Jacobin Radio

Featuring Andrew Epstein on the Zohran campaign’s savvy, funny, sharp, disciplined, and moving comms operation. As one hundred thousand volunteers knocked three million doors, Andrew and a team of strategists, speechwriters, designers, and filmmakers wrote a giant love letter to New York City and inoculated voters against a lavishly-funded fusillade of smears and attacks. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Buy After Savagery at Haymarketbooks.org Buy From Apartheid to Democracy at UCPress.com The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Chile has just elected its most extreme far-right president since the Pinochet dictatorship. José Antonio Kast won the December 14 runoff by a commanding margin — a stunning reversal in a country that in 2019 experienced a massive social uprising over the unaffordability of life and extreme inequality. The social revolt ended with the pandemic lockdown, but the following year a broad leftist coalition swept into power, electing the 34-year-old former radical student leader Gabriel Boric, whose government promised to bury neoliberalism once and for all. How did Chile move so quickly from an anti-neoliberal social rebellion to the return of the hard right? Was this a vote for authoritarianism — or a vote against insecurity, inflation, and political stalemate? What does Kast’s victory tell us about the global resurgence of the far right, from Latin America to Europe and the United States? Suzi examines Chile’s political reversal with two Chilean analysts: Oscar Mendoza explains this electoral shift by looking at the failed constitutional process, the role of mandatory voting, media panic over crime and immigration, and the institutional constraints Kast will face in office. Pablo Abufom situates Kast’s victory in a longer historical trajectory, arguing that this is the first democratic government of pinochetismo — a project combining authoritarian neoliberalism, moral conservatism and anticommunism, now aligned with a global far-right resurgence. Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

After World War II, political parties championing redistribution, full employment, and egalitarianism gained power across the globe, especially in Western Europe. But why did these social democrats give up the ambition to transition to socialism? In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber explains why the golden age of capitalism was a rare period of triumph for the Left, even though the movement faced serious challenges from class enemies, state structures, and tensions within its own coalition. Any leftist trying to change the balance of class power would benefit from understanding why social democracy achieved such lasting success even as it remains in the political minority today. The latest issue of Catalyst is out and you can subscribe for just $20 using the code, CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM: https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM Have a question for us? Write to us by email: [email protected] Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Thea Riofrancos, author of Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism, looks at the complications of using lithium batteries to green our future. Alyssa Battistoni, author of Free Gifts, examines the weird relationship between capitalism and nature. Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Featuring Sumaya Awad, Sumathy Kumar, and Nathan Gusdorf on building power on the ground as our allies exercise it from above in the service of a larger hegemonic project to transform the United States. As Zohran Mamdani takes office on January 1, it’s time for governance—and all of the opportunities, constraints, and contradictions that entails. A recording of last week’s live Dig in Brooklyn. Support The Dig (and check out our cool new merch) at Patreon.com/TheDig Buy After Savagery at Haymarketbooks.org Buy From the Clinics to the Capitol at UCPress.com The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.