Auxiliary Statements Podcast

DISCORD: discord.gg/bJtAEbFSLINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcastThis week we learned all about the global, existential, horrifying threat of avian flus and their relationship to the capitalist mode of production. Then we learned all about the Chinese state. Then we had a breakdown.This is also now a xXstraightXedgeXx vegan podcast now.Rea…

DISCORD: discord.gg/bJtAEbFSLINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcastWell folks, the lads finally did it. They finished End Notes #1. And all it took was their sanity.Reading, Endnotes 1 (2008)endnotes.org.uk/issues/1Oleh Jack & Dan

DISCORD: discord.gg/bJtAEbFS LINKTREE: https://linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcastReading, Endnotes 1 (2008) - Intro and Chapter 1https://endnotes.org.uk/issues/1Oleh Jack & Dan

DISCORD: https://discord.gg/JGGu5MGNLINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcastWell well well, look who it is, back again. You! The dear listener. God bless you. This week the lads attempt to untangle the mess of ideas that always seem to assert themselves under the banner of being 'anti work.' What does that mean? Is it viable as a movement? Wh…

This week Dan & Jack return from their COVID hiatus to finish up Perry Anderson's C L A S S I C text and talk feudalism. Specifically, what was it, where did it come from, how did it differ from place to place and what caused its seemingly inevitable crisis and collapse.Reading - Part 2 - ''Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism'' (1974) by Perry And…

DISCORD: discord.gg/bJtAEbFS LINKTREE: https://linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcastFollowing up on their interview with June Reith a few weeks back, Jack and Dan decided for this show to take her advice and read Designing Freedom by business consultant and cybernetician Stafford Beer. First delivered as a series of radio lectures in 1973, designing…

This week's art is by Tom: https://www.instagram.com/thomasagreenwood/Very special episode this week as we sat down with June Reith of General Intellect Unit to discuss systems theory, burning our Kautsky and left organization tactics!Reading: 'The Tree of Knowledge' by Maturana and VarelaDISCORD: discord.gg/Ym8BwmazLINKTREE: linktr.ee/AuxiliarySta…

DISCORD: https://discord.gg/Ym8BwmazLINKTREE: https://linktr.ee/AuxiliaryStatementsPodcastThis week Jack and Dan cover the first half of Anderson’s classic book on the transition to feudalism. They cover the rise of the slave mode of production in Antiquity from its initial emergence as a solution to class struggle in Greece to its peak during thee…

Alright, we're finally drawing some conclusions about the whole 'MILITANCY' thing. Universal conscription sounds scary...but what if it wasn't?Reading: Repression Breeds Resistance: The Black Liberation Army and the Radical Legacy of the Black Panther Party by Akinyele Umoja from "Setting Sights" (Scott Crow)Rittenhouse and white backlash by Daniel…

DISCORD: https://discord.gg/bJtAEbFSIs there even still a working class to hang our hopes and dreams on? What is revolutionary agency? Who has it? Is tea even good? All these questions answered today AND MORE as we dive back into longtime friend of the show Mike Davis.Plus, a special listener comment!Reading: Old Gods. New Enigmas (2018) by Mike Da…

Today the fellas have a gander at some Irish history and open up a wider discussion on revolutionary agency, marxism & nationalism and the nature of the Irish working class.Reading: Rethinking national marxism: James Connolly and‘Celtic Communism’ (2003) by David LloydOleh Jack & Dan

Its the final instalment of the Revolutionary Strategy reading series! Jack and Dan finish the book and use Mike Macnair’s 14 point outline of his strategic outlook as a frame for their discussion. Drawing on the contents of the book as a whole, and particularly the final three chapters, the lads outline the contents of the Kautskyism Plus strategy…

Alright FINE we'll stop talking about Brenner and Meiksins-Wood for a minute, but ONLY A MINUTE.Today our fine chunky chaps talk world systems theory in an effort to broaden their horizons and understand how class operates on a systemic level. Or something like that. Reading: The Rise and Future Demise of the World Capitalist System: Concepts for C…

On this weeks show Jack and Dan read two essays written by C. L. R. James. James analyses the rise and historic significance of Nazi fascism from a Marxist perspective. He makes the case for seeing Nazism, not as a unique political and economic system in contrast to a broader European political economy, but instead reads it as an outgrowth and exte…

This week we decide once and for all just what the left is and who we should be excluding!! Just kidding, but we do talk the problem of left unity. You've got to draw a line somewhere.Also up for discussion is the question of how to relate to our nation's various imperial wars and the international nature of the working class.Woo hoo!Reading: Revol…

Whilst waiting for their guests to arrive Jack and Dan sit down for a chat about their podcasting journey so far. One year in, have they learnt anything. The lads talk Corbyn and Sanders and tease out the extent of their ongoing relationship with the radical Social Democratic politics of the kindly grandads of the parliamentary anglophone left. Jac…

