Auxiliary Statements: Recent Episodes
Jack & Dan
Post-peasant commies Dan and Jack read over bits of theory each week in an effort to understand the worldwide state of socialism.
Email: auxiliarystatements@gmail.com
the Family by Alexandra KollontaiSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/rU7FgKcnt
In which we trace Marx's development from super lib to the anti lib.Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/UwMbKkbKk
But having said that...Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/UwMbKkbKk
The line does appear to be going down.Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/wsPX2A6E
In which we welcome Phil Neel on the show to talk about the current great state of the world.Phil's substack: https://philneel.substack.com/Get Hellworld (soon): https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2813-hellworld-the-human-species-and-the-planetary-factorySend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/gZY9cQQ2
Is Britain's decline a result of long, historical trends affecting every country in capitalism? Or is it due to centuries of elite inbreeding?Reading: 'Britain is Dead' (2023) by Samuel McIlhaggaSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/HctY6Cq2
Historical party, formal party, communist party....it's all a party to me, brother.Reading: 'Theory of the Party' (2025) by Phil NeelSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/a4ZdUaA4
Turns out socialism, cybernetics and agroecology might actually just be the same thingReading: 'Potatoes Made of Oil': Eugene and Howard Odum and the Origins and Limits of American Agroecology (1997) by Mark Glen MadisonSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/WxJx6gkrt
Kautsky? More like crapsky.Reading: The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky (1918) by Vladimir LeninSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/mNrzsQQY
We've finally done it. We finally read one half of worker's councils.Reading: Workers' Councils (1942) by Anton PannekoekSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/XRun56vB
You know what, this one wasn't that good.Reading: The Continuing Appeal of Nationalism (1984) by Fredy PerlmanSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/DUT4FA2t
Kyle Tucker is a Los Angeles Dodger.Reading: Tariff Dossier (2025) edited by Heatwave Magazine, with contributions from Chuang, Jamie Merchant, Clearinghouse, Réalité, Raffaele Sciortino, Conatus Editorial and more. Just go read it all here: https://www.heatwavemag.info/dossiers/tariffs/Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/Mb6B2e48
Henry WilliamsSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/4Y9xFfPa
Why does it seem as though every political issue is being filtered through the issue of immigration? What does this say about the historical mission of socialism? Let us know when you figure it out. Reading: The Contradictions of Global Migration (2019) by Adam HaniehSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/NjEG9Q9J
With winter on its way we figured what better way to warm our hearts than getting back into the debates around the origin of capitalism?Reading: Historical Capitalism (1983) by Immanuel WallersteinSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/QFyDYwTH
In which we return to the plan for communism put together by the Group of International Communists and discuss several critiques made against its proposals.Reading: Thoughts on the ‘Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution’ (2025) by Angry Workers, Response to Angry Workers (2025) by Hermann Lueer, and On ‘The Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution' (2022) by Ian Wright.Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/3Z8zSesK
Religion (1910) by James Connolly, Pro-Palestine symbolism (2025) by Anne McShane and Trying to capture the flag (2025) by Harley FilbenSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/A3AfQgjD
In which we discuss the nature of the colonization of Palestine by the West and the fraught state the settler colony of Israel has found itself in after years of violence and economic crisis.Reading: Historical Landmarks in the Hundred Years' War on Palestine (2017) by Rashid Khalidi and Shutdown Nation (2025) by Shir HeverSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/au2uTQJz
Strategy (2023) by Isabelle GaroSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/e9fnmxYq
In which we attempt to lay a materialist history over the long, strange history of American Protestantism.Watching: The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (1994) by Mark A. NollSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/sZ3s5uKf
Say what you will about this podcast, we keep up with the culture, which is why we're watching a nearly 10 year old documentary on Trump, AI and collective politics.Watching: Hypernormalisation (2016) by Adam CurtisSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/KXt8xrkZ
In which we try to get away from the ultra-left stuff but find it vindicated by history once again :cReading: Why the American Working Class is Different (1986) (from Prisoners of the American Dream) by Mike DavisSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/Mq5d85pV
Pierre-Marie AubertSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/7cKuDtBv
In which we suss out this whole USSR thing.Reading: Epitaph for the USSR: A clock without a spring (1998) by Christopher J ArthurSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/b3rcdKyS
We're back on our bs.Reading: The Future of Revolution (2025) by Jasper BernesSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/vhhSPuUq
In which we remember the good and sane bush years.Watching: An Inconvenient Truth (2006), Davis Guggenheim & Al GoreSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/csqrrRRD
Turns out you need to do more than just read Murray Bookchin if you want to be friends with anarchists.Reading: Towards a Marxist-Anarchist Solidarity (2023) by Michael Löwy, Olivier Besancenot & David CampbellSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/TNmaRX2k
In which brave Henry Heller saves the immortal science of Marxism from the unwarranted revisionism of W O K E political marxism.Reading: "Bourgeois Revolution" from The Birth of Capitalism (2011) by Henry HellerSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/jgaCypmP
You ever noticed that the 8 hour working day is like...................the same as school, man?Reading: Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968) by Paulo FreireSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: discord.gg/Be6dQ6hv
Sure China has billionaires, a strictly enforced class system, State Owned Enterprises that are evaluated on stock market performance, private property, wage labor and commodity production but is it REALLY capitalism guysReading: Red Dust (2019) by Chuang.Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/Be6dQ6hv
In which we regain our lost optimism.Reading: Peace for our Time (2025) by Critisticuffs, The American Sulla (2025) by Edith Fischer and Notes on the War (2025) by Jack ConradSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/273xScQK
In which we inaugurate the Chantal Mouffe era of the show.Reading: Neither Vertical Nor Horizontal (2021) by Rodrigo NunesSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/EAHjv96U
Alright, this time we're really gonna figure out what dialectics is.Reading: Dialectical Thinking and Science: The Case of Richard Lewontin, Dialectical Biologist (2020) by Pierfrancesco BiasettiSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/FUpZKFE3
How do you do communal politics in an individualized, atomized world? How do you do individualism in a communal world?Reading: Antiindividualistic Individuality: Anarchism's Legacy (the early 1990s) by Gabriel KuhnSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: discord.gg/CD8wXpzc
In which the Austrians do antifascism by definitely not recreating any fascist aesthetics.Reading: Antifascism, Sports, Sobriety: Forging a Militant Working-Class Culture (2016) by Gabriel Kuhn & Julius DeutschSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/CD8wXpzc
Well after a month of being locked out of our Soundcloud account we're finally back in our social democracy era.Reading: Reform or Revolution? (1908) by Rosa LuxemburgSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/arZSSVw6
In which we try to get past our kneejerk sect bashing.Reading: "There are Parties and Then There are Parties" by Archie Woodrow, "Why a Party and What Sort?" by Mike Macnair and "The Communist Party, Yesterday and Tomorrow" by Lawrence Parker (all 2024) from Prometheus, available here: https://prometheusjournal.org/Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD:
In which we encounter the unknowable concept of the S P H E R E.Reading: The Logic of Gender (2013) from Endnotes 3 by Maya Gonzalez and Jeanne Neton.Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/4r47b7UF
banging head against the wall POLITICALCAPITALISMTECHNONEOFEUDALISMNEOLIBERALISMReading: Seven Theses on American Politics (2022) by Robert Brenner & Dylan RileySend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/G22EcdhR
SKIP THE ELECTION BANTER: 27:47In which we sneak into an academic conference and stick out like two sore thumbs.Reading: Nothin'INDEP network: https://www.indep.network/Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/vC5r2MmA
Lousy workers! Why won't you do industrial unionism?!Reading: Riot. Strike. Riot by Joshua CloverSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/4zW4DsM9
Just how bad is the looming global population decline going to be for capitalism? Will it be able to AI its way out of the productivity losses? More importantly, what does this mean for my own political project? Reading: After the Wave, Winter: Demographic Decline and the "Production of Men" in the Twenty-First Century by Jason E. Smithhttps://brooklynrail.org/2024/07/field-notes/After-the-Wave-Winter/Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: discord.gg/d3rRXNEb
Six months later, we come to the end.Chapter discussion timestamps:CLOUDS UNFOLD 8:26A COLD AND FROSTY MORNING 16:57ROUND THE BEND 33:53BURNING GOLD 1:01:18THE RAFTERS AND THE BEAMS 1:16:41THE STEPS OF ALL SAINTS 1:38:01EATING FLOWERS 1:54:30CORNERED 2:14:35THE ROOD IN THE WALL 2:27:01THE JOLLY SMOKERS 2:39:04GO SEE NOW THIS CURSED WOMAN 2:50:29CHAIN OF OFFICE 3:06:19Resources:Jerusalem Annotated - alanmoorejerusalem.wordpress.com/alan-moo…s-index/Matthew Kirshenblatt essays - sequart.org/magazine/64975/a-jo…m-work-in-progress/Readers of Jerusalem - https://www.reddit.com/r/ReadersofJerusalem/Round the Bend Translation - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-TC_xHcLM7LFW4WsNzC6dfuyBXQG-NX38Ok8qDdDvOU/edit?usp=sharingSongs:"And Did Those Feet In Ancient Time""You are my Asylum"Reading: Book Three: Vernall's Inquest and Afterlude: Chain of Office from Jerusalem (2016) by Alan MooreSend a question, comment or concern to auxiliarystatements (at) gmail (dot) comDISCORD: https://discord.com/invite/yAzMehDV
