The Socialist Program

On today's episode Brian Becker and Prof. Richard Wolff discuss the recently turbulent stock market. What does this mean for the economy and for us? Is this volatility a sign of something to come? Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can check out his work at rdwolff.com . Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Progr...

On today's In the News roundtable, Brian Becker, Esther Iverem and Nicole Roussell discuss the U.S. evacuation of the U.S. embassy in Kiev while stating that war with Russia may be soon, the win for Julian Assange giving him his right to appeal to the U.K. Supreme Court to stop his extradition to the United States, the Senate's  maneuvers against protecting voting rights, and the newly expose...

Brian Becker and Dr. Ken Hammond discuss U.S. aggression against China, which often uses Taiwan as a pretext. But next month is the 50th anniversary of the Shanghai Communiqué – a document the U.S. and China jointly signed, after Nixon visited the country, which recognized that Taiwan is in fact part of China. Brian is joined by Dr. Ken Hammond, professor of East Asian and Global History at New Me...

On today's episode Brian Becker and Prof. Richard Wolff discuss cascading crises that rocked Wall Street and the stock market, which crashed yesterday, as inflation spikes and the economy slows. Things are about to get much worse as the Federal Reserve plans to raise interest rates Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can check out his wo...

On today's In the News roundtable, Brian Becker, Esther Iverem and Nicole Roussell discuss how the right-wing U.S. Supreme Court has decided to help spread Covid, how Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are joining with the Supreme Court and the Republican Party to destroy voting rights, especially for Black Americans, how people nationwide remembered Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the streets...

Brian Becker, Claudia De La Cruz and Gabriel Rockhill continue The Socialist Program’s analysis of the deeper meaning of the January 6 assault that temporarily dispersed Congress. One year after the attack attempted to overturn the election, the architects of that plan have yet to face prosecution and a movement of the far-right consolidates. There is a liberal response to fascism that prioritizes...

On today's episode Walter Smolarek and Prof. Richard Wolff discuss the devastating residential fire over the weekend in New York City that  claimed 17 lives, including 8 children. Coming on the heels of a similar deadly blaze in Philadelphia public housing that killed 4 adults and 8 children, this tragedy highlights the complete inability of the capitalist system to provide safe, dignifi...

On today's In the News roundtable, Brian Becker, Esther Iverem, Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek discuss how the Biden administration is sending stronger and stronger signals that it is effectively surrendering to the COVID pandemic – urging the public to “learn to live with” the deadly disease that has killed well over 800,000 people in the United States alone. They also discuss high profile t...

Brian Becker and Dr. Gerald Horne discuss the one-year anniversary of the January 6th assault on the U.S. Capitol, encouraged and organized by Donald Trump. It was the first time since 1812 that the U.S. government was under attack on its home soil, yet the leaders of the attack have still not been prosecuted – just the soldiers. What’s happened in the year since the assault? What does it tell us...

On today's episode Walter Smolarek and Prof. Richard Wolff discuss how wage theft is rampant across the United States -- Workers are sent to jail for theft, but under capitalism corporate executives have impunity to steal on a massive scale. They also discuss why socialists believe that in fact all wages are a form of theft. Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization...

On today's In the News roundtable, Brian Becker, Esther Iverem, Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek discuss Donald Trump's plan to speak at a  nationally televised press conference on the anniversary of the January 6 assault on Congress, Israel's massive bombing of a Syrian port city, the havoc caused by the Omicron variant, how the United States is moving aggressively toward war with Russia...

The Soviet Union survived its tumultuous first post-revolutionary years of civil war and imperialist invasion, but found itself isolated in a hostile, capitalist-dominated world. The Soviet government embarked on an all-out campaign of industrialization and collectivization that achieved a pace of economic development unparalleled in human history. But at the same time, the menace of fascism was r...

