The price for an emerging fascism

May 16

 

GUEST: Athena Mutua, author, political activist and professor at University of Buffalo School of Law, talks about critical race and feminist legal theory and how these concepts are tied to civil rights and anti-imperialism.

Athena D. Mutua, Professor of Law

Critical race theory is an unbiased look at racism in American history. It is opposed by white nationalists who don't want this history to be exposed. Why do they try to outlaw this troubling examination? Because it will take off their white robes and pointed hats and expose them for what they are, race haters. 

Trumps return to office is based on several things. The Democrats, funded by corporations and their rich elites, don't really want to improve the lot of working people. Democrats what to fight wars that will enrich the weapons manufacturers. They support the Israeli genocide because very rich Zionists have learned how to bribe our elected representatives. The Democrats have put right wing Zionists in the highest places of our government; just look at Blinken and Biden. The whole Democratic establishment is pro genocide.

But Trumps success is based on something much longer lasting than Democratic failings and corruption. Trump is a bigot and race hater. He has learned how to encourage and energize white nationalism, something a long line of our nation's leaders have done before him. Just read a little about critical race theory. It is all there to see. 

It turns out that the very rich are turning their backs on even the pretext of democracy, and are now supporting this return to racism. Trump will make them even richer, in the short term anyway. In the long term, even the rich end up paying the price for an emerging fascism.

Crying out for mercy

May 9

 

GUEST: Nancy Mansour, Palestinian activist, co-founder of Existence is Resistance, and Executive Director of Eyewitness Palestine, talks about how local rallies can become a nationwide call for an end to apartheid and genocide.

Eyewitnesspalestine.org

Nancy takes us to another world, one that we barely remember after a nightmare. The sounds of the drones overhead both night and day. The smells that one never forgets. She describes for us the killing fields of Gaza. 

There are so many ways to escape such an experience. Our media will help us out by gradually disappearing any mention of 2.3 million Palestinians being destroyed by a slow moving genocide. Her interview was filled with verbal images that were perhaps more moving than pictures of starving children. This is the world of Eyewitness Palestine.

The organization is built on the assumption that the average person will see what apartheid looks like and will commit to ending it. And for most people, it seems to work. The people I know who come back from an Eyewitness Palestine trip are motivated from the heart. Perhaps if enough people saw what Israel is doing to the Palestine people, we would demand that our elites stop funding the carnage. Perhaps we would insist that the International Criminal Court charge Biden and Blinken with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

I notice that the New York Times has stopped covering the starving children. It prints articles about peripheral issues like the accuracy of reports on how many Israeli women were raped and murdered by Hamas, or how US colleges are influenced by billionaire Zionists. We don't see or read about the millions of children carrying around empty pots on the chance they will find something to eat. No, if the American people witnessed that, they would cry out for mercy.

Using antisemitism as a weapon

The term antisemitism has completed its long journey from the Third Reich and the Holocaust to its new home with white supremacists in the United States. The Lawler Bill, which just passed in the House, defines any criticism of Israel as antisemitism and threatens our nation's colleges with loss of their non profit status. Listening to right wing politicians attacking our universities using antisemitism as a weapon seems beyond belief. These are the same politicians who want to put more Blacks in jail, send all immigrants back to where they came from, are openly homophobic and misogynistic, and who fervently believe that Jesus is coming down to kill all Jews in the Holy Land. In short, how did antisemitism become the battle cry for the fascist elements of our society?

Zionism is fascism, with all the trademarks of its violence, racism and nationalism. Zionists want control over what's discussed in our colleges and non profit organizations. That has always been a critical step in the fascist agenda.

Another step is the targeting of businesses based on ethnicity and religion, like the recent Zionist attack on the Petit Bistro, a Palestinian owned restaurant in Rhinebeck. Such assaults resemble Nazis tactics in 1938. In fact, the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza is similar to the wholesale extermination of Jews and Gypsies that occurred during the Third Reich.

We must come together as a country and demand that this current fascist Zionist movement not destroy our democracy or our basic humanity.

Rather than listen to our nation's citizens

May 2

 

GUEST: Susan Smith, Director of Operations at the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Black Lives activist in Ferguson, former host of “From Ferguson to Palestine” radio program at Vassar College, and member of Islamic Relief USA, talks about her mission to break the blockade of Gaza as part of the Freedom Flotilla.

This is the ship

I have not heard from Susan, so I think she is still waiting for permission to sail. There is something familiar about international attempts to break the blockade of Gaza. Out of all the boats that have set sail, only one has ever made it to the beach and contact with the Palestinians. These three boats, loaded with food and medical supplies, are perticularly needed in this time of injury and famine.

Are the Israelis just so skillful at thwarting these flotillas? Or is there more going on? The US seems to be an observer, although a very poor one, since these stories seldom make it into The New York Times. Of course. the NYT is mostly a Zionist publication, and has many reasons for distorting the news, including its decades long fielty to the Pentagon and the nation's weapons makers.

I think that these boats never complete their journeys because the US is intent on stopping them. Israel doesn't really have the connections to disrupt these flotillas, but the empire certainly does. And the US doesn't want to be seen as the country that starved millions to death. Instead the US pulls the strings to stop the boats, and then just buries the story.

How else to keep the slaughter going while the majority of Americans want to stop the genocide? Our elites have long decided to do what they want, rather than listen to our nation's citizens.

Utterly devastating

Thank you for the opportunity to bring the story of the emergency Gaza Freedom Flotilla to your listeners. Unfortunately, the day after our interview, Guinea Bissau, the country flagging 2 of the 3 flotilla ships, in collusion with Israel, pulled them at the last moment the day before we were set to sail.

Here is a Democracy Now interview with Huwaida Arraf, of the International Solidarity Movement, providing the details: https://www.democracynow.org/2024/4/29/gaza_freedom_flotilla?autostart=true

And here is an article from the Times of Israel from March telling the visiting President of Guinea Bissau, "You are a true friend of Israel": https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/herzog-tells-visiting-president-of-guinea-bissau-you-are-a-true-friend-of-israel/

This news was utterly devastating.

Peace,
Susan