KPFA - Against the Grain

Capitalism has transformed the world like no other force, which historian Sven Beckert calls a fundamental break in human history. Beckert traces the emergence and expansion of capitalism, arguing that we can best understand the present by coming to terms with its past.
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A year into Trump’s second term, the power and fortunes of the ultra-wealthy have only grown — following half a century of policies boosting the rich. Economist Rob Larson discusses Trump’s economic agenda, the pillars of his support in tech, and the ways the 1% exercises power, including through the media.
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Last autumn Italian workers shut down their country in opposition to the Gaza genocide. In the United States, in contrast, labor activists wanting to take a stand in solidarity with Palestinian workers are frequently chastised for trying to involve their unions in the affairs of other countries. Yet labor historian Jeff Schuhrke illustrates that U.S. unions have long been involved in Palestine — for almost a century supporting Zionism and then the state Israel. (Encore presentation.)
National Labor Network for Ceasefire
Jeff Schuhrke, No Neutrals There: US Labor, Zionism, and the Struggle for Palestine Haymarket Books, 2025
Photo by Nikolas Gannon on Unsplash
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Employers regularly check the background of potential workers for criminal records, even though claims that such checks predict their diligence or trustworthiness are dubious. Anthropologist Melissa Burch reflects on how criminal background checks became commonplace — and what vested interests maintain their ubiquity.
Afterlives of Conviction Project
Melissa Burch, The Criminal Record Complex: Risk, Race, and the Struggle for Work in America Princeton University Press, 2026
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Did Charles Darwin influence Karl Marx? Joel Wainwright argues that Darwin significantly shaped Marx’s understanding of historical change — with implications for how we meet the ecological crisis today. And he reflects on the potential role of strikes and boycotts in moving beyond capitalism.
Joel Wainwright, The End: Marx, Darwin, and the Natural History of the Climate Crisis Verso, 2025
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