In this episode, Oden speaks to Left Voice writer Maryam Alaniz about the revolt taking place in Iran. Maryam explains both what's happening and the broader context of the mass mobilizations, including the devastating economic effects of sanctions and popular uprisings in recent years. Importantly, we discuss the need for the Iranian working class to forge a way forward — independent of the repressive Khamenei regime and independent of imperialist powers like the U.S. which seek to install a puppet monarchy under Reza Pahlavi. A victory for the Iranian working class would reverberate across the region, and could be the foundation of genuine democracy, inseparable from the socialist reorganization of society.

Learn More:

- Iran: Against Repression and Imperialist Threats — for an Independent Path of the Working Class!

- “Workers Must Lead Fight for Liberation, Not Authoritarian Forms of Power or Foreign States”: Statement from Workers in Iran

- Revolt in Iran: Only Workers Can Turn the Tide Against Khamenei and Pahlavi

- Permanent Revolution in Iran

- Black Friday: The Massacre that Ignited a Revolution in Iran

Check out our episode about Venezuela.

Support this podcast on Patreon

Follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok as @left_voice and Facebook as @leftvoice. Follow us on Bluesky at leftvoice.bsky.social.

In this episode, Oden speaks to Left Voice editor Samuel Karlin about President Trump's attacks on Venezuela. Sam explains how these escalations are about U.S. imperialism — not drug trafficking — and about reasserting U.S. hegemony in Latin America. We also discuss Republicans' and Democrats' responses, and the ways in which imperialism is bipartisan. Importantly, we talk about the tasks for the international working class. Liberation for Latin America and the defeat of U.S. imperialism in the region can only come from international, working-class unity, without supporting repressive, anti-worker governments like that of Nicolás Maduro. Workers make the economy and imperialism run, which means that we can grind imperialism to a halt.

Learn More:
- U.S. Attacks on Venezuela Are a Threat to All of Latin America and the Caribbean

- Trump Doesn't Care About Drug Trafficking, He Cares About Domination

- Hegseth Threatens Greater Military Aggression in Latin America with Operation Southern Spear

- What the PSL (and the Campist Left) Gets Wrong About Venezuela

Check out our episode about U.S. imperialism in Mexico on Spotify or Apple.

Support this podcast on Patreon

Follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok as @left_voice and Facebook as @leftvoice. Follow us on Bluesky at leftvoice.bsky.social.

In this episode, Oden talks to rank-and-file union member and college professor Jason Koslowski about Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's book Abundance, and the roadmap it puts forward for the crisis-ridden Democratic Party. They discuss the problems with the authors' policy prescriptions, and the broader capitalist and imperialist crises motivating the book.

Abundance is already everywhere — it's just abundance for the bourgeoisie, at the expense of workers and the oppressed. Capitalist abundance, as advocated by Klein and Thompson, hinges on even more exploitation and immiseration for the working class, as well as greater ecological devastation.

However, the crises the book is trying to address holds an opening for the working class. We make society and the economy run, and we can fight to create a truly abundant world under socialism — one without private property, exploitation, oppression, borders, and ecological devastation. But this requires independent organization, without the Democratic Party and its capitalist abundance agenda.

Learn More:
- The Reactionary Patchwork of Abundance

- Left Voice Magazine: "The Mamdani Moment and the Fight Against the Far Right"

Support Left Voice on Patreon

Follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok as @left_voice, on Facebook as @leftvoice, and Bluesky at leftvoice.bsky.social.