Welcome to the sixth edition of LeftHooked! LeftHooked is a monthly (for now) aggregator and review of the best, or at least most important, writing from major socialist left publications, broadly defined, from the anglophone world, brought to you by the comrades at the Hampton Institute.
As I get started with this new and exciting project, with the great support of Colin Jenkins and the whole Hampton team (who are still largely volunteers [to helps us change that, consider supporting our Patreon, as all of our content remains entirely free to access!]), I’m open to suggestions for improvements to the format, structure, and content, as well as interesting articles, podcast episodes, and even books to review and include in future editions of LeftHooked. For all such input, please email me at: LeftHooked[at]protonmail.com.
As always, for standard submissions to the Hampton Institute, submit at hamptonthink[at]gmail.com.
Beyond your (hopefully ongoing) support for the Hampton Institute and this new project, beyond my deep abiding hope that this project will contribute in some small way to the success of our shared struggle for a truly free, equal, and democratic world, my only request is for your patience as I work to produce and improve LeftHooked over the coming months and (fingers-crossed) years!
-Dr. Bryant William Sculos, Founding Editor & Curator of LeftHooked
LeftHooked #6 (JUNE 2020)
It should go without saying, but sadly it doesn’t: Black Lives Matter! LeftHooked writes and acts in solidarity with those in the streets and otherwise organizing in defense of Black lives, particularly poor and working-class Black lives, and against the structures of capitalism and racism that exploit, oppress, and outright murder them.
The June 2020 edition of LeftHooked continues where May 2020 left-off, which is becoming a theme of LeftHooked, one that I didn’t necessarily consider when this project began. But I take it to be a good sign that the conversations that take place one month are carried through to the next—and not merely the conversations, debates, and discussions, but the movements and events they are about, remain ongoing. This is a positive sign in and of itself. Things are lasting more than a week or two, more than a month.
This edition focuses on the mass anti-racist protest movement, primarily based in the US but emanating global, as well as the still somewhat mysterious goings-on in the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ)/Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) in Seattle, Washington. You will also find more contributions to debates about socialist strategy, particularly in relation to Bernie Sanders. There are several other important developments covered in essays included here— COVID-19-related content rightly remains a central concern for the Left. This edition will, due to the enormity and numerousness of events this month, cover more essays and articles than a typical edition. Hopefully it was worth the wait.
COVID-19
To start on COVID-19 in June 2020, take a read through Salvage’s editorial on the subject. While I’m not sure the editorial collective would ever be accused of optimism, they do an excellent job finding the slivers of potential for hope in these viral times.
In “Life vs. Capital” Nicholas De Genova offers an excellent long-form macroscopic treatment of COVID-19 as a constellation of socioeconomic biopolitical social relations—a great mixture of theory, rhetoric, and political practicality. Spectre continues its torrent of excellent material, including this piece by Ruy Braga on COVID-19 and the magnifying problem of authoritarianism in Brazil, as well as a couple others discussed below.
Luke Savage, writing for Jacobin, succinctly explains why, based on recent research conducted in the wake of initial COVID-19 public assistance programs, the thing that can end poverty easiest, most efficiently, and immediately is to give people money. While there are a range of more nuanced structural and long-term solutions worth discussing, it is almost axiomatic that a condition fundamentally defined by a lack of money could be, shockingly, solved by giving people more money—which is what (perhaps without being aware of their grave sin!) the US—and many other governments around the world—did in response to COVID-19 public health policies that shuttered many businesses (particularly in industries whose workforces are lower- and middle-income, such as retail, hospitality, and restaurants).
Also, in Jacobin this month is a great essay by Nicole Aschoff on the class politics of social distancing (spoiler alert, social or physical distancing affects poor and working class people more or less entirely differently than it affects wealthier professionals and over-paid well-suited leeches of various sorts). As Aschoff’s piece suggests, COVID-19 is an eminently political issue—and hardly for the reasons that it is being “politicized” in the mainstream US media (which ironically should be interpreted as a kind of technocratic depoliticization). Richard Hunsinger & Nathan Eisenberg’s long-form piece for Cosmonaut highlights the political struggle of COVID-19 quite well. Further on the politics of COVID-19 response,
There has also been a lot of great work on the political-economic-ecological character of COVID-19. Two representative examples are Astra and Sunaura Taylor’s piece “Solidarity Across Species” in the Summer 2020 issue of Dissent and John Bellamy Foster and Intan Suwandi’s “COVID-19 and Catastrophe Capitalism” for Monthly Review. Also worth reading and thinking about in this context is Dominic Mealy’s interview with Andreas Malm, particularly focusing on the need for “Ecological Leninism,” as well as other issues relevant for the Left, in Jacobin. Eren Duzgun’s essay in New Politics is also a valuable contribution to on-going debates about ecology, socialism, and COVID-19.
Two other pieces worth checking out on COVID-19 from June 2020 are Grace Blakeley’s UK-focused “Covid-19: The Disaster Automation Was Waiting For” in Tribune and “Could COVID-19 Change Parenthood?” by Conor P. Williams in Dissent.
