you check out.

As always if you like the work that we do here at Millennials Are Killing Capitalism, we do operate entirely on the support of our listeners. And as many folks are cutting costs in these rough financial times, we have been losing some patrons for the show. So if you are a listener and you have not become a patron yet and you can afford $1 a month or more, head to patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism and become a patron of the show.

***Video version now up on Black Power Media***

Earlier this month Brooke Terpstra from Oakland Abolition and Solidarity and Jared Ware convened a brief course that we titled Journalism for Liberation and Combat. At the heart of the course was the question: How do we cultivate revolutionary culture? Further we looked at the specific intersection of media or cultural production and revolutionary organizing.  Over the next couple weeks we will be sharing audio versions of all of these sessions. We will also be working with Black Power Media to release the video versions of these discussions over there over the next couple of weeks, the first one could premiere as soon as this Friday. What you will get here is lightly edited audio. The videos do often include visual aids. In addition to this there is a syllabus for this course which we will link in the show notes, that includes all of the readings we asked course participants to complete along with participating in the classes themselves. We encourage folks to do this course on their own time ideally with folks they organize with or work on radical media work with or maybe both. 

Our guests for this series include:

Jared Ball from IMIXWHATILIKE and Black Power Media, 

Too Black from Black Myths Podcast, Black Power Media, and The Last Dope Intellectual

Erica Caines from Black Alliance For Peace & Hood Communist

Kelly Hayes from Truthout & Movement Memos

Brian Nam-Sonenstein from Shadowproof and Beyond Prisons

Brandon Soderberg (coauthor of I Got A Monster: The Rise & Fall of America's Most Corrupt Police Squad)

And Jared Ware (MAKC) and Brooke Terpstra (Oakland Abolition & Solidarity)

In this conversation there’s a little bit of an introduction from myself and Brooke just giving you some background on the series, and then you will hear Jared Ball’s presentation Journalism, Internal Colonialism, and Emancipation. In this session, Jared Ball will cover a summary of internal colonialism theory as context for emancipatory journalism. He will define and exemplify emancipatory journalism and he will discuss the rise and current state of the media/journalism environment in these so-called United States.

At the close of his presentation, there is a Q&A session where Jared Ware, Brooke Terpstra, and coco ask Jared Ball some introductory questions. coco the comrade who joins us, is a conscious New Afrikan who engages in prisoner solidarity work along with political education & New Afrikan resistance, currently they host the Nkrumah study group we’ve been running.

For folks looking specifically for Jared Ball’s presentation it starts at 29:45 seconds. The first roughly 30 minutes here are Brooke and me discussing the Journalism For Liberation & Combat series as well as this episode.

This was a collaborative process and so I encourage you to contribute to, join or follow any of the organizations involved in putting this together - whether they do media work or organizing work - for us the easiest way to do that is by becoming a patron of the show at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism

It covers 800 years of history of colonialism in Ireland, and pays particular attention to the various colonial forms British Imperialism imposes upon the people of the island. 

It also takes a deep dive into examining the contradictions of each of the Irish states that emerge from partition, an undemocratic and colonial imposition that the Irish people have yet to dismantle.

Along the way the book also deals with important questions of race, gender and the position of Ireland in relation to the British Empire.

At its core the book demonstrates that Ireland has not achieved decolonization even in the 26 counties in the South, but argues that self-determination for Irish people is within reach, perhaps closer now than it has been in a century.

In our conversation we explore many of these topics as well as An Gorta Mór, the British starvation of Ireland often misnamed/misunderstood as the "Potato Famine." We talk about the unexpected possibilities and contradictions created by the UK’s reactionary Brexit maneuvering. We talk about resonances between Ireland and other sites of settler colonialism, and discuss how racism and religious sectarianism are interwoven in the Irish context.

We also ask Robbie & Bill about the legacy of Irish anti-imperial struggle, which is significant and innovative, but is also checkered by a history of figures who failed to demonstrate solidarity to other anti-colonial struggles and marginalized peoples. They also discuss the complexity of Irish involvement in colonial management, and racial regimes outside of the Irish context.

We want to give a special shout-out to Liberated Texts (you can order volume 1 here) and Chris Beausang for the review which alerted us to the existence of this book. 

And just note that you can order it directly from Ireland at Beyondthepalebooks.com. And if you’re listening in North America I’ll just add that the good people at leftwingbooks.net have ordered some copies so you should be able to order it there soon as well.

