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Tag Archives: Kris Welch

Democracy Now!: Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America (2016) by Amy Goodman (with David Goodman and Denis Moynihan)

19 Thu May 2016

Posted by ztnh in Anti-Imperialism, Anti-War, Free Speech, Presidential Election 2016

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Amy Goodman, David Goodman, Democracy Now!, First Congregational Church of Berkeley, Kris Welch, Ku Klux Klan, Pacifica Radio Network, The Talkies, transcript

Amy Goodman 17 APR 2016 Berkeley, CALUMPENPROLETARIAT—Award-winning journalist Amy Goodman has published a new book about the twentieth anniversary of, perhaps, the most popular listener-sponsored (free speech) daily newscast, which she co-founded and spearheaded.  The book is entitled Democracy Now!: Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America; and it is co-written with Goodman’s frequent co-writing collaborators, her sibling David Goodman and her long-time ally and Democracy Now! contributor Denis Moynihan.

As Democracy Now! began at Pacifica Radio station WBAI back in 1996, Amy Goodman returned to her roots, not unlike award-winning journalist Jeremy Scahill, by including, on her 20th Anniversary Book Tour, a stop at the birthplace of free speech radio KPFA (Berkeley, California) and commemorating KPFA’s birthday (15 APR 1949).  Hosted by KPFA’s latest general manager Quincy McCoy, Amy Goodman delivered a characteristically measured and responsible speech at First Congregational Church of Berkeley on Sunday, April 17th, 2016 at 7:30 pm.  Listen to (or download) audio at free speech radio KPFA, for example, here.  [1]

Messina

***

[Transcript by Messina for Lumpenproletariat and free speech radio KPFA]

THE TALKIES—[11 MAY 2016]  “Good morning, welcome to The Talkies.  I am your host Kris Welch.  And, on this day two for The Talkies, folks, of our Spring Fund Drive I am thrilled and delighted to bring you an event, which if you tried to go to you probably couldn’t get in because it was sold out.  I’m talking about the KPFA Birthday Celebration, which also turns out is an anniversary celebration for the programme, of which the host was the main event.  I’m talking about Amy Goodman and Democracy Now!.  We bring you her speech that evening, here in Berkeley, to you in this hour.  [SNIP]  ”

AMY GOODMAN:  [audience applause dissipates]  “Brian told a lot of the story of the beginning of KPFA.  Right?  1949:  Lou Hill comes out of the detention camps.  A war resister, and he says:  There’s gotta be a media outlet, that’s not run by corporations, that profit from war, but run by journalists and artists.

“Now, I think many of you have heard me say this so many times, you can sing along with me.  But it is, really, a beautiful thing.  George Gerbner, the late dean of the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania, saying:  Not run by corporations, that have nothing to tell and everything to sell, that are raising our children today.

“And, so, Pacifica was born April 1949.  KPFK, we just had a big fundraiser for them last Thursday night.  Ten years later, 1959; my station in New York, WBAI, 1960.  In the first years of WBAI, playing that debate between Malcolm X and James Baldwin on the effectiveness of non-violent disobedience, the lunch counter sit-ins of the south.

“KPFT: 1970.

“WPFW, in Washington D.C.:  1977.

“The Pacifica family.

“KPFT, that unusual station in the petro-metro—we’ll be headed there in just a few weeks to do a fundraiser—goes on the air in April of 1970.  And, within weeks, well, just in the middle of Arlo Guthrie singing “Alice’s Restaurant“, the Ku Klux Klan blows it up.  And I thought “Alice’s Restaurant” was, actually, a really good song.

“But they strapped dynamite to the base of the transmitter.  And blew it to smithereens.

“Now, it’s not as if Pacifica had money for advertising.  So, the silver lining was it certainly blew it into the consciousness of the potential listening audience of the people of Houston, though I do not recommend this as an advertising strategy.  (c. 9:15)

“They get back on their feet.  They rebuild the transmitter.

“They go back on the air.  And the Klan blows it up again.  It took a little longer now.  And, when they go back on the air the following year, I think PBS came in to actually broadcast that first broadcast.  Arlo Guthrie came back to Houston to finish his song.  And they went back on the air for good.

“Now, I can’t remember if it was the Exalted Cyclops or Grand Dragon ‘cos I often confuse their titles.  But he said it was his proudest act.  I think that’s because he understood how dangerous Pacifica, how dangerous independent media is, dangerous because it allows people to speak for themselves.

“And when you hear someone speaking from their own experience, whether it’s a Palestinian child or an Isreali grandmother, whether it is an Afghan uncle or an Iraqi, it challenges the stereotypes, that fuel the hate groups.  It makes it much less likely that you’ll want to destroy someone.  It makes it much harder the other that person.  Right?  They are the other.  Like the birther movement did.  Whatever you feel about certain policies during the Obama administration, it is very hard to deny that the Birther Movement, among those who led it—Donald Trump, was anything but a racist backlash against the first African-American president elected in a land with a legacy of slavery. [audience applause]  (c. 11:01)

“But when you hear someone speak from their own experience, you might say:  It sounds like my bobo, my baby, my aunt, my uncle.  Now, I’m not saying you’ll agree with what you hear.  How often do we agree with our family members?  David?  [audience laughter]  But it makes it less likely we’ll want to destroy them.  That understanding of where someone is coming from, that understanding is the beginning of peace.

“I think the media can be the greatest force for peace on Earth.  Instead, all too often, it’s wielded as a weapon of war, which is why we have to take it back.  [audience applause]

“You know; my brother, David, and I wrote three books together.  The first was called The Exception to the Rulers—and that’s what all the media should be: the exception to the rulers—Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them.  The second book is called Static.  And I know we came here and talked about that then.  But the reason we called it that is, even in this high-tech digital age with high-def television, digital radio, still, all we get is static, that veil of distortion and lies and misrepresentations of half-truths, that obscure reality, when what we need the media to give us the dictionary definition of static:  criticism, opposition, unwanted interference.  We need a media that covers power, not covers for power.  We—[audience applause swells]

“We need a media, that is the fourth estate, not for the state.  And we need a media, that covers the movements, that makes static and make history.  That’s the kind of media, that will save us.  (c. 13:15)

“Independent media is the oxygen of a democracy.  I see the media as a huge kitchen table, that stretches across the globe, that we all sit around and debate and discuss the most important issues of the day: war and peace, life and death.  And anything less than that is a disservice to the service men and women of this country.  They can’t have these debates on military bases.  They rely on us, as civilian society, to have the discussions, that lead the decisions about whether they live or die, whether they are sent to kill or be killed.  Anything less than that is a disservice to a democratic society.  Now—[audience applause swells]  (c. 13:57)

“I would like to only be talking about the Klan in the past sense, like what happened to Pacifica Radio 40 years ago.  It is hard to believe in this 2016 election campaign season we are talking about the Klan again.  The idea that the Republican front-runner Donald Trump had a problem with, automatically, immediately, without reservation, disavowing the support of the Klan leader, David Duke.  I can’t remember if he was the Exalted Cyclops or the Grand Dragon. [audience laughter]  And, you know, saying he had to do a little more research into what the particular Klan chapter that was supporting him.

“And what’s so important, why we need Pacifica Radio and independent media is—and, especially, for young people.  I mean you’ve heard of the Klan, the KKK.  Everyone has.  But we’ve got to back and remind people what this terroristic organisation was all about.  (c. 15:04)

“September—[audience applause swells]  And what it means to open this pandora’s box, the underbelly of hate in America.  September 11th, 2001 was horrific.  3000 people incinerated in an instant.  But it wasn’t the first time terror came to U.S. shores.  Ask any African-American about slavery [audience applause], about the Klan.  Ask any Native American about what happened in this country. [applause continues]  (c. 15:36)

[SNIP]  (c. 59:59)

Learn more at THE TALKIES.

[This transcript will be expanded as time constraints, and/or demand or resources, allow.]

***

BROWN PAPER TICKETS—[accessed 21 MAY 2016]  This is a celebration of the acclaimed news program Democracy Now! and the heroes who have moved our democracy forward and the birthday of KPFA.

In 1996 Amy Goodman started a radio show called Democracy Now! to focus on the issues that are under-reported or entirely ignored by mainstream news coverage.  Shortly after September 11, 2001, Amy and her crew were broadcasting on television every weekday.  Today Democracy Now! is the only public media in the U.S. that airs simultaneously on satellite and cable television, radio, and the Internet. In the new book Amy and her brother David share stories of the progressive heroes, the whistleblowers, the organizers, the protestors who have brought about remarkable, seismic (if often invisible) change over the last two decades.

As America’s courts, government and major media have abdicated their responsibilities, it has fallen to ordinary individuals to hold our powerful institutions to account. Democracy Now!  like KPFA, which airs it throughout northern and central California  has brought forward and given a clear voice to the countless charismatic leaders and movements emerging in the streets in Ferguson, Staten Island, Wall Street, Paris, and other places where people are rising up to demand justice.

Amy Goodman is the host and executive producer of Democracy Now!  An award-winning journalist, she has won the Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the alternative Nobel Prize; a lifetime achievement award from Harvards Nieman Foundation for Journalism; the George Polk Award; the Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting; and the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award. With Denis Moynihan, she is the N Y Times bestselling author of The Silenced Majority and Breaking the Sound Barrier. David Goodman, her brother, and Amy co-authored Democracy Now! Twenty Years Covering the Movements that Changed America, and The Exception to the Rulers.

Quincy McCoy, formerly of Salon.Com, is the General Manager of KPFA Radio 94.1FM, and the author of No Static: A Guide to Creative Radio Programing.

Learn more at BROWN PAPER TICKETS.

