Bloc Party

This week we're talking about the labor movement and the political left. How can they support one another? Is the impending UPS workers strike a redux of their successful win in 1997? What are the political implications of a massive workers strike? This episode is a companion to our recent Bloc Doc video release, “UPS Strike: Lessons from ‘97”. Our old friend Jeremy Flood comes back to interview Jacobin staff writer Alex Press about the UPS workers organizing this year. Jeremy is a Brooklyn based filmmaker who now works as a video producer for the United Auto Workers union. Alex N. Press is a staff writer at Jacobin. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Nation, and n+1, among other places. —Follow us in your feeds for new episodes every other Thursday, and keep tabs on our Youtube page for our video team's Bloc Doc series!Questions? Answers? Thoughts? Email us at blocpartypod@gmail.com. Subscribe to the Bloc Media newsletter for bi-weekly updates from the team.

In this episode, six JD staffers get in touch with their inner high school debate team identity and battle it out. Are progressives too online? Should the left run for president in 2024? Is it more impactful to organize around federal or local politics? Do you eat your rice with a fork or a spoon? We're engaging with the hard hitting topics of today's discourse. We promised a lighter, fun episode and here it is! Do you have a debate you want us to engage with in a future episode? Email us at blocpartypod@gmail.com! —Follow us in your feeds for new episodes every other Thursday, and keep tabs on our Youtube page for our video team's Bloc Doc series!Questions? Answers? Thoughts? Email us at blocpartypod@gmail.com. Subscribe to the Bloc Media newsletter for bi-weekly updates from the team.

How does the Israeli government maintain the invisibility of Palestinian dehumanization? For progress to take place, will Israelis have to stand up to their own government, or will that pressure have to come from the outside?In Part 2 of our series about our staffers' recent trip to Israel-Palestine, Alex and Amira share with Waleed some of the more personal moments of witnessing occupation from their time spent with the IMEU (Institute for Middle East Understanding).We also hear more specifically about how Americans can help end the occupation. For more from the IMEU: https://imeu.org/—Follow us in your feeds for new episodes every other Thursday, and keep tabs on our Youtube page for our video team's Bloc Doc series!Questions? Answers? Thoughts? Email us at blocpartypod@gmail.com. Subscribe to the Bloc Media newsletter for bi-weekly updates from the team.

Why do Americans see the Palestinian struggle as “complex?” What does it mean to live under occupation? How does the U.S. “see something, say nothing” policy affect military occupation and continued settlement expansions? In Part 1 of this two episode series, Amira & Alexandra speak with Diana Buttu about their recent trip to Israel-Palestine with the IMEU. Diana helps contextualize the ongoing protests in Israel, the role the U.S. has played in Israeli-Palestinian politics as well as everyday life, and shares the ways she practices Palestinian resistance by fighting for and celebrating moments of joy in the midst of ongoing oppression. Diana Buttu is a former adviser to the negotiating team of the Palestine Liberation Organization and a lawyer specializing in negotiations, international law and international human rights law. Diana is a prominent commentator on Palestine, with op-eds published in the New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Guardian.Keep an eye out for Part 2 next time on Bloc Party, where Amira & Alex will sit with Waleed to tell more stories of their trip.For more from the IMEU: https://imeu.org/Diana's Podcast, ‘This is Palestine': https://pod.link/1509337661—Follow us in your feeds for new episodes every other Thursday, and keep tabs on our Youtube page for our video team's Bloc Doc series!Questions? Answers? Thoughts? Email us at blocpartypod@gmail.com. Subscribe to the Bloc Media newsletter for bi-weekly updates from the team.

How do progressives navigate holding new found power? How much power should be wielded and when? Should we interpret the IRA as a victory or a loss?Acclaimed documentary director, producer, & cinematographer Rachel Lears (Knock Down the House, 2019) (The Hand that Feeds, 2014) joins Alex on the Bloc this week with some behind the scenes intel on the making of her latest feature documentary, To the End. To the End captures the emergence of a new generation of leaders and the movement behind the most sweeping climate change legislation in U.S. history. The film features our own fearless leader Alexandra Rojas alongside Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, activist Varshini Prakash, and climate policy writer Rhiana Gunn-Wright. To the End begins streaming on Hulu on May 8th. You can go to this link to host a screening in your local community now.To find out more about the film: https://www.totheendfilm.com/Follow us in your feeds for new episodes every other Thursday, and keep tabs on our Youtube page for our video team's Bloc Doc series!Questions? Answers? Thoughts? Email us at blocpartypod@gmail.com. Subscribe to the Bloc Media newsletter for bi-weekly updates from the team.

