Shelter and Solidarity: A Deep Dive with Artists and Activists

Reports of anti-Asian racism throughout the U.S. have surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, but have not been the subject of sustained public attention until recent months. The deadly March 16th Atlanta spa shootings, along with a spike in lethal attacks against persons of Asian descent, have brought increased visibility to a form of racism that has historically been given short shrift in discourses about racism in America. The recent flurry of press coverage, think-pieces, group protests, community statements, and social media discussions of anti-Asian racism have drawn more public attention to a number of difficult questions: How can we make sense of the spike in hate incidents in the past year, from verbal harassment to physical violence–directed at Asians? How are Asian and Asian American communities and organizations responding and resisting, and how can the broader community support them? Aside from fear and outrage, in what ways are people being galvanized to build power and solidarity across differences of class, nationality, immigrant documentation, and generational status? Conversely, how does the appeal to a unified Asian American identity conceal fractures between diverse communities and groups of people? What connections can be made between the rise in anti-Asian attacks and the ruling class's war-mongering rhetoric against China as an autocratic “Communist” threat to capitalist democracies? Michael Liu and Kent Wong, noted scholar-activists and experts on community resistance, will help us grasp the current complexities and longstanding histories of anti-Asian racism. Alice Liu, an organizer active in Texas, and Linda Liu, an S&S producer, academic, and trade union activist in Massachusetts will be hosting the conversation. Join us as we explore the role of structural racism, geopolitics, and Asian community organizing in the making and evolution of the U.S.

Paula Rauhala and Kira Moodliar join in conversation with Ranabir Samaddar to explore Ranabir's new book, “Karl Marx and the Postcolonial Age.” From Palgrave MacMillian: This book seeks to explicitly engage Marxist and post-colonial theory to place Marxism in the context of the post-colonial age. Those who study Marx, particularly in the West, often lack an understanding of post-colonial realities; conversely, however, those who fashion post-colonial theory often have an inadequate understanding of Marx. Many think that Marx is not relevant to critique postcolonial realities and the legacy of Marx seldom reaches the post-colonial countries directly. This work will read Marx in the contemporary post-colonial condition and elaborate the current dynamics of post-colonial capitalism. It does this by analysing contemporary post-colonial history and politics in the framework of inter-relations between the three categories of class, people, and postcolonial transformation. Examining the structure of power in postcolonial countries and revisiting the revolutionary theory of dual power in that context, it appreciates and explains the transformative potentialities of Marx in relation to post-colonial conditions.

Shelter & Solidarity and independent socialist magazine Monthly Review has a conversation with path-breaking radical thinker, activist, and best-selling, world-famous author Marge Piercy. For the past fifty years, few creative writers have been in deeper dialogue with the movement for emancipatory revolution than poet and novelist Marge Piercy. Author of over 20 books of poetry alone, such as her most recent On the Way Out, Turn Off the Light, and trailblazing works of speculative fiction (including Woman on the Edge of Time), Piercy's writings both vividly illuminate the outrages and absurdities of the present system, and imagine inspiring possibilities for humanity beyond its current bonds of oppression. For decades, Marge has walked her talk through grassroots political practice, helping to build and inspire social movements for feminism, peace, equality and a world beyond empire and exploitation. Join us for a deep dive with Marge Piercy about her life of activism, and the politics and artistry of her written work. Co-hosted by Joe Ramsey of Shelter & Solidarity and Camila Valle, Assistant Editor at Monthly Review.

This summer, over 300 higher ed faculty, staff, and student leaders and activists from dozens of union locals in 30 states (representing over 400,000 higher ed workers!) came together to form a new nation-wide coalition: Higher Ed Labor United (HELU). Coming from across faculty ranks and staff job categories, including both tenure track and contingent faculty, undergraduate and graduate student workers, HELU is united in the belief that we need a higher education system that takes equity seriously, works for all, and puts the common good first. S&S conducts a deep dive conversation with leading organizers in HELU as we discuss the short-term and long-term strategies--from the campus to the U.S. Congress!--for restoring the vision, the resources, and the labor conditions that can allow our system of higher learning to work for us all, students, workers, and the communities we serve. Featured guests and respondent: Nicola Walters is an organizer artist, public speaker, and teacher. She is a lecturer in the Department of Politics and Department of Sociology at Humboldt State University. She serves on the California Faculty Association's board of directors as the Membership and Organizing Chair. Nicola is the co-chair of the Labor Outreach Committee for Higher Ed Labor United. Bryan Sacks is an adjunct instructor of philosophy at Drexel University, and also an adjunct instructor of Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers in New Brunswick, NJ. He also teaches philosophy at Rutgers' Camden campus. He is pursuing a Ph.D in Media Studies in the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers, where he is also the Vice President of the PTLFC-AAUP-AFT, the union of adjunct instructors. He's been an adjunct for 30 years, teaching more than 350 classes across several disciplines and more than a dozen universities in that time. Colena Sesanker is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Gateway Community College, Political Director for the 4Cs (SEIU1973), Faculty chair of the Faculty Advisory committee to the CT board of Regents, and a member of the Scholars for a New Deal for Higher Ed exec board. Nicole Braun (respondent) has been teaching sociology as a struggling and exploited adjunct for over 2 decades. She currently lives in Chicago and like many others, is tired of the status quo in academia and otherwise. She believes HELU brings hope and inspiration and that the movement is going to create real change and bring true justice for many who have been suffering for years.