One more note, Dhoruba Bin Wahad is mentioned in passing during the show. Dhoruba who has lived a life in struggle for Black Liberation is currently battling stage 4 cancer and has a gofundme to support his treatment and care. We have contributed and we encourage you to do the same.

Lastly, if you like what we do and want to hear more conversations like this, please support us on patreon. Our listeners are our sole source of income for the show, and you can become a patron for $1 a month or whatever you can afford to contribute.

In this episode we talk to Olúfẹmi O. Táíwò. Táíwò is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University.

In this episode we talk about his recently published book Reconsidering Reparations, which examines arguments for reparations historically and offers a philosophical argument for a constructive vision of reparations. 

Along the way Femi looks at the linkages between slavery, racism, colonialism, imperialism and climate change. 

In looking at this world system which he articulates as Global Racial Empire, Táíwò offers a vision for reconfiguring this world system in a more just way. Along the way he tackles issues of racial justice, economic security, and also a global vision of disability justice.

We talk about systems of global distribution. And Femi examines arguments related to Rawlsian visions of justice, questions of identity and reparations, and certain critiques of reparations arguments.

Táíwò also shares concerns about symbolic notions of reparations and advocates a materialist world-making project as a political horizon.

Mentioned in the episode is a debate between Adolph Reed Jr. and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on the issue of reparations, you can listen to it here. 

And just a reminder that we do need support to be able to run this show. If you like what we do, want us to be able to keep doing it, particularly as frequently as we do, please give a little money to our patreon. It’s through your support that we are able to do the show, keep the show free, keep it ad-free, and deliver you conversations like this unfiltered and unfettered by corporations or foundations.

Back in early December we published an interview with Tomás on his book Amílcar Cabral: The Life of a Reluctant Nationalist. In that conversation Tomás delved into the struggle of the PAIGC, various dynamics of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, and an analysis of Portuguese colonialism and counterinsurgency. Tomás also examined Cabral’s theory and practice in relation to Marxist thought and techniques of guerrilla warfare popular at the time. Discussing some of Cabral’s unique theoretical and practical interventions along the way.

As we mentioned at the time, there were others aspects of Cabral’s life we wanted to delve into more deeply. Such as his time with the MAC or Movimento Anticolonial (Anticolonial Movement) his relationships with, and the influence of, figures like Frantz Fanon, Sekou Touré, and Kwame Nkrumah and his thinking on issues of Pan Africanism and internationalism. In this conversation we explore those topics and also further discuss how Cabral’s speeches must be read in the context of audience both intended and unintended. As well as in relation to the concrete needs of the PAIGC’s liberation struggle in that moment. We also talk specifically about the relationships Cabral had with Léopold Senghor and Sekou Touré the heads of state of Guinea-Bissau’s neighbors, who each provided different forms of solidarity, allowed different types of activity from the PAIGC within their state, and embraced a different tactics in relation to the PAIGC’s struggle against Portuguese colonialism. Finally, Tomás discusses what he considers Cabral’s greatest contributions to African anti colonial struggle. 

It’s important to remember that many of the questions asked here remain open, but Tomás’s insights are very useful in reading Cabral’s thought and understanding the practices of the PAIGC in context.

This is our fourth episode of the month of February, and currently we’re still down 3 patrons for the month. So if you’ve been thinking about becoming a patron, now is a great time to show your support. You can do so for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism

References in the show:

Part 1 of this conversation

Amílcar Cabral: The Life of a Reluctant Nationalist by António Tomás

António Tomás' forthcoming book In the Skin of the City: Spatial Transformation in Luanda

Cabral's "Facts About Colonialism" also known as "Facts About Portugal's African Colonies" can be found in Unity & Struggle.

Return To The Source (and mulitiple speeches within it) is also referenced in the show.

Cesaire's Notebook of a Return to the Nativeland

Fanon's Wretched of the Earth

In this episode we interview two members of the Certain Days Collective. 

Josh Davidson has been an activist for nearly two decades, focusing on prisoner support and the abolition of the carceral state. He is involved in numerous social justice projects, including the Certain Days collective and the Children’s Art Project with political prisoner Oso Blanco. Josh is currently editing a book detailing the struggles of current and former political prisoners, and also works in communications with the Zinn Education Project.

Daniel McGowan is a member of the Certain Days collective, and former political prisoner from Queens, NY.

He works with NYC Books Through Bars, the Anarchist Black Cross Federation (ABCF) and supporting political prisoner Eric King. 