Well folks with strikes in the air in the United States your shimmering podcast hosts dive into Rosa Luxemburg's classic study of 1905 Russia and the mass strike as a strategy for revolution.McNair calls Luxemburg part of the left tradition, but Dan and Jack separate the wheat from the chaff and figure out just what it is about Luxemburg that makes…

This week we decided it was about time to have a gander at some history. Turns out, history is pretty brutal. Reading: Chapter 1 "Lust for Gold, Lust for Silver" from The Open Veins of Latin America (1971) by Eduardo Galeano.Oleh Jack & Dan

The long awaited "baseball episode" is finally here, folks, as today we're joined by Bobby Wagner of the socialist baseball podcast Tipping Pitches.Today we talk the looming deadline for the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the players in the MLB and the owners of the teams, the exploitation of minor leaguers and why the Giants are bad.Huge …

Following on from last weeks discussion of Hal Draper's strategy of the Marxist centre, Jack and Dan consult another canonical text of contemporary Marxism this week; Mike Macnair’s Revolutionary Strategy. With an emphasis on the Second International, and the German SPD more specificity, Macnair outlines the differences in strategy that defined the…

This week the lads once again humble themselves at the alter of the ever apposite font of revolutionary wisdom; Hal draper. This time Jack and Dan explore the ins and outs of the sect, that inescapable nadir of left political organisation. What is a sect, why do they come about, are they inescapable, and what is their historical impact and legacy? …

Boy revolutions can be a nasty business, eh? Especially that French one. It was kind of a pain in the neck, but once it was over it was a weight off of a lot of people's shoulders, am I right?This week rotund podcast hosts Dan and Jack take a look at Marx's writings on the French Revolution in an effort to understand what political revolutions can …

All good things must come to an end...no we don't mean our old friend JFK (or RFK for that matter) we mean the time has come to put The Devil's Chessboard to rest.This is our final episode on David Talbot's classic tome and it's left us with some questions: what was the class composition of the fellas that killed JFK? what place does this type of c…

Alright here it is friends, the episode where we solve the JFK assassination.Not much else to say. Think we solved this one forever. Not that complicated tbh. This was recorded in a marathon podcasting session and next week's episode will be the fourth and final part on our series on The Devil's Chessboard. But don't worry, we'll be back with more …

This week, we sat down to watch BBC's Cuba! Africa! Revolution!, a documentary all about Cuba's internationalist adventures in the African continent. And tell you what, we here at Auxiliary Statements are not above admitting this is the first time we've been exposed to this absolutely kick ass era of history. Turns out Cuba was involved not only in…

Those few faithful listeners will know we've been flirting with the idea of worker's parties and how on earth we're supposed to build a mass movement recently...and we haven't really gotten anywhere those questions.So we did the sensible thing and brought on someone who actually knows what they're talking about. That's right everybody we got the on…

Jack and Dan continue their adventure through the classical Marxists modes of production. This week the lads find themselves in the slave states of ancient Athens and Rome once again under the trusted tutelage of Ellen Meiksins Wood. To what extent does this ancient civilisations mode of production deserve the descriptor ‘slave’? To what extent was…

Jack and Dan might well be flirting with primitivism once again this week as the lads find themselves asking the question, was the Neolithic agricultural ‘revolution’ ultimately a mistake for human civilisation; a back step and not the moment of its genesis? For it turns out, according to Marshall Sahlins, Palaeolithic humans may well have had it m…

Another 10 episodes, another recap.Well folks, we like to think we've come a long way since out first few episodes. This week we talk about what's changed our thinking in the last ten episodes, specifically in regard to the system of socialism outlined in the Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution.How do we materialize work…

What is it with all these billionaire and why do they keep going to space? Your stalwart hosts have decided its long passed time we put a stop to these antics! How you ask. By putting an end to the dictatorial reign of capitalism that enforces the conditions necessary for the existence of your Bransons and your Bezoses and by implementing a new cla…

The third and final part of our Emmy award winning Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution series HAS ARRIVED!It's been a dang good read folks, and in this ep you'll hear our concluding thoughts on this whole communism thing, just how viable it is, how much faith we have in the general system of councils and what the Dictato…

Well folks for the first time in Aux Statements history we won't be bringing you our scheduled programming. However! Fear not. Jack is bringing you a half-assed Adjunct Statements to give you something.In this ep, Jack reads an essay he wrote for no discernible reason about discontentment with capitalism in fantasy. He compares Ursula Le Guin's "A …

You've been waiting long enough, folks...here it is - part 2 of our episode on the dang CIA. Have we gone loopy? Have we become conspiracy chuds? Tbh not really. In this episode we try and parse the faff from the not-faff as we uncover the hidden purpose behind American Cold War foreign policy. Turns out it wasn't that great! It was pretty bad, in …

