Revolutionary Left Radio

Nicholas Richard-Thompson and Tunde Osazua from the Black Alliance for Peace join Breht to discuss the life and legacy of Kwame Nkrumah. Together, they discuss the Ghanaian Marxist and Pan-Africanist politician, political theorist, and revolutionary, his upbringing, his entrance into Ghanaian and African politics, his political ideology, the many assassination attempts on his life, the coup that overthrew him and who backed it (just take a guess...), his life in exile, his continuing legacy on the continent and beyond, and much more!    Learn more and support Black Alliance for Peace    Follow Nicholas on Twitter    Follow Tunde on Twitter   BAP Chicago's Twitter     IMPORTANT: As the PAIGC/A-APRP is an active member of BAP's U.S Out of Africa Network (USOAN), and As the PAIGC is facing dire political repression within Guinea Bissau due to its substantial revolutionary gains against neo-colonialism in that country,   We therefore call on BAP and the USOAN to mobilize immediate support for the PAIG

Everett from The Age of Napoleon and Arjun from Deep into History join Breht to discuss Napoleon Bonaparte. Together they explore and reflect on the new film by Ridley Scott, the actual history involved and what the film got wrong, Napoleon's real personality, the importance of the French Revolution in Napoleon's rise, the reaction to the French Revolution and Napoleon from the rest of Europe, Napoleon's treatment of Haiti, Napoleon's exile and death, and then they grapple with the question of how the socialist left today should view and understand Napoleon.  Outro Song: Napoleon's Hat by Bright Eyes https://leftwingbooks.net/discount/REVLEFT ------------------------------------------------------- Support Rev Left Radio: https://www.patreon.com/RevLeftRadio

In this Rev Left Family Annual Collab (Rev Left+Red Menace+Guerrilla History), Alyson, Henry, Adnan, and Breht sit down for a deep dive on South African Apartheid. Together they discuss its euro-colonialist origins, explain the significance of the Boer Wars, define and explicate the origins of apartheid, explore the political economy of apartheid and how brutal racism shaped it, examine the multi-faceted indigenous resistance to apartheid, analyze the end of formal apartheid as well as its ongoing legacy in post-apartheid South Africa, and try to extract important lessons from this history to apply to the ongoing struggle in Palestine. ------------------------------------------------------- Support Rev Left Radio: https://www.patreon.com/RevLeftRadio or make a one time donation: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/revleft  

This episode is from our sister podcast Guerrilla History, subscribe to it on your preferred podcast app!   In this absolutely fabulous episode of Guerrilla History, we bring back on the one and only Dr. CBS, Charisse Burden-Stelly!  Here, we discuss her outstanding new book Black Scare/Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States.  This work focuses on how anti-radical repression (especially anti-communist repression) is infused and inseparable with anti-Black racial oppression, and vice versa.  This is a critical work by one of the most critical voices in our times, and we think that this conversation is a truly important one for everyone to hear!   Charisse Burden-Stelly is associate professor of African American studies at Wayne State University. She is the coauthor (alongside Gerald Horne) of W.E.B. Du Bois: A Life in American History and the coeditor (alongside Jodi Dean) of Organize, Fight, Win: Black Communist Women’s Political Writing.  Join the Black Alliance for Peace or BAP Solida

Corey Mohler from Existential Comics returns to the show to discuss the famous novel (and its many adaptations) by Victor Hugo "Les Misérables". Together they discuss the novel, its various adaptations, its political and social themes, 19th Century France, the "Giants of '93", read some passages from the book, and discuss its ongoing legacy and relevance for us today!   Check out Existential Comics HERE  Check our all our previous episodes with Corey on a wide range of topics HERE   ------------------------------------------------------- Support Rev Left Radio: https://www.patreon.com/RevLeftRadio or make a one time donation: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/revleft  