The topic of today’s discussion is the Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar which is a joint fundraising and educational project between outside organizers in Montreal, Hamilton, New York, and Baltimore, and political prisoner Xinachtli (formerly known as Alvaro Luna Hernandez). 

All of the outside collective members are involved in day-to-day organizing work other than the calendar, on issues ranging from refugee and immigrant solidarity to community media to prisoner justice. They work from an anti-imperialist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, feminist, queer- and trans liberationist position.

In this episode they talk about welcoming founding members Herman Bell and Robert Seth Hayes (Rest in Power) home from prison in 2018, and founding member David Gilbert home from prison just a few months ago at the end of 2021. 

Daniel and Josh talk about the nuts and bolts of putting the calendar together, working with political prisoners on the project, and supporting prisoners against state repression. Along the way they both talk about tensions they feel in political prisoner support in the present moment. Both embracing prison abolition, understanding the inherently political nature of all imprisonment, and holding firm on the critical importance of movement defense to the creation of a better future.

Daniel also shares many insights from his own time as a political prisoner on the vicious and arbitrary nature of carceral power and the role that political prisoners try to play teaching and sharing radical knowledge but also seeking to legally combat the most repressive facets of the prison system both inside and out.

Josh and Daniel reference a ton of great projects and ways people can get involved, we will include all of them in the show notes so make sure to check them all out and get involved. One in particular we want to draw folks attention to uprisingsupport.org which was created to support people facing political repression for their involvement in the uprisings in response to the executions of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others in 2020.

And of course make sure you pick up a copy of the Certain Days calendar if you haven’t yet, they’re now on sale for $10 at burningbooks.com and the other outlets listed in this episode and in the show notes.

Finally, a reminder that if you appreciate the work that we do, we also need support. Become a patron of the show for as little as one dollar a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism 

Other links and projects discussed in the episode:

2022 Artists- Carrot, Comrade Z, Jesus Barraza, Leila Abdelrazaq, Oso Blanco, Peter Railand, Roger Peet, Wendy Elisheva Somerson, Windigo Army, Virginia Lee, Xinachtli and Xue.

2022 Articles- Alanna Kibbe, Cory Charles Cardinal, David Gilbert, Daniel McGowan, Eric King, Hanif Bey, J.“g.”J., Martha Hennessy, Montclair Mutual Aid, Mwalimu Shakur, Sean Adams, Shukri Abu-Baker, Tauno Biltsted.

PPs- editors are/were David Gilbert and Xinatchli

Prisoners- Comrade Z (Julio Zuniga)- Texas,  Fed: Eric King, Hanif Bey, Oso Blanco, Shukri Abu Baker, Martha Hennessy. Sean Adams (released from Texas state),  Mwalimu Shakur (CA)

PP News

Current campaigns-
Dr. Mutulu Shakur (clemency, parole, compassionate release)

Sundiata Acoli 

Political Prisoners Near Release-

Doug Wright 

Josh Williams (12.22)

New(er) Political Prisoners -

Jessica Reznicek

Dan Baker

Daniel Hale

Floyd Uprising defendants (Uprisingsupport.org)  

More orgs:

Books Through Bars NYC

Anarchist Black Cross Federation 

Support Eric King (March 14th trial date)

Daniel's consulting 

Proceeds 2021

· RAPP (Release Aging People in Prison) 

· Barton Prisoner Solidarity- . 

· Tucson Anti-Repression Crew 

· Prison Health News 

· Austin ABC 

· Solidarity Across Borders 

· Buffalo Books Through Bars 

· Mongoose Distro- 

HOW TO ORDER - 

US orders

Burning Books 

AK Press 

Stores that sell the calendar

Canada

Kersplebedeb/Leftwingbooks 

Canada bulk orders (10+) 

UK order:
Active Distribution 

Prisoner orders- only $8 and you can buy it from Certain Days directly, and they will send the calendar to them.

Deaths in or after custody- 2021

Chip Fitzgerald- 3.29.2021 death in custody (RIP)
Russell Marroon Shoatz- 10.25.2021

Releases 2021:

Michael Markus (Rattler)-

Father Steve Kelly-

Jaan Laaman-

Martha Hennessy-
Joshua Stafford-

Carmen Trotta-

Clare Grady- 

Patrick O’ Neill   
Mark Colville- 9.11.2021

David Gilbert- 11.4.21

Josh interviews Charlie about his article in Cosmonaut Magazine, entitled “ACT UP, Fight Back: A History of AIDS in America.” In conversation Charlie talks about the history of AIDS and how imperialist capitalism or international monopoly capitalism fueled the spread of the AIDS epidemic in the US. 