Waaaaay back many episodes ago, dear listener, your meek and humble podcast hosts watched a movie from Errol Morris all about that evil idiot Robert McNamara.Well here we are today watching another Errol Morris movie but this time all about Donald Rumsfeld and let's just say...this is one evil SOB. In this episode we ask what role those unelected c…

Holy guacamole the lads are at it again.This book continues to impress as we dive into the second part of our Fundamental Principles reading series - this time covering a spectrum of topics ranging from why everyone left of the councilists are idiots to how we would consume life's necessities and luxuries under communism to why accounting and equal…

This week, self professed Marxists on the internet Jack and Dan do that rarest of things, they read some actual Marx! As an appendix to their continuing engagement with the very excellent text ‘The Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution’, the lads took a look at Karl Marx’s withering and often times pedantic commentary on t…

Yeah yeah this one SOUNDS boring but what if I told you we'll be covering...labor time calculation???Alright that may also sound boring but if we want to be calling ourselves commies and running around calling for an end to capitalism we've got to have an idea of HOW our new world will function. And gosh darn it that is exactly what these people di…

This week the fellas interview.....a former member of parliament?? Boy how'd they con their way into that one.You read that right folks, this week we sat down to talk to Thelma Walker, a one time UK Member of Parliament who, after Corbyn had his so-called "whip" removed, had the guts to do what some of us couldn't...leave the Labour Party. But Thel…

In our newest installment of the beloved "everyone is an idiot except me" reading series, we bring you a rushed and perhaps cursory analysis of the CLASSIC Hal Draper joint "The Two Souls of Socialism."Are anarchists as bad as Hitler? Are the Fabians just Stalinists? Is William Morris our F R E A K I N G king?? Some of them sure, yes and hell yes a…

Here we are folks, another arbitrary milestone, episode 30! As it’s another episode with a zero at the end you know what that means, another high energy low effort clip show. The boys are oh so proud of their little show and want to take this opportunity to take stock. Where is the podcast going, where did it come form, is it coming or going? No on…

Wait a minute, you're telling me America was founded by the same syphilitic capitalists who ruined England??This week the boys dust off some Foner to take a look at the role of labor in the founding of these here United States. Was the War of Independence a fully bourgeois revolution? Or did labor power and class struggle have something to do with …

Well folks, we’ve been teasing it long enough…today your large beautiful boys are reading THE BOOK.In an attempt to answer the questions “What is a conspiracy theory?”, “What happened to all the Nazis?” and “How did we get into this mess?” Dan and Jack are taking a look at The Devil’s Chessboard - a “biography” of the early CIA.Everyone has that fr…

Jack and Dan are at it again, dishing up some more bonus capital content. Things take a literary and all around fantastical turn in this section; expect phantoms, illusions, necromancy, and who knows, maybe a wizard or two? Oh won’t Jack be thrilled. The lads delve into the world of commodity fetishism, the essential ideology that supports and make…

This week our rotund podcast hosts kick back, watch a movie, and try to answer that question that has been haunting humanity since the early-1940s: was Robert McNamara cringe?The answer is yes. So strap in as the lads take a look at documentary-guy Errol Morris' 2003 classic "The Fog of War". The movie profiles McNamara as he goes from common Irish…

This week Jack and Dan trade one big M Marxist for another, Milliband is out, Mattick is in. It’s quite a stark reversal, from a strategy of revolutionary reformism to one of spontaneous action by the workers and their primary organisational arm, the workers council. That’s right, Council Communism is on the docket for this weeks show and if we kno…

Be prepared to raise a glass and shed a tear this week as Jack and Dan part ways with their guiding light, their north star, Auxiliary Statements God Emperor, Ralph Miliband. That’s right, your dogged and persistent hosts have finally dusted off their worn and tattered copies of Marxism and Politics for one final time.This week, a discussion of Mar…

I think we all knew this was the logical conclusion of the last few episodes.The lads are at it again, with Jack well on his way to becoming a primitivist and Dan doing all he can to keep things on the level (no pun intended). In this episode your begrimed hosts discuss England's most radical moment - the occupation of St. George's Hill by Gerrard …

Jack and Dan are at it again folks, labouring under the misapprehension that greater wisdom is attainable to their mediocre minds. The lads again embark on their quest to fathom the wisdom of the oracle, reading once more from Karl Marx’s master work; Capital. Will they again find the weight of the truths contained therein overwhelming or rise to m…

Yeah if this Karl Marx guy was so great why didn't he ever write about chicken tractors?? Huh, nerd!?That's what I thought. This week the lads are dipping their malformed little toes into the pond of prepping for capitalist collapse. What would a collapse look like? What should I do to prepare? Do I buy more guns or less guns? Who am I and why am I…

What do, Egyptian mummified cats, the battlefields of the Napoleonic wars, and millions of tons of South American bird poo have in common? The answer to this and some hopefully more useful and pertinent questions will be revealed on this weeks show as Jack and Dan continue their foray into the world of ecological theory. The lads read some John Bel…