When anti-trans legislation floods state legislation across the country, it affects all of us. To quote Amira, “This will sink your boat too, bitch!” Journalist Erin Reed joins Becca to break down some of the FOUR HUNDRED AND SEVENTY TWO (and counting) egregious bills targeting trans people and their families, review this latest tactic in the right's assault on trans rights and bodily autonomy, and discuss what progressives can and should be doing to fight back. Erin is an independent journalist and activist. She diligently tracks anti-LGBTQ+ legislation around the world, and both her substack and risk analysis maps have been incredible resources to us in the work we've done for this episode. Erin's substack: https://erininthemorn.substack.com/Erin's twitter: https://twitter.com/ErinInTheMornFollow us in your feeds for new episodes every other Thursday, and keep tabs on our Youtube page for our video team's Bloc Doc series!Questions? Answers? Thoughts? Email us at blocpartypod@gmail.com. Subscribe to the Bloc Media newsletter for bi-weekly updates from the team.

Can cable TV be useful for progressives? What about broadcast media makes it difficult to communicate as a progressive… or are progressives going about our approach to being on TV the wrong way? Meet your instructor, Waleed Shahid! In this episode, Waleed walks Becca, Usamah, and Pod Producer Sophie through a media literacy training. You'll hear from some voices you may recognize from your regular cable TV programming, and then the staff discusses how progressives should relate to broadcast media. Follow us in your feeds for new episodes every other Thursday, and keep tabs on our Youtube page for our video team's Bloc Doc series!Questions? Answers? Thoughts? Email us at blocpartypod@gmail.com. Subscribe to the Bloc Media newsletter for bi-weekly updates from the team.

It's a double-crossover special with Michael from the illustrious 5-4 Podcast (a very beloved show to those of us here at JD) and Group Chat veteran Eleni Schirmer from the Debt Collective. They join Waleed to review how oral arguments went down in last month's Supreme Court cases that could make or break Biden's student loan cancellation initiative. First, Michael & Waleed chat about how SCOTUS & minority rule keep getting in the way of us building a real multiracial democracy. Then Eleni joins to remind us how these cases got to the Supreme Court in the first place. Listen in to cringe at Roberts' lawnmower commentary and stay to reflect on the way Biden is (or more notably…is not) exercising his executive authority. 5-4 is a show about how much the Supreme Court sucks. Michael is one of three lawyers who host the show and together they dissect a new case every week. Follow them here. Eleni Schirmer is a journalist, author, activist, and member of the Debt Collective. You can read her latest New Yorker article (featuring our very own Jeremy Flood!!) here. Follow us in your feeds for new episodes every other Thursday, and keep tabs on our Youtube page for our video team's Bloc Doc series!Questions? Answers? Thoughts? Email us at blocpartypod@gmail.com. Subscribe to the Bloc Media newsletter for bi-weekly updates from the team.

You've heard of the anti-CRT movement… but have you caught wind of ESG, the latest acronym that Republicans have weaponized in their anti-woke crusade? ESG investments have entered the chat in a big way - but it's not the easiest topic to comprehend. So we brought an expert in to help us break down who the players are, clarify the mess of jargon that's being tossed around, and why any of this should matter to us on the left. Journalist & author Kate Aronoff makes a trip back to the Bloc & joins Amira to discuss her article “The Right Has It In for Woke Investors. The Only Problem? They Don't Exist”. For more from Kate, check out her most recent book, Overheated: How Capitalism Broke the Planet – And How We Fight Back. Follow us in your feeds for new episodes every other Thursday, and keep tabs on our Youtube page for our video team's Bloc Doc series!Questions? Answers? Thoughts? Email us at blocpartypod@gmail.com. Subscribe to the Bloc Media newsletter for bi-weekly updates from the team.

Movement School has acted as one of the core building bloc(k)s for Justice Democrats since day 1…so it's high time we chatted with Movement School Director Ilona Duverge about its origin story, how she and her team navigate the pressures of the dusty, crusty consultant class, and why providing the tools, networks, tips & tricks for budding multiracial working-class campaign staffers across the country not only helps candidates win; it helps communities build their own power. THEN, in part 2 of this episode you'll hear from a star Movement School grad, Adrastos Da Silva - who takes some time with us to expand on their journey from going through our Campaign Fellows Program to getting Cori Bush re-elected as her Campaign Manager. This year's Campaign Fellows Program is OPEN for applications now though March 6th, 2023. Follow us in your feeds for new episodes every other Thursday, and keep tabs on our Youtube page for our video team's Bloc Doc series!Questions? Answers? Thoughts? Email us at blocpartypod@gmail.com. Subscribe to the Bloc Media newsletter for bi-weekly updates from the team: https://movementschool.us20.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=cd57dc36ce4e72af6cc433903&id=ed14106525

