The Dig Folgen

The US has played a major role in fomenting violence across Yemen, backing the Saudi and United Arab Emirates-led forces attacking the country while also conducting a direct war against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula under the guise of counterterrorism. But while it’s understandable that US involvement is the top focus for the American left, understanding the war in Yemen requires a much broader analysis. The Yemeni conflict not only includes multiple outside actors but also multiple groups of Yemenis pursuing different outcomes, rooted in a complex history that few outside of Yemen understand. Explaining that context is what this show, in partnership with the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP), is all about. This special episode includes two interviews with contributors to Middle East Report, MERIP’s print publication. First, up is Yemeni journalist Afrah Nasser and political scientist Stacey Philbrick Yadav; and then, Dan speaks with political-economist Adam Hanieh. Check out The Fight for Yemen, the latest issue of Middle East Report at merip.org/magazine/289/ Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.org Please support this podcast with your cash at Patreon.com/TheDig        

In the US, China is often viewed at best as a nefarious and enigmatic rival and at worst as a civilizational enemy. But these stories of national rivalry that permeate both major parties and the mainstream media function as a mystification, shrouding the global supply chain that connects capitalist exploitation from East to West. When we cut through the noise, a rather different picture emerges: China is home to a massive portion of the world’s working-class, a class that is struggling against the combined forces of state and global capital for dignified lives. And these struggles, contrary to conventional wisdom, are deeply connected, rather than opposed to, worker struggles in the West. Dan interviews sociologist Jenny Chan on China’s class conflict and labor movement. Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

Car dominance, public transit austerity, and the neoliberal political-economy within which both are embedded have fomented what Marx called idiocy, in its classical sense of privatized social isolation. Dan talks to geographer Kafui Attoh, the author of Rights in Transit: Public Transportation and the Right to the City in California’s East Bay, about the political-economy of public transit and why the fight for transportation justice must be part of a broader struggle for the right to the city. André Gorz’s “The social ideology of the motorcar” unevenearth.org/2018/08/the-social-ideology-of-the-motorcar/ Two upcoming live Dig tapings in Providence! April 23: Dan interviews Sam Stein on his book Capital City facebook.com/events/2164662790291372/ May 2-4: Slavery’s Hinterlands: Capitalism and bondage in Rhode Island and across the Atlantic world facebook.com/events/661508874305008/ And check out the Philadelphia Socialist Feminist Convergence, April 26-28 socfemphilly.wordpress.com Thanks to Verso Books. Peruse their massive selection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com