I fear for them

Guest: Tim Koch, local political activist and member of the International Socialist Organization (ISO), talks about alternatives to the capitalist system. 

What has made socialism acceptable for those under 30 years old? Of course, I have always hoped for a capitalist system with a heart for my country, like the more enlightened democracies of Europe. And I realized that most of these countries were not given egalitarian societies, but had to earn them through class struggle. So I have always been for struggle and resistance. No justice, no peace.

Now, I am not so sure about any of this. Does the capitalist system eventually destroy workers and then destroy itself? The last thirty years has not shown any slow "bend towards justice," in MLK's words. The very rich in America have behaved like Marx and Engels said they would a hundred and fifty years ago. The prosperity the elites have shared with the middle class since World War II has been replaced by something very different. The billionaires have forced everyone else into ever more desperate poverty. The children of the middle class are now burdened with debt even before they start their first jobs. 

"But as long as you continue to produce in the present unconscious, thoughtless manner, at the mercy of chance--for just so long trade crises will remain; and each successive crisis is bound to become more universal and therefore worse than the preceding one; is bound to impoverish a larger body of small capitalists, and to augment in increasing proportion the numbers of the class who live by labour alone, thus considerably enlarging the mass of labour to be employed (the major problem of our economists) and finally causing a social revolution such as has never been dreamt of in the philosophy of the economists" -Engels

Maybe sharing isn't the point any more. The rich won't share anyway, as they grow ever more powerful and greedy. And our very earth is threatened in ways that Marx and Engels couldn't have imagined. Perhaps the radicalism we see in a younger generation is the first step in a necessary evolution of our species. We must either evolve quickly or become extinct. Which will it be?

My grandchildren may know the answer, and I fear for them.

Anna Baltzer at the New School

Guest: Anna Baltzer, author of "A Witness in Palestine" and head of US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, spoke at the New School on "The Jewish American Relationship with Israel at a Crossroads."

The Russell Tribunal was a very good event. Several of the speakers were somewhat dry, but that may reflect what this was supposed to be, a judicial exploration and ruling on the plight of the Palestinians.

For something to stir one's passion, I recommend Saleh Hamayel on Palestinian Sociocide. Also, the film on Operation Cast Lead that was shown during the break on Sunday was hard to get through, but ultimately effective in making one realize the carnage that goes hand in hand with Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.

Anna Baltzer and Norman Finkelstein at the Center for Art and Politics (New School) was also well worth attending. Anna was very straightforward and convincing as usual. Finkelstein was just terribly insulting (particularly to Anna), a man on his way to a nervous breakdown. I don't think he is a credible spokesperson for Palestinian rights. His heart is in the preservation of Israel as a Jewish state, and all the rest seems to be a way of somehow achieving that end. He is so against BDS that he insinuated that Anna was an intellectual lightweight and a liar for advocating it. I don't see his usefulness in the movement, although the discussion clarified the trauma that is confronting many Jewish Americans.

The Courage to Stand on the Sidewalk

Guest: Martin Baumgold, farmer and community activist, talks about Hudson's long running peace vigil and how the group partnered with the Rotary Club to put up a peace pole.

We had a good time comparing notes about the Hudson and Rhinebeck peace vigils. There have been very funny, as well as very moving times standing on the sidewalk each week for peace.

We have been called fascists, socialists, Communists, and Muslims. For the last several years, however, most people just thank us for being there. 

Is advocating for peace naive? Is it silly to stand in a snowbank with a sign urging our government to bring the troops home? You take your risks by appearing in public with a message so foreign to the corporate consensus. Yet, in America, we are the counter message. And it is one of hope, compassion, and fairness in a wasteland of empire, profit and environmental destruction. 

Whatever the outcome of the current presidential election, we know that neither of the corporate controlled parties will bring sanity to our national debate about war and social justice. Only groups with the courage to stand on the sidewalk can do that.  

