Please drop your questions here, in preparation for the author's arrival.
Max Ajl
Max Ajl is a doctoral student in Development Sociology at Cornell University. He currently is based in Tunis, where he is doing his dissertation research on state agricultural development policy and the politics of price fixing during the era of state-directed development and the transition to capitalist agriculture in the countryside. His fields of expertise include comparative international development, political economy of social change, world-systems theory, Middle East political economy, and rural political economy. His academic writing has been published in many venues, including Historical Materialism, MERIP, and the Journal of Palestine Studies. He has presented at universities in Tunisia and across North America, including at Cornell, Columbia, and the University of California – Berkeley. He co-edits the Palestine page at Jadaliyya.
Topics of Interest:Rural Sociology, World-Systems Theory, Political Economy, Historical Sociology, Agrarian Change, the Politics of the Global Food System, Ecological Economics, Development Theory, Colonialism, US Foreign PolicyCountries/Regions of Interest:Tunisia, Israel/Palestine, the United States
Book Summary
Max Ajl – ‘A People’s Green New Deal’. The idea of a Green New Deal has become a watchword in the current era of global climate crisis. But what - and for whom - is the Green New Deal? In this concise book, Max Ajl provides an overview of the various mainstream Green New Deals. Critically engaging with their proponents, their ideological underpinnings, and their limitations. Ajl goes on to sketch out a radical alternative: a ‘People’s Green New Deal’ committed to decommodification, working-class power, anti-imperialism and agro-ecology.
Apperances
Millenials are killing capitalism
Video -GREEN NEW DEAL: Max Ajl and Kali Akuno
Video - Only Anti-Imperialism Can Save Us From Climate Catastrophe, With Max Ajl
Other Writings
Monthly Review
AMA Session is over, thank you everyone who participated and left preparatory questions. Thank you, once again to, Max Ajl for coming on and answering our questions.
I hope this was an insightful and educational session. Ya'll have a great weekend <3 to all comrades!
What should we be looking for in the organizational form, a more central/party model ala MLs or should we be thinking decentralized cells that can successfully demand/enact change but if one falls, the rest can still struggle on?
I have also been noticing a lot more political propaganda in places you previously would not have seen. So I hope the elites are shitting their breeches. What do you think we might see in the next few years, regarding bait&switch, bribes, or political repressions of political consciousness or political movements?
I have no idea. I'm sympathetic to the party form and am not sure there is an alternative which has surpassed it in terms of changing the world. The Venezuela commune model is also important to learn from.
I would expect in the coming years (although it is already happening) there will be intensive organizational disruption of any functioning or healthy formations. There are also billions of foundation money flowing in to try to decapitate all popular movements and rope them into the Dem Party.
We vote on books, but I will make sure to advocate for Building the Commune and several other books on the Venezuelan socialist movement as it is near and dear to my heart. Thank you :D
I would check out this beautiful book from Venezuela Analysis, Monthly Review, I feel like both VA and this book aren't circulating amongst activists as I would have expected, but there's no better place to learn about the ongoing Bolivarian process, and the book is great (I have a review coming out sometime in the next year....) https://monthlyreview.org/product/venezuela_the_present_as_struggle/
They also had an interview with Millenials Are Killing Capitalism, I heard their interview! It is definitely in my TBR.