This week our rotund podcast hosts kick back, watch a movie, and try to answer that question that has been haunting humanity since the early-1940s: was Robert McNamara cringe?

The answer is yes. So strap in as the lads take a look at documentary-guy Errol Morris' 2003 classic "The Fog of War". The movie profiles McNamara as he goes from common Irishman to rare Irishman in his long career as war criminal and professional Numbers Guy. If only he had been born in a baseball town...he may have invented sabermetrics five decades early instead of using his gifts to kill as many people as possible. Makes you wonder about Szymborski.....

Watching: "The Fog of War" by Errol Morris (2003).

27. Robert McNamara - The Fog of War | Errol Morris (Bad Man Trilogy Pt 1)

Well folks, we’ve been teasing it long enough…today your large beautiful boys are reading THE BOOK.

In an attempt to answer the questions “What is a conspiracy theory?”, “What happened to all the Nazis?” and “How did we get into this mess?” Dan and Jack are taking a look at The Devil’s Chessboard - a “biography” of the early CIA.

Everyone has that friend on the left that’s a little bit too into conspiracy theories (cough, jack, cough), but this week, your lionhearted podcast hosts are going to separate the wheat from the chaff and find out what’s crazy, and what’s not so crazy. Can this history be any use to us on the left? Is everything bad in the world simply CIA? Is Dan CIA? Is Jack CIA? Are YOU CIA? Don’t be so sure.

So join us in the first part of this journey as we tell you all about how the robber barons of the early 20th century managed to survive and indeed thrive in the post-wwi world. 

This one goes long. Strap in.

Reading: The Devil’s Chessboard (2015), David Talbot

28. Nixon, Dulles & the CIA | The Devil's Chessboard - David Talbot Pt. 1

Holy guacamole the lads are at it again.

This book continues to impress as we dive into the second part of our Fundamental Principles reading series - this time covering a spectrum of topics ranging from why everyone left of the councilists are idiots to how we would consume life's necessities and luxuries under communism to why accounting and equal "wages" are absolute fundamentals. Not sure what else to say here other than that your portly and faithful podcast hosts have continued to have their eager minds blown. Let's go. This one's a good 'un.

Reading - Chapters 5-11 of "Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution" by the Group of International Communists (1930?).

35. Consumption Under Communism | Fundamental Principles of Communist Production/Distribution Pt. 2

This week we decided it was about time to have a gander at some history. Turns out, history is pretty brutal. 

Reading: Chapter 1 "Lust for Gold, Lust for Silver" from The Open Veins of Latin America (1971) by Eduardo Galeano.

50. Open Veins of Latin America | Eduardo Galeano

DISCORD: https://discord.gg/Ym8Bwmaz
LINKTREE: https://linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast

This week Jack and Dan cover the first half of Anderson’s classic book on the transition to feudalism. They cover the rise of the slave mode of production in Antiquity from its initial emergence as a solution to class struggle in Greece to its peak during thee Roman Empire. Whilst this mode of production allowed the ancient states to reach stunning cultural heights it was also wracked with internal contradictions that would be its undoing. The eventual crisis was one of an under supply of slaves and whilst the eventual demise of Western Roman Empire was a protracted affair, when the invaders came, their fate was sealed by weaknesses stemming from the mode of production. According to Anderson a new synthesis developed over the next several centuries, a synthesis of two political economies in crisis and decay. It was the melding of Roman and Germanic ways of life that gave rise to the feudal mode of production.   

Reading - Part 1 - ''Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism'' (1974) by Perry Anderson

60. Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism Pt. 1 | Perry Anderson

DISCORD: discord.gg/bJtAEbFS  
LINKTREE: https://linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast

Reading, Endnotes 1 (2008) - Intro and Chapter 1
https://endnotes.org.uk/issues/1

64. When Insurrections Die │ Gilles Dauvé and Endnotes 1

DISCORD: https://discord.gg/wMYg8TWhWu (if this link don't work message us on twitter)
LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast

Today we tackle the complicated era of the reconstruction of the American South after the Civil War. What role did the control of a subjugated labor labor force play in a supposedly post-slavery South? What was the burgeoning industrial proletariat doing during all this? How can we finish reconstruction? All questions we at the very least, ask.

