Stan Cox is back to talk about two essays. One, co-written with Priti Gulati Cox, “Between a Yoga Mat and a Hard Place”, about where India is headed. And another, “The Old Future is Gone and Technology Won’t Bring it Back”, by Stan himself. Justin goes on a mini-rant against doomerism at the end, and we talk about how next episode will be a bit of a KSR book club.
Author: Justin Podur
Author of Siegebreakers. Ecology. Environmental Science. Political Science. Anti-imperialism. Political fiction.
World War Civ 17a: The 1911 Chinese Revolution pt1
The Qing dynasty desperately tries a reform to stay in power while secret societies plot against them; intellectuals debate how to modernize China while Western imperialists keep pressuring China after crushing the Boxer Rebellion. Sun Yat Sen leads a movement for a republic and a revolutionary moment sparks in 1911. Part 1 of 2.
AER 127: Has Imran Khan lost the battle with Pakistan’s Army?
On May 9 2023 ousted president Imran Khan was detained by the Pakistan army, who were forced immediately to release him. But in the month since, the crackdown on protesters (and their families) has been so widespread, reaching 10,000 arrests, that Imran Khan’s movement appears exhausted. The repression may have worked, but how long can the army rule like this? Waqas Ahmed returns for an update on Pakistan.
WWCiv 16: Persia and Portugal get constitutions, 1909 and 1910
Timeline of the constitutional revolutions that took place in Persia from 1905-1909 and Portugal in 1910. They weren’t social revolutions but shared important patterns for later events including a long nonviolent sit-in in Persia and a missed communication in Portugal (leading to a suicide!)
World War Civ 15: Sufragettes and Pacifists
“Deeds Not Words!” was the slogan of the militant sufragettes who fought for the vote. We get into some of their dramatic acts and some of the reasonings of their leaders – which are not always discussed in their full detail today. Also the (non-socialist) part of the pacifist movement – a crowd the socialists were not impressed with. Could an alliance have prevented the Great War? This and other questions in this episode.
AER 126: Multipolarity? Schmultipolarity! A debate with Sam Gindin
Sam Gindin and Justin Podur, moderated with fairness and balance by Nora Barrows-Friedman, debate the proposition that the world is becoming multipolar as US hegemony declines. We clash over capitalism, colonialism, and the history of the past few centuries; as well as over the meaning of the Russia/Ukraine war and the relative power of Chinese billionaires. If you listen through to the end, leave a review on the podcast app saying who won.
The Mexican Revolution pt4: Schemes of the Great Powers
While the Mexican Revolutionaries fought for the land, the Great Powers tried to pick the winner. Germany and Britain, Japan and of course the US, all schemed and intrigued. We talk about the Kaiser’s offer of Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico to Carranza and why Carranza didn’t want them; why Japan thought German proposals “simply insane”; why Britain mostly just wanted the oil; and how Wilson’s sending Pershing in to catch Pancho Villa led to Pancho Villa’s force growing from 500 to 10,000 men. The short coda to end our series on the Mexican Revolution.
AER 125: Maori Sovereignty or Death!
The New Zealand Parliament Protest inspired by Canada’s Trucker Convoy and with similarly hard-to-read politics; the continuing urgency of Maori sovereignty; An in-depth discussion of Donna Awatere’s extraordinary 1984 text, Maori Sovereignty; the connection between Chile and New Zealand; and a history of the Maori struggle since colonialism. With Simon Barber, Gabriella Brayne, and Arama Rata.
In Real Time with Stan Cox 11: Atlanta’s Cop City and Anti-Climate Legislation
Stan and I talk about two of his articles from April: the first on Atlanta’s “Cop City”, which one activist has already been killed by police over, and why it’s an environmental disaster as well as other kinds; and another article on Republicans trying to locally legislate to prevent any climate action from happening at the local level. Once again the US is blessed, instead of one big fascism the US has many small fascisms at the state level. In Real Time 11.
The Mexican Revolution pt3: The Downfall
Obregon defeats Zapata and Villa in battle. Carranza betrays the workers’ unions. The Morelos commune lives on, though its leaders fall one by one until Zapata himself. Villa too. And Obregon. And Carranza. We ask, what was it all for? And we give you the answers of some historians of the revolution: it was not in vain!