49 - A.K. 47 - Bonus Episode - International Women's Day 2020

Kristen Ghodsee reads the second part of the essay, "The Socialist Movement of Women Workers in Different Countries," part of the pamphlet, "Women Workers Struggle for Their Rights" published in 1918. Mentioned in this episode is Jodi Dean's great book, Comrade. Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee's (very occasional) free newsletter. You'll get maybe one newsletter every 2 to 3 months. Send us a text Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and receives no funding. ...

1 Mai 202220min

Kristen Ghodsee reads Alexandra Kollontai's 1918 pamphlet: "Women Workers Struggle for their Rights." Mentioned in this episode are the blurbs for Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons from Five Revolutionary Women, forthcoming with Verso Books in July. “Written with clarity and zest, Red Valkyries is an illuminating introduction to the extraordinary lives of prominent socialist women in the Soviet Union and Bulgaria.” —Sheila Rowbotham, author of Daring to Hope “In our historical moment, quotas...

23 Apr 202220min

In this bonus episode, Kristen Ghodsee speaks with an anarchist activist recently returned from a pipeline resistance camp (who wished to remain anonymous). They discuss theories of organizing for successful social movements, and the lingering fears of the vanguard party that haunt the left. Mentioned in this episode are the books: Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity Through This Crisis (and the Next), by Dean Spade Neither Vertical nor Horizontal: A Theory of Political Organization, by Rodrigo...

29 Mar 202221min

For the 100th episode of A.K. 47, Kristen Ghodsee reads Alexandra Kollontai's 1915 speech, "The Third International," which she delivered in the United States while rallying Americans against World War I. Send us a text Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and receives no funding. There are no ads and there is no monetization. If you'd like to support the work being done here, please spread the word with your networks. Kristen R. Ghodsee is the award-w...

8 Mar 202216min

Kristen Ghodsee reads a 1912 speech which Alexandra Kollontai delivered on May 1st in Stockholm, Sweden. She talks about the intersections of war and capitalism. Mentioned in this episode is former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry's Book, My Journey at the Nuclear Brink where he discusses his opposition to the eastward expansion of NATO. For this episode, the Internationale is in Ukrainian. Send us a text Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account a...

3 Mar 202216min

Kristen Ghodsee's (now twenty-year-old) daughter interviews Ghodsee about the original idea for the podcast and how it has developed since January 2019 when she posted her first episode. Mentioned in this podcast are these books and articles: Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons from Five Revolutionary Women, Verso Books, 2022“The Most Famous Feminist You’ve Never Heard Of,” Ms. Magazine, March 29, 2020“How the socialist behind paid child care and parental leave was erased from women's hist...

20 Jan 202226min

Kristen Ghodsee records part of a spontaneous chat with Minja Bujakovic and Marta Chmielewska, both Ph.D. researchers at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. Over a bottle of wine, Minja discusses her Master's thesis examining the work of Kollontai as it was disseminated in interwar Yugoslavia. Of particular interest is the reported conversation that the French liberal feminist Louise Weiss had with Kollontai when Weiss visited Moscow in 1921. Minja Bujakovic is a first-yea...

29 Des 202115min

Kristen Ghodsee discusses two key themes in Kollontai's 1918 essay, "New Woman." The first is the persistence of nostalgia for an imagined traditional family of the past that might save us from the difficulties and loneliness of late capitalism. Kollontai herself understood that many "new women" in the early years of the Soviet Union were nostalgic for the sheltered lives of their mothers and grandmothers. Flaming this nostalgia for a "golden age" of the past is a typical rhetorical strategy ...

15 Des 202120min