From Alpha To Omega

This episode is a recording of a talk I gave called ‘Variety and Planning’ as part of INDEP’s Stafford Beer’s Centennial Online Talks series, in conjunction with Metaphorum. The talk is based upon research that Donal and myself have conducted for the book on the organisation of capitalist production

This episode we discuss a new blog post series of Donal about the book Supply Chain Science by Wallace J. Hopp and the implications for socialist planning. Donal's blog posts: https://theofficeforcontroloverresults.wordpress.com/2026/04/19/book-review-wallace-j-hopps-supply-chain-science-part-1/ htt

Yes, we are back with another book update! Donal and myself give the lowdown on our progress over the last year and bit. We go into the current state of the project and some glimpses at what to expect from the book. Book Project: https://theclasslesssocietyinmotion.com/

This episode I am delighted to have Chris Knight back with us on the podcast, to talk about the fall and further fall of Noam Chomsky. Chris is an anthropologist and senior research fellow in the Department of Anthropology at University College London (UCL), the activist, prolific author, and a foun

This episode we have part two of our discussion with Ferdia O’Driscoll, the host of the ‘Bright Age Beyond’ youtube channel, about Self Determination Theory, and why it matters for socialism. Bright Age Beyond: https://www.youtube.com/@BrightAgeBeyond Book Project: https://theclasslesssocietyinmotio

This episode I’m delighted to welcome my friend and collaborator Ferdia O’Driscoll to the podcast for the first time. Ferdia is a radical socialist, host of the ‘Bright Age Beyond’ formerly the After the Oligarchy youtube channel. Ferdia is currently writing a book about Parecon with his co-author A

This episode I’m delighted to welcome David Camfield podcast to talk about his recent book ‘Red Flags - A Reckoning With Communism For The Future Of The Left’. David is a professor in the Labour Studies Program and the Department of Sociology and Criminology, at the University of Manitoba. He is als

Going to try one of those Youtube premiere things today @ 2pm London time for the Q&A video. Join me in the chat and the comments. I got a lot of slides prepared! (169......) #222 Unifying Cybernetics & Marxism - Your Questions Answered (YouTube)

This is a re-recording of a talk I gave recently at the 'Complex Anarchism Symposium' in Brussels Belgium this May. I present some research from the book we are writing about socialist political economy and planning, where we unify the fields of Marx's value theory and cybernetics. We discuss the sc

We continue our discussion with Paul S. Adler, this time about his 2019 book “The 99% Economy: How Democratic Socialism Can Overcome the Crises of Capitalism”. In particular we talk about how capitalist firms are helping to show us how democratically planning in socialism would work. We also discuss

We interview Prof. Adler about his 1990 paper 'Marx, Machines, and Skill'. This is part one of a two part conversation.

This week we continue our conversation with Anna Fielder about her recent book ‘Going Into Labour: Childbirth in Capitalism’. Anna is a sociologist in the Midwifery Department, Auckland University of Technology and a former practicing midwife. https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745349497/going-into-labo

This episode I’m delighted to welcome Anna Fielder to the podcast to talk about her recent book ‘Going Into Labour: Childbirth in Capitalism’. Anna Fielder is a sociologist in the Midwifery Department, Auckland University of Technology and a former practicing midwife. https://www.plutobooks.com/9780

This we continue with our discussion with Roger Arevalo to the podcast to talk about the Vanguard method, the brainchild of the British management consultant John Seddon. Next week i will be giving a talk at the innaugral Complex Anarchism Symposium in Brussels, about a unifying value theory and cyb

This episode we welcome Roger Arevalo to the podcast to talk about the Vanguard method, the brainchild of the British management consultant John Seddon. Roger is an admirer of the Vanguard Method and argues for its applicability for a socialist economy. Book Project: https://theclasslesssocietyinmot

This we continue with our discussion with Matt Vidal about his recent book Management Divided: Contradictions of Labor Management, a marxist analysis of Lean production. Book Project: https://theclasslesssocietyinmotion.com/

This episode we welcome Matt Vidal to the podcast to talk about his recent book Management Divided: Contradictions of Labor Management, a marxist analysis of Lean production. Matt is a Reader in Sociology and Political Economy, in the Institute for International Management and Entrepreneurship at Lo

Here is the Q&A of the talk I recently gave to the Dutch socialist group, De Socialisten in conjuction with INDEP. Enjoy!

Hi Patrons! Sorry about the low output recently. Here is a video of a talk I recently gave on "Cybernetic Socialism In The 21st Century". This was at the invitation of the Dutch marxist group 'De Socialisten' (https://socialisten.org/) in conjunction with INDEP (https://www.indep.network/). Enjoy!

We give a detailed update on our book progress, replete with Q&A from the chat. https://theclasslesssocietyinmotion.com/

Join us on youtube with your questions @ 17:00 London / 13:00 EST https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E63zMEeh6Tw

This week we have part-two of our discussion with my co-author Donal O’Coisdealbha on the Toyota Production System, and its implications for socialism. You can find some of Donal’s writings on his blog called the office for control over results. Donals blog: https://theofficeforcontroloverresults.wo

This week we have the first of a two-parter with my co-author Donal O’Coisdealbha on the Toyota Production System, and its implications for socialism. Donal has recently started a blog for those interested in the TPS and such topics as statistical process control, control systems engineering, operat

This week we welcome Tomas Hardin to the show to talk about his thoughts on socialist planning. You can check out his blog “Tomas’ place in cyberspace” where he recently published a post on “Co-simulation and Feedforward Planning”. Blog post: https://www.xn--hrdin-gra.se/blog/2024/04/14/co-simulatio

This week I am delighted to welcome Nick Rogers to the podcast to talk about his recent paper “Reflections on the Economics of Socialism” that he wrote for a recent special issue of the Journal of Global Faultlines. Nicks Paper: https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/jglobfaul.9.2.