In this crossover episode that we have done in collaboration with our sister podcast Guerrilla History, we bring on Ashley Fataar to provide a primer into Apartheid in the South African context, and where we also begin to explore some of the parallels to the apartheid that the settler-colonial state of Israel is enforcing in occupied Palestine today.  This is a good introduction to the topic, and we plan on getting everyone in the RevLeft family (Breht, Henry, Adnan, & Alyson) together in the coming weeks to do a deep dive into apartheid in South Africa and where we can further explore these connections to what we are seeing today!  Be sure to listen to this conversation to prepare for that coming conversation, and be sure to subscribe to Guerrilla History, RevLeft, and Red Menace wherever you get your pods. Ashley Fataar is a long time socialist activist and writer based in South Africa.  If you would like to get in touch with Ashley, you can reach him via email at ash.fataar@gmail.com.   Help support th

Professor Matthew McManus returns to the show to discuss his newest book "The Political Right and Equality: Turning Back the Tide of Egalitarian Modernity" Together they explore over 2,000 years of conservative, anti-egalitarian, and reactionary political thought to get a better understanding of what the political right believes, and where those beliefs come from. They discuss aristotle, the Englightenment, the French Revolution and the reaction it generated, Hegel, Dostoevsky, liberalism and socialism, Heigegger, and how conservative thought evolved throughout the 20th Century.    Check out more of Matt's work HERE Check out our previous episode on the politics of Nietzsche HERE Check out our episode with Corey from Existential Comics on the life and work of Dostoevsky HERE   Outro Song: Rebel Music by Bob Marley and Krayzie Bone ------------------------------------------------------- Support Rev Left Radio: https://www.patreon.com/RevLeftRadio or make a one time donation: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme

Alyson and Breht discuss the ongoing national liberation struggle in Palestine. Together, they discuss the incredible shift in public opinion on Israel and Palestine, the internal and external contradictions culminating in unison for Israel, the discussion about whether or not what Israel is doing is technically a genocide (it absolutely is), international law, Frantz Fanon on the psychology of national liberation, the prospects of a broader regional war, the possibilities of Turkish or Iranian engagement, the history and core elements of Zionism, the analytical importance of the settler colonial and decolonization frameworks, the disgusting role that Biden and the Democratic Party are playing in manufacturing consent for Israel's civilian mass murder campaign, the "lesser of two genocider" arguments being trotted out by liberals, how Hamas is basically an orphan army of men who have had their families killed by Israel in previous assaults, why we should reject the "terrorist" framing of the western ruling el

Nicholas Richard-Thompson and Tunde Osazua from the Black Alliance for Peace join Breht to discuss AFRICOM, or The United States Africa Command - responsible for U.S. military operations and imperialism on the continent. Together they discuss the ongoing conflict in Palestine, the connections between black liberation movements and palestinian liberation, BAP's Month of Action against AFRICOM, recent coups in West Africa, developments in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, the recent history of Libya, the role of French neo-colonialism on the continent, the revolutionary contributions of Patrice Lumumba and Kwame Nkrumah, and much more!      Learn more and support Black Alliance for Peace    Follow Nicholas on Twitter    Follow Tunde on Twitter   BAP Chicago's Twitter Check out Rev Left's episode on Thomas Sankara Revolution in Sahel?   Get 15% off any book from Leftwingbooks.net    outro music 'Terrorist?'  by Lowkey Support Rev Left Radio  or make a one time donation: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme

Breht listens and responds to a conversation between liberal Zionist Sam Harris and pseudo-intellectual charlatan Eric Weinstein on Israel, Palestine, Islam, and more. In the process he deconstructs common Zionist talking points, highlights the colonialist framework that liberals and Zionists take for granted, shows how regular working people can intellectually confront ivy league PhDs, and offers up lines of argumentation that you, dear listener, can bring to conversations on these topics in your own life. Listen to the full episode here

