Cosmopod

Anton and Donald join Mike Macnair for a discussion on law in history and in Marxist thought. They discuss the purpose of law, the different schools of philosophy of law, how Hegel conceived law and the state, and what Marx and Engels took from it, the legal theories of the Soviet theoretician Pashukanis, the role of the constitution in a bourgeois state, what is the role of judges in capitalism a...

Stani Bjegunac lays out the ways a planned economy could contribute to the project of transgender liberation, focusing on the issues of bathrooms and medical transition. Marina reads the article aloud.

This is a narration of the introduction to Mike Macnair's groundbreaking book Revolutionary Strategy. Narration and editing by Lydia Apolinar.   The free market triumphalism of the 1990s is over. Early 21st century capitalism looks like Karl Marx's description: growing extremes of wealth and poverty, and irrepressible boom-bust cycles. But for the moment, rightwing religious and nationalist nostal...

Rudy joins Roxy Hall and Giacomo Bianchino for a discussion on the past, present and future of the Australian state. We talk about the history of Australian colonization with its differences and similarities with US and Canada, the squatter vanguard of settler-colonialism, the failed attempt at a bourgeois revolution that was the Eureka Stockade and the process of Federation. We then turn to the f...

In light of the Taliban's consolidation of power in response to U.S. withdrawal from the region, Rob Ashlar predicts not the foreclosure of class struggle in Afghanistan but new beginnings. LC reads the article aloud.

Niko and Rudy sit down with Jason Moore, author of Capitalism in the Web of Life and The Capitalocene ( Part I , II ) for a discussion on his approach to world-ecology including the  concepts of Capitalism as a way of organizing nature and of the Web of  Life. We discuss how Capitalism has organized nature since its inception  and why it is necessary to begin a periodization of capitalism's effect...

This is a narration of the introduction to Mike Macnair's groundbreaking book Revolutionary Strategy. Narration and editing by Lydia Apolinar.   The free market triumphalism of the 1990s is over. Early 21st century capitalism looks like Karl Marx's description: growing extremes of wealth and poverty, and irrepressible boom-bust cycles. But for the moment, rightwing religious and nationalist nostal...

Donald and Rudy join John Smith, author of Imperialism in the 21st  Century: Globalization, Exploitation and Capitalism's Final Crisis for a discussion on imperialism and unequal exchange. We discuss the history of three global commodities: t-shirts, iPhones and coffee and what they  can tell us about the worldwide social relationships of capitalism, why  GDP and productivity are illusions that hi...

Roxy Hall makes an intervention into debates around transgender issues, critiquing both trans liberalism and anti-trans radical feminism to stake out a position that seeks the abolition of gender. Annie Rose reads the article aloud.

Matt and Rudy join Sasha Durakov Warren from An Unsound Mind for a discussion on the history of psychiatry reform movements and radical mental health. We discuss how the definition of mind has changed across history, and how  the internal movements to reform psychiatry and mistakenly grouped under  broad umbrellas that hide a myriad of approaches and contradictions. We  also discuss the Franco Bas...

Written by Bolshevik philosopher, economist, and statesmen Nikolai Bukharin in 1921, Historical Materialism: A System of Sociology was the standard primer on sociology and the historical materialist method in the early Soviet Union. Christian Cail introduces the text in the latest offer from Cosmonaut Press, which Cliff Connolly reads aloud. The book is available for purchase at cosmonautmag.com a...

This is a narration of the introduction to Mike Macnair's groundbreaking book Revolutionary Strategy. Narration and editing by Lydia Apolinar.   The free market triumphalism of the 1990s is over. Early 21st century capitalism looks like Karl Marx's description: growing extremes of wealth and poverty, and irrepressible boom-bust cycles. But for the moment, rightwing religious and nationalist nostal...

Donald and Rudy join Daniel Tutt for a discussion on the history and present of psychoanalysis and its relationship to Marxism. We discuss whether psychoanalysis can be considered a science and how psychoanalysts produce knowledge before explaining the libidinal economy and possible psychoanalytic interventions in the sphere of exchange. We also discuss Wilhelm Reich: his claim to being the first...

