Jacobin Radio Folgen

This week, Grace talks to Doug Henwood, Marxist, journalist, host of the Behind the News podcast, and author of many books, including the classic Wall Street: How it Works and For Whom.They discuss Biden’s stimulus package, his corporate tax hikes, and what’s been going on in US stock markets – as well as how workers can organise in the post-Covid economy.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 labor historian John Logan who assesses the historic unionization drive against Amazon at the new Bessemer Alabama warehouse — and processes the outcome: a no vote for the Retail Workers union. Front line workers took on the second largest, notoriously anti-union company in the US during a pandemic — and won widespread sympathy and media coverage — but failed to win enough votes to get union recognition. With so much riding on this struggle, we ask what was achieved, and what the defeat means for organizing in the US, where labor law is stacked in favor of the employers. We get John Logan’s perspective on the larger significance of this drive as well as the nitty gritty of the obstacles faced every step of the way.

Micah talks with Chapo Trap House's Matt Christman about historian Rick Perlstein's Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980, the politics of the 1970s and the possibilities for political alternatives to the right turn America ended up taking, the parallels of that era to the Obama/Bernie/Trump era, and (what else?) the desperate need to revive labor to escape our neverending culture wars.