David Cobb and Nicola Walters preview “The Post Capitalism Conference: Building the Solidarity Economy” (part of EarthDayMayDay.org) at Humboldt State University. The conference kicked off on Earth Day, Thursday, April 22, 2021, and included movement luminaries like Wende Marshall, Richard Wolf, Kali Akuno, Melodie Meyer, Emily Kawano, Chase Iron Eyes, and Jerome Scott. 

Co-hosts Rachel Yarashus Patten and Bobbi-Lee Smart talk with David Roediger about his new book, The Sinking Middle Class. Description of The Sinking Middle Class: "Joe Biden's current emphasis on the 'American middle class' is typical of centrist Democrat strategy. It is used as a cudgel to defend the party against more radical demands that could win over working-class voters and non-voters. For Republicans, it provides a foil for disingenuous appeals to the 'white working class.' Donald Trump's 2016 victory made full use of such rhetoric. Yet, as David Roediger makes clear in a pointed and persuasive polemic, this obsession with the middle-class is relatively new in US politics. It began with the attempt to win back so-called 'Reagan Democrats' by Bill Clinton and his legendary pollster Stanley Greenberg. It was accompanied by a pandering to racism and a shying away from meaningful wealth redistribution that continues to this day. Drawing on rich traditions of radical social thought, Roediger disavows the thinly sourced idea that the United States was, for much of its history, a 'middle-class' nation and the still more indefensible position that it is one now. The increasing immiseration of large swathes of middle-income America, only accelerated by the current pandemic, nails a fallacy that is a major obstacle to progressive change.” – OR Books

The 2020s may prove to be “The Decisive Decade.” But what are the origins of the movements of these times? And what difference do those histories make today? We often are called to look back to the 1960s for lessons. But what of the 1990s and the movements at the turn of the millennium? Featuring Bill Fletcher, Jr., Shannon Gleeson, Hillary Lazar, Ben Manski, Suren Moodliar, Jackie Smith, Norman Stockwell, and Lesley Wood in conversation. Recently a group of social movement scholars and activists took up the question of “the millennial turns” – global, democratic, and anarchist – that produced not only the shutdown of the World Trade Organization in Seattle twenty years ago, as well as other major mobilizations of the period, but also many of the elements of social movements that are still in play today. This scholarly group produced a remarkable collection of studies, essays, and personal accounts of the 1990-2010 millennial period published just now in the journal of Socialism and Democracy's special issue, “Movements at the Millenium: Seattle +20.

In an era of growing corporate control over “the news” (from TV to social media platforms), the role played by independent, alternative, and left media is more precious than ever.  Yet the corporate-dominated media landscape, compounded by the Covid19 crisis, creates new barriers and challenges for left and independent media alike.  How are independent and alternative media adapting and struggling in the current environment?  What remains so valuable about these publications? How are independent media able to speak to issues where the “mainstream” media has proven an utter failure?  What threats to independent media are now on the horizon? And what can be done to help extend the reach and amplify the impact of these important progressive sources for news and analysis? Our featured guests are experienced editors and leading contributors from a range of progressive, socialist, and labor publications, including:   Camila Valle, Assistant Editor at Monthly Review Kurt Stand, of Portside Joe Maniscalco, of Labor Press Jason Pramas, of DigBoston and the Boston Institute for Independent Journalism.

The freeze set in, and the lights went out! And Texans found that free-market fundamentalists can't keep you warm and definitely won't keep the water running. Also, climate change does not care about ideology! It might be too early to talk about the numbers, the suffering, and the resistance, but neighbors are helping neighbors. Even with the pandemic, mutual aid groups and grassroots support have been reaching out, across borders, to stand with Texans. But far, far more is needed. As with Puerto Rico and other disaster-struck regions, what aid arrives will never replace the structural changes to the economy and to the power structure that are needed to guarantee security for all, not just for those who can jet off to Cancun. This conversation, guest hosted by David Cobb, long-time Texas organizer now residing in California, brings impacted community activists, organizers, and policy experts from Texas and Louisiana into the dialogue. We turn to them to let us know how we can help, what they have learned, and how we can elevate mutual aid to a national and global plane.