On today's episode Brian and Prof. Richard Wolff discuss how Joe Manchin took his war on workers to new lows over the weekend as he announced on Fox News that he was pulling out of negotiations with the White House over the “Build Back Better” social programs. But these negotiations have long been a farce. From the beginning, Biden pursued a ridiculous strategy, praising Manchin in public instead...

On today's In the News roundtable, Brian Becker, Esther Iverem, Nicole  Roussell and Walter Smolarek discuss how after months of talking,  begging and offering concessions the Biden administration’s dead-end  strategy of appeasing right wing Democrat Joe Manchin  has gone up in flames. Now Manchin wants to pulls the plug on the  “build back better” social programs entirely...

Russia’s October Revolution in 1917 and the rise of Soviet power reverberated across the world, from Latin America to Africa to Asia, and Middle East – that part of the world that lived under the ravages of colonialism and under-development. To discuss the impact of the Russian Revolution on the peoples of the world who lived under the yoke of colonial and domination, Brian is joined by Vijay Pras...

Elon Musk is TIME magazine's Person of the Year this year, despite gaining more than $225 billion dollars over the course of the pandemic, while hundreds of thousands of Americans died. Why does the mainstream capitalist culture worship him and billionaires like him? Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can check out his work at rdwolff.c...

On today's In the News roundtable, Brian Becker, Esther Iverem, Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek discuss how workers are bearing the deadly  brunt of the devastating tornadoes that ripped across the country. They also cover new revelations about US war crimes in Syria, a military coverup on the Jan. 6 attack, an extradition ruling against heroic journalist Julian Assange, the courageous hu...

The Russian Revolution in 1917 brought the Bolsheviks to power. For the first time in history the working class seized and held state power. What was the experience of the Soviet Union? How did it change global politics in the 20th century? What did socialism achieve and what caused the Soviet Union to fall in 1991? In Part 1, we explore the socialist revolution that brought the Soviet Union into...

On today's episode Brian and Prof. Richard Wolff discuss two  sickening injustices of the capitalist economy -- landlords going after the children of the tenants they target for eviction & the ultra-wealthy keeping over $10 billion more of their inheritances in 2020 thanks to the Trump estate tax cuts! Why do we live in a system where children are evicted while the extremely rich get even...

On today's In the News roundtable, Brian Becker, Esther Iverem, Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek discuss how the ultra-right wing majority on the Supreme Court is poised to eviscerate Roe v. Wade, but a movement to fight back against this assault on women’s rights is growing and demanding that Democrats in Congress legalize abortion once and for all. They also discuss U.S. aggression stepping u...

Brian and Prof. Ken Hammond discuss U.S.-China relations, China’s role in Africa and the new Cold War. In a stunning display of hypocrisy, western powers are decrying China for alleged “colonialism” in Africa. What is the true nature of China’s economic and diplomatic engagement with the continent, and how does the corporate media try to twist reality? Prof. Hammond explains the vital historical c...

On today's episode Brian and Prof. Richard Wolff discuss how the Omicron variant is causing panic in global financial markets, with huge stock sell-offs taking place worldwide. What can we learn about how different countries have handled the pandemic, and the radically different outcomes they produced? Professor Richard  Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at &nb...

In this November 2021 patrons-only seminar, Brian and the crew discuss the big picture of global class struggle and its history, the movement  for justice in the U.S. where the national question is central, and how a revolution is possible in the U.S., how socialism can be built in the U.S. and how it is being built in countries like China, as well as existential crises that only socialism ca...

On today's In the News roundtable, Brian Becker, Esther Iverem, Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek discuss how the three men who murdered Ahmaud Arbery have been convicted of murder in a major victory for the struggle against racism, but at the same time the Rittenhouse verdict reveals a grave danger. They also discuss the emergence of the Omicron variant of COVID due to global vaccine apartheid,...

Karl Marx wrote in Capital that capitalism came into the world “dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt.” The Thanksgiving holiday is built around an insidious and false creation myth -- that the so-called “settling” of North America was a peaceful and amicable process. But in reality, the genocidal expansion of colonialism across the continent led to unspeakable suffering...