This is Left: Pandemic Politics and Today's Mass Uprising - Kristin Lawler

This is Left is a @democracyatwrk Production. In this short video, Kristin Lawler discusses the protests sweeping the nation and argues that the pandemic's suspension of everyday life has created the ground for a viral politics resonant with the anarcho-syndicalist tradition. It is a tradition of mutual aid, of multiracial, horizontal organizing, of direct action and horizontal coordination, and of the mass education that comes from this kind of action. The movement has so far been teaching Americans about the relationship of racism to capitalism and the state, about the possibilities of social life outside work, and, more than anything, about the fact that power ultimately lies with the people. Kristin Lawler is Associate Professor of Sociology at College of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx, and also teaches with the Bard Prison Initiative. She is the author of The American Surfer: Radical Culture and Capitalism (Routledge 2011) and her most recent essays are "Labor's Will to Power: Nietzsche, American Syndicalism, and the Politics of LIberation" in Brill's 2019 volume Nietzsche and Critical Social Theory and "Radical America: the Long1930s and the Politics of Storytelling" in the upcoming edited volume Back to the 1930s? Recurring Crises of Capitalism, Liberalism, and Democracy. She is a member of the editorial collective of the journal Situations: Project of the Radical Imagination and lives in the People's Republic of Brooklyn. This is Left is a new d@w web series that brings together many voices from across the spectrum of left politics. With this series we hope to elevate left voices that offer progressive perspectives and analyses on how we got here, and perhaps more importantly, how we can move forward. ___________________________________________________________________________ Want to help us translate and transcribe our videos? Learn about joining our translation team: http://bit.ly/2J2uIHH Jump right in: http://bit.ly/2J3bEZR ___________________________________________________________________________ Follow us ONLINE: Website: www.democracyatwork.info Facebook: www.facebook.com/DemocracyatWrk Twitter: @democracyatwrk Instagram: @democracyatwrk Shop our Store: bit.ly/Storedaw

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