Political economists Doug Henwood (of The Nation, Jacobin, and Left Business Observer) and Bryan Snyder (of Dollars & Sense) join us to dissect the newly installed Biden administration and what it means for the people and for left politics in our time. What is the meaning of Biden's actions since taking office? His cabinet appointments? His much-heralded executive orders? His stated policy objectives (and those of the Democratic Party leadership that now controls both houses of Congress?)What are the openings for progressive, labor, environmental, and social justice movements foreseeable in the coming period? In what ways is Biden's admin likely to depart from the Trump regime's policies? In what ways have the current crises (from COVID-19, to endemic police violence, to widespread unemployment) created new opportunities that could allow for the new regime to be pressured from without? Are there openings for a (Green) New Deal under Biden, or are we likely to be fed more of the same ol' deal? What are we likely to see coming down from the Biden administration, based on its recent moves, as well as its ideological and policy history? How can those committed to a just, sustainable, and more equal world best prepare to respond and engage the new terrain?

In this our second episode of Shelter & Solidarity, we're joined by co-host Barbara Madeloni (of Labor Notes), and guests Doug Henwood (of Behind the News) and Matt Stoller (of the American Economic Liberties Project) for a critical discussion of the recently passed $2+ Trillion Federal “Stimulus” Package. We breakdown the bailout, in terms of what it means for everyday people, for the system as a whole, and for political organizing going forward.

S&S takes a deep dive into the history, myths, practices, and legacies of popular politics and “small-d” democracy in the United States with scholar and public historian Michael Lansing. The populist tradition is a significant, controversial, and often misunderstood strain of U.S. history. Lansing's book, Insurgent Democracy: The Nonpartisan League in North American Politics (University of Chicago Press, 2015), explores an important example of this tradition. The Nonpartisan League (NPL), a candidate-endorsing political organization that emerged in the 1910s in the rural Midwest, rural West, and Prairie Provinces, embodied an innovative commitment to people power in formal politics. In North Dakota, where it briefly took over, the NPL established a state-owned bank, a state-owned mill, and a state-owned grain elevator. All three endure today. Despite those innovations, the League has passed almost entirely from our collective memory. As a public historian, Lansing writes and presents on the complicated legacies of popular politics, linking them to current movements and issues. Most recently, his opinion pieces in MinnPost and the Washington Post explored their connections to the history of racialized policing as well as the recent uprising in Minneapolis. Michael Lansing completed his Ph.D. in history at the University of Minnesota and is an associate professor of history at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, where he also teaches in the Environmental Studies program. His current book project, Enriched: Industrial Carbohydrates and the Rise of Nutrition Capitalism, is a history of factory-processed grains and the corporate propagation of a political economy that demarcates the way we understand, make, and eat food. Join us for an interesting, stimulating, and wide-ranging conversation.

In the yawning gap between the crises of economy, environment, and survival on the one hand, and ruling class responses, on the other hand, is there space for socialist solutions and the movements that can deliver them? If so, how will it be filled? We answer these questions with a thoughtful and diverse group of activist intellectuals including Eljeer Hawkins (Socialist Alternative*), Liza Featherstone (The Nation*), and Kazembe Balagun (Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung*). *Organizations listed for identification purposes only and do not represent an endorsement).  Kazembe Balagun is a cultural historian, activist, writer, youngest son of Ben and Millie, and originally from Harlem, New York. From 2008 to 2013, he served as Director of Outreach and Education at the Brecht Forum in New York, where he helped bring together performance art, LGBT history, film, and jazz with Marxism and the Black Radical Tradition. He is a frequent contributor to the Indypendent, where he published the last interview of Octavia Butler (included in Consuela Francis' Conversations with Octavia Butler, University Press of Mississippi). Most recently, Finally Got the News: The Printed Legacy of the Radical Left (Common Notions) published Balagun's essay on art and people of color communist collectives. He was a member of the Red Channels Film Collective and has presented at Metrograph, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn Public Library, Woodbine, and Maysles Cinema. He serves as a project manager with the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung—New York and is working on a project looking at uncovering the history of the Black Commune. Liza Featherstone is a journalist based in New York City and a contributing writer to The Nation. She is the co-author of Students Against Sweatshops: The Making of a Movement (Verso, 2002) and the author of Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Worker's Rights at Wal-Mart (Basic, 2004) and Divining Desire: Focus Groups and the Culture of Consultation (OR Books, 2017). She is the editor of False Choices: The Faux Feminism of Hillary Clinton (Verso, 2016). L. Eljeer Hawkins is a community and anti-war activist, born and raised in Harlem, New York, member of Socialist Alternative/CWI for 21 years. He has toured internationally, invited to address audiences from South Africa to Ireland, Brazil to Belgium on the black struggle in the U.S. He has been involved in the recent Black Lives Matter movement and the fight for $15 movement. Currently, Eljeer is a non-union healthcare worker in New York City. Truthout! published an interview with Hawkins, “Inspiring a Socialist Alternative.”

