Welcome to this throwback edition of the award-winning Best of the Left Podcast

where we remember the past and choose to repeat it. Today's episode was originally

published on February 12th, 2019, and I'm playing it today, in the context of rising international condemnation of Israel's execution of the war in Gaza.

Modeled on the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. of the with the Palestinian campaign for academic and cultural boycott of Israel

20 years ago this month in April 2024.

Unsurprisingly, the war is bringing renewed attention to the movement.

Sources today include The Katie Helper Show, Democracy Now, The Real News,

Counter-Spin, Speak Out with Tim Wise, Deconsstructed, and the majority report. Can you talk a little bit about the book?

So our book is an anthology of essays by artists, activists, and scholars,

and it started with a series of seminars organized at the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School.

And that was with my co-editor, Laura Rykovich, who's the president of the Queens Museum,

and Karen Kwoney, who directs the Fearless Center.

And it's important to say it talks about, you know, examples of boycotts

both historic and contemporary and not only South Africa and Israel, which we've mostly been discussing, to focus on especially

cultural boycotts and boycott campaigns organized by artists.

And there's a long history of artists organizing against racism,

sexism, war, for labor rights, for human rights, you know, boycotting

cultural institutions. But we focus especially on the last few years where I think because of a number of

factors but especially the the really inspiring uprisings from Cairo to New York in

2011 the rise of social media and online organizing, and also the

fact that contemporary art discourse has become to, you know, center conversations about

politics, the number of artist-led boycotts has taken off.

...