On July 30, 1975 James Riddle Hoffa, the once and-he hoped-future president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, was abducted and murdered. The body of never found. Hoffa's murder capped off a deadly open war between pro-Hoffa and mobbed-up anti-Hoffa forces for control of North America's largest union; a union that once had the power to shut down the continent's transportation network at the very dawn of neoliberalism.On this first episode of our Hoffa series, we take our listeners on an overview and discuss the contradictory figure of Hoffa: a red-baiting, corrupt, 'business unionist' who nevertheless believed that "capitalism is doomed" and that history might still prove his Trotskyist mentor right. A freewheeling friendly pragmatist, who would still not hesitate to use strikes, blockades, and a rogues gallery of specialized strong-arm  ...