Back on our value theory bs - this week we discuss just what it is that makes a society socialist and what makes it capitalist. Is it all just vibes??Reading: The Capitalist Nature of the "Socialist" Countries (1986) by L.L MenSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/d3rRXNEb
We're back and talking pancakes bay-bee.Reading: Anton Pannekoek and the Theory of the Transition (1990) by Bob ShepardSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/pMFhHCvr
In which we record live from an orgone accumulator.Reading: Society and Mind in Marxian Philosophy (1937) and Marxism and Psychology (1938) by Anton PannekoekSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/Vs6CG8et
In which we finally finish this book and talk productive labor, production price and yeah I don't know a lot more I'm too tired to write this caption.Reading: Essays on Marx's Theory of Value, Chapters 17-19 (1923) by I. I. RubinSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/6QVe5kbp
In which we finally stop joking about reading Lenin and actually do it.Reading: The State and Revolution (1917) by Vladimir LeninSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/QScuasDH
Is Marxism science? Is science Marxism? Is the strategy of patience all it's cracked up to be? What about all this riot business? All these questions and more answered by the podcast's second ever repeat guest, Viv Soni as we discuss his recent essay in the journal The Black Lamp.Reading: High priests of telescopes and cyclotrons: Marxism and revolutionary strategy as science (2024) by Vivak Sonihttps://www.black-lamp.com/posts/high-priests-of-telescopes-and-cyclotrons-marxism-and-revolutionary-strategy-as-scienceSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: discord.gg/c7QwVz26
Abstract labor eh? Seems like a simple enough concept.Reading: Essays on Marx's Theory of Value, Chapters 12-16 (1923) by I. I. RubinSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/c7QwVz26
In which we have a look back at what hasn't worked, and why it will continue to not work.Reading: Reflections on the Economics of Socialism (2022) by Nick RogersSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/daKyRFAW
Well this just keeps getting better. In this episode, Jack pretends he knows anything about occultism.Reading: Book Two: Mansoul from Jerusalem (2016) by Alan MooreChapter discussion timestamps:Resources:Jerusalem Annotated - alanmoorejerusalem.wordpress.com/alan-moo…s-index/Matthew Kirshenblatt essays - sequart.org/magazine/64975/a-jo…m-work-in-progress/Songs:"And Did Those Feet In Ancient Time""Whispering Grass (Don't Tell The Trees)"Send a question, comment or concern to auxiliarystatements (at) gmail (dot) comDISCORD: discord.gg/YkEg2Xad
In which we theorize the potential for a protracted people's war in the outer suburbs of Miami.Reading: Philosophy of the Urban Guerrilla, Section III - What Can Be Done? (1973) by Abraham GuillénSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/xUqsPs24
Back on the value theory grind...Reading: Essays on Marx's Theory of Value, Section Two - Marx's Labor Theory of Value, Chapters 8-11 (1923) by I. I. RubinSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/fDdf6qkx
In which recently departed podcast favorite Loren Goldner discusses the immense promises and successes of the anarchists in Spain, as well as their eventual (and perhaps inevitable) defeat.Reading: "The Spanish revolution, past and future: grandeur and poverty of anarchism; how the working class takes over (or doesn't), then and now" from Revolution, Defeat & Theoretical Underdevelopment (2016) by Loren GoldnerSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/BBFGvD89
Well here it is, the episode no one asked for. A three hour plunge into the first section of Alan Moore's masterpiece Jerusalem.Reading: Prelude "A Work in Progress" & Book One: The Boroughs from Jerusalem (2016) by Alan MooreChapter discussion timestamps:Prelude - 12:03A Host of Angles - 36:00ASBOs of Desire - 50:48Rough Sleepers - 1:14:10X Marks the Spot - 1:32:56Modern Times - 1:49:34Blind, but Now I See - 1:59:50Atlantis - 2:15:28Do as You Darn Well Pleasey - 2:27:18The Breeze That Plucks Her Apron - 2:38:47Hark! The Glad Sound! - 2:52:28Choking on a Tune - 3:01:05Resources:Jerusalem Annotated - https://alanmoorejerusalem.wordpress.com/alan-moore-annotations-index/Matthew Kirshenblatt essays - http://sequart.org/magazine/64975/a-journey-through-alan-moores-jerusalem-work-in-progress/Songs:"And Did Those Feet In Ancient Time""Hark! The Glad Sound!""Amazing Grace""Do As You Darn Well Please-y""Whispering Grass (Don't Tell The Trees)"Send a question, comment or concern to auxiliarystatements (at) gmail (dot) comDISCORD: discord.gg/YkEg2Xad
Value theory?? On auxiliary statements???Reading: Essays on Marx's Theory of Value, Section One - Marx's Theory of Commodity Fetishism (1923) by I. I. RubinSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: discord.gg/YkEg2Xad
Back on our ultra-left bs. If we don't read some Lenin soon, people will begin to talk...Reading: Hinterland (2018) by Phil A. NeelSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/YkEg2Xad
In an effort to understand the philosophy of technology and our relationship to it as humans, we turn to a 60 year old essay by Murray Bookchin.Reading: Towards a Liberatory Technology (1965) by Murray BookchinSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/YpmDM5Sd
We finally decided it would be best if we solved quantum mechanics. Big thanks to Viv for coming on and helping us out. Find his work at The Black Lamp: www.black-lamp.comReading: The Crisis in Physics (1937) by Christopher CaudwellSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/gGh5Xe8k
This episode we a classic Moishe Postone essay in an attempt to further our understanding of the abstract domination of capital, and how misunderstandings of it tend to very often manifest themselves in violent and unspeakable ways.Reading: "Anti-semitism and National Socialism" (1980) by Moishe PostoneSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/a4ZpAg4G
Auxiliary Statements is back to reading Capital?!? Well, just the last section. We had to go back to our origin of capitalism bugbear sometime, after all. And maybe we should have just read this first.Reading: Capital, Section 8: The So-Called Primitive Accumulation (1867) by Karl MarxSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/vfDswHX6
Well folks, here it is. Our big value theory episode. In this ep we discuss what it is that most people get wrong about value theory, and why using the David Harvey companion may not be the best idea for first time readers of Capital.Huge thanks to Mark again for coming on and setting us straight.Reading: A Companion to David Harvey's Companion to Marx's Capital (2014) by CritisticuffsThe Harvey article can be found at critisticuffs.org, and if you want to ask about or challenge anything in the article, or what Mark said in the podcast, you can email critisticuffs@riseup.net.Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/D3GJb2SU
If you aren't sure what family abolition means...you are not alone. In fact, its meaning has changed drastically over the course of capitalism's development. So what could it mean today?Reading: "To Abolish the Family" (2018) by M.E. O'Brien from endnotes 5https://endnotes.org.uk/articles/to-abolish-the-family.pdfSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/D9GMkz6F
Well we held off as long as we could, but we're back to discussing transition debate stuff. This time we attempt to take on Japan's unique path to capitalism and its equally unique brand of "feudalism."Reading: "Japanese Feudalism" from Lineages of the Absolutist State (1974) by Perry Anderson and "The Prussia of the East?"(1991) by Perry AndersonSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/xXDUMZ2a
That's right dear listener, we've somehow actually made it to 100 episodes. From those articles in Tribune & Jacobin in episode two, to reading the man himself, it's safe to say we've come a long way. For this special episode, we returned to Marx's Critique of the Gotha Program with fresh perspectives. Strap in, because this is one of our longest episodes yet.Here's to 100 more.Reading: Critique of the Gotha Program (1875) by Karl MarxSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/Z9s3vBAq
Emancipatory religion rooted in proto-communism? Heh. Sorry bub. Don't you know I'm an......atheist???Reading: "Religion and Politics Today From a Marxian Perspective" (2008) by Gilbert AchcarSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/MWPap7xJ
Well it's probably about time we approached the question of what role the exploitation and appropriation of African labor both before and during colonization played in the development of capitalism. Turns out, it was quite a large one. Reading: Chapters 3-5 from How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972) by Walter RodneySend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/FAgdS9UD
Unfortunately, we are back to discussing Althusser.Critisticuffs piece (specifically That Economy section): https://critisticuffs.org/texts/fantastic-thoughts-and-where-to-find-themGegenstandpunkt piece: https://en.gegenstandpunkt.com/books/work-and-wealth-2nd-revised-editionReading: The Problem of the Capitalist State by Nicos Poulantzas (1969) and Poulantzas and the Capitalist State by Ralph Miliband (1973)Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/YbYWuadV
In which two non-scientists discuss agricultural research and the philosophy of science.Reading: Chapters 8-11 of The Dialectical Biologist (1985) by Richard Lewontin and Richard LevinsSend us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/KQGJNY3G
Wait wait wait - you're telling me some proles are getting bourgeois-ified?!?? And some bourgeois are getting aristocratizied?!!???Reading: "The Bourgeois(ie) as Concept and Reality" (1988) by Immanuel Wallerstein Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.comDISCORD: https://discord.gg/XaTRvyGZ
SURELY no self-proclaimed socialist would be out here defending reactionary despots and the regimes they uphold right?? SURELY THERE HAVE NEVER been communists that would have supported the commie killing, anti socialist Turkish developmental regime right?! Not any of our favorite historical figures right? Right?!?
