Emancipations explores the intersection of Marxism, politics and philosophy. Hosted by Daniel Tutt. Join our study groups and support us at https://www.patreon.com/c/emancipations
A Marxist History of Slavery and Capitalism (feat. David McNally)
Was Atlantic slavery a capitalist system or a pre-capitalist system? If we understand Atlantic slavery (16th - 19th centuries) as a distinct capitalist system of domination, what does this tell us about capitalism as such, and what does it tell us bout how slavery was overthrown and eventually abolished? My guest, David McNally has written a provocative and important new book entitled Slavery and Capitalism that argues enslaved people formed a modern working class whose resistance was a form of labor struggle.
We discuss the concepts of slavery as imposing a form of "social death," and how McNally understands enslaved workers as a category of labor power responsible for generating surplus value. We also revisit the legacy of Eugene Genovese, the prominent neo-Gramscian historian and the debates he raised over rebellion and cultural resistance among the enslaved in the Antebellum South. We address the importance of the historical field known as "history from below" to understand slave rebellions and the wider historical period of slavery as well as the work of WEB Du Bois and CLR James and what they contribute to our wider understanding of the history of slavery. The main thematic areas we address in this discussion include:
The new history of capitalism and its blind spot in terms of the history of slavery.
Slavery and capitalist value as Marx understood value and the wider categories in Marx's Capital.
Personhood vs. labor power--the concept of "social death" and how to understand subaltern agency.
Slave revolts, resistance and the shortcomings of Eugene Genovese's theory of paternalism, developed in his landmark book Roll, Jordan, Roll.
The concept of the "chattel proletariat" and what it implies in terms of Marxist categories of labor.
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David McNally is an activist and the NEH Cullen Distinguished Professor of History and Business at the University of Houston. He was a professor of Political Science at York University in Toronto, Ontario from 1983 to 2018, and was chair of the university's Department of Political Science for several years. He is the author of many books and scholarly articles and the winner of the 2012 Deutscher Memorial Award and the 2012 Paul Sweezy Award. -
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To learn more about supporting my work, please become a paid Patreon member at www.patreon.com/emancipations
#juneteenth #emancipationspodcast
I'm joined by Marxist philosopher Kaveh Boveiri to discuss the concept of totality in Hegel and Marx. The center of our conversation is Dr. Boveiri's new book Marxian Totality: Inverting Hegel to Expound Worldly Matters. We also address the war on Iran and how the Iranian left is responding to US and Israel imperialism.
We begin by addressing the misconceptions of totality in atomistic rationalism and organicist conceptions before moving to a discussion on Hegel's concept of totality from the Science of Logic, Lukács's idea of totality in History and Class Consciousness, and we introduce the thought of Karel Kosík and his concept of concrete totality. We also discuss how Marx and Engels theorize totality from The German Ideology, Capital to the Grundrisse.
To learn more about getting a copy of Marxian Totality, please visit https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2685-marxian-totality
Kaveh Boveiri is an instructor and researcher in the Sociology department at the Université de Montréal (UdeM), where he previously earned his PhD in philosophy. He is also a researcher for the UNESCO Chair in the Philosophical Foundations of Justice and Democratic Society at UQAM.
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To learn more about supporting my work, please become a paid Patreon member at https://www.patreon.com/c/emancipations
8 Oct 2026
The Concept of the Drive in Psychoanalysis (feat. Andrew Flores)
I am joined by Andrew Flores, a Lacanian psychoanalyst in formation and host of The Parallax Viewer to discuss the psychoanalytic concept of the drive. In this wide-ranging discussion, we introduce the four key elements that make up the drive, we discuss its pre-history before Freud, and we elaborate on its importance in psychoanalytic thought more generally.
SUGGESTED READINGS:
Works by Freud
Three Essays on Sexuality, Ch. 2 on "infantile sexuality"
Instincts and their Vicissitudes
Beyond the Pleasure Principle
Works by Lacan:
Seminar II chapters 3 and 4 Seminar IV chapters 2, 3, and 7 Seminar VII: chapter 7,8, and 9 Seminar XI section on the Drive and Partial drives Seminar XVI: chapter 14, see "The Two Sides of Sublimation"
Other Work Mentioned:
Fred Moten, "Aunt Hester's Scream"
Philip Rieff, Freud, The Mind of the Moralist
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Thank you for your continued support of our work which allows me to bring you these discussions on seminal works in the history of Marxist thought and philosophy. If you find my work valuable, please become a Patron to gain early access to all of my interviews and videos and discounts on my public courses: https://www.patreon.com/c/emancipations
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Clara Mattei
Sudip Bhattacharya
Ian Szabo
Daniel Tutt
Conrad Hamilton
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