Why We Fight (and Podcast): A Green and Red Manifesto

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cross-posted from Medium

by Scott Parkin and Bob Buzzanco

As we reach the end of the first year of the Green and Red Podcast, we have more clear ideas on what we’ve done both good and not-as-good and where we want to go moving forward.

There are about one million podcasts in America, many of them political and many of them stressing some form of Left or radical politics, at least rhetorically. Finding a place within an independent media and political galaxy of that size is not easy, but we believe we offer information, insight, and even instruction in ways that others don’t.

Green and Red Co-Host Scott Parkin on why 2021 needs more direct action

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In our latest episode, Bob interviews Scott about his recent article “Why 2021 needs more direct action.”

Listen here: http://bit.ly/Action2021GandR

They discuss how elections and electing Democrats and Democratic Socialists won’t be the only way to get us out of the current cascade of crises hitting the world right now (COVID-19, economic collapse, climate change, political crisis around the far right). They also discuss Scott’s past work in fighting mountaintop removal coal mining, Wall Street banks and oil pipelines.

The Reality of the Tet Offensive: Military Failure and Economic Crisis

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Tet Attack on the Embassy

cross-posted from Afflict the Comfortable

by Bob Buzzanco

Tet was a pivot point of the Vietnam War, and it’s been misrepresented ever since……

At the end of January the media will commemorate one of the more important and decisive events of the Vietnam War, the Tet Offensive. On January 30th, 1968 the combined enemy forces of the Viet Cong, the People’s Liberation Armed Forces in the South, and the People’s Army of Vietnam from the North attacked virtually every center of military and political importance in the Republic of Vietnam, even invading the U.S. Embassy grounds. Within sixty days, President Lyndon Johnson would reject a request for a massive reinforcement of troops to Vietnam, begin to de-escalate the war, and withdraw from the 1968 presidential campaign. Tet was as determinative as any event in the Vietnam era and has maintained near-mythic status since.

Comics with Comrades with creator Brian Wood

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In this episode, we talk with comic book creator Brian Wood and the influence of pop culture on politics. And vice versa. We discuss his work on Channel Zero, DMZ and the Massive. And how his work in those comics has focused on lefty politics and issues like media activism, far right militias, climate change and direct action. We also talk about Marvel’s The Punisher and the obvious connection to today’s fascist movements. 

Remembering Martin Luther King Jr., Radical, Democratic Socialist and Opponent of State Violence

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In our special MLK day episode, we talk about the radical politics of  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We discuss King’s democratic socialist  beliefs, his stance against the war in Vietnam, the campaigns he worked  on, –including the 1968 Olympic Boycott and the Poor People’s  Campaign–, and his thoughts on property destruction.   

Andrew Bacevich on the Military and Trump, the current crisis, and what to expect from Biden’s foreign policy

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In  this episode, Bob interviews Professor Andrew Bacevich (@AndrewBacevich) about the extraordinary involvement in electoral  politics by Trump and the military, the military public repudiation of  the president, racial and hate group problems in the armed forces,  civil-military relations, the appoint of General Lloyd Austin as Defense  Secretary, what to expect from Biden’s foreign policy team–essentially  putting the Obama band back together–the nuclear deal with Iran, the  insane attacks on Cuba, and a new Cold War between the U.S. and China.

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

Andrew Bacevich is an emeritus  professor at Boston University and President of the Quincy Institute for  Responsible Statecraft.  He’s also the author of several books on U.S.  foreign policy and one of the foremost critics of America’s war and  interventionism for decades now.  He is also a retired colonel in the  U.S. Army, armored cavalry.  And he’s a frequent columnist in The  Nation, as well as many other publications.

Capitol Hill Riots and The Ruling Class

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And we thought 2020 was bumpy. In this fresh episode, we talk about the shocks happening in the liberal democratic capitalist system–How the ruling class is destabilized by Trump and the far right actions at Capitol Hill this week, and how they are responding to maintain order and their own power as quickly as possible.  It’s an analysis you won’t find in many other place, if anywhere.

Listen: https://bit.ly/RiotsRulingClassGandR

This Is Not a Coup

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cross-posted from Afflict the Comfortable

The Treachery of (Words and) Images

Wednesday’s events were horrible, dangerous, infuriating, and predictable.  People with weapons easily breached the Capitol, gallows were hung (perhaps performative, perhaps not), and people were attacked and some died.  The country was stunned, and both establishment and social media have been deeming this Trump’s “coup” or an “insurrection” from the first.  It’s hard to talk about this. Trump is horrid, detestable, and dangerous, and any time you try to reel the rhetoric back, you can be accused of being an apologist for a cruel, racist, inhuman bigot who happens to be president—which all makes sense. But doing awful things doesn’t mean we have fascism, and vandals and thugs breaking into a sacred public building doesn’t mean we’ve had a coup. There’s no saving grace to any of this, but it needs to be viewed clearheaded and coldblooded.

Swipe Left on the Democrats and Electoral Politics

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cross-posted from Afflict the Comfortable

They’re Just Not That Into You

*****

There are currently two feuds dominating the Left—Jimmy Dore vs. AOC  in “The Brawl Over Medicare-for-All” and various segments of the Left vs. The Squad on its vote to re-elect Pelosi as Speaker of the House.

If you want/need better evidence of the futility of the Left, it would be hard to find.  There’s a huge ongoing dispute over whether “The Squad,” a group of about 6 elected officials (hell, throw Sanders and Markey in there and make it 8) out of 535, should force Congress to have a vote on socialized medicine to put everyone on the record, and another argument over whether to vote against the incumbent (and politically inept) speaker of the house.  Social media is still in in an uproar over these issues with “support AOC” and “The Squad is dead to me” opinions seeming to alternate in frequency and intensity.

Marx on the immiseration of humanity

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Prof. Bob Buzzanco with Karl Marx on “the immiseration of humanity,” from the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, 1844.

Video below text of the quote.

“By reducing the worker’s need to the barest and most miserable level of physical subsistence, and by reducing his activity to the most abstract mechanical movement; thus he says: Man has no other need either of activity or of enjoyment. For he declares that this life, too, is human life and existence.