Reading: "'Socialism in One Country' Before Stalin and the Origins of Reactionary 'Anti-Imperialism': The Case of Turkey" from Revolution, defeat and theoretical underdevelopment (2016) by Loren Goldner
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/FSjt5xd6 LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast
This week we tackle the for some reason controversial topic of economic degrowth. Should we be shrinking our economies to match utility based production? Or should we just end the world? A very tricky question to ponder indeed.
Reading: "Planned Degrowth" by John Bellamy Foster "Planning Degrowth" by Kent Klitgaard "Planning and the Ecosocialist Mode of Cooperation" by Nicolas Graham "Degrowth and Socialism" by Guney Isikara and Ozgur Narin "On Technology and Degrowth" by Jason Hickel All from Monthly Review vol 75 no 3 July/August
DISCORD: discord.gg/QaTEMTk9 LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast
Somehow, we're back to the communizers. What makes the common prole decide revolution is the best course of action? And what can mae the long awaited (and first ever) communist revolution actually stick? I don't know. Something about the prisoner's dilemma I guess.
Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.com
Reading: Revolutionary Motives (2019) by Jasper Bernes https://endnotes.org.uk/issues/5m
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/HGk5wbn3 LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast
This week, Dan and Jack discuss indigenous philosophy in an attempt to answer the question of what we can learn from pre-capitalist societies. Say goodbye to your teleological Marxism, friends.
Send us a question, comment or valid concern: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.com
Reading: Karl Marx and Radical Indigenous Critiques of Capitalism (2022) by Nodrada https://nodrivers.medium.com/karl-marx-and-radical-indigenous-critiques-of-capitalism-fd27169c357
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/qFVuhVs2K LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast
In which the fellas do their best to plod through the history of the transition from the Imperial Chinese tributary mode to the socialist developmental regime of the CCP.
Send us an email: auxiliarystatements(at)gmail.com
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/BXgVXqTp LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast
We are back at this systems theory business attempting to answer the question of just how we can de-alienate our workplaces. Last week a listener named Roger reached out with some of the ideas he's come across in researching democratic workplace systems. He sent us some critiques of the VSM as well as the essays linked below and we figured how better to explain them to you than to have him on the show.
Reading: The Socio-Technical Systems Perspective by Eric Trist and The Volvo Uddevalla Plant by Christian Berggren http://moderntimesworkplace.com/archives/ericsess/sessvol2/SESS_Volume_2_Contents_Intro/sess_volume_2_contents_intro.htm https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227615824_The_Volvo_Uddevalla_Plant
If you play Half Earth Socialism, go check out the guide written by Roger: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/375003-half-earth-socialism/faqs/80384
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/qFVuhVs2K LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast
Well here we go reading entirely unnecessary accounts of century-old communist strategy again. What is democratic centralism? Whatever you want it to be, baby.Reading: Party Organization in Lenin’s Comintern (2020) by John Riddell https://johnriddell.com/2020/11/08/party-organization-in-lenins-comintern/DISCORD: https://discord.gg/wMYg8TWhWuLINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast
Link to full essay & much, much more: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CtzmDZk0j1jeoygovUndoI7sZJ7pZg3U?usp=sharingA few months ago a listener of ours named Will sent us this essay on how we can begin thinking about planned, sustainable food systems. It blew both of us away so, will his permission, we're going to be releasing a recording of it over the next few weeks. This is the second part and it covers Marx, Economic Planning, and Sustainable Industry.
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/wMYg8TWhWuLINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcastWell we held off as long as we could, but now we're back on our leftcom bs. What do socdems and fascists have in common? Well, yeah. A lot in fact.Reading: "Worker's Control" "Revolutionary Marxism" and "Karl Kautsky: From Marx to Hitler" by Paul Mattick Sr. (all from the Council Communist Reader)
Link to full essay & much, much more: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CtzmDZk0j1jeoygovUndoI7sZJ7pZg3U?usp=sharingA few months ago a listener of ours named Will sent us this essay on how we can begin thinking about planned, sustainable food systems. It blew both of us away so, will his permission, we're going to be releasing a recording of it over the next few weeks. This is the second part and it covers System Scaling, Ley Systems, and the Ecological City.
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/wMYg8TWhWuLINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcastAlright this week we've finally done it. We hAVE COMPREHENDED THE DIALECTIC - maybe, who knows. But we do have a nice chat about evolution and dump all over Richard Dawkins. So it's a good time.Reading: "On Evolution" from The Dialectical Biologist (1985) by Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin
Link to full essay & much, much more: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CtzmDZk0j1jeoygovUndoI7sZJ7pZg3U?usp=sharingA few months ago a listener of ours named Will sent us this essay on how we can begin thinking about planned, sustainable food systems. It blew both of us away so, will his permission, we're going to be releasing a recording of it over the next few weeks. This is the first part and it covers soil, ecology and just what it means to build food systems.
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/wMYg8TWhWu (if this link don't work message us on twitter)LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcastVery special ep for you today as we sat down with podcast Mt. Rushmore head Jason W. Moore to talk ecology, strategy, and just what this whole dialectic thing actually is.
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/wMYg8TWhWu (if this link don't work message us on twitter)LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcastToday we tackle the complicated era of the reconstruction of the American South after the Civil War. What role did the control of a subjugated labor labor force play in a supposedly post-slavery South? What was the burgeoning industrial proletariat doing during all this? How can we finish reconstruction? All questions we at the very least, ask.Reading: A Short History of Reconstruction (1990) by Eric Foner.
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/wMYg8TWhWu (if this link don't work message us on twitter)LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcastThis week the lads welcome their friend Donal to the show to talk about his upcoming publication in The Black Lamp tentatively titled "Social Object Viability Strategy." Donal is out here combining labor time accounting in the vein of Jan Appel and the GIC with cybernetics and broader systems theory - in other words, he can teach your faithful podcast hosts a thing or two.Donal: @DonalOC91 on twitterCheck out the book Donal is writing with Tom from From Alpha To Omega here: https://theclasslesssocietyinmotion.com/
DISCORD: discord.gg/wMYg8TWhWu (if this link don't work message us on twitter)LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcastWell we're back trying to sort out this whole 'what can we do about capitalism' thing. Comninel boldly claims that 'Marx was not a Leninist' in this week's reading as we learn what it was that made the First International so unique and worthy of daddy Marx's time.Reading: 'Inaugural Address to the IWA' (1864) by Karl Marx & 'Marx and the Politics of the First International' (2014) by George Comninel
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/wMYg8TWhWuLINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcastWell we're back with another episode on our old bugbear - the origin of capitalism. Just what is a transition between productive modes? How did the reproduction of labor power change between feudalism and capitalism? How did the family unit come about? All questions we may or may not have answers to as we take on this classic of Marxist history.Reading: "All the World Needs a Jolt" & "The Accumulation of Labor and the Degradation of Women" in Caliban and the Witch (2004) by Silvia Federici
DISCORD: discord.gg/4Fhbu6fSa6LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcastWell folks, we're back finishing off Fossil Capital. Is there any hope? How can we take power as a class? Are we going to get 4 degrees of warming? All very dire questions, so we distract ourselves by talking some more ecology. Maybe if we talk about it enough we can figure it all out....Reading: "Fossil Capital" (2015) by Andreas Malm, Chapters 9-16.
DISCORD: discord.gg/4Fhbu6fSa6LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcastThis week its back to the familiar and much loved Auxiliary Statements format. After a couple of episodes spent welcoming excellent and exceedingly informative guests to the show the dunces are back at the helm. This episode Jack and Dan get stuck into Fossil Capital by Andreas Malm. Continuing there ecological crisis reading series the lads learn all about how and why fossil fuel became the prime mover of British industry and in turn the primary source of power behind capitalisms growth during the industrial revolution.
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/4Fhbu6fSa6LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcastTwo interviews in a row!? Wow Dan and Jack must really be trying to get through a big book. This week we had the pleasure of talking to none other than @Grossmanite himself Ted Reese about the looming final crisis of capitalism, war, ecology, and permaculture based false flag operations. Find out more about Ted's work as well as where to buy his books and show him some support at the link below.https://linktr.ee/grossmanite
DISCORD: discord.gg/bJtAEbFSLINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcastSpecial one today folks as Dan and Jack sat down with their good friend Agata to discuss the Socialist Party in the Netherlands, Maoism as well as the revolutionary organization Communist Platform. CP is a communist cadre based off of the ideas in Mike MacNair's Revolutionary Strategy.
DISCORD: discord.gg/bJtAEbFS LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast
This week our portly podcast hosts take a break from the historical materialisms and the dialectics and the Brenner debates to talk about the only good thing - growing your own food. What will a just agroecological food system look like? Is it compatible with socialism? Probz. I dunno.
