KPFA - Against the Grain

How did a fringe rightwing movement calling for lower taxes become one of the most successful efforts in U.S politics, leading to a chronically underfunded government? The answer has more than a little to do with racism. Michael Graetz traces the rise and triumph of the anti-tax movement and the ways that politicians and think-tanks harnessed racial resentments for the benefit of the wealthy. Michael J. Graetz, The Power to Destroy: How the Antitax Movement Hijacked America Princeton University Press, 2024 Photo credit: Mike Meadows, Los Angeles Times The post Racism, the Right, and the Anti-Tax Movement appeared first on KPFA.

In the 1950s the CIA took a keen interest in Kerala, a newly formed Indian state led, beginning in 1957, by a Communist ministry. Richard Franke describes the turbulent events that led to the ministry’s dismissal and the evidence he and T. M. Thomas Isaac have unearthed about CIA stances and ambitions vis-a-vis Kerala. T. M. Thomas Isaac and Richard Franke, Toppling the First Ministry: Kerala, the CIA, and the Struggle for Social Justice Monthly Review Press, 2025 The post Kerala and the CIA appeared first on KPFA.

Are mass protests and elections enough to block the slide toward authoritarianism? Labor scholar and organizer Eric Blanc argues that neither will suffice without exerting leverage on the key pillars of Trump’s support. He discusses how a multi-level campaign against the corporations and other entities that back the administration could be organized, as well as the state of the labor movement and the Supreme Court, the victory of Zohran Mamdani, and what it might take to build to a general strike. Labor Politics Eric Blanc, We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing Is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big UC Press, 2025 Photo credit: By Jessica Bolanos CC BY-SA 4.0 The post How to Organize Against Authoritarianism appeared first on KPFA.

First-time presentation of the full-length interview with Brandon Keim about his book Meet the Neighbors, in which he considers the explosion of research into animal intelligence, emotion, and sociality; takes research findings out into everyday landscapes; and examines how wild animals are viewed and treated. Brandon Keim, Meet the Neighbors: Animal Minds and Life in a More-than-Human World W. W. Norton, 2025 (paper) The post Animal Minds and Life appeared first on KPFA.

Did Lincoln free the slaves? Or did they just as much free themselves? And what were the ramifications of their seemingly impossible achievement — immediate and uncompensated emancipation — for other oppressed groups? Historian David Roediger discusses that revolutionary period in U.S. history — and the consequences of its failure today. (Encore presentation.) David R. Roediger, Seizing Freedom: Slave Emancipation and Liberty for All Verso, 2015 The post General Strike of the Slaves appeared first on KPFA.

Supporting members of the military to resist deployment has taken on a new urgency as Trump sends troops into American cities. Journalist Steve Early discusses the history of soldier organizing — including as workers — from Vietnam to the present. And Suzanne Gordon reflects on why the broad public should care about the administration’s attack on the 1,400 hospitals and clinics that serve veterans, the largest socialized medical system in the country. Common Defense Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute Suzanne Gordon, Steve Early, and Jasper Craven, Our Veterans: Winners, Losers, Friends, and Enemies on the New Terrain of Veterans Affairs Duke University Press, 2022 Photo by Ian Hutchinson on Unsplash The post Troops in Cities; Veterans Under Siege appeared first on KPFA.

This autumn Italian workers shut down their country in opposition to the Gaza genocide. In the United States, in contrast, labor activists wanting to take a stand in solidarity with Palestinian workers are frequently chastised for trying to involve their unions in the affairs of other countries. Yet labor historian Jeff Schuhrke illustrates that U.S. unions have long been involved in Palestine — for almost a century supporting Zionism and then the state Israel. National Labor Network for Ceasefire Jeff Schuhrke, No Neutrals There: US Labor, Zionism, and the Struggle for Palestine Haymarket Books, 2025 Photo by Nikolas Gannon on Unsplash The post Zionism and U.S. Unions appeared first on KPFA.

The global rise of the authoritarian right has confounded classification and led to contentious debates on the left. Do politicians like Modi, Bolsonaro, Orban, and Trump represent an extreme form of right-wing populism? Or are they fascists, as some claim? Historian and scholar of populism and fascism Federico Finchelstein argues that we’re seeing something new — a phenomenon that blurs the lines between the two. Federico Finchelstein, The Wannabe Fascists: A Guide to Understanding the Greatest Threat to Democracy UC Press, 2024 The post The Populist-Fascist Hybrid appeared first on KPFA.

What did the trafficking and labor of enslaved Africans do to and for the British empire? What role did slavery in the Caribbean play in capitalism’s expansion in Britain? Steve Cushion weighs in on these and other matters, including key dimensions of British abolitionism and stances taken by British elites and workers toward the U.S. Civil War. Steve Cushion, Slavery in the British Empire and its Legacy in the Modern World Monthly Review Press, 2025     The post Slavery, Capitalism, and the Brits appeared first on KPFA.

