#1275 So, Marxism. What is that all about? (Throwback)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.6 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 9 May 2025
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Original Air Date 5/24/2019
As the neoliberal order collapses from the pressure of its failures to provide for working people, we take a look at the much-maligned, rarely-understood field of economic and social study known as Marxism.
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: The Contributions of Karl Marx Part 1 - Economic Update - Air Date 5-25-18
Professor Wolff takes a deeper look at the life and work of Karl Marx in celebration of the 200th anniversary of his birth.
Ch. 2: Marxism Today - Analysis - Air Date 6-19-16
Robin who was a BBC reporter for 25 years thinks Marx was always in the background discourse of politics, an influence he partly feared and didn't fully understand. He takes a walk through central London in the footsteps of the great revolutionary.
Ch. 3: David Harvey on Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason - Left Out - Air Date 11-5-17
David Harvey is arguably the most influential living geographer, as well as one of the world’s leading Marxist scholars. He is among the most cited intellectuals of all time across the humanities and social sciences.
J. Moufawad-Paul, a Marxist philosopher and author of "Continuity and Rupture", "The Communist Necessity", and "Austerity Apparatus", joins Breht to discuss his most recent essay "This Ruthless Criticism of All That Exists: Marxism as Science".
Ch. 5: Erosion of Consumer Choices - David Harvey's Anti-Capitalist Chronicles - Air Date 4-24-19
Prof. Harvey discusses Marx's theory of Capital and its relevance today. Consumers have less and less autonomy. Their choices, even how they will spend their leisure time, are increasingly influenced by capitalists.
Ch. 6: The Contributions of Karl Marx Part 2 - Economic Update - Air Date 5-25-18
Professor Wolff takes a deeper look at the life and work of Karl Marx in celebration of the 200th anniversary of his birth.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this throwback edition of the award-winning Best of Left podcast, where we remember the past and choose to repeat it. |
| 0:10.2 | The show is on a short hiatus, as we all take a much-needed vacation after having been driven by the forces of capitalism to work way beyond a sustainable pace in the service of watching a new show |
| 0:20.9 | on the Best of Left YouTube channel. |
| 0:23.2 | I mean, animating ourselves |
| 0:24.3 | as extremely well-informed cartoon characters |
| 0:26.9 | may look cute, |
| 0:27.9 | but it turns out to have been |
| 0:29.3 | a very heavy lift. |
| 0:31.2 | And a necessary one at that |
| 0:32.9 | as we seek to grow our audience |
| 0:35.0 | on new platforms, |
| 0:36.4 | all of which relates, believe it or not, |
| 0:38.5 | to the shifting forces of macroeconomics. |
| 0:42.2 | Not one way of interpreting the current news about Trump's tariffs and the upending of international |
| 0:47.1 | trade, not to mention the pro-worker pro-union efforts by the previous Biden administration, |
| 0:53.3 | is that we're watching the end of the neoliberal |
| 0:56.2 | consensus. For context, after the New Deal era policies of FDR helped to raise people out of |
| 1:02.9 | the poverty of the Depression, creating the then-largest middle class in history, the would-be oligarchs |
| 1:10.2 | began to reorganize and muster their forces against |
| 1:13.8 | working people. They ultimately ushered in the neoliberal era of low corporate and wealth taxes, |
| 1:20.4 | union-busting, and stagnant wages. Fast forward just a few decades, and we find that working people |
| 1:26.1 | are so fed up with the system |
... |
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