Reading: Visions of the Food System to Come: Agriculture, Eating, and Ecological Justice in 2050 (2021) by Bryan Dale, Matilda Dipieri, Madeleine Frechette, and Hannah Klemmensen
DISCORD: discord.gg/bJtAEbFS LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast
LEARN HOW TO DO HISTORICAL MATERIALISM IN 3 EASY STEPS!!
This week your fearless podcast hosts sit down to discuss the nature of the french revolution...and just how wrong Marx may have been about it. For answers, we turn to Marx. Lousy Marxists...they ruined Marxism.
Reading: Rethinking the French Revolution by George Comninel (1987)
DISCORD: discord.gg/bJtAEbFS LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast
Well I guess it's time to start talking about crisis, eh? It's probably no coincedence this essay was written in 1934 and we're reading this now. Why does capitalism seem to always fall into crisis ever 5-10 years? Is there anything we can do to stop it? How tall is this Rishi Sunak fellow anyway?
Reading: "The Permanent Crisis - Henryk Grossman’s Interpretation of Marx’s Theory Of Capitalist Accumulation" by Paul Mattick (1934)
DISCORD: discord.gg/bJtAEbFS LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast
WELL FOLKS, here we are again, rounding out this three-parter with a dialectal, ecological, Marxical reading of crisis and our relationship to the broader web of life. Is there a final capitalist crisis coming? Or will we be able to appropriate our way out of it?
Reading: Capitalism in the Web of Life (2015) by Jason W. Moore
DISCORD: discord.gg/bJtAEbFS LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast
Jack and Dan can put it off no longer. This week they return to Jason W. Moore’s ‘Capitalism in the web of life’ for a discussion of part two of the book focusing on the place of ecology in capitalisms ongoing cycles of crisis. Will there be an ecologically driven final crisis of capitalism?
Reading: Capitalism in the Web of Life (2015) by Jason W. Moore
DISCORD: discord.gg/bJtAEbFS LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast
Here we are rounding out our unofficial/official 'Bad Man Trilogy' of Errol Morris films about, well, bad white guys. This time we take on Trump aide Steve Bannon in an attempt to answer the question tragedy, farce, or something much, much stupider?
DISCORD: discord.gg/bJtAEbFS LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast
We are back on our ecology bs. But this week it isn't all doom and gloom as we tackle the first part of Jason Moore's Capitalism in the Web of Life, a D I A L E C T I C A L contribution to the Marxist ecology debates. This one tested us, but maybe we came out the other side better off?
Reading: Capitalism in the Web of Life (2015) by Jason W. Moore
DISCORD: discord.gg/bJtAEbFS LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast
This week Jack and Dan explore the history of the inception of the US constitution. A text that is sold to us as being an abstract work of pure political theory, inspired by high minded ideals and revolutionary intent; a work with semi-divine provenance. Instead it is discovered it is in fact a document that finds its origin in the corruption, venality and self serving nature of the founders and one that was ratified under circumstances that amount to a de facto coup d'etat.
Reading: An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States by Charles A. Beard (1913)
DISCORD: discord.gg/bJtAEbFS LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast
I ask you, humble listener, does it get any better than this? Reading Murray Bookchin on a Wednesday afternoon. No it does not. This week the fellas discuss the influence of systems theory, Marxism & anthropology on the ecotopian ideas of none other than the man himself...Murray Bookchin.
Reading: "The Power to Create, The Power to Destroy" (1979) & "Toward an Ecological Society" (1975) by Murray Bookchin.
DISCORD: discord.gg/bJtAEbFS LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast VSM Explainer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPnWVg7CSIg
We are back in business with an ep re-discussing Stafford Beer's Viable System Model. We even spitball about how it could be applied to some kindaaaaaaa left wing political project. And I know what you're thinking...socialists being organized?! Stranger things have happened!!
Reading: Diagnosing the System for Organizations (1985) by Stafford Beer
DISCORD: discord.gg/bJtAEbFS LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast
This week we learned all about the global, existential, horrifying threat of avian flus and their relationship to the capitalist mode of production. Then we learned all about the Chinese state. Then we had a breakdown.
This is also now a xXstraightXedgeXx vegan podcast now.
Reading: Social Contagion (2021) by Chuang https://chuangcn.org/2020/02/social-contagion/ Bonus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI-bXCJOTBs
DISCORD: discord.gg/bJtAEbFS LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast
Well folks, the lads finally did it. They finished End Notes #1. And all it took was their sanity.
Reading, Endnotes 1 (2008) endnotes.org.uk/issues/1
DISCORD: discord.gg/bJtAEbFS LINKTREE: https://linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast
Reading, Endnotes 1 (2008) - Intro and Chapter 1 https://endnotes.org.uk/issues/1
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/JGGu5MGN LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast
Well well well, look who it is, back again. You! The dear listener. God bless you. This week the lads attempt to untangle the mess of ideas that always seem to assert themselves under the banner of being 'anti work.' What does that mean? Is it viable as a movement? Whether it's Tang ping or r/antiwork, we're here to figure it alllllll out.
Reading: The Tangpingist Manifesto - https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anonymous-tangpingist-manifesto
This week Dan & Jack return from their COVID hiatus to finish up Perry Anderson's C L A S S I C text and talk feudalism. Specifically, what was it, where did it come from, how did it differ from place to place and what caused its seemingly inevitable crisis and collapse.
Reading - Part 2 - ''Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism'' (1974) by Perry Anderson
DISCORD: discord.gg/bJtAEbFS LINKTREE: https://linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast
Following up on their interview with June Reith a few weeks back, Jack and Dan decided for this show to take her advice and read Designing Freedom by business consultant and cybernetician Stafford Beer. First delivered as a series of radio lectures in 1973, designing freedom is a scathing critique of the principles of organisation that underlay contemporary social institutions and an impassioned appeal for change. Beer outlines how we might design a social system that, instead of ossification, decay and crisis, has freedom as its output.
The lads also endeavor to work out how these principles might contribute to how we understand the task of setting up a socialist society and also what effective socialist organisations would look like if they we influenced by Beerian cybernetics.
Text: https://monoskop.org/images/e/e3/Beer_Stafford_Designing_Freedom.pdf
Audio: https://archive.org/details/DesigningFreedom_CBC_Lectures
This week's art is by Tom: https://www.instagram.com/thomasagreenwood/
Very special episode this week as we sat down with June Reith of General Intellect Unit to discuss systems theory, burning our Kautsky and left organization tactics! Reading: 'The Tree of Knowledge' by Maturana and Varela
DISCORD: discord.gg/Ym8Bwmaz LINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/Ym8Bwmaz LINKTREE: https://linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcast
This week Jack and Dan cover the first half of Anderson’s classic book on the transition to feudalism. They cover the rise of the slave mode of production in Antiquity from its initial emergence as a solution to class struggle in Greece to its peak during thee Roman Empire. Whilst this mode of production allowed the ancient states to reach stunning cultural heights it was also wracked with internal contradictions that would be its undoing. The eventual crisis was one of an under supply of slaves and whilst the eventual demise of Western Roman Empire was a protracted affair, when the invaders came, their fate was sealed by weaknesses stemming from the mode of production. According to Anderson a new synthesis developed over the next several centuries, a synthesis of two political economies in crisis and decay. It was the melding of Roman and Germanic ways of life that gave rise to the feudal mode of production.
Reading - Part 1 - ''Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism'' (1974) by Perry Anderson
Alright, we're finally drawing some conclusions about the whole 'MILITANCY' thing. Universal conscription sounds scary...but what if it wasn't?
Reading: Repression Breeds Resistance: The Black Liberation Army and the Radical Legacy of the Black Panther Party by Akinyele Umoja from "Setting Sights" (Scott Crow) Rittenhouse and white backlash by Daniel Lazare https://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1373/rittenhouse-and-white-backlash/ Our gun rights too by Paul Demarty https://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1374/our-gun-rights-too/
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/bJtAEbFS
Is there even still a working class to hang our hopes and dreams on? What is revolutionary agency? Who has it? Is tea even good? All these questions answered today AND MORE as we dive back into longtime friend of the show Mike Davis.
Plus, a special listener comment!
Reading: Old Gods. New Enigmas (2018) by Mike Davis
Today the fellas have a gander at some Irish history and open up a wider discussion on revolutionary agency, marxism & nationalism and the nature of the Irish working class.
Reading: Rethinking national marxism: James Connolly and ‘Celtic Communism’ (2003) by David Lloyd
Its the final instalment of the Revolutionary Strategy reading series! Jack and Dan finish the book and use Mike Macnair’s 14 point outline of his strategic outlook as a frame for their discussion. Drawing on the contents of the book as a whole, and particularly the final three chapters, the lads outline the contents of the Kautskyism Plus strategy presented by Macnair.
