029: The Anticapitalist Compass

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For this episode, Matt</span> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">&</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">Jesse build upon their prior discussion (Episode 026) of Erik Olin Wright’s posthumous book,</span> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">How to Be an Anticapitalist in the 21st Century</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, by mapping out how we might best choreograph the dance steps in making revolution fully realized. Wright’s historically magnificent project of delineating the internal contradictions of class in America (and the world over) made him the most important Marxist in Sociology post-WWII. After his mapping project of class was completed, the intellectual turned his attention in the latter half of his career to seeing how we might build real utopias in the here and now – after both the failure of statist “proletarian” parties and the success of neoliberalism’s onslaught of rapacious transnational capital, where everything could be outsourced or automated, and where labor was left emaciated, fragmented, and unconscious of its own exploitation. While Wright’s final work provided an excellent diagramming of the strategic logic of Eroding Capitalism, he never outlined how we might orchestrate these various movements on the playing field of global capital in order to build a symphony of revolution. Increasingly, the triumphant narrative that markets “heal the boo-boos” seems ever-less persuasive as capitalism reveals itself to be a harm-grinder against humanity and our desiccated biosphere. Matt will discuss what he argues is our most powerful anticapitalist wedge issue - money in politics, and Jesse will offer his Theory of Emancipatory Struggle along with the strategic directions of The Anticapitalist Compass. In closing, Jesse</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">&</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">Matt will examine how converging emancipatory movements joining in a chorus of revolution can build toward the first glimmers of The Utopi