
I heard this podcast episode from the Cosmonaut podcast. It is an audio version of an article from the online magazine. I am sharing it because it complements our last episode on Jamaal Bowman, what the authors of this episode refer to as the Bowman Affair, but with much more rigorous analysis as it relates to the internal debate and structures of DSA.
The CosmoPod Podcast Episode
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cosmopod/id1469843985?i=1000558965755
The Original Article “Socialism of the Oppressed: The Stakes of the Bowman Affair” by Jean Allen and Marisa Miale
https://cosmonautmag.com/2022/04/socialism-of-the-oppressed-the-stakes-of-the-bowman-affair/
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May 18, 2022
51 min

Today’s episode is about proletarian discipline, party discipline. DSA has recently had an internal debate about Jamaal Bowman’s refusal to support the Palestinian solidarity movement BDS.
GRAMSCI
Gramci’s Concept of Subaltern
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaltern_(postcolonialism)
DISCIPLINE
Jodi Dean’s Article on Discipline
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/11/comrades-political-organizing-discipline-jodi-dean
Republican Party Discipline of Liz Cheney
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/15/liz-cheney-wyoming-republican-party-trump
DSA’s ban on democratic centralism
https://www.dsausa.org/about-us/constitution/#P1N
Leninist Discipline
https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Party+dicipline
Know Your Enemy #36 on Jan 6
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/know-your-enemy/id1462703434?i=1000529390998
———————
DSA CAUCUSES AND ELECTION SLATES
Libertarian Socialist Caucus
https://dsa-lsc.org/2021/07/19/lsc-democratic-socialism-a-short-history/
Bread & Roses Caucus
https://breadandrosesdsa.org/
https://breadandrosesdsa.org/convention-2021-slate/
The Green New Deal Slate
https://keywiki.org/DSA_Green_New_Deal_Slate
Socialist Majority
https://www.socialistmajority.com/
Renewal Slate
https://www.dsarenewal.org/our-npc-slate/
Other DSA Caucasus
https://reformandrevolution.org/2021/09/08/whos-who-in-dsa-a-guide-to-dsa-caucuses/
———————
PALESTINE & BDS
History of Palestine
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/throughline/id1451109634?i=1000523361687
Israeli Settlements
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_settlement
Natural Resource Extraction during British Mandate
https://trafo.hypotheses.org/30714
1936-1939 Arab Revolt
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936%E2%80%931939_Arab_revolt_in_Palestine
Palestinians have sovereign authority over their natural resources
https://imemc.org/article/wafa-un-general-assembly-passes-vote-affirms-palestinian-sovereignty-over-their-natural-resources/
DSA departed from the Socialist International
https://www.leftvoice.org/DSA-Votes-for-BDS-Reparations-and-Out-of-the-Socialist-International/
NY DSA Revolutions Per Minute podcast on the BDS Movement
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/revolutions-per-minute-radio-from-new-york-city-democratic/id1450411809?i=1000524165027
J Street’s Rejection of the BDS Movement
https://jstreet.org/wrong-way-oppose-bds/#.YcFAIy-cZQI
———————
JAMAAL BOWMAN
DSA “Unity For Unity, not Unanimity: Palestine, Jamaal Bowman, and DSA”
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d_FBOWt5JqyFvQn5BQuqDBvLe67rLCXKbI0CABhJHx4/edit
Jamaal Bowman
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/11/democratic-socialists-j-street-bds-israel-palestine-iron-dome-aoc
Jamaal Bowman Tempest Timeline
https://www.facebook.com/tempestmag/photos/a.144058903928771/411153303885995/?type=3
DSA Caucus’s Response to Jamaal Bowman
https://www.tempestmag.org/2021/12/on-not-expelling-jamaal-bowman/
DSA BDS & Palestine Solidarity WG
https://palestine.dsausa.org/bowmans-j-street-zionist-propaganda-trip-to-apartheid-israel-must-not-stand/
DSA Statement
https://www.dsausa.org/statements/on-the-question-of-expelling-rep-bowman/
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Feb 9, 2022
1 hr 48 min

This is my first bonus episode. By bonus, I mean that it isn’t really tied to Gramsci, though I will mention him a few times eventually.
But this episode will be about the building of a working class intelligentsia. In this episode I will read the forward I wrote for a new book called Waypoint. Waypoint is theory pleeb’s first book. It is a collection of essays they wrote both academically, as well as those written critiquing the academy.
Amazon.com - WAYPOINT: Timenergy, critical media theory, and culture war https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09M8QG8B9/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_ZYBSX12JJPFGJP9VETMK
Theory Pleeb’s Website
https://www.theorypleeb.com/
Theory Pleeb’s Podcasts
https://www.spreaker.com/user/theorypleeb
Theory Pleeb’s YouTube
https://youtube.com/c/theorypleeb
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Nov 28, 2021
22 min