Hello and welcome to part 32 of our Understanding Class Series. Today is Monday 26th February 2024, and I’m your host Tom O’Brien. We finish our discussion of Chapter 9 - “Is the Precariat a Class''. Da Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oNY1SPxFk0Xg-NndRJPh0l_cOWyLMOGY6rFhC0zGIyc/edit?

Hey all! Was thinking of running a patron reading group of Marx's 'Civil War in France'. Most likely it would run each Sunday afternoon and would be edited up and released later as a podcast episode. Would people be interested in taking in part in such a thing? It is only about 35 pages long, and wo

Donal and I host a livestream where we talk all about the progress of our socialist planning book. https://theclasslesssocietyinmotion.com/

Join Donal and myself as we give an update on the progress we are making in writing our communist planning book! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TJk6Ln6PZM

We continue our discussion with Geoffrey Bell about his book ‘The Twilight of Unionism: Ulster and Future of Northern Ireland’.

This week I am delighted to welcome Geoffrey Bell to the show, to discuss his book ‘The Twilight of Unionism: Ulster and Future of Northern Ireland’.

This week Donal and myself discuss a really excellent book we recently read on the socialist calculation debate. The book is called Rivalry and Central Planning, and is written by the Austrian economist Don Lavoie. The Book Project: https://theclasslesssocietyinmotion.com/ Patreon: https://www.patre

We welcome Peter Åström to the podcast, to discuss an article he recently wrote for the Riff-Raff journal. Riff-raff describes itself as a ‘journal for a theoretical discussion of communism as a real movement’. The article: http://www.riff-raff.se/texts/en/the-commodity-and-communism The book projec

We continue our discussion of Chapter 9 - “Is the Precariat a Class''. Our socialist planning book project: theclasslesssocietyinmotion.com

We continue our discussion of LL Mens "The Capitalist Nature of the 'Socialist' Countries: A Politico-Economic Analysis".

Today Donal and myself discuss an amazing text by the little known Hong Kong based Left Communist L.L. Men. You can download the text from libcom.org here: https://libcom.org/article/ll-men-two-texts-defining-communist-programme The self-publishing friendly version of the pdf: https://drive.google.c

We start our discussion of Chapter 9 - “Is the Precariat a Class''. Book Project: theclasslesssocietyinmotion.com. The slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oNY1SPxFk0Xg-NndRJPh0l_cOWyLMOGY6rFhC0zGIyc/edit?usp=share_link

We continue our discussion of Chapter 8 - “The Death of Class Debate''. Druken Russian Miners: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgnmWYy-9ds&ab_channel=JustBenii Socialist planning book: https://theclasslesssocietyinmotion.com/ Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oNY1SPxFk0Xg-NndRJPh0l_cOW

We are delighted welcome back Prof. Peter Hudis to the show to talk about the introduction he wrote for the new edition of the Critique of the Gotha Program by PM Press. Critique of the Gotha Program (PM Press): https://pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1241 Book Project: https://theclassless

We welcome back Donal to the show, to talk about a paper he wrote for the new radical journal - The Black Lamp. The paper is called: ‘Viability Guided Decision Making: Modelling organisations using Viability Guided Decision Making’ It’s a very interesting paper which proposes a novel approach to fai

We continue our discussion of Chapter 8 - “The Death of Class Debate''. The Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oNY1SPxFk0Xg-NndRJPh0l_cOWyLMOGY6rFhC0zGIyc/edit?usp=share_link

We talk with Dr. Sara Swerdlyk about Rosa Luxemburg’s Mass Strike. Sara has a PhD from the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at the Central European University and works for Between the Lines, a leftist book press based out of Toronto. https://btlbooks.com/

We continue Chapter 8 - “The Death of Class Debate''. The Planning Book Project: http://theclasslesssocietyinmotion.com The slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oNY1SPxFk0Xg-NndRJPh0l_cOWyLMOGY6rFhC0zGIyc/edit?usp=share_link

We begin Chapter 8 - “The Death of Class Debate''. The slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oNY1SPxFk0Xg-NndRJPh0l_cOWyLMOGY6rFhC0zGIyc/edit?usp=share_link

We continue our conversation with Professer Thomas Uebel to the show to talk all about Otto Neurath and his impact on economic theory, the socialist calculation debate, and socialist planning. Planning Book Website: https://theclasslesssocietyinmotion.com/

This week I’m really delighted to welcome Professer Thomas Uebel to the show to talk all about Otto Neurath and his impact on economic theory, the socialist calculation debate, and socialist planning.

Part two of our conversation with Pat Devine on his thoughts about socialist planning.

This week I’m delighted to welcome Pat Devine to the show. Pat is an honorary research fellow at Manchester University and the author of ‘Democracy and Economic Planning: The Political Economy of a Self-Governing Society’.

We begin Chapter 7 - “The Ambiguities of Class in Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century''. Socialist Planning Book: https://theclasslesssocietyinmotion.com/ Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1H22tkE7UmVQWgRPC_vt3GpCLCVZM5JmzA6SQ2-3qVLk/edit?usp=share_link

We continue our discussion Ed George from the Ed George’s Reading Marx Blog. We talk about a paper Ed wrote about long waves in history and what they mean for revolutionary action. The paper we discuss: https://edgeorgesotherblog.wordpress.com/2013/01/18/through-what-stage-are-we-passing/ Reading Ma