New year, new hosts, AND new guests on the Bloc! Amira is joined by our newest host and Gen Z rep from the JD staff, Becca Rose. Becca read too many Bloomberg articles about inflation and has some questions like, “Why do economists think that the pathway to a healthy economy is to lay off millions of working people?” and “Why is Bloomberg telling me the economy is great when we literally can't afford to eat three meals a day?” and “What does the Fed mean by a ‘soft landing' and why does it feel like it's still really gonna hurt?”So she called in a big shot to help us understand how the Fed wants us to think about the economy (aka Larry Summers is wrong) and what an alternative, more useful outlook for workers in the US looks like. Lindsay Owens, Executive Director of the Groundwork Collaborative joins Becca to help reframe, simplify, and give us some hope for 2023. We can have it all, folks. Check out more about the Groundwork Collaborative here. Other resources Lindsay mentioned to us: https://seekingalpha.com/https://endcorporateprofiteering.org/Follow us in your feeds for new episodes every other Thursday, and keep tabs on our Youtube page for our video team's Bloc Doc series!Questions? Answers? Thoughts? Email us at blocpartypod@gmail.com. Subscribe to the Bloc Media newsletter for bi-weekly updates from the team

Welcome back to the Bloc! Your newly minted hosts of Bloc Party, Amira Hassan & Waleed Shahid are ready to rumble for Season 3. We're bringing on more staff this season from Justice Democrats & Organize for Justice… aka some of the best of the best when it comes to folks fighting for the soul of the Democratic Party. This week, we're talking about Kevin, the never-Kevins, the I-guess-it's-fine-we'll-take-him-Kevins, and what we should take away from the right buckling down for 15 rounds before electing Kevin McCarthy their Speaker. Is there something for the left to learn in this tactic? Amira also chats with two members of our video team, Emma Dessau & Jeremy Flood, to get the spicy behind-the-scenes gossip from their day of filming with Summer Lee on January 3rd in the halls of Congress. Check out their video Bloc Doc, “Summer Lee Goes to Washington”.Follow us in your feeds for new episodes every other Thursday, and keep tabs on our Youtube page for our video team's Bloc Doc series.

JD Staffers review the triumphs of 2022 midterms in our Bloc Party: Season 2 finale. Justice Democrats Summer Lee & Greg Casar are going to Congress! Summer Lee beat out AIPAC for a second time in her general election, overcoming $10 million in attack ads. What should we take away from the surprising lack of a red wave? In our last episode our staffers discussed what they thought was driving the electorate to the polls. Did we get it wrong? What were the midterms actually about? And now with more governing power than we anticipated having, how can Democrats wield this advantage moving forward?

What are the 2022 midterms actually about? A referendum on Biden? Whatever pundits say the top issues are? Or is it something else?In a two part episode, Justice Democrats staffers (ft. a guest from Left Rising) take some bets on the wins/losses the Democratic party is about to experience in November before sitting down to investigate what ads Dems are running and what ads are being run against them. What do the polls/propaganda pieces tell us about Democratic messaging? And more importantly: are these messages working?

Americans aged 62 and older are the fastest-growing demographic of student borrowers.In July, Journalist Eleni Schirmer's New Yorker article “The Aging Student Debtors of America,” featured the story of Betty Anne, a 91 year old woman with $330,000 in student loans – and Justice Democrats' Lead Video Producer Jeremy Flood's grandmother. In this episode, Jeremy and Eleni unpack the impact of Eleni's reporting and what it's meant to Betty Anne's family to hold this debt throughout her life. We also get an exciting update on her loans. Then, we invite the Debt Collective co-founder Astra Taylor back on the pod to celebrate the Biden administration's cancellation of $10-$20k of student debt, and update us on the Collective's next moves. How did organizers push the establishment towards this cancellation? And what does this mean for the future of debt cancellation in this country? Links: “The Aging Student Debtors of America”(https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/the-aging-student-debtors-of-america/amp)Previous Bloc Party x Debt Collective Episode from 2021[https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/make-em-pay-put-em-in-debt-theyll-quiet-down/id1540532726?i=1000513846787]Our Bloc Doc with Astra Taylor[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvs3-CpxVo0]Producers: Jeremy Flood, Sophie Capp, Emma DessauEditor: Sophie CappMixing/Mastering: Rocky Russo

