Confronting Capitalism: Reviving Class Politics Today
Jacobin Radio
Jacobin
4.7 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 8 October 2025
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this tumultuous political era, it’s common to hear that the Left needs to rebuild its historic sources of power. But it’s more accurate to say that the Left is essentially in the process of starting over again.
On this episode of Confronting Capitalism, we share Vivek Chibber’s keynote address at the Jacobin conference, “Socialism in Our Time,” which marked the 15th anniversary of the magazine. He discusses how capitalism has changed since the turn of the century, how the Left has been neoliberalized, and why Zohran Mamdani’s campaign may point in a new direction.
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Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Confronting Capitalism. |
| 0:21.6 | I'm Melissa Nashak, and this week we're doing something a little bit different. |
| 0:25.6 | On the last episode, we briefly spoke about Vivek Chibber's recent keynote address at |
| 0:30.6 | Jackman's 15th anniversary conference. |
| 0:32.6 | So today we're publishing the full audio version of his talk. |
| 0:36.6 | Vivek explains how historical, political, |
| 0:38.9 | and economic forces have shaped the left today, offering a sobering analysis of the task that |
| 0:44.0 | lies ahead of us. As a reminder, if you have any questions or comments, please email us at |
| 0:49.5 | confronting.com. We hope you enjoy the show. |
| 0:55.0 | It's really quite an honor to be able to speak on the 15th anniversary of Jacobin |
| 1:02.0 | because it's always remarkable when a magazine in today's climate |
| 1:07.0 | manages to survive as long as Jacobin has. |
| 1:10.0 | But for a magazine of the left to survive and |
| 1:12.2 | to grow and to flourish the way it has and to actually get better over time the way it has. |
| 1:19.4 | I think it's no exaggeration to say that Jacobin is the most important magazine of the left |
| 1:24.7 | of the English language today, anywhere. |
| 1:27.3 | And it's really quite an honor to see so many people here supporting it. |
| 1:31.0 | And an honor to be useful to Pasker and Rommiqi Forbes, |
| 1:34.9 | this dynamic duo that's been driving the project forward for so long. |
| 1:39.8 | They really are generational talents, these two. |
| 1:42.4 | And I would really like to honor them publicly right now. |
| 1:58.3 | Well, Jacob and got going about 15 years ago, no shit. |
... |
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