Show Date  | Days to Stay | Action |
Beneath The Surface
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Sunday, March 19, 2023 10:00 am
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1:00:09
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Guests:
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Robert Brenner, Dylan Riley
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Topic
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7 Theses on American Politics
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I talked to Robert Brenner and Dylan Riley about their recent article, “Seven Theses on American Politics” in New Left Review 138. Robert Brenner, Director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA, and UC Berkeley Sociologist Dylan Riley join us with their analysis of the 2022 midterm election results. The expected Red Wave was, in their words, more like a ripple. The responses to President Biden’s State of the Union address on Feb 7 further show the partisan fault lines that are superficially characterized in cultural terms. Our guests insist on rigorous class analysis to explain what is often called ‘dealignment’ – that Republicans have appealed to part of the working class on racist, nativist, anti-immigrant terms, while Democrats have appealed to what Barbara Ehrenreich called the Professional managerial class on the basis of expertise, diversity and (good) governance. Brenner and Riley insist this is about the economy, and how the movement or the realignment of voting coalitions of the two parties expresses material interest. What makes Biden’s progressivism original is that it puts forward a vast Keynesian expansion in a period when manufacturing profitability and investment are weak, and even the most dynamic sectors of the economy are in crisis, shedding workers and fighting unionization attempts.
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53 |
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Beneath The Surface
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Sunday, March 12, 2023 10:00 am
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1:00:12
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Guest:
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Marc Cooper
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Topics
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Chile's Utopia Has Been Postponed
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We talk to veteran journalist Marc Cooper, who was a translator to President Salvador Allende in the Popular Unity government from 1970-1973. Marc has memorialized his experience in Chile in his book "Pinochet and Me: A Chilean Anti Memoir" (2001). Marc just returned from a month in Chile looking at Chilean politics 50 years after the coup and one year since the new leftwing government of Gabriel Boric was elected in a landslide. The first installment of Marc’s writing on Chile went online March 8 on Truthdig with more to come: the series of articles is called “Chile’s Utopia Has Been Postponed.” We get Marc's analysis of Chile today.
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46 |
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Beneath The Surface
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Sunday, March 5, 2023 10:00 am
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1:00:12
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Guests:
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Vladyslav Starobutsevv, Jeremy Bigwood
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Topic
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Ukraine War One Year In
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Vladyslav Starodubtsev & Jeremy Bigwood mark the first anniversary of Russia’s war on Ukraine: a horrible and destructive disaster causing human suffering and economic devastation not just in Ukraine but also on the lives of ordinary Russians who are cannon fodder in Putin’s war. The war has also had an impact on global hunger and energy supplies and the world environmental crisis. It is no exaggeration to say that this war has changed the trajectory of the 21st Century, and has created new divisions among the left, especially in the US and UK. Russia’s war conduct reminds the world of war tactics from another time -- WWI’s mass slaughter, making it seem as though history is running in reverse. Ukrainian resistance to Russia’s imperial onslaught has inspired the world, and that has made Russia’s response all the more brutal: it has doubled down on destruction since it cannot advance or accomplish its ill- stated war aims. Russia has cracked down on dissent at home, imposed ridiculous censorship and ramped up its crude propaganda. Millions of Russians have left the country – to avoid being conscripted, or because they oppose Putin’s war. Some are fighting Russia in Ukraine. Ukraine, on the other hand, is fighting occupiers and tormentors, suffering untold destruction, but pushing the Russians back. It is urgent to end this war as soon as possible, but on what terms? Ukraine insists peace can only be achieved through the success of Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion. Ukraine is fighting a legitimate war of self-defense, indeed a war for its survival as a nation. Calling for “peace” in the abstract is meaningless in these circumstances – and some of the so-called antiwar left in the US are pushing for this, seeing this war as one between the US and NATO vs. Russia. We’ll get Vladyslav Starobutsev and Jeremy Bigwood’s perspectives.
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39 |
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32 |
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25 |
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Beneath The Surface
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Sunday, February 12, 2023 10:00 am
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1:00:11
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Guests:
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Robert Brenner, Dylan Riley
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Topic
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7 Theses on American Politics
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Robert Brenner and Dylan Riley join us to discuss their recent article, “Seven Theses on American Politics” in New Left Review 138. The 2022 Midterms did not deliver the expected Red Wave, more like a ripple. What can we see beneath these results? The responses to President Biden’s State of the Union address on Feb 7 show the partisan fault lines that are superficially characterized in cultural terms. Our guests insist on rigorous class analysis to explain what is often called ‘dealignment’ – that Republicans have appealed to part of the working class on racist, nativist, anti-immigrant terms, while Democrats have appealed to what Barbara Ehrenreich called the Professional managerial class on the basis of expertise, diversity and (good) governance. Brenner and Riley insist this is about the economy, and how the movement or the realignment of voting coalitions of the two parties expresses material interest. What makes Biden’s progressivism original is that it puts forward a vast Keynesian expansion in a period when manufacturing profitability and investment are weak, and even the most dynamic sectors of the economy are in crisis, shedding workers and fighting unionization attempts.
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18 |
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Beneath The Surface
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Sunday, February 5, 2023 10:00 am
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1:00:11
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Guests:
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Cori Bush, Harvey J Kaye
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Topics
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Race & class in America; 21st C Economic Bill of Rights
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Alan Minsky, former Beneath the Surface producer and KPFK Program Director, sits in for Suzi Weissman this week. In the first half of the show, Alan speaks with US Representative Cori Bush about race and class in America and her progressive vision to address the country the country's endemic inequalities. In the 2nd half of the show, Professor Harvey J Kaye outlines a 21st Century Economic Bill of Rights modelled on FDR's second bill of rights, introduced in his 1944 State of the Union speech.
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11 |
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4 |
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