***

[1]  Terrestrial radio transmission, 94.1 FM (KPFA, Berkeley, CA) with online simulcast and digital archiving:  Talkies, hosted by Kris Welch, Wednesday, 11 MAY 2016, 11:00 PDT, one hour broadcast.

Also hear excerpts of Amy Goodman’s speech during these broadcasts:

  • Terrestrial radio transmission, 94.1 FM (KPFA, Berkeley, CA) with online simulcast and digital archiving:  Special Programming, hosted by Philip Maldari, Monday, 16 MAY 2016, 15:00 PDT, one hour broadcast.
  • Terrestrial radio transmission, 94.1 FM (KPFA, Berkeley, CA) with online simulcast and digital archiving:  Special Programming, hosted by Kris Welch, Philip Maldari, and Mitch Jeserich, Monday, 14 MAY 2016, 9:00 PDT, two-hour broadcast.  [Music of the World (9am to 11am) was pre-empted by fund drive Special Programming:  9am: Talkies [re-run from 11 MAY 2016]—Amy Goodman speech excerpts from 17 APR 2016 KPFA/Democracy Now! Anniversary event at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley.   10am: Mitch Jeserich [re-run, perhaps]—Mitch Jeserich broadcast excerpts of the documentary film: Heist: Who Stole the American Dream, co-directed by former KPFA Local Station Board member Donald Goldmacher.]

***

[21 MAY 2016]

[Last modified 06:43 PDT  23 MAY 2016]

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Prince Rogers Nelson (7 JUN 1958 – 21 APR 2016)

21 Thu Apr 2016

Posted by ztnh in History of Funk, History of Rhythm & Blues, History of Rock and Roll, History of Soul, Music

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After Hours, Almicar Perez Lopez, Chocolate Beats, CIA, Dick Gregory, Dion Decibels, Dr. Rickey Vincent, Greg Bridges, Hard Knock Radio, Ice Cube, Kris Welch, Media TakeOut, Michael Jackson, Money Don't Matter 2 Night, Prince, Reel Black TV, The Beatles, The History of Funk, The Talkies, The Washington Post, Thinkbeat Radio, Time-Warner, TMZ, transcript, Transitions on Traditions, Warren Buffet (b. 1930)

640px-Prince_at_CoachellaLUMPENPROLETARIAT—It has been reported on free speech radio’s The Talkies that musical legend Prince has died today.  Dr. Rickey Vincent, who has taught courses on the history of funk, joined KPFA colleagues, including Greg Bridges (Transitions On Traditions) [2] to acknowledge, remember, and celebrate the life and music of Prince.

Prince has always been one of the most important musicians for many of us.  The first musical recording your author ever purchased was at the San Mateo Hillsdale Shopping Mall back in third grade.  It was a vinyl copy of Prince’s Controversy.  Prince continues to be, for many of us, one of the greatest musical geniuses of our time.

Mysteriously, the discussants on The Talkies mentioned TMZ has reported today Prince’s death.  Yet, no indication has been given as to the cause of death.  It seems particularly tragic, in a sense, as Prince had (at least, anecdotally, seemed to have) become increasingly politically outspoken, particularly with his outspoken stance in solidarity with Black Lives Matter.  Listen here. [1]

Today’s episode of Hard Knock Radio also dedicated its broadcast to Prince.  Listen here. [2]

UPDATE [22 APR 2016]  KPFA has collaborated with Professor of Funk, Dr. Rickey Vincent, host of KPFA’s History of Funk, to give the community a two-hour special Prince Tribute with DJ Rickey Vincent, featuring some of Prince’s well-known and some obscure recordings.  Rickey Vincent is, as always, a brilliant and mindful curator.  Listen (or download, for a limited time) here. [3]

UPDATE [25 APR 2016] Free speech radio’s History of Funk has also dedicated this week’s broadcast to the life and music of Prince.  This, being a late-night broadcast, is able to explore some of Prince’s grown-folk musical dimensions.  Listen here. [4]

Free speech radio’s Transitions On Traditions has dedicated this week’s broadcast to the life and music of Prince.  Host Greg Bridges presents us with a slightly more jazz-funk-fusion side of Prince, fitting nicely with the fusion flavour of Transitions On Traditions‘ musical palette.  Listen here. [5]

UPDATE [1 MAY 2016]  Free speech radio’s After Hours (or Chocolate Beats) focused their broadcast for 1 MAY 2016 on the work of Prince, including many of the artists, which worked with Prince or were influenced by his musical styles.  Listen here. [6]

UPDATE [2 MAY 2016]  Free speech radio’s Thinkbeat Radio has dedicated their broadcast for 30 APR 2016 to the music of Prince, with an hour-long continuous mix with an emphasis on Prince‘s influential pre-Purple Rain fonk grooves, which came to be known as the Minneapolis Sound. Listen here. [7]

UPDATE [5 MAY 2016]  Celebrated comic Dick Gregory suspects foul play in Prince‘s sudden death. [8]

Messina

***

***

HARD KNOCK RADIO—[21 APR 2016]  “What’s happenin’ folks?  Today on Hard Knock Radio, we reflect on the passage of the great musician and icon, Prince.  That comes up after these news headlines.”

[KPFA News Headlines]

AILEEN ALFANDARY:  “I’m Aileen Alfandary with KPFA News Headlines.

“Prince, who was one of the most innovative and influential musicians of modern times has died at the age of 57.  He was found dead in his home and studio in suburban Minneapolis.

“So far, no cause of death has been announced.

“Fans all over the world are mourning his death.”

RICKEY VINCENT:  “It’s a sad day in the history of funk.”

AILEEN ALFANDARY:  “Rickey Vincent is a UC Berkeley African-American Studies lecturer and author of Party Music: The Inside Story of the Black Panthers Band.  He also hosts a Friday night show on KPFA [entitled The History of Funk].

“Vincent joined host Kris Welch shortly after the news broke of Prince’s death.  Vincent commented on Prince’s versatility.”  (c. 2:54)

RICKEY VINCENT:  “So, he would give you some rockabilly, or he would give you some, you know, silly songs.  And he would just get, you know, nasty under the covers.  And he would be determined to be more diverse than you think you can be on a record.”

AILEEN ALFANDARY:  “President Obama released a statement saying he and his wife joined millions of fans from around the world in mourning Prince’s sudden death.  Obama hosted Prince at the White House last year.”

[News Headlines truncated by scribe]  (c. 4:45)

AILEEN ALFANDARY:  “The rapper Equipto and two others began a hunger strike outside the Mission Police Station in San Francisco, saying they’ll only take liquids until San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr resigns or is fired.

“Ike Pinkston is another of the hunger strikers.”

IKE PINKSTON:  “It pains me to know that my children can be any one of these children, that are shot or killed up here by S.F.P.D.

“So, I, myself, am going on this hunger strike, not just for myself, but for my children.  I feel I owe it to my children, to these children, to the future, not just San Francisco, but to our nation.”

AILEEN ALFANDARY:  “Activists have been calling for Chief Suhr’s dismissal since the police shooting death in December of Mario Woods.  They also point to the fatal police shootings of Alex Nieto and Almicar Perez Lopez.

“I’m Aileen Alfandary; more on these and other stories at six on the Pacifica Evening News.”  (c. 5:42)

[music break:  big band jazz sound; then Hard Knock Radio intro audio collage]

(c. 9:15)  “Let’s Go Crazy” by Prince and the Revolution  (c. 13:48)

GREG BRIDGES:  “This is Greg Bridges with Hard Knock Radio.

“And, as the world has heard, we are all kind of reeling from, and trying to make sense of and process, the news, that we heard just a little while ago about the passing of one of music’s true icons, one of music’s true geniuses.  And we’re speaking of Prince.

“And with me today are a couple of cats, whose voices you’ve heard on these airwaves, a couple of cats who you have heard Prince and their musical mixes at one time or another.  I’m speaking of my man, [inaudible] Will and Rickey Vincent.”

[SNIP]

Learn more at HARD KNOCK RADIO.

***

“Money Don’t Matter 2 Night” (1990, 1992) by Prince

One more card and it’s twenty two
Unlucky for him again
He never had respect for money; it’s true
That’s why he never wins
That’s why he never ever has enough
To treat his lady right
He just pushes her away in a huff
And says, ‘Money don’t matter tonight’

Money don’t matter tonight
It sure didn’t matter yesterday
Just when you think you’ve got more than enough
That’s when it all up and flies away
That’s when you find out that you’re better off
Makin’ sure your soul’s alright
‘Cos money didn’t matter yesterday,
And it sure don’t matter tonight

Look, here’s a cool investment
They’re tellin’ him he just can’t lose
So, he goes off and tries to find a partner
But all he finds are users (users)
All he finds are snakes in every colour
Every nationality and size
Seems like the only thing that he can do
Is just roll his eyes, and say that

Money don’t matter tonight (don’t matter)
It sure didn’t matter yesterday
Just when you think you’ve got more than enough
That’s when it all up and flies away
That’s when you find out that you’re better off
Makin’ sure your soul’s alright (soul’s alright)
‘Cos money didn’t matter yesterday (don’t matter)
And it sure don’t matter tonight

(ooh wee-ooh, don’t matter)

Hey now, maybe we can find a good reason
To send a child off to war
So, what if we’re controllin’ all the oil?
Is it worth a child dying for? (Is it worth it?)
If long life is what we all live for
Then long life will come to pass
Anything is better than the picture of a child
In a cloud of gas
And you think you got it bad

Money don’t matter tonight (no, don’t matter)
It sure didn’t matter yesterday (yesterday)
Just when you think you’ve got more than enough
That’s when it all up and flies away (flies away, flies away)
That’s when you find out that you’re better off
Makin’ sure your soul’s alright (make certain that your soul’s alright)
‘Cos money didn’t matter yesterday
It sure don’t matter tonight

Money don’t matter tonight
It sure didn’t matter yesterday (yesterday, yesterday)
Just when you think you’ve got more than enough
That’s when it all up and flies away (flies away, flies away)
That’s when you find out that you’re better off
Makin’ sure your soul’s alright
Money didn’t matter yesterday
And it sure don’t matter tonight

Songwriters:  GAINES, ROSIE / ROGERS NELSON, PRINCE

“Money Don’t Matter 2 Night” lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

***

They say: Curiosity killed the cat

***

This video exemplifies the sundry concerns of foul play and speculation amongst Prince’s stunned audience, who knew the artist as a healthy vegetarian who seemed to avoid intoxicants, despite his long-running injuries to his hips resulting from decades of dancing on high-heeled boots, including performing spectacular pirouettes and front splits, which evidently required painkillers to endure, since Prince seemed to have refuse hip surgery, apparently because his Jehova’s Witness religion opposed blood transfusions, consent for which may have been required for hip surgery.