Shelter & Solidarity closes out 2020 with a very special roundtable featuring return visits from some of the great guests we've had on S&S in our first year. A panel of experienced organizers, activists, scholars and artists will help kick off a community discussion around two questions: What should be our main take-aways and lessons from 2020? What are the main challenges, opportunities, and dangers that lie ahead as we look towards 2021? Guests include historian and author Avi Chomsky, labor educator and organizer Barbara Madeloni, deep democratic organizer Ben Manski, radical poets Demetrius Noble and Raymond ‘Nat' Turner, critical educator Adam Stevens, activist and wellness mentor Victor Narro, adjunct faculty and organizer Bobbi-Lee Smart, and others.

Featuring performances and conversations with revolutionary artists: Demetrius Noble, Eartha Watts Hicks, Rafael Medina, Raymond Nat Turner, Linda Liu, Ricardo Levins Morales, Tracy Garrison, Tim Sheard, & Dean Stevens.

David Duhalde, Liza Featherstone, Ben Manski and Jill Stein debriefs the presidential election with an eye to the next steps for the Left.

Featuring a deep dive with 2020 Pulitzer Prize-winner Greg Grandin, author of The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America (among many other books). We will also be joined by scholar and activist Aviva Chomsky, (author of Undocumented and “They Take Our Jobs!” and 20 Other Myths about Immigration). As the 2020 Election draws near, how do we understand the nature of Trumpism and its relationship to what has come before? How do we grasp the rise of Trump's Border Wall and the way it is re-shaping US political imagination? How has U.S. American history from the beginning been shaped by the way that the edges of the country have been imagined and constructed–often through racism and violence? How does grappling with the long and bloody American history of the “frontier” and the border change the way we see the present politics and future possibilities for the USA in the 21st century? How does studying the history of the border help us to see that ways that US “domestic” & “foreign” policy are deeply related? What will the “end” of the long-standing myth of perpetual American economic and geographic expansion mean for contemporary politics? What can be done to refuse a future defined by rising border walls and to instead reimagine global human liberation in this era of crisis?

October 1 marks the fifty-fifth anniversary of the beginning of one of the worst episodes of mass murder in the twentieth century: the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Indonesians in 1965-1966. Organized and directed by Indonesia's military, the killings targeted people associated with the country's communist party, the world's largest outside of China and the Soviet Union. The dismembering of a large part of Indonesia's political spectrum reshaped politics not only in Indonesia but around the world, foreclosing on a political pathway that might have produced greater justice and more equitable outcomes in the Global South. Despite the enormity of these events, and the sordid U.S. role of support, the killings in Indonesia are little-known in the United States and beyond. And within Indonesia, a country in which the outsized power of the military endures, there has been no accountability for the slaughter. This show will explore what took place in Indonesia in the mid-1960s, and its significance for the sprawling country and the larger world; the enforced silence surrounding these events in much of Indonesian society since that time; and their present-day manifestations and efforts aimed at accountability. In doing so, the show brings together three guests:  Vincent Bevins, John Roosa, and  Krithika Varagur, hosted by Joseph Nevins.  Books by Our Host and Guests Vincent Bevins (2020) The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World. ​ Joseph Nevins (Co-edited with Nancy Peluso) (2008) Taking Southeast Asia to Market: Commodities, Nature, and People in the Neoliberal Age. Joseph Nevins (2005) A Not-So-Distant Horror: Mass Violence in East Timor. Updated version of 1st edition, entitled Pembantaian Timor Timur: Horor Masyarakat Internasional (translated into Indonesian by Nug Katjasungkana) published by Garba Budaya and Fortilos (Jakarta, Indonesia) in 2008. John Roosa (2006) Pretext for Mass Murder: The September 30th Movement and Suharto's Coup d'État in Indonesia. John Roosa (2020) Buried Histories: The Anticommunist Massacres of 1965-1966 in Indonesia. Krithika Varagur (2020) The Call: Inside the Global Saudi Religious Project. Documentary/Film Sources Discussed Joshua Oppenheimer, Anonymous (Directors, 2012) The Act of Killing (film). Joshua Oppenheimer, (Director, 2014) The Look of Silence (film). Arifin C. Noer (Director, 1984) Pengkhianatan G30S PKI (film) Indonesia's propaganda film from 1984; over 4 hours long and use to be required viewing for school children Peter Weir (Director, 1982) The Year of Living Dangerously (film). John Pilger (2001) The New Rulers of the World (film). Other Titles Discussed Christopher Koch (1978) The Year of Living Dangerously. Cathy Caruth (2014) Listening to Trauma. Barbara Foley (2009)  “Rhetoric and Silence in Barack Obama's ‘Dreams from My Father'” Cultural Logic. Vivian Gornick (1977, 2020) The Romance of American Communism. Bradley R. Simpson (2008) Economists with Guns. Selections from the Zoom Chat Audience: When I toured the GDR in 1983 with a multi-party delegation, there were two Indonesian comrades, both teaching economics in Moscow. Are there countries other than the Netherlands that host other survivors of the massacre? Response: Long story about the exiles. Thousands of students and party activists and other nationalists were stranded in the Soviet Bloc and China after Oct 1. The PKI in China called all of them to come to China in 1966-67 and some did. But then China normalized relations with Indonesia in the early 1980s and the exiles were no longer welcome and many moved to W. Europe as refugees.  Audience: This is also the era of the Sino-Soviet split. Apparently PKI exiles were unable to get together to organize a party organization in exile. Response: Yes, and the Sino-Soviet split affected how the international left interpreted the defeat of the PKI. The Soviet side blamed the PKI for being too radical, too Maoist. While the Maoists blamed the ‘modern revisionists' in the PKI for not preparing the PKI to defend itself. In the process, the humanitarian side of the story was lost. A lot of the postmortem analyses by the international communist parties were really dogmatic and formulaic. Next Show: Trump's Wall Must Fall 10/15 https://www.facebook.com/events/425837915057329

