Marxism and the Struggle for Black Liberation

What this episode covers

In Capital Volume I Karl Marx proclaimed that “In the United States of North America, every independent movement of the workers was paralysed so long as slavery disfigured a part of the Republic. Labour cannot emancipate itself in the white skin where in the black it is branded.” He wrote this in the aftermath of one of the greatest emancipations in human history, the general strike by chattel slaves during the American Civil War. As WEB Du Bois later described “It was a strike on a wide basis against the conditions of work. It was a general strike that involved directly in the end perhaps half a million people. They wanted to stop the economy of the plantation system, and to do that they left the plantations.” Yet despite this revolutionary advancement, capital still maintains dominance over labor and white supremacy continues to suffocate our collective liberation. As we have seen from two weeks of uprisings for black liberation across the globe, the struggle continues. Today we are joined by Hadas Thier to discuss her upcoming book, A People's Guide to Capitalism: An Introduction to Marxist Economics and why Marxist analysis is essential for both understanding the current moment and how it provides us the tools for building a better world. She’ll also elaborate on why a campaign to Defund the Police is a crucial socialist demand. Later in the show we have a special prerecorded interview with Dragonfly, who will describe her experience in the Movement for Black Lives and how music can make protest more powerful.

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