It's Sunday June 26th, 2022 – two days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade – and President Joe Biden knows what he needs to do.Biden needed to announce his endorsement to Rep. Danny Davis, the 25-year incumbent in Chicago's bluest Congressional district, IL-07. Two days before polls opened in a primary contest between a quarter-century incumbent and Kina Collins, a grassroots organizer against gun violence in Rep. Davis' district, Joe Biden needed Democrats to know: the party's old guard deserves to stay in power. On election day, Kina Collins lost by a 7-point margin.And that pretty much sums up the Justice Democrats 2022 primary cycle. Almost every race came down to the wire. At the end of every nailbiter showdown, corporate money and establishment Democratic leadership pulled out all the stops (and all the money) to keep young, progressive Democrats from representing their own communities in Congress… while President Biden's agenda was gutted in public by the anti-majoritarian Supreme Court and U.S Senate.In this episode, Amira talks with Campaigns Director Geoff “Coach” Simpson, Candidate Communications Manager Usamah Andrabi, and Rebel Alliance Director Alexandra Rojas about what the political left has learned – or needs to learn, at the tail end of another Justice Democrats primary cycle. What's changed since summer 2020, when Jamaal Bowman beat Engel by double digits despite the late establishment rush to save the incumbent? And Cori Bush won her rematch primary by a slim but decisive margin? Are we losing ground? Getting outspent, or just out maneuvered? Hard to know with certainty, but the Empire is Striking Back and it's time for some Rebels to retrieve the Death Star plans..

She can relax a little now. The PA-12 results are certified. The victory is locked in. So current State House Rep. Lee, the expected Congresswoman-elect from Pennsylvania's 12th district, sat down with Amira Hassan to tell us the WHOLE story.How did Summer Lee get so deep in the progressive political revolution brewing in Pittsburgh? What does it actually look like to build grassroots power by organizing at the local level, and electoralize that power up to the state house and ultimately Congress? What is it like to grind out a victory after your opponents drop $3.3 million dollars to defeat you, ALL within the last three weeks before Election Day, and all aimed at defeating your campaign? Summer breaks it down: the early victories before she ever thought of becoming a candidate, the MVPs of well-meaning white guy political operatives, what it was like to campaign through negative ads blanketing local TV and radio, and more.Amira roasting Steve Irwin in March: https://twitter.com/itsAmira_H/status/1507449513488777216

In the final weeks before Pennsylvania's May 17th primaries, SuperPACs affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee spent millions of dollars in the 12th district, nearly all on TV ads attacking Summer Lee and boosting corporate lawyer Steve Irwin.Summer Lee narrowly won. How? And what might other progressive candidates, campaign managers, communications strategists, and organizers learn from the resilience of the Summer Lee for Congress campaign? Also, what to make of the increasing sums of outside money spent against Justice Democrats in these competitive primaries?To get the inside scoop on the tactics and strategies that mattered, Guido sat down with Justice Democrats campaign director and former pro basketball player Geoff Simpson for another episode of Campaign Breakdown with Coach Geoff.For more on the May 17th primaries and the factional scoreboard, see the Washington Post story “In Tuesday's primaries, Democrats' left and center wings both got wins” by Perry Bacon Jr.

Group Chat is back with Guido, Amira, and returning guest Mary Small (National Legislative Director of Indivisible) to process what f*** happened with President Biden's Build Back Better bill.When did Build Back Better die? It died when the House of Representatives passed the bipartisan infrastructure package – but wasn't it doomed before then? Could the negotiations over Biden's domestic agenda in 2021 have gone any differently? Did progressives fail? What lessons can we learn from how the progressive bloc strategy played out? In what moments could Biden, Schumer, or Pelosi have approached their own legislative strategy differently? Then we take bets on whether anything at all will pass through budget reconciliation before the 2022 midterm elections.

A bonus group chat with two seasoned professionals of the political left.Two operatives who went up against the Cuellar machine in TX-28 share stories from the frontlines and pitch some provocative theories.In the DMs: Ava Benezra, the organizer who's been driving the JD campaign machine since before The Plague began. We recorded just after she'd worked her last day as the (former) JD campaigns director. Alongside Ava, a Bloc Party debut for the leftist comms professional who's tracking the press coverage of Democratic party politics and contested primaries every day of the year: Usamah Andrabi.

The first big Democratic primaries of the 2022 cycle are done. The voters of Texas's 35th and 28th Congressional districts have cast their ballots.Topline results: A big win, and an excruciating close-tie. What does it all mean?Justice Democrats campaign all-stars sifted through the results, read the post-election hot takes, and now we're bringing Group Chat back together to make sense of it all. Do these Texas primaries tell us anything important about the left in American elections, what works and what doesn't? What did we do well, where did we disappoint ourselves.. ?Before Group Chat, I sat down with Justice Democrats' new campaign director Geoff Simpson to break down the numbers and look back on the strategies that really mattered on a new season 2 segment: Campaign Breakdown.. with Coach Geoff.

