“Make the World Stop”: Joshua Clover on Capital & Riots Yet to Bloom

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In this episode, we are joined by longtime professor, journalist, social critic, author, and thinker Joshua Clover, a part of Commune Editions, as well as the author of the new book, Riot. Strike. Riot: The New Era of Uprisings.

Using the recent Tax Bill as a launch pad, we spend the hour discussing the recent moves by the elites and what has changed in terms of capital and the repression of revolt since the economic crisis of 2008, and also how these changes have produced more and more surplus populations which are then in turn excluded from capitalism. With this in mind, we then discuss how revolt itself is changing in the 21st Century as well as where we must imagine it going if humanity is to discover a way not only against, but beyond, capitalist civilization.

During the course of this discussion, we cover a lot of ground, from looking at material conditions in terms of people entering the workplace and public education, to the future of labor strikes as tech capital revamps the service industry, to the potential of blockades of flows of commodities, as well as looking back on past struggles and rebellions and what lessons they teach us. This includes both the Occupy Movement, the wave of riots that took place after the police murder of Mike Brown, Jr, in Ferguson, as well as the Student Occupation movement in California in 2009. Using history as a guide, we discuss what lessons might come to inform the future of revolt, as well as how capital restructuring our lives gives us insight into where the next rebellion might just pop off.

More Info: Commune Editions and Riot. Strike. Riot: The New Era of Uprisings

Music: Red Pill