Upstream

• NATO Pt. 1: An Anti-Imperialist Introduction w/ Elina Xenophontos

  NATO—The North Atlantic Treaty Organization—far from being just a defensive alliance between the United States and Europe, is actually the spear tip of imperialism’s military arm. It’s the force used to discipline any global actor who dares to defy US hegemony and dominance on the world stage. From Greece to Libya to Ukraine—NATO is where we must look to understand how destabilization occurs and how defiant states across the globe are subjugated and opened up to Western markets and capital. And we’re lucky enough to have a terrific guest on today to tell us all about how it all takes place.  Elina Xenophontos is an international law and economic globalisation specialist. She produces much of her own material on her Substack and is also featured regularly on the Colonial Outcasts podcast.  In this episode, Part 1 of what will be an ongoing series on NATO, Elina presents a history of NATO, exploring its role as a force against communism and for capitalist discipline in Europe and the Global South and laying the foundations for what will be deeper dives in coming episodes. We explore its expansion during the Cold War and post-Cold War periods as a military arm of imperialism, its role in Yugoslavia, Libya, Ukraine, Iran, and other wars or conflicts, its drive to destabilize any state that refuses to be subjugated under the boot of US imperialism, and why it’s crucial for the Western left to correctly identify NATO’s role in global capitalism and imperialism in order to effectively combat it.  Further resources: Support Elina's work on Patreon Elina Xenophontos (Substack) Elina Xenophontos (Youtube) Colonial Outcasts Related episodes: Our ongoing series on Iran Our ongoing series on Palestine Our ongoing series on China Our ongoing series on the Alliance of Sahel States Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism w/ Breht O'Shea and Alyson Escalante Intermission music: "Love Life" by Daily Ghost Covert art: Soviet anti-NATO propaganda poster Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/upstreampodcast or please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support If your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming documentaries, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at  upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on Instagram and Bluesky. You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

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• [TEASER] Immigration, ICE, and Working Class Rebellion w/ Cecilia Guerrero

  This is a free preview of the episode "Immigration, ICE, and Working Class Rebellion w/ Cecilia Guerrero." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber you'll get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. access to bi-weekly bonus episodes ranging from conversations to readings and more. Signing up for Patreon is a great way to make Upstream a weekly show, and it will also give you access to our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes along with stickers and bumper stickers at certain subscription tiers. You’ll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us to keep this project going. It’s easy to get lost in the narratives that are fed to us by the very same institutions that oppress us. Whether liberal institutions or far right ones, there’s always something crucial missing—some component of analysis that’s left unaddressed, some root cause that remains misidentified or distorted. And the reason is because when it comes to the class war that we are all engaged in—whether we like it or not—the issues of class, of imperialism, and of monopoly capitalism are never, ever part of the mainstream discussion.  So, what are the root causes of immigration? What do the ICE terror campaigns look like on the ground in cities like LA or Nashville? What happens when we apply a materialist lens to the conversation about mass deportations and conversation about the scapegoating of the more vulnerable groups in society? And what happens when we shift the frame from the more liberal, rights-based approach to activism to one based on unified, solidaristic class struggle? Well, we’ve brought back on the perfect guest to help us unpack some of these pressing questions.  Cecilia Guerrero is Chair and Founding Member of A Luta Sigue, an organization based in Nashville, Tennessee, which incubates and trains young people and workers within advanced sectors of the working class to build and lead their own class struggle organizations. In this episode, we talk about the terror campaign being waged on immigrants throughout the country and the responses coming from working class communities who are standing up for themselves and standing in solidarity with the oppressed and exploited classes across the globe. We talk about ICE, the role that immigration plays in the imperialist global system, the attempts by liberal institutions to co-opt and neutralize our radical movements, and what the MAGA right gets wrong about the root cause of their immiseration.  Further resources: A Luta Sigue Poder Popular Tennessee Drivers Union Southern Youth Solidarity Network Capitalism and Workers’ Immigration, V.I. Lenin Marx to Sigfrid Meyer and August Vogt In New York, Karl Marx Related episodes: From the Frontlines: Class Struggle and Class War in the US Southeast w/ Cecilia Guerrero The Imperial Boomerang w/ Julian Go Artwork: CPSU propaganda poster Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/upstreampodcast or please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support If your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming documentaries, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at  upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on Instagram and Bluesky. You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

