Welcome to the fifth 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 #5 (MAY 2020)

May 2020 began one-way, continuing debates among the Left about COVID-19 and the implications of the Bernie Sanders campaign for socialist (electoral) strategy, and it ended in what felt like an entirely different world. From March through April we moved from pre-COVID-19 to a COVID-19 world, and from April through May we moved from a world seemingly defined by COVID-19 to a world defined by the intersection of COVID-19 and mass, global anti-racist, anti-police protests emanating out of the US. “Beginning” (can it really honestly be called a beginning?) with the lynching of Ahmaud Arbery by a former police officer, the strangling of George Floyd, and the shooting of Breonna Taylor. While the protests took charge of the imaginations and physical attention of the Left at the end of May, the majority of the reflexive conversation will take place in June (and probably—hopefully—well-beyond that). Beyond the initial wave of writings on these events and their implications included here, these protests will be covered extensively in the June edition (#6).

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.

It is also worth noting that early in May, which already feels like a thousand years ago, the formation of the Progressive International was announced. The material, on-the-ground relevance of this organization is still unknown but given the long list of well-known leftists who’ve publicly signed on and offered support, it warrants mention here. Early signs, including their platform, indicate a strong reformist socialist (perhaps even merely social democratic) bent and that a “big tent” approach will dominate.

Also, in May, international socialism lost a great thinker in Neil Davidson. While I never had the chance to meet him, I’ve read his work, and, simply on those terms, his death is a major blow. I recommend reading this compassionate political obituary by Jamie Allinson published on the Verso Books blog and the article by Davidson, and interview by George Souvlis with him—both published with Salvage.

COVID-19

To continue the cataloging of powerful contributions to our understanding of the on-going pandemic, May was an opportunity to begin discussing what “reopening” meant in more detail, but before we take that discussion seriously, we should all read Kenn Orphan’s essay “The Portent of a Pandemic” published with the Hampton Institute. Considerations of “reopening” must take into account the character of the US health care system, which Ekim Kılıç’s piece, also with the Hampton Institute, helps us do—with exceptionally detailed research.

For ROAR, Amanda Priebe wrote an important essay on the relationship between COVID-19 and the need for a world beyond borders, entitled “Towards a Borderless World where We Can All ‘Just Stay Home’.”

Writing for his newly relaunched blog Empire and Economics (which I highly recommend people check out), Andrew Gavin Marshall helps us think through the near-guarantee of a second wave of COVID-19 with a global perspective in “Here Comes the Second Wave.”

Finally on this topic, in Viewpoint’s “Crisis of a New Type”, Salar Mohandesi provides a deeply-engaged theoretical analysis of the relationship between COVID-19 and the concept of crisis within capitalism. For those looking for a challenging and wider-lens look at COVID-19 (as well as climate change), this is the piece to read for May.

Post-Sanders Socialist Strategy

Building on the great contributions in April, in May New Politics continued to offer a great space for debates about socialist strategy. For those interested in the subsequent developments in this on-going discussion, check out Andrew Sernatinger’s “Wading Through Contradictions” and Ashley Smith and Charlie Post’s reply (to Sernatinger specifically, but other critics of their earlier piece as well) titled “Still Facing Reality: A Reply to Our Critics.”

Radical Anti-Racism and BLM

Before diving head-first into the resurgent anti-racism and BLM movement(s), it is worth reading this excellent piece in Monthly Review by Michael D. Yates on slavery, the racist capitalist economy that developed out of slavery, and the case for a new Freedom Budget (put out well-before the murder of George Floyd). It can serve as a productive foundation to understand some important elements of the current protests, as well as offering a kind of path forward.

In his “Rights, Riots and Police Brutality” with ROAR, Kristian Williams offers one of the best early essays relevant to the emergent anti-racism movements in the US, focusing primarily on the structural function of policing and police brutality within the capitalist system.

Originally writing for the French publication L’Anticapitaliste, the biweekly newspaper of the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) of France, Dan La Botz (republished with New Politics) covers the initial stages of the protest movements in the US.

Lastly (though, there will be much much more in June), check out these two informative and punchy pieces from Left Voice: “Their Violence and Ours” by Nathaniel Flakin and Ana Rivera and Ezra Brain’s “Minnesota is a Blue State. Where is the ‘Lesser Evil’ Now?”

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.

Check out this one from Devon Bowers for A Different Lens with Cyrah Hawkins on “dealing with” the police. Second, check out Dan Denvir’s The Dig spin-off mini-series of sorts Antibody.

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.

The question of the violence of the oppressed versus that of the oppressor is an old one, but the recent uprisings against police violence and systemic racism in the US and around the world have renewed an important conversation about the tactical and strategic effectiveness of what are commonly referred to in the capitalist media as “looting,” “riots,” and “burning cop cars.” Okay, these are fairly objective descriptions of what they refer to, but they are deployed in an inherently political and pejorative manner, of course. This classic political distortion is also well-known and quite tired—but not necessarily ineffective in disparaging radical democratic movements from below. None of this truly new, yet this moment feels new. Something is different—perhaps it is us. As the quantity of time—and lives—pass, the quality of the superficially similar resistances becomes something distinct. What the political effect of this quantity that has become quality will be is a crucial—and being-determined—question.

The broader, perhaps too abstract, iteration of the opening question here remains though: are these “destructive” reactions “productive”—are looting, rioting, and burning cop cars effective means to challenge the state and capital? For many, they are the organic and justifiable outgrowth of centuries of exploitation and oppression. I have no disagreement with that, but that is also a different question than whether they are effective. It certainly depends on what the immediate and long-term goals are. These reactions have certainly garnered enormous attention, and, perhaps for that reason only, have some degree of effectiveness. Longer term though, in the US context in particular, the organization (or perhaps lack thereof) of these rebellions will be of the utmost importance as we attempt to answer these questions—and achieve a livable, just world for all.

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Thanks for reading. And as my dad used to say before school, be a good human being!