The violence of love

GUEST: Alexis Stoumbelis, executive director of CISPES, the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, talks about neoliberalism and how it destroys lives in Latin America.

Archbishop Romero taught me more about US foreign policy than any history course I had ever taken. He spoke from the heart to the US Empire. Please stop arming and training the death squads in El Salvador. 

But there was no human being to talk to, and the good archbishop was murdered by a sniper while saying Mass in a chapel in San Salvador. Not by any sniper, of course, but one trained in the US at the School of the Americas. 

Read the archbishop's words, and then about his life. There are good people all around the world who take the most insane chances to promote the "violence of love." And then there are the princes of darkness who preach "the violence of hatred." We who live in the empire must come to recognize that our leaders are the latter, and that the crimes they have done in our name are too disturbing for most to even contemplate. 

From Alexis Stoumbelis

Hi Fred and Eli,

Thanks so much for the opportunity to share what we're working on and for all of your long-term support for the Salvadoran people's struggle and for our solidarity work here in the US. I totally agree with you - this is like a hidden economic war and the connections to migration and the refugee crisis are huge. Thanks for helping to bring them to people's awareness and understanding - it really matters that people are able to make those links and connections.

We'll definitely share the interview and give a shout-out to Activist Radio later this week! We're happy to come back anytime - just let me know!

many thanks,
Alexis

Alexis Stoumbelis
Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES)
1525 Newton St. NW
Washington, DC 20010
(202) 521-2510  ext. 205

Waving our corporate logos to the very end

GUEST: Ellen Isaacs, retired physician, political activist, and freelance writer, talks about the refugee crisis, racism as well as their links to Neoliberal capitalism.

The world's massive refugee problem seems like it came out of nowhere. There were wars in the Middle East, right?

Ellen Isaacs points out the role of Western militarism in devastating this whole region, with weapons sales, bombings and outright invasions, all done in the name of making a profit for the few.

But war is not the biggest cause of mass migrations. The World Bank plays a major role in applying neoliberal capitalism to countries that were self sufficient before the infusion of billions of dollars. With all this money to be invested, the elite class steals what they can, and the rest gets poured into projects that benefit stockholders in developed countries. Peasants are thrown off their land to build dams, to clear forest for agribusiness, and to build low wage factories. Life for the average Third World person becomes unbearable and they pack their meager possessions for the perilous journey ahead.

It is not just the Middle East and Africa; it is also Latin America, all despoiled by capitalism run amok. Or is it capitalism run amok? Ellen thinks capitalism always leads to exploitation and war. It's the nature of the beast. All the rest, which includes much of the left in America is stuck on a feeble incrementalism that makes our system better for a time, only to relapse again when the pressure is off. Hold Hillary's feet to the fire anyone?

I have always had hopes that the system of savage capitalism we have seen in the last thirty years could be reformed. The Scandinavian countries were successful for a time. So was the US during the Great Depression. Why is that still not possible?

Perhaps this is a different age. We see climate change as having the potential to end our species. We know that a full scale nuclear war would do the same. Is capitalism just too dangerous now that human kind is this close to the edge? Or will our innate greed carry us right over that cliff, waving our corporate logos to the very end?

For the empires of their day

PANEL: Alan Levine, Constitutional lawyer and Donna Nevel, National Board member for Jewish Voice for Peace, discuss both the First Amendment and the moral arguments against Cuomo’s order creating a blacklist of organizations and groups using boycotts for peace and justice in the Middle East.

This panel was one of the best I have attended on the BDS movement and free speech. I cut back on the legal arguments for broadcast because they are difficult for a non-legal audience to follow. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of expression. It is just that the Supreme Court has widened our protections over the last century. Now our government can't intend to threaten or intimidate to keep people from expressing what they want. 

With Cuomo it is easy to understand. He wants to intimidate groups from boycotting Israel because there is so much money to be had being a "friend" of the apartheid state. The Israel Lobby is awash in cash as are several billionaires who have devoted their fortunes to supporting the colonization of Palestine. By creating blacklists, the governor hopes to hurt the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. He will get his payoff by betraying his country's Constitution.

That is why Donna Nevel's talk is so important. Don't do this in my name she implores as a Jewish American. Occupation, imprisonment without rights, and bloody attacks on defenseless civilians in Gaza are not what Judaism is about. In fact, these human rights abuses are the opposite of what she learned from her culture and heritage. 

Jews are being used by the American Empire, just as were the Protestants in Northern Ireland used by the British. Colonizing populations almost always pay the price for ethnically cleansing native peoples for the empires of their day. 