Post-Sanders Socialist Strategy: The Saga Continues
I’ll be brief here (okay I won’t, but still I probably should have been), since these pieces largely, though not entirely, rehash long-standing debates on the Left while not offering a whole lot terribly new; the context is novel and for that reason I think it is worth mentioning the June 2020 contributions to debates around socialist strategy in the US. First and foremost, check out Bruce Levine’s piece in Counterpunch, followed by Chris Wright’s reply.
Sadly, while Wright may be one of the most passionate, genuinely socialist defenders of lesser-evilism, and there are crucial elements missing from Levine’s critique, this is really how this debate typically plays out: people talking past each other without even realizing it—combined with misplaced moralistic histrionics (not the least from me…just not this month). Voting means different things to different people, and it occupies a different kind of relevance for different kinds of socialists. These theoretical points remain at the heart of the disagreements over whether it is ever acceptable to support capitalist political parties. I’d also add that the most recent iterations of disagreement about lesser-evilism usually center on specific empirical disagreements as well: 1. Whether Donald Trump is a fascist/is uniquely evil to such a degree that makes him much worse for more people on Earth than previous Republican (and Democratic) presidents; 2. The relationship between depraved Democratic Party-supported policies and the emergence of Donald Trump and Trumpism; and 3. How terrible or not terrible Joe Biden is and will be as president. So, the debates get maximally-heated when the theoretical disagreements intersect with the divergence in empirical evaluations.
Kim Moody has been perhaps the most consistent contemporary critic of lesser-evilism and the strategy of socialist (internal) engagement with the Democratic Party as a possible vector for the achievement of working-class political priorities. Check out his June 2020 contribution to that legacy. (And Moody’s preface to the article—apparently written in 2018—is troubling to say the least; it isn’t a good look for Jacobin.)
For a different kind of analysis of contemporary socialist strategy, read this critical treatment of DSA and its structure, from Diego AM writing for Cosmonaut.
Radical Anti-Racism and BLM
To begin where we left off in May, it is worth reading over Vijay Prashad’s troubling (productively so I think) essay entitled “The Murder of George Floyd is Normal in an Adnormal Society.” From there, I highly recommend the following pieces: Christian Gines’s “Dear Black America, Don’t Let Them Fool You: We Cannot Vote Ourselves Out of this Problem” for the Hampton Institute, the here less-controversial Cedric Johnson’s “Don’t Let Blackwashing Save the Investor Class” in Jacobin, Daniel Brown’s “What Would Abolition Look Like?” for New Politics, and, also in New Politics, Richard Greeman’s “Ten Days That May Have Changed the World.”
Two similar though definitely distinct perspectives on Left strategy in the context of 2020 BLM movement were offered in Viewpoint by Kali Akuno and from the Independent Socialist Group respectively. Both offer crucial insights for the road ahead.
Adam Dahl wrote a powerful essay for Truthout exploring the relationship between defunding the police and defunding the Pentagon. There is also this similar article worth checking out on the military-to-police pipeline by Suzanne Gordon and Steve Early. While it is true that the (US) military is not identical in its composition and function to the municipal and state police forces, there are structural relationships and similarities that are crucial to consider. Third, check out Blake Simons’s piece for the Hampton Institute on the need to not just defund the police and the military—but to “Abolish It All.” These essays are a great place to start, particularly in the context of the resurgence anti-racism movement.
For a more historical and international perspective, see Kevin B. Anderson’s piece for New Politics and, specifically on BLM in France, Cole Stangler’s article in Tribune.
Lastly on anti-racism, for June at least, check out this incredibly spicy editorial from the passionate collective at Salvage. Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t disappoint.
The CHAZ (you won’t get me to call it the CHOP…if only for aesthetic reasons)
While it is already winding down at the time of writing, the Left has many lessons—and plenty of inspiration—to draw from the emergence of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) in Seattle—motivated primarily by the movement against racism and police violence in Seattle, though their demands are much more expansive. Is this the Paris Commune? Perhaps. Occupy? Perhaps. Stay tuned for the July 2020 edition for more on the CHAZ. For some preliminary takes, these pieces from the Hampton Institute, Left Voice, Counterpunch, and Viewpoint are all worthwhile.
Not-so Foreign Policies
International affairs are notoriously underemphasized and superficial talking-pointed to death in US political discourse. This is an enduring problem, and one that has also plagued the US Left in recent decades, despite there being significant, yet largely ineffective, opposition to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and beyond. Today, one of the big questions many on the Left need a better grasp of is how to evaluate the impact of US domestic politics on the rest of the world. While some on the Left have consistently paid attention to such issues and produced thoughtful informative analysis, it is still actually quite difficult to get good information and analysis of foreign policy from a left perspective, which makes it all the more difficult to evaluate and compare and the Trump administration to many so-called “left” or progressive politicians and to previous centrist paradigms, only in part due to their striking similarities. In Jacobin, Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies offer us precisely this kind of critical analysis of the continuities and discontinuities of US foreign policy before and during Trump’s rule.
