Episodes

  • E98: [TEASER] Radical Reads – ‘Jews Don’t Count’ by David Baddiel

    E98: [TEASER] Radical Reads – ‘Jews Don’t Count’ by David Baddiel
    Jan 1 2025
    This is a teaser preview of one of our Radical Reads episodes, made exclusively for our supporters on patreon. You can listen to the full 85-minute episode without ads and support our work at https://www.patreon.com/posts/e97-radical-10-116392240In this episode, we talk to Michael Richmond, a Jewish communist author and anti-racist activist, about David Baddiel's ridiculous book, Jews Don't Count. In this book, Baddiel claims that the key thing about contemporary antisemitism is the left's confusion over it, and how this confusion means that Jews are uniquely excluded from left-wing political discourse and activism.We discuss (and make fun of) Baddiel's book for about an hour and a half covering every aspect of his shallow understanding of racism, whiteness, Jewishness and antisemitism, and why Baddiel should probably get new friends.Listen to the full episode here:E98: Radical Reads – ‘Jews Don’t Count’ by David BaddielMore information:Read Michael's excellent book (co-authored with Alex Charnley), Fractured: Race, Class, Gender and the Hatred of Identity PoliticsA number of Michael's articles can be found here and here. Some which are particularly relevant to this discussion are:'Philosemitism: An Instrumental Kind of Love''On "Black Antisemitism" and Antiracist Solidarity''A long way from Cable Street''Playing the Jew'Timeline of people's history stories about radical Jewish historyThe webpage for this episode is available here: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e98-radical-reads-jews-dont-count-by-david-baddiel/AcknowledgementsThanks to our patreon supporters for making this podcast possible. Special thanks to Jazz Hands, Jamison D. Saltsman, Fernando López Ojeda, Jeremy Cusimano, and Nick Williams.The episode image of David Baddiel at Soho Theatre, 2020. Credit: Raph PH (with additional design by WCH). CC 2.0.Edited by Jesse FrenchOur theme tune is Montaigne’s version of the classic labour movement anthem, ‘Bread and Roses’, performed by Montaigne and Nick Harriott, and mixed by Wave Racer. Download the song here, with all proceeds going to Medical Aid for Palestinians. More from Montaigne: website, Instagram, YouTube.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/working-class-history--5711490/support.
    Show More Show Less
    21 mins
  • E97: [TEASER] Radical Reads – ‘Hezbollah: 10 Things You Need To Know’

    E97: [TEASER] Radical Reads – ‘Hezbollah: 10 Things You Need To Know’
    Dec 11 2024
    This is a teaser preview of one of our Radical Reads episodes, made exclusively for our supporters on patreon. You can listen to the full 91-minute episode without ads and support our work at https://www.patreon.com/posts/e97-radical-10-116392240

    In this episode, we talk to Elia Ayoub, a Lebanese activist and scholar of Palestinian heritage, about his recent article, 'Hezbollah: 10 Things You Need To Know'. In this article, Elia gives a fantastic insight into Hezbollah's origins and its position within the various conflicts and connections that make up politics in the Middle East.

    We discuss how Hezbollah came out of the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, the social and class composition of the organisation, and its relationship to other regimes in the Middle East as well as the Lebanese left and social movements.

    Listen to the full episode here:
    • E97: Radical Reads – ‘Hezbollah: 10 Things You Need To Know’
    More info:
    • Read Elia's article: 'Hezbollah: 10 Things You Need To Know'
    • Check out Elia's website: hauntalogies.net
    • Listen to his fantastic podcast, The Fire These Times
    • Full information and show notes at: https://www.patreon.com/posts/e97-radical-10-116392240
    Acknowledgements
    • Thanks to our patreon supporters for making this podcast possible. Special thanks to Jazz Hands, Jamison D. Saltsman, Fernando López Ojeda, Jeremy Cusimano, and Nick Williams.
    • The episode image depicts Hezbollah fighters at a ceremony. Credit: Ali Khamenei website (with additional design by WCH). Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
    • Edited by Jesse French
    • Our theme tune is Montaigne’s version of the classic labour movement anthem, ‘Bread and Roses’, performed by Montaigne and Nick Harriott, and mixed by Wave Racer. Download the song here, with all proceeds going to Medical Aid for Palestinians. More from Montaigne: website, Instagram, YouTube.




    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/working-class-history--5711490/support.
    Show More Show Less
    19 mins
  • E96: Bootleg miners, part 2

    E96: Bootleg miners, part 2
    Dec 4 2024
    During the Great Depression in the US, facing mass job losses and abject poverty, thousands of coal miners in Pennsylvania took direct action and began digging their own mines on company property. We tell their story in this two-part podcast.
    Our podcast is brought to you by our patreon supporters. Our supporters fund our work, and in return get exclusive early access to podcast episodes, ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, free and discounted merchandise and other content. Join us or find out more at patreon.com/workingclasshistory
    With Mitch Troutman, author of the excellent book, The Bootleg Coal Rebellion: The Pennsylvania Miners Who Seized an Industry, 1925–1942, we learn how these workers and their families fought against company guards, police, coal bosses and the legal system, formed a union, and organised an entire industry – not for profit, but for meeting human needs. We also hear from the miners themselves, in audio recorded by Michael Kozura, and shared with Mitch by Michael’s widow. Part 2 covers attempts to repress the movement, the development of bootleg mining as a major industry, the involvement of women and children in the movement, and miners’ collaboration with truck drivers.

