Aufhebunga Bunga

On class reductionism, commodity fetishism, and value theory.

To discuss Covid, the state as 'PMC leviathan', and the politics of value theory, we’re joined by philosopher Elena Louisa Lange, who also explains why class reductionism is not a theoretical position or a mere mistake, but a social reality. We also address the value of 'going back to school', take on the new Leftist 'holy trinity' of class-race-gender, and hear from Elena why we need to theorise the world before we change it.

Readings:

• The Middle-Class Leviathan: Corona, the “Fascism” Blackmail, and the Defeat of the Working Class, Elena Louisa Lange and Joshua Pickett-Depaolis, Crisis and Critique, 2020
• Marxism and the Crisis of Development in Prewar Japan, Germaine A. Hoston, Princeton, 1987
• Lawyer’s Fees, Beetroot, and Music, Elena’s Substack
• Value Without Fetish, Elena Louisa Lange, Brill 2021
• Marxist Class Theory for a Skeptical World, Raju J. Das, Haymarket, 2018

• (00:04:15) - Interview with Mike Watson
• (01:02:00) - 'Afterparty' discussion on what a counter-culture might look like today

• Can the Left Learn to Meme? , Mike Watson, Zero Books
• The Acid Left, YouTube channel
• The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin (pdf)

On Latin America's progressive wave and its discontents.

A new book on Latin America argues that 'pink tide' governments tried to treat the symptoms of neoliberal capitalism while allowing the underlying situation to worse. We talk to the author, Fabio Luis, about cases across the region, including the election in Ecuador and Venezuela's disaster, to Bolivia's coup and Argentina's "path of least resistance". How important is regional integration and what does an alternative socialist vision entail? And we ponder a sad question: is the dream of development and modernisation over? 

Readings:

• Power and Impotence: A History of South America Under Progressivism (1998-2016), Fabio Luis Barbosa dos Santos, Haymarket
• /93/ Hot Chile and Other Neoliberal Failures ft. Pablo Pryluka Bungacast

• A Left For Itself, David Swift, Zer0 Books
• How the Left lost all purpose, James Bloodworth, Unherd
• How not to be a white anti-racist, David Swift, Unherd

On the end of the End of History and neo-feudalism.

This episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast

In a continuation of our discussion on the emerging transfer state, we ask whether the end of neoliberalism entails the end of the 'End of History'. What are the determinate features of the End of History that we are leaving behind? Which are still with us?

Also, what to make of arguments that our future is neo- or techno-feudal? Do these terms make any sense? Or is it better to think of two alternate futures: Japanisation or Brazilianisation? 

• The End of the End of History, Bungacast, Zer0 Books
• Neofeudalism: The End of Capitalism?, Jodi Dean, LA Review of Books
• Neo-feudalism in California, Joel Kotkin, American Affairs

On cash welfarism and state investment. Plus regionalism in Belgium & the UK.

Anton Jäger is back on the pod to discuss the emerging 'transfer state'. We examine Biden's massive trillion-dollar spending plans and ask if this means we're leaving neoliberalism. What are the limitations to the 'cashification of welfare'? Also comparisons with cash transfers or lack thereof in the UK, Brazil and Belgium.

Plus Anton talks us through recent Belgian history and why its immobilism and bureaucracy has actually prevented a full-on neoliberal assault. 

[Part 2 available at patreon.com/bungacast]

Readings:

• “Welfare without the welfare state”: the death of the postwar welfarist consensus, Anton Jäger & Daniel Zamora, New Statesman
• Joe Biden Is a Transformational President, David Brooks, NYT

• How the pandemic has exposed Britain’s failed ‘regulatory state’, Lee Jones, Daily Telegraph
• COVID-19 and the failure of the neoliberal regulatory state, Lee Jones and Shahar Hameiri, Review of International Political Economy

On the uprising in Myanmar, plus Covid state failure.

Southeast Asia scholar (and Bunga recidivist) Lee Jones joins us to talk about the coup in Myanmar (and why the word “coup” can be misleading), and explains the nature of the forces opposing the military, in the context of the country’s recent transition to civilian rule.

Then, from 40mins, we discuss how the UK failed in dealing with the pandemic, and how this applies across the West. Lee's recent work looks at the neoliberal "regulatory state" and its incapacities, so we compare the UK's failure with Korea's relative success.

Readings:

• Preliminary thoughts on the Myanmar “coup”, Lee Jones, Medium
• Responding to the Myanmar coup, Crisis Group
• How the Civil Disobedience Movement can win, Aye Min Thant and Yan Aung, Frontier
• How the pandemic has exposed Britain’s failed ‘regulatory state’, Lee Jones, Daily Telegraph
• COVID-19 and the failure of the neoliberal regulatory state (pdf), Lee Jones and Shahar Hameiri, Review of International Political Economy 

We discuss the first of Perry Anderson's new essays on Europe published in the London Review of Books, which focuses on Luuk van Middelaar - described as the EU's first organic intellectual. We discuss what that means, as well as the role of the "coup" in forming the EU.

Reading Club episodes are for subscribers $10+. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast

• (00:04:15) - Interview with Mike Watson
• (01:02:00) - 'Afterparty' discussion on what a counter-culture might look like today

• Can the Left Learn to Meme? , Mike Watson, Zero Books
• The Acid Left, YouTube channel
• The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin (pdf)

• The rise of the technopopulists, Chris Bickerton, New Statesman (pdf attached)
• Accelerating Decay, Wolfgang Streeck, Sidecar - NRL blog
• Everyone is beautiful and no one is horny, RS Benedict, BloodKnife

On the socialist case for Scottish independence.

David Jamieson and Cat Boyd, writers and hosts of Conter, the Scottish anti-capitalist website and podcast, join us to to talk about the prospects for Scottish independence in advance of the Scottish parliamentary elections in May. Would an independent Scotland within the EU be a contradiction in term? How would an independent Scotland fare - and what would it mean for the "national question" across Europe? And what's up with the factional strife among Scottish nationalists?

Readings:

• Contercast, podcast hosted by Cat & David
• Independence Beyond Salmond and Sturgeon, David Jamieson, Conter
• The Origins of Scottish Nationhood, Neil Davidson, Pluto Press

On gay liberation and sexual politics.

After big advances over the past decades, we can now ask, did the gays win? And if so, so what? Mark Simpson in the UK and River Page in Florida join us to discuss whether something was lost in that victory. 

We ponder whether gay politics was the original identity politics and what happens when a narrow focus on equality triumphs over liberation. Do sexual liberation politics have any future? Plus: how Blairism was the biggest drag act of all. 

Readings:

• Anti-Gay, Mark Simpson (Bloomsbury, 1996)
• Being Gay in the Thirties (Gay Life), documentary mentioned by Mark
• Trading in the Past: Queer London, Mark Simpson
• The Standpoint Bureaucracy, River Page, TwinkRev
• The Woke Resurrection of a Gay Sex Panic, River Page, TwinkRev

• A Left For Itself, David Swift, Zer0 Books
• How the Left lost all purpose, James Bloodworth, Unherd
• How not to be a white anti-racist, David Swift, Unherd

We've exceptionally unlocked one of our recent Reading Clubs. For access to all the monthly Reading Clubs - as well as our ~2 patreon episodes a month - subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast for $10. 

–– 

On Richard Tuck's The Left Case for Brexit, a book composed of essays written throughout the Brexit process, providing a diary of Brexit of sorts, as well as political and historical arguments around sovereignty.

We also take the opportunity to debate its global implications - what are the possibilities for popular sovereignty in a globalised world?

On the final deal and its implications, see: The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement: Minimum Brexit