In this episode, we play a presentation Ben Burgis gave at UC-Irvine on how to make sense of "elites" in Marxist class analysis (basically, are "the PMC" really a separate class, or part of the working class, or what), and then apply the point to thinking about some very bad recent criticisms of the DSA.

Read Ben's Jacobin article "DSA’s Critics Are Missing the Point About the Working Class":

https://jacobin.com/2026/07/class-politics-dsa-media-criticism

Read the transcript of the UC-Irvine talk (republished as "How Should We Fit Salaried "Elites" Into Marxist Class Analysis?") [NOTE: This is where the Erik Olin Wright diagram of fine-grained class positions referred to in the second chunk of the episode is, for anyone who wants to follow along with that]:

https://benburgis.substack.com/p/how-should-we-fit-salaried-elites?utm_source=publication-search

Pre-order Ben's book (co-written with Bhaskar Sunkara and Mike Beggs) "The Blueprint: How Socialism Can Work in the Real World") from worker-owned bookseller Red Emmas:

https://redemmas.org/titles/52310-the-blueprint-how-socialism-can-work-in-the-real-world/

Register to attend the book launch in September 29th in Los Angeles:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-blueprint-how-socialism-can-work-in-the-real-world-tickets-2001094549666

Or the event two days later in New York:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-blueprint-how-socialism-can-work-in-the-real-world-tickets-2001236203356

Follow Ben on Twitter @JacobinBen [NOTE: The previous account was hacked!]

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patreon.com/benburgis

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benburgis.substack.com