Recently, Crimethinc announced a new project, The Ex-Worker. The Ex-Worker is a bi-weekly podcast that features news and discussion of interest to anarchists.

The first episode was released to coincide with May Day and has an interesting feature on the origins of May Day, specifically looking at Haymarket and the anarchist milieu in Chicago in the 1880s. The discussion isn’t confined just to history, but it also looks at the conflict over the how Haymarket is remembered, specifically in relation to how the Haymarket anarchists’ views have been moderated and reduced to a question “free speech” rather than revolution. It’s a phenomenon that has enabled the anarchists to be held up as revolutionary “heroes” by a wide array of groups from communists and progressives to anarchists. There’s also a profile of the Lucy Parsons Center, an infoshop in Boston, a review of the recently published Modern Slavery journal, and news and upcoming events.

Overall it’s a well-produced and interesting program and a welcome addition to anarchist media efforts.