Reading: A Short History of Reconstruction (1990) by Eric Foner.

84. A Short History of Reconstruction | Eric Foner

Well it's probably about time we approached the question of what role the exploitation and appropriation of African labor both before and during colonization played in the development of capitalism. Turns out, it was quite a large one. 

Reading: Chapters 3-5 from How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972) by Walter Rodney

Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.com

DISCORD: https://discord.gg/FAgdS9UD

98. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa | Walter Rodney

Auxiliary Statements is back to reading Capital?!? Well, just the last section. We had to go back to our origin of capitalism bugbear sometime, after all. And maybe we should have just read this first.

Reading: Capital, Section 8: The So-Called Primitive Accumulation (1867) by Karl Marx

Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.com

DISCORD: https://discord.gg/vfDswHX6

104. Capital, Section 8: The So-Called Primitive Accumulation | Karl Marx

In an effort to understand the philosophy of technology and our relationship to it as humans, we turn to a 60 year old essay by Murray Bookchin.

Reading: Towards a Liberatory Technology (1965) by Murray Bookchin

Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.com

DISCORD: https://discord.gg/YpmDM5Sd

107. Towards a Liberatory Technology | Murray Bookchin

Value theory?? On auxiliary statements???

Reading: Essays on Marx's Theory of Value, Section One - Marx's Theory of Commodity Fetishism (1923) by I. I. Rubin

Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.com

DISCORD: discord.gg/YkEg2Xad

109. Essays on Marx's Theory of Value, Pt. 1 | Isaak Illich Rubin

Lousy workers! Why won't you do industrial unionism?!

Reading: Riot. Strike. Riot by Joshua Clover

Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.com

DISCORD: https://discord.gg/4zW4DsM9

122. Riot. Strike. Riot. | Joshua Clover

SKIP THE ELECTION BANTER: 27:47

In which we sneak into an academic conference and stick out like two sore thumbs.

Reading: Nothin'

INDEP network: https://www.indep.network/

Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.com

DISCORD: https://discord.gg/vC5r2MmA

123. Socialist Planning Panels at the 2024 Historical Materialism Conference

*banging head against the wall* POLITICALCAPITALISMTECHNONEOFEUDALISMNEOLIBERALISM

Reading: Seven Theses on American Politics (2022) by Robert Brenner & Dylan Riley

Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.com

DISCORD: https://discord.gg/G22EcdhR

124. Seven Theses on American Politics | Robert Brenner & Dylan Riley

In which we encounter the unknowable concept of the S P H E R E.

Reading: The Logic of Gender (2013) from Endnotes 3 by Maya Gonzalez and Jeanne Neton.

Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.com

DISCORD: https://discord.gg/4r47b7UF

125. The Logic of Gender | Maya Gonzalez and Jeanne Neton

In which we try to get past our kneejerk sect bashing.

Reading: "There are Parties and Then There are Parties" by Archie Woodrow, "Why a Party and What Sort?" by Mike Macnair and "The Communist Party, Yesterday and Tomorrow" by Lawrence Parker (all 2024) from Prometheus, available here: https://prometheusjournal.org/

Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.com

DISCORD:

126. What is the Party? | Prometheus

Well after a month of being locked out of our Soundcloud account we're finally back in our social democracy era.

Reading: Reform or Revolution? (1908) by Rosa Luxemburg

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DISCORD: https://discord.gg/arZSSVw6

127. Reform or Revolution? | Rosa Luxemburg

In which the Austrians do antifascism by definitely not recreating any fascist aesthetics.

Reading: Antifascism, Sports, Sobriety: Forging a Militant Working-Class Culture (2016) by Gabriel Kuhn & Julius Deutsch

Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.com

DISCORD: https://discord.gg/CD8wXpzc


128. Antifascism, Sports, Sobriety | Julius Deutsch & Gabriel Kuhn

How do you do communal politics in an individualized, atomized world? How do you do individualism in a communal world?

