From Environmentalist to “Domestic Terrorist” with former Earth Liberation member Daniel McGowan

March 29, 2022Posted inanti-capitalism, Climate, Direct Action, Peoples' History

In the past ten years, we’ve also seen state repression of movements coming out of Occupy Wall Street, the Ferguson uprising, Standing Rock, Line 3 and various anti-Trump movements. Green and Red has had numerous episodes on radical movements and state repression of political movements from antifascists in Portland and Austin to water protectors at Line 3 to DAPL saboteur Jessica Reznicek.

Listen to our latest episode: apple.co/3nvkrqk

But, before that, we had the era known as the “Green Scare,” where radical environmental and animal rights activists were targeted by the “state” (corporations, politicians, law enforcement) for its anti-capitalist politics and escalating tactics that included sabotage, animal liberation, property destruction and arson. The FBI called their operation to stop these radical movements “Operation Backfire.” After 911, they labeled people taking action “domestic terrorists.” Congress passed corporate lobbyist written legislation, such as the Animal Enterprise Terror Act and the Patriot Act, to stop them.

Corporate America’s Mass Exodus from Russia w/ Pratap Chatterjee

March 24, 2022Posted inForeign Policy, Materialism and Economics

A mass of western companies are exiting Russia over the war in Ukraine.  This has included some major corporate heavyweights, including McDonald’s, Starbucks, Nike, Netflix, Apple, Visa, Coca-Cola, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Exxon, major western law firms and most major film distributors.

Listen in: https://apple.co/3qy13ud

Jeffry Sonnenfeld at the Yale School of Management compared it to the boycott of apartheid era South Africa. We’ve talked on past shows about the role that multinationals have played in the political economy. But have they developed a new conscience?

In our latest, we talk with investigative journalist and Executive Director of CorpWatch Pratap Chatterjee (@pchatterjee) about the latest round of corporate activism. We talk about who benefits, who’s being hurt and whether it’s having enough of an impact on Russia.

Making a Killing: Corporate Arms Makers and Ukraine with William Hartung

March 22, 2022Posted inForeign Policy, Materialism and Economics, politics

In December, the Pentagon got a $768 billion budget approved, despite the withdrawal from Afghanistan, with the aim to counter China and build Ukraine’s military strength. This has been a bonanza for arms makers like Raytheon, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Northrup Gruman.

Listen in: apple.co/3qn4ELx

Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes popped the champagne open when saying “…[W]e are seeing, I would say, opportunities for international sales. We just have to look to last week where we saw the drone attack in the UAE, which have attacked some of their other facilities. And of course, the tensions in Eastern Europe, the tensions in the South China Sea, all of those things are putting pressure on some of the defense spending over there. So I fully expect we’re going to see some benefit from it.”

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we saw a spike in these companies’ stock prices.

In our latest episode, we talk about arms manufacturers with William Hartung of the Quincy Institute. We discuss how the war in Ukraine, potential conflict in the South China Sea and wars in Yemen and other parts of the world are critical to their business model. We also talk about how the bureaucracy of the Pentagon and Washington D.C. gives these companies so much influence.

The U.S. Empire and Ukraine w/ Prof. Clinton Fernandes

March 15, 2022Posted inForeign Policy, politics

Our latest episode on the Ukraine is a wide-ranging conversation with our good friend Prof. Clinton Fernandes on the U.S. empire and Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine. We discuss Russia and Putin’s adventures in Georgia and Ukraine to the lack of strategic empathy from the West (particularly the U.S.). We break down the motives of the U.S. drive to expand NATO and encircle Russia, and the effect it has on global politics.

Listen to part one here: https://apple.co/3I9zY6v

Listen to Part Two Here: https://apple.co/3JlgYn7

We discuss the tensions in the South China Sea and the impact of the Ukraine conflict on Australia’s coming election. Finally, we get an update on Clinton’s law suit trying to get the Australian government to release documents showing intelligence agencies supporting Pinochet’s coup in Chile in 1973.

Media Release- A Long March to War: the U.S., Russia and Ukraine

March 14, 2022Posted inForeign Policy
University of Houston history professor available for media on the Russia-Ukraine war, the U.S. and NATO.
As Professor Buzzanco sees it, “the current conflict, clearly an act of aggression by Russia in violation of international law, also has to be observed in the context of a long confrontation with Russia since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.  Despite George H.W. Bush and James Baker promised the USSR that NATO would not expand eastward, the U.S. did that in the later 1990s, moving into ex-Soviet areas, which Russian leaders warned would be a “hostile act.”  The U.S. also invested heavily in the Russian economy and political system as ex-Soviet industries were nationalized.  Because of this, American power grew exponentially in areas adjacent to Russia, thus merging Vladimir Putin’s plan to expand Russian power aggressively with defense concerns of encirclement as NATO grew closer to Russia’s borders.  Now, as the Russian attacks are destroying Ukraine and killing innocent people, the need for negotiations based not just on Russia’s violation of international law but also the legacy of 30 years of political conflict with the U.S. is necessary to stop the bloodshed.”

Flying into the Danger Zone: Ukraine and the History of No-Fly Zones

March 6, 2022Posted inForeign Policy, Peoples' History

A new Reuters poll shows that 74% of Americans, with strong majorities from both parties, support a NATO no-fly zone over Ukraine as Russia continues to shell civilian areas and populations. The Biden Administration, Chair of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley, the head of NATO Jens Stoltenberg and politicians from across the political spectrum are opposed to any sort of intervention over the skies of Ukraine. The argument is that it’d lead to a wider war, and Russian leader Vladimir Putin has warned against it.

Listen in: https://apple.co/3sMCk6S

No-fly zones are only a recent historical development. Green and Red gets into that recent history starting with the aftermath of the first Gulf War when George H.W. Bush called on the Kurds in northern Iraq and the Shiites in southern Iraq to rise up and depose Saddam Hussein. Their subsequent slaughter by Saddam’s helicopter gunships led to the no-fly zones. We also discuss no-fly zones in the Balkan wars and the 2016 debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump over a no-fly zone in Syria.

War Pigs: Ukraine and the History of the Military-Industrial Complex

March 4, 2022Posted inForeign Policy, Peoples' History

Recently, Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes reported to his shareholders, “[W]e are seeing, I would say, opportunities for international sales. We just have to look to last week where we saw the drone attack in the UAE, which have attacked some of their other facilities. And of course, the tensions in Eastern Europe, the tensions in the South China Sea, all of those things are putting pressure on some of the defense spending over there. So I fully expect we’re going to see some benefit from it.”  While lauded in the press for his comments, Hayes’ thinking embodies structures established by government and private industry for over a hundred years.

Listen in: https://apple.co/34cn5KZ