Gramsci had a strand of Italian patriotism. His patriotism was a Marxist patriotism that believed in international cooperation of the working classes around the world, but he took pride in being Italian. He wrote this article about the Cotton Workers Strike trike of 1906 because it provided the workers an example of working class strength from their own history. Gramsci's narrative was intended to convince them that if they had done it before, they could do it again.
Remembering the History of the Cotton Workers’ Struggle
Il Grido del Popolo
December 9, 1916
Selections from Political Writings 1910-1920
- [ ] ITALY 1903-1906
- [ ] JANUARY - APRIL 15, 1906
- [ ] APRIL 22 - JULY 18, 1906
- [ ] POSTSCRIPT: SEATTLE GENERAL STRIKE of 1919
1904 General Strike
Italy’s first general strike. It was called by Chamber of Labour
“The country would experience many general strikes in the years following 1904, with additional general strikes in 1905, 1906, 1909, 1911, and 1914.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1904_Italian_general_strike
Inter-Mountain Republican, May 9, 1906
https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=4073112
Inter-Mountain Republican, May 10
https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=4075101
Oldest Trade Union in Italy, formed in 1906
https://www.etui.org/covid-social-impact/italy/industrial-relations-in-italy-background-summary
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Confederation_of_Labour_(Italy)
Wikipedia entry for the Seattle General Strike
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_General_Strike
“When Workers Stopped Seattle” by Cal Winslow
https://jacobinmag.com/2019/07/seattle-general-strike-1919-union-organizing
A bourgeois paper warning against the Seattle General Strike
https://depts.washington.edu/labhist/strike/images/news/Star/STAR_19190204_P1.jpg
A bourgeois paper calling the strikers dangerous revolutionaries
https://depts.washington.edu/labhist/strike/images/news/Star/STAR_19190205_P1.jpg
Anna Louise Strong “No One Knows Where”
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/strong-anna-louise/1919/laborspeech.htm
“General Strikes, Mass Strikes” by Kim Moody
https://solidarity-us.org/atc/160/p3679/
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Nov 16, 2021
27 min

Socialism and Co-operation
Published on: October 30, 1916
Published in: L’Alleanza Cooperativa
Source: Pre-Prison Writings
This podcast exists to strategize how the working class could replace the capitalist class as the hegemonic class. If we are to replicate their strategy we would need a socialist mode of production in place, and in operation, and a working class intelligentsia spreading a vision of a better world. As the working class takes control of the levers of power of the government it will need to scale up a socialist mode of production, a mode of production that aligns with the grand vision of socialism, a mode of production of which Gramsci believes has the potential of being far more productive than capitalism. We’ll discuss some alternatives towards the end, but on October 30, 1916 Gramsci published an article on the Italian Cooperative movement called “Socialism and Cooperation” in which he proposed cooperatives as a prototype of what a socialist mode of production could look like.
- [ ] The Italian Cooperative Movement
- [ ] Base & Superstructure
- [ ] Gramsci’s Article
- [ ] Postscript
Know Your Enemy: The Windbag City
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/know-your-enemy/id1462703434?i=1000471890262
About Modern Northern Italy’s thriving worker-owned coops
https://www.yesmagazine.org/economy/2016/07/05/the-italian-place-where-co-ops-drive-the-economy-and-most-people-are-members
Turin Cooperative Alliance History
https://www.fondazionedonguetti.org/wp/the-nature-of-the-cooperative-enterprise/glossary/consumers-cooperative/
Emilia Romagna region coops 10%
https://geo.coop/articles/cooperating-we-mean-it-co-operative-movement-northern-italy
Social Cooperatives in Italy: Lessons for the UK
http://socialeconomyaz.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/SocialCooperativesInItaly.pdf
The emergence of social coops for social care: Italy and beyond
https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/the-emergence-of-social-coops-for-social-care-italy-and-beyond/2013/07/30?__cf_chl_managed_tk__=pmd_cUemBDzpXCGVzheCxG.XrCCBAxMtPxKUc0HBAGeBOcs-1633440125-0-gqNtZGzNAxCjcnBszRJl
Base and Superstructure
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_and_superstructure
Microsoft’s Net Income from 2002-2021
https://www.statista.com/statistics/267808/net-income-of-microsoft-since-2002/
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Oct 16, 2021
41 min