***

[Prior to Prince’s death, this website published an unconfirmed report suggesting Prince may have been battling a life-threatening illness, re-posting a rumour, which had circulated on other tabloid-like publications.]

MEDIA TAKEOUT—[16 APR 2016]

April 16, 2016: MediaTakeOut.com just received word that a VERY popular African-American celebrity – who has recently been in the news – now has what is being described as AIDS. Obviously since we are not able to 100% confirm the story – we’re going to leave it as a Blind Item. We want to make it clear we are NOT talking about Magic Johnson.

This report REALLY hurt our heart.

According to a person EXTREMELY CLOSE to the situation, the celebrity, who is known for having a very EXTREME sexual past reportedly contracted the illness sometime in the 1990s. He kept the illness quiet but began taking his medication RELIGIOUSLY up until about two years ago. Here’s what we’re told by a VERY trusted entertainment insider:

[The celebrity] believed that he was cured, and he had some crazy [religious] people who told him that God cured him. So he stopped taking his medication and the sickness came back. Now doctors say he’s dying, and there is nothing anyone can do about it.”

We’re told that the celebrity is expected to get sicker and sicker, and eventually pass. It can happen as soon as the summer.

Very sad news.

Learn more at MEDIA TAKEOUT.

***

[1]  Terrestrial radio transmission, 94.1 FM (KPFA, Berkeley, CA) with online simulcast and digital archiving:  The Talkies, this episode hosted by Kris Welch, with KPFA DJ’s Rickey Vincent (The History of Funk), Greg Bridges (Transitions On Traditions) and Last Will (The Talkies), for Thursday, 21 APR 2016, 11:00 PDT.  [N.B.:  Per past experience, this broadcast may or may not be deleted by the KPFA authorities two weeks after the initial broadcast date, as it’s a new broadcast.  Music of the World, which used to air Monday through Friday at 11:00 PDT has been replaced by new programming.  Music of the World will be condensed to a two-hour broadcast Saturday mornings from 09:00 to 11:00 PDT.]  [As of Friday, 6 MAY 2016, this free speech radio broadcast has been deleted from the audio archive web page.]

[2]  Terrestrial radio transmission, 94.1 FM (KPFA, Berkeley, CA) with online simulcast and digital archiving:  Hard Knock Radio, this episode hosted by Greg Bridges with Dr. Rickey Vincent and Will Nichols, Thursday, 21 APR 2016, 16:00 PDT.  [N.B.:  For some unfortunate reason, Hard Knock Radio removes all of its broadcasts from the archives two weeks after the broadcast date.]

[3]  Terrestrial radio transmission, 94.1 FM (KPFA, Berkeley, CA) with online simulcast and digital archiving:  Prince Tribute with DJ Rickey Vincent, hosted by Dr. Rickey Vincent with Will Nichols, Friday, 22 APR 2016, 11:00 PDT.  [N.B.:  For obvious copyright reasons this broadcast will likely be removed from KPFA’s archive webpage within two weeks after the initial broadcast date.]

Brief (perhaps, incomplete) summary:

  • (c. 0:30) “I Wish U Heaven” (1988) (12″ version) (taken from Lovesexy)
  • (c. 6:40) Hosts Rickey Vincent (The History of Funk) and ‘Last Will’
  • (c. 10:25) “I Wanna Be Your Lover” (1979) (taken from Prince)
  • (c. 16:00) “Cream” (1991?) (taken from Diamonds and Pearls)
  • (c. 20:00) “Anotherloverholenyohead” (1986) (taken from Under the Cherry Moon Motion Picture Soundtrack also known as Parade)
  • (c. 24:00) playlist update with hosts Rickey Vincent and Last Will
  • (c. 26:00) “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?” (1980)
  • (c. 29:40) “Kiss” (1986) (taken from Under the Cherry Moon Motion Picture Soundtrack also known as Parade)
  • (c. 36:38) “Temptation” (1985) (taken from Around the World In a Day)
  • (c. 45:00)  hosts give a playlist update and talk about Prince and his music
  • (c. 47:25)  obscure song/unable to identify
  • (c. 51:50)  “Little Red Corvette” (1983)
  • (c. 59:20)  back to hosts Rickey Vincent and ‘Last Will’
  • CART:  Flashpoints promo
  • (c. 1:01:30)  back to the hosts, who commented and ‘relished’, however innocently, in “controversial speculation”, the fact that TMZ reported that certain drugs or painkillers were prescribed to Prince, which were a part of Prince’s ailments resulting from Prince’s history dancing with high heels.
  • (c. 1:11:00)  “Musicology” (2004)  (taken from Musicology)
  • (c. 1:15:00)  back to the hosts
  • (c. 1:19:00)  “new stuff”, possibly “Clouds” (2014) with bass player Ida Nielsen
  • “The Beautiful Ones” (1984) (taken from Purple Rain Motion Picture Soundtrack also known as Purple Rain)
  • (c. 1:29:00) “This Could B Us” (2015) (taken from HitnRun Phase One)
  • (c. 1:32:50) “Betcha by Golly Wow” (1996) (taken from Emancipation)
  • (c. 1:36:00) [TW] Rickey Vincent
  • (c. 1:38:30)  “Space” (1994) (taken from Come)
  • (c. 1:42:50)  “Breakdown” (2014) (taken from Art Official Age)
  • “Sexuality” (1981) (taken from Controversy)
  • “Around the World In A Day” (1985) (taken from Around the World in a Day)
  • ‘…stand up and organise…’ song
  • (c. 1:54:00) back to hosts Rickey Vincent and ‘Last Will’

[4]  Terrestrial radio transmission, 94.1 FM (KPFA, Berkeley, CA) with online simulcast and digital archiving:  The History of Funk, hosted by Rickey Vincent, Friday, 22 APR 2016, 20:00 PDT.

[5]  Terrestrial radio transmission, 94.1 FM (KPFA, Berkeley, CA) with online simulcast and digital archiving:  Transitions On Traditions, hosted by Greg Bridges, Monday, 25 APR 2016, 20:00 PDT.

Playlist:

  • “Shout Out” by Sekou Sundiata
  • “Baltimore” by Prince
  • “And God Created Woman” by Prince
  • “Letitgo” by Prince
  • “If I Was Your Girlfriend” by Prince
  • “When You Were Mine” by Prince
  • “Partyman” by Prince
  • “Computer Blue” by Prince
  • “17 Days” by Prince
  • “Automatic” by Prince
  • “South” by Prince
  • “Crazy You” by Prince
  • “De Bang” by Prince
  • “The Greatest Romance Ever Sold” by Prince
  • “Thieves In the Temple” by Prince
  • “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker” by Prince
  • “She Spoke 2 Me” by Prince
  • “Money Don’t Matter” by Prince
  • “Dinner With Delores” by Prince
  • “Black Muse” by Prince
  • “The Most Beautiful Girl In the World (Mustang Mix)” by Prince
  • “New World Symphony (live)” by Earth, Wind & Fire

[6]  Terrestrial four-hour-long radio transmission, 94.1 FM (KPFA, Berkeley, CA) with online simulcast and digital archiving:  After Hours, hosted by hosts Tonita(sp?), D Minor(sp?), and T(sp?), Sunday, 1 MAY 2016, 01:00 PDT.  (Oddly, KPFA also lists Chocolate Beats Radio, as having been broadcast during the same broadcast time-slot from 1am to 5am.  Chocolate Beats Radio also lists an identical playlist somehow.  Perhaps, Chocolate Beats Radio has been preempted by After Hours.  Perhaps, After Hours is typically a two-hour broadcast.)

