Marx Engels Lenin Institute

March Q&A Part 1

After giving our assessment of the Will Smith/Chris Rock Slap, we answer questions about declining US hegemony, Marxism-Leninism, and spirituality.

Potential New Series

We've been discussing the possibilities of doing and "ABC's" or Marxism series recently.  What we'd like to know from all of you is if this is something you be interested in us doing? It would...

Ukraine Update

Alex goes through the latest from the war in Ukraine covering the military aspects before moving onto look at the political and economic aspects.  

The paper by Simon Clarke that is refe...

Plastic Surgery and the Bottomless Pit of Alienation

In the weekend edition we look at the history of plastic surgery, why it developed, which layers in society have embraced it the most and why it has become ever more popular.  The answer as to...

"The economics of modern imperialism" by Michael Roberts

We review a recent essay by Michael Roberts who uses empirical methods to unveil the top imperialist powers of the day. We compare his approach to Tony Norfield's (author of The City: London and th...

Inflation, Long Depression and P&O Workers Struggle

In this episode we start off by examining the P&O Ferries dispute  before turning to look at the latest on inflation and the idea that we  are in a "long depression" since 2008. You c...

March Q&A!

We'll be doing another Q&A for patrons at the end of March. Leave your questions for us below!

Will the Sanctions on Russia work?

We go through the various sanction applied by the West on Russia to see whether they will work to deter Russian aggression against Ukraine.

The End of the New World Order? with Tara McCormack

s  the "rules based" international order collapsing? Has the Russian  action in Ukraine ended for good the period of the unipolar world? What  are we to make of President Vladimir Pu...

Reading Group March: Participation and Democratic Theory

Democracy. You've heard of it. Some people love it. Some people hate it. Wars are fought over it. 

But what is democracy anyways?

We are going to reading chapters of Carole Pateman...

The Great Imperial Carve Up - Livestream Audio from 02.03.21

This is the audio from a livestream done on March 2nd by Alex covering the implications of the 2007 speech by Putin to the Munich security conference where he outlined his change in Russian foreign...

Imperialism Update? What the Ukraine Invasion Means

We talk about whether Russia's invasion of Ukraine portends an end to US hegemony and a fatal blow to Poulantzas. We also reflect on the near unanimous pro-war stance taken by politicians in Canada...

Propaganda Wars in Ukraine w/ Kit Klarenburg

Early release!

We talk about the ongoing conflict in Ukraine with investigative journalist Kit Klarenburg, with an emphasis on the use of the media in shaping the stunning pro-war unanimity. ...

Interview With James Smith - Part 2

In the second part of our interview with James Smith, of The Popular Show, we look at the use and abuses of the term "fascism", the position of the petit bourgeoisie and the usefulness of the "left...

Interview With James Smith - Part 1

In which we speak to James Smith from @thepopularshow on everything from Covid to the Corbyn period.

This is part one of the interview, part 2 will be out for patrons next week.

Be su...

"As Workers Resist, the Left Recoils" w/ Edwin Aponte

We speak with the founder and editor of The Bellows, Edwin Aponte, about his piece analyzing the Left's failure to support or even commend the worker resistance against Covid vaccine mandates and C...

*Reading Group* Stalin: Critique of a Black Legend

Was Stalin good or bad? Yes.

We'll be reviewing portions of Domenico Losurdo's book, Stalin: The History and Critique of a Black Legend. The book is written in a r...

Canadian Border Blockade

We talk through some initial musings about the quickly-developing situation at the US-Canadian border with respect to the anti-mandate activists blockading the Ambassador Bridge, a key border cross...

Spectres of Fascism - Part 2

In the next part of our exploration of the conjuring up of the fascist spectre by bourgeois politicians we ask, who are the real fascists and which class produces them?

Spectres of Fascism - Part 1

With Justin Trudeau claiming that the truckers protest represented "unacceptable views" and the term "fascism" being we look at why so many bourgeois political figures are using this rhetoric. &nbs...

A Honking Good Time! w/ Gord Magill

We have Canadian trucker and political commentator Gord Magill on to discuss the ongoing trucker protest in Canada. Check out Gord' latest piece in Newsweek: 2022-02-03 06:21:24 +0000 UTC View Post

The Origins of Complicity w/ Denis Rancourt

We speak with Canadian physicist and social theorist Denis Rancourt about the lack of critical thinking in the general population, what's up with COVID "modelling" and more!

You can find Deni...

Ukraine & The Fall of NATO

In this episode we reflect on the latest developments in the Ukraine crisis.  To understand things further we look back over the period since the collapse of the USSR taking in the Kosovo war,...

*Early Release* Russia Invades Ukraine? w/ Scott Ritter

Early release for Patrons!

We sit with military analyst Scott Ritter to understand the whys and hows of a possible Russian offensive into Ukraine, and to understand the role of US and NATO in...

The Party is Over?

Is Boris Johnson finished? Has anyone in the British government been sober since 2019? Will Canada's supply chains or housing market collapse first? Is it a constitutional requirement for Supreme C...

*Reading Group* Plutocrats

Happy new year! For January's Reading Group, we are going to reviewing Canada's Finance Minister (and deputy Prime Minister) Chrystia Freeland's book "Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-R...

*Reading Group* The Great Reset

Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret have been accused of being globalists and supervillians . We investigate the charge by carefully reviewing their book "COVID-19: The Great Reset" (i.e. Exhibit A)<...

End of Year Q&A Part 3

In this the final installment of our end of year, Q&A spectacular we tackle more controversial subjects than ever before! The great reset, Stalin, Trotsky, State Capitalism, Cuba and the union ...

COVID in Paris w/ Dr. Laurent Mucchielli

We speak with sociologist and research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the largest basic research institute in Europe. Dr. Mucchielli has been critical of Fra...

End of Year Q&A Part 2

In the second part of our end of year, seasonal spectacular we tackle the next set of listeners questions.  This week we follow up on the discussion over the concept of patriotic socialism wit...