Michael Staudenmaier [1] uses the case study of a small binational (Chicanx/Puerto Rican) revolutionary group in the U.S. to examine the phenomenon of internal colonialism; the scapegoating of populations; competing theorizations of fascism; state repression in the Americas; neo-Nazi and Klan activity; and panethnic Latinx identity and solidarity. (Encore presentation.) Michael Staudenmaier, “‘America’s Scapegoats’: Ideas of Fascism in the Construction of the US Latina/o/x Left, 1973–83” [2] Radical History Review [3] [1] https://www.mstauden.net/ [2] https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5f3eaac3481b8c3db47b1d18/t/606717b6afd81143f9ebf5ad/1617369014735/Staudenmaier+Scapegoats.pdf [3] https://www.radicalhistoryreview.org/

KPFA - Against the Grain

Seeing Fascism

The Republican Party is gripped by a hatred of immigrants. But geographer Reece Jones argues it has not always been so. Instead, one man, the late John Tanton, was responsible for making nativism appear a central concern of conservatives, by propagating scores of anti-immigrant organizations, some which eventually helped staff the Trump Administration. And, as Jones points out, Tanton’s nativism originated from an unexpected place: the environmental movements of the Sixties. Resources: Reece Jones, White Borders: The History of Race and Immigration in the United States from Chinese Exclusion to the Border Wall [1] Beacon Press, 2021 [1] http://www.beacon.org/White-Borders-P1736.aspx

Nativism, Immigration, and Environmentalism

According to Joseph Masco [1], the two key existential dangers of our time are climate disruption and nuclear weapons. The first, he maintains, is the product of petrochemical capitalism; around the second an elaborate, fear-based U.S. national security culture has been constructed. Masco contends that addressing these twin crises requires grasping their origins and pursuing fundamental structural transformation. (Encore presentation.) Joseph Masco, The Future of Fallout, and Other Episodes in Radioactive World-Making [2] Duke University Press, 2021 photo: Pablo Stanic [3] via Unsplash [1] https://anthropology.uchicago.edu/people/faculty/joseph-masco [2] https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-future-of-fallout-and-other-episodes-in-radioactive-world-making [3] https://unsplash.com/@stanicph

Nuclear Menace, Climate Danger

Cultural and media workers disproportionately shape how other workers see themselves and the world they live in, whether it’s by selling them something or presenting them with dissenting views. As historian Shannan Clark argues, there was a time when a great many cultural workers saw consumption itself as a political act. Such workers in New York City, the hub of publishing, journalism, and much media production in the mid-20th century, showed a remarkable sense of solidarity and creativity in envisioning an alternative to consumer capitalism, from the Communist origins of Consumer Reports to replacing the throw away culture of cheap goods with affordable Modernist design. (Encore presentation.) Resources: Shannan Clark, The Making of the American Creative Class: New York’s Culture Workers and Twentieth-Century Consumer Capitalism [1] Oxford University Press, 2020 [1] https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-making-of-the-american-creative-class-9780199731626?cc=us&lang=en&

Challenging Consumer Capitalism

Occupy Oakland took over the plaza in front of City Hall ten years ago. Emily Brissette [1] discusses what animated and what constrained the movement; she also considers the debate that arose after stay-away orders were issued against dozens of Occupiers. That debate, contends Brissette, featured conflicting notions of what constitutes legitimate political activity. Social Justice [2] (Photo on main page by Mercurywoodrose.) [1] https://bridgew.academia.edu/EmilyBrissette/CurriculumVitae [2] http://www.socialjusticejournal.org/about-sj/

Occupying the Political

Twenty years ago, the inaugural World Social Forum was convened in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Jackie Smith [1] describes some of the networking processes and movement-building dynamics fostered by that gathering and its successors. She also discusses three strands of organizing directly influenced by the Forum: the Right to the City movement, Via Campesina, and indigenous people’s movements. (Encore presentation.) Jackie Smith, “Making Other Worlds Possible: The Battle in Seattle in World-Historical Context” [2] Socialism and Democracy Jackie Smith, Social Movements for Global Democracy [3] John Hopkins University Press, 2008 (Photo on main page by Kasuga Sho.) [1] https://www.sociology.pitt.edu/people/ant-3 [2] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08854300.2019.1676030 [3] https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/social-movements-global-democracy

World Social Forum and Beyond

Even before the coronavirus pandemic started, we had been living through an intensely difficult period. It’s hard to quantify the impact of social stress and political turmoil on our collective psyche, but we all know it’s real. The acclaimed Canadian physician and Marxist Gabor Maté makes the compelling case that the psycho-social needs to be taken into account by both the medical establishment and the Left.

Fund Drive Special: Health and Capitalism

A radio and web media project whose aim is to provide in-depth analysis and commentary on a variety of matters — political, economic, social and cultural — important to progressive and radical thinking and activism.

Against the Grain – October 5, 2021

Civil rights, women’s liberation, the labor movement, battles over the environment: those struggles were fought and won by millions of people, inspired by the ideas of iconoclasts and visionaries. And KPFA and Pacifica Radio were around to capture and record those struggles and the ideas that nurtured them. We feature some highlights from that inspiring history, including from the likes of Angela Davis, Jane Fonda, Edward Said, and Martin Luther King Jr. photo: Unseen Histories [1] via Unsplash [1] https://unsplash.com/@unseenhistories

Fund Drive Special: Voices of Dissent

Against the Grain – September 29, 2021

In the aftermath of World War Two, as the United States consolidated its position as a global superpower, it was confronted with significant challenges from below and shifting political terrain -- anti-colonial struggles around the world and civil rights struggles domestically. To handle both, the U.S state turned to the police, who were sent overseas to assist in counterinsurgency and brought back to quell domestic unrest. As Stuart Schrader argues, the link between foreign counterinsurgency and domestic repression casts a long shadow on the present.

Fund Drive Special: Policing and Counterinsurgency

Against the Grain – September 27, 2021

Why does the United States intervene militarily around the world? Supporters might claim that the U.S. acts in the interests of national security. For critics, a likely answer would be that the country wants to exercise influence and domination over others. Journalist Andrew Cockburn, however, argues that a great number of military decisions are based on financial benefit and profiteering, including for rival bureaucracies within the military.

Fund Drive Special: The Spoils of War

Against the Grain – September 21, 2021

Since September 11th, 2001, the United States has seemed bent on a course of endless war. But David Vine reminds us that constant war-making isn’t new -- that the U.S. has been at war almost every year since its founding. Vine discusses the evolution of American imperial power and the network of extraterritorial bases that has been a key element of U.S. hegemony. Resources: David Vine, The United States of War: A Global History of America's Endless Conflicts, from Columbus to the Islamic State [1] September 2021 [1] https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520385689/the-united-states-of-war

Warring Without End

In-depth analysis and commentary on a variety of matters — political, economic, social, and cultural — important to progressive and radical thinking and activism. Against the Grain is co-produced and co-hosted by Sasha Lilley and C.S. Soong.

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KPFA - Against the Grain

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