The Measures Taken
The Measures Taken is a project to survey and reconstruct the history of Marxism from the development of mass Social Democracy to our own moment.
Recognizing that Bolshevism has lapsed as a living political tendency, those of us who remain committed to revolutionary communist politics and convinced by the Marxist critique of political economy are left searching for a past capable of orienting us in the present. Mindful of the threat of eclecticism and all too cognizant of the infelicities of sectarianism, the hosts of this podcast embrace a non-denominational Marxism.
Our purpose is self-education, never the display of expertise. We hope that our listeners extend to us the same principled courtesy we do our forebears: not to judge too harshly.
themeasurestaken.org
measurestakenpod@gmail.com
Episodes
21 episodes
The World According to Jane McAlevey
We discuss Jane McAlevey's contributions to the labor movement and two of her books: 'No Shortcuts' and 'Raising Expectations (and Raising Hell).'
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42:18
Beach Reads #2: Alexandra Kollontai's "Morality and the New Society"
We discuss a selection of Kollontai's writings and speeches on women's oppression, the family structure, and new ways to conceive of sex and love in a liberated society.
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32:29
'Technofeudalism': The World According to Yanis Varoufakis
We discuss Yanis Varoufakis' new book 'Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism,’ in which he argues that capitalism is dead and has been "replaced by something fundamentally different."
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50:13
2.03: The Hungarian Soviet Republic
Not unlike the Paris Commune, the Hungarian Soviet Republic, which held power in that country for 133 heroic days in 1919, exerted influence through example in greater measure than its brief lease on life would suggest. Not only did it raise th...
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1:00:37
Beach Read #1: Bukharin's 'Historical Materialism'
We kick off our new 'beach reads' series with a discussion of Bukharin's 1921 text, Historical Materialism: A System of Sociology.
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43:01
'The World According to...' Episode 1
We are changing things up here at Measures Taken HQ! In this new series (which will supplement but not replace our former episode track) we discuss what's being talked about on the contemporary left.
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54:30
2.02: 'Left-Wing' Communism
We discuss Lenin's "'Left-Wing' Communism: An Infantile Disorder" as well as the responses and political positions of some of the pamphlet's main targets. We also examine the concept of left-wing communism itself, asking whether or not it is a ...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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1:01:03
2.01: Red Terror
What components of Marxism can most successfully help us to understand the appearance and shape of the phenomenon of ‘Red Terror?’
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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1:04:23
1.12: The Invention of Communism
The seizure of state power by Russian social democrats, and the success of their party in developing military and administrative capacities, forced the class-conscious worker the rest of the world over to decide to what extent it was appropriat...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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1:09:37
1.11: The World War
The climax of the World War would present socialists with the actuality of revolution and result in a new North Star for Marxism, but its immediate effects were to irrevocably destroy the fabric of the international socialist movement, and in d...
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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56:19
Interview: Ben Lewis
Ben is editor and translator of a number of important collections of primarily source documents from the Second International period, including Karl Kautsky on Democracy and Republicanism (Haymarket). He is also the author of Oswal...
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53:25
1.10: The Agrarian Question
The question of Social Democracy’s role when it came to peasants and agricultural laborers opened the floodgates to a wide range of theoretical and tactical debates. In this episode, we will dive into this era’s landmark texts and strategic, Pa...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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1:00:32
1.09: The Question of the Party
It has hardly been lost on convinced readers of Capital that the book contains no blueprint for building an organization, one that might sound the “death knell” of the capitalist mode of production, expropriate the expropriators, and u...
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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1:25:59
1.08: Dictatorship of the Proletariat
Questions of the bourgeois state, democracy, and the proletariat’s conquest of state power were the subject of a number of debates and attempts at theoretical formulation in the Second International. In the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolut...
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Season 1
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Episode 8
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1:00:35
1.07: The Woman Question
The most popular book produced by a Second International figure was August Bebel’s “Women Under Socialism.” It introduced scientific socialism to a question prominent on the political scene, namely, that of women’s oppression and emancipation. ...
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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1:01:21
1.06: The National Question
Despite the simplicity and strong appeal of the slogan “Proletarians of all countries unite,” the early Social Democratic movement would find themselves divided on how to carry out this task. Alongside controversy over Revisionism and the early...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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1:12:18
1.05: Early Debates on Imperialism
From the moment Social Democracy was compelled by virtue of the maturity of its institutions to formulate policy and strategy, Marxists have feared for the timeliness of their theoretical commitments. Efforts to brings Marxism up to date most o...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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1:04:54
1.04: The Revisionist Controversy
The battle over Marxist orthodoxy was not long in arriving. Almost as soon as it emerged, it was subjected to a sustained theoretical assault from within, most notably and thoroughly by Eduard Bernstein, the foremost protagonist (or antagonist)...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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59:45
1.03: The Invention of Marxism
The emergence of ‘Marxism’ as a ‘worldview’ and political tendency was not achieved during Marx’s lifetime, but remains the achievement of his epigones. This episode establishes what was meant by ‘Marxism’ when it forged its first orthodoxy by ...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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1:11:36
1.02: The Many Lives of Marx's Capital
Despite its obvious centrality to the entire corpus of historical Marxism, Capital remains contested territory on the left. We examine its publication history and how we can understand what’s at stake in competing readings and approach...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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51:04