workerism

In this conversation we talk to Ivan Stoiljkovic. 

Ivan is the General Secretary of Katarokwi Union of Tenants, the Kingston Peace Council and a member of the Communist Party of Canada.

This conversation is a part of a newer series of conversations where we talk to people about texts that they find politically useful and important. It’s a different approach that moves beyond a typical author talk - which we will continue to do - to engage theory and history with people who are seeking to put theory into practice, or organize with others to deal with the concrete situation they face. Our first episode that came from this idea was last month our discussion with Thandisizwe Chimurenga and Yusef “Bunchy” Shakur on the political writings of Sanyika Shakur. 

In this discussion we are talking about E.P. Thompson’s essay “Time, Work Discipline and Industrial Capitalism” 

In that discussion we discuss the imposition of time and time discipline that came with the onset of industrial capitalism. We talk a bit about the various ways that workers resisted the imposition of this sense of time, and then began to fight over time itself. Ultimately however, the fight is to abolish time, which can only be achieved through the abolition of capitalism. 

Prior to that discussion, we start with a little bit of Ivan’s personal and political history, including his childhood in socialist Yugoslavia, and then delve into a discussion of multiple aspects of Thompson’s essay. 

If you appreciate the work that we do, for August we have an ambitious goal of adding 50 patrons to the show. You can help us meet this goal by either increasing your pledge or pledging as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism. This is just our second episode of August, but we plan to feature at least four more discussions this month. 

Links:

Ivan Stoiljkovic's Twitter

Ivan's FB Page

Katarokwi Union of Tenants FB page and website

The Yugoslavian leftist group called ‘Crvena Dijaspora’ which he describes in the discussion

E.P. Thompson’s essay “Time, Work Discipline and Industrial Capitalism” 

In this episode we welcome J. Moufawad-Paul back to the podcast. Previously we had him along with Alyson Escalante and Devin Zane Shaw to talk about On Necrocapitalism a collectively authored book they all worked on together along with some other authors.

For today’s episode we are focused on J. Moufawad-Paul’s latest book Politics In Command: A Taxonomy of Economism. This book seeks to understand what economism is, how it is deployed through socialist analyses, and the ways in which various categories (economy, politics, class, practice, revolution, etc) are mobilized and classified according to its imaginary. 

Today we talk about a range of topics related to this book, including what economism is, ways it manifests, and related issues like workerism, the concept of the labor aristocracy, and arguments around so-called identity politics. We also get into a little discussion around Marx’s model of Capital, what Samir Amin called “actually existing capitalism” vs “imaginary capitalism,” and Cedric Robinson’s idea of racial capitalism. And relatedly we talk about why class is not an identity, but rather as Moufawad-Paul puts it “class comes cloaked in the messiness of social relations.”

Along the way JMP debunks some conspiratorial understandings of how capitalism works and how the ruling class reproduces itself. And we get into discussion of what Moufawad-Paul argues is the role of the vanguard party as an interventionist party that helps the working class understand itself as a combative class struggling for the overthrow of capitalism, rather than just fighting for immediate material gains in order to defend against the ravages of austerity.

As we mention in the show, this book is available through Foreign Languages Press, we will include a link to that in the show notes, as well as to several of Moufawad-Paul’s other books, writings and interventions.

Happy New Year to those of you who live under a Gregorian calendar. We have a goal for January of adding 31 patrons to keep up with attrition and hopefully continue to build a little bit as well. Currently we are 23 patrons away from that goal. So it’s a great time to sign up and support the show if you don’t already. You can do that for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism

Politics In Command: A Taxonomy of Economism by JMP

JMP's Critique of Maoist Reason 

J. Moufawad-Paul's piece on sovereignty that we reference in the episode 

J. Moufawad-Paul’s appearances on Revolutionary Left Radio 

Some of J. Moufawad-Paul’s books from Kersplebedeb 

JMP’s blog