Macnair is broadly in alignment with Kautsky when it comes to his advocacy of a strategy of patience. Building a workers party and a broader workers movement is a process that cannot be rushed and that requires gradual and progressive work by committed activists. Where Macnair diverges from the ‘pope’ of Marxism is over two questions: those of the state and internationalism. For Macnair, second international Marxism was a project far to committed to work within the bourgeois state rather than opposing it. Likewise it was far to centred on the national rather than the international fight for working class power. Marxism should be substantially internationalist. It was these two failings that lead to the catastrophe of 1914.
The aim of Marxist strategy is to set the conditions necessary for the working class to challenge for state power. The workers party must be a party of opposition. Not a loyal opposition but a disloyal one. A party prepared not to take over the running of the state but to smash it and build anew in its own image.
Alright FINE we'll stop talking about Brenner and Meiksins-Wood for a minute, but ONLY A MINUTE.
Today our fine chunky chaps talk world systems theory in an effort to broaden their horizons and understand how class operates on a systemic level. Or something like that.
Reading: The Rise and Future Demise of the World Capitalist System: Concepts for Comparative Analysis (1974) by Immanuel Wallerstein and THE CRITIQUE OF WORLD-SYSTEM THEORY: CLASS RELATIONS OR DIVISION OF LABOR (1984) by Albert Bergesen
On this weeks show Jack and Dan read two essays written by C. L. R. James. James analyses the rise and historic significance of Nazi fascism from a Marxist perspective. He makes the case for seeing Nazism, not as a unique political and economic system in contrast to a broader European political economy, but instead reads it as an outgrowth and extension of broader capitalist society.
German fascism is presented as a reaction to the crisis of capitalism, a response of the capitalist class to the threat posed by the workers movement. Hitler is presented as being enabled by the German bourgeoisie, and the appeasement of the western not a product of cowardice but a response of tacit acquiescence to the new regime in Berlin.
The lads use James’ analysis to inform their ongoing considerations on revolutionary defeatism and the stratigraphic questions that result from the realities of capitalist wars. Was there a revolutionary moment that coincided with WW2 or was the necessity to defeat fascism the sole imperative that precluded the possibility of a proletarian class independent response.
Reading: Capitalist Society and the War (1940) and The Lesson of Germany (1945) by C,L,R,James.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/james-clr/works/1940/07/capitalism-war.htm
https://www.marxists.org/archive/james-clr/works/1945/05/lesson-germany.htm
This week we decide once and for all just what the left is and who we should be excluding!! Just kidding, but we do talk the problem of left unity. You've got to draw a line somewhere.
Also up for discussion is the question of how to relate to our nation's various imperial wars and the international nature of the working class.
Woo hoo!
Reading: Revolutionary Strategy: Marxism and the challenge of left unity by Mike Macnair (2008)
archive.cpgb.org.uk/assets/files/re…trategy%202.pdf
Whilst waiting for their guests to arrive Jack and Dan sit down for a chat about their podcasting journey so far. One year in, have they learnt anything. The lads talk Corbyn and Sanders and tease out the extent of their ongoing relationship with the radical Social Democratic politics of the kindly grandads of the parliamentary anglophone left.
Jack and Dan talk about the somewhat disparate topics discussed on the podcast so far and work on putting the pieces of the puzzle together. They talk: theories of history and the transition to capitalism; fundamental principles for a social and economic transition to communism; and, of cause, appropriate political strategies for the task at hand.
The lads also endeavour to identify the podcasts canon, what is the Auxiliary Statements party line? Upon what points of theoretical minutia is this two man sect founded? The hope being to challenge that canon in future episodes.
Well folks with strikes in the air in the United States your shimmering podcast hosts dive into Rosa Luxemburg's classic study of 1905 Russia and the mass strike as a strategy for revolution.
McNair calls Luxemburg part of the left tradition, but Dan and Jack separate the wheat from the chaff and figure out just what it is about Luxemburg that makes her part of the 'left' tendency,
Reading: The Mass Strike by Rosa Luxemburg (1906)
This week we decided it was about time to have a gander at some history. Turns out, history is pretty brutal.
Reading: Chapter 1 "Lust for Gold, Lust for Silver" from The Open Veins of Latin America (1971) by Eduardo Galeano.
The long awaited "baseball episode" is finally here, folks, as today we're joined by Bobby Wagner of the socialist baseball podcast Tipping Pitches.
Today we talk the looming deadline for the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the players in the MLB and the owners of the teams, the exploitation of minor leaguers and why the Giants are bad.
Huge thanks again to Bobby! Go check out his show! And buy a shirt!! Links below!!!!
CONSUME: https://tippingpitches.myshopify.com/ ENJOY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4GYOatQjKlvePSZ1GkjA1T?si=RIzEXT3wReSexaKQOyNgYg&dl_branch=1
Following on from last weeks discussion of Hal Draper's strategy of the Marxist centre, Jack and Dan consult another canonical text of contemporary Marxism this week; Mike Macnair’s Revolutionary Strategy.
With an emphasis on the Second International, and the German SPD more specificity, Macnair outlines the differences in strategy that defined the key debates within turn of the century Marxism. What does it mean to be a centrist in the context of the Marxist movement? What defines the politics of the left and right wings of Marxist?
Reading. Revolutionary strategy: Marxism and the challenge of left unity by Mike Macnair (2008)
https://archive.cpgb.org.uk/assets/files/resources/Revolutionary%20Strategy%202.pdf
This week the lads once again humble themselves at the alter of the ever apposite font of revolutionary wisdom; Hal draper. This time Jack and Dan explore the ins and outs of the sect, that inescapable nadir of left political organisation. What is a sect, why do they come about, are they inescapable, and what is their historical impact and legacy?
The sect, it turns out, is not the way to build and support an active workers movement; history has proven this to be the case. So now what? Draper offers us the model of the political and Marxist ‘centre’. They boys discuss how this would differ from the sect model and how it could inform socialist practice today.
Reading: Anatomy of the Micro-Sect by Hal Draper (1973)
https://www.marxists.org/archive/draper/1973/xx/microsect.htm
Boy revolutions can be a nasty business, eh? Especially that French one. It was kind of a pain in the neck, but once it was over it was a weight off of a lot of people's shoulders, am I right?
This week rotund podcast hosts Dan and Jack take a look at Marx's writings on the French Revolution in an effort to understand what political revolutions can and cannot accomplish. Is there ever a right time for revolution? Or will they always end in bloody tragedy?
Reading: "The French Revolution and the terror: the achievements and limits of political revolution" from The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx by Shlomo Avineri (1968)
All good things must come to an end...no we don't mean our old friend JFK (or RFK for that matter) we mean the time has come to put The Devil's Chessboard to rest.
This is our final episode on David Talbot's classic tome and it's left us with some questions: what was the class composition of the fellas that killed JFK? what place does this type of crankery have in socialism? where have all our beautiful independent researchers gone?
This episode is sponsored by Dresser Industries in cooperation with Zapata Petroleum.
Reading: Part III, The Devil’s Chessboard (2015), David Talbot
Alright here it is friends, the episode where we solve the JFK assassination.
Not much else to say. Think we solved this one forever. Not that complicated tbh. This was recorded in a marathon podcasting session and next week's episode will be the fourth and final part on our series on The Devil's Chessboard. But don't worry, we'll be back with more crankery sometime down the line. We barely even talked about the B*shes!
Reading: Part III, The Devil’s Chessboard (2015), David Talbot
This week, we sat down to watch BBC's Cuba! Africa! Revolution!, a documentary all about Cuba's internationalist adventures in the African continent. And tell you what, we here at Auxiliary Statements are not above admitting this is the first time we've been exposed to this absolutely kick ass era of history.
Turns out Cuba was involved not only in helping out Congolese freedom fighters after friend of the podcast Patrice Lumumba was assassinated, but they also got involved in Burkina Faso and Angola in dramatic fashion. We do our best this week to relate those stories as we kick of a bit of a "Cuba series"....what could that mean? Only time will tell. But let's just say it doesn't end well for one very plucky and sickly Boston Irishman.
Watching: Cuba! Africa! Revolution (aka Cuba, an African Oddessy, dir. Jihan El-Tahri (2007).
Those few faithful listeners will know we've been flirting with the idea of worker's parties and how on earth we're supposed to build a mass movement recently...and we haven't really gotten anywhere those questions.
So we did the sensible thing and brought on someone who actually knows what they're talking about. That's right everybody we got the one and only Cliff Connolly to talk about two articles he wrote for Cosmonaut Magazine - "Build a Mass Party!" and "Revolutionary Discipline and Sobriety".
Topics include autonomism vs. the mass party, the role of the cadre, socialist cultural institutions and sobriety amongst revolutionaries. This one's a good'un, folks!
Check out Cliff's articles below: https://cosmonautmag.com/2021/02/create-a-mass-party/ https://cosmonautmag.com/2020/08/revolutionary-discipline-and-sobriety-2/
Jack and Dan continue their adventure through the classical Marxists modes of production. This week the lads find themselves in the slave states of ancient Athens and Rome once again under the trusted tutelage of Ellen Meiksins Wood. To what extent does this ancient civilisations mode of production deserve the descriptor ‘slave’? To what extent was production dominated by slavery and how did the peculiar and unique civil, legal and political status of the free citizen affect class relations.