The bulk of the conversation is about the development of political resistance to the AIDS crisis, most prominently in the organization ACT UP. Charlie also discusses the weak governmental response to the crisis, and areas where ACT UP was successful, as well as areas in which the response to the AIDS crisis continues to fall short - in eliminating the epidemic among Black and racialized populations in the US, and internationally - due to the problems created by a capitalist health system and an insufficient organizing response. 

Along the way Josh asks Charlie about some resonances between the responses to the COVID pandemic and the AIDS epidemic in the political economy of the US. And they discuss their perspectives on some of the issues that come up when socialist organizations try to engage or alternatively don’t engage in mass struggles like the AIDS crisis, or the most recent rebellions after the police lynching of George Floyd.

Our episodes are completely funded by our listeners. No ads, no corporate money, no grants. And this allows us the independence to cover history like this from a radical perspective. If you like what we do please support our work at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism. 

In this episode we interview two organizers with O'ahu Water Protectors.

O‘ahu Water Protectors is an organization that formed out of a coalition of Kanaka Maoli organizers, Sierra Club members and supporters, Hawai‘i Peace and Justice, and other groups working toward sovereignty, decolonization, and demilitarization.

Mikey Inouye is an independent filmmaker born and raised in Hawai‘i, community organizer and member of O‘ahu Water Protectors.

Shelley Muneoka is a Kanaka Maoli woman and water drinker from He‘eia Uli on the island of O‘ahu. Her work focuses on the care of past, present and future elders of all kinds --  human, more than human and elements like water.

In this conversation Mikey and Shelley discuss the crisis posed by the decrepit fuel tanks at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, above the Pearl Harbor Naval Base. They sit just 100 feet above the aquifer which provides the water supply for the island of O’ahu, the most populous island in Hawaii. Just a few months ago, the drinking water of 93,000 residents was contaminated by fuel from these tanks, closing down two wells. Organizers and residents have fought to shut down Red Hill, the Navy currently has until February 2nd to submit its plan to defuel the tanks at the base.

Mikey and Shelley discuss the crisis and the multi-pronged organizing they’ve been a part of around this issue. They also spend significant time discussing the history of colonialism, US imperialism, and the US military in Hawaii. This includes conversations on environmental degradation, water contamination, as fundamental byproducts of US militarism. They also discuss the unique history of the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor as a site of militourism, and its ideological role as a site of alleged US victimhood and the need for defense of the US against amorphous and alleged “asian threats.” This in contrast with the reality that Hawai‘i was not even a US state at the time of the attacks, but was itself a colonized territory the US used as an occupied military outpost and that the preservation of these tourist attractions continues to contaminate the natural beauty and resources on the Island of O’ahu.

We encourage folks to follow O’ahu Water Protectors on Twitter and Instagram and support their campaign to defend their water. More updates are sure to come soon as this story develops. 

We’ll include their social media accounts and some additional links in the show notes.

And as always if you like what we do, please contribute to our patreon, we don’t sell any ads, we don’t have any corporate or foundation sponsors, so everything we are able to do here at Millennials Are Killing Capitalism is funded by you. You can become a patron at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism

Follow O'ahu Water Protectors on Twitter

or on Instagram

also follow Puuhuluhulu on Instagram for updates on Mauna Kea 

Shelley's speech referenced in discussion

Mikey's speech

Speech from another O'ahu Water Protector, Tina

Lara Sheehi is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology at the George Washington University Professional Psychology Program. 

Stephen Sheehi is a Professor of Middle East Studies and Director of the Decolonizing Humanities Project at William & Mary. 

Full bios here

Their work in this text is heavily influenced by Frantz Fanon and critically engages theories of decoloniality and Liberatory psychoanalysis. It centers the stories and struggles of clinicians and their clients in Palestine. 

In this conversation Lara & Stephen talk about the historical relationship between psychoanalysis and colonialism, and how power relations and epistemology structure those relations. 

Upending those relations of course are anti-colonial or decolonial theories of psychoanalysis and in this context relationships forged between Palestinian clinicians and their Palestinian clients. Both are subjected to the same settler colonial apartheid regime that necessitates a national liberation struggle.

Along the way they talk about the different forms of every day and extreme oppression faced by Palestinian people, we talk about the work of Palestinian clinicians to confront that harm, and how confronting that requires transgressive acts, organization and ultimately resistance. 