The foundation of Gramsci’s ideas about cultural hegemony are grounded in the French Revolution. Before the Revolution no one could have predicted it. No one believed it was actually possible. According to Gramsci it happened because the Enlightenment created a vision of a better world. The French people stormed the Bastille because the National Convention made the impossible seem possible. Before the National Convention a French Republic was impossible. After the National Convention made the impossible possible, the French Republic became historically predetermined. The King did not realize it yet, but his resistance to the French Republic triggered the storming of the Bastille because the genie was out of the bottle. It was too late. The dream of the Enlightenment was now within reach. The king could not stop it.
Show Notes
“14 July”
July 15, 1916
Avanti!
Selections from Political Writings, 1910-1920
- [ ] Background
- [ ] 1789
- [ ] 1790
- [ ] 1791-1792
- [ ] 1793
- [ ] 1794
- [ ] Gramsci’s Article
- [ ] Postscript
Storming of the Bastille
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storming_of_the_Bastille
the French Revolution
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution
The Dig podcast on Occupy Wall Street with Astra Taylor
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dig/id1043245989?i=1000536617311
Black Lives Matter George Floyd Protests: 15-26 million
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Floyd_protests
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Oct 11, 2021
30 min

The Ottoman Empire joined World War I in 1914. A minority of an ethno-religious community within their borders, a group of revolutionary Armenians, threatened independence, putting at risk the Empire’s ability to defend itself from the Russians. To this day Turkey claims the Ottoman Empire responded proportionately in their national interest, but the truth is that they deployed a massive logistical effort to kill and concentrate over a million Armenians in camps in the Syrian desert in 1915-1916. In 1916 Gramsci wrote a brief article attempting to bring awareness of the horrific event. Today we’re going to discuss the Armenian genocide, and Gramsci’s Article.
- [ ] Turkey’s Denial
- [ ] The Armenians
- [ ] Ottoman Empire Program to Reduce the Armenian Population
- [ ] The Bulkan Wars and World War I
- [ ] The Deportations
- [ ] Gramsci’s Article
- [ ] Postscript
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_genocide
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_genocide_recognition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_recognition_of_the_Armenian_genocide
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Oct 11, 2021
28 min

How did a kid from a village on the island of Sardinia, far from modern civilization, not only shape Italian history, but also become a groundbreaking philosopher innovating in the domain of cultural theory? The backwards peasant became a famous art critic in Italy’s hippest city. Gramsci developed a refined appreciation of art and literature, while retaining a desire to share his love of high culture with the peasants and factory workers of Italy. He became cultured and the smartest guy in the room without becoming arrogant. How did he do that? That’s what we’re going to discuss today.
Published on: January 29, 1916
Published in: Il Grido del Popolo
Source: The Antonio Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings 1916-1935, translated by David Forgacs
- [ ] Anti-Intellectualism, Today and Italy in 1916
- [ ] Gramsci’s Biography
- [ ] Know Thyself & The Enlightenment
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Oct 11, 2021
28 min

- [ ] A Class-based Analysis of the Enlightenment
- [ ] Economics over Ideas
- [ ] Power: Ideas created false solidarity between the capitalists and the working class
- [ ] Socialism as the true fulfillment of the Enlightenment
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Oct 11, 2021
16 min

In the last few episodes we have been talking about the scientific, religious, philosophical and political aspects of the Enlightenment. Today we will cover the Industrial Revolution.
The Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution were each distinct movements that overlap so significantly that it is hard to imagine one without the others. The Scientific Revolution lasted from 1543 with Copernicus’s earth-centric model to 1687, ending the historical age with Newton’s laws of motion and gravity. Many call out Descartes’ Cogito Ergo Sum in 1637 as the beginning of the Enlightenment, and the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789 as the end. Today’s topic, the Industrial Revolution, especially in England, is tied to the social changes occurring as science, technology and a growing capitalist class emerged unlike anytime before in human history, from about 1780 to 1840.
There is no immediate causal relationship between the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. Gramsci believed the Enlightenment was the moment in history when the capitalist intellectuals built solidarity and laid the foundation for a successful capitalist revolution. The capitalist class dethroned the aristocracy throughout Europe as the ruling class, and then stretched out to all ends of the earth. Concluding the Industrial Revolution and the coming to power of the capitalist class as the ruling class was the consequence of all of this is reasonable.
The actual events of history are not so transparent, but I find Gramsci’s narrative to be quite plausible. He returns to it over and over throughout his writings, so we will spend a lot more time on it in the future. Today we will discuss the economic significance of the Industrial Revolution, and then spend some time critiquing the Enlightenment from the perspective of class analysis, and then talk about how socialism seeks to overcome capitalism’s failed attempt to fulfill the promises of the Enlightenment.
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Oct 11, 2021
19 min
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