In our latest episode, we get into it! The left media universe includes YouTubers with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, hundreds of podcasts and journals like Jacobin with 60,000 subscribers monthly. Yet that has translated in little support for on-the-ground organizers working in workplaces, frontline communities and the streets.
Listen in: https://bit.ly/PunditClassGandR
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. Continue reading “Why We Fight (and Podcast): A Green and Red Manifesto”
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. Continue reading “Green and Red Co-Host Scott Parkin on why 2021 needs more direct action”
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. Continue reading “Comics with Comrades with creator Brian Wood”
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. Continue reading “Remembering Martin Luther King Jr., Radical, Democratic Socialist and Opponent of State Violence”
by Scott Parkin
Back in the first week of June, 2020, soon after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin, I found myself once again in the streets marching in the streets of Oakland, CA and taking action for black lives. I’d been here many times before after the murders of Michael Brown, Philandro Castile and Alton Sterling. Beyond that, I’ve been organized and partaken in campaigns, direct actions and mass protests on a myriad of issues from the war in Iraq to knocking Wall Street banks for their financing of fossil fuels to the Indigenous uprising around Standing Rock for decades. Continue reading “Why 2021 needs more direct action”
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.
Happy New Year, Tender Comrades! In our last episode of 2020, we talk about the past year.
Listen in: http://bit.ly/HopeRuins2020GandR
We discuss what we’ve learned, the worsening precarity, the absence of community and a rewarding life, the barriers posed by the Professional Left (NGO Industrial Complex, labor leadership, etc), the often-unhinged, conspiratorial left, but also the inspiring moral courage and bold action we saw in the streets, the role of organizers and activists, and what we can do moving forward. Continue reading “Hope Among the Ruins of 2020”
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.
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
Continue reading “Challenging Nancy Pelosi with Shahid Buttar”
cross-posted from Medium