The current moment has questioned capitalism, proposing fascism and socialism as viable alternatives. Italy a century ago went through a similar moment. Using the biography of Marxist critical theorist Antonio Gramsci we’ll discuss socialist theory and strategy, fascism, and a bunch of other stuff.
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I wrote an essay on John and Barbara Ehrenreich’s concept of the PMC, and how it relates to Mark Fisher’s concept of the Vampire Castle, which I read in this episode. You’ll hear the full version of the essay, but a shortened version will be included in a book titled Underground Theory, which will be available at Amazon to order a print copy September 4. The link is below.
I’m proud to say that this essay will be included with essays by some smart and controversial thinkers including Žižek, Norman Finkelstein, Alenka Zupančič, Todd McGowan, Catherine Liu, Chris Cutrone, Daniel Tutt and Michael Downs of the Dangerous Maybe blog.
In my essay I argue Mark Fisher makes the same mistake many Marxists have made. They conflate the petite bourgeoisie with the professional managerial class. This is an understandable mistake, but it is time for Marxists to begin using the Ehrenreich’s definition of the professional managerial class in their class analysis. At another time I will quibble further with the Ehrenreichs. I think they make a few mistakes, but on the whole I think they have brought a tremendous improvement to the discipline of class analysis. The future of the socialist struggle must account for the distinctions between the petite bourgeoisie and the professional managerial class.
Underground Theory
https://a.co/d/3yPyo6J
“PMC Consciousness & Ideology”
Theory Underground
https://theory-underground.com/courses/pmc/
WAYPOINT: Timenergy, critical media theory, and culture war
Theory Pleeb (a.k.a. Dave McKerracher of Theory Underground)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09M8QG8B9/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_ZYBSX12JJPFGJP9VETMK
Class, an official podcast of the Democratic Socialists of America National Political Education Committee
https://education.dsausa.org/class-the-npec-podcast/
Barbara and John Ehrenreich’s PMC part 1 (1977)
https://library.brown.edu/pdfs/1125403552886481.pdf
Barbara and John Ehrenreich’s PMC part 2 (1977)
https://files.libcom.org/files/Rad%20America%20V11%20I3.pdf
Barbara and John Ehrenreich’s PMC part 3 (2013)
https://www.rosalux.de/fileadmin/rls_uploads/pdfs/sonst_publikationen/ehrenreich_death_of_a_yuppie_dream90.pdf
Announcements: Class, new DSA NPEC podcast and my online course on the PMC
Season 2
Monday, December 19, 2022 • Duration 08:41
This episode merely contains a couple announcements. The first is an online class I’m going to be teaching with Dave McKerracher on the PMC, also known as the Professional Managerial Class. The second announcement is about my DSA NPEC podcast, Class.
Class: Democratic Socialists of America National Political Education Committee podcast
https://education.dsausa.org/class-the-npec-podcast/
Theory Underground: Professional Managerial Class Consciousness
8 week course, meet every other Wednesday starting January 25, 2022
https://theory-underground.com/courses/pmc/?fbclid=IwAR0hh3FS2PedZ5_ApjYoV796Vp_pY4-jg6uivMk3d1RPiPahlFXOmvtACk4#learndash-course-content
Theory Underground Courses
https://theory-underground.com/courses/
Michael Downs, the Dangerous Maybe
https://link.medium.com/sMvhw6PgSvb
2.1 A Working Class Intelligentsia Manifesto
Season 2 · Episode 1
Wednesday, August 24, 2022 • Duration 01:54:30
I started this podcast in order to extract strategy and insight from Gramsci’s writings. This Gramsci-inspired manifesto calls for a recalibration of the term “working class” per Marx’s Das Kapital, Volume 1 in order to build the foundation for a renewed international working class struggle for socialism grounded on a socialist mode of production and empowerment of the working class, de-emphasizing reliance on a vanguard of revolutionaries. How should socialists relate to the PMC?
