Old Mole Jan Haaken talks with Alan Wieder about the film "Searching for Sugar Man", now playing in Portland.  The film tells two stories: one about the US rock singer known as Rodriguez who became popular and politically influential in South Africa but forgotten in his own country; and the story of South Africa in the apartheid era.  

Leo Panitch is a Distinguished Research Professor at York University, renowned political economist, Marxist theorist and editor of the Socialist Register.   He is the co-author, along with Sam Gindin who appeared on last week's Old Mole,  of The Making of Global Capitalism -- and many other works.  They discuss the outdated idea that European nations are generous welfare states and the future of resistance to austerity measures engineered by neo-liberal governments.  

 Should we heap scorn on people who try to live on public assistance like food stamps while making art?  A recent article on Salon, and especially the readers' comments, indicated how strongly many working-class people feel about living well on the dole.  Here Old Mole Joe Clement reads a piece by Peter Frase from Jacobin Magazine arguing that everyone should have the right not to work for wages and be paid for the work everyone does to maintain family and community life.  

 The death of historian and novelist Alexander Saxton led Old Mole Tom Becker to reflections on Saxton's long life as a radical activist and historian of race and labor.  Saxton is the author of The Indispensable Enemy: Labor and the Anti-Chinese Movement in California and other works.  

Tom Becker hosts this show about the search for a vanished but popular musician, living shamelessly on public assistance, the demise of the European welfare state, and remembering a radical historian and activist. 

To hear the whole show, use the play button below.  To hear individual segments, follow these links:

1.  Movie Moles Jan Haaken and Alan Wieder discuss the current film "Looking for Sugar Man."