Capitalism by its nature produces crises and, for the last century, states have responded by imposing austerity measures on the public. Governments claim it’s a bitter but necessary medicine to set economies back on track. But economist Clara Mattei argues that austerity is actually a bludgeon to entrench elite power and repress workers’ aspirations for a more egalitarian society. She looks at its origins — and that of modern economics — during the greatest existential threat to the Western capitalist order. Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism University of Chicago Press, 2022 Forum for Real Economic Emancipation Photo credit of Athens protest: Kotsolis The post Austerity: Guardian of Capitalism appeared first on KPFA.

If sanctuary and asylum policies and practices don’t do enough to protect immigrants, how is justice achieved? Ananya Roy’s focus is on how poor and vulnerable migrants are viewed and treated, and on what migrant movements are doing in the face of border regimes, migrant crackdowns, and empty humanitarian rhetoric. Ananya Roy and Veronika Zablotsky, eds., Beyond Sanctuary: The Humanism of a World in Motion Duke University Press, 2025 Sanctuary Spaces: Reworlding Humanism UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy The post Beyond Sanctuary appeared first on KPFA.

While the Trump administration has pointedly targeted dissent at universities, sharp conflict between administrators, board members and many students, staff, and faculty have roiled colleges and universities for much longer. Economic sociologist Charlie Eaton reflects on how powerful financiers have transformed higher education well beyond elite institutions, while burdening students with high levels of debt. Charlie Eaton, Bankers in the Ivory Tower: The Troubling Rise of Financiers in US Higher Education University of Chicago Press, 2022 Photo by Tim Alex on Unsplash The post The Financialization of Higher Education appeared first on KPFA.

The right insists — and has tried to legislate — that male and female are hardwired opposites, with no overlap or variation. But as biological anthropologist Agustín Fuentes illustrates, science tells a different story. He shows how sex isn’t either/or and discusses the complicated intersection of biology and culture, which are often termed sex and gender. (Full-length presentation.) Agustín Fuentes, Sex Is a Spectrum: The Biological Limits of the Binary Princeton University Press, 2025 The post The Biological Inadequacy of the Sex Binary appeared first on KPFA.

How is it that some of the most privileged people in the world — the multimillionaire and billionaire owners of tech and finance companies — are some of the most aggrieved? Journalist Jacob Silverman reflects on the titans of Silicon Valley’s rightward turn, as well as the industry’s financing and its past and present deep connections to the military. Jacob Silverman, Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley Bloomsbury, 2025 The post Silicon Valley’s Turn to the Right appeared first on KPFA.

What made the rights activist Bayard Rustin, who among many other things organized the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a compelling political figure? David Stein describes Rustin’s political views, his strategic choices, and his focus on economic struggle. Honoring Rustin’s legacy, Stein asserts, means drawing on his wisdom as well as learning from his errors. Michael G. Long, ed., Bayard Rustin: A Legacy of Protest and Politics NYU Press, 2025 The post Bayard Rustin, Movement Tactician appeared first on KPFA.

The genocide in Gaza has taken place in front of the eyes of the world with little consequence. Gilbert Achcar argues that the destruction of Gaza is a watershed moment in history, signalling the irretrievable collapse of the Western promise of the rule of law. He also discusses how the rise of the far right in Israel foreshadowed the ascendancy of the hard right in the West. Gilbert Achcar, Gaza Catastrophe: The Genocide in World-Historical Perspective UC Press, 2025 Photo credit: Jaber Jehad Badwan The post Israel, Genocide, and the Far Right appeared first on KPFA.

In his latest book, Lawrence Grossberg describes ways of thinking that have laid the foundation for the development of contemporary Western theory. Two of the thinkers he writes about are Friedrich Nietzsche, who “rejected the enlightenments,” and Stuart Hall, a pioneer in the field of cultural studies. (Encore presentation.) Lawrence Grossberg, On the Way to Theory Duke University Press, 2024 (Image on main page by Nick Youngson/Alpha Stock Images.) The post Nietzsche, Hall, and “Theory” appeared first on KPFA.

While we’re told by politicians that the ideas of Karl Marx are foreign and have no place in this country, history proves otherwise. Andrew Hartman shows that Marx and Marxism have had an a significant influence on the United States, from Marx’s journalistic writings for the New York Daily Tribune, on the mass politics of the Socialist and Communist Parties and the Wobblies, on the most radical edge of the New Deal and the New Left, and finally with the return to Marx’s ideas since the Global Financial Crisis. (Encore presentation.) Andrew Hartman, Karl Marx in America University of Chicago Press, 2025 The post American Marx appeared first on KPFA.

Jessica Mitford was a muckracking journalist and memoirist, radical activist and wit. Born to an English aristocratic family, she became a Communist and eloped with Winston Churchill’s nephew to fight in the Spanish Civil war. Two of her sisters were infamous fascists and friends with Hitler. Jessica, known as Decca, moved to the United States, became a civil rights activist in Oakland, and helped transform American journalism from of the depths of the McCarthy era. Peter Sussman, editor of a collection of Mitford’s letters, and the late radical journalist Conn Hallinan discuss Jessica Mitford’s singular life and contributions. The post Fund Drive Special: The Life and Politics of Jessica Mitford appeared first on KPFA.

Brandon Keim discusses his book “Meet the Neighbors: Animal Minds and Life in a More-than-Human World.” The post Fund Drive Special: Animal Minds and Life appeared first on KPFA.