marxism

It’s time for a TMK fact check: coronavirus vaccine edition. We give five out of five pinocchios to the claim that Big Pharma won’t profit hand over fist from the production of vaccines. Five pinocchios to the claim that countries in the Global South will receive fair and cheap access to vaccines and treatments. And an unprecedented six out of five pinocchios to the claim that inequities in healthcare are actually market failures solved by stronger intellectual property rights for pharmaceutical corporations.

Some stuff we reference:
• Fact-check: Will poor countries miss out on COVID-19 vaccinations? | Deutsches Welles https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-will-poor-countries-miss-out-on-covid-19-vaccinations/a-55886334 
• Canada's COVAX program use draws criticism for unequal vaccine distribution | Yahoo Canada https://news.yahoo.com/canada-covax-unequal-vaccines-205249650.html
• Big Pharma Prepare to Profit from the Coronavirus | The Intercept https://theintercept.com/2020/03/13/big-pharma-drug-pricing-coronavirus-profits/
• Big Pharma’s Covid-19 Profiteers | Rolling Stone https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/big-pharma-covid-19-profits-1041185/
• The Remaking of Big Pharma in a Post-Pandemic World | Foreign Policy https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/04/17/big-pharma-post-pandemic-world-coronavirus-vaccine-cure-intellectual-property/ 

TMK shirts are now available here: https://www.bonfire.com/mech-luddite/ 

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! http://patreon.com/thismachinekills

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

52. Pharma Profiteers, Vaccine Apartheid

Frank Wilderson discusses the theory of Afropessimism

Frank Wilderson on Social Death

Welcome back Rachel to the podcast by joining us for our reading of Walter Benjamin’s theses on The Concept of History. Moved by our joint out loud reading at the start and end of the podcast, Rachel, John, and B explore the ways that history, for Benjamin, has become a tool of conquerors–a condition that only historical materialism has the ability to articulate. Yet, can historical materialism become an orthodoxy, homogenizing the past it wishes to liberate? And what other kinds of orthodoxies, ways of reading, and disciplinary attitudes foreclose desubjugating the knowledge of history? In the process of thinking through these and other questions, we explore themes and concepts of messianism, temporality, teleology, agency, class struggle, fragmentation and wholeness, redemption, and more; we also touch on queer temporality, Adorno, Foucault, Levinas, Kathi Weeks, and Lukács.

Of course, Our Tumblr Friend from Canada has plenty of questions, and a cameo from Sid Issar, featuring advice on: a pesky roommate tension; how NOT to reproduce power in the pronunciation of proper names; and how being powerful is not, in itself, always already problematic.

EP. 17 – WALTER BENJAMIN ON THE CONCEPT OF HISTORY

Speaker(s): Professor Lord Meghnad Desai, Professor David Harvey; Professor Leo Panitch | This event brings together leading social and political thinkers to debate the contemporary meaning and relevance of Marx's legacy on the occasion of the republication of The Communist Manifesto, with an introduction by David Harvey. Meghnad Desai is emeritus professor of economics at LSE. David Harvey is professor of anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Leo Panitch is professor of political science at York University, Ontario. Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:30:00 GMT

Revisiting Marx: is Marxism still relevant? [Audio]

Amber interviews Bhaskar Sunkara on the centrality of trade unions in socialism, and the role of organized labor in the fight against sexism and racism.

Chapo Trap House

Bonus - Unions: They're Good Folks! An Interview with Bhaskar Sunkara

Writer Anna Merlan (@annamerlan) stops by the show to talk about her new book, Republic of Lies, which details the weird world of conspiracy and propaganda lying just beneath the surface of US culture. 

Preorder Anna's book here: https://www.powells.com/book/republic-of-lies-9781250159052

Subscribe to the Patreon here: www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

Episode 88: Republic Of Half Truths (w/ special guest Anna Merlan)

Made this while watching the third precinct burn down on live stream. Solidarity to all my comrades in the twin cities. Black lives matter! Fuck the police!

Third Precinct On Fire

recently i have given my life over to stupidity. thank you.

Tune in to the Always Already Podcast for indulgent conversations about critical theory (in the broadest read of the term!). Our podcast consists of two episode streams. The first is a discussion of texts spanning critical theory, political theory, social theory, and philosophy. We work through and analyze main ideas, underlying assumptions, connections with other texts and theories, and occasionally delve into the great abyss of free association, ad hoc theory jokes, and makeshift puns. The second stream, entitled Epistemic Unruliness, consists of interviews and discussions with activists, artists, and academics whose “disobedient” work builds upon the themes of that arise in the texts we discuss and in our ongoing podcast conversations. 

Towards the end of our book discussions we also entertain questions from friends and strangers and dole out slapdash advice about everything from massaging a head of Brooklyn kale to sweet talking a nebechy philosopher and dealing with the vagaries of academic life. We also put on our Freud-Klein-Lacan-Irigaray hats as we provide dream analysis to (always already anonymized) listener dreams.

Be a part by sending us text suggestions, interview ideas, advice questions to answer, and dreams to analyze. 

The Always Already Podcast is created by B Aultman, Rachel Brown, Emily Crandall, John McMahon, and James Padilioni, Jr.

EP. 17 – WALTER BENJAMIN ON THE CONCEPT OF HISTORY

AlwaysAlreadyPodcast

Related tracks