It's time. The rematch for Texas' 28th Congressional district: Cisneros vs. Cuellar.Human rights attorney Jessica Cisneros, who fell 2,700 votes short of unseating incumbent Rep. Henry Cuellar in March 2020, joins us to talk about how she recovered from a tough, narrow loss and why this race may still come down to The Wire.But first, Waleed Shahid takes on a new role as a private investigator, reporting on shady deals and probable crimes committed by the ruling Congressman of Texas' 28th District.In the second half, Professor Ian Haney-López sits down with Waleed to answer questions that no one in the Democratic Party can agree on: What's going on with Latino and Hispanic American voters shifting towards Trump and the GOP since 2016? How might Democrats approach issues of race, class, and identity differently, in an effort to construct a multiracial majority?JESSICA CISNEROS FOR CONGRESSVolunteer with Justice Democrats.Readings & citations:Jessica Cisneros Takes Her Second Shot at the King of LaredoAFTER FORGING TIES WITH AZERBAIJAN OIL EXECUTIVES, REP. HENRY CUELLAR PUSHED NATION'S AGENDA IN CONGRESSHenry Cuellar's Corporate TiesDemocrats Are Anxious About 2022 – and 2024Democrats Find Urgent New Reasons to Worry About Latino VotersWhy Democrats Are Losing Texas LatinosMapping the Trump Meridian in TexasHow Latinos Could Redefine the GOP in TexasTrump didn't win the Latino Vote in Texas. He won the Tejano vote.Project JUNTOS study of Latino racial identity.EQUIS 2020 Post-Mortem Study: The American Dream Voter.Ian Haney-Lopez on Twitter.

Build Back Better is dead. The Group Chat is resurrected.Welcome to Bloc Party Season 2.New episodes dropping twice a month, starting this week. Text your friends, call your representative, subscribe & share wherever you get your podcasts:⏯https://podlink.to/blocparty

Putting the bloc back in Bloc Party.Freedom Caucus. Progressive Caucus. Blue Dogs. Why do we care?Justice Dems spokesperson and co-host Waleed Shahid sits down with Ruth Bloch Rubin, author of Building the Bloc: Intraparty Organization in the US Congress. Ruth tells Waleed that size matters when it comes to congressional voting blocs, but bigger isn't always better. What can we learn from Congressional ideological factions of the 20th and 21st centuries? Why and how did they succeed and fail in their own goals? Why is collective action exceptionally difficult in the U.S Congress? Amira Hassan, JD's political director, joins Waleed to break down why Congress is the place where solidarity goes to die.Readings & clips:Ruth Bloch Rubin's book BUILDING THE BLOC.Robert McCormick, NBC, on Hon. Lee Metcalfe and Democratic Study Group. 1960.“Meet the Blue Dog Democrats!”“Democrats have grown frustrated with Blue Dogs..” Chris Van Hollen on WAMU 88.5.Washington Unplugged, 07.15.09House progressives are building something new, exciting, and powerful

Is the AFL-CIO falling in love with the Democratic Socialists of America? Why is DSA's PRO Act campaign drawing praise from unlikely allies in mainstream unions, the Democratic establishment, and beyond? What have these young socialists figured out about organizing towards working-class power? And why did this campaign come from [checks notes] DSA's Green New Deal campaign committee?Guido joins Daniel Denvir, host of The Dig Radio from Jacobin magazine, to investigate DSA's groundbreaking organizing effort to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO Act) Act.FIRST, The Dig interviews Gustavo Gordillo and Sydney Ghazarian from DSA's GND campaign committee on the origins and tactics of their PRO Act campaign.AFTER THE BREAK, Dan joins Guido for a very special, all-DSA Group Chat to chop it up on movement strategy and labor history with Green New Deal campaign committees members Thea Riofrancos and Ashik Siddique.Join DSA's PRO Act campaign here: pro-act.dsausa.orgSupport The Dig Radio: https://www.patreon.com/thedigReadings and references:House Democrats Pass Bill That Would Protect Worker Organizing EffortsThe Dig Radio: We Need the PRO Act with Jimmy WilliamsHow the filibuster goes downThe racist roots of Right-to-WorkTo win a Green New Deal, pass the PRO ActWHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON, by Thomas Geoghegan

“Trickle-down economics has never worked.”In his Joint Address to Congress President Joe Biden discarded the prevailing economic consensus of post-Reagan Revolution America. What does that tell us about American politics in 2021? Is the Reagan era really over? Is neoliberalism really dead?Guido, Amira, and Waleed jumped into a Group Chat to capture their reflections and vent their fears as the Biden administration marches on past the first 100 days. After the break, Amira puts on the tinfoil hat and investigates a conspiracy among Democrats; Waleed brings a policy proposal from Radical Reconstruction.Are We Entering a New Political Era?What Comes After Trickle-Down Economics?Biden to Propose $6 Trillion Budget to Make U.S. More CompetitiveSenator Markey and AOC introduce Civilian Climate Corps for Jobs and Justice Why Some Black Democrats Haven't Embraced a Voting Rights PushDemocrats' Odds of Keeping the House Are Slimming Fast Biden, Do the Right Thing and Release the Vaccines From Pharma's Grip Joe Biden is proving progressives wrong. And they're loving it.Black Democrats urge party to shift its voting rights push

