Hegemonicon will return Tuesday, July 30 with interviews focusing on internationalist organizing and analysis on the US Left.
Foreign policy is back on the agenda in a big way in US politics, and promises to be a top concern for the foreseeable future. Issues around Gaza, Ukraine, and China have impacted domestic politics under the Biden administration and will factor in the November election.
The US Left has taken an internationalist turn, especially given the outrage and horror of the live-streamed modern genocide in Gaza. This has created rifts among left and progressive forces, and within the Democratic Party coalition. Some new or renewed configuration of forces on the Left must be struck.
We are witnessing genocide and have cause to fear the threat of World War Three. We see the rise of authoritarians around the world and are coming to uunderstand their global linkages. This leaves us no choice but to develop a thorough internationalist analysis and program, and incorporate it into our political practice. Season 2 of Hegemonicon will bring you conversations with people who have something to teach us about these topics. We can’t wait to hear what you think!
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[00:00:00] William Lawrence: This is the hegemonic on podcast where we are investigating the workings of power. What is power? How does it work? Who has it? What are they doing with it? How the heck do we get it? And other small questions like that. What the hell is going to happen if we all just sit back and watch the train wreck unfold in this 21st century?
[00:00:22] And what could happen to our combined efforts to shape and redirect the course of history? I’m your host, William Lawrence, and I’m an organizer from Lansing, Michigan. Currently, I work with the Rent is Too Damn High Coalition, an alliance of tenant unions and housing justice groups across the state of Michigan.
[00:00:42] Formerly, I was a climate justice organizer for 10 years, including as a co founder of Sunrise Movement, the youth organization that put the Green New Deal on the political map. You can go back to season one of this show and read my writing in Convergence as well to hear a lot of my reflections about the last 15 years of political development on the U.
[00:01:01] S. left. This show is a forum for me to explore lots of bigger picture questions about politics and organizing outside of my day to day organizing work. And this sequence of episodes you’re listening to now is on internationalist organizing and ideas on the U. S. left. It’s evident that foreign policy is back on the agenda in a big way in US politics, and is not going to recede anytime soon.
[00:01:26] Gaza, Ukraine, and our relations with China have all been major international issues that have deeply impacted US politics on the domestic level under the Biden administration. And the U. S. left has taken a correspondingly internationalist turn, especially amidst the outrage and horror of a unbearable live streamed eradication campaign, a modern genocide we have witnessed and continue to witness in Gaza.
[00:01:54] This has, of course, created rifts among left and progressive forces and within the Democratic Party coalition more broadly. Moving forward, some new or renewed configuration of forces on the left will need to be struck in order to move forward through this decade. I’m certainly convinced that we don’t have consensus about what sense we make of all of this and what it means for our practice moving forward.
[00:02:23] Having seen what we’ve seen, witnessing genocide and now fearing the threat as well of World War III. We all have no choice but to develop a thorough internationalist analysis and program and incorporate it into our political practice. These episodes are conversations with people who have something to teach us about these topics.
[00:02:43] I can’t wait to hear what you think.