UPSTREAM INTERVIEW W/ BREHT AND ALYSON:  What Is To Be Done? This is the question so profoundly posed by the Russian Revolutionary and Bolshevik leader, Vladimir Lenin, in his landmark text of the same name. Although it was written well over a century ago, this text, the questions it asked, and the paths forward that it provided, are just as relevant today as they were a hundred years ago. And just as urgent. What roles do spontaneity and disciplined organization have in leftist movements? Can we focus simply on economic reform, or do our actions need a larger political framework to structure, guide, and propel them?  Why does it feel like even though so many of us are motivated to work towards structural change, that things continue to get worse? Why does it seem like potential revolutionary struggles in the West always seem to stall and fail to move from a singular moment to a protracted movement?  These are old and familiar questions — a lot of ink has been spilled and speeches made exploring them — and in

In this critical episode of Guerrilla History, we bring on Max Ajl and Patrick Higgins to discuss some recent history and the ongoing situation regarding Palestinian resistance to the Zionist project and the ongoing bombardment on Gaza.  Max and Patrick provide some absolutely crucial information here, so be sure to tune in, and forward the episode along to anyone you think would benefit from it. Our guests recommend you to donate to the Middle East Children's Alliance, read the work of Electronic Intifada and Mondoweiss, as well as follow their respective social media pages @intifada and @Mondoweiss, and keep up to date with the Palestinian Youth Movement and Within Our Lifetime. Max Ajl is a postdoctoral researcher at the Ghent University, and is author of the fantastic A People's Green New Deal.  Read Max's other written work on his Researchgate page.  Max also has a twitter page, but you must find it yourself! Patrick Higgins is a researcher at the University of Houston's Center for Arab Studies.  You can

Breht returns with another monologue episode on the ever-evolving war in Palestine, this time with a focus on the history of the Nakba, the weakness of a two state solution, the widening global implications of the conflict, and where things might be headed...

Breht discusses the current situation in Palestine, helps listeners navigate and dismantle common Zionist talking points, and (hopefully) brings some much needed moral clarity and intellectual honesty to a topic that, especially in the West, often lacks both...

Originally Aired on Dec 22, 2019 In our third and final installment of "The Wretched of the Earth" Alyson and Breht summarize, examine, and apply the lessons of the final chapter and conclusion of Frantz Fanon's masterpiece work, then they reflect on the text as a whole.

Originally aired on Nov 23, 2019 In our second installment of "The Wretched of the Earth" Alyson and Breht summarize, examine, and apply the lessons of the third and fourth chapters of Frantz Fanon's masterpiece work. 

 Originally Aired on Oct 22, 2019 In our first installment of "The Wretched of the Earth" Alyson and Breht summarize, examine, and apply the lessons of the first two chapters of Frantz Fanon's masterpiece work.

Originally aired on Jun 3, 2021 In this classic mini-episode, Alyson Escalante summarizes and analyzes the history of Jewish Anti-Zionism. 

Originally aired on May 30, 2021 In this classic episode, Alyson and Breht use texts from Fanon, Cesaire, Mao, and Lenin to help make sense of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the history of zionism, the role of the United States in the conflict, and more. They define settler colonialism and imperialism, show how they are operative in the conflict, and then have a wide ranging conversation on the recent attack on Gaza, ongoing Isreali settlements, the principle contradiction of the conflict, why we should advocate for a one state solution instead of a two state solution, the importance of BDS, and more!  --------------------------   Support Rev Left Radio on Patreon or make a one time donation

[Originally released Jun 2020] Nu'man joins Breht to discuss the Palestinian Struggle, the Intifadas, the historical solidarity between black revolutionaries in the US and Palestinian revolutionaries, settler colonialism, Frantz Fanon, and SO much more. This was a really engaging interview, and we are positive that our listeners will love it! Follow Nu'man on Twitter Check out Students For Justice in Palestine (website made by Nu'man!) Films mentioned in the Episode:  The Wanted 18 1948: Creation and Catastrophe   Book Recommendations: The Hundred Years War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi The Palestine Communist Party by Musa Budeiri Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis The Right to Maim by Jasbir Puar   Articles to Check Out: Discursive and Political Deployments by/of the 2002 Palestinian Women Suicide Jerusalem Quarterly and the Institute for Palestine Studies both have over 70 years of journals all pertaining to Palestine . How does the push to "modernize" Palestine by bringing it