Perhaps we should all be disrupters

GUEST: Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink, talks about the forces in America promoting war with Iran (pre-recorded at the Woodstock Town Hall).

With a country run by millionaires, there aren't many ways to get the people's voice heard. 

Code Pink is inspired theater, like The Daily Show is inspired comedy. But in a time when our media has completely sold out to the interests of the monied elite, both are so much more. By being provocative and at times outrageous, Code Pink and the Daily Show provide honest feedback on a system that has long since given up on serving the public good. 

In her talk, Medea calls herself a "disrupter." Perhaps we should all be disrupters of the system rather than participants in a sham democracy. Voting is so easy, and holding up a sign and shouting is so very hard. But without disruption, we will not be heard at all, and the oligarchy can role along using racism and fraud to impoverish America's working people.  

We make the road by walking

GUEST: Dr. Tom Hansen, Executive Director of the Mexico Solidarity Network and former Director of Pastors for Peace, talks about coalitions that further social justice in Latin America.

Tom and his Mexico Solidarity Network does really amazing work. After attempting to move members of Congress towards a more human and just policy in Central America, the network decided it was a waste of time. Influencing a "bunch of millionaires" to do anything that goes against their elite fundraisers was bound to fail. 

Instead, the network started a mini government in Chicago, intent on solving local problems like poor housing, job discrimination, and racism. The work involved bringing young volunteers in, both as teachers and as participants in educational trips to Mexico. In essence, the participants "Make the Road by Walking," the name of a revolutionary book by Myles Horton and Paulo Freire.

Tom and I (along with my brother, Dave) took a truck caravan together to Nicaragua in 1989. We were bringing supplies and medical equipment to the Nicaraguan people, in an attempt to expose the immorality and illegality of the Contra Wars. One of our stops was a visit to Myles Horton at the Highlander Center. We were making the road, and teaching ourselves in the process. 

Our state officially murders people, and in large numbers

GUEST: Scott Langley, lead organizer for The Abolitionist Action Committee, an organization devoted to ending the death penalty in the US., talks about this summer's vigil and fast in front of the US Supreme Court.

How to make the right argument against the death penalty? We have all used different tactics with different people. Not interested in considering racism against African Americans? Look at the expense of killing someone versus long term imprisonment. It is a waste of taxpayer dollars!

Perhaps building a constituency for any reform is done this same way. Conjure up enough good arguments, and we have built the critical mass of people needed to force a change in governmental policy.

But what if all murders were treated in the same way? Murdering our neighbor might be considered economically bad for the community, and therefore a crime. I don't think that is the reason why almost all societies have banned the killing of neighbors. It has more to do with the collective lessons of civilization as expressed through religion and philosophy. Thou shalt not kill.

America has made so many exceptions to this basic principal that we have ended up being a murderous state. Obviously, the killing of Native Americans and Blacks have been tolerated for hundreds of years, and sometimes even encouraged by politicians looking for votes. Our ever expanding empire has more and more enemies, all categorized as violent terrorists and placed on the President's drone hit lists. In a country so obsessed with whom to kill, why should we be surprised that our state officially murders people, and in large numbers.

Valuing all oppressed groups equally

GUEST: Susan Smith, who hosts a weekly program on WVKR called From Ferguson to Palestine, talks about the violent racism that is the common denominator between Israel's abuse of the Palestinians and The United States' murderous war on its own people of color.

This was the first show without my cohost, Gary. Sorry to see him leave and go back to North Carolina. However, all thinks do pass, and I was lucky enough to find another excellent cohost in Eli, who has pitched right in where he was needed.

Susan Smith was about as easy a person to interview as I have ever had. She is so committed and unshakable in her devotion to human rights that my question about someone possibly calling her an anti-Semite got very little response at first. No one had ever called her that because she simply values all oppressed groups equally. Human rights in Ferguson means the same thing as human rights in Palestine. She opposes violent racism wherever it manifests itself, and Susan's many trips around the globe have been to all the right places. 

I look forward to listening to her show on WVKR, 91.3 FM, from 12 - 1 pm every Wednesday. Tune in; you won't be disappointed.

