This is a special episode, as today - October 4th - is our 4th anniversary of releasing episodes of Millennials Are Killing Capitalism. In this episode Josh and Jay look back on 4 years of doing the podcast, and on different contradictions and issues we’re thinking about currently. Some folks might read this as a bit of a pessimistic conversation, and to the extent that this comes across, neither of us want to encourage a pessimistic outlook. We simply don’t have the time for that. However, it is incumbent upon us and upon every person who cares about having a future, every person who cares about a livable world, much less a better world, to take a self-inventory of both ourselves as individuals and of our social relationships, relationships to Empire, and our own involvement in organization to build power to make our ideas a collective reality before it truly is too late. For any comments that come across as petty, our goal is not to call individual folks out, or to suggest that ones position within an institution or society precludes them from making revolutionary sacrifices. Rather, we want to encourage folks to think critically about the cultivation of revolutionary culture and how to be better stewards of that collectively. We would especially like to thank all of our guests, anyone who has shared time and thought with us over the last 4 years. We are primarily a guest driven platform and wouldn’t be what we are without so many amazing people sharing their time with us. So thank you.&nbsp; We’d also like to express gratitude to all of the people who have used conversations we’ve had in their classrooms, in their organizations, in their study groups. It’s been really meaningful to hear that these conversations are generating others, particularly in movement spaces or in classrooms where teachers are committed to providing students with different discourses than they find within the mainstream. Lastly, of course to everyone who has contributed to the show monetarily, although we are both deeply committed to this work, it is likely that the show would not still be here - and it certainly would not have as many episodes - without the financial support that has made this possible.&nbsp; We would also like to thank Televangel, who we neglected to shout-out in the introduction. Televangel has provided the music for a couple years now and you can check out his great work .&nbsp; It is our 4 year anniversary and we are on a current push towards sustainability, our goal is to reach 1,000 patrons for the show. As of recording this we are approximately 75 patrons away from that goal so if you like what we do, just know , the same amount (without factoring inflation!) that Paul Robeson’s Freedom was requesting of readers in the 1950’s. Also we shout-out a lot of political prisoners and former political prisoners in this conversation. We encourage folks to contribute to the &nbsp;and other organizations that support political prisoners and movement veterans.

4 Years of Millennials Are Killing Capitalism - A Reflection

This interview with J. Sakai was conducted June 17, 2003 on KPFT Pacifica Radio. Sakai is author of "Settlers: Mythology of the White Proletariat" as well as many articles on race, class and radical politics. The transcript of this audio became the pamphlet, "Stolen At Gunpoint: Interview with J. Sakai On the Chicano-Mexicano National Question," but the audio is being offered for those interested to hear Sakai in his own words.

J. Sakai (author, Settlers) Interview

In this special May Day segment of Rustbelt Abolition Radio, we speak with acclaimed scholar Robin D.G. Kelley to explore the critique of racial capitalism, the history of class struggle across the color line, and the abolitionist horizon.

We release this episode on May Day, or International Workers Day, celebrated annually by millions across the world in commemoration of the 1886 Haymarket Square massacre and the ongoing global struggle for a world without capitalist exploitation and racial domination. 

Robin D.G. Kelley is a professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA. Kelley’s intellectual work spans the far reaching histories of the black freedom movement, African American history, culture, music, and aesthetics, and the politics of the black radical imagination. His books include Africa Speaks, America Answers!: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times and Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, among many others.

To Make Our World Anew: May Day special ft. Robin D.G. Kelley

Abolitionists are committed to creating a world without police and prisons, but what alternative visions and practices of addressing intimate harm might point the way toward such a world? In this episode we explore efforts to re-imagine the politics of violence, harm, safety, and redress, spearheading practices of accountability and healing that move beyond the punitive logic of the carceral state.

Mia Mingus from the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective discusses alternatives to carceral feminism, and how the movement to end child sexual abuse points the way toward radically re-imagining practices of justice. We also speak with Claudia Garcia-Rojas, co-director of The Chicago Taskforce on Violence Against Girls & Young Women, and Maya Schenwar, Editor-in-Chief of Truthout and author of Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn’t Work and How We Can Do Better.

