PROLETKULT 13: eXpropriate SpaceX w/ Beka Valentine, Nick Chavez

The Antifada

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The Antifada sideproject about the paranormal, the parapolitical, science fiction, and science futurism returns to check in on the New Space Age! While the left typically perceives Elon Musk as an all-talk grifter, our guest Beka Valentine argues his Starship program will make many off-earth industries, like drug manufacturing and solar harvesting, inevitable through dramatically lowering the cost of launching to low-Earth orbit. Could his and Bezos's fantasies of colonies on the moon, Mars, or in asteroid belts be far behind?

If so, what happened to the late-2010s enthusiasm for "Fully Automated Luxury Space Communism"? Is the left now anti-space, and is that position leaving the future entirely in the hands of capitalists and imperialist states? In her new essay for Strange Matters, Valentine argues we should begin strategizing for this new era so we don't get stranded from Elysium.

Guest co-host Nick Chavez gives the engineer's perspective, and describes his critique of ME Obrien and Eman Abdelhadi's vision of expropriating a SpaceX-like factory in their speculative novel Everything for Everyone.

Beka Valentine's essay in Strange Matters: https://strangematters.coop/political-economy-of-near-future-space-industries/

Inside Musk's Starfactory: https://wccftech.com/spacex-is-using-robots-to-make-starship-rockets-in-texas-shows-footage/

Nick Chavez's review of Everything for Everyone: https://designformanufracture.com/2023/01/25/review-everything-for-everyone-an-oral-history-of-the-new-york-commune-2052-2072-by-m-e-obrien-and-eman-abdelhadi/

Don't Let Them Leave! zine: https://ia903003.us.archive.org/20/items/dontletthemleave/Dont-Let-Them-Leave-zine-unimposed%20.pdf

Past episodes of Proletkult: https://www.patreon.com/collection/87627 Song - Giorgio Moroder - Racer