Contrast is also drawn between the democracy that defined politics in the ancient world and its modern iteration. In what way do the economic class relations of capitalism and particularly its historically unique form of exploitative class relation preclude in a modern context a form of democracy analogues to that found in the ancient world.
Reading: Ellen Meiksins Wood, Labour and Democracy, Ancient and Modern. From Democracy Against Capitalism, Renewing Historical Materialism (1995)
Jack and Dan might well be flirting with primitivism once again this week as the lads find themselves asking the question, was the Neolithic agricultural ‘revolution’ ultimately a mistake for human civilisation; a back step and not the moment of its genesis? For it turns out, according to Marshall Sahlins, Palaeolithic humans may well have had it made!
For Sahlins, pre-agricultural life, far from being haunted by want, hunger and privation, was in fact a form of life that provided both food and leisure time in abundance. This isn’t to say that everything was rosy for our primitive communist forbears, life certainly had its hardships. But it’s certainly not the case that this early mode of production was simply a hurdle to be overcome on the onward march of civilisation. Palaeolithic life was as rich, stable and cultured as any other mode of human economic existence.
Also up for discussion, black holes, baseball trades and some considerations on emo!
Reading: Marshall Sahlins, The Original Affluent Society (1968)
https://libcom.org/files/Sahlins%20-%20Stone%20Age%20Economics.pdf
Another 10 episodes, another recap.
Well folks, we like to think we've come a long way since out first few episodes. This week we talk about what's changed our thinking in the last ten episodes, specifically in regard to the system of socialism outlined in the Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution.
How do we materialize working class anger? How can we help bring the class struggle to its conclusion? Well, Dan and Jack sit down this week and attempt to answer just those very questions.
Reading: The sum total of the human experience.
What is it with all these billionaire and why do they keep going to space? Your stalwart hosts have decided its long passed time we put a stop to these antics! How you ask. By putting an end to the dictatorial reign of capitalism that enforces the conditions necessary for the existence of your Bransons and your Bezoses and by implementing a new class based regime in its place, one that will set the conditions necessary for socialism.
That’s right, this week Jack and Dan discuss the concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat. They discover that in actual fact it wasn’t all that important a term to Marx and Engels who use it only under specific conditions and in certain debates. Far from representing the authoritarian core of Marx’s thought and his ultimate culpability in the horrors of the soviet union, the term, when put in proper context, represents his commitment to democracy and his horror at the dictatorial aspirations of some of his revolutionary peers.
In the end the lads find that in reality it’s a term that needn’t feature prominently in socialist political discourse; unless of cause you find yourself in frequent debate with Blanquists!
Reading: Hal draper, The ‘Dictatorship of the Proletariat’ in Marx and Engels (1987)
The third and final part of our Emmy award winning Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution series HAS ARRIVED!
It's been a dang good read folks, and in this ep you'll hear our concluding thoughts on this whole communism thing, just how viable it is, how much faith we have in the general system of councils and what the Dictatorship of the Proletariat might actually look like. We also apologize for killing Donald Rumsfeld with our bad vibes and set that energy to work in other spheres of the American capitalist aristocracy.
Once again...this book rocks!!!
Reading - Chapters 12-17 of "Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution" by the Group of International Communists (1930?).
Well folks for the first time in Aux Statements history we won't be bringing you our scheduled programming. However! Fear not. Jack is bringing you a half-assed Adjunct Statements to give you something.
In this ep, Jack reads an essay he wrote for no discernible reason about discontentment with capitalism in fantasy. He compares Ursula Le Guin's "A Wizard of Earthsea" with Tolkien's "The Silmarillion" to make the point that yeah...we all hate capitalism.
Reading: Some crap. Read it here - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XR85aC3EZoo2KszKE9mlYNtwSSkP9NvI/view?usp=sharing
You've been waiting long enough, folks...here it is - part 2 of our episode on the dang CIA. Have we gone loopy? Have we become conspiracy chuds? Tbh not really.
In this episode we try and parse the faff from the not-faff as we uncover the hidden purpose behind American Cold War foreign policy. Turns out it wasn't that great! It was pretty bad, in fact!
Reading: Part II, The Devil’s Chessboard (2015), David Talbot
Waaaaay back many episodes ago, dear listener, your meek and humble podcast hosts watched a movie from Errol Morris all about that evil idiot Robert McNamara.
Well here we are today watching another Errol Morris movie but this time all about Donald Rumsfeld and let's just say...this is one evil SOB. In this episode we ask what role those unelected civil servants play in politics, how they manage to stay around so long, and just what it means to find evil distilled in one smarmy, Ivy League, conniving little man.
Buckle up because this one gets heated.
Watching: "The Unknown Known" (2013) from Errol Morris.
Holy guacamole the lads are at it again.
This book continues to impress as we dive into the second part of our Fundamental Principles reading series - this time covering a spectrum of topics ranging from why everyone left of the councilists are idiots to how we would consume life's necessities and luxuries under communism to why accounting and equal "wages" are absolute fundamentals. Not sure what else to say here other than that your portly and faithful podcast hosts have continued to have their eager minds blown. Let's go. This one's a good 'un.
Reading - Chapters 5-11 of "Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution" by the Group of International Communists (1930?).
This week, self professed Marxists on the internet Jack and Dan do that rarest of things, they read some actual Marx! As an appendix to their continuing engagement with the very excellent text ‘The Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution’, the lads took a look at Karl Marx’s withering and often times pedantic commentary on the 1875 founding programmatic document of the German Social Democratic Party; published posthumously in 1891 by Engels as ‘Critique of the Gotha Program’.
Jack and Dan discover what a total loser Ferdinand Lassalle was, discuss further labour time credits as a potential replacement for wages, learn about Marx’s views on the states as well as the two fold nature of the transition to Communism, and also find out that child labour is apparently a good thing now…? All whilst slowly melting in an attic.
Reading: Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Program (1875/1891)
Yeah yeah this one SOUNDS boring but what if I told you we'll be covering...labor time calculation???
Alright that may also sound boring but if we want to be calling ourselves commies and running around calling for an end to capitalism we've got to have an idea of HOW our new world will function. And gosh darn it that is exactly what these people did with this here book.
Ever wonder how production/distribution will operate without exploitation? What would an economy look like without coercion? Well it's all covered in this dang book and let me say...it's waaaaaay more simple than you might think. As our councilist friends would say...ABOLISH WAGE LABOR - WORK IS THE MEASURE OF CONSUMPTION!
This book effing rocks.
Reading - Chapters 1-4 of "Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution" by the Group of International Communists (1930?).
This week the fellas interview.....a former member of parliament?? Boy how'd they con their way into that one.
You read that right folks, this week we sat down to talk to Thelma Walker, a one time UK Member of Parliament who, after Corbyn had his so-called "whip" removed, had the guts to do what some of us couldn't...leave the Labour Party. But Thelma's career didn't stop there! She recently sat as a candidate for Hartlepool's by-election under the socialist Northern Independence Party and is working hard to build a small party coalition of democratic socialists to rival Labour.
Will the North ever get out from under Westminster's boot? How can we deal with centrist Labourite trolls? Where does the North start? All these questions and more are answered here by the incredible and inspiring Thelma Walker! Woo hoo!
Follow Thelma on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Thelma_DWalker Follow Thelma and Tom's podcast here (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED): https://twitter.com/thettllpodcast?lang=en WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE: shorturl.at/gmyNU
In our newest installment of the beloved "everyone is an idiot except me" reading series, we bring you a rushed and perhaps cursory analysis of the CLASSIC Hal Draper joint "The Two Souls of Socialism."
Are anarchists as bad as Hitler? Are the Fabians just Stalinists? Is William Morris our F R E A K I N G king?? Some of them sure, yes and hell yes are the answers to those questions posed by Draper as your frowzy and unkempt podcast hosts tackle the dichotomy of Socialism From Above VS Socialism From Below.
Also we try and figure out what socialism actually is.
Reading: "The Two Souls of Socialism" (1966) by Hal Draper.
Here we are folks, another arbitrary milestone, episode 30! As it’s another episode with a zero at the end you know what that means, another high energy low effort clip show.
The boys are oh so proud of their little show and want to take this opportunity to take stock. Where is the podcast going, where did it come form, is it coming or going? No one really can say.
Topics for discussion include, current Labour Party woes and whether the party can ever serve socialism, the possibility of a future split with Auxiliary Statements patron saint Ralph Miliband, the ever present questions of reform vs revolution and spontaneity vs organisation, and finally whether it would be outrageous to have hope.
Jack and Dan have faith in our glorious socialist future, and you dear listener have their love and gratitude as ever.
Wait a minute, you're telling me America was founded by the same syphilitic capitalists who ruined England??
This week the boys dust off some Foner to take a look at the role of labor in the founding of these here United States. Was the War of Independence a fully bourgeois revolution? Or did labor power and class struggle have something to do with it? Methinks they did.
Reading: Chapters 1-3 of "History of the Labor Movement of the United States" (1947) by Philip S Foner.
Well folks, we’ve been teasing it long enough…today your large beautiful boys are reading THE BOOK.