Beyond Punishment: The Movement for Transformative Justice

In Reports from the Prisoner Resistance Movement, released on the anniversary of the 1971 Attica prison rebellion, we reflect on the intensifying political struggles behind bars by examining two extraordinary flashpoints: Amerika’s nationwide September 9, 2016, prisoner strike, and the August 19, 2017, Millions for Prisoners march. 

Ben Turk of the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee of the Industrial Workers of the World and Firehawk of Unstoppable discuss strategies developing within the contemporary prisoner resistance movement, while Krystal Rountree of the iamWe Prison Advocacy Network explains the organizing efforts inside and outside that made the August 19 Millions for Prisoners March possible. We close the episode with D, an incarcerated organizer with Jailhouse Lawyers Speak who tells us about what went down inside in the wake of August 19 -- and what’s next.

For more reporting on the prisoner resistance movement, check out Michigan's Kinross Prison Strike: Reflections from Inside, an exclusive audio archive we’ve created with the help of correspondents behind bars and MAPS: Michigan Abolition and Prisoner Solidarity. You can find links to the archive on our website.

Reports from the Prisoner Resistance Movement

As reports of the 2018 prison strike actions and state retaliation continue to come in, we speak with Amani Sawari, organizer and media contact with Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, about ways to support prison rebels. We also hear from J, a prison rebel who’s among the strikers inside a South Carolina Prison.

Reports from the 2018 Prison Strike

On this episode we interview Clarissa Brooks who is an organizer, journalist, and activist in Atlanta. We talk about music journalism, protesting Hillary Clinton, as well as Shaun King's recent threats to sue her.

#HellaBlackPodcast Ep 34: #ISupportClarissa (feat @ClarissaMBrooks)

On this episode of Hella Black we review Assata's autobiography and talk about Black Joy.

EP 53: Assata's Autobiography Pt. 1

Vijay Prashad (@vijayprashad) from the Tricontinental (@tri_continental)&nbsp;talks about imperialism, socialist writing, and the politics of hope.

"Nothing human is alien to me" w/ Vijay Prashad

Thousands of prisoners in Argentina are on hunger strike. We speak with militant intellectual Liliana Cabrera about her experience inside Argentinean jails, her involvement with the organization Yo no fui, and also about this extraordinary event of the global prisoner resistance movement.

Prisons on Hunger Strike in Argentina

We created this podcast in recognition that there are a number of podcasts for the American “left,” but many of them focus heavily on the organizing of social democrats, progressives, and liberal democrats. Aside from that, on the left we are always fighting a war of ideas and if we do not continue to build platforms to share those ideas and the stories of their implementation from a leftist perspective, they will continue to be ignored, misrepresented, and dismissed by the capitalist media and as a result by the general public.

Our goal is to provide a platform for communists, anti-imperialists, Black Liberation movements, ancoms, left libertarians, LBGTQ activists, feminists, immigration activists, and abolitionists to discuss radical politics, radical organizing and share their visions for a better world. Our goal is to center organizers who represent and work with marginalized communities building survival programs, defense programs, political education, and counterpower.

We also plan to bring in perspectives on and from the global south to highlight anti-capitalist struggles outside the imperial core. We view solidarity with decolonization, indigenous, anti-imperialist, environmentalist, socialist, and anarchist movements across the world as necessary steps toward meaningful liberation for all people. 

Too often within the imperial core we focus on our own struggles without taking the time to understand those fighting for freedom from beneath the empire’s thumb. It is important to highlight these struggles, learn what we can from them, offer solidarity, and support with action when we can. It is not enough to Fight For $15 an hour and Single-Payer within the core, while the US actively fights against the self-determination of the people of the global economically and militarily.

We recognize that except for the extremely wealthy and privileged, our fates and struggles are intrinsically connected. We hope that our podcast becomes a meaningful platform for organizers and activists fighting for social change to connect their local movements to broader movements centered around the fight to end imperialism, capitalism, racism, discrimination based on gender identity or sexuality, and sexism. 

Follow us on twitter @MAKCapitalism, like us at Facebook.com/MAKCapitalism, become a patron at www.patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism. We appreciate you listening, and your support.

4 Years of Millennials Are Killing Capitalism - A Reflection

Millennials Are Killing Capitalism

Related tracks