38: Socialists in Congress; David Renton on Rock Against Racism and the Anti-Nazi League

Explicit content warning

12/10/18 • 80 min

This week we talk to British socialist David Renton about the history of Rock Against Racism and the Anti-Nazi League. RaR and the ANL were a cultural and protest movement against the rise of the National Front in Britain in the 1970’s. Renton contends that these movements played a decisive role in preventing the rise of fascism in Britain, while similar movements took root in France. David Renton is a British historian and activist, a member of the socialist group RS21 and author of the book, Never Again: Rock Against Racism and the Anti-Nazi League 1976-1982 (http://bit.ly/RentonANL). We talk to him about the importance of the contestation for culture, particularly around punk music, and the role that RaR played in that. He describes some of the key turning points of anti-fascist mobilization and the creation of the ANL. We discuss what lessons we can draw for the movement against a resurgent right today. In our opener, we talk about socialists Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as they prepare to take office. We discuss the ways in which they are challenging politics as usual, raising expectations and opening up possibilities, while also exploring the constraints imposed by the Democratic Party and how socialists can take advantage of this moment. Links for our interview: *You can buy David’s book here (http://bit.ly/RentonANL) *David also blogs at his website lives;running where he frequently discusses politics and especially the new movements against the right in Britain (http://bit.ly/LivesRunning) *In this piece re-published at Socialist Worker, David makes the case for a militant movement that directly confronts the fascists and examines different trajectories within the movement in Britain *Today’s episode is being released on December 10 as part of a contribution to the call for a day of action against fascism and racism (http://bit.ly/Dec10Action) Links for our intro: *You can listen to our assessment of AOC’s election victory in episode 17 of this podcast (http://bit.ly/BOREp17) *You can read analysis of the November elections at Socialist Worker by Todd Chretien (http://bit.ly/ChretienElections), Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (http://bit.ly/KeeangaElections), Alan Maass (http://bit.ly/MaassElections) and the editorial staff (http://bit.ly/EditorialElections) *In episode 34 (http://bit.ly/LanceSelfa), we interviewed Lance Selfa about the midterm elections. Lance is the author of The Democrats: A Critical History, which is available from Haymarket Books (http://bit.ly/LanceHaymarket). Music for this episode The Boy & Sister Alma, “Lizard Eyes” (Dead Sea Captains Remix) Gang Of Four, “Why Theory?” Sham 69, “If The Kids Are United” The Specials, “Ghost Town” Steel Pulse, “Jah Pickney (R.A.R.)” The Selecter, “On My Radio” Elvis Costello, “Less Than Zero”

Previous Episode

37: The migrant and refugee caravan needs our solidarity now

We have an especially powerful episode this week about the increasingly desperate situation facing the migrant and refugee caravan that is now spread all the way from Mexico City to Tijuana. First, we’re joined by three activists who have been building solidarity on both sides of the border. FERMIN VALLE is a queer Mexican-American activist and a member of the International Socialist Organization (ISO) in Western Massachusetts who recently traveled to Mexico City and met with members of the caravan staying in a local church. JO MORALES is an anti-border activist and writer who has worked for the last three years in solidarity with refugees and Syrian revolutionaries in Greece and the Mediterranean. She is now in Tijuana, where she is documenting the Migrant Exodus. CLAIRE DOUGLAS is a teacher and member of the ISO in San Diego, where she helped organize a solidarity protest at the border as part of the Migrant and Refugee Solidarity Coalition. Fermin, Jo and Claire join us for an intense conversation about the horrible choices that caravanistas are facing as they experience deteriorating physical and political conditions — and their urgent hope for an increase in the support that U.S. activists are starting to build. Then historian and activist Justin Akers Chacón joins us to talk about the Socialist Worker article he recently wrote in response to Angela Nagle’s “The left case against open borders.” Justin is a San Diego-based professor of U.S. History and Chicano Studies. In addition to Radicals in the Barrio, he’s the author of No One is Illegal: Fighting Racism and State Violence on the U.S.-Mexico Border. In the context of going through what’s wrong (and there’s a lot) with Nagle’s pseudo-left approach, Justin makes the case for why supporting migrants and refugees isn’t just the morally right thing to do, but is also in the interest of working-class people in the U.S. and across the world. Links for this episode: • Fermin’s Socialist Worker report from Mexico City: “What migrants in the caravan want the world to hear” (http://bit.ly/Vallemigrants) • Alex Wells report on the San Diego border protest (http://bit.ly/bringingsolidarity) • Justin’s response to Angela Nagle: “The case against ‘the case against open borders’” (http://bit.ly/caseagainstnagle) • Also check out Justin’s new books Radicals in the Barrio: Magonistas, Socialists, Wobblies, and Communists in the Mexican-American Working Class (http://bit.ly/RadicalsBarrio) and No One is Illegal: Fighting Racism and State Violence on the U.S.-Mexico Border (http://bit.ly/NoOneIllegal) Here are some of the organizations and groups organizing support and solidarity for the migrant and refugee caravan: • Pueblo Sin Fronteras (http://bit.ly/PuebloSF) • Al Otro Lado (http://bit.ly/aOLado) • Border Angels (http://bit.ly/BorderAngels) • International Socialist Organization (http://bit.ly/IntlSocOrg) • San Diego Migrant and Refugee Solidarity Coalition (http://bit.ly/SDsolidarity) • Sanctuary Caravan (http://bit.ly/SancCaravan) and labor solidarity call (http://bit.ly/SanctuaryLabor) Music The Boy & Sister Alma, “Lizard Eyes” (Dead Sea Captains Remix) Residente, “La Cátedra” Shakira, “Me Enamoré” Chicano Batman, “This Land Is Your Land” Sam Cooke, “(What A) Wonderful World” Ozomatli, “Don’t Mess With The Dragon”