In an attempt to answer the questions “What is a conspiracy theory?”, “What happened to all the Nazis?” and “How did we get into this mess?” Dan and Jack are taking a look at The Devil’s Chessboard - a “biography” of the early CIA.
Everyone has that friend on the left that’s a little bit too into conspiracy theories (cough, jack, cough), but this week, your lionhearted podcast hosts are going to separate the wheat from the chaff and find out what’s crazy, and what’s not so crazy. Can this history be any use to us on the left? Is everything bad in the world simply CIA? Is Dan CIA? Is Jack CIA? Are YOU CIA? Don’t be so sure.
So join us in the first part of this journey as we tell you all about how the robber barons of the early 20th century managed to survive and indeed thrive in the post-wwi world.
This one goes long. Strap in.
Reading: The Devil’s Chessboard (2015), David Talbot
Jack and Dan are at it again, dishing up some more bonus capital content. Things take a literary and all around fantastical turn in this section; expect phantoms, illusions, necromancy, and who knows, maybe a wizard or two? Oh won’t Jack be thrilled.
The lads delve into the world of commodity fetishism, the essential ideology that supports and makes possible the capitalist commodity economy. A form of economy whereby the only relationships that truly matter are those that exist between things and where meaningful economic relations between humans are rendered impossible as a result.
Reading: Capital Vol.1, Part 1. Commodities and Money, Chapter 1. Commodities, Section 4. The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret Thereof.
This week our rotund podcast hosts kick back, watch a movie, and try to answer that question that has been haunting humanity since the early-1940s: was Robert McNamara cringe?
The answer is yes. So strap in as the lads take a look at documentary-guy Errol Morris' 2003 classic "The Fog of War". The movie profiles McNamara as he goes from common Irishman to rare Irishman in his long career as war criminal and professional Numbers Guy. If only he had been born in a baseball town...he may have invented sabermetrics five decades early instead of using his gifts to kill as many people as possible. Makes you wonder about Szymborski.....
Watching: "The Fog of War" by Errol Morris (2003).
This week Jack and Dan trade one big M Marxist for another, Milliband is out, Mattick is in. It’s quite a stark reversal, from a strategy of revolutionary reformism to one of spontaneous action by the workers and their primary organisational arm, the workers council.
That’s right, Council Communism is on the docket for this weeks show and if we know one thing by now the lads always stand ready to be wooed by yet another camp of communists. Mattick’s critique of the reformist left is withering as he calls for not the revival of the old and moribund workers movement but an entirely new one. Is this an ultra-left podcast now?
Reading: Paul Mattick, Council Communism (1939)
Be prepared to raise a glass and shed a tear this week as Jack and Dan part ways with their guiding light, their north star, Auxiliary Statements God Emperor, Ralph Miliband. That’s right, your dogged and persistent hosts have finally dusted off their worn and tattered copies of Marxism and Politics for one final time.
This week, a discussion of Marxist strategy as the question is asked whether capitalism can be overthrown by reform within the bounds of constitutional legality or by resorting to revolutionary insurrection. We get from Miliband what we’ve come to expect, a lay of the land account provided in the form of a comprehensive historical overview of the various debates, as well as that rarest of things, an honest to god opinion from the patriarch as He tells us what He actually thinks!
Reading: Ralph Miliband, Marxism and Politics Chapter. 6, Reform and Revolution (1977).
I think we all knew this was the logical conclusion of the last few episodes.
The lads are at it again, with Jack well on his way to becoming a primitivist and Dan doing all he can to keep things on the level (no pun intended). In this episode your begrimed hosts discuss England's most radical moment - the occupation of St. George's Hill by Gerrard Winstanley and the Diggers in 1649. However! Dan and Jack quickly realize they read two completely different texts! Jack read arch-revisionist Eduard Bernstein and Dan read proud Yorkshireman Christopher Hill. The outcome? A pretty good conversation tbh.
NOTE: THIS PODCAST DOES NOT ENDORSE DIGGING. ALL DIGGING SHOULD BE REPORTED TO THE NO-TILL AUTHORITIES
Reading: "The Law of Freedom in a Platform", Gerrard Winstanley (1652). "Cromwell and Communism", Chapter IX - The “True” Levellers and Their Practical Communism, & Chapter X - The Communistic Utopia of Gerrard Winstanley, Eduard Bernstein, (1930). "The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution", Chapter 7 - Levellers and True Levellers, Christopher Hill, (1972).
Jack and Dan are at it again folks, labouring under the misapprehension that greater wisdom is attainable to their mediocre minds. The lads again embark on their quest to fathom the wisdom of the oracle, reading once more from Karl Marx’s master work; Capital. Will they again find the weight of the truths contained therein overwhelming or rise to meet its challenge. Here’s hoping we can chalk one up for our heroes this week otherwise its just gonna get embarrassing.
Its all about exchange value this time. How will Marx transition us from the act of simple commodity exchange to the totemic system of global trade governed over by the all powerful money form! One would imagine it shan’t be too laborious a process.
Reading: Capital Vol.1, Part 1. Commodities and Money, Chapter 1. Commodities, Section 3. The Form of Value or Exchange Value
Yeah if this Karl Marx guy was so great why didn't he ever write about chicken tractors?? Huh, nerd!?
That's what I thought. This week the lads are dipping their malformed little toes into the pond of prepping for capitalist collapse. What would a collapse look like? What should I do to prepare? Do I buy more guns or less guns? Who am I and why am I here? All these questions and MORE will be answered in this week's episode when we talk to Andy and Elliot from the phenomenal Poor Prole's Almanac Podcast. Go give them a listen!!!! Nerd!!!!
LISTEN TO POOR PROLE'S HERE: https://linktr.ee/PoorProles WATCH THE FULL LIVESTREAM INTERVIEW HERE: https://bit.ly/3fiTrqz
What do, Egyptian mummified cats, the battlefields of the Napoleonic wars, and millions of tons of South American bird poo have in common? The answer to this and some hopefully more useful and pertinent questions will be revealed on this weeks show as Jack and Dan continue their foray into the world of ecological theory. The lads read some John Bellamy Foster and learn all about how Karl Marx was, contrary to popular perception, a deeply ecologically minded thinker who was all too aware of the environmental destruction wrought by our old foe capitalism. Reading: Marx's Theory of Metabolic Rift, Classical Foundations for Environmental Sociology by John Bellamy Foster (1999) and The Oxford Handbook of Karl Marx Chapter 33. Metabolic Rifts and the Ecological Crisis by Brett Clark, John Bellamy Foster, and Stefano B. Longo (2019).
This week Jack and Dan read some blooming Bookchin. An anarchist! And a shockingly prophetic one at that. The boys ask, is mankind a part of nature or does it stand apart from it? What constitutes an ecological system and in what ways are social systems analogous to ecological ones? What is going on in the syphilis addled brains of the British aristocracy? Also the lads are now firmly committed to the no dig revolution which one suspects is largely because it accords with their generally lazy disposition. Reading: The Ecology of Freedom, Chapter 1. Social Ecology by Murray Bookchin (1982)
That's right folks, your brave podcasters have officially made it to T W E N T Y episodes of this here show. And you know what that means: we're phoning it in for another clip show.
What have the boys learned over the last ten episodes? Does any of it matter? Is Marxism a legitimate tool for understanding the current state of things? Was Tom Morello in an episode of Star Trek?
We answer none of these questions except the last one in this absolute knock-down-drag-out BARNBURNER of an ep. Thanks to everyone who's been listening! Go SPIDERS!!
Reading: the menu at our local ihop
I don't know dude...what if time had like.......a fourth dimension?
Reading: Voice of the Fire (1995), by Alan Moore.
Drum roll please! Welcome back to the show, podcast favourite, returning champion, and all round class act, Ellen Meiksins Wood! The lads discuss Meiksins Wood’s defence of EP Thompson’s theories of class against his structuralist and analytic Marxist critics. Discussion ranges from the origins of capitalism, to processes of class formation, and the place of class in politics today. Also covered; the comedy skits of Jerry Cohen. Reading: Class as Process and Relationship from Democracy against Capitalism by Ellen Meiksins Wood (1995)
Turns out there's more to this book than the first six pages. Who woulda thought?
This week the lads take a stab at deciphering the two-fold nature of the labor inside all commodities....but not before some corrections from last week. Corrections, I hear you say? How is that possible? Well get used to it because our brave hosts tend to say more crazy stuff than the Mariners' front office. Ba-boom!
Reading: Capital Vol.1, Part 1. Commodities and Money, Chapter 1. Commodities, Section 2. The Two-fold Character of the Labour Embodied in Commodities
Hark! In the distance. What's that noise? Them's the dulcet tones of the boys talkin' some more Milly Band.
So buckle in, hunker down, tune in, drop out and buckle up for one H-E-double-hockey-sticks of an episode, because this week we're talking about the necessity of a working class party capable of overthrowing this garbage can of a world we currently inhabit. In a twist, during this episode Dan winds up becoming a Stalinist and Jack a Maoist (owing to his propensity of relentless self-criticism). Who said we can't all get along?