Amid a resurgence of xenophobic nationalism, Islamophobia, Antisemitism, and racism more generally, how do we refute charges of Antisemitism that are broadly leveled against advocates for Black liberation, immigrant justice and national self-determination for the Palestinian people? To help us navigate these questions, Lara Kiswani from Beit Iksa and Aqir, Palestine, and Executive Director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) and Lesley Williams of Jewish Voice for Peace join our show co-hosted by Joe Ramsey and Suren Moodliar with co-producers Linda Liu, Kira Moodliar, Mark Soderstrom, and Tim Sheard.

Recent years have seen a resurgence of right-wing nationalism and authoritarian political movements, from Trump in the US to Bolsanaro in Brazil and to Modi in India. How are we best to grasp the nature of these contemporary political trends? Are Trump and the movement to support him usefully understood as a form of neo-fascism? Right-wing populism? Something else? What are the political, economic, social, and cultural drivers of this trend, and how can they most effectively be countered and defeated? How does contemporary right-wing authoritarianism compare with classic fascist movements of the past? What lessons for today can be found in the arsenal of historical anti-fascism, and what needs updating? How does the way we think about the threats we face shape the necessary political response? How can grasping the roots of current right-wing movements help us build the movement to defeat them, from the ballot box to the workplace to the streets and beyond? Shelter & Solidarity (9/3/20) took a deep dive with activist-thinkers who have been studying historical and contemporary right-wing movements as well as fascism and anti-fascism for decades: Bill V. Mullen, Chris Vials, and Bill Fletcher Jr. Bill V. Mullen and Chris Vials are co-editors of The U.S. Antifascism Reader (2020). Bill Mullen is former Professor of American Studies at Purdue University. He is the author most recently of James Baldwin: Living in Fire (Pluto Press, 2019). His other books include Afro-Orientalism (University of Minnesota Press) and (as co-editor with Ashley Dawson) Against Apartheid: The Case for Boycotting Israeli Universities (Haymarket Books). He is a member of the Organizing Collective for USACBI (United States Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) Christopher Vials is a Professor of English and Director of American Studies at the University of Connecticut-Storrs. He is the author of Haunted by Hitler: Liberals, the Left, and the Fight against Fascism in the United States (2014) and has appeared on public forums such as NPR, PBS, and CBC radio to discuss the history of fascism and antifascism in the United States. Bill Fletcher Jr. Fletcher is the former president of TransAfrica Forum; a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies; an editorial board member of BlackCommentator.com, and is the co-author (with Peter Agard) of “The Indispensable Ally: Black Workers and the Formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, 1934-1941”; the co-author (with Dr. Fernando Gapasin) of Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path Toward Social Justice. Fletcher is a syndicated columnist and a regular media commentator on television, radio and the Web.

Feeling stressed? Seeking strategies for keeping healthy and connected during this period of protracted pandemic, economic crisis, and physical isolation? Join us for our third Shelter & Solidarity social hour – a community discussion about how we can best sustain ourselves, each other, our organizations and movements during these pandemic times. We'll be led into the discussion by Michal Osterweil and Victor Narro. Michal teaches in the Curriculum in Global Studies at UNC Chapel Hill and is also deeply committed to community and popular education aimed at activists, community members and others not (necessarily) in formal school that see the importance of actively studying and (un)learning what it means to be a change agent in these intense times of crisis. She is co-convenor with Arturo Escobar of UNC's seminar, Theory and Politics of Relationality (The Relationality project), and currently working on a book project and web-project in this vein. She is also a mother and radical homemaker who loves gardening, cooking and dancing.A nationally known expert on immigrant rights and low-wage workers, Victor Narro has been involved with immigrant rights and labor issues for over 35 years, and author of several books on labor justice and organizing. He has also become a leading voice for self-care and spirituality in the work for social justice through his new book, Living Peace: Connecting Your Spirituality with Your Work for Justice (CreateSpace Publication, 2014). Victor has published a children's book about labor solidarity, Jimmy's Carwash Adventure (Hard Ball Press 2016).

