The State of Left Ideological Infrastructure, with Johanna Bozuwa, Corinne Blalock, and Daniel Denvir

This episode continues the series on “What We’re Building” - the most relevant and necessary work happening on the US Left today. Immanuel Wallerstein, the sociologist behind World-Systems Theory, wrote: "The key problem for the Global Left is not its organization, however important that be. The key problem is lucidity."

William is joined this episode by three guests who are working to develop a more lucid understanding of reality and what to do about it. Together they explore the Left's own ideological infrastructure - the ideas we’re developing, and the means of disseminating them.

This episode's guests include:

• Johanna Bozuwa of the Climate and Community Project, a leading climate justice think tank doing the grunt work of building policy for a Green New Deal.
• Corinne Blalock of the Law & Political Economy Project, a network of progressive legal scholars seeking to transform our understanding of the law in order to change it.
• Daniel Denvir of The Dig podcast, whose famously vast archives contain many hours of content on just about any topic of relevance to the contemporary left.

In the discussion they engage the righ-wing economic foundation still leading the academic and policy-making world, the role of the law and courts in our current poly-crisis, and the strategic engagement needed for change. They explore how each guest navigates left terminology in the unique spaces and audiences they find themselves communicating with: When and where are we identifying as "the Left"? Or "Marxist"? Or "Progressive"? And why? The podcast also delves into the importance of good faith, "closed-door" conversations with comrades to develop political education and unity around challenging ideas as well as how respectful and balanced dialogues can be facilitated within those spaces.

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