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• Iran Pt. 1: A Socialist Introduction w/ Séamus Malekafzali [BONUS]

  As seems to be the case with most of the countries that the United States goes to war with—much of the population here doesn’t know very much about those countries. And what they do know is usually Western propaganda, misinformation, or outright lies. This couldn’t be more true with Iran, where if it were up to our political leaders and corporate media, the story that Iran was a perfectly happy democracy that was abruptly and rudely destroyed by a rabid and power hungry group of Ayatollahs would never go unquestioned. They certainly wouldn’t want you to know about the Western backed coup of a left-leaning government in 1953, or that Iran suffered greatly during the Shah’s reign. But that’s why we’re here today—to help combat some of that propaganda, dispel some of those myths, and hopefully to provide a dose of reality to a nation whose war drums never cease to beat. And we’ve brought on a terrific guest to help us do it.  Séamus Malekafzali is a freelance journalist whose work focuses on the Middle East and Global South. In this episode, Part 1 of our new series on Iran, we give a potted history of Iran from the colonial period up to the present, introducing the Pahlavi dynasty, touching on important events like the rise of Mohammad Mosaddeq and the attempt to nationalize Iran’s oil industry which was sabotaged by Western powers. We explore the rise of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the repressive regime he led as a Western puppet. We talk about the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the role Iran now plays as a leading state in the Axis of Resistance against US hegemony. And, of course, we talk about the ongoing war being waged against Iran by the United States and its proxy, Israel and explore the regional and global implications.  Further resources: Séamus Malekafzali The Greatest Sin podcast Related episodes: Palestine Pt. 13: Al-Aqsa Flood and the Resistance Axis w/ Matteo Capasso Our ongoing series on Palestine Our ongoing series on China Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/upstreampodcast or please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support If your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming documentaries, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at  upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on Instagram and Bluesky. You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

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• Post Capitalist Parenting Pt. 3: A Dialectical Perspective w/ Breht O'Shea

  One of the most radical things you can do is live your life in direct opposition to the forces that control our society. Not just fighting for policies or organizing your community, although those are certainly important parts of it, but also living with values that oppose the values of our dominant society. And even more importantly, raising the next generation to embody those values—not in a coercive way, but through organic parenting and role modeling that make radicalism irresistible. This is how we raise revolutionaries: instilling community, love, egalitarianism, and a need for justice into children. And this is just what our guest in today's episode has devoted himself to doing. Breht O’Shea is an activist, organizer, political educator, and host of the podcast Revolutionary Left Radio and co-host of the podcasts Red Menace and Shoeless in South Dakota. He is a father of three based out of Omaha Nebraska.  In this conversation, Part 3 of our Post Capitalist Parenting series, Breht shares with us insights about parenting that he's learned over the years as a father of three and what Marxism teaches us about parenting. We discuss the classic text by Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, which is a dialectical materialist analysis of patriarchy and the family, tracing the emergence of the patriarchal family and it took through various iterations of class society but also exploring what families have looked like under actually-existing socialism and also what it might look like under communism. We also explore the anti-natalist position which attempts to argue that having children is immoral, why this perspective is deeply flawed, what Buddhism can teach us about parenting, and much, much more. Further Resources The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, Freidrich Engels Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence, by Kristen Ghodsee Related Episodes: Post Capitalist Parenting Pt. 1: Parenting Under Capitalism w/ Toi Smith Post Capitalist Parenting Pt. 2: Reimagining the Family w/ Kristen Ghodsee Revolutionary Leftism with Breht O'Shea Buddhism and Marxism with Breht O'Shea What is To Be Done? with Breht O'Shea and Alyson Escalante Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism w/ Breht O'Shea and Alyson Escalante Red Menace: "The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and The State" by Friedrich Engels (Pt. 1) Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism w/ Kristen Ghodsee Intermission music: "Cool 4 U" by Club Cafe Upstream is a labor of love—we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/upstreampodcast or please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support If your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming documentaries, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at  upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky. You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

