Guerrilla History Newsletter #7
Our reading/listening list for 24 September 2022
Hello Guerrilla History listeners!
We have loads of interesting recommendations for you this week, plus a lot of content that has come out from our hosts! To start with recent content, we’ll first mention the two latest episodes we’ve put out. First, we put out our first case study from our Sanctions As War miniseries, this one titled Sanctions and Nation-Breaking Yugoslavia with Gregory Elich. Both an analytical look at how the sanctions regime and bombing campaign carried out in Yugoslavia devastated the population there, as well as a personal account of what Gregory saw there when he was part of a peace-keeping delegation to record NATO war crimes. Fascinating and at times truly harrowing, we highly recommend listening and sending the episode along to people that don’t remember NATO’s catastrophic role in the region. Also, if you’ve not listened to the introductory episode of the series with Manny Ness and Stuart Davis yet for the more theoretical grounding in the topic of sanctions as war, it may be worth going back and listening to that first! Next, just yesterday we released Part 1 of an EXCELLENT panel discussion we put together: Why Political Education & Historical Knowledge Is KEY for Activism/Organizing. Featuring an all-star panel of activists and organizers, this was a great conversation that we’ve already heard really nice feedback on. Part 1 was the panel’s discussion of the topic at hand, Part 2 (coming out next week) is the live listener Q&A segment, and there were several really interesting questions that we tackled there, so be sure to stay tuned for that! In any case, this conversation is really geared towards younger comrades and those in the activism community - if you know anyone who would benefit from hearing this conversation, do be sure to send it along their way!
More from the hosts:
Unsurprisingly, there’s plenty of other new content from each of the hosts too.
Adnan recently put out a fantastic episode of The Majlis titled Islam and Anarchism, in Conversation with Dr. Mohamed Abdou, in which Dr. Abdou seeks to disturb two commonly held notions - that Islam is necessarily authoritarian and capitalist; and that anarchism is necessarily anti-religious and anti-spiritual. Adnan has also confirmed he will be hosting a new Free Online Open Course titled The Crusading Society, which will take place on Saturdays at 9:30-11am Eastern Time. Be sure to register for this free course at his new website!
Breht has put out two new episodes of Revolutionary Left Radio recently, each incredibly interesting! The first was Teaching the Actuality of Revolution: Unlearning, Aesthetics, and the Sensations of Struggle with our comrade Derek Ford, where Breht and Derek discuss Marxist pedagogy, sensory perception, education, Althusser, Marx and Engels, ideological struggle, aesthetics, and much more! He also just released Teachers Under Attack by the Far Right: The Gabriel Gipe Interview, where former high school teacher, Gabriel Gipe, joins the show to tell his story of being set up and targeted by the right-wing organization Project Veritas, the subsequent relentless harassment of him and his family by conservative news outlets, fascist organizations, and other right wing extremists, including the Proud Boys, which culminated in him losing his career.
Meanwhile, our comrade and friend Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro (check out our episode with him on Socialist States and the Environment!) and Henry have teamed up and are editing a new translation of Domenico Losurdo’s Stalin: History and Criticism of a Black Legend, which will be coming out in a couple months (both in free pdf form, as well as a gorgeous and affordable print copy) from Iskra Books, the book publishing arm of Peace, Land, & Bread and the Center for Communist Studies. It will be out in a couple months, and you’ll be able to pick it up (and check out Iskra’s existing book catalogue) by visiting their website www.peacelandbread.com/books.
The Reading List
Time for this week’s reading/listening list! To find the article/episode, just click on the name and the link will take you to it! If you want to go back to the episode(s) of Guerrilla History that the guests have appeared on, simply click on their name and you will be directed straight to the episode.
Adnan Husain:
‘Labour Weaponised My Domestic Abuse to Get Rid of Me’: Apsana Begum on Her Return to Politics Novara Media with Apsana Begum's story—she tells about the terrible abuse she suffered and how the Labour Party has been contributing to it in order to purge her from the party as a socialist Muslim woman. We have to understand her situation in the context of the Forde inquiry's report that has received no attention but demonstrates the systemic racism and Islamophobia.
As preparation for an upcoming episode with Prof. Harvey J. Kaye about the reissue of his classic work, The British Marxist Historians, Adnan is watching Eric Hobsbawm: The Consolations of History. Free to watch on YouTube, and will give you some insight into what we’ve got coming up!
Henry Hakamaki:
The global South has lost $152 trillion through unequal exchange since 1960 is a piece originally published in Progress In Political Economy, and republished here by Monthly Review Online. Fascinating in its ability to quantify the plunder that has taken place by the Global North from the Global South, and that it demonstrates that this is not simply a historical phenomenon, but is something that is still actively occurring. As the author writes, “For the rest of the South [excepting China, as their position has changed in recent years], neo-colonial plunder continues at historically unprecedented levels”. This short piece is really worth reading!
A History of the World In Seven Cheap Things is a tremendous book by Jason Moore (friend of the show, and soon-to-be-guest, we already have two upcoming episodes planned with him) and Raj Patel (whom we also hope to bring on). “Bringing the latest ecological research together with histories of colonialism, indigenous struggles, slave revolts, and other rebellions and uprisings, Patel and Moore demonstrate that throughout history, crises have always prompted fresh strategies to make the world cheap and safe for capitalism”, this is a book that all anti-capitalists and people who care about the environment (let’s be real, that should be all of us) NEED to pick up.
Amanda Yee of Radio Free Amanda:
Five of the British empire's worst atrocities under Queen Elizabeth's reign from Liberation News, an excellent article written by Amanda about some of the genocidal campaigns waged under Queen Elizabeth's monarchy. Send this timely article to anyone you know who’s sympathetic to the monarchy!
There’s also a great new recent episode of Radio Free Amanda: RFA episode 45 - Struggle and Repression in Sri Lanka w/ Indrajit Samarajiva, “where Indrajit Samarajiva comes on the show to discuss Aragalaya, the mass protests in Sri Lanka in response to fuel and food shortages. Indrajit explains the historical causes of the country's economic crisis, the role of the IMF, the revolutionary moment felt when the people exiled President Rajapaksa and occupied the presidential residence for five days, and the repression that followed.”
Alexander Aviña:
Alex has recommended Thomas Rath’s Myths of Demilitarization in Postrevolutionary Mexico, 1920-1960, where “Rath argues, Mexico's celebrated demilitarization was more protracted, conflict-ridden, and incomplete than most accounts assume”, and “weaves together an analysis of national and regional politics, military education, conscription, veteran policy, and popular protest. In doing so, he challenges dominant interpretations of successful, top-down demilitarization and questions the image of the post-1940 PRI regime as strong, stable, and legitimate”. Sounds like an ideal Guerrilla History episode, no?
The Cadre Journal (Episode Forthcoming):
Anti-Imperialism in the 21st Century: Solidarity After the Marikana Massacre An educational pamphlet written for people learning about imperialism to reflect on a vivid 21st century example and resistance to it.
Indigenous Myth and Community as Revolutionary and Socialist Potential
An Interview with Aziz Mahdi, Left-Wing Translator An interview with comrade Aziz Mahdi, left-wing Somali translator who has translated works from Wretched of the Earth to The Communist Manifesto.
That will do it for this newsletter, thank you as always for reading. If you do find this resource useful, please consider sharing it with friends, family, comrades, and/or on social media. You can help support the show at Patreon, but the most important thing is that we help educate as many people as we can. Use the button below to get this newsletter into your inbox, and until next time, solidarity.