The Dig Folgen

Checking your privilege. Invisible knapsacks. Intersectionality. In his new book from Verso, Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump, Asad Haider questions the terms and concepts that underpin much liberal and left conversation about race and racism, exploring critiques advanced by the black radical tradition to mount a thoroughgoing demolition of what we now refer to as “identity politics”—something that had a quite different meaning when it was first coined by the black, radical lesbian feminists of the Combahee River Collective. This is not a book that dismisses racism and sexism. Quite to the contrary. Haider shows that we can only confront and defeat oppressions like racism and sexism if we recognize their relationship to the capitalist exploitation of the working class as a whole. The corollary is also true: capitalism can never be defeated without recognizing and fighting the various oppressions that help sustain it. Thanks to Verso Books. Check out We Built the Wall: How the US Keeps Out Asylum Seekers from Mexico, Central America and Beyond by Eileen Truax versobooks.com/books/2606-we-built-the-wall And Old Gods, New Enigmas: Marx’s Lost Theory by Mike Davis And support this podcast with $ and access our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDigversobooks.com/books/2779-old-gods-new-enigmas And support this podcast with $ and access our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig  

View Transcript The last episode in this week’s Ocasio-Cortez super series. First, an interview with Seth Ackerman on his essay “A Blueprint for a New Party,” which lays out a strategy for building independent socialist power effectively, which means opportunistically seizing the Democratic Party ballot line when necessary. jacobinmag.com/2016/11/bernie-sanders-democratic-labor-party-ackerman/ Then, Kate Aronoff on her article “A Revolution From Within,” which explains Our Revolution and Justice Democrats, two organizations formed out of the Bernie campaign that are playing critical roles in the left electoral insurgency. dissentmagazine.org/article/transforming-electoral-process-our-revolution-justice-democrats Thanks to Verso Books. Check out The Amateur: The Pleasures of Doing What You Love by Andy Merrifield versobooks.com/books/2765-the-amateur And support this podcast with $ and access our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig

This week’s super series on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s victory and the future of left politics continues with Julia Salazar, a DSA member running for a Brooklyn state Senate in New York’s District 18. Salazar’s campaign worked hard for Ocasio-Cortez; now, Ocasio-Cortez’s team is returning the favor. Recently, The New York Daily News wondered if Salazar might be the new Ocasio-Cortez. Ocasio-Cortez responded: Salazar “isn’t the next me, she’s the first HER.” Indeed, Salazar has her own story to tell. She immigrated from Colombia as a child, and came of age as a young activist by organizing a rent strike in her Harlem building. She describes herself as a democratic socialist, which she defines as recognizing “the capitalist system as being inherently oppressive and actively working to dismantle it and to empower the working class and the marginalized in our society.” Get involved with the campaign at salazarforsenate.com Support this podcast with $ and access our weekly newsletter at patreon.com/TheDig