Folks… Odessa's running.Justice Democrats' Executive Director Alexandra Rojas makes her debut on the Bloc alongside a very special guest. Odessa Kelly, the first Justice Democrat of the 2022 cycle is running for Congress in Tennessee's Fifth Congressional district, challenging Representative Jim Cooper and the Cooper dynasty. Odessa teaches Guido and Alexandra how to pronounce the name “Prentice” in the South, before telling us what led her to decide to run for Congress as a Justice Democrat.After the break, Alexandra unveils the secret sauce of Justice Democrats' candidate recruitment process and shares her biggest lessons learned from previous electoral cycles. More about Odessa for Congress: www.odessaforcongress.comNominate a leader to run as a Justice Democrat: www.justicedemocrats.com/nominate  Odessa Kelly Takes Aim at Cooper ‘Dynasty' in Congressional Primary BidThe First Progressive Primary Challenge of 2022https://www.huffpost.com/entry/odessa-kelly-democratic-primary-jim-cooper_n_60679a3cc5b66c4ab6b2905b

45 million Americans hold a total of $1.7 trillion in education debt. How did we get here?Guido sits down with writer and filmmaker Astra Taylor to discuss the seeds of the current crisis. How did government-backed, private loans and an anti-civil rights, anti-peace movement backlash led by Ronald Reagan and neoliberal economists produce the historic debt crisis in higher education? Also, there's a small bit of good news for student debtors in the American Rescue Plan, and AOC says: the time is ripe to mobilize and win. But how? In the second half, Guido talks to Umme Hoque, the Organizing Director of the Debt Collective, about her decision to go on a debt strike and demand Joe Biden cancel all student debt. Waleed stops by to contemplate President Biden canceling Senator Biden for supporting welfare work requirements in the 1990s, and wonders if Biden's newfound, self-directed cancel culture could extend to federal student loan borrowers.Readings & resources:You Are Not A Loan, a film by Astra TaylorUmme Hoque: I'm going on a debt strike. The Biden administration must cancel student debt: Debt CollectiveAnne Helen Petersen: The future of the middle class depends on student loan forgiveness Most Black voters support eliminating student loan debt, new survey findsCorinthian College Student With $30K In Loans Refuses To Pay, Takes Part In Debt StrikeRep. Pressley on the Education Debt Crisis & A New Deal for Higher Ed The Political Case For Student Debt CancellationThe Great Mistake: How We Wrecked Public Universities and How We Can Fix Them, by Christopher Newfield

This is not Bill Clinton's Democratic Party. But it's not the Squad's party either.Today, a very special Group Chat to discuss a very large stimulus bill. Amira and Guido are joined by Mary Small, National Legislative Director for Indivisible, to react to the passage of President Biden's American Rescue Plan. What does the massive investment in stimulus checks, expanded unemployment insurance, and the child tax credit tell us about the state of the Democratic Party halfway through Biden's first 100 days?After a break, Mary and Amira break down progressives' strategy during the Congressional negotiations over the American Rescue Plan. There were threats of progressives voting as a bloc! What did progressives win, what did progressives lose, how has the Congressional Progressive Caucus changed since the Obama era, and what can we learn about wielding the power of the progressive bloc in future legislative fights?Readings & resources:What's in the Stimulus Bill? A Guide to Where the $1.9 Trillion Is GoingBiden's COVID-Relief Bill Is a Big F**king DealWhere Do We Go From Here on Tax Credits?How Democrats miscalculated Manchin and later won him backAn Expanded Child Tax Credit Would Lift Millions of Children Out of PovertyAnalysis: Senate ‘gangs' show Biden what's possible, and not‘A Racist Narrative': Biden Warned of Welfare Moms Driving Luxury CarsNo, Joe Biden Won't Give Us Social DemocracyClinton's 1996 State of the UnionDismantling the Welfare State? Reagan, Thatcher and the Politics of Retrenchment

Did the Sunrise Movement… negotiate a win?Guido sits down with Varshini Prakash, co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, to check in on her well-being after four marathon years of campaigning for a Green New Deal. More than two years after the sit-in with AOC, Guido and Varshini look at Biden's recent climate announcements and ask themselves: are we reading this wrong or did the Green New Deal.. win the debate over Democratic climate policy? And if the answer is “yes, we did notch some wins but not enough,” how did the climate movement achieve that and what's next — for the movement and for its army of young people?But first, Guido and Waleed debrief the right-wing attacks on the Green New Deal following blackouts in Texas, and break down how a Green New Deal would prevent such massive blackouts from ever happening again.Additional readings & references:BIDEN-SANDERS UNITY TASK FORCE RECOMMENDATIONSTACKLING THE CLIMATE CRISIS AT HOME AND ABROAD EXECUTIVE ORDERAt last, a climate policy platform that can unite the left“End the lies-for-profit games.”Why Texas Republicans Fear the Green New Deal

