Victor's Children Victor's Children

Workers in the Global North: Bribed into Compliance?


Why don't more workers in rich countries support radical politics? Some leftists say it's because imperialism bribes some or all workers in imperialist countries, making them a "labour aristocracy."

In this episode, Charlie Post argues against this explanation, discusses how imperialism does affect the working class in these countries, and suggests a different way of understanding what shapes working-class responses to capitalism.


Readings:

Charlie Post, "Exploring Working-Class Consciousness: A Critique of the Theory of the ‘Labour-Aristocracy’"
https://web.archive.org/web/20190225112753/http://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5ed0/777f248114127997056169e8c87364ec9b23.pdf

The Palestine Solidarity Movement in the USA.

Busy organizers Iman Abid, Shireen Akram-Boshar and Sherry Wolf pause to discuss where the movement is at in the USA and ideas for strengthening it.

A recent article:
Toward a free Palestine
https://www.tempestmag.org/2024/02/toward-a-free-palestine/

One of many valuable books (available as a free ebook):
Palestine: A Socialist Introduction
https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1558-palestine-a-socialist-introduction

The Palestine Solidarity Movement in Canada

Busy organizers Chandni Desai and James Hutt pause to discuss where the movement is at in so-called Canada and ideas for strengthening it.

Some readings and resources:

On unions and Palestine solidarity:
https://www.midnightsunmag.ca/moving-unions-to-fight-for-a-free-palestine/

On Canadian arms exports to Israel:
https://www.readthemaple.com/trudeau-government-authorized-28-million-of-new-military-exports-to-israel-since-october/

BDS target list (official):
https://bdsmovement.net/Act-Now-Against-These-Companies-Profiting-From-Genocide

On scholasticide:
https://theconversation.com/the-war-in-gaza-is-wiping-out-palestines-education-and-knowledge-systems-222055

On pension fund investments:
Canadian pension funds invested $1.6 billion in companies tied to Israeli apartheid ⋆ The Breach
https://breachmedia.ca/canadian-pension-funds-invested-israeli-apartheid/

Jabra Nicola, Matzpen and a Socialist Perspective on Israel/Palestine, w/ Moshe Machover

Jabra Nicola (1912-1974) was arguably the most far-sighted Palestinian marxist of the 20th century. He was an important influence on Matzpen, a socialist group of Jewish Israelis and Palestinians whose analysis of Zionist settler colonialism had an international impact much greater than the group's very small size. This episode is an interview with Moshe Machover, the only founding member of Matzpen still alive, about Nicola, the politics of Matzpen, and their relevance today.

Resources:

There is a lot of Matzpen material online at the multilingual website https://matzpen.org including articles by and about Jabra Nicola and articles by Moshe Machover. You can also find links there to a
documentary film about Matzpen.

Ran Greenstein, A Palestinian Revolutionary: Jabra Nicola and the Radical Left
https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/78424

Ben Reiff's article about Moshe Machover: The last first Israeli anti-Zionist
https://www.972mag.com/moshe-machover-israeli-anti-zionist-matzpen/

Adalah, an organization that fights for the rights of Palestinians in Israel (mentioned by Machover
in the episode)
https://www.adalah.org/en

A recent article cowritten by David Camfield and Charlie Post (influenced by Nicola and Machover):
https://www.tempestmag.org/2024/01/what-would-it-take-to-win-in-palestine/

Illustration by @ lizar_tistry of ideas from episode 36 of Victor’s Children, “What Kind of Anti-Imperialism?” https://www.instagram.com/p/C1pTc0Qu2Cr/?igsh=MXBzOTF6bnk3anMw

What Kind of Anti-Imperialism?

The support of the US and other Western states for the Israeli state's genocidal violence against Gaza is leading more people to learn about imperialism. There's more than one kind of anti imperialist politics, though. In this episode, Ramah Kudaimi and brian bean talk about anti-imperialism that's consistent, internationalist and looks to exploited and oppressed people globally to fight for liberation.

For further reading:

Barnaby Raine
https://breachmedia.ca/is-the-enemy-of-my-enemy-my-friend/

Rafael Bernabe
https://newpol.org/the-left-and-ukraine-anti-imperialism-or-alter-imperialism/

Palestine 101: 75 years of Colonialism, Imperialism, and Resistance

This episode is made up of presentations from a Nov. 12 online event organized by the Tempest Collective https://www.tempestmag.org, a revolutionary socialist project based in the US that now also accepts members from Canada.

Speakers:

Shireen Akram-Boshar, a contributor to Palestine: A Socialist Introduction
Brian Bean, co-editor of Palestine: A Socialist Introduction
https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1558-palestine-a-socialist-introduction
Sherry Wolf, anti-Zionist Jewish socialist; former press officer for the Russell Tribunal on Palestine