Building on a recent paper by John W. Lawrence, “Organizing the Democratic Capacity for Transformative Change: The 2020 Election and Beyond” published in Socialism and Democracy, this conversation discusses and debates the organizational and political requirements for the left to grow and become an organized voice and transformative force based in the working class. Speaker list in formation.

As the Covid-19 pandemic rages on, this episode explores the significance of apocalyptic and dystopian narratives for our current crisis-laden moment. While typically associated with large-scale death and destruction, the word ‘apocalypse' also means a revelation or uncovering of what was hidden in plain sight. Joined by noted science and speculative fiction and film scholars Gerry Canavan and Mark Soderstrom, and co-host Linda Liu, we will discuss what this pandemic is revealing about the systems we inhabit, as well as some lessons and limits of cultural texts that imagine apocalyptic scenarios and dystopian societies. Gerry Canavan is an associate professor in the English Department at Marquette University, specializing in twentieth- and twenty-first-century literature. His first book, Octavia E. Butler, appeared in 2016 in the Modern Masters of Science Fiction series at University of Illinois Press. He tweets at @gerrycanavan and has recently embarked on an ill-considered Kurt Vonnegut reread podcast @gradschoolvonn. Mark Soderstrom has been a professional blacksmith, carpenter, labor organizer, and musician. He is now an Associate Professor in the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies and Work and Labor Policy programs of SUNY-Empire State College. He has published work on labor history, history of science, oral history, neoliberalism, and speculative fiction.

As we roll into late August, the start of the school year is upon us. What will this Fall look like for students, for teachers and staff, for parents and our communities? What threats to safety, to the quality and equity of education, and to working conditions are people facing? And how are they responding What are school and community organizers doing to protect workers and students from the dangers of COVID? What are the best (and worst) models of how institutions are responding, and What else needs to be done? Joining us will be K-12 and college educators, as well parents from around the country, including New York public school teachers Adam Stevens and Freddie Cole, UMass Boston professor and parent, Amy Todd, and California-based adjunct professor and union organizer Bobbi-Lee Smart. Why is it that so many districts are ordering schools to reopen even as the pandemic still rages? What are the challenges facing educators, students, and parents now forced to deal with remote and online teaching? How will teaching and learning be different this Fall than it's been before? What demands and actions are emerging across the country as people organize to keep their co-workers, students, families and communities both safe and smart in a time of institutional absurdity and public health nightmares? There are no shortage of questions to discuss and challenges to respond to. Join us a roundtable of educators, parents, students, organizers and activists as we hold a Shelter and Solidarity community discussion on this pressing topic. Adam Stevens has worked since 1996 in the public high schools of Brooklyn, New York to teach history in a way that raises anti-racist, anti-sexist and working-class consciousness. Freddie Cole is a public school teacher, union officer and activist in New York City. Amy Todd teaches Anthropology at UMass Boston, where she is a long-time union and labor activist. Bobbi-lee Smart is a California-based adjunct faculty member and advocate, Executive Director of CFT local. Adjunct Faculty United.

Avi Chomsky, Marie Cruz Soto, Joseph Gerson & Gar Alperovitz consider the legacy of the Hiroshima, its roots in Empire and colonial rivalries. They also examine resistance to empire from Vieques to Okinawa and across diasporas and homelands. Joe Ramsey hosts the conversation he co-produced with Linda Liu, Kira Moodliar, Suren Moodliar and Tim Sheard. The episode is sponsored by Hardball Press, the Community Church of Boston, Socialism and Democracy, and encuentro5.

This episode is a deep dive with Victor Wallis (author of Democracy Denied and Red-Green Revolution) about how the Left can and should relate to elections and to threats to democracy in the United States. Victor is joined in conversation by nationally renowned organizer Medea Benjamin (Code Pink). What are the opportunities and dangers represented by the 2020 Election? Questions and issues explored include: how should socialists relate to the Republican and Democratic Parties? To third party efforts? What can we learn from history in terms of how the Left can effectively engage the electoral process without getting sucked into compromised politics that undermine our goals and values? What are the threats to electoral democracy in the USA today and why is it important to defend the ballot box and defeat the Right, even while recognizing the compromised nature of the Democratic Biden ticket? What needs to be done to defend democracy in the USA, via the ballot box and beyond? Victor Wallis is a socialist scholar and long-time editor of the journal Socialism & Democracy. He is a frequent to contributor to Monthly Review, New Political Science, and Capitalism, Nature, Socialism, and is author of three books: Democracy Denied: Five Lectures on American Politics, Red-Green Revolution: The Politics and Technology of Eco-Socialism, and Socialist Practice: Histories and Theories.

