This episode of The Dig is brought to you by the listeners who support us on Patreon, and by Verso,

one title that we think dig listeners would enjoy is The Dilemmas of Lenin, Terrorism, War, Empire, Love,

Revolution by Tariq Ali.

On the centenary of the Russian Revolution, Ali paints an illuminating portrait of the leader of the October 1917 uprising,

one of the most misunderstood leaders of the 20th century.

In his own time, there were many, even amongst his enemies,

who acknowledged the full magnitude of his intellectual and political achievements,

but his legacy has been lost in misinterpretation.

He is worshipped, but rarely read. The Dilemas of

Lenin, Terrorism, War, Empire, Love, Revolution by Tariq Ali. Out now from Verso.

Welcome to The Dig, a podcast from Jacobin magazine.

My name is Daniel Denver, and I'm broadcasting from Providence, Rhode Island.

On a political economic level, mass incarceration serves to control impoverished people and populations

that have been excluded from the labor market.

Politically, tough on crime rhetoric has for decades been a tool for politicians to appeal to

white voters' racism. But what's less discussed is the complicated history of criminal justice

politics within black communities and amongst black politicians.

In the 1960s, violent crime and heroin use spiked in black neighborhoods.

Black people responded in complex and not monolithic ways.

There was a heavy debate about how to deal with violent crime and drugs that included calls to fulfill the black freedom struggle's demands for social and economic justice

to address the root causes of crime. But there were also popular demands for a law and order

crackdown in many cities, including in Washington, D.C. That's the subject of the history that my guest

...