“Waypoint: Timenergy, critical media theory, and culture war” by Theory Pleeb
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09M8QG8B9/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_ZYBSX12JJPFGJP9VETMK
Wikipedia article on “Mode of Production”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mode_of_production
Economics of Fascism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_fascism
Germanic People (Barbarians)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_peoples#Migration_Period_(ca._375–568)
Merchants in the Middle Ages
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant#Merchants_in_the_medieval_period
PDFs of Erik Olin Wright’s books
https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/
DSA National Political Education event with Meagan Day that discusses some overlapping content about Non-Reformist Reforms
https://youtu.be/GcHMGRKNobY
André Gorz’s “Reform and Revolution”
https://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/article/view/5272/2173
Cosmonaut Magazine - Socialism of the Oppressed: The Stakes of the Bowman Affair
Season 1
Wednesday, May 18, 2022 • Duration 51:42
I heard this podcast episode from the Cosmonaut podcast. It is an audio version of an article from the online magazine. I am sharing it because it complements our last episode on Jamaal Bowman, what the authors of this episode refer to as the Bowman Affair, but with much more rigorous analysis as it relates to the internal debate and structures of DSA.
The CosmoPod Podcast Episode
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cosmopod/id1469843985?i=1000558965755
The Original Article “Socialism of the Oppressed: The Stakes of the Bowman Affair” by Jean Allen and Marisa Miale
https://cosmonautmag.com/2022/04/socialism-of-the-oppressed-the-stakes-of-the-bowman-affair/
1.16 DSA Party Discipline, Palestine, BDS and Jamaal Bowman
Season 1 · Episode 16
Wednesday, February 9, 2022 • Duration 01:48:40
Today’s episode is about proletarian discipline, party discipline. DSA has recently had an internal debate about Jamaal Bowman’s refusal to support the Palestinian solidarity movement BDS.
GRAMSCI
Gramci’s Concept of Subaltern
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaltern_(postcolonialism)
DISCIPLINE
Jodi Dean’s Article on Discipline
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/11/comrades-political-organizing-discipline-jodi-dean
Republican Party Discipline of Liz Cheney
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/15/liz-cheney-wyoming-republican-party-trump
DSA’s ban on democratic centralism
https://www.dsausa.org/about-us/constitution/#P1N
Leninist Discipline
https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Party+dicipline
Know Your Enemy #36 on Jan 6
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/know-your-enemy/id1462703434?i=1000529390998
———————
DSA CAUCUSES AND ELECTION SLATES
Libertarian Socialist Caucus
https://dsa-lsc.org/2021/07/19/lsc-democratic-socialism-a-short-history/
Bread & Roses Caucus
https://breadandrosesdsa.org/
https://breadandrosesdsa.org/convention-2021-slate/
The Green New Deal Slate
https://keywiki.org/DSA_Green_New_Deal_Slate
Socialist Majority
https://www.socialistmajority.com/
Renewal Slate
https://www.dsarenewal.org/our-npc-slate/
Other DSA Caucasus
https://reformandrevolution.org/2021/09/08/whos-who-in-dsa-a-guide-to-dsa-caucuses/
———————
PALESTINE & BDS
History of Palestine
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/throughline/id1451109634?i=1000523361687
Israeli Settlements
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_settlement
Natural Resource Extraction during British Mandate
https://trafo.hypotheses.org/30714
1936-1939 Arab Revolt
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936%E2%80%931939_Arab_revolt_in_Palestine
Palestinians have sovereign authority over their natural resources
https://imemc.org/article/wafa-un-general-assembly-passes-vote-affirms-palestinian-sovereignty-over-their-natural-resources/
DSA departed from the Socialist International
https://www.leftvoice.org/DSA-Votes-for-BDS-Reparations-and-Out-of-the-Socialist-International/
NY DSA Revolutions Per Minute podcast on the BDS Movement
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/revolutions-per-minute-radio-from-new-york-city-democratic/id1450411809?i=1000524165027
J Street’s Rejection of the BDS Movement
https://jstreet.org/wrong-way-oppose-bds/#.YcFAIy-cZQI
———————
JAMAAL BOWMAN
DSA “Unity For Unity, not Unanimity: Palestine, Jamaal Bowman, and DSA”
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d_FBOWt5JqyFvQn5BQuqDBvLe67rLCXKbI0CABhJHx4/edit
Jamaal Bowman
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/11/democratic-socialists-j-street-bds-israel-palestine-iron-dome-aoc
Jamaal Bowman Tempest Timeline
https://www.facebook.com/tempestmag/photos/a.144058903928771/411153303885995/?type=3
DSA Caucus’s Response to Jamaal Bowman
https://www.tempestmag.org/2021/12/on-not-expelling-jamaal-bowman/
DSA BDS & Palestine Solidarity WG
https://palestine.dsausa.org/bowmans-j-street-zionist-propaganda-trip-to-apartheid-israel-must-not-stand/
DSA Statement
https://www.dsausa.org/statements/on-the-question-of-expelling-rep-bowman/
Finding the Timenergy to Invest in Self and Human History
Season 1
Sunday, November 28, 2021 • Duration 22:44
This is my first bonus episode. By bonus, I mean that it isn’t really tied to Gramsci, though I will mention him a few times eventually.
