Victor's Children

The Russia-Ukraine war and the Left . . With Russia's all-out war against Ukraine now in its fifth year, Simon Pirani and Volodymyr Artiukh discuss the complex character of the war, the main stances to the war on the left, aspects of Ukrainian society today, and more. . . Related reading, viewing and other resources: . Simon Pirani, In Mexico, people fear one imperialist aggressor. In Estonia, it’...

Learning To Change The World . Alan Sears draws on his research and personal experience to reflect on how people become radical organizers, the challenges they encounter, the different kinds of learning involved in being an effective radical organizer, and more. . . Some readings: . Alan Sears, The Next New Left: A History of the Future https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/books/the-next-new-left . . Kat...

How Should Socialists Organize Today? . . This episode is a sequel to episode 60 "Time to Party?" with guests Charlie Post in New York (Tempest) and Andreu Coll in Barcelona (Anticapitalistas). . Listeners unfamiliar with politics in the Spanish state may find it useful to read Andreu's brief section of this article for background: Revolutionary Socialist Organizations in the 21st Century https://...

What Does Avi Lewis's Win Mean for Socialists? . . The election of Avi Lewis as leader of the federal New Democratic Party is a small political earthquake in the Canadian state. Lewis is the first person from the left wing of the party to be elected leader, and he was opposed by most of the party establishment. Left candidates also took office on the party's executive. Right after Lewis's win was...

What should internationalism mean today? . . Revolutions of Our Times: An Internationalist Manifesto is a thoughtful and inspiring collectively written text from The Peoples Want, an international network of supporters of "internationalism from below." It will be published in English in book form in April 2026 (and is available in other languages too). This episode is an interview with three peopl...

What does Zohran Mamdani's win mean for socialists? . . Zohran Mamdani's election as mayor of New York City is being widely discussed both in and outside the US. What political conclusions should we draw from it? Two socialists in NYC, Sherry Wolf and Robert Cuffy, talk about the impact of Mamdani's win, what made it possible, the obstacles he faces to implementing the reforms he promised, and bui...

Covering Up Rape & Suppressing Opposition: Learning from the SWP's 2013 Crisis . . In 2013 the Socialist Workers Party, the largest far left group in Britain and the dominant group in the International Socialist Tendency, experienced a crisis rooted in the efforts of its leadership to protect one of their own from allegations of sexual violence and to stifle criticism of its handling of the situat...

Party Time? . . Socialists need to organize as socialists to be as effective as we can. Does this mean that small socialist organizations can be parties or start to build parties? How can we best work towards much larger and more effective socialist political organizations? Charlie Post joins David on this episode to discuss what genuine parties are, the history of socialist party-building efforts...

The Philippines and its Left: What the Global Left Needs to Know . . The Philippines has one of the largest populations in the world, there are large diasporic Filipino communities in North America, and there's a sizeable left that's also present in the diaspora. This episode is an interview with a guest in the Philippines who's active in the anti-Stalinist radical left. . . If you're unfamiliar w...

McCarthyism and its lessons for the left today . . The Trump administration's repressive moves have sparked talk of a "new McCarthyism" so this episode presents an interview with Alan Wald about McCarthyism -- the "Second Red Scare" in the US in the late 1940s and 1950s -- and its lessons for the left in our time. . UPDATE - Helpful clarification from one of our listeners on information mentioned...

Defying the Law: The Air Canada Strike & How Labour Law Restricts Strikes and What Workers Can Do About It, w/ A King and D Camfield . . The historic law-defying strike by Air Canada flight attendants August 16-19 caught the attention of many people in the Canadian state and beyond. In the first part of this episode, David interviews Adam King about the strike and questions it raises. This is foll...

Taiwan: What the Left Needs to Know . . Taiwan is a flashpoint for US-China rivalry so radicals internationally need to be able to see through the misleading views about Taiwan spread by both Western and Chinese rulers to develop a consistently internationalist anti-imperialist approach. Ralf Ruckus, who discussed China today on episode 11 of this podcast, returns with an introduction to Taiwanese...

Anti-Racism, Class and History w/ David Roediger . . . Historian David Roediger discusses some of the people who've influenced him, white workers and Black struggles in the U.S., and some aspects of anti-racist theory and politics today. . . David Roediger's new memoir An Ordinary White: My Antiracist Education https://www.fordhampress.com/9781531509583/an-ordinary-white/ An adapted excerpt from t...