From Ferguson To Palestine is a weekly talk show concerning issues of social justice and racial equity in the United States and abroad. Hosted by Susan Smith and Daniel Aguilar, and incorporating interviews and discussions from grassroots activists.

Subjugated to the propaganda needs of empire

GUEST: Hatem Abudayyeh, executive director of the Arab American Action Network, and an organizer of the Rasmea Defense Committee, talks about the selective prosecution of Palestinian activists in the US.

Hatem covered the facts of Rasmea's case very thoroughly. The legal question revolves around Rasmea's failure to put her arrest by Israeli authorities on her request for US citizenship. Her defense claims that she was tortured and raped in custody and that her treatment in jail forced her into a false confession. Sound familiar? How many Blacks in America have spent decades in prison after such coerced confessions?

Rasmea's trial judge would not allow any evidence of torture of rape to be introduced at her first trail. Rasmea's obvious PTSD was similarly dismissed. She should get another trial, with her defense given the right to introduce this type of testimony.

I asked why Rasmea and other Palestinian activists have been harassed by the FBI over the last decade. With Rasmea, what made the FBI review her citizenship documents in the first place; she had committed no crime in the US? Hatem responded that our criminal justice system is being used to repress political dissent, something we have seen repeatedly in the history of the FBI. Perhaps a review of COINTELPRO will show how this was done in the 1960's. Our government's phony "War on Terror" has led to the same types of abuses today, with our Constitutional rights are being subjugated to the propaganda needs of empire. 

On another note, this was Gary's last day on Activist Radio. He is moving back to North Carolina, and we will miss his radio skills, his commitment to social change, and his ready wit. He has promised to be Activist Radio's roving reporter in North Carolina, and we will be calling on him for some on the ground reporting on issues like racial justice and labor rights. But it won't be the same. Time moves on. 

Awareness of the lunacy

GUEST: Leah Penniman, educator and food justice coordinator for the Soul Fire Farm, a sustainable farm near Albany, NY, talks to us about how radical farmers are using food to fight racial injustice and the New Jim Crow.

Leah was such an interesting guest, with connections to indigenous resistance groups in Mexico and Haiti. 

Yes, food production is an important part of the resistance against Neoliberalism in the Third World. What isn't clearly understood is that farming can effectively expose the evils of Neoliberalism in the belly of the beast, the very epicenter of the American Empire. 

We can produce our own food without poisonous chemicals and untested genetic modification of seeds. We can open access to homegrown products and give consumers freedom of choice for themselves and their families. We can work together to increase awareness of the lunacy of our corporate dominated power structure, hell-bent as it is to destroy life on earth through global warming and nuclear conflagration. 

Leah is an articulate and creative activist, dedicated to restoring democracy in America, one plant at a time. Just think if Obama had gone in a different direction. If he hadn't gone to Harvard to learn how to be an elite, privileged, white male. If he hadn't done the Daily Machine's dirty work in running against black progressives in Chicago. If he hadn't privatized public housing in the city, throwing blacks out to gain favors from white real estate developers. If he hadn't quoted Martin Luther King's words to cover up his warmongering and betrayal of working people. If he done anything other during his president than serving the military industrial complex.

Some liberals are even defending Obama today, based on the color of his skin. Scoundrels come in all colors. We are what we try to accomplish for peace and justice in the world. The rest is racial stereotyping that preserves the status quo. 

Illegitimate

Guest: Ivy Meeropol, director or "Heir to an Execution" (2004) and "Indian Point" (2015). talks about nuclear power and the distortions of the energy industry.

All the facts in the world can't bring the danger home as much as thinking about trying to pickup your children or grandchildren from school after a nuclear meltdown. Ivy lives in Cold Spring, just eleven miles from one of the oldest nuclear power plants in the country. And her children attend the local school.

Imagine the traffic jam trying to even get into the school. And what if the children have already been taken away to "someplace in Carmel"? How would one find them again with the mass hysteria and miles long traffic jams? 

How could any company have built the plant so close to millions of people? And why isn't it shut down now? Indian Point is a wakeup call that those in charge of such things are insane. Paid off by the corporations and heedless of the risks, our leaders politely debate the future of nuclear power as if our lives don't matter. Indian Point is both a constant danger to millions, and a constant reminder that our two party, corporate controlled governmental system is basically illegitimate.