What is Marxism? Is Capitalism really that bad? Does communism have anything to say about the climate struggle? Can we really hope for a transformed communist future? Rayne and Mika chat with their favourite lecturer, Associate Professor Dr. Chamsy el-Ojeili. Chamsy is a sociologist and lecturer in the School of Social and Cultural Studies at Te Herenaga Waka - Victoria University Wellington. Mika, Rayne, and Chamsy chat about capitalism, ecosocialism, and what Marxism says about our contemporary struggles. Chamsy offers honesty and hope in being both a Christian and a communist.

Show notes

• Council communism
• Rutger Bregman, Humankind: A Hopeful History (2020)
• Participatory Budgeting
• Alasdair MacIntyre, Marxism and Christianity (1971)
• Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels, The Holy Family (1844)
• Ernst Bloch, Heritage of Our Times (1935)
• Ernst Bloch, The Principle of Hope (1954)
• Terry Eagleton, Why Marx Was Right (2011)
• Perry Anderson, Considerations on Western Marxism (1976)
• The Magnificast – Christian socialist podcast
• The Dig Radio – Jacobin podcast
• New Left Review journal
• Counterfutures journal
• Brian Zahnd, When Everything's on Fire (2021)
• David Bentley Hart, Tradition and Apocalypse (2022)
• Enzo Traverso, Fire and Blood: The European Civil War, 1914-1945 (2007)

Definitions…

Bourgeoisie: a social class comprised of people who own the means of production (factories, land, raw materials, machinery, etc) and therefore own most of society's capital and wealth. The interests of the bourgeoises (aka ruling or capitalist class) are centred on increasing profits.

Proletariat: a social class comprised of workers without access to the means of production, and therefore are dependent on exchanging labour power for a wage. Marx believed the working class is fundamentally exploited and oppressed to produce profits for the capitalist class, and will ultimately overthrow the bourgeoisie creating a classless society.

Gramsci: Antonio Gramsci was an Italian Marxist thinker, 1891–1937. He moved beyond the classic Marxist materialist approach to consider the place of ideas, culture, morality, feelings, and values in shaping collective will and influencing social reform.

Fukuyama: Francis Fukuyama wrote The End of History and the Last Man in 1992. He believed liberalism had won the struggle for power through the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. He claimed that history has ended with global, liberal, democratic capitalism as the final form of economic, social, and political governance.

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This podcast is associated with Chaplaincy VUW. Feedback to aldridrayn@myvuw.ac.nz