In 2010, the DREAM Act failed in a Senate vote when five Democrats refused to vote for the bill. Will the Biden administration learn from that defeat? Greisa Martinez Rosas was in the Senate gallery in 2010 when the DREAM Act died. Since then, she's organized relentlessly to prevent the next Democratic trifecta from failing to protect immigrants.This week, Amira Hassan, Justice Democrats' Political Director, takes the mic to speak with Greisa, executive director of United We Dream. Together they unpack the immigrant rights movement's wins and losses from the past two decades, what has changed since those battles, and what lies ahead in the fight for immigrant and racial justice during the Biden years. Greisa also shares her evolution from a shy high schooler to a veteran organizer, and gives Senate Democrats some advice after a few of them voted with Republicans to deny stimulus checks to undocumented Americans.Join United We Dream's Undeniable campaign.'The civil rights issue of our time': how Dreamers came to dominate US politicsDREAM Act dies in SenateProgressive dems show Biden what “sweeping” reform really looks likeOn Immigration, Biden Goes Big In Opening Bid To CongressBiden Signs 3 Immigration Executive Orders. Activists Want MoreHundreds deported under Biden, including witness to massacre

When the slavocracy needed to quash the rising tides of emancipation and free labor, they used the filibuster. When Jim Crow segregationists needed to stymie anti-lynching laws and preserve their poll taxes, they used the filibuster. Today, when the Republican Party must cling to power by strangling the American government and suppressing the American majority, they use the filibuster.But the filibuster is an accident of parliamentary history; an unintended consequence of minor changes to Senate rules. Now the weaponization of the filibuster against majoritarian democracy has essentially broken Congress.This week at the Bloc Party, Waleed Shahid, spokesperson of Justice Democrats, sits down with Adam Jentleson, author of the new book KILL SWITCH: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy. Waleed figures out why former Harry Reid staffers like Adam end up becoming progressive crusaders, how the filibuster went from accident to shield of white supremacy, and together they assess how the Democratic Party might reform Congress, or fail and forfeit power for a generation.

Group Chat returns after Senate Democrats win back the majority, the Republican Party incites a deadly coup attempt, and Joe Biden is officially sworn in as the 46th President.President Biden delivered his inaugural address, but what does “unity” mean after Republicans abetted violence against Democratic members of Congress? What does it mean to evoke Lincoln, who was assassinated by a Confederate sympathizer, as a figure of unity? Why would Senators like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley ever stop aiding would-be fascists if there are no consequences for their actions? We look back at inaugural speeches from FDR and Reagan.Just hours after his inauguration, Biden signed more than a dozen executive orders in the Oval Office, including measures to rejoin the Paris Agreement, repeal Trump's restrictions on travel from several Muslim-majority countries, stop construction of the Southern border wall and mandate the wearing of masks on federal property. Amira, Guido, and Waleed make sense of President Biden's Day 1 agenda.Additional reading & references:Amanda Gorman's inaugural poemBayard Rustin, From Protest to PoliticsBiden, Inauguration Speech Biden Transition: How to succeed in hyperpolarized politics Climate activists expect a lot from President BidenLeague of Conservation Voters: Policy Priorities for BidenThe New Progressive Left Shows How To Deal With SeditionSen. Manchin calls for $4 trillion infrastructure spendingBiden unveils immigration planPoll: 47 percent of people blame ANTIFA for insurrection

President-elect Joe Biden ran against Medicare-for-All in the Democratic Presidential primary, and he won. Despite millions of Americans losing their medical insurance after being laid off in the midst of deadly pandemic, the crises of 2020 have not brought universal healthcare back onto the national agenda.So what do advocates for Medicare-for-All do now? And how should we think about using the leverage the Squad will wield inside a Democratic caucus that has only a slim, 222-seat majority in the House of Representatives?Group chat regulars Guido, Amira, and Waleed make sense of a recent strategic debate swirling around the left: what if AOC and the Squad refuses to vote for Rep. Nancy Pelosi until she brings Medicare-for-All to the floor for an up-or-down vote? Is that a good strategy? The Group Chat sifts the good from the bad while trying to stay humble and keep the good vibes going.Winning takes long-term planning, it turns out, which is why you, yes you, should nominate a leader in your community to run for Congress in 2022.Additional references:Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's interview with Jeremy Scahill at The Intercept.AOC: Pelosi needs to go, but there's no one to replace her yetJimmy Dore: How Progressives Could FORCE A Medicare For All VoteThe Campaign Against ‘Medicare For All' Is Spending Millions. Progressives Not So Much.The Majority Report with Sam SederThe Left Can Win, by Pablo Iglesias