But this episode will be about the building of a working class intelligentsia. In this episode I will read the forward I wrote for a new book called Waypoint. Waypoint is theory pleeb’s first book. It is a collection of essays they wrote both academically, as well as those written critiquing the academy.
Amazon.com - WAYPOINT: Timenergy, critical media theory, and culture war https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09M8QG8B9/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_ZYBSX12JJPFGJP9VETMK
Theory Pleeb’s Website
https://www.theorypleeb.com/
Theory Pleeb’s Podcasts
https://www.spreaker.com/user/theorypleeb
Theory Pleeb’s YouTube
https://youtube.com/c/theorypleeb
1.15 The Cotton Worker Strike of 1906 and the Seattle General Strike of 1919
Season 1 · Episode 15
Tuesday, November 16, 2021 • Duration 27:12
Gramsci had a strand of Italian patriotism. His patriotism was a Marxist patriotism that believed in international cooperation of the working classes around the world, but he took pride in being Italian. He wrote this article about the Cotton Workers Strike trike of 1906 because it provided the workers an example of working class strength from their own history. Gramsci's narrative was intended to convince them that if they had done it before, they could do it again.
Remembering the History of the Cotton Workers’ Struggle
Il Grido del Popolo
December 9, 1916
Selections from Political Writings 1910-1920
- [ ] ITALY 1903-1906
- [ ] JANUARY - APRIL 15, 1906
- [ ] APRIL 22 - JULY 18, 1906
- [ ] POSTSCRIPT: SEATTLE GENERAL STRIKE of 1919
1904 General Strike
Italy’s first general strike. It was called by Chamber of Labour
“The country would experience many general strikes in the years following 1904, with additional general strikes in 1905, 1906, 1909, 1911, and 1914.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1904_Italian_general_strike
Inter-Mountain Republican, May 9, 1906
https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=4073112
Inter-Mountain Republican, May 10
https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=4075101
Oldest Trade Union in Italy, formed in 1906
https://www.etui.org/covid-social-impact/italy/industrial-relations-in-italy-background-summary
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Confederation_of_Labour_(Italy)
Wikipedia entry for the Seattle General Strike
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_General_Strike
“When Workers Stopped Seattle” by Cal Winslow
https://jacobinmag.com/2019/07/seattle-general-strike-1919-union-organizing
A bourgeois paper warning against the Seattle General Strike
https://depts.washington.edu/labhist/strike/images/news/Star/STAR_19190204_P1.jpg
A bourgeois paper calling the strikers dangerous revolutionaries
https://depts.washington.edu/labhist/strike/images/news/Star/STAR_19190205_P1.jpg
Anna Louise Strong “No One Knows Where”
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/strong-anna-louise/1919/laborspeech.htm
“General Strikes, Mass Strikes” by Kim Moody
https://solidarity-us.org/atc/160/p3679/
1.14 Socialist Mode of Production and the Cooperative Movement
Season 1 · Episode 14
Saturday, October 16, 2021 • Duration 41:20
Socialism and Co-operation
Published on: October 30, 1916
Published in: L’Alleanza Cooperativa
Source: Pre-Prison Writings
This podcast exists to strategize how the working class could replace the capitalist class as the hegemonic class. If we are to replicate their strategy we would need a socialist mode of production in place, and in operation, and a working class intelligentsia spreading a vision of a better world. As the working class takes control of the levers of power of the government it will need to scale up a socialist mode of production, a mode of production that aligns with the grand vision of socialism, a mode of production of which Gramsci believes has the potential of being far more productive than capitalism. We’ll discuss some alternatives towards the end, but on October 30, 1916 Gramsci published an article on the Italian Cooperative movement called “Socialism and Cooperation” in which he proposed cooperatives as a prototype of what a socialist mode of production could look like.
