There is Power in a Union As Thousands of Academic Workers Set to Strike in California

Over 36,000 academic workers across the University of California’s 10-campus system held a strike authorization vote. The vote passed with nearly 98% approval. The strike will begin on November 14th. Workers are demanding include increased compensation, access to sustainable transportation, more childcare assistance, and increased job security.

Listen in: bit.ly/3A7HTjJ

Scott talks with Galen Liang, a grad student and UAW 2865 member to get an update on the looming strike.

Punching Left: Why the Democrats Suck, part 2, and R.I.P. Mike Davis

The Democratic Party is about to get pummeled in the mid-term elections next week. Scott and Bob followed up on their recent discussion with Noam Chomsky on the devolution of the Democrats and their abandonment of working class issues since the 1970s (see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2Ngm…) by discussing the their failure to offer up a real resistance to the Republicans.

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We take a historical approach–talking about the GOP-stolen election of 2000 and the Democrat’s failure to fight in Florida when Bush had people in the streets and Gore rejected any suggestion to have similar protests. We talk about the failure of Barack Obama to help anyone win office other than himself and point out that the Democratic Party suffered huge losses in state races through the Obama years.

The Cuban Missile Crisis at 60: Was JFK Really A Hero?

60 years ago this month, in October 1962, Americans anxiously heard news for almost two weeks straight about the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba, less than 100 miles away from the U.S. Nuclear War was possible, to some imminent.

In this episode we offer a brief history of the Cuban Missile Crisis and, more importantly, a remembrance and reconsideration of the events of October and JFK actions throughout the crisis.

Listen in: https://bit.ly/3fjZRbi

JFK has been praised for his firm resolve, courage, and strength in handling the crisis but the reality is that he was provocative and almost caused a war against Russia. In this episode we’ll start by giving a background on JFK’s aggression toward Cuba, then we’ll offer a brief narrative of the crisis, and finally we’ll discuss how Kennedy continued his subversion against Castro’s government after the Missile Crisis.

We Begin Bombing in Five Minutes. Cold War Culture in the Reagan Era w/ Prof. Andrew Hunt

In an amazing new interview, we talk with Prof. Andrew Hunt (@aehunt) about Cold War culture during the Reagan years.

Listen in: apple.co/3FcFTd2

We talk about the array of protest movements in the 1980s that took up issues such as the nuclear arms race, U.S. intervention in Central America, and American investments in South Africa. And we discuss the “cultural resistance” of the time– film, television, music– that critiqued Washington’s Cold War policies and posed a challenge to the Cold War’s excesses of the Reagan era.

The Protests in Iran w/ Professor Giuseppe Acconcia

The “hijab protests” in Iran have continued and intensified for weeks now, and we talked to a journalist and scholar with a longtime familiarity with the country. Giuseppe Acconcia, @stradedellest, professor at Padua University, has been a journalist working out of Iran and is the author of “The Great Iran,” and most recently co-authored, with Lorenza Perini, of “The Arab Uprisings: Protests, Gender, and War, 2011-2021.”

Listen in: https://apple.co/3S1zt3d

Acconcia here provides us with background to the new conflict, the critical role Iranian women have played in the resistance in Iran for some time now and the current state of the uprising, and other factors, like the Iranian economy and sanctions, that are affecting the current protests.