In this interview we talk to Dr. Joy James. Joy James is the author of Shadowboxing: Representations of Black Feminist Politics, Transcending the Talented Tenth: Black Leaders and American Intellectuals, and Resisting State Violence: Radicalism, Gender and Race in US Culture. Her edited books include: Warfare in the American Homeland, The New Abolitionists: (Neo) Slave Narratives and Contemporary Prison Writings, Imprisoned Intellectuals, States of Confinement, The Black Feminist Reader (co-edited with TD Sharpley-Whiting), and the Angela Y. Davis Reader. Dr. James also serves as a Professor of Humanities at Williams College. This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the murder of  and the subsequent Attica Rebellion. In our discussion with Dr. James we talk about both of those events, as well as about key Black August figures Jonathan Jackson and George Jackson. We also discuss James’ piece Airbrushing Revolution for the Sake of Abolition and ask her questions about Davis’s trial, and contradictions from within mass international campaigns like the campaign to free Davis.&nbsp; Along the way we work-in questions on many of the topics of her writing on political prisoners, state violence, rebellion, and the . We close by asking Dr. James to talk about the inspiration she finds in the speeches of Amilcar Cabral. If you like what we do and want to support our ability to have more conversations like this, please consider becoming a  of the show. You can do that for just $1 a month. We bring you these conversations totally supported by our listeners with no corporate, state or grant funding. References:  (pdf)      and we also had a  with BLA/BPP veteran Jamal Joseph about this letter  &nbsp;

“We Remember The Attempts To Be Free” Joy James on Black August and the Captive Maternal

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.

“We Remember The Attempts To Be Free” Joy James on Black August and the Captive Maternal

Millennials Are Killing Capitalism

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