On this episode, Jesse and Matt dive into Erik Olin Wright’s posthumous work on imagining practical utopias, entitled How to Be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty-First Century, which was published in the fall of 2019—just six months after the author’s untimely death from cancer. Our co-hosts will talk about Erik Olin Wright’s place in keeping the candle of socialism burning during its most bleak period: from Ronald Reagan’s Mourning in AmeriKKKa—at the onset of the 1980s—to the dawn of the new millennium, when the “Battle in Seattle” signified the reformation of the Left, creating the contours for the wild new imaginings of Occupy Wall Street and the liberation struggles of a new century. Matt & Jesse will also converse briefly about Wright’s highly collaborative Real Utopias Project (published by Verso Books) and his magnum opus, Envisioning Real Utopias (2010), the massive and daunting size of which moved the Marxist Sociologist to create a tighter, leaner version that would be of practical use to activists and organizers the world over. Questions to be formed and answered during the conversation: What are the merits of the author’s claims? What are the weaknesses of this very important book? And finally, what are the truly transcendent aspects of Wright’s ideas that deserve placement as key tracks for our mixtape of the future? As Antonio Gramsci famously said, dreamers and fighters for a better world must carry forth with a “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.” Less well known is Wright’s gentle retort that to survive the 21st century, we will also need “a bit more optimism of the intellect” too.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Our Main Focus for this Episode: Erik Olin Wright’s How to Be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty-First Century. Published by Verso Books in 2019.A Review of Wright’s Book from Ben Tarnoff in The Guardian: “How to Be an Anticapitalist in the 21st Century by Erik Olin Wright – A Review”
Erik Olin Wright: A Wikipedia Biography
Erik Olin Wright's Very Unassuming & Ego-less Home Page
Katharine Q. Seelye’s Obituary of the Author for The New York Times: “Erik Olin Wright, 71, Dies; Marxist Sociologist With a Pragmatic Approach”
Adam Szetela in Dissent: “Remembering Erik Olin Wright” - January 23rd, 2019
Former Student & Celebrated Thinker, Vivek Chibber, Memorializes His Mentor’s Life & Legacy in Jacobin: “Erik Olin Wright: 1947-2019” - January 24th, 2019Not Only Was Erik Olin Wright Admired for His Transcendent Scholarship, But a Twitter Hashtag Popped Up by Former Students Who Celebrated the Powerful & Influential Effects of His Teaching in Their Lives: #EOWtaughtmeAnalytical Marxism aka No-Bullshit Marxism: A Wikipedia ExplanationMarcus Roberts’ Analytical Marxism: A Critique. Published by Verso Books in 1997.
David Harvey & Erik Olin Wright - Cleaning the Bullshit Out of Marxist Obscurantism & Making His Ideas & Writing Accessible to Everyday People: Left Out’s Interview with Erik Olin Wright “On Understanding of Class--A Marxian Perspective”;
David Harvey’s Website & YouTube Channel: “Reading Marx with David Harvey”
Michael Buroway on Why Erik Olin Wright Was the Most Important Marxist Sociologist of His Generation & the Most Important Thinker About How Class Functions Inside Capitalism.
Erik Olin Wright’s 2012 Presidential Address to the American Sociological Association: “Transforming Capitalism Through Real Utopias”
Here Are Three Key Works from Erik Olin Wright on How Class Actually Functions Inside of Capitalism, Reversing Decades of Doctrinaire Marxist Understandings of Class with Hardcore Transnational Studies in Multiple Countries:
Classes. Published in 1998 by Verso Books
Class, Crisis & the State. Published in 1985 by Verso Books.
Interrogating Inequality: Essays on Class Analysis, Socialism and Marxism. Published in 1994 by Verso Books.
Barbara and John Ehrenreich’s Now Legendary Essay in Radical America: “The Professional-Managerial Class”
Erik Olin Wright’s The Real Utopias Project
Verso Books Series: The Real Utopias Project
Functioning as Spiritual Baton-Pass from Ursula K. Le Guin’s Utopian & Political Novels, Kim Stanley Robinson Now Stands as Science Fiction’s Most Important Optimist Against the Daily Onslaught of the Genre’s Terminal Dystopia Syndrome (TDS). Like Erik Olin Wright, he doesn’t think we can rupture from Capitalism immediately and easily, but he does think we can chip away at it over time. Here Are Some of His Most Celebrated Utopian & Optimistic Visions of the Future:
New York 2140. Orbit; Reprint Paperback Edition: March 6, 2018.
Aurora. Orbit; Reprint Edition: June 5, 2018.
2312. Orbit; 1st edition: June 25, 2013.
Mars Trilogy: Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars. Bantam Spectra; First Paperback Edition: January 1, 1990.
Three Californias: The Wild Shore, The Gold Coast, and Pacific Edge. Tor Books: February 4, 2020.
THE FIVE STRATEGIC LOGICS OF ANTICAPITALISM
Actions Taken Through State Power Alone: Smashing Capitalism (which Erik Olin Wright said was an abject failure in the 20th Century, and shouldn’t be reenlisted), Dismantling Capitalism, and Taming Capitalism versus change done through what he calls Social Power: Resisting Capitalism and Escaping Capitalism. All four of these Strategic Logics will have to be coordinated to “erode capitalism.”
Erik Olin Wright: How to Be an Anti-Capitalist for the 21st Century - WZB Distinguished Lecture in Social Sciences by Erik Olin Wright, University of Wisconsin-Madison, held on October 11, 2016 at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center
Nadine Achoui-Lesage & Frank Jordans in PBS: “U.N. Warns World could hit 1.5-degree warming threshold by 2024”
“Dislocated” Headlines - i.e.: Record heat possible from California to Florida on Sunday - CNN - Sun July 12, 2020
Astra Taylor’s Philosophical Documentary What is Democracy? (2018)
Democracy May Not Exist, But We'll Miss It When It's Gone by Astra Taylor (2019) - A Book Co-Developed Alongside Astra Taylor’s Film
David Van Reybrouck’s Against Elections: The Case for Democracy. Published Random House UK; UK Edition: February 15, 2016.
Born in Flames by Lizzie Borden - The independent film was released in 1983.
Flo Kennedy - A Wikipedia Biography
Black Women's Manifesto (1970-75): A pamphlet distributed by Third World Women's Alliance.
The Combahee River Collective Statement
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective. Published by Haymarket Books in 2017.
Antonio Gramsci’s Most Famous Quote: “Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.” - A Wikipedia Biography; Of course, Erik Olin Wright’s turn away from Marx’s ridicule toward utopian dreaming meant that “we still need a bit more optimism of the intellect” and that’s what the second half of his career so courageously sought.F.B. in The Economist: “The Strange Afterlife of Antonio Gramsci’s “Prison Notebooks”