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39: Yellow Vests; The Red Nation’s Melanie Yazzie & Nick Estes

Great show this week! We talk with Melanie Yazzie and Nick Estes of The Red Nation, an important new revolutionary organization fighting for Indigenous liberation. Melanie is a Diné scholar and activist who is the 2018-2019 Chair of the Central Governing Council for The Red Nation. She’s also a co-author with Nick of a forthcoming book about border town violence and Indigenous resistance and next year will join the faculty at the University of New Mexico as an Assistant Professor of Native American Studies and American Studies. Nick is Kul Wicasa from the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, a co-founder of The Red Nation, an Assistant Professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico, and the author of two forthcoming books: Our History is the Future: Standing Rock versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance and Standing with Standing Rock: Voices from the #NoDAPL Movement. To do this interview, we invited our fellow ISO members Ragina Johnson and Brian Ward, who have worked with The Red Nation over the past few years, to take over the pod, and we think you’ll agree it was a great decision. Melanie, Nick, Ragina and Brian got into a deep discussion about a range of topics, including the creation and development of The Red Nation, how Indigenous and colonized people can and should use the tools of Marxism, the concept of settler colonialism and how it continues today, the necessity of solidarity between Indigenous people and other working-class people and the need for Indigenous land claims to be at the center of those fights. In our opener, Jen, Danny and Eric talk about the “gilets jaunes” (yellow vest) movement in France, which began as rowdy protests against a proposed fuel tax and have evolved to encompass a broad cry of anger at the growing inequality of French society. We also talk about how the protests have confused and divided some in the environmental movement and why we urgently need climate change demands that start from a working-class perspective. Links for our interview • The Red Nation (TRN) website (http://bit.ly/TheRedNation) • Read TRN’s recent newsletter including a report on their “No Thanks, No Giving” teach-in (http://bit.ly/RedNation3) • Nick’s forthcoming book Our History is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance (http://bit.ly/OurHistoryFuture) Links for intro • On the dynamic nature and changing consciousness of the Yellow Vest protests, check out French novelist Édouard Louis’ moving piece in Jacobin, “Can the Yellow Vests Speak?” (http://bit.ly/YellowVestsSpeak) and longtime French socialist Léon Crémieux’s more recent analysis in Socialist Worker of the shifting dynamics (http://bit.ly/CremieuxSW) • For more on the need for working-class environmental policies as opposed to fuel taxes, check out Jonathan Neale’s “Why Carbon Taxes Burn Workers” (http://bit.ly/CarbonTaxes) and Zachary Alexis’s piece about the importance of the growing support for a Green New Deal (http://bit.ly/GreenNewDealSW) Music and audio The Boy & Sister Alma, “Lizard Eyes” (Dead Sea Captains Remix) A Tribe Called Red, “We Are The Halluci Nation” Ft. John Trudell & Northern Voice Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, “Under Your Always Light” Excerpt of speech by Radmilla Cody at the Red Nation's Indigenous Peoples Day March and Rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2015 Ryan Dennison, “HT” Son Of Hwéeldi, “Me & The 99”