logo
episode-header-image
Jul 30
47m 53s

Confronting Capitalism: Why the Democrat...

JACOBIN
About this episode

Democratic voters are enraged by their party’s spineless “resistance” to the Trump administration’s draconian agenda. But the party’s dysfunction goes far deeper than just cowardly, uninspiring leaders.

On this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber speaks with Philip Rocco about how the Democrats’ abandonment of organized labor has resulted in a party that is ineffective at fighting the right or putting forward a compelling political vision.

Read Philip Rocco’s essay here: https://catalyst-journal.com/2025/07/why-the-democrats-are-so-useless

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Up next
Aug 8
Long Reads: Trump’s Gaza Famine w/ Akbar Shahid Ahmed
Gaza is experiencing a man-made famine as Israel blocks the supply of almost all humanitarian aid. By the start of August, Israeli soldiers had killed nearly 1,400 Palestinians as they were looking for food. Most of the killings happened near sites managed by the so-called Gaza H ... Show More
47m 43s
Aug 5
Dig: Chicago’s Left Experiment
Featuring Alex Han, Asha Ransby-Sporn, and alderwoman Jeanette Taylor on Chicago’s left political experiment. In the wake of Zohran’s remarkable victory in New York, organizers all over the country are taking a close look at Chicago under Mayor Brandon Johnson. A Chicago Teachers ... Show More
2 h
Aug 4
Behind the News: Can Mamdani Reform the NYPD? w/ Alex Vitale
Alex Vitale, author of a recent Nation article, discusses Zohran Mamdani, the NYPD, and policing generally. Plus: Dwayne Monroe takes on the latest wave of AI mania. Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interaction ... Show More
53m 1s
Recommended Episodes
Apr 2020
Wollstonecraft on Sexual Politics
Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) is one of the most remarkable books in the history of ideas. A classic of early feminism, it uses what’s wrong with the relationship between men and women to illustrate what’s gone wrong with politics. It’s a story ... Show More
46m 49s
Mar 2024
La véritable histoire de Simone Veil, la femme de droits
Stéphane Bern raconte, à l'occasion de la journée internationales des droits des femmes, une des pionnières de la politique, une femme qui a changé la vie de beaucoup d’autres, une femme qui a changé le droit, et notamment celui de l’avortement, alors que l’IVG vient, près de 50 ... Show More
37m 41s
Jul 2022
Angela Davis: Queer Revolutionary
"I totally support the politics of coming out, but at the same time, I'm critical of the assumption that one's identity has to be the major driving force that determines one's politics."  For the final episode of our season, Angela Davis joins us to talk about how to keep pushing ... Show More
27m 15s
Mar 2025
Rosa Luxemburg: life of the week
While the Suffragettes were fighting to win the vote, over in Germany, Rosa Luxemburg was focused on overthrowing the entire system. A committed Marxist revolutionary and a fervent advocate of internationalism, Luxemburg believed that true freedom lay beyond ‘bourgeois democracy’ ... Show More
52m 9s
Jun 2023
Paris 1968, French Theory and the Intellectual World War With Gabriel Rockhill
In this episode we welcome Gabriel Rockhill to the podcast to discuss his latest piece “The Myth of 1968 Thought and the French Intelligentsia: Historical Commodity Fetishism and Ideological Rollback” which is out this month, in the June issue of Monthly Review. Gabriel Rockhill ... Show More
1h 50m
Nov 2018
Episode 51, Simone de Beauvoir (Part I - The Life of Simone de Beauvoir)
Simone de Beauvoir was a pioneer for the second-wave feminist movement and one of the most famous philosophers to have lived. Strikingly, Beauvoir did not label herself as a philosopher, since she never attempted to provide an original treatise which aimed to fully encapsulate th ... Show More
1h 1m
Mar 2025
Aphra Behn: Revolutionary, Author, Spy
Aphra Behn was a true original. Not only was she the first woman to earn a living by writing, she was also a spy, a political propagandist and a revolutionary. Publicly she was all brash sexuality and outspoken politics, but what is known about the woman beneath? Professor Suzann ... Show More
40m 26s
Dec 2018
Episode 51, Simone de Beauvoir (Part IV - Further Analysis and Discussion)
Simone de Beauvoir was a pioneer for the second-wave feminist movement and one of the most famous philosophers to have lived. Strikingly, Beauvoir did not label herself as a philosopher, since she never attempted to provide an original treatise which aimed to fully encapsulate th ... Show More
50m 41s
Apr 2023
Reactionary Feminist DISMANTLES Radical Feminism
Mary Harrington, author of Feminism Against Progress, joins us to discuss her journey to becoming a reactionary feminist, how embracing traditional feminine values in the face of unchecked "progress" is both liberating and essential for women, and how progressive feminism is a de ... Show More
15m 27s
Jun 2024
Emma Heaney, "Feminism Against Cisness" (Duke UP, 2024)
The contributors to Feminism Against Cisness (Duke UP, 2024) showcase the future of feminist historical, theoretical, and political thought freed from the conceptual strictures of cisness: the fallacy that assigned sex determines sexed experience. The essays demonstrate that this ... Show More
46m 56s