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• [TEASER] China Pt. 6: The Long Transition Towards Socialism w/ Gabriel Rockhill

  This is a free preview of the episode "China Pt. 6: The Long Transition Towards Socialism w/ Gabriel Rockhill." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber you'll get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. access to bi-weekly bonus episodes ranging from conversations to readings and more. Signing up for Patreon is a great way to make Upstream a weekly show, and it will also give you access to our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes along with stickers and bumper stickers at certain subscription tiers. You’ll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us to keep this project going. The transition to socialism is not going to be an overnight project—and no amount of willing it to be so can change that. No, the transition towards socialism is going to be a long and winding road, traveled with fits and starts, peppered with retreats and losses. But despite it not being an overnight project, it is still a project that is being undertaken with a degree of passion and discipline that should give us hope that its outcome, perhaps not guaranteed, is at least a real possibility worth fighting for. And China, despite what imperialist propaganda wants you to think, is on this path towards socialism. In fact, it's leading it. And our guest for today's episode, Part 6 of our series on China, makes a very compelling case to support this thesis.  Gabriel Rockhill is a philosopher, cultural critic, and activist teaching Philosophy and Global Interdisciplinary Studies at Villanova University and he runs an educational nonprofit called the Critical Theory Workshop. He is the editor of multiple books, including Western Marxism: How it was Born, How it Died, How it can be Reborn, by the Italian Marxist Domenico Losurdo. Western Marxism was the focus of our conversation with Gabriel in October last year. Gabriel is also the author of the upcoming book, Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? Volume I of The Intellectual World War: Marxism versus the Imperial Theory Industry, which is forthcoming in December, 2025 by Monthly Review Press. In this conversation, we talk about what Gabriel refers to as the intellectual world war waged by imperialists against the rest of us and how this pertains to anti-China propaganda, we discuss socialism as a process that unfolds over time versus a utopian vision that we can achieve instantly, what China learned from the socialist project of the USSR, the connections between China and the Alliance of Sahel States, the limits of liberal identity politics and China's strategy of spreading socialist economic development throughout the Global South. We dispel the myth that China is imperialist and reveal it as a propaganda by the imperialists themselves as an attempt to disparage and discredit China, the distinction between tactics and strategy in the context of the dialectics of socialism, and what the rising tensions between China and United States mean for the global world order in the coming decades and beyond. Further resources: Gabriel Rockhill Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? Volume I of The Intellectual World War: Marxism versus the Imperial Theory Industry, by Gabriel Rockhill (forthcoming in 2025 by Monthly Review Press) Western Marxism: How it was Born, How it Died, How it can be Reborn, by Domenico Losurdo "Lenin & the Dialectics of Socialism," Gabriel Rockhill Rainbow Solidarity in Defense of Cuba, Leslie Feinberg Climate Vanguard: Is China Imperialist? The Dragon's Gift :The Real Story of China in Africa, by Deborah Brautigam On Ascending a High Mountain, V. I. Lenin Poll shows more countries hold a favorable view of China than US Related episodes: Western Marxism w/ Gabriel Rockhill Listen to our ongoing series on China Historical Materialism w/ Torkil Lauesen Towards Socialism and the End of Capitalism: An Introduction The Alliance of Sahel States Pt. 1: Burkina Faso – A Socialist Introduction w/ Prudence Iticka Walter Rodney, Marxism, and Underdevelopment with D. Musa Springer & Charisse Burden-Stelly Artwork: CPC Propaganda Poster titled “Unite and work hard to build the four modernizations.” Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/upstreampodcast or please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support If your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming documentaries, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at  upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on Instagram and Bluesky. You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

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