Playlist:

  • Discussion of local news and events, including the anti-police terrorism hunger strike by SF Bay Area rapper Equipto, of Bored Stiff and numerous collaborations with Andre Nickatine, Edward Lindo(sp?), Selassie, and two other comrades.  The hunger strikers have been dubbed the Frisco Five.  [Selassie is a long-time SF Bay Area artist and activist, with whom I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with over the years, especially after I covered Michael Moore’s visit to Oscar Grant Square in Oakland, California with Abby Martin and Media Roots.]
  • “After Hours” by Johnny Taylor
  • (c. 18:10) “Struggle No More” by Anthony Hamilton (taken from Daddy’s Little Girl)
  • “Black Lullaby” by Angela Johnson (taken from Naturally Me)
  • “Better For Me” by Algebra Blessett (taken from Recovery)
  • “Takeoff” by Prince
  • “Scandalous” by Prince
  • “NPG Operator” by Prince
  • “Love Sign” by Prince
  • “Condition of the Heart” by Prince
  • “South” by Prince”
  • “My Stick” by The Time (taken from What Time Is It?)
  • “Love Bazaar” by Sheila E (taken from Sheila E)
  • “If A Girl Answers” by Vanity 6 (taken from Vanity 6)
  • “Affection” by Ta Mara and The Seen (taken from Ta Mara & The Seen)
  • “Screams of Passion” by The Family (taken from The Family)
  • “Sex Shooter” by Apollonia 6 (taken from Apollonia 6)
  • “Honeymoon Express” (1987) by Wendy & Lisa
  • “One” by Madhouse (taken from Madhouse 8)
  • “Dopamine Rush” by Eric Leeds (taken from Times Square)
  • “I Wanna Be Your Lover” by Prince
  • “For You” by Prince (taken from For You)
  • “If I Was Your Girlfriend” by Janet (taken from Janet)
  • “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore” by Faith Evans (with Mary J. Blige) (taken from Faith)
  • “Heard It All Before” by Sunshine Anderson (taken from Your Woman)
  • “Spotlight” by Jennifer Hudson (taken from Jennifer Hudson)
  • “Drifter” by Dawnari
  • “Diary” by Alicia Keys (with Tony! Toni! Tone) (taken from The Diary of Alicia Keys
  • “Let’s Stay Together” by Lyfe Jennings (taken from The Pheonix)
  • “If I Was Your Girlfriend” (1987) by Prince (taken from Sign “☮” The Times
  • “Jazz Liberatorz” by Fatlib & T Love
  • “What Time It Is” by Cornel West (with Jill Scott)
  • “Can I” by One Way
  • “Sex, Love & Money” by Yasin Bey aka Yasin Gaye
  • “Love Sign” by Prince
  • “Sex Machine” by Sly Stone
  • “Here We Go Again” by Isley Brothers
  • “The Look In Your Eyes” by Maze
  • “Truth” by Handsome Boy Modeling School
  • “Sensual Everafter” by Prince
  • (c. 1:38:45) back to the hosts, which refer to the broadcast as After Hours
  • (c. 1:39:50)  “Sometimes It Snows In April” (piano instrumental) with poetry read by host
  • (c. 1:47:00) “Diamonds and Pearls (instrumental)” by Prince and The New Power Generation

[7]  Terrestrial four-hour-long radio transmission, 94.1 FM (KPFA, Berkeley, CA) with online simulcast and digital archiving:  Thinkbeat Radio, hosted by Wonway Posibul and Dion Decibels, Saturday, 30 APR 2016, 01:00 PDT.  [N.B.:  Music programmes are usually deleted from the KPFA archives two weeks after the initial broadcast date.]

It was definitely an epic Prince Party at Thinkbeat Radio with this continuous DJ/turntablist mix.  Listen to your body, listen to your lower chakra, and get yo’ groove on, my friends.

Playlist (incomplete, rough notes):

  • brief introduction
  • Prince Party Mix by DJ Dion Decibels
    • (c. 1:00) ‘My Name Is Prince’ by Prince
    • (c. 2:45) ‘New Age’ by Prince
    • (c. 7:00) ‘3121’
    • (c. 10:30)
    • (c. 12:30) “If I Was Your Girlfriend” (1987) by Prince
    • (c. 15:00) “I Wonder U” (1986) by Prince and The Revolution
    • (c. 16:30) “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker” (1987) by Prince
    • (c. 20:00)
    • [continuous mix continues]
    • (c. 41:00) “1999” by Prince
    • (c. 44:00)
    • (c. 46:00)
    • (c. 51:00) “Erotic City” by Prince
    • (c. 54:50) “Do Me, Baby” (1981) by Prince
  • (c. 56:00) Programme hosts describe the preceding continuous mix
  • (c. 1:00:00) An interview with DJ Anthony Valdez (from KCRW)
  • (c. 1:17:00) Begin improvised turntablist mix by DJ Anthony Valdez
    • “New World Symphony” (elements) by Earth, Wind & Fire
    • [continuous mix continues]
    • (c. 1:58:00) end of DJ Anthony Valdez mix
  • Shout out to Equipto and the Frisco 5 hunger strikers camped out in front of San Francisco’s Mission District Police Station currently on Day 9 or 10 of their hunger strike against police terrorism, police killing with impunity, and calling for the firing of San Francisco Police Department Chief Greg Suhr.
  • (c. 2:00:00) Prince audio documentary and music turntablist mix
    • “Head”
    • (c. 2:09:00) “Soft and Wet” by Prince
    • (c. 2:11:30) “1999” by Prince
    • (c. 2:14:00) “Controversy” by Prince
    • [continuous mix still going c. 2:15:00]

[8]  Dick Gregory:  ‘They Killed Prince’

Comedian/Activist DICK GREGORY shared his perspective on the recent deaths of Prince and Afeni Shakur as well as the recent sale of the Beatles publishing rights to Sony in this exclusive clip by ReelBlack TV.  Photographed on 4 May 2016. Camera: Les Rivera.  Interviewer: Mike D.  (More Dick Gregory: Understanding clips coming soon to Reel Black TV.)

[Working Draft transcript by Messina for Lumpenproletariat and the ReelBlack Podcast]

THE REELBLACK PODCAST SERIES presents:  Dick Gregory, Understanding “They Killed Prince”

MIKE D:  “The queen turned 90.”

DICK GREGORY:  “Hm?”

MIKE D:  “The Queen [of England] just turned 90.  There was a big celebration.  And, coincidentally, it was the same day, that Prince passed away.”

DICK GREGORY:  “And it was the same day she was here in Washington, D.C.”

MIKE D:  “—”

DICK GREGORY:  “Front page of The Washington Post [brief pause] got her and her family dressed in [long pause] pink [brief pause]—purple.  And that’s when she announced that Charles won’t get the—it’s gon’ skip over him and point to the lil’ boy, the prince [laughs ironically] the same day they killed Prince.

“They killed Prince on the plane.  And that plane is owned by Warren Buffet. [laughs wryly]

“And, um, so, those are the games they play, man.”

MIKE D:  “Well, let’s talk about Prince ‘cos, um, you knew Prince; right?”

DICK GREGORY:  “M-m. [nodding no]  No, he knew me.”

MIKE D:  “Okay.”

DICK GREGORY:  “He talked about me because of the [gesticulates circles with his index fingers]—I don’t hang out with entertainers.  But there’s no way that, now, that they’ve come out that he died from AIDS.  Okay?”

MIKE D:  “M-hm.”

DICK GREGORY:  “Well, remember, the night that he died, the next day he was on the plane.  That same night, they put him on the plane, he did a one-man concert at eight o’clock, and then another one.

“You saw him.  Did he look like he was dying from AIDS? [asking incredulously]

MIKE D:  “No.”

DICK GREGORY:  “No, man.  The case is closed.  [SNIP]  “

MIKE D:  “Why did they want him dead now?”

DICK GREGORY:  “See, you ask me shit, that I don’t qualify to answer. [agitatedly]

MIKE D:  “Okay. [softly]“

DICK GREGORY:  “Why did they want him dead now?  Huh? [aggressively]“

MIKE D:  “Well, I’m asking you.”

DICK GREGORY:  “Because the white folks that killed him, they not like niggas and ignorant white folk.  I’ll kill you, motherfucka!  They’ll do it ten years later.

“Now, if I had to guess, I think when he went in to that record company and talked to them folks with that ‘SLAVE’ thing on him. [gesticulating to face painting]  That’s what got him killed.

“They ain’t killed no nigga for some money.  That ain’t nothing but chump change he got.  Hm?  Chump change.”

MIKE D:  “So, like a lot of people are saying:  He had gotten a lot of the rights to his recordings.”

DICK GREGORY:  “Had gotten what?

MIKE D:  “The rights to his master recordings.”

“Well, they’ll tell you that, so you can repeat it.  How you know?”

MIKE D:  “He had said it.”

“Huh?”

MIKE D:  “His lawyers had said it.

“How you know it was him?  How you know who his fuckin’ lawyers was?”

“Okay.”

“See, that’s where you—you talkin’ to the master. [stamps hand on his desk]  But I got the listeners.  You know how many agents?!  The number one government agent is the man in Chicago’s brother!  Huh?!  Okay?

“Ain’t nothin’ but CIA.  Huh?

“So, you all comin’ up with this little old weak shit.”

MIKE D:  “Well, I’m just curious.”

DICK GREGORY:  “No!  You can’t be curious out of ignorance.”

MIKE D:  “Okay.”

DICK GREGORY:  “Huh?!”

MIKE D:  [failing to move on and change the subject]  “Alright.  So—”

DICK GREGORY:  “I just told you what I thought!” [shouting; beating his chest; losing patience]

MIKE D:  “Yes, sir.”

DICK GREGORY:  “Okay.  But they’re gon’ tell you the muthafucka didn’t have no insurance, no will.  But that mothafucka gon’ do his hair [gesticulating hair pampering] before he goes out.  Mothafucka swish the back of his clothes to make sure it ain’t no lint on it.  But they can convince you he didn’t have no goddamned will?  If you hate all your family, you do what that woman did, the billionaire woman in New York, Helmsley, left it to her goddamned dog.”

MIKE D:  “M-hm.”

DICK GREGORY:  “But ya’ll can’t even see that ‘cos these crackas told you about the nigga.  Huh?  It’s a game.  It’s a fucking game, man.  (c. 3:56)

“The most important thing is that plane he was on is owned by Warren Buffet.  He’s the one that rents the planes.”

MIKE D:  “So, there were pictures, that TMZ circulated, of Prince riding a bicycle and waiting outside of a Walgreen’s.”

DICK GREGORY:  “I’m surprised you asked me that.  I mean this is for the people.”

MIKE D:  “H-hm.”

DICK GREGORY:  “That was after he came back from Atlanta.”

MIKE D:  “H-hm.”

DICK GREGORY:  “Hm?”

MIKE D:  “H-hm.”

