“The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without becoming disillusioned.
I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.”
-- Antonio Gramsci
The old forms of the Left are moribund and the new forms are stupid. We're making a podcast that discusses the need to organize a Dialectical Pessimism and develop a salvage project capable of sparking a new workers' movement for socialism.
A clean, honest, and unsentimental melancholy is required; we are cultivating one and would like to share it with you.
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Episodes
Monday Sep 02, 2024
Monday Sep 02, 2024
The boys get together and talk about the triumphs and failures, the uses and misuses, and the love and hate for the concept of the Popular Front.
Haslam, Jonathan. “The Comintern and the Origins of the Popular Front 1934-1935.” The Historical Journal 22, no. 3 (1979): 673–91. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2638659.
Communists, Coalitions, and the Class Struggle
https://www.cpusa.org/article/communists-coalitions-and-the-class-struggle/
The Popular Front Didn’t Work
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/10/popular-front-communist-party-democrats
France’s Popular Front: Lessons from the 30s
https://www.counterfire.org/article/frances-popular-front-lessons-from-the-30s/
The Popular Front, Then and Now
https://www.rs21.org.uk/2024/06/29/the-popular-front-then-and-now-france-and-the-elections/
The United Front
http://isj.org.uk/the-united-front/
Uruguay’s Frente Amplio: From Revolution to Dilution
https://upsidedownworld.org/archives/uruguay/uruguays-frente-amplio-from-revolution-to-dilution/
Saturday Aug 31, 2024
Saturday Aug 31, 2024
The boys dive in to chapter 6 of Dugin's Fourth Political theory. Don't worry, there are literally no digressions and the guys stay on point the whole time.
Check out Varn Vlog here:
https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog/posts
Check out Antifada here:
https://www.patreon.com/theantifada
Tuesday Aug 27, 2024
Tuesday Aug 27, 2024
We just can't stop talking about Czechoslovak Socialism. We decided to deal with the Slovak portion of the Czechoslovak lands, which we feel has been a little neglected in our previous discussions. Slovakia is important as an integral part of the movement of Czechoslovak socialism and as a case study of the problem of the national question. If you have been following along with our discussions of Otto Bauer's work on the national question, you might appreciate the context.
Hear the full episode:
https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecentury
Sunday Aug 18, 2024
Sunday Aug 18, 2024
We accidentally released the wrong episode, this one should have come before the last!
This week we sat down with C. Derick Varn to talk about "decadence theory," "crisis theory" and "breakdown theory." This is a special episode, mostly because it wasn't supposed to come out until August, but Varn accidentally released it early so y'all get a bonus episode.
We discussed the following materials:
Morley, Neville. "Decadence as a Theory of History." New Literary History, Vol. 35, No. 4, Forms and/of Decadence (Autumn, 2004), pp.573-585
Decadence: The Theory of Decline or the Decline of Theory?
https://libcom.org/library/decadence-aufheben-2
Revolution or Decadence?
https://monthlyreview.org/2018/05/01/revolution-or-decadence/
Check out Varn Vlog Here
https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog
Thursday Aug 15, 2024
Thursday Aug 15, 2024
Back at it again with the national question and continuing the long march through chapter one.
A link to the PDF:
https://libcom.org/article/question-nationalities-and-social-democracy-otto-bauer
Tuesday Aug 13, 2024
Tuesday Aug 13, 2024
This is an impromptu episode recorded by Jason and Varn where they discuss their dissatisfaction with the general situation of American and world politics. It roughly fits in with the subject matter of our Dawn to Decadence series, so here ya go!
Monday Aug 05, 2024
Monday Aug 05, 2024
This week we all sat down to talk about the uselessness of identifying with a political tendency in our current moment.
Tuesday Jul 30, 2024
Tuesday Jul 30, 2024
This week we discussed an excellent study of migrant workers in the Soviet Union which focused on Uzbeks, Tajiks, Georgians, Azerbaijanis who came to Leningrad and Moscow in toward the end of Union's existence.
Sahadeo, Jeff. 2019. Voices From the Soviet Edge: Southern Migrants in Leningrad and Moscow.
Wednesday Jul 24, 2024
Wednesday Jul 24, 2024
First off, please forgive the first few minutes of Chris' audio, we adjusted the levels during the podcast and fixed it. You won't have to bear with it all the way through.
We sat down to talk about SAVING DEMOCRACY FROM TRUMPIST FASCISM, or rather, how the left has fallen into the trap of letting the Democratic Party off the hook for its crimes against humanity and its constant kowtowing to the GOP.
Stanley Payne on anti-fascism without fascism
https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2021/01/antifascism-without-fascism
Liberals’ Heated Fascism Rhetoric Sidesteps Self-Reflection
https://jacobin.com/2024/04/liberals-fascism-rhetoric-democrats-election
Anti-fascism: formula for confusion
https://www.quinterna.org/lingue/english/historical_en/antifascism_confusion.htm
Andy from Antifada on Antifa
https://communemag.com/anti-anti-antifa/
Is Trump a fascist? 8 experts weigh in.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/21521958/what-is-fascism-signs-donald-trump
Noam Chomsky: Antifa is a 'major gift to the right'
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/noam-chomsky-antifa-major-gift-right-wing-anti-fascist-alt-left-a7906406.html
Saturday Jul 20, 2024
Saturday Jul 20, 2024
This is an impromptu episode recorded by Jason and Varn where they discuss their dissatisfaction with the general situation of world politics.
Check out Varn Vlog here:
https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog/posts