Jacobin Radio Folgen

This week, Grace speaks to Kate Aronoff, staff writer at The New Republic and author of the excellent new book Overheated: How Capitalism Broke the Planet and How We Fight Back. She’s also the co-author of We Own the Future: Democratic Socialism, American Style, and A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal.They discuss Biden’s climate plan, the Green New Deal, and whether fossil fuel executives should be tried for crimes against humanity.You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

Suzi talks to Pablo Abufom about the historic victory for progressives in the election held in Chile on May 15-16. This outcome would have been unimaginable just two years ago, after nearly fifty years of neoliberal governance, first under Pinochet’s brutal military dictatorship until 1990, then the so-called center-left Concertación. We can thank the social protests of October 2019 for this epoch-making achievement, showing that mobilized popular forces could win against the long entrenched center and right. A key demand that emerged and united the protestors was for a new constitution to replace the fraudulently approved 1980 Pinochet Constitution which had cemented neoliberal, repressive rule against any attempt to create a more equitable society. That new constitution would not be written by members of the political class, but by delegates elected by the people, with gender parity and indigenous representation. Pablo Abufom was in the thick of the 2019 protest movement and spoke to us about it at the time. He returns to explain what has been won by the new left coalition Apruebo Dignidad in the elections, as well as the possible pitfalls that lay ahead.

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. In this episode, Doug speaks with Joel Schalit and Orly Noy (separately) on the politics of Israel: What are the internal dynamics that make it so bellicose and repressive?