The Myths of JFK!

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In this episode, we go myth busting. Our target is “Camelot” itself.

It’s the 60th anniversary of the election of John F. Kennedy and since his untimely death in 1963, he has been elevated to liberal sainthood by all parts of the establishment. We discuss JFK’s legacy, and debunk the many enduring lies that people–from Oliver Stone to QAnon to today’s liberal scholars and media– still believe about John Kennedy’s saintly acts, whose politics have lived on in Clinton, Obama, and now Joe Biden.

Listen in: https://bit.ly/MythsofJFKGandR

We get into John and Robert Kennedy’s relationship with the red-baiting Joe McCarthy; and JFK’s role as a  civil rights “hero” (while simultaneously wire-tapping Martin Luther King).  We also pierce the myth, perpetuated by Oliver Stone’s film “JFK”,  that Kennedy wanted to withdraw troops from Vietnam and end the Cold  War.

December 20th is also the 29th anniversary of the release of Oliver Stone’s film and we take particular aim at its falsehoods.

Challenging Nancy Pelosi with Shahid Buttar

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In this episode, we talk with progressive congressional candidate Shahid Buttar about his challenging of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the 2020 election. We discuss the history of Pelosi’s rise, the San Francisco “progressive prevention” coalition of San Francisco and the recent attacks on the “Squad” by centrist Democrats. We then talk about Shahid’s other work as a constitutional lawyer around digital liberties and dangers we’re all facing from the surveillance state.

Listen here:https://bit.ly/ShahidGandR

#TDIH: The Wobblies Start the First-Ever Sit-Down Strike in 1906

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In 1906, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) began the first ever sit down strike at the General Electric plant in Schenectady, New York

Three thousand IWW members stopped work at a General Electric plant by remaining seated in the building. This action was taken in response to the firing of three IWW members and the company’s refusal to rehire them. This is the first record of a sit-down strike of the 20th Century. When management called in scabs, the striking workers stood in place and took control of the machinery, making it impossible for the plant to be run by scabs.

One of the principal organizers of the action was the famous Irish Marxist, James Connolly.

An IWW leaflet retorted, “…the question of numbers does not enter into the matter. For the simple reason that if discrimination is permitted in one case. Who then can feel protected? The principle of organization is that protection reaches down to the last man.”

#TDIH: UK Police Evict First Ever Anti-Roads Protest Camp in Twyford Down

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cross-posted from G&R’s Facebook page

pics via the Guardian UK
On December 9th in 1992, protestors were evicted from the first anti-roads camp in Twyford Down, UK.
Twyford Down is an area of chalk downland lying directly to the southeast of Winchester, Hampshire, England next to St. Catherine’s Hill and close to the South Downs National Park.
In 1991, the down was the site of a major anti-road protests against a section of the M3 motorway from London to the south coast of England. There had been plans since the 1970s to replace the 1930s Winchester bypass which was regularly congested. There had been environmental resistance to those plans since the 1970s as well.
The principal arguments of the protesters were their concern about making wildlife species, such as the Chalkhill Blue butterfly, extinct, putting a highly visible scar on the landscape, and that they believed the new motorway would not adequately resolve traffic problems.

Alternative Radio’s David Barsamian on the New Media Landscape, ReTargeting Iran and Noam Chomsky

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Before the internet was a thing, before social media ruled our lives and before there were a million podcasts talking about about left politics, David Barsamian through Alternative Radio brought the voices of radical thinkers like Noam Chomsky, Howard Zimm and Arundhati Roy into our lives through Alternative Radio.

Listen: https://bit.ly/BarsamianGandR

In this episode, we’re over-the-moon excited to talk to Alternative Radio’s founder David Barsamian about his new book ReTargeting Iran, building Alternative Radio over the past 30+ years and working with Noam Chomsky. We discuss the importance of independent media and he tells us that Green and Red is “welcome intervention into the media landscape.” We also talk about the politics around Iran, the middle east and his new book. And since it is the week of Noam Chomsky’s 92nd birthday, we ask David to share some of his favorite recollections of the world’s top public intellectual.

Noam Chomsky’s Life of Dissent with Prof. Clinton Fernandes

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Today is Noam Chomsky’s 92nd birthday.  In this special episode, Bob goes solo and interviews Prof. Clinton Fernandes of the University of New South Wales, Australia about the influence of radical thinker, author, political commentator and activist Noam Chomsky, in particular with regard to the Indonesian occupation of East Timor and the American air war on Laos.

Listen here:https://bit.ly/NoamChomskyDayGandR

Professor Clinton Fernandes is a former Australian Army officer who  served in the Australian Intelligence Corps. A professor at the  University of New South Wales, Australia, he has published on the  relationship between science, diplomacy and international law,  intelligence operations in foreign policy, the political and regulatory  implications of new technology and Australia’s external relations more  generally. He is the author of several publications including “Island  off the Coast of Asia: Instruments of Statecraft in Australian Foreign  Policy,”  and “What Uncle Sam Wants: U.S. Foreign Policy Objectives in  Australia and Beyond.” 

December 7th, a date of infamy for East Timor…….

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cross-posted from Afflict the Comfortable

On December 7th, 1975, Indonesia invaded East Timor, the first step in what would become a brutal 24-year occupation in which it would kill over 210,000 East Timorese, over 30 percent of the population, with significant U.S. support throughout the entire period.

Up to April 1974, “Portuguese Timor” was a colonial outpost of the central government in Lisbon, but then the left-wing “Carnation Revolution” occurred and Portugal withdrew its administrators and troops from East Timor (and Mozambique and Angola). West Timor was under Indonesian control.

“Meeting People Where They Are At” with Alex from Laborwave Radio

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What’s it gonna take to build a better world when 74 million people voted for Trump?

Listen in here: https://bit.ly/laborwaveradioGandR

In this episode, we dive deep into this question with Alex Riccio, host of the podcast Laborwave Radio (@LaborwaveRadio). We talk about workplace organizing, meeting people where they  are at, imagining the world “Beyond the Revolution” and much more.

Alex is the host and producer of Laborwave Radio. He also is a labor organizer and sometimes a writer.

State murders of Nuns in El Salvador and Fred Hampton–repression at home and abroad.

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[Partial rushed transcript below]

In this episode, we get into the politics of U.S. repression of dissent to its politics foreign and domestically. Bob and Scott talk about the anniversary of the Maryknoll sisters’ murder in El Salvador in 1980, and the assassination of Chicago Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in 1969.

Listen in: https://bit.ly/AgentsofRepressionGandR

We discuss these horrific state-sponsored murders, and show how the U.S. military-imperial state operates when it believes its interests are challenged–be it by nuns in Central America or Black activists in Chicago. And it will remind you that Trump is not uniquely evil.  Reagan defended and covered for the terror squads in El Salvador.

This is What Democracy Looks Like. The WTO Shutdown 21 Years Later.

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photo: Stephanie Greenwood

cross-posted from G&R

In 2020, as crises around COVID-19, a crashing economy, climate change and a racist police state crash into one another, and mass uprisings in the U.S. fight back against the crisis and the power elite behind them, I look back both at movement moments of the past and the current wave of global uprisings we’ve seen in the last year in places like Chile, Paris, Hong Kong, Beirut and elsewhere for how to move forward in these dangerous times.

This day in history, 21 years ago today, masses of people organizing under the umbrella of the Direct Action Network (DAN) blockaded and shutdown the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the streets of Seattle.