    More information
    • The Bootleg Coal Rebellion: The Pennsylvania Miners Who Seized an Industry, 1925–1942 – Mitch Troutman – get hold of Mitch’s book here in our online store, with global shipping.
    • Full information, show notes and eventually a transcript on the webpage for this episode: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e95-96-bootleg-miners/
    Acknowledgements
    • Thanks to our patreon supporters for making this podcast possible. Special thanks to Jazz Hands, Jamison D. Saltsman, Fernando López Ojeda, Jeremy Cusimano and Nick Williams.
    • Produced and edited by Tyler Hill
    • Episode graphic: Bootleg miners. Courtesy Jack Delano/Library of Congress
    • Our theme tune is Bella Ciao, thanks for permission to use it from Dischi del Sole. You can purchase it here or stream it here.


    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/working-class-history--5711490/support.
    Show More Show Less
    47 mins
  • E95: Bootleg miners, part 1

    E95: Bootleg miners, part 1
    Nov 27 2024
    During the Great Depression in the US, facing mass job losses and abject poverty, thousands of coal miners in Pennsylvania took direct action and began digging their own mines on company property. We tell their story in this two-part podcast.
    Our podcast is brought to you by our patreon supporters. Our supporters fund our work, and in return get exclusive early access to podcast episodes, ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, free and discounted merchandise and other content. Join us or find out more at patreon.com/workingclasshistory
    With Mitch Troutman, author of the excellent book, The Bootleg Coal Rebellion: The Pennsylvania Miners Who Seized an Industry, 1925–1942, we learn how these workers and their families fought against company guards, police, coal bosses and the legal system, formed a union, and organised an entire industry – not for profit, but for meeting human needs. We also hear from the miners themselves, in audio recorded by Michael Kozura, and shared with Mitch by Michael’s widow. Part 1 covers the historical background, the Depression, the process of mining, mine workers and struggles, and the beginnings of the bootleg coalmining movement.
    Get an exclusive early listen to part 2, without ads, by supporting us on patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/115463700

    More information
    • The Bootleg Coal Rebellion: The Pennsylvania Miners Who Seized an Industry, 1925–1942 – Mitch Troutman – get hold of Mitch’s book here in our online store, with global shipping.
    • Full information, show notes and eventually a transcript on the webpage for this episode: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e95-96-bootleg-miners/
    Acknowledgements
    • Thanks to our patreon supporters for making this podcast possible. Special thanks to Jazz Hands, Jamison D. Saltsman, Fernando López Ojeda, Jeremy Cusimano and Nick Williams.
    • Produced and edited by Tyler Hill
    • Episode graphic: Bootleg miners. Courtesy Jack Delano/Library of Congress
    • Our theme tune is Bella Ciao, thanks for permission to use it from Dischi del Sole. You can purchase it here or stream it here.


    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/working-class-history--5711490/support.
    Show More Show Less
    43 mins
  • E94: [TEASER] E94: Radical Reads w/ Jasper Bernes – ‘If We Burn’

    E94: [TEASER] E94: Radical Reads w/ Jasper Bernes – ‘If We Burn’
    Nov 13 2024
    This is a teaser preview of our first Radical Read, made exclusively for our supporters on patreon. You can listen to the full 68-minute episode without ads and support our work at https://www.patreon.com/posts/e94-radical-w-if-113750155First of our new series, Radical Reads, in which we team up with Jasper Bernes to discuss Vincent Bevins’ 2023 book, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution.Welcome to ‘Radical Reads’, the second of our two new series of Patreon-only content.In Radical Reads, we hope to discuss political texts – both old and new – that have either influenced us here at WCH, or texts that we generally think that people involved in radical and working-class movements should be engaging with, discussing, and using to inform their activism.Our Radical Read for this episode is Vincent Bevins’ If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution, which we discuss with Jasper Bernes, author of an excellent article in the Brooklyn Rail, ‘What Was To Be Done? Protest and Revolution in the 2010s’. It’s a review and critique book and when we read Jasper’s article we felt that it really put into words some of the thoughts we had about Bevins’ work.In our conversation with Jasper, we covered not only what we see as some of the main issues with Bevins’ book, but also broader questions around social movements, revolution, the threat of cooptation, and what it means to win. And as Jasper says, understanding what we can learn from the movements of the 2010s is one of the most important questions we can be thinking about right now. In that sense, then, If We Burn is a valuable contribution in starting that conversation, even if we have some disagreements with its conclusions.Listen to the full episode here:E94: Radical Reads w/ Jasper Bernes – ‘If We Burn’ – Available exclusively for our Patreon supportersMore informationRead Jasper’s article: ‘What Was To Be Done? Protest and Revolution in the 2010s’Buy Vincent Bevins’ book: If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing RevolutionAcknowledgementsThanks to our patreon supporters for making this podcast possible. Special thanks to Jazz Hands, Jamison D. Saltsman, Fernando López Ojeda and Jeremy Cusimano.Edited by Tyler HillOur theme tune is Montaigne’s version of the classic labour movement anthem, ‘Bread and Roses’, performed by Montaigne and Nick Harriott, and mixed by Wave Racer. Download the song here, with all proceeds going to Medical Aid for Palestinians. More from Montaigne: website, Instagram, YouTube.Full information and show notes at https://www.patreon.com/posts/e94-radical-w-if-113750155Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/working-class-history--5711490/support.
    Show More Show Less
    17 mins
  • WCL9: Chinese migrant worker poetry, part 3