S&S's second social hour explores what we are watching and/or reading these days and attempts to tease out the ‘whys.' Other than the persistently grim march of the news, what kinds of media and narratives have we been drawn to lately? Whether it's escapist fantasies or pandemic-themed movies, are we looking for solace, distraction, frisson, or even models for how to navigate crisis? Are there certain genres and texts we find ourselves avoiding altogether and others that we can't help but binge in one sitting? Join us as we talk to each other about the media we are paying attention to, as well as try to understand our individual and collective motivations for doing so. With co-hosts Linda Liu and Joe Ramsey.

Demita Frazier, Ross Caputi, and Suren Moodliar in a conversation with host Joe Ramsey about monuments and public art in a moment of rebellion. 

In this third episode, hosts Joe Ramsey and Tim Sheard interview Tre Kwon and Jesse Martin about emergency conditions facing front line workers and those in their care. Both decry the tendency of employers and government to cut corners in pursuit of profits at the expense of those in need of care and their caregivers.

Nationally renowned scholar Cedric Johnson (author of the forthcoming book on Race, Policing and Anti-Capitalist Politics) joins us for a deep dive discussion into what comes next following the recent uprisings against police violence, and the broader state of Left politics in the US. We will also be joined by labor scholar and activist Clare Hammonds, co-editor of the new book Labor in the Time of Trump. Cedric Johnson is an associate professor of African American studies and political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago and author of From Revolutionaries to Race Leaders: Black Power and the Making of African American Politics (2007) as well as editor of The Neoliberal Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, Late Capitalism and the Remaking of New Orleans (2011). Clare Hammonds is a Professor of Practice in the Labor Resource Center of UMass Amherst. She is co-editor of the new book Labor in the Time of Trump and her research interests include union organizing, low-wage care work, and public sector labor relations.

Shelter & Solidarity show 4, a two-part episode, addresses higher education and also the organizing for May Day in a time of global pandemic and economic depression. In the first part, Joe Ramsey interviews Anna Kornbluh, Ben Manski, Barbara Madeloni, and Chris Newfield. Together they address the paradoxes of increased militancy and reduced organizational capacity. Framing the conversation is the notion of the “shock doctrine.” In this context, they provide insights into the formation of demands and its relationship to organizing. These are treated in a nuanced way and reflect different emphases and starting points for organizers. Their dialogue segues seamlessly into a broader conversation in the second part, “Organizing for May Day,” in which they are joined by Adam Kaszynski and Jonathan Feinberg. In discussing their organizing, Kaszynski and Feinberg, ground preparations for May Day in terms of the shop floor experiences of IUE-CWA Local 201 and in the immigrant and working-class communities of Lynn Massachusetts.

This episode is a panel discussion of the contradictions of anti-racist work in the University, with a particular focus on race, class, and contingency. The panel addresses the place institutions of higher education occupy in our racialized class society, assesses the official “anti-racist” strategies universities promote, and highlights the anti-racist work of on- and off-campus activism within the context of austerity, corporatization, and adjunctification. Panelists include Southern California and community college-based adjunct union organizer Bobbi-Lee Smart (as co-host), as well as Philadelphia-based rank-and-file faculty and community organizer Wende Marshall, contingent faculty scholar of anti-racism Damon Dees, and Seattle-based adjunct activist Benedict Stork.  Among the questions considered: What good are public statements against racism issued from institutions ensconced in a racialized system of inequality? How can an academy historically and presently structured by and operating through exploitation hope to address systemic racism? How are corporate elites and neoliberal administrators (and even some faculty) responding to the current crisis in ways that perfume rather than uproot the fundamental inequalities that run through and around our colleges and universities? What would truly egalitarian, anti-racist praxis look like for those based in higher ed ? What are the structures of colleges and universities that need to be transformed if we are to ever realize the universalist promise of the University? Can the University itself be reformed apart from a larger change in society? How can and how must academic activists and organizers transform ourselves and our organizations in order to make anti-racism and social equality more than virtue signaling and corporate rhetoric? How so might contingency itself create opportunities for organizing the increasingly precarious faculty majority--on campus and off--in ways that reconnect us to communities and struggles that for too long have been locked out of the official agenda of academic politics?

In our fifth episode of Shelter & Solidarity, we are scholar-activists Aviva Chomsky (author of Undocumented, ‘They Take Our Jobs!' and Twenty Other Myths about Immigration), Joseph Nevins and Mizue Aizeki (co-authors of the book, Dying to Live: A Story of U.S. Immigration in an Age of Global Apartheid), as well as veteran organizerAlma De Jesus (of AF3IRM) for an urgent but deep dive into the current crisis. How can we support immigrant communities, public health, and human rights in this COVID-19 pandemic moment?