Shout-out to our friends in the Cleveland DSA! Go Spiders!!
Reading: Marxism and Politics by Ralph Miliband (1977), Chapter V, Class and Party.
Its revolution folks! Or is it? This week Jack and Dan take their first look at the German revolution of 1918/19; that most sorrowful of events in the history of the international workers movement where the world failed to turn and the revolutionary wave that began in Russia in 1917 was so abruptly halted. The boys discuss the revolutionaries’ failures, the duplicity of the Social Democrats, the workers councils, and the revolution’s place in the history of German. Reading: Problems of the German Revolution 1918-19 by Reinhard Rürup (1968)
What’s this, a new series from the Auxiliary Statements boys! Jack and Dan attempt to conquer the commanding heights of political economy and dip their toe where the big fish swim. That’s right, Big Daddy Marx’s Capital is the topic of this hopefully irregularly regular new offering to your podcast feed. Will these new acolytes to Marxology flounder or will they fly? Only time will tell.
Reading: Capital Vol.1, Part 1. Commodities and Money, Chapter 1. Commodities, Section 1. The Two Factors of a Commodity: Use-Value and Value.
What's that? The lads are a little late getting around to talking about this book? Everyone already talked about it on their podcasts two years ago? Well better late than never I always say.
This week our beautiful brave boys Dan and Jack create a summoning circle of sorts in an attempt to revive the calculation debate. Spoiler alert: markets are bad, folks. Also on the docket, Dan defends the Borg. Again.
Reading: The People's Republic of Walmart (2019) by Leigh Phillips & Michal Rozworski
The boys make a return to Allende’s Chile this week with the conclusion of their sketch of its all too brief flirtation with cybernetic planning. Jack and Dan look at what exactly it was that cybernetician Stafford Beer proposed as a model for real-time decentralised economic management in Chile. They explore the highs, the lows, and some lessons that can be drawn from Project Cybersyn.
Reading, Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Alliende’s Chile (2014), by Eden Medina.
Well look who stopped by!
Today Dan and Jack are joined by Marxist Podfather Tom O'Brien from the From Alpha to Omega Podcast. Tom talks some sense into the boys and gives us all sorts of scalding hot takes about Trump, Biden and the crumbling empire that is the United States of America. They lads then talk a little Revolutionary Strategy, cybernetics and Aaron Bastani's wet, wet mouth.
You can find the FULL, UNEDITED LIVESTREAM of this interview over on the Auxiliary Statements YouTube channel. Wow!
Check out Tom's patreon here - https://www.patreon.com/FromAlpha2Omega
And check out the Emancipation Network here - http://emancipation.network/
This week Jack and Dan try to get to grips with the hip new theory on the block; Cybernetics! Our story starts in 1970s Chile. The boys learn all about how an eccentric British cybernetician named Stafford Beer came to be in the employ of the Socialist administration of president Salvador Allende. What does this management consultant have to teach a bunch of democratic socialists and how might business management theory come to inform our glorious communist future?
VSM Guide - https://www.esrad.org.uk/resources/vsmg_3/screen.php?page=1qguide
Reading, Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile (2014), By Eden Medina.
Recorded before the events in DC so you won't have to sit through any current event hot takes! That's the Auxiliary Statements promise, baby.
What's it been, six episodes since we talked about our boy Ralph??
This week Dan and Jack climb back aboard the Mili-train to talk a little bit more about the state. Is there a difference between bourgeois republicanism and fascism? Yeah for sure. Are they both bad? Oh yeah most definitely.
Reading: Marxism and Politics by Ralph Miliband (1977), Chapter IV, The Defence of the Old Order II: Section 2,3,4&5.
Today's the day folks! Jack and Dan make their best effort to explain why the podcast has the title it does; what is an auxiliary statement? The boys dive deep into some philosophy of science and do their upmost to stay vaguely afloat as they wrestle with the ultimate question, what is scientific investigation and how is it done (and more importantly, not done)? Theory is nothing without practice! Pretty rich coming from a theory podcast I hear you exclaim. Reading: The 'Corroboration' of Theories by Hilary Putnam.
Wow Auxiliary Statements in your feed on a TUESDAY?!
For the first episode of our mid-week mini-episode series (known henceforth as Adjunct Statements), Jack takes a dive into the greatest book ever written...State and Rev-, uh, I mean The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien.
Why the hell is this in my commie podcast feed you ask? Not sure, but Jack does his best to explain what use this big ol' book could be to socialists, nerds and freaks today.
Reading: "The Ainulindalë" from The Silmarillion (1977), by JRR Tolkien. Cover Art: Melkor Weaves Opposing Music by Ted Nasmith.
Well would you look at that. Dan and Jack have made it to 10 episodes. We couldn't be more proud of our boys, could we folks? This week they take a look back at everything they've read so far in an attempt to draw parallels and maybe a conclusion or two. But after 10 lovely episodes, only one thing is for sure - Louis Althusser was and remains to this day, an anarchist icon.
Happy holidays from the Auxiliary Statements family. Hope you're all staying safe. If you're like us, today is just another cold day in December that has no pagan overtones to speak of. Perhaps it should be that way every year?
Reading: WE TOOK THE WEEK OFF, BABY
On this week's show Jack and Dan continue their expedition to America's testcase state in all things deplorable and dastardly; California! Come listen to how a motley band of hippies, armed with sci-fi novels and utopian dreams, came to define the dystopian reality of the nascent computer age. Our hosts learn how things went so disastrously wrong and are forced to consider just how attached they they are to their “wetware”.
Reading: The Californian Ideology by Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron (1995)
God damn I miss Ronald Reagan.
That's the mood as the lads take a look at the rise of The New Right - the political movement that decided to once and for all end the legacy of the New Deal and replace it with something much stupider. In this episode, Dan and Jack will examine all the freaks, opportunists, chuds, racists, homophobes, war-hawks, fundamentalists and worst of all CALIFORNIANS that brought about Ronald Reagan's presidency. So strap in, buckos, because this one's a history lesson.
Reading: "The New Right's Road to Power," from Prisoners of the American Dream by Mike Davis (1987).
This week Jack and Dan are led down the garden path into the wonderful world of IDEOLOGY. With Althusser as a guide the boys try to grapple with the pervasive nature of the old foe capitalism and continue to seek an answer to the vexing question, “Why no revolution?”. Never before has ignorance been used as such an effective tool of criticism. Reading: Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses by Louis Althusser (1970)
The boys just couldn't keep away...Dan and Jack are back with chapter III and chapter IV section I of that Marxist classic - Marxism and Politics. This week they talk some more about class consciousness and what the hell that has to do with ideology. And what the hell is ideology. And what the hell are we. And do we even exist.
They also get heated about Rob Manfred and talk a bit of baseball baby, that greatest of all sports.
Reading: Marxism and Politics by Ralph Miliband (1977), Chapter III: The Defence of the Old Order I and Chapter IV, Section I: The Defence of the Old Order II.
This week it's revealed that fantasy may mean a little TOO much to Jack and Dan as they try very hard to have a conversation about its utopian potential as well as its tendency to promote the status quo. If nothing else, both of our co-hosts are proven to be nothing more than massive, irredeemable, disgusting, sticky nerds.
Reading: Why Fantasy Matters Too Much (2009) by Jack Zipes, The Journal of Aesthetic Education, Summer, 2009, Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 77-91.
Things aren't looking good for the peasants this week as Dan & Jack finish up Ellen Meiksins Wood's "The Origin of Capitalism" by taking an in depth look at that foggy little island on the edge of the world - Great Britain.
Also in this week's episode, Dan is outed as a "crazy cat person."
Reading: The Origin of Capitalism (1999) by Ellen Meiksins Wood, Part II: The Origin of Capitalism, Part III: Agrarian Capitalism and Beyond, and Conclusion.
Dan & Jack look back at feudalism, look now at capitalism, and maybe even....forward to socialism? The lads take a stab at defining capitalism and understanding how we got here in this barnburner of an episode. As a bonus, Jack gets the author's name wrong every time he tries to say it.
We also got Corbyn suspended :(
Reading: The Origin of Capitalism (1999) by Ellen Meiksins Wood, Introduction and Part I: Histories of the Transition.
Dan & Jack look back on the successful 2010s - a decade of nothing but unblemished prosperity for T H E L E F T. Special thanks to this week's guest, Ralph Miliband.
Reading: Tribune, Summer 2020 issue. "We Didn't Go Far Enough, We Didn't Go Fast Enough," interview with Jeremy Corbyn by Ronan Burtenshaw and "The Rise And Fall Of Bernie Sanders," interview with Briahna Joy Gray by Connor Kilpatrick.
Dan & Jack read the first chapter of an introductory book on Marxism and talk about roughly half of it. Special thanks to this week's guest, Ralph Miliband.
Reading: Marxism and Politics by Ralph Miliband (1977), Chapter II: Class and Class Conflict
Dan & Jack spend an hour trying to explain the show's title and we get a little visit from an old friend - Ralph Miliband.
Reading: Marxism and Politics by Ralph Miliband (1977), Chapter I: Introduction