    WCL9: Chinese migrant worker poetry, part 3
    Oct 24 2024
    The final episode of our three-part series about migrant worker poetry in China. We speak to Maghiel van Crevel, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at Leiden University. Maghiel has travelled extensively in China, meeting with and writing about the work of Chinese migrant worker poets.

    In this episode, we look at questions of censorship in China and the importance of unofficial publications for the spread of migrant worker poetry (not to mention the wider Chinese poetry scene as well). We also discuss how some working-class writers come to be left out of what is considered 'working-class writing' with a specific look at the work of gay migrant worker poet, Mu Cao.

    Full show notes including sources, further reading, photos, films and eventually a transcript are here on our website: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/wcl-7-9-chinese-migrant-worker-poetry/

    Acknowledgements
    • As always, huge thanks to our patreon supporters who make this podcast possible. A special thanks to Jamison D. Saltsman, Jazz Hands, Fernando Lopez Ojeda and Jeremy Cusimano.
    • Our theme tune for these episodes is ‘A Young Man from the Village’ by the New Labour Art Troupe, from the Migrant Worker Home. Stream it here.
    • This episode was produced by Jack Franco and edited by Jesse French.


    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/working-class-history--5711490/support.
    Show More Show Less
    36 mins
  • WCL8: Chinese migrant worker poetry, part 2

    WCL8: Chinese migrant worker poetry, part 2
    Oct 17 2024
    Part 2 of our three-part series about migrant worker poetry in China. We speak to Maghiel van Crevel, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at Leiden University. Maghiel has travelled extensively in China, meeting with and writing about the work of Chinese migrant worker poets.

    In this episode, we look at the work of the Migrant Worker Home, a self-organised space run by and for migrant workers on the outskirts of Beijing, which taught migrant workers about their rights, hosted a museum, and ran literary and cultural groups, until they were evicted last year. We also look at two more migrant worker poets, including Xu Lizhi, whose suicide in 2014 propelled him to global fame.

    Full show notes including sources, further reading, photos, films and eventually a transcript are here on our website: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/wcl-7-9-chinese-migrant-worker-poetry/

    Acknowledgements
    • As always, huge thanks to our patreon supporters who make this podcast possible. A special thanks to Jamison D. Saltsman, Jazz Hands, Fernando Lopez Ojeda and Jeremy Cusimano.
    • Our theme tune for these episodes is ‘A Young Man from the Village’ by the New Labour Art Troupe, from the Migrant Worker Home. Stream it here.
    • This episode was produced by Jack Franco and edited by Jesse French.






    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/working-class-history--5711490/support.
    Show More Show Less
    35 mins
  • WCL7: Chinese migrant worker poetry, part 1

    WCL7: Chinese migrant worker poetry, part 1
    Oct 10 2024
    First of the three-part series on migrant worker poetry in China. In these episodes, we speak to Maghiel van Crevel, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at Leiden University. Maghiel has travelled extensively in China meeting with and writing about the work of Chinese migrant worker poets.

    In this episode, we discuss the concept of the 'migrant worker' in China, and how it relates to the internal hukou system and China's relationship to global capitalism. We also discuss what we mean by 'migrant worker/migrant worker poetry' in relation to the Chinese words dagong and dagong shige. We also look at two migrant worker poets, Wu Xia and Zheng Xiaoqiong.

    Full show notes including sources, further reading, photos, films and eventually a transcript are here on our website: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/wcl-7-9-chinese-migrant-worker-poetry/

    Acknowledgements
    • As always, huge thanks to our patreon supporters who make this podcast possible. A special thanks to Jamison D. Saltsman, Jazz Hands, Fernando Lopez Ojeda and Jeremy Cusimano.
    • Our theme tune for these episodes is ‘A Young Man from the Village’ by the New Labour Art Troupe, from the Migrant Worker Home. Stream it here.
    • This episode was produced by Jack Franco and edited by Jesse French.










    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/working-class-history--5711490/support.
    Show More Show Less
    46 mins