Hong Kong and the complicated uprisings there continue to be a difficult issue for the anglophone Left as well. Of course it is easy to denounce the authoritarian maneuvers of the Chinese state in China and in Hong Kong (though perhaps not so easy for some with problematic campist hang-ups), and it is also pretty easy to denounce the Trump administration’s moves, moves made largely with the support of their sibling capitalist political party, to take advantage of the tensions in the region to gain an upper-hand vis-à-vis China. The Left can and must support working-class movements for greater democrac against various forms of imperialism and intimidation, but the class character of the Hong Kong movement is the pinnacle of political-economic diversity. This interview in Spectre with Au Loong Yu conducted by Ashley Smith is informative as we continue to understand and react to the developments in Hong Kong, immediate developments which are nearly a year in the making but are also an outgrowth of much longer-term trends.
I also highly recommend this conversation between Ingar Solty and Darko Vujica on the state of German far right, center-right, and far left politics for Monthly Review. Long and detailed—and critically educative.
LeftUnheard
Podcast episodes I haven’t listened to…yet, but you (probably) should! I’m guessing they’ll be good, but the only promise I make here is that these are podcast episodes that are actually on my “to listen” list.
Devon Bowers looks to have put together a very not-me podcast for June with Tacticool Girlfriend, wherein they discuss all things gun politics. Still, I’m interested in the relationship between violence and protest—so this episode of A Different Lens is on my list.
Also on my list to listen to is, what I hope will be, a provocative critical history of the CPUSA from Cosmopod.
LeftUnanswered
In each edition of LeftHooked I’ll conclude by posing a question or series of related questions for readers to think about. Some will be ones that have been asked (and ostensibly answered in various ways and to varying degrees) by those on the left before, but also ones that I think have renewed relevance or call for updated consideration, for what, in each instance, will be relatively obvious reasons. Other times, hopefully more often than not, these questions will be novel in some way. At the very least, the LeftUnanswered section will reflect questions that are on my mind and to which I’ve not found current or past conversations satisfying or convincing. My primary hope is that they will resonate.
How to evaluate the relative successes (and/or failures), legacies, and afterlives of events and movements is a crucial element (left) political analysis. From the French Revolution to the Paris Commune, from the German Revolution to the Russian Revolution and the Soviet Union, from May 1968 to Occupy, the Left succeeds or fails in no small part due to its ability to properly evaluate its own history and thus learn the best lessons from the past—however long ago or recent. I raise this here in the context of June 2020, not because there is something categorically unique about the Black Lives Matter movement that would lead us to treat its legacy any differently, analytically-speaking, than any other movement, but instead because how we might evaluate the afterlives of events and movements can change over time and this factor is especially important to BLM.
If you had asked many on the Left prior to June 2020, what the relative impact of BLM might have been, the answers would have been mixed, if not leaning towards a more negative evaluation. However, the legacy of BLM must be re-evaluated in light of recent events. It seems that while the initial BLM movement did not radically change structural racism in the US, it is clearer today that its effects have been both deeper and more subtle than previously thought. The response to the police murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, mass protests across the US and stretching around the globe, indicate that the demand that Black lives matter sunk in. Seeing, literally in the case of George Floyd (and countless other cases of filmed police brutality and murder), that Black lives still do not matter, catalyzed a dissonance among a public that had evidently internalized the BLM message, which produced an inspiration and motivation to take to the streets to demand justice in various forms, but most aggressively and popularly in the demands to defund and abolish the police.
The question is then how do we judge the ongoing legacy of BLM in the wake of the still-active, though also already waning anti-racist protest movement that emerged in late May and throughout June 2020? And even if we return more appreciation to BLM than perhaps many had afforded it up to this point, given its inability to achieve deep systemic change or even substantial policy changes (the increase in the use of police body cameras and federal consent decrees notwithstanding), what weaknesses and limitations remain? Is the ceiling for this movement rooted in the centrality of identity, as some on the Left have claimed? Is it hampered by its on-going inability to stave off liberal co-optation? Is too much of the movement liberal at a more fundamental level? Perhaps the issues are organizational and strategic, in that protest-fatigue is a serious concern and without a more coherent, accountable—and perhaps democratically-hierarchical—organization or party to carry the struggles forward the energy wanes before the demands are won? Some victories in some localities have already been won, but still less fully than necessary. In many cities and towns, promises have been made to defund or abolish the police. These are amazing short-term wins that the Left should take pride in and learn lessons from—but more needs to be done to prevent these victories from becoming Pyrrhic victories that remain superficial, rhetorical, or abandoned outright once the public’s attention shifts elsewhere—perhaps towards electoral campaigns. The good news, regardless of one’s answers to these questions, is that the Left is asking these questions already—as many of the articles included above indicate?
If you’ve read this far, please do consider supporting the Hampton Institute by becoming a patron, if you haven’t already.
Under socialism, there will be no bills to be paid. Sadly, under capitalism, reader/listener support is the only way projects like the Hampton Institute, A Different Lens, and LeftHooked can continue!
Thanks for reading. And as my dad used to say before school, be a good human being!
