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TOWARD REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM: Sophie Lewis & Anne Rumberger

For the better part of a generation the Right—especially in the U.S., but, increasingly around the globe—has wielded attacks on reproductive rights as the main weapon in their war to turn back the clock on the hard-won gains of social movements. This campaign has recently borne fruit as legal access to abortion evaporated for millions overnight following the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Whether this will prove to be a decisive victory for the revanchists, or a moment that will galvanize further resistance remains to be seen, but it has undeniably proven the inadequacy of the liberal strategy of relying on the courts and voting harder.

In the latest issue of Salvage both Sophie Lewis and Anne Rumberger argue for a different approach, one that abandons the timidity of the mainstream reproductive justice movement, and that learns the hard lessons of what brought us to this juncture. They are joined for this Salvage LIVE event by Rosie Warren to discuss what it will take to go beyond resistance, and what reproductive freedom would truly mean.

THE PROBLEM WITH WORK: Amelia Horgan & Sarah Jaffe

Among capitalism’s greatest tricks has been its ability to get buy-in for the various magical tales it spins about work: ‘do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life’, ‘anyone can work hard and become a billionaire’. Yet these bromides are increasingly out of sync with our reality. As inequality grows to historic proportions, and the dreams of achieving fulfillment through our jobs butts up against the exploitative nature of our 9 to 5’s, the ideological varnish has finally begun to corrode.

In this episode of Salvage LIVE Horgan and Jaffe take on the problem with work in our current moment, and make the case for militant work-place activity and anti-capitalism as its only solution.

UKRAINE, RUSSIA, NATO, & ANTI-IMPERIALISM TODAY: Ilya Matveev & Volodymyr Ishchenko

Russian socialist and anti-war activist Ilya Matveev—co-founder of openleft.ru—and by Ukrainian sociologist Voldoymyr Ishchenko, join Salvage LIVE for a conversation about the war in Ukraine.

How did we get to this crisis? What might the future hold? How secure is Putin? Does this mark the passing of unipolar American hegemony, or not, and how should we understand imperialism today? As rival blocs spread carnage, socialist internationalism once again issues an urgent call to save the world from the flames.

CAPITALISM & THE APOCALYPSE: Mike Davis

As the profit system has spawned disaster after disaster, few analysts, pundits, or commentators can claim to have addressed the mounting number of catastrophes with as much insight or clarity as Mike Davis. And none have combined his unflinching honesty with an unwavering commitment to the necessity of a revolutionary break from our entire social system.

From his magisterial City of Quartz, to the more recent The Monster Enters, Davis has been cataloging and raging against capitalism’s slow burning (though rapidly accelerating) apocalypse(s) in his invaluable books for decades. He will join our Salvage LIVE hosts, Annie Olaloku-Teriba and Richard Seymour, for an urgent discussion of the crises we face, and what it means to confront them with eyes open and desolation in our hearts.

BEYOND THE RED WALL: Nation, Race, & Class with Jonas Marvin

In the aftermath of Corbyn’s Labour leadership, Britain’s Left is in disarray. In order to work out where we go from here, we must first understand where we are. In his recent Salvage essay, ‘Brexit From Below: Nation, Race and Class’, Jonas Marvin presented Britain’s recent crises as part of the long-term process of class decomposition in Britain.

For this Salvage LIVE event, Jonas Marvin, Annie Olaloku-Teriba, and Barnaby Raine will use this framework as a starting point to survey the prospects of the British Left post-Brexit and post-Corbyn.

THE TRAGEDY OF THE WORKER: Communism in the Age of Climate Catastrophe, with Richard Seymour and Rosie Warren

Facing irreversible climate change, the planet is en route to apocalypse. What does it mean to be a communist after we have hit a climate tipping point?

Annie Olaloku-Teriba and Barnaby Raine are joined by Richard Seymour and Rosie Warren, two members of the Salvage Collective, for a discussion of capitalism’s death drive, the left’s complicated entanglements with fossil fuels, the rising tide of fascism, and other themes related to the newly published Tragedy of the Worker. Amidst the ruins and future wreckage of climate catastrophe they argue that Salvage Communism is our only path toward a liberated future on a habitable planet. This discussion was co-hosted with Verso Books.

FORTRESS EUROPE, FORTRESS USA: How Borders Work, with Justin Akers and Chloe Haralambous

Contemporary capitalism relies heavily on an inter-connected working class which extends across borders. Cross-border production and supply chains, logistics networks, and retail and service firms have aligned and fused a growing number of workers into one common class, regardless of where they happen to live. While money moves without restriction, the movement of displaced migrant workers across borders is restricted and violently punished.

Annie Olaloku-Teriba is joined by Justin Akers and Chloe Haralambous to discuss the differences and similarities between Fortress USA and Fortress Europe, examine how to effectively dismantle their respective border regimes, and explain how borders work (and for whom).

DECOLONIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS: Kevin Ochieng Okoth

Decolonization has become a recurring subject in an endless stream of op-eds, think pieces, and books. Yet despite so much ink spent on the topic there seems to be little agreement on what exactly we want to achieve by ‘decolonizing’ something. How do contempary movements for decolonization – emerging almost exclusively from universities, museums and art institutions – relate to the aims and achievements of the national liberation movements that dismantled colonial states?

Annie Olaloku-Teriba and Barnaby Raine are joined by fellow Salvage editor Kevin Ochieng Okoth’s to discuss what today’s calls to decolonize can learn from the struggles that defeated imperial powers in the twentieth century.

TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY FASCISM IN THE US: Richard Seymour and Nikhil Pal Singh

In the absence of mass fascist parties, paramilitary organizations and civic associations, the new far right has congealed largely through social media. From Donald Trump’s unique role as a social industry agitator to the upsurge of armed white supremacist militias against Black Lives Matter, the question is whether the reactionary authoritarian mobs coalescing today represent an inchoate fascism, or the dying convulsions of declining sources of conservatism from whiteness to patriarchy.

Annie Olaloku-Teriba and Barnaby Raine are joined by fellow Salvage editor Richard Seymour and Nikhil Pal Singh to discuss how the left should understand today’s growing far right.

ACTING AS IF ONE IS ALREADY FREE: David Graeber’s Strategic Lessons for the Left, with Hannah Appel and James Meadway

The death of anarchist theorist and anthropologist David Graeber  – far too young – produced an outpouring of grief across the global Left. Occurring as it did, during the last quarter of a long, bleak year, with few prospects of dramatic improvements ahead, the loss of Graeber’s optimism not only of the will, but of the intellect, was felt as a body blow.

Annie Olaloku-Teriba and Barnaby Raine are joined by James Meadway – whose Salvage 9 piece explores Graeber’s thought in depth and Hannah Appel – David Graeber’s friend and collaborator – on the lessons offered to the Left by Graeber’s life and thought.