Event • London

Occupy! Ten Years After

What has been the legacy of Occupy, ten years later? How are we to locate the Occupy movement in light of earlier protest waves, such as the student uprisings of 68 and the worker protests that followed, or the anti-globalisation marches of the late 1990s? What new social and political dynamics has Occupy bequeathed us today? In this panel debate we welcome leading writers and thinkers on the Occupy movement to reflect on these questions as a part of our “Aftermaths” series of events.

Event • New York

Black Against Amazon: a Belabored and Black Work Talk Crossover

Just a few days after voting closes, historian Robin D. G. Kelley will join Sarah Jaffe and Michelle Chen, co-hosts of Dissent’s Belabored podcast, and Steven Pitts, host of the Black Work Talk podcast on Organizing Upgrade, to discuss the effort, its import, and what it has to say about the state of the Black working class today.

Event • Bristol, UK

What is Goth Communism?

If you know me at all, you know this is the Venn diagram of my interests all at once. The wonderful folks at Bristol Transformed held a virtual Halloween festival with a bunch of amazing sessions, and I joined Laura and Zoe from Season of the Bitch podcast to explain what goth communism is and why we love it. 

Event • Eastern Time

Democracy Without Journalism? Confronting the Misinformation Society

Join me and Victor Pickard for a conversation about Victor’s latest book, Democracy Without Journalism? Confronting the Misinformation Society

As local media institutions collapse and news deserts sprout up across the country, the US is facing a profound journalism crisis. Meanwhile, continuous revelations about the role that major media outlets — from Facebook to Fox News — play in the spread of misinformation have exposed deep pathologies in American communication systems. Despite these threats to democracy, policy responses have been woefully inadequate. And all of that was before the coronavirus pandemic and nationwide uprisings where journalists have been assaulted by police, teargassed, and arrested on camera. We’ll talk about all of this and more. Thursday, June 4, 1pm Eastern.

Event • Seattle, WA

Red May: Abolish the Family!

I couldn’t be more pleased to join these amazing humans to talk about my new favorite subject: what does it mean to abolish the family? With Kathi Weeks, M.E. O’Brien, Sophie Lewis and yours truly, as part of Red May. 3pm Seattle time May 29, that’ll be 6pm Eastern.

Event • New York

Class struggle organizing in moments of crisis: with Robin D.G. Kelley and Asad Haider

With skyrocketing unemployment, essential workers striking against dangerous conditions, and social distancing imposing new constraints on activism, the pandemic crisis is posing unprecedented challenges to today’s class struggle. What lessons can we learn from socialist history and theory for our contemporary conjuncture? Join Robin D.G. Kelley, Sarah Jaffe, and Asad Haider for a discussion on lessons we can learn from the past for organizing today.

Event

District Sentinel Radio

The Sams asked me to come on District Sentinel Radio to talk about the UTLA strike and also about Scabby the Rat and why we must defend him at all costs.

Event

Season of the Bitch

I joined the wonderful women at Season of the Bitch and also LA teacher Noriko Nakada and teacher librarian Lisa Cheby to talk about UTLA’s strike, how it was built, and what’s at stake.

Event • New York

Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism

Kristen R. Ghodsee, an acclaimed ethnographer and professor of Russian and East European Studies, spent years researching what happened to women in countries that transitioned from state socialism to capitalism. She argues here that unregulated capitalism disproportionately harms women, and that we should learn from the past. By rejecting the bad and salvaging the good, we can adapt some socialist ideas to the 21st century and improve our lives.

Women are standing up for themselves like never before, from the increase in the number of women running for office to the women’s march to the long-overdue public outcry against sexual harassment. Interest in socialism is also on the rise—whether it’s the popularity of Bernie Sanders or the skyrocketing membership numbers of the Democratic Socialists of America. It’s become increasingly clear to women that capitalism isn’t working for us, and Ghodsee is the informed, lively guide who can show us the way forward.

Ghodsee & Sarah Jaffe will discuss why capitalism is bad for women and how, when done right, socialism leads to economic independence, better labor conditions, better work-life balance and, yes, even better sex.