Our sixth episode is a social hour! S&S's first social hour! Framing questions: What book has most resonated with you during this unprecedented time, and why? Share with others what you are enjoying and what you are taking away from the text. Reading and sharing what's valuable on the page can help us cope with–and deepen our grasp of– the challenges we face in this difficult historical period. Help us buoy spirits as well as build shields for future battles. Books discussed include: Mike Davis, The Monster at Our Door Laurie Garrett, Betrayal of Trust George Lakey, Viking Economics Ling Ma, Severance Augustine Sedgewick, Coffeeland: One Man's Dark Empire and the Making of Our Favorite Drug Stephen Schlesinger & Stephen Kinzer, Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala Tim Sheard, The Lenny Moss Mysteries (9 books) Jessie Sima, Love, Z Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo, The Martin Beck Police Mystery Series (10 books) Rob Wallace, Big Farms Make Big Flu

Shelter and Solidarity #11 is a co-hosted discussion about resisting the system of mass incarceration with members of the New York-based frontline organization Its Up to Us to End Mass Incarceration. We will be joined by IUTU organizer Michael Nugent as well as Tydina Brown and Nicole James, family members of currently incarcerated people who are struggling for justice for their loved ones in the midst of the COVID pandemic and also speaking out for other families. It's Up to Us strives to build leadership among those directly affected by the racist and tortuous criminal justice system to build a movement of resistance to end mass incarceration once and for all.

A conversation about the government and corporate class campaigns to use the COVID moment to privatize or destroy our most critical public services: The US Postal Service, public K-12, and higher education, public hospitals, the Veterans Affairs health services, and more. We are joined by postal worker organizer, Charles Zlatkin, New York Labor Communications Council, as well as Clarissa Eaton on public higher education in Massachusetts. Visit the American Postal Workers Union to send a letter to your representatives and senators about the USPS. The Faculty Staff Union at UMass Boston has a petition challenging the effective layoffs of contingent faculty. The show covered a lot of ground. Our host and guests called attention to may different sources of information. We list the links below in their “raw form” but will be updating them presently to make it more user-friendly: The Atlantic's Philip F. Rubio explains why we must “Save the Post Office“ The free-market right's critique of the USPS, see “Restructuring the U.S. Postal Service” by Chris Edwards of the CATO Institute (funded by the Koch brothers, but also Google, Whole Foods (Amazon), FedEx, and Google) The Economic Policy Institute's Darryl J. Anderson debunks myths about USPS in “Brookings paper on the Postal Service gets the facts wrong.“ http://www.campaignforpostalbanking.org/news/why-we-need-a-bank-at-the-post-office/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Post_Bank https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2020/05/18/lecturer-whos-been-cut-due-pandemic-questions-justice-it-opinion?fbclid=IwAR3hsYiDvrYulJJsHUPizbgOlxeuLnUuYzC3I7D4T-l5fQPHfPOP-ezVPQ8 https://www.wbur.org/edify/2020/05/12/umass-boston-possible-layoffs https://www.chronicle.com/article/Faculty-Cuts-Begin-With/248795 https://edsource.org/2020/education-funding-in-second-stimulus-bill-in-house-falls-far-short-of-education-leaders-requests/631585 https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2016/12/13/for-a-rich-state-massachusetts-higher-ed-funding.html https://shef.sheeo.org/

Performances of original poetry from Lorraine Currelley, Bronx Beat Poet Laureate & Activist, as well as Raymond Nat Turner, members of the Harlem Poets Guild, and North Carolina-based poet-critic-activist Demetrius Noble. w/ co-hosts Joe Ramsey and Tim Sheard.

As the frontline communities and others of good conscience grieve and revolt, the US's democratic trappings yield to its iron fist core. What are must be done to re-energize the long revolution against slavery and capitalism and for democracy and freedom? Long-time radical intellectual and pan-Africanist, Bill Fletcher and the Marxist activist-scholar August Nimtz join Johanna Fernandez and Joe Ramsey for a conversation about strategy for the left.

COVID-19 has exposed the brittle core of higher education today: super-exploited academic workers going by dozens of titles–temporary, part-timer, adjunct, visiting, precarious, etc.–all meaning “contingent” i.e. workers who provide most of the teaching but who receive few benefits and next to no job security. It has also raised sharply the question of the university's relationship to a broader community now in a state of crisis: from students, to workers, to campus neighbors. Join us for a roundtable discussion with contingent faculty organizers across the US, from the community colleges of California, to Temple University, CUNY, SUNY, Rutgers, and UMass Boston. Guests will include California-based adjunct faculty scholar and union organizer Bobbi-Lee Smart, Philadelphia-based community organizer and educator Wende Marshall, and Boyda Johnstone of CUNY's Rank & File Action.