This is a narration of the introduction to Mike Macnair's groundbreaking book Revolutionary Strategy. Narration and editing by Lydia Apolinar.   The free market triumphalism of the 1990s is over. Early 21st century capitalism looks like Karl Marx's description: growing extremes of wealth and poverty, and irrepressible boom-bust cycles. But for the moment, rightwing religious and nationalist nostal...

Rudy joins Paris Yeros editor of Reclaiming the Nation: The Return of the National Question in Africa, Asia and Latin America and Reclaiming the Land: The Resurgence of Rural Movements in Africa, Asia and Latin America for a discussion on the agrarian and national questions in the 21st century, with a focus on the Zimbabwe land occupations of the 2000s. We  discuss the semi-proletarization and lan...

This is a narration of the introduction to Mike Macnair's groundbreaking book Revolutionary Strategy. We have also included a preface from Parker McQueeney on what this book means in the context of 2021. Narration and editing by Lydia Apolinar.   The free market triumphalism of the 1990s is over. Early 21st century capitalism looks like Karl Marx's description: growing extremes of wealth and pover...

Rudy and Brendan join Tyler Shipley, author of Canada in the World: Settler Capitalism and the Colonial Imagination ,  for a discussion on the past, present and future of the Canadian state. We discuss the terms "Settler Capitalism" and "Colonial Imagination",  the formation of Canada through Confederation, the historical policy of  Canada towards indigenous people and the current debates around  ...

Rudy joins Boike Rehbein, author of Globalization, Society and Culture in Laos and Society in Contemporary Laos for a discussion on the past, present and future of the Lao People's  Democratic Republic. We start by discussing the concept of habitus and how it can be used to study Laotian society. We then talk about the  structure of pre-communist society, the communist takeover in 1975 and  the ea...

Rudy joins Maddie and Jess from Philly Socialists to discuss the politics of disability and its relationship with organizing. We discuss different models of disability and how they operate under capitalism, what disability can teach us about organizing methods, and the disability rights movements in the US. We the dive into how to relate to accessibility in our organizing, and how to handle confli...

This is a narration of the ninth chapter and conclusion of Lars Lih's excellent book Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context. In this chapter, Lih explores the debates between Bolshevik and Menshevik RSDWP members after their infamous split at the party's Second Congress. The conclusion hammers home Lih's insightful critique of the "textbook interpretation" of Lenin broadly and WITBD in...

Lydia, Agata, Anne and Rudy join for a discussion of Kristen Ghodsee's  Second World, Second Sex: Socialist Women's Activism and Global Solidarity during the Cold War . We begin with the forgotten Communist history of International Women's Year (1975) which later became the United Nations Decade for Women (75-85), and the conflicts between the Western and Eastern blocs regarding women's liberation...

Renato Flores argues for a culture shift around meeting procedures that takes into account differing backgrounds to make our organizing spaces more accessible to everyone regardless of education and time available. Unoriginal Smack reads the article out loud.

Rudy and Annie join Mike Ely, a veteran of the Revolutionary Union and the wildcat strike movement in the West Virginia coalfields of the 1970s. Drawing from Ely's experiences as a communist in West Virginia, we discuss the practice of social investigation, the role of communists in strike struggles, the structural and conjectural views of revolution and the connection to Alain Badiou, and state r...

Isaac and Rudy join Shalini Puri, author of The Grenada Revolution in the Caribbean Present: Operation Urgent Memory, and the companion website urgentmemory.com , for a discussion on the Grenadian Revolution and its legacies in both the island itself and the wider Caribbean. We cover the Revolution's accomplishments as well as some of its pitfalls, the contradictions and mutual strengthening of Ma...

This is a narration of the eighth chapter of Lars Lih's excellent book Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? In Context. In this chapter, Lih examines the culture of the Russian revolutionary underground to elucidate the world that Lenin's organizational proposals in WITBD would go on to shape.   The full audiobook is currently in production by the team at Cosmonaut Magazine. You can find more e...