Reading: Antiindividualistic Individuality: Anarchism's Legacy (the early 1990s) by Gabriel Kuhn

Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.com

DISCORD: discord.gg/CD8wXpzc


129. Antiindividualistic Individuality: Anarchism's Legacy | Gabriel Kuhn

Alright, this time we're really gonna figure out what dialectics is.

Reading: Dialectical Thinking and Science: The Case of Richard Lewontin, Dialectical Biologist (2020) by Pierfrancesco Biasetti

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DISCORD: https://discord.gg/FUpZKFE3


130. Dialectical Thinking and Science | Pierfrancesco Biasetti

In which we inaugurate the Chantal Mouffe era of the show.

Reading: Neither Vertical Nor Horizontal (2021) by Rodrigo Nunes

Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.com

DISCORD: https://discord.gg/EAHjv96U


131. Neither Vertical Nor Horizontal | Rodrigo Nunes

In which we regain our lost optimism.

Reading: Peace for our Time (2025) by Critisticuffs, The American Sulla (2025) by Edith Fischer and Notes on the War (2025) by Jack Conrad

Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.com

DISCORD: https://discord.gg/273xScQK


132. Peace for our Time | Critisticuffs

Sure China has billionaires, a strictly enforced class system, State Owned Enterprises that are evaluated on stock market performance, private property, wage labor and commodity production but is it REALLY capitalism guys

Reading: Red Dust (2019) by Chuang.

Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.com

DISCORD: https://discord.gg/Be6dQ6hv


133. Red Dust: The Transition to Capitalism in China | Chuang

You ever noticed that the 8 hour working day is like...................the same as school, man?

Reading: Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968) by Paulo Freire

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DISCORD: discord.gg/Be6dQ6hv


134.  Pedagogy of the Oppressed | Paulo Freire

In which brave Henry Heller saves the immortal science of Marxism from the unwarranted revisionism of W O K E political marxism.

Reading: "Bourgeois Revolution" from The Birth of Capitalism (2011) by Henry Heller

Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.com

DISCORD: https://discord.gg/jgaCypmP

135. Bourgeois Revolution | Henry Heller

Turns out you need to do more than just read Murray Bookchin if you want to be friends with anarchists.

Reading: Towards a Marxist-Anarchist Solidarity (2023) by Michael Löwy, Olivier Besancenot & David Campbell

Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.com

DISCORD: https://discord.gg/TNmaRX2k


136. Toward a Marxist-Anarchist Solidarity | Michael Löwy, Olivier Besancenot & David Campbell

In which we remember the good and sane bush years.

Watching: An Inconvenient Truth (2006), Davis Guggenheim & Al Gore

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DISCORD: https://discord.gg/csqrrRRD


137. An Inconvenient Truth | Al Gore

We're back on our bs.

Reading: The Future of Revolution (2025) by Jasper Bernes

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DISCORD: https://discord.gg/vhhSPuUq


138. The Future of Revolution | Jasper Bernes

Dan & Jack read the first chapter of an introductory book on Marxism and talk about roughly half of it. Special thanks to this week's guest, Ralph Miliband.

Reading: Marxism and Politics by Ralph Miliband (1977), Chapter II: Class and Class Conflict

1. Marxism and Politics, Pt. I - Class & Class Conflict | Ralph Miliband

Dan & Jack look back at feudalism, look now at capitalism, and maybe even....forward to socialism? The lads take a stab at defining capitalism and understanding how we got here in this barnburner of an episode. As a bonus, Jack gets the author's name wrong every time he tries to say it.

We also got Corbyn suspended :(

Reading: The Origin of Capitalism (1999) by Ellen Meiksins Wood, Introduction and Part I: Histories of the Transition.

3. The Origin of Capitalism Pt. I | Ellen Meiksins Wood

Post-peasant commies Dan and Jack read over bits of theory each week in an effort to understand the worldwide state of socialism.

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