- [ ] The Italian Cooperative Movement
- [ ] Base & Superstructure
- [ ] Gramsci’s Article
- [ ] Postscript
Know Your Enemy: The Windbag City
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/know-your-enemy/id1462703434?i=1000471890262
About Modern Northern Italy’s thriving worker-owned coops
https://www.yesmagazine.org/economy/2016/07/05/the-italian-place-where-co-ops-drive-the-economy-and-most-people-are-members
Turin Cooperative Alliance History
https://www.fondazionedonguetti.org/wp/the-nature-of-the-cooperative-enterprise/glossary/consumers-cooperative/
Emilia Romagna region coops 10%
https://geo.coop/articles/cooperating-we-mean-it-co-operative-movement-northern-italy
Social Cooperatives in Italy: Lessons for the UK
http://socialeconomyaz.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/SocialCooperativesInItaly.pdf
The emergence of social coops for social care: Italy and beyond
https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/the-emergence-of-social-coops-for-social-care-italy-and-beyond/2013/07/30?__cf_chl_managed_tk__=pmd_cUemBDzpXCGVzheCxG.XrCCBAxMtPxKUc0HBAGeBOcs-1633440125-0-gqNtZGzNAxCjcnBszRJl
Base and Superstructure
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_and_superstructure
Microsoft’s Net Income from 2002-2021
https://www.statista.com/statistics/267808/net-income-of-microsoft-since-2002/
1.13 The French Revolution, The Storming of the Bastille, and Sowing the Seeds of Revolution
Season 1 · Episode 13
Monday, October 11, 2021 • Duration 30:28
The foundation of Gramsci’s ideas about cultural hegemony are grounded in the French Revolution. Before the Revolution no one could have predicted it. No one believed it was actually possible. According to Gramsci it happened because the Enlightenment created a vision of a better world. The French people stormed the Bastille because the National Convention made the impossible seem possible. Before the National Convention a French Republic was impossible. After the National Convention made the impossible possible, the French Republic became historically predetermined. The King did not realize it yet, but his resistance to the French Republic triggered the storming of the Bastille because the genie was out of the bottle. It was too late. The dream of the Enlightenment was now within reach. The king could not stop it.
Show Notes
“14 July”
July 15, 1916
Avanti!
Selections from Political Writings, 1910-1920
- [ ] Background
- [ ] 1789
- [ ] 1790
- [ ] 1791-1792
- [ ] 1793
- [ ] 1794
- [ ] Gramsci’s Article
- [ ] Postscript
Storming of the Bastille
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storming_of_the_Bastille
the French Revolution
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution
The Dig podcast on Occupy Wall Street with Astra Taylor
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dig/id1043245989?i=1000536617311
Black Lives Matter George Floyd Protests: 15-26 million
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Floyd_protests
1.12 Armenian Genocide
Season 1 · Episode 12
Monday, October 11, 2021 • Duration 28:11
The Ottoman Empire joined World War I in 1914. A minority of an ethno-religious community within their borders, a group of revolutionary Armenians, threatened independence, putting at risk the Empire’s ability to defend itself from the Russians. To this day Turkey claims the Ottoman Empire responded proportionately in their national interest, but the truth is that they deployed a massive logistical effort to kill and concentrate over a million Armenians in camps in the Syrian desert in 1915-1916. In 1916 Gramsci wrote a brief article attempting to bring awareness of the horrific event. Today we’re going to discuss the Armenian genocide, and Gramsci’s Article.
- [ ] Turkey’s Denial
- [ ] The Armenians
- [ ] Ottoman Empire Program to Reduce the Armenian Population
- [ ] The Bulkan Wars and World War I
- [ ] The Deportations
- [ ] Gramsci’s Article
- [ ] Postscript
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_genocide
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_genocide_recognition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_recognition_of_the_Armenian_genocide
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