DICK GREGORY:  “They, before, he died, outside the compound.  And you didn’t see no crowds around the mothafucka. Hey, Prince!“

MIKE D:  “Mm.”

DICK GREGORY:  “Hm?  Then, who in the fuck is TMZ?”

MIKE D:  “They’re owned by Time-Warner.”

DICK GREGORY:  “And who the fuck is Time-Warner?”

MIKE D:  “His old record company.”

DICK GREGORY:  “Huh?”

MIKE D:  “His old record company.”

DICK GREGORY:  “Okay.  Well, case closed.”

DICK GREGORY:  “Hm?”

MIKE D:  “M-hm.”

DICK GREGORY:  “It’s a game.

“We even investigated the fuckin’ mayor, the mayor of that little town.  He said he ain’t never even met Prince.  Okay?

“Oh?

“Okay.

“It’s a game, man.  Hm?”

MIKE D:  “So, I mean, last thing on that.  I know Tavis Smiley, after Prince—“

DICK GREGORY:  “Huh?”

MIKE D:  “After Prince passed, Tavis Smiley said that he introduced you to Prince and that you had talked.”  (c. 5:33)

DICK GREGORY:  [nodding his head, no]  “He introduced him to a show I did.  I’ve never met Prince.”

MIKE D:  “Okay.”

DICK GREGORY:  “I don’t hang out with entertainers, nor athletes.”

MIKE D:  “Okay.”

DICK GREGORY:  “Hm?”

MIKE D:  “So, you saw when he did the State of the Union Address and talked about the chem trails.”

DICK GREGORY:  “M-hm.”

MIKE D:  “You, you turned him on to something.”

DICK GREGORY:  “I don’t have to—the truth don’t have to be validated by ignorance.  Huh?  I don’t have to be validated—“

MIKE D:  “M-hm.”

DICK GREGORY:  “—especially by an entertainer.

MIKE D:  “So, since we last talked I know you said that Michael Jackson‘s passing—he was killed; but it had nothing to do with his Sony catalogue.  The estate just sold the rights back to The Beatles, the catalogue back.”

DICK GREGORY:  “That didn’t happen until after he was dead.  He bought The Beatles for $12 million.  After they killed him, they sold it for $2 million.

“That’s white supremacy.  Nigga you can’t own this.

MIKE D:  “Well, this may be unrelated.  I don’t know.  It just happened yesterday, as we tape this.  Yesterday, Tupac‘s mom just passed away.”

DICK GREGORY:  “Yeah.  Well, the important thing about Tupac‘s mom is the movie, that just came out last Friday with, uh, [long pause] the number one acting guy in the world, now.”

MIKE D:  “Oh, Tom Hanks?”

DICK GREGORY:  “Tom Hanks.”

MIKE D:  “The, um, hologram?”

DICK GREGORY:  “The first person to use a fuckin’ hologram was Tupac., after he died.  But d’you ever put that together?  And all at once?  He’s in Saudi Arabia.  Ain’t nobody seen the king in two years.  And the king shows up all of a—and, then, Thursday he’s dead.”

[End of Dick Gregory interview]

[Video cuts to a separate interview with Ice Cube and Deon Cole promoting Barber Shop: The Next Cut]

ICE CUBE:  “America promotes you to be Donal Trump.”

DEON COLE:  “Yeah.”

ICE CUBE:  “America promotes that this is the way you wanna be.  You wanna be rich.  You wanna be powerful.  You don’t wanna give a damn about nobody else.  You wanna do what you wanna do, say you what you wanna say.  Hey, I’m a capitalist.”

***

[PRINCE & THE NEW POWER GENERATION lyrics are property and copyright of their owners.  “Money Don’t Matter 2 Night” lyrics are provided here for educational and personal use only.]

[21 APR 2016]

[Last modified  20:59 PDT  6 MAY 2016]

 

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Capitalism: A Six-Part Series (2015) Directed by Ilan Ziv

19 Fri Feb 2016

Posted by ztnh in Anti-Capitalism, Documentary Film, Dr. Karl Marx (1818-1883), Education, History of Economic Theory, International Trade, Marxian Theory (Marxism), Open Economy Macroeconomics, Political Economy

≈ 3 Comments

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2015, accumulation of capital, accumulation of debt, Anton Wilhelm Amo (1703-1759), Ayn Rand (1905-1982), Bolshevik Revolution, Capitalism: A Six-Part Series, comparative advantage, David Hume (1711-1776), division of labour, documentary, Dr. David Graeber, Dr. David Harvey, Dr. Karl Marx, Dr. Michael Hudson, Dr. Thomas Piketty, Dr. Tristram Hunt, Dr. Vandana Shiva, Dr. Yanis Varoufakis, enclosure, fictitious capital, Flashpoints, free trade, Hernán Cortés (1485 - c. 1547), Ilan Ziv, IMF, immiseration thesis, International Monetary Fund, Karl Marx Was Right, KPFA, Kris Welch, Mary Gabriel M.A., October Revolution, Opium Wars, Pacifica Radio Network, Saturday Morning Talkies, structural adjustment, The Communist Manifesto, the credit system, the money form, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, transcript, triangular trade, UpFront, World Bank

"ProjectCensored" by Project Censored - This image has been downloaded from the website of Project Censored at www.projectcensored.org.. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ProjectCensored.png#/media/File:ProjectCensored.pngLUMPENPROLETARIAT—Free speech radio KPFA is currently holding its on-air 2016 Winter Fund Drive.  In order to encourage support for the first listener-sponsored free speech radio station and network in the nation, perhaps the planet, audio excerpts from cutting edge documentary films are often featured.  One such film is poised to be an invaluable resource for helping the general public understand the capitalist mode of production, which engulfs us all.  It presents a wide breadth of information and analyses about economics. [1]

Capitalism: A Six-Part Series (2015) was directed by Ilan Ziv and released through Icarus Films. [2]  Capitalism is celebrated as much as it is misunderstood by its proponents.  This enlightening documentary series is required viewing for all students, citizens, migrant workers, and economic refugees, as it encourages a clearer understanding of capitalism and the social relation at its core known as capital, and, therefore, more informed public decision-making toward the healthiest economic outcomes for society.

Messina

Capitalism: A Six-Part Series (2015) directed by Ilan Ziv

***

ICARUS FILMS—Capitalism has been the engine of unprecedented economic growth and social transformation. With the fall of the communist states and the triumph of “neo- liberalism,” capitalism is by far the world’s dominant ideology. But how much do we understand about how it originated, and what makes it work?

CAPITALISM is an ambitious and accessible six-part documentary series that looks at both the history of ideas and the social forces that have shaped the capitalist world.

Blending interviews with some of the world’s great historians, economists, anthropologists, and social critics (view the complete list of participants), with on-the-ground footage shot in twenty-two countries, CAPITALISM questions the myth of the unfettered free market, explores the nature of debt and commodities, and retraces some of the great economic debates of the last 200 years.

Each fifty-two minute episode is designed to stand alone, making these ideal for classroom use or as an additional resource for students:

Episode 1: Adam Smith, The Birth of the Free Market
Capitalism is much more complex than the vision Adam Smith laid out in The Wealth of Nations. Indeed, it predates Smith by centuries and took root in the practices of colonialism and the slave trade.

Episode 2: The Wealth of Nations: A New Gospel?
Adam Smith was both economist and moral philosopher. But his work on morality is largely forgotten, leading to tragic distortions that have shaped our global economic system.

Episode 3: Ricardo and Malthus: Did You Say Freedom?
The roots of today’s global trade agreements lie in the work of stockbroker David Ricardo and demographer Thomas Malthus. Together, they would restructure society in the image of the market.

Episode 4: What If Marx Was Right?
Have we gotten Marx wrong by focusing on the Communist Manifesto instead of on his critique of how capitalism works – a critique that is relevant and as penetrating as ever?

Episode 5: Keynes vs Hayek: A Fake Debate?
The ideological divide between the philosophies of John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek has dominated economics for nearly a century. Is it time for the pendulum to swing back to Keynes? Or do we need a whole new approach that goes beyond this dualism?

Episode 6: Karl Polanyi, The Human Factor
An exploration of the life and work of Karl Polanyi, who sought to reintegrate society and economy. Could the commodification of labour and money ultimately be as disastrous as floods, drought and earthquakes?

CAPITALISM is an impressive series that makes economics accessible through an interdisciplinary approach that explores the work of great thinkers, while embedding economics in specific social, political, and historical contexts. The series can be watched as a whole, but each episode also stands alone.

The series features some of the world’s top economists, historians, anthropologists, and sociologists, including Thomas Piketty, Noam Chomsky, Yanis Varoufakis, Nicholas Phillipson, Kari Polanyi Levitt, David Graeber, and Abraham Rotstein. View the complete list of storytellers.

“A captivating epic… a major contribution to economic and social reflection.” —Le Monde (France)

“Brings clarity to confusion, makes complexities accessible, and produces a clear narrative of a system that seems opaque to most people.” —Journal du Dimanche (France)

“Masterly… is going to revolutionize our vision of the economic world.” —La Vie (France)

“In first look CAPITALISM seems like the economics class you should have skipped…. but in a second look CAPITALISM is the seminar that you must take in the second semester … the point of view is very different and surprising, the result is an impressive, visually rich series.” —Israel HaYom (Israel)

“Should not be missed! Combines highly educational explanations of concepts, economic history and contemporary life, to create a series of documentaries, each of which it is difficult to stop watching!” —Alternatives Economiques (France)

“10 Stars! A truly captivating series that delves into history, philosophy, investigates four corners of the planet, and stimulates the viewer with a re-examination of the basic concepts that define our lives.” —Globes (Israel)

The series was chosen as one of the ten best programs in France in 2014.

Learn more at ICARUS FILMS.