We take up problems like ideological misattunement between Israeli clinicians and Palestinian clients, talk about concepts like disalienation, and conscientisation and other key concepts in Fanonian and decolonial psychoanalytic theory. Providing key insights for resisting individuation, alienation and colonial oppression. 

Lara Sheehi also mentions that she and others have some networks of anti-colonial and anti-capitalist therapists and BIPOC anti-imperialist therapists for folks who are looking for that you can connect with Dr. Sheehi to find out more information.

Also just a note, we realize that this book is priced too high for most people to purchase it for themselves. You can ask your public or school library to purchase a copy - as this was really the publishing model that the publisher chose for this text. The authors are committed however to making sure that anybody who wants to read it can find a way to get access to the text. So if you aren’t able to get your hands on it, please reach out to Lara.

If you like what we do please support our work on patreon. 

Links & Resources:

Palestinian Global Mental Health Network

Gaza Community Mental Health Programme

Maana Centre 

Palestinian Counseling Center

The Guidance and Training Center for the Child and Family

Cafe Palestine Index

Stephen Sheehi's website

Twitter Handles:

Lara: @blackflaghag

Stephen: @zghartawi

IG handles:

@psychoanalystactivist, @decolonizingphotography, and bipocanalysis

In this episode we interview Andrew J. Douglas and Jared A. Loggins to discuss their recently published book, Prophet of Discontent: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Critique of Racial Capitalism. 

Andrew Douglas is a professor of political science and a faculty affiliate in Africana studies and international comparative labor studies at Morehouse College. Douglas is also the author of In the Spirit of Critique: Thinking Politically in the Dialectical Tradition and W.E.B. Du Bois and the Critique of Competitive Society. 

Jared Loggins is a visiting assistant professor of Black Studies and political science at Amherst College

We talk to Jared and Andrew about the mutually informing theoretical legacies of Martin Luther King Jr and Cedric Robinson. Loggins and Douglas share their insights on Robinson’s theoretical work around racial capitalism, the Black Radical Tradition, and leadership and examine some of King’s most potent radical critiques in dialogue with these concepts.

We also ask about King’s legacy as a dialectical thinker, and the authors share their insights on King’s critiques around the materialistic nature of the capitalist system in dialogue with Marx’s critique of commodity fetishism. 

Douglas and Loggins also engage King’s thinking around guaranteed basic income, the welfare state, and building and learning through communal struggle.

They also explore King’s thought around riots, the organized abandonment coinciding with deindustrialization, and the ways his thinking anticipates the neoliberal turn that comes after his assassination.

Finally they share thoughts on King’s anti-imperialism and their own thinking around rebuilding a Black radical counter public, and building the types of formations and institutions that can resist the patterns of capture and cooptation that continue to plague Black movements and Black thought in the 21st Century.

You can read a free online copy of their book Prophet of Discontent: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Critique of Racial Capitalism or purchase a paperback copy. We’ll include links to it in the show notes. 

And it’s a new year and we really need folks’ continued support to sustain this podcast. So if you appreciate what we do, please chip into support our efforts here. You can become a patron for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism. 

In this episode we once again get the opportunity to sit-down with Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army veteran Jalil Muntaqim. Muntaqim was a political prisoner of the United States for 49 years due to his involvement in the Black liberation struggle. He was released from prison in October of 2020 after eleven parole denials. He is the author of We Are Our Own Liberators, and Escaping The Prism… Fade to Black, which we discuss parts of in this episode.

This is the second conversation we’ve had with Jalil Muntaqim and if you missed the first you will want to also check that out to get more information about Jalil’s personal history and what led to the Spirit of Mandela Tribunal this past October. In this episode we caught up with Jalil on December 13th to talk about the outcomes of the Spirit of Mandela Tribunal and next steps for the conveners of this historic event. 

In this conversation Jalil Muntaqim discusses the legal outline of why the conduct of the United States of America constitutes genocide against Black and Indigenous people. Jalil talks about the relationship between white supremacy, capitalism and US imperialism. Muntaqim shares thoughts on the life of his Jericho Amnesty Movement co-founder Safiya Bukhari. We talk about recent releases of David Gilbert, Jaan Laaman, and Russell “Maroon” Shoatz. Maroon passed away 4 days after this episode was recorded, we send our condolences to his family, loved ones and comrades, and our own gratitude to him and his spirit for a life engaged in unrelenting struggle.