America's sixty five your support for the Palestinian genocide

GUEST: Ben Ehrenreich, author of "The Way to the Spring," based on his three years in the West Bank traveling and living with Palestinian families, talks about the extremes of oppression suffered by an occupied people.

Ben Ehrenreich took a risk telling stories about non-people. To consider a Palestinian a person at all, especially in US politics, is to come under relentless assault as an antiSemite. And if presidential candidates reflect the national mood, both Hillary and Trump are the most rabid Zionists who have ever sought that office. 

Both candidates, however, may be out of step with what most Americans think. Close to 90% of voters express frustration at the choices they have for president. Hillary is terrible on the environment, on wars in the Middle East, on the new Cold War, and on Wall Street dominance of our system. Hillary's only substantive difference to Trump may be the fact that he is worse than she is.

Trump has the high ground, however, when it comes to anger at the "system." Hillary is so much a part of the system, that any populist expressions come out like everything else she does, looking like another lie.

But what about the brutal occupation of millions in Palestine? What about their destroyed lives and imprisoned children? Their story is a the heart of our neoliberal empire, and their suffering is a crime our leaders are not likely to acknowledge. 

"The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine" is one of those important books that will someday effect our national conscience. We can see the change coming in candidates like Jill Stein and Bernie Sanders. America's sixty five your support for the Palestinian genocide may be coming to an end. We can't all spend years living in Palestine, but we can read Ben Ehrenreich book, and start demanding that apartheid no longer be practiced in our name.

Shame on us all

GUEST: David Cobb, American political activist, former Green Party presidential candidate and co-founder of Move to Amend, talks about the national campaign to restore Constitutional rights to the people rather than the corporations.

David is very persuasive. Not only is he a forceful speaker, but he has history on his side. The problem of corporate rule can be seen back in the 1890's, a festering cancer that has just gotten worse. 

A big part of the problem is that both parties support corporate rule, mainly because they have long ago sold out for the millions in campaign contributions to be had as part of the deal. "End Citizens United" is a good example of how corporations rule us through deception. You think you are working for change, but somehow it never really happens.

Obama ran on the slogan "99% spring" because he is a master at public relations, not because he believed in a people's rebellion. In fact, he had just crippled the Occupy Movement with heavy handed police tactics. But Obama does what modern Democrats do best: talk about progressive reforms before each election, and then sell out the people once in office. It worked for both Clinton and Obama, two of the most shameful grifters we have had in the White House. Maybe it will work with Bernie. Yes, he said many of the right things. The bait and switch comes with Hillary, the corporate candidate voted in as president. Fool me twice, shame on us all.

His rightful place in that chain gang

GUEST: Jay Wenk, local World War II veteran, and author of Study War No More: A Jewish Kid from Brooklyn Fights the Nazis, talks about his work on the Woodstock Town Board defending freedom of speech from Governor Cuomo's executive order outlawing boycotts of Israeli occupation.

Both Eli and I know Jay well. I filmed him getting arrested at the White House. So it was no surprise that Jay enthusiastically endorsed the idea of challenging Governor's executive order against the boycott of Israel. And since Jay is on the Woodstock Town Board, that is where we decided to start with the Woodstock Free Speech Campaign.

http://woodstockfreespeech.org

For the next several months, we will be holding movies, panels, and community meetings on Cuomo's challenge to our First Amendment rights. The plus side is that through our meetings and letters to the editor, most people in Woodstock will learn about Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, the non-violent response to Israel's illegal and immoral occupation of Palestinian lands.

Vassar College went through a similar battle last year. The student union passed a resolution supporting BDS on the Vassar College campus. Then came the phone calls to the president from wealth alums threatening to withhold donations. There were some strong Zionists on the Vassar Board of Directors as well, and the president of the college did what many college presidents do these days, she chose money over freedom of speech on campus. She threatened to defund any campus activity that tried to boycott Israeli products, producing a strong backlash among students. She also attacked some professors that came to speak on campus, insinuating that they were antiSemitic. Thankfully, the president resigned this year.

Cuomo's executive order is all about money as well. Rather than fulfilling his duties to the citizens of NY State, he has climbed aboard the Israeli gravy train. He is more than willing to sell out our First Amendment to make points with rich, Zionist donors. 

How is this not treason? At some point, US politicians will go to jail for betraying their country for money. We fervently hope that Governor Cuomo takes his rightful place in that chain gang.