***

Notes on CAPITALISM: A Six-Part Series

[Notes on Episode 1: Adam Smith, The Birth of the Free Market by Messina]

[On Adam Smith]

[David Hume]

[Amazon…rubber found by foreign resource extractors…indigenous Maijuna people, then, are enslaved and proletarianised…]

[Dr. David Graeber]

[On the barter myth]

[Romero Rios (c. 18:49)]

[Amazon…rubber found by foreign resource extractors…indigenous Maijuna people, then, are enslaved and proletarianised…]

[(c. 19:07)  Robert Boyer, economist, on the “actors who invented capitalism”]

[transforming indigenous communities, which were previously self-sufficient, into homo economicus, i.e., the process of proletarianisation]

[(c. 19:55) On the “discovery of the Americas”, which was important for the development of science and capitalism as well as the interrelations between them.]

[Yuval Noah Harari, historian]

[SNIP]

 

***

Notes on CAPITALISM: A Six-Part Series

EPISODE 4:  What if Marx was right?  [episode summary by Icarus Films]

“Paradoxically, we can’t really learn that much about socialism or communism or the future from Marx. We can learn a great deal about how capital works.” —Marx historian David Harvey

When the communist systems of the 20th century crumbled, many thought that was the end for Karl Marx as a serious thinker too. But the last few years have seen a reawakening of interest in Marx’s work – in particular for his analysis of the nature of capital and the forces it unleashes.

film still

Concentrating on commodification, alienation, and the fetishization of money and credit, WHAT IF MARX WAS RIGHT argues that Marx is more relevant now than he has been in nearly a century. Have we gotten Marx wrong by focusing on the Communist Manifesto instead of on his still-cogent critique of how capitalism works?

Featuring former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, small farm activist Vandana Shiva, economist Thomas Piketty and Marx experts Mary Gabriel and David Harvey, among others.

Episode 4: What if Marx Was Right?

*

[Working draft transcript of actual free speech radio broadcasts by Messina for Lumpenproletariat, Icarus Films, and KPFA/Pacifica Radio]

Episode 4:  What if Marx Was Right?

NARRATOR:  [3] “We were told that capitalism is the product of big thinkers and big ideas.  But is it true?  How did ideas shape our lives?  What is their relation to reality?  Can they help us understand today’s economic crisis, let alone the future of capitalism?

“[Audio of disciplined Chinese schoolchildren training and chanting in unison]  Dawn in Nanjing, China’s last surviving communist commune.  On the surface, a time warp, complete with revolutionary posters and radio news piped into the main square.  But the community claims it rediscovered Marxist values, as a defence to China’s roaring capitalism.

“In London’s financial center, Marx is unexpectedly being rediscovered here as well.”

DR. TRISTRAM HUNT: “And all of Marx’s and Engels’ warnings over the dangers of monopoly capitalism and concentrated finance have come to pass.” [4]

NARRATOR:  “And we thought he was gone forever.”

MARY GABRIEL, M.A.:  “With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of communism, that system of government was consigned to the dustbin of history.  And Marx was thrown out along with it.”

NARRATOR:  “So, is it possible that we’ve misread Marx?  Is it possible that his insight into 19th century capitalism has more relevance now than in past decades?  Karl Marx, housed in Trier, Germany, besieged by Chinese tourists.”

MARY GABRIEL, M.A.:  “Karl Marx was born in 1818 in the Rhineland, which is the westernmost province of Prussia.  It was an interesting part of the greater Germany because it had been occupied by Napolean.  And, so, it had been initiated in the ideas of the French Enlightenment.  And that was a milieu in which he was raised.”

NARRATOR:  “I can feel no regret, wrote a young woman to her loved one.  I shut my eyes very tightly, once again I lay close to your heart, drunk with love and joy.  A romantic love letter, like so many others.  The innocence of the early 19th century in a provincial German town.  The only difference is that the man the letter is addressed to was Karl Marx.”

MARY GABRIEL, M.A.:  “In Trier, he met Jenny von Westphalen.  She was quite a catch for Marx because he was the son of a Jewish lawyer and was, by such, a social outcast.  She was the daughter of a Prussian baron.”

DR. DAVID HARVEY:  “So, he got educated in Trier.  And, then, he went to Berlin.  I guess the expectation was that he’d go to college and be a good boy and learn law or something like that.  He was, politically, very much engaged because there was always this kind of question of:  After the French Revolution, would there be a sort of liberal democracy?  What’s going to happen to the autocratic regimes in Germany?  And so on.  So, he was kind of mixed up in all of that.”

NARRATOR:  “More than a century later, the romantic student from Trier had been transformed into the menace of western governments and capitalist countries.

[Santa Claus/Marx cartoon omitted by scribe]

“Marx had become a bogeyman, the conspirator behind every social demand.

[Santa Claus/Marx cartoon omitted by scribe]

“The reason for this radical transformation from a promising young student into a dangerous revolutionary can be found in the basement of the Trier museum, kept in a safe.  [snip]

“In that year, Europe erupted in popular revolts.  It was the moment that Marx had been waiting for after years of agitating for radical political reforms.

“A spectre is haunting Europe, opens The Communist Manifesto, the spectre of communism.  All the powers of Europe have entered into holy alliance to exorcise this spectre.”

MARY GABRIEL, M.A.:  “Unfortunately for Marx, he was always late in all of his writing.  And he didn’t publish The Communist Manifesto until after the 1848 revolts had begun.  So, he couldn’t take credit for those.  And, in fact, The Communist Manifesto was sort of lost in the revolution.  And it was only rediscovered later.”

NARRATOR:  “The story behind The Communist Manifesto did not begin at the 1848 Revolution, but in Paris five years earlier when Marx met Friedrich Engels, the revolutionary son of a wealthy industrialist.”

MARY GABRIEL, M.A.:  “They met at a Paris cafe, that was known worldwide as being a place where chess masters matched wits.  Marx and Engels spent ten days and ten nights talking.  And, at the end of that time, they came out feeling that they were completely in agreement on all things.  And a beautiful relationship was born.”

DR. DAVID HARVEY:  “Marx meeting Engels was, I think, a crucial moment.  He met somebody who was actually engaged in, or working in, the factories of Manchester and, therefore, could talk to Marx about the labour process.”

NARRATOR:  “They are worse slaves than the negros in America, wrote Engels, for they are more sharply watched.  And, yet, it is demanded of them that they shall live like human beings, shall think and feel like men.  This they can do only under glowing hatred towards their oppressors, which degrades them as machines.”

MARY GABRIEL, M.A.:  “Marx went to Manchester with Engels, for a little trip, in 1845.  He saw the people who were living in the most degraded conditions, who were building this industrial future by working in the factories.

“He saw the families that had been torn apart by the factory work, the mothers who had to give their infants opium in the morning, so they could go off to work and assume that the children were going to be drugged all day and they wouldn’t have to be cared for.  For a man like Marx, a social and political theorist, and an economic theorist, to go there would be to walk right into the laboratory of humanity, of industrial humanity.”

NARRATOR:  “While, in 1848, The Communist Manifesto was ignored, in 1917, it was the blueprint for the Bolshevik Revolution and its global ambition.”

VINTAGE USA PROPAGANDA FILM:  “You ever hear of Karl Marx?  In his mind, communism was born more than a hundred years ago.”

NARRATOR:  “Marx has now been transformed into a global threat.”

VINTAGE USA PROPAGANDA FILM:  “This is the Kremlin, a citadel of Russian communism.  Looking closer we see a public display of giant portraits of communist leaders.  Here was a new face.  But in the background was an old one—Karl Marx.”

MARY GABRIEL, M.A.:  “The Marx, that people in the 20th century, and in the 21st century, ran away from was Marx of The Communist Manifesto.  That’s the person, that, I think, capitalist governments and democracies and western governments, held up as the person who was responsible for communism and its atrocities in the 20th century.”

NARRATOR:  “So, maybe, we got it all wrong.  We focused so much on the revolutionary message of The Communist Manifesto and ignored the bulk of the document, which analysed the real revolution, that Marx wrote about—capitalism.

DR. TRISTRAM HUNT:  “Ladies and gentlemen, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were the first to chart the uncompromising, unrelenting, compulsively iconoclastic nature of capitalism.  It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties, that bound man to his natural superiors and has left no other remaining nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous cash payments.

“And it was Marx who revealed how capitalism would crush languages, cultures, traditions, even nations in its wake.  In one word, it creates a world after its own image, he wrote. [snip?]

“I would like to suggest to you that Marx has rarely seemed more relevant.  ‘Marx’s Stock Resurges on A 150-Year Tip’ was how The New York Times, The New York Times, marked the 150th Anniversary of the publication of The Communist Manifesto, a text, which more than any other, as they put it, ‘recognized the unstoppable wealth-creating power of capitalism, predicted it would conquer the world, and warned that this inevitable globalization of national economies and cultures would have divisive and painful consequences’. ”

NARRATOR:  “After the publication of The Communist Manifesto, Marx was expelled from continental Europe.  He was once again a refugee, this time arriving in London in 1849.”

MARY GABRIEL, M.A.:  “Imagine Dean Street in 1850, the year Karl Marx and his family moved into this Soho neighborhood.  The streets were teeming with refugees, people who had fled failed revolts on the Continent.  They arrived in this country, some with only the clothes on their backs, many not even speaking the language.

“Marx and his family were among the lucky.  But all they had—three adults and three children—were two rooms and an attic.  And, in those cramped quarters, Marx tried to make sense of what he had just experienced and what he saw in the streets around him.”

NARRATOR:  “And, next door, a brand new exhibition opened right at the time Marx began writing Das Kapital, an exhibition celebrating the achievements of the industrial revolution.”