We also talk about the current struggles for freedom of several political prisoners, including Kamau Sadiki, Leonard Peltier, Veronza Bowers, Dr. Mutulu Shakur and Sundiata Acoli among others. We discuss Mumia Abu Jamal’s struggle for freedom after the recent passing of the 40th anniversary of his capture. And we talk about Larry Hoover and why he is recognized by the Jericho Amnesty Movement. We will include several links in the show notes to the episode on how people can get involved and support these and other political prisoners.

We also talk to Muntaqim more about Arm The Spirit the first national newspaper created and written by prisoners, which he was central to organizing. Muntaqim offers several recommendations for prisoner solidarity and prison abolition organizers. And we get Muntaqim to share a story of cadre and mass based organizing that he was involved in while inside. Jalil also shares his thoughts on resisting political imprisonment, and how to handle political imprisonment if you are incarcerated for your political activities.

A couple more final notes, we will link to ways people can stay informed and get involved in the ongoing work of the Spirit of Mandela campaign, as they look to move their findings forward into a legal case and a broader international movement. We also want to again plug the Mutual Aid Fund For Veteran Black Panther Party Members. 

Every month this fund brings in money and those funds are distributed to elders from the Black Panther Party, we contribute to this fund and we encourage others to do the same.

There are links throughout this to support individual political prisoners and organizations. Below are some organizations & related efforts:

Spirit of Mandela

Jericho Amnesty Movement

Northeast Political Prisoner Coalition

Anarchist Black Cross Warchest Program

In this episode we were honored to host Kali Akuno, co-director and co-founder of Cooperation Jackson and Kamau Franklin is the founder of Community Movement Builders and a co-host at Black Power Media’s Remix Morning Show. 

We brought Kali and Kamau into conversation under a banner of discussing strategy. Strategy is something that Josh and I feel is both essential and often lacking within a lot of formations in the US left. 

The conversation is wide-ranging and touches on a number of topics that may prompt folks to need greater context. In the show notes we will include some links to other readings and discussions with Kali and Kamau on what the Jackson plan is, why they left the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and what their current work entails. 

Beyond strategy, in this episode we get into discussion of political education, neoliberal socialization, burnout, fickle organizers, reflection and criticism, Democratic Centralism, cadre and mass organizing, climate change, ecological collapse, food sovereignty, self-defense, revolutionary violence, and the capture of social movements through the nonprofit industrial complex and Democratic Party electoral politics.

It is our greatest hope that conversations like this one provide folks with tools, insights and provocations that they can bring with them into their organizing efforts so that we can build more effectively going forward for the alternatives are clearly bleak and dystopian. 

Both Community Movement Builders and Cooperation Jackson do accept donations. So we will also provide links to both organizations in our show notes if people would like to give them a donation. And please support Black Power Media as well. 

And of course, we need your support to continue to bring you these conversations freely, and in non-commoditized form. All of our work is available ad-free and none of our episodes are behind a paywall and we hope that we can always keep it that way so that all of these conversations are freely available to organizers, activists, students, workers, the poor, and the oppressed. To support our ability to do that you can contribute to our patreon for as little as $1 a month or for a yearly contribution of just $11 a year.

For more context:

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

Community Movement Builders and Liberated Zones Theory with Kamau Franklin

The Jackson-Kush Plan: The Struggle For Black Self-Determination and Economic Democracy

Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, Mississippi

This is part two of our two part episode with three of the contributors to On Necrocapitalism: A Plague Journal, which is available from Kersplebedeb and you can find that at leftwingbooks.net. 

On Necrocapitalism was collectively authored by a writing group known as M.I. Asma which included J. Moufawad-Paul, Devin Zane Shaw, Mateo Andante, Johannah May Black, Alyson Escalante, and D.W. Fairlane. 

In this conversation we speak with Alyson Escalante, J. Moufawad Paul and Devin Zane Shaw. 

In part two we continue our discussion of pacification and capture in response the historic rebellions of 2020 and the related crisis in the ruling class. We also get into some discussion of unequal exchange, the ongoing climate crisis, and settler colonialism as a material relation of capitalism in the US & Canada, rather than just as a moral wrong. Along the way we get into some of the nuanced differences in the racial regimes in the US and Canada. We talk about some events since the Biden election, from liberal pacification, to the declining ranks in movement work, and the ongoing danger posed state support for settler vigilantism among the far right. And we ask the authors if they predicted the weird re-emergence of so-called proletarian patriotism in the imperial core.