Paying the Price for Peace

Guest: Brian Willson, Vietnam Veteran and long time peace activist, talks about Bo Boudart's new documentary "Paying the Price for Peace," which is based on Brian's life.

As a vet and a peace activist who traveled to Nicaragua in the 1980's, I have always felt a connection with Brian. Maybe it's because we are both from rural, upstate New York (I was raised on a farm). 

I have always wondered what makes some activists take chances with their lives, and marveled at how important such sacrifices are for the movement to end wars and preserve the human race. Preserve the race in two ways, of course. The first way is straightforward. Will there be a place on this planet for humankind after nuclear war or runaway global climate change? The second preservation is more subtile, but none the less important. Is there an innate morality that is part of our existence on earth? I want to keep my faith in that, and don't know how I could really live without it. 

Here is the poem I wrote for Brian after he lost his legs trying to stop weapons shipments to Central America.

For Brian Wilson

This stops a trainload of bullets,

Destined for Central American hearts.

Now there is blood on the heavy wheels,

And a man gives his legs for peace.

Oh shame for those who stand upright,

And pay for murders out of sight.

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Doing the pledge drive is painful, not only because you have to ask for money the whole hour, but also because the experience reminds you that you live in a very closed society where the major media is essentially all there is. 

Activist Radio is a tiny enterprise, floating on a sea of corporate propaganda. Even independent media is tiny if you look at how people really get their news. TV has been the biggest ally of totalitarianism in the Empire. It provides millions with a world view, full of danger, but with the comforting assurance of American idealism and perseverance. On and speaking to us all day long, it is a wise and trusted member of each household. It also defines each family's link to the broader social structures of our country. TV defines us, explains our motives, and provides those feelings of mass exhilaration and grief that we all need in our lives. It provides an artificial reality so necessary for the empire to commit its atrocities abroad and its wholesale  swindling of the American worker at home. Only about 1% of families don't have a television in at least one room. It is the perfect vehicle of control in the empire of lies. 

Green is the New Red

Guest: Will Potter, journalist and author of the book entitled "Green is the New Red," talks about the revival of McCarthyism in the Justice Department's targeting of environmentalists.

It is surprising to me that authors like Will Potter seem unafraid of the FBI, even though they know the agency's troubled history. 

Will simply assumes that the FBI will try to intimidate, discredit, and entrap activists who try to nonviolently change the system. It is always good to read what was done to Martin Luther King, who J. Edgar Hover referred to as "Burrhead." Can there be any question that at least one of the primary duties of the FBI in this country has been the suppression of political dissent?

According to Will, the only way to counter FBI dirty tricks is to expose them to the public. Americans can't believe that an agency of the federal government would conspire to rob people of their free speech rights. Once enough citizens catch on, the FBI often retreats out of the glare of publicity. Read "Green is the New Red" and discuss the book with your friends. Help shine a light on political repression in America.

Indefinite Detention of US Citizens

Guest: Raymond Lotta, Marxist writer and scholar who is the author of the 1984 book, America in Decline, talks about our government's new censorship of leftist ideas.

The National Defense Authorization Act may be the last curtain call of our democratic form of government. The law places domestic terror investigations and interrogations into the hands of the military, leading to indefinite detention of anyone, including American citizens, as long as the government calls them terrorists.

Most empires eventually cannibalize their country's form of democracy, as did Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. As did Athens and Rome. Why would our empire be different?

All this ends, of course, when the "War on Terror" end. But for empires, the wars never end, and the terror becomes an integral part of invading and occupying other sovereign nations. 

All we can do is resist this destruction of our basic rights, not really knowing when our time will come to be swept up by some overzealous storm trooper. Even having the Revolutionary Communist Party as a radio guest talking about the loss of free speech in America makes us vulnerable to some FBI agent deciding that we are part of some ill defined "problem." Yes, we all have the same common problem, the loss of our Constitutional rights under a military state.