The Battle in Seattle, 22 Years Later w/ the Shutdown WTO Organizers History Project

Posted inanti-capitalism, Direct Action, Materialism and Economics, Peoples' History

It’s the 22nd anniversary of the direct action shutdown of the World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings in Seattle. The WTO is a transnational economic institution created to regulate and facilitate global (corporate) trade.

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

Organized by a scrappy group of organizers, the shutdown kicked off an anti-corporate globalization moment in North America which challenged austerity and the capitalist political economy. Globally, those movements had already been fighting austerity and corporate power for decades.

We talk with Nancy Haque, Stephanie Guilloud and David Solnit – three organizers that were all part of Direct Action Network to Stop Corporate Globalization (DAN), the body that organized the shutdown.

80,000,000 Bombs in Laos: A Conversation with Sera Koulabdara of “Legacies of War”

Posted inForeign Policy, Peoples' History, Uncategorized

In this episode, Bob had a conversation with Executive Director Sera Koulabdara (@SeraKoulabdara) of “Legacies of War” about the 50+ year crisis of unexploded ordnance (UXOs) in Laos.  Scott was away on assignment.

Listen: https://bit.ly/LegaciesGandR

At the same time as it was attacking Vietnam, the U.S. conducted a “secret war” against Laos through the air, dropping 2 million tons of bombs as part of its “sideshow” to the main war against the Vietnamese Revolution.   Included in that massive campaign were 270,000,000 cluster bombs, smaller bombs–about baseball-sized–or “bomblets” that often did not detonate.  So today, decades after the war ended, about 80,000,000 bombs remain in Laos.

A Very Secretive Democracy: Prof. Clinton Fernandes on Australia’s Role in Pinochet’s Coup in Chile

Posted inForeign Policy, Peoples' History, Uncategorized

We talked with Clinton Fernandes, professor at University of New South  Wales in Canberra, Australia, which is part of the Australian Defence  Force Academy, about his role in getting documents showing Australia’s  role in the 9/11/73 coup in Chile to depose Salvador Allende.

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

He talked  about the background to the coup, Australia’s role in supporting  American policies, and his efforts to get the documents showing those  links. Outro music is Manzina’s “En Para.”