As we wrap up the end of the year at Millennials Are Killing Capitalism, we just wanted to note that we’ve put out 48 episodes this year. That’s 4 episodes each month. We read all the books, do the research, develop the questions, record, edit and release these ourselves with no ad revenue, no pay per click revenue and no sponsorships, just the support of the many great folks who donate to our patreon. And we’re approaching 300,000 downloads for this year alone.  So please if you’re able to contribute even a small amount to our patreon, it helps us make this show possible and ensures that all our content stays free, even for the folks who can’t afford to give anything.

Link to Part 1 (and links to more work from Alyson Escalante, J. Moufawad Paul and Devin Z. Shaw)

In this episode we speak to three of the contributors to On Necrocapitalism: A Plague Journal, which is available from Kersplebedeb and you can find that at leftwingbooks.net. 

On Necrocapitalism was collectively authored by a writing group known as M.I. Asma which included J. Moufawad-Paul, Devin Zane Shaw, Mateo Andante, Johannah May Black, Alyson Escalante, and D.W. Fairlane. In this conversation we speak with Alyson Escalante, J. Moufawad Paul and Devin Zane Shaw. 

The authors introduce themselves in a little more detail in the episode, but Alyson Escalante you probably know as the co-host of Red Menace Podcast and J. Moufawad Paul and Devin Zane Shaw have both written multiple books.  First written in blog form, On Necrocapitalism was written through weekly entries throughout the first year of the pandemic. 

The authors approached the pandemic as an occasion to think capitalism according to what it always has been, what the pandemic reveals about its current ideological deployment, and how we can think about a communist alternative in the face of exterminism.

As we deal with the omicron surge and in the US as we deal with dimensions of capitalism that have only continued to become more necrotic after the pacification of the electoral process. This two part conversation and the book On Necrocapitalism are as timely as ever. Reminding us of the death worlds of the pandemic we’re still in, the possibilities of rebellion and the ways in which our uprisings can ultimately be pacified. 

By the end of the year, we will have put out 49 episodes of Millennials Are Killing Capitalism this year.  With all of the planning, outreach, reading, editing, and recording time we put into this it has become a full-time endeavor for us. A reminder that if you enjoy these conversations, and can afford to give even $1 a month towards our patreon, it all adds up and goes a long way towards sustaining the level of output we’ve been able to maintain this year.

In this part we talk about the origin of the On Necrocapitalism project. Discussing the necrosis that is always within capitalism. The bad bourgeois and “left pundit” frames that were trotted out in the beginning of the pandemic. The way the pandemic most impacted groups of people on specific margins of bourgeois society. We touch on the authors’ use of proletarian feminism and social reproduction theory. We talk about how the pandemic shifted amid rebellion, talk about the entry of abolitionist demands into the mainstream and begin to discuss the onset of pacification - an issue we will delve into more deeply in part 2.

Links to some (not all) of the work of our guests, beyond On Necrocapitalism:

Alyson Escalante - Red Menace Podcast

Some of Alyson's writings at Cosmonaut and Regeneration

Beyond Negativity: What Comes After Gender Nihilism?

J. Mouwafad-Paul - MLM Mayhem Blog

A Communist Necessity

Continuity and Rupture

Critique of Maoist Reason

Demarcation and Demystification

Methods Devour Themselves

Austerity Apparatus

Devin Zane Shaw

Politics of the Blockade

Philosophy of Antifascism

Egalitarian Moments

We also had a conversation with Devin Zane Shaw on Philosophy of Antifascism earlier this year.

In this episode we speak with veteran of the Black Panther Party, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and co-founder of the Black Autonomy Federation Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin. A former long-time political prisoner, we talk to Ervin about the recent release of the definitive edition of his book Anarchism and the Black Revolution on Pluto Press. Anarchism and the Black Revolution was written during Ervin’s political imprisonment, and is considered a foundational text for Black Anarchist traditions.

We talk to Ervin about what he drew out of his experiences with SNCC and the Black Panther Party that contributes to his understandings of Black Anarchism or Black Autonomy. We ask about the circumstances that led to his political imprisonment, and critiques of state socialism. Ervin also shares reflections on his political mentor Martin Sostre. 

Ervin discusses the sit-in movement as a form of autonomous action taking up by the youth in the 60’s, which he describes as oppositional to both the establishment and the politics of major civil rights organizations at the time.

In conversation Ervin also pushes back against notions of chaos, disorganization, individualism, and nihilism that are often associated with anarchism, and which some folks identifying themselves as anarchists take up. In contrast Ervin provides concrete explanations of the types of mass organizing he believes Black Anarchists should be engaged in, in the development of their own struggle. 

