54. The Fascist Thinks He Was Cheated w/ Max Haiven

Michael Löwy is a veteran Marxist sociologist and ecosocialist, and a long-time scholar of revolutionary movements. I spoke with him on October 15, two days before the October 17 national mobilization in France. I asked Michael how the high school uprising compares with May 1968, and he described a mass movement that began from concrete material conditions: missing teachers, schools without furniture, crumbling walls, and classrooms ill-equipped for deadly summer heat. This movement has grown into a broader revolt against a government that refuses to tax the rich while it increases funding for the military. We discuss why the street rhetoric is antifascist, why he finds the government’s attempt to blame La France Insoumise not credible, and why schools and tenant unions show that class struggle extends beyond the factory. He tells me how he supports the students blockading the university across from his apartment, and gives his advice to parents. For more timeline and context, scroll back to Episode 52 with Danielle Duncan. Socials

On September 18, students at a suburban Paris high school went on strike against deplorable conditions and in solidarity with their underpaid teachers. Within weeks, high school students across France were blockading their schools over faculty shortages, crumbling buildings, overloaded classes and Parcoursup, the algorithmic placement system that chooses professional pathways for them at 15. By October 17, the children-led revolt had drawn up to 800,000 people into the streets alongside university students, unions and veterans of the gilets jaunes. They were met with brutal militarized police force. I spoke with Danielle Duncan, an American professor of Internet culture and English in Paris, on October 15. She walks me through the stratified French school system, conditions in the banlieues, the memes mocking police infiltration, why the street rhetoric is antifascist, and who in French politics is speaking to the moment. I open with a timeline through October 20 and close on how reactionary centrists are reframing the uprising as a story about property damage and "ultra-left violence". My interview with Michael Löwy on the same topic but from a revolutionary history perspective, is up on Patreon now. Socials

Another TO election episode, gearing up for October 26! Diana Yoon is running for Toronto City Council in University-Rosedale. Yoon came to tenant organizing through climate work, helping ACORN secure a climate grant to survey tenants before and after energy retrofits, and later joined the board of the Federation of Metro Tenants’ Associations. Her professional work is in co-op housing policy, including the federal Co-op Housing Development Program. We also talk about what she hears about homelessness at the door, and why she rejects jails and involuntary treatment as responses. I bring her a puzzle from Etobicoke: city land at 5207 Dundas West, leased to Tricon and Kilmer on confidential terms, where the “affordable” units are priced at up to full average market rent. What's going on with Toronto housing, and what can socialists do about it?

Many cities on Turtle Island are hoping Mamdani fever comes to town. But Toronto is seriously considering rolling out the red carpet for a right wing populist climbing in the polls. I'm joined by Inori Roy, Features Editor at The Local, to discuss her in-depth profile of Toronto mayoral candidate Brad Bradford, published just 2 weeks before the October 26 election. We discuss her data-first method, the weaknesses of Canadian investigative journalism, the gap between feelings and facts about crime in Toronto, and Bradford's shift from bike-lane councillor to right-wing fear-monger. We cover allegations from former staffers, the campaign's response, his Al-Quds Day stance and pro-Israel base, and whether his campaign represents a backlash to the Mamdani model of municipal politics. Inori Roy is a Toronto-based journalist and Features Editor at The Local. She holds a Master's in investigative journalism from City University of London. She has led data-driven investigations into long-term care and road safety, and her work has appeared in The Walrus, the Toronto Star, The Narwhal, Unearthed, and CBC. Sources Brad Bradford Seems Angry—He’s Betting Torontonians Are Too (The Local) Inori Roy’s work at The Local Who’s Actually Running Ontario’s Long-Term Care Homes? (The Local) Who Is Watching Over Ontario’s Most Vulnerable Seniors? (The Local) The Deadly Inequality of Toronto’s Vision Zero Rollout (The Local) Toronto Police Service shootings dashboards Toronto’s Al-Quds rally goes ahead after judge dismisses Ontario’s injunction bid (CP24) Toronto council passes bubble zone bylaw restricting protests (The CJN) Max Haiven, The Player and the Played: From Gamed Capitalism to 21st-Century Fascism (MIT Press, open access) Socials

On September 20th, Yom Kippur, Canadian Army veteran Sean Ward opened fire outside the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ontario. An hour later, and before the first news report, NDP leader Avi Lewis posted a personal prayer of atonement, reflecting on how antizionist Jews had failed to stop a genocide committed in the name of Jewish safety. I trace how pro-Israel commentators, Liberal MPs and the Globe and Mail linked Lewis's prayer to the shooting, even as reporting showed Ward was likely a second-wave QAnon antivax conspiracist who appeared to blame Jews for COVID. I also look at CBC anchor Neil Herland's twisted account of a protest against Mark Regev, Public Safety Canada's new conflation of antizionism with antisemitism, and Yoni Goldstein's National Post column, which broadcast a thinly-veiled call for vigilante violence against Lewis. If you're a progressive or leftist and you haven't yet lent a hand (in whatever way you can) to your fellow Palestinians and antizionist Jews, now's the time. Because right now, attacking critics of Israel as antisemitic is becoming indistinguishable from attacking the political alternative to capitalism and imperialism, at this precarious moment for the climate and ourselves.