MARY GABRIEL, M.A.:  “It was a triumph of industry.  Man’s greatest achievements were on display.  And, so, this was the dawn of a new era.  King Capitalism was on the throne.  And, yet, Marx, up in his garret, was busily scribbling why this system would never work.  Yes, it produced wonders.  But it would also produce great destruction.”

DR. DAVID HARVEY:  “I teach Marx.  And a question I always ask is:  What can we learn from Marx?  And what do we have to do for ourselves?  And I think that that’s a very important question to ask because very frequently, in the past, people have read their Marx and then sort of, I don’t know, plunked reality into it and, then, said:  Ah! Here’s the answer!  I don’t think you can do that.  I think there’s only a limited set of things we can learn from Marx.

“Paradoxically, we can’t really learn that much about socialism or communism or the future from Marx.  We can learn a great deal about how capital works.”

NARRATOR:  “The wealth of societies, in which capital modes of production prevail, presents itself as an immense accumulation of commodities.  Our investigation must, therefore, begin with the analysis of a commodity.  —Karl Marx, Das Kapital, Volume 1.

[Audio of 1950s-ish idyllic home life omitted by scribe]

“A commodity is, in the first place, an object outside of us, a thing, that by its properties, satisfies human wants.  —Das Kapital.

[Audio of 1950s-ish idyllic home life omitted by scribe]

DR. DAVID HARVEY:  “Now, what Marx does in Volume 1 of Capital is have a little section called The Fetishization of Commodities.  And what it, basically, means is that our daily experience doesn’t actually give us all of the information we need to understand how the system is working.

“Our daily experience is we take some money and we buy a commodity.  We take it home.  That’s our daily experience.  But that doesn’t tell you anything about the labour, that went into the commodity.  It doesn’t tell you anything about why it is that this commodity costs twice as much as that commodity.  And Marx is kind of saying:  The market system disguises all of those social relations.”

NARRATOR:  “There are many different commodities with different use-values.  But they have only one common property left, that of labour itself.  —Das Kapital.

DR. DAVID HARVEY:  “The Industrial Revolution, which we conventionally date from around 1780 was founded upon the creation of a factory system with large-scale machinery and, of course, a labour process, that was very different from that which artisans, in making there cabinets and so on, engaged in.

“This conversion and this rise of capitalism, from 1780 onwards, was for Marx a crucial transformation.”

NARRATOR:  “The worker is related to the product of labour, as to an alien object.  The more the worker spends himself, the more powerful becomes the alien world of objects, which he creates, the poorer he himself, his inner world, becomes.  —Karl Marx

“This iPad worker, who has asked for his identity to be hidden, has been given a camera to film his life outside the factory.  Once these workers were peasants, with a connection to the land and its products.  Now, they are part of an assembly line.  Alienation, argued Marx, is built into the manufacturing process of commodities.”

DR. DAVID HARVEY:  “To Marx, it’s the idea of living labour, which is so crucial, which distinguishes him very much from the classical political economists, who saw labour, as a fact of production.  They call it a factor of production.  It’s a thing.”

[This transcript will be expanded as time constraints, and/or demand or resources, allow.]

***

UPDATE [28 FEB 2016]—Gonzo:  Thanks to KPFA’s Kris Welch for mentioning Lumpenproletariat.org and reading from our website during the last nine minutes of her Saturday Morning Talkies broadcast for Saturday, 27 FEB 2016 (c. 1:51:55).  It was through KPFA that I found out about the University of Missouri-Kansas City and other radical, heterodox economics departments; so, to KPFA I am indebted.  And it is with KPFA/Pacifica Radio, first and foremost, that I endeavour to share what I have learned about heterodox economics, political economy, and life under the capitalist mode of production. [5]

Gonzonian regressions aside, here is a list of radio broadcasts featuring excerpts of Ilan Ziv‘s Capitalism: A Six-Part Series for those interested in listening and, thereby, learning more about the capitalist mode of production, but are unable to afford purchasing or getting a copy of the Six-Part Series as a thank-you gift for donating to KPFA. [6]