Ervin discusses the subversive trap of electoral politics. We also ask about fascism, anti-fascism, dual power and problems with unaccountable leadership and celebrity as well as what differentiates a political revolution from a social revolution. 

If you’ve never read Anarchism and the Black Revolution or want this new definitive edition which includes new sections, a new introduction, a recent interview  and new Forwards from Joy James and William C. Anderson, you can grab that on Plutobooks.com. If you would like to learn more about Black Autonomy from Lorenzo along with his partner Jo’Nina Ervin and William C. Anderson, check out their work at the Black Autonomy Podcast. 

This book is part of the Black Critique Series on Pluto Press.

Black Autonomy Podcast has a patreon of its own which benefits Lorenzo and JoNina, we encourage folks to support them directly. 

And as always if you like what we do, and want to sustain our ability to continue to do this work please become a patron of our show on patreon if you are able to do so. You can do so for any amount, even $1 a month if that’s what you can afford.

In this episode we interview António Tomás, author of the recently published biography Amílcar Cabral: The Life of a Reluctant Nationalist. Tomás is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Architecture at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. He is a native of Angola, and holds a PhD in Anthropology from Columbia University. He has worked as a journalist in Angola and Portugal and has written extensively on issues related to Lusophone Africa. 

Recently we held a study group on Cabral’s Return To The Source, but one of the things that stood out to many of us in the group was how little we really knew about Guinea Bissau, about the PAIGC and about Cabral and the context in which his writings and thought were produced. 

The official archives available to scholars on Cabral and the PAIGC are limited due to the fascistic nature of the Portuguese state at the time among other factors. In 2020 we did an interview with Sónia Vaz Borges on the PAIGC’s Militant Education program which filled in some gaps, and we hope that this interview will fill in more. 

There are more questions we’d like to ask about his relationships with Frantz Fanon, Kwame Nkrumah, and Sékou Touré all of whom were influential to Cabral important to the PAIGC and are discussed in the book. And more broadly about the network of African liberation movements at the time. Perhaps when our schedules permit we can record a part two to fill in some of those gaps. 

Hopefully this conversation will deepen our understandings of Cabral, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, and the liberation struggle of the PAIGC. And ultimately of the contradictions which deepen our understanding both Cabral’s fate and the developments of the years after his death. Understanding the inner workings of Portuguese colonialism, counterinsurgency, and of the contradictions of the revolution led by the PAIGC, demonstrate just how relevant many of Cabral’s theoretical contributions and insights are to struggles against the global capitalist system, and against different forms of colonialism and counterinsurgency. 

While the unity Cabral sought to lead between Cape Verdeans and Guineans may have been fraught, it is perhaps in this struggle against its own contradictions that we can find important lessons for movements that at times seem impossible or incommensurable. 

Reminder, if you like what we do, please contribute to our patron if you are able. Even if you give $1 a month, it is through many people making contributions like that, that we sustain this show. We are still trying to sustain at least 1,000 patrons of the show, and currently we are at 977, so we can get back to that goal this month, and hopefully sustain that going forward with your support.

Now here is António Tomás on the Life of Amílcar Cabral and the Struggle of the PAIGC

Orisanmi Burton is a social anthropologist, his research examines grassroots resistance and state repression. He is an assistant professor of anthropology at American University. Currently, as he will discuss briefly in the episode, he is working on a book on prisoner organizing in the New York State prison system, and the Attica Rebellion.  

In this episode we are talking about Burton’s recent essay, “Captivity, Kinship & Black Masculine Care Work Under Domestic Warfare.” It was published in the scholarly journal American Anthropologist so if listeners are unable to access a copy and would like to get their hands on one feel free to hit us up or reach out to Orisanmi directly. His twitter is @orisanmi. 

In this discussion we talk about understanding prisons as a zone and technology of domestic warfare, about the Black radicals who have theorized this understanding and their place within current academic thought on the prison system. We also talk a bit about Joy James’s concept of the captive maternal, and how letter writing with prisoners has informed Burton’s own intellectual work, specifically around the role that care work or socially reproductive labor has among Black incarcerated men  as a mode of resistance to the war waged against Black familial, kinship and communal structures.

Just a reminder, that if you like what we do, running this podcast is a full-time project for us at this point. Becoming a patron is the way that you can ensure our ability to continue to bring you these conversations every week with these amazing guests. You can do that at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism and you can do it for as little as $1 a month, or become an annual patron for less than $11 dollars a year, all of it adds up to make this show possible.