Because this is not the Earth of Joe Biden's childhood.This week, we take a break from the inside-the-beltway negotiations, zoom out, and ask the important questions: Is the stable foundation of human civilization unraveling? Does anyone or anything have the power to hold the apocalypse at bay? Journalist David Wallace-Wells synthesizes climate science to deduce whether we are still living on planet Earth, and what it means for the future if we're not. Then journalist Kate Aronoff takes us on a tour through inadequate solutions and false hopes for planetary salvation, before explaining why the U.S federal government, for better or worse, has the power to stop the apocalypse -- or to seal our fate.Waleed reveals he is actually an animal rights activist before having an existential crisis about the absurdity of American politics. Our guests and their work:The Uninhabitable Earth: LIFE AFTER WARMINGBy DAVID WALLACE-WELLSOverheated: How Capitalism Broke the Planet--And How We Fight Backby Kate AronoffAdditional readings and references:Carlos Maza's video essay ‘Why you still don't understand the Green New Deal'What Does '12 Years to Act on Climate Change' (Now 11 Years) Really Mean?Q&A: How do climate models work?Scientists have gotten predictions of global warming right since the 1970sSPECIAL REPORT: GLOBAL WARMING OF 1.5 ºC: Summary for PolicymakersWhat would it take to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5°C?The Paris Agreement set an unrealistic target for global warming. Now what?Carbon unicorns and fossil futures. Whose emission reduction pathways is the IPCC performing?UNEP Emissions Gap Report 2019Carbon budgets: Where are we now?

Guido and Amira unpack interviews with two foreign policy experts, Matt Duss, Bernie Sanders' foreign policy advisor, and Yasmine Taeb, human rights attorney and progressive foreign policy activist, circling one central question: What happened to the reigning foreign policy consensus in D.C - also known as the Blob - when Congressman-elect Jamaal Bowman unseated the hawkish Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Eliot Engel this summer? Guido interviews Matt about his experience pushing the constraints of the Blob, how a progressive vision for foreign policy was shaping up before the defeat of Eliot Engel and then how Jamaal Bowman's victory changed the politics of what's possible all over again. Bowman's race was watched closely for months by grassroots organizations and once it was clear Engel was going to lose his seat as Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC), activists like Yasmine Taeb were on the frontlines working to champion a progressive replacement for Engel. For Yasmine, who grew up in a refugee family - and many others who are critical of US foreign policy - the fight against the Blob isn't just political, it's personal.

Will Team Biden repeat the mistakes of the Obama 2008 transition?Reed Hundt, author of A Crisis Wasted: Barack Obama's Defining Decisions, sits down with Guido to figure out how and why the Obama administration made critical, Presidency-defining mistakes during the 2008 Presidential transition. Obama staffers on Team Biden are experiencing déjà vu as they navigate the current Presidential transition amidst another economic crisis; Guido asks Reed whether he's optimistic about Biden's team avoiding the mistakes of the 2008 transition. Then, in the group chat, Waleed Shahid and Amira Hassan, Justice Democrats Political Director and Spokesperson, return to discuss the left's demands for Biden's team and evaluate the confirmed picks for Biden's cabinet so far, before attempting to take certain men and the bad policies they supported in the 1990s and put them outside the Democratic Party's tent.Things we might have read before recording: Obama's Original SinWill Biden Name a Deficit Hawk to Head OMB? AOC and Ilhan Omar want to block Biden's former chief of staffBlackRock Executive Brian Deese Could Get Major White House PositionRAHM EMANUEL IS PUSHING FOR TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY POSTAn Early Test for Biden: Managing a Divided Democratic PartyBiden to Nominate Janet Yellen for Treasury Secretary

Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump by millions of votes but Democrats in the House and Senate underperformed their polling. The Democratic majority in the House of the Representatives got smaller. People are mad, and they're getting into fights.But what is this fight roiling the Democratic Party about? Is it really an ideological clash between progressive and conservative Democrats, or is it a fight about campaign strategy? When conservative Democrats claim “socialism” and “Defund The Police” cost them seats, who are they talking to? And if winning majorities of votes again and again only rarely translates into the power to govern, are we missing a bigger, structural crisis here? On the first Bloc Party Group Chat, Guido Girgenti slides into the DMs with Justice Democrats spokesperson Waleed Shahid and Justice Democrats political director Amira Hassan to talk it out.Want to dig deeper on what went wrong for Congressional Democrats in 2020? Check out this post-election memo co-authored by Justice Democrats, New Deal Strategies, the Sunrise Movement, and Data for Progress.Questions? Comments? Email us at blocpartypod@gmail.com

A new show from Justice Dems about the fight for the soul of the Democratic Party, hosted by Waleed Shahid and Guido Girgenti.