The Right, Unions and the Working Class . . Right-wing politics are gaining support in the working class and within unions in so-called Canada. . What's happening and how can we fight it more effectively? Steven Tufts and a CUPE member discuss. . . An article worth reading: Martin Lukacs, How Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives seduced working-class voters https://breachmedia.ca/how-pierre-poilievres...

Todd Gordon and Jeff Webber join David on a deep dive into understanding the far right, including fascism, as a phenomenon of capitalist society. The interview was recorded on April 13, 2025. . In this episode, Todd and Jeff discuss ideas they develop in a book they're writing. If you have access to the print edition or subscriber-only online access to the journal Spectre, you can read their artic...

Workplace Organizing for Radicals . . Why should workplace organizing matter for the radical left? What kind of unionism should radicals try to foster? How should we go about doing it? How should people who want to do workplace organizing think about where to work for pay? An interview with two experienced activists, retired New York transit worker Steve Downs and Ontario public sector worker Kath...

Red Flags: A Reckoning with Communism for the Future of the Left, w/ David Camfield . . . Host as guest! Guest host Saima Desai interviews David about his new book, Red Flags. . . If you listen to the end of the episode, there's a discount code you can use to order the book anywhere in the world from Fernwood Publishing either before or after it's published. The code will be valid until mid-Septem...

Trump's Tariffs: How Should the Left Respond? . . . The threat of sweeping US tariffs has touched off a political crisis in the Canadian state. Todd Gordon and Mostafa Henaway discuss how the left is responding and an alternative approach. . . Suggested Reading: . Todd Gordon https://www.midnightsunmag.ca/we-need-workers-solidarity-not-national-unity-in-response-to-trumps-tariffs/ . Mostafa Henawa...

U.S. capitalism vs Chinese capitalism: What do we need to understand? . . . Economic and geopolitical competition between China and the US and other Western powers is important and is only going to become more intense in the years ahead. What do leftists most need to understand about China, and how should we orient to the rivalry between the world's most powerful capitalist societies? An interview...

A Dive into Domenico Losurdo's Western Marxism . . . The recent publication of an English translation of Western Marxism: How it was born, how it died, how it can be reborn by the Italian historian of philosophy Domenico Losurdo has received a lot of attention in parts of the Left. In this episode Joshua Nicholas Pineda joins David to discuss Losurdo and this book. Tune in for a discussion of "Wes...

Responding to Trump's Return, w David McNally and Natalia Tylim . . . The victory of Trump and his Republican Party is obviously important not just in the USA but internationally. A lot of what's being said about why Trump won and what it means is partially or entirely wrong. This episode is about analyzing their victory and, importantly, what radicals should do in the months ahead. . . Recommende...

Trump vs Harris: How did the USA get here? . . The 2024 US presidential election pits a far right billionaire former president whose supporters have taken control of the Republican Party away from the conservatives whose party it once was against the outgoing Democrat vice-president who champions strengthening US imperialism and many reactionary domestic policies. How did the most powerful society...

Extra: The Ukrainian-Canadian Anti-Stalinist Left in the 1970s and 80s. . . An interview with participants Chrystia Chomiak and John-Paul Himka about the Ukrainian-Canadian anti-Stalinist radical left initiatives that grew out of the radicalization of the late 1960s into the 1970s. . . Related reading: . Marko Bojcun, "Ukrainian Socialists in the Diaspora" https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/ukra...

Loss, Grief and Politics Today, w/ Sarah Jaffe . . How people feel about what's happening in their lives really matters politically. On this episode David interviews Sarah Jaffe, whose new book "From the Ashes" explores grief and its politics in the world today. . . From the Ashes: Grief and Revolution in a World on Fire https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/sarah-jaffe/from-the-ashes/978154170...

How (Not) to Challenge Anti-Communism (Against Michael Parenti) & the Case of Anti-Communism in the Ukrainian Diaspora . . Anti-communism is an ideology that opposes any effort to make radical social change. Clearly, we need to challenge it. But there's more than one way of doing so. Opening thoughts about this from David are followed by an interview with historian John-Paul Himka about the case o...