Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

#AllthatsLeftPod: Three Years Since the George Floyd Uprising:

In this episode of the podcast, we reflect on the 2020 George Floyd uprising, which began three years ago. We discuss how to turn the energy of a mass uprising into a sustained movement, and the kind of revolutionary leadership that’s required to do so.

Left Voice

May 25, 2023
Facebook Twitter Share
In this episode of the podcast, we reflect on the 2020 George Floyd uprising, which began three years ago. We discuss how to turn the energy of a mass uprising into a sustained movement, and the kind of revolutionary leadership that's required to do so.

Listen on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Online

*

Three years ago, on May 25, 2020, police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota killed George Floyd. Derek Chauvin pushed his knee onto his neck for almost 10 minutes while two other officers stood by. Floyd’s brutal murder was captured on camera and seen across the world. It sparked the largest protest movement in U.S. history. 

Millions of people took to the streets across the country, day after day, in thousands of cities. As protesters joined these huge demonstrations for Black lives across both Democratic- and Republican-controlled states, they faced brutal police repression and curfews.

In Minneapolis, protesters burned down a police station. In Seattle and New York, people set up encampments to demand the police get defunded. People tore down statues and monuments featuring slave owners and Confederate symbols. There were even international demonstrations showing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. 

Although the movement died down, it was not crushed. A whole generation was changed by these uprisings, and we see remnants of this movement in social and labor movements today.

In this episode, Oden speaks to two guests for a wide-ranging discussion about the 2020 uprising, its legacy, and what it means for the left and Black struggle. Jonathan Flatley is a professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan who is working on a book about black revolutionary moods. Tristan Taylor is a life-long Detroiter, a member of Left Voice, and is a founding member of the anti-racist, anti-police brutality group Detroit Will Breathe.

We try to tackle a key question: How do we turn the energy of a moment like the massive 2020 uprising into a sustained movement, and what kind of revolutionary leadership do we need to do so?

Listen to the episode on Spotify on Apple Podcasts.

Support this podcast on Patreon.

Facebook Twitter Share

Left Voice

Militant journalism, revolutionary politics.

Ideas & Debates

All That's Left, the podcast from Left Voice.

#AllThatsLeftPod: A Brief History of Anti-Zionist Jews

In this episode, we interview writer and historian Nathaniel Flakin about the history of socialist, anti-Zionist Jews.

Left Voice

November 16, 2023

Left Voice Magazine for November 2023

This issue includes two articles for the centennial of the "German October" of 1923. We also write about the feminist uprising in Iran, the UAW strike, and left-wing debates on Hamas.

Left Voice

November 14, 2023

1923: The Revolution Was Possible

What strategic lessons can we draw from the failed “German October”? An excerpt from the book “Socialist Strategy and Military Art.”

Emilio Albamonte

November 14, 2023

When History Failed to Turn

One hundred years ago, a communist uprising took place in Hamburg. But the revolution in the rest of Germany was canceled.

Doug Enaa Greene

November 14, 2023

MOST RECENT

Fact Check: Did German Leftists Try to Bomb West Berlin’s Jewish Community Center in 1969?

Answer: No. The bombing was undertaken by West Germany’s domestic secret service, originally founded by Nazis.

Nathaniel Flakin

November 29, 2023
Protesters in NYC for Palestinian liberation.

Uniting Workers for Palestine Is a Fight for the Future of Labor

The struggle for Palestine shows the potential for the rank and file to push unions to break with imperialism and to build a new, combative, and internationalist unionism.

Tatiana Cozzarelli

November 27, 2023
Haverford College student Kinnan Abdalhamid and Brown University students Tahseen Ahmed and Hisham Awartani, Palestinian college students who were shot in Burlington, Vermont.

Haverford Faculty for Justice in Palestine Releases Statement Supporting Pro-Palestinian Students

Haverford College Faculty for Justice in Palestine have published a statement following the shooting of three Palestinian students in Burlington, Vermont.

A Pause in Genocide Is Not Enough: Jewish Voice for Peace Shuts Down the Manhattan Bridge

Amid a pause in Israel’s offensive on Gaza, Jewish Voice for Peace is showing that the movement for Palestine will continue. Civil disobedience must lead to broad protests which bring all sectors of the movement together.

Samuel Karlin

November 26, 2023