  • Fund Drive Special: Capitalism, 4 MAR 2016, 15:00 PDT.  This hour-long radio broadcast features two excerpts (c. 5:00; c. 21:00) from Episode 1: Adam Smith, The Birth of the Free Market.  (N.B.: KPFA usually removes audio archives of Fund Drive special programming, such as this one, two weeks after initial radio transmission.)
  • Special Programming: Capitalism Special, 4 MAR 2016, 11:00 PDT.  This hour-long radio broadcast included four excerpts (c. 4:00; c. 22:00; c. 37:00; c. 47:00) from Episode 2: The Wealth of Nations: A New Gospel?  The four excerpts broadcast during this hour were based on the same selected, edited, excerpts, as broadcast on UpFront (for 3 MAR 2016, 07:00 PDT, see notes below).  (N.B.: KPFA usually removes audio archives of Fund Drive special programming, such as this one, two weeks after initial radio transmission.)
  • Hard Knock Radio, 3 MAR 2016, 16:00 PDT.  This hour-long radio broadcast was a re-run of the Hard Knock Radio broadcast for 22 FEB 2016.  (See notes below.  Excerpt start times have shifted because the News Headlines are new.)  The first two excerpts (c. 10:12; c. 24:48) from Episode 3: Ricardo and Malthus: Did You Say Freedom? addressed the work of David Ricardo (1772 – 1823) and Thomas Robert Malthus (1766 – 1834) and the consequent implications for modern institutions, such as the IMF and World Bank, and featured analyses from Dr. Michael Hudson, et al.  This radio broadcast also included an excerpt (c. 49:54) from Episode 4: What If Marx Was Right?  (N.B.: Hard Knock Radio usually removes audio archives two weeks after initial radio transmission.)
  • UpFront, 3 MAR 2016, 07:00 PDT.  This hour-long radio broadcast included four excerpts (c. 10:16; c. 26:16; c. 37:23; c. 48:05 ) from Episode 2: The Wealth of Nations: A New Gospel?, on the obfuscated aspects of Adam Smith‘s work (1723 – 1790), particularly his foundational text, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), which informs his more famous Wealth of Nations (1776).  For example, in the first excerpt (c. 10:16) Dr. Noam Chomsky reminded us that, rather than uncritically accepting the division of labour, Adam Smith “points out that division of labour is monstrous” because it “turns people into creatures as stupid and ignorant as a person can possibly be because a person just becomes a machine.  That’s a terrible attack on fundamental human rights.  And, therefore, [Adam Smith] says, in any civilised society, the government’s gonna have to intervene to prevent division of labour.”  Similarly, another distortion made by most economics textbooks, ascribes an Ayn Randian Virtue of Selfishness to Adam Smith’s moral philosophy, which is antithetical to Smith’s actual moral philosophy.  “Self-interest, his second most quoted principle, suffered a similar fate [as did Smith’s analysis of the division of labour].”  Adam Smith’s conception of self-interest was corrupted by historical revisionists to serve the aims of capital at the expense of the working classes and the general welfare.  In the second excerpt (c. 21:18), the complex aspects of Adam Smith’s notion of self-interest are parsed and expanded beyond the narrow Ayn Randian Virtue of Selfishness predicated upon illusory perceptions.  These false perceptions fail to see the interconnected and interdependent nature of human social relations.  Indeed, Ayn Rand is cited in the documentary film, as promoting a 21st century “philosophy of self-interest”, which helped fuel the Reagan and Thatcher political revolutions.  This right-wing backlash overturned the previously established social contracts in the USA and the UK, largely based on Keynesian state interventions and regulations, which recognised the reality of human interdependence.  Another distortion of Smith’s philosophy made by his misguided proponents regards the so-called invisible hand of the free market.  Indeed, your author, having read The Wealth of Nations several times, can assure readers that Smith uses the actual phrase “invisible hand” maybe two or three times in the entire tome.  When Smith’s proponents cite Smith’s concept of the invisible hand, it’s invariably taken out of context.  As Noam Chomsky points out:  “Adam Smith was concerned that, if there was free movement of capital and free import of goods, he said England will suffer because British capitalists will invest abroad, and they’ll import from abroad, and that’ll harm the English economy.  Adam Smith, then, gave an argument—and not a very good argument—but his argument was that English investors will prefer to invest in England because of what some called a home bias.  They’ll have a preference for investing close by.  And, therefore, as if by an invisible hand, England will be saved from the menace of free capital movement and the free imports.  That’s invisible hand.  What’s that gotta do with the Cato Institute or modern enthusiasm about free capital flow and having U.S. corporations invest in China, so they can send stuff back here to sell cheap, exploiting Chinese workers?  That’s not Adam Smith.”  In the third excerpt (c. 37:23), the distortions and obfuscations of Adam Smith’s work are shown to have contributed to the Global Financial Crisis (c. 2008).  During a 2009 Congressional hearing on the Global Financial Crisis, Ayn Rand disciple, Alan Greenspan (then-Chair of the Federal Reserve System, the USA’s central bank), had to answer for the failure of his neoclassical invisible hand assumptions, by which he promoted financial deregulation:  “I found a flaw in the model, that defines how the world works, so to speak.” (Cf. The Flaw (2011))  In the fourth excerpt (c. 48:05), the intellectual foundations of slavery are explored, which are also the intellectual foundations for neoclassical economics and the central assumptions justifying capitalist modes of production.  “One of the first to identify the intellectual foundations, on which slavery was built—the ability to separate economic logic from social and human reality [a central requirement for neoclassical economics, but not heterodox economics]—was a contemporary of Adam Smith, a former slave, and a philosopher, too.”  His name was Anton Wilhelm Amo (1703-1759).  Unfortunately, his ideas were, literally, burned and obfuscated, whilst a revisionist take on Adam Smith’s ideas were touted as gospel.
  • Special Programming: Capitalism, 2 MAR 2016, 11:00 PDT.  Notes pending.  Hour-long broadcast.  (N.B.: KPFA usually removes audio archives of Fund Drive special programming, such as this one, two weeks after initial radio transmission.)
  • Letters and Politics, “Capitalism: The Six-Part Series“, 2 MAR 2016, 10:00 PDT.  Notes pending.  Hour-long broadcast.
  • Flashpoints, 1 MAR 2016, 17:00 PDT.  This hour-long radio broadcast included excerpts from Episode 1: Adam Smith, The Birth of the Free Market.  Notes pending.
  • Uprising, 1 MAR 2016, 08:00 PDT.  Notes pending.  Hour-long broadcast.
  • Against the Grain, 29 FEB 2016, 12:00 PDT.  Notes pending.  Hour-long broadcast.
  • Saturday Morning Talkies, 27 FEB 2016, 09:00 PDT.  Notes pending.  Hour-long broadcast.
  • Special Programming: Capitalism, 26 FEB 2016, 11:00 PDT.  Notes pending.  Hour-long broadcast.  (N.B.: KPFA usually removes audio archives of Fund Drive special programming, such as this one, two weeks after initial radio transmission.)
  • UpFront, 25 FEB 2016, 07:00 PDT.  This hour-long radio broadcast included four excerpts (c. 8:12; c. 24:55; c. 36:25; c. 46:05) from Episode 6: Karl Polanyi, The Human Factor.  The first excerpt (c. 8:12) features Dr. Michael Hudson on Karl Polanyi (The Great Transformation) and history of economic thought.  The second excerpt features Dr. Yanis Varoufakis and Dr. Michael Hudson (UMKC) on ancient economic history and ancient economic planning, such as land redistribution and debt annulment, the clean slate.  Dr. Hudson.  The third excerpt features Dr. Yanis Varoufakis and Dr. Michael Hudson (UMKC) on ancient economic history, clean slate, land redistribution, and debt annulment.  Dr. Hudson emphasised that most ancient transactions were governed by the state or the church, which gave the issuers of the currency monetary sovereignty.  This is a central concept in MMT (or modern money theory or modern monetary theory), which is taught at the heterodox economics department at the University of Missouri-Kansas City:  The issuer of a given currency has monetary sovereignty.  This meant that debts of the poor could be forgiven periodically to correct societal imbalances, which may develop over time.  The trouble came when most debts in society were owed to private banks.  Private debt wasn’t as easily forgiven, as debt controlled by a church or a crown.  The narrator raises several fascinating questions.  When did debt become a purely economic issue?  Dr. Yanis Varoufakis reminded us that economic desperation could lead societies down a path like that of Nazi Germany, or other fascist outcomes.  The fourth excerpt features Dr. David Graeber on the traditional supremacy of debt.
  • Letters and Politics, 24 FEB 2016, 10:00 PDT.  This hour-long radio broadcast included two extended excerpts (c. 7:19; c. 21:22) from Episode 1: Adam Smith, The Birth of the Free Market, featuring David Graeber, et al., on the myth of the barter economy, reciprocity, and more.  In this first extended clip (c. 7:19), Dr. David Graeber challenged the standard narrative about the origins of capitalism by placing them centuries before the industrial revolution, in the context of colonialism and slavery.  Dr. Graeber argues that Hernán Cortés, the Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition, which led to the demise of the Aztec Empire, drove his troops into debt via his company store.  Rather than offer debt forgiveness, Cortés gave indebted troops a “ten year moratorium” and sent them out to colonise and pillage the Americas in order to repay their debts.  So, their outrage, argued Dr. Graeber, combined with virtually “unlimited power turned them into monsters.”  In this process of Spaniard looting of natural resources, the extraction of silver from the Americas flooded into Spain, driving demand for English wool, “which made raising sheep more profitable.”  English peasants were, then, “displaced to make room for more sheep.  The process was called enclosure.” (c. 15:55)  In this narrative of early capitalist modes of production, we clearly see how wealth accumulation in one part of the world led to the displacement, poverty, and immiseration of working classes in another part of the world.  This riveting narrative emphasises the interconnectedness of global capital and the serious consequences resulting from the decisions of capitalists driven purely by profit motive commanding capital flows.  In the second extended excerpt (c. 21:22), the origins of capitalism were placed in the context of the slave trade and its importance in creating early global markets, which are “disembodied from society”.  Early private enterprises engaged in “triangular trade” “contributed to the emergence of a market economy”.  Triangular trade was “increasingly dependent on black slavery”, but Adam Smith’s canonical narrative chose to “turn a blind eye to slavery”.  Slave plantations were profit-driven enterprises and functioned in every way, as capitalist enterprises with the sole exception of utilising slave labour instead of wage labour.  Thus, “a strong case can be made that capitalism actually started in the 16th century with the colonisation of the Caribbean and Latin America.” (c. 30:00)  This radio broadcast also included two excerpts (c. 34:30; c. 45:21) from Episode 4: What If Marx Was Right?  The first excerpt (c. 34:30) contextualised the life and times of Dr. Karl Marx and his pivotal friendship with Friedrich Engels.  The second excerpt (c. 45:21) fleshed out the concepts introduced earlier in the historical accounts of colonialism and slavery.  Dr. David Harvey explained that the accumulation of capital is always accompanied by the accumulation of debt.  The money form exists in tandem with the credit system, which leads to the fetish of commodities and a dialectical relationship between commodities and human behaviour.  Long-held values, morals, and ethics are obliterated by the fetish of commodities.  Actor Angelina Jolie and her publicised case of breast cancer is cited as an example.  Today, genes are patented, whereas in the past such notions would’ve seemed absurd to the prevailing norms of yore.  Such are the revolutionary forces unleashed by capitalist modes of production, as Dr. Karl Marx brilliantly observed long ago.
  • Uprising, 23 FEB 2016, 08:00 PDT.  This hour-long radio broadcast included two excerpts (c. 10:04; c. 29:05) from Episode 3: Ricardo and Malthus: Did You Say Freedom?, featuring Dr. Michael Hudson (UMKC), Dr. David Graeber, et al., and addressing the IMF and the World Bank.  This radio broadcast also included an excerpt (c. 44:48) from Episode 4: What If Marx Was Right?, featuring Dr. David Harvey (CUNY), et al., on the fetishism of commodities.
  • Hard Knock Radio, “Capitalism 101“, 22 FEB 2016, 16:00 PDT.  This hour-long radio broadcast included two excerpts (c. 9:25; c. 24:00) from Episode 3: Ricardo and Malthus: Did You Say Freedom?, which addressed implications for modern institutions, such as the IMF and World Bank and featured clips from Dr. Michael Hudson (UMKC), et al.  This radio broadcast also included an excerpt (c. 49:21) from Episode 4: What If Marx Was Right?  (N.B.: Hard Knock Radio usually removes audio archives two weeks after initial radio transmission.)
  • UpFront, 19 FEB 2016, 07:00 PDT.  This hour-long radio broadcast included two excerpts (c. 8:40; c. 25:27) from Episode 3: Ricardo and Malthus: Did You Say Freedom?, featuring Dr. Michael Hudson (UMKC), Dr. David Graeber, et al., and addressing David Ricardo‘s notion of comparative advantage, the origins of free trade dogma, the Opium Wars, colonialism, imperialism, and consequent implications for contemporary working classes and institutions, such as the IMF and World Bank.  This broadcast also included two excerpts (c. 37:56; c. 45:18) from Episode 4: What If Marx Was Right?, featuring Dr. David Harvey (CUNY).
  • Flashpoints, 18 FEB 2016, 17:00 PDT.  This hour-long radio broadcast included an excerpt (c. 21:38) from Episode 4: What If Marx Was Right?, featuring Dr. David Harvey (CUNY).
  • Letters and Politics, 18 FEB 2016, 10:00 PDT.  This hour-long radio broadcast included two excerpts (c. 18:45; c. 30:54) from Episode 4: What If Marx Was Right?, featuring clips from Dr. David Harvey (CUNY) discussing fictitious capital. This broadcast also included an excerpt (c. 41:36) from Episode 5: Keynes vs Hayek: A Fake Debate?

Messina

***

[1] And, most impressively, it is very consistent with my university training as an economics major at one of the world’s finest, radical, heterodox economics departments, University of Missouri-Kansas City.

“Where is the best new economics now being done?  UMKC.”  —James K. Galbraith

[2]  Previously it had only been made available to educational institutions for $498.  Currently, it can be acquired at an extremely discounted price with a donation to KPFA/Pacifica Radio.

[3]  This particular audio excerpt was transcribed from the Flashpoints (94.1 FM, KPFA, Berkeley, CA) broadcast for Thursday, 18 FEB 2016, c. 21:38, hosted by Dennis Bernstein.

[4]  For an extended video clip of this soundbite, see “Tristram Hunt: Marx Was Clear About the Consequences of Capitalism”, by IQ Squared on YouTube:

Or for those with true grit, or an insatiable hunger for knowledge, consider the entire debate, entitled “Karl Marx Was Right“:

[5]  But it’s not easy.  Perhaps one is married with children, and still trying to persevere with a dignified measure of civic engagement, and not just shrivelling up under the pressure of putting food on the table and being there for loved ones uninterested in, or wary of, civic engagement.  But we keep on pushing in whatever capacity we can, hoping to build bridges with other people of conscience interested in truths, however brutal or emancipatory, rather than endless escapism and frivolity.

[6]  All others with means, please consider supporting free speech radio in all of its manifestations and permutations.  It cannot be understated that democracy cannot function without an informed electorate.  And there is truly nothing more informative in the public realm than honest listener-sponsored free speech radio and broadcast media.

***

[19 FEB 2016]

[Last modified 20:05 PDT  26 SEP 2016]

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