Leading us into climate extinction

August 15

GUEST: Chuck Kaufman, long time activist and editor of NicaNotes, a blog for those interested in Nicaragua, published by the Nicaragua Network/Alliance for Global Justice, talks about how the US suppresses popular movements for democracy in Latin America.

NicaNotes is a blog for Nicaragua activists

Chuck and I have a lot in common. We both spent time in Nicaragua during the Contra War, and will never forgive our government for what it did to the Sandinista revolution. In those days, the US media was captured by the Pentagon, much the same as it is today. The New York Times shuffled its reporters until each and every one of them parroted government talking points: that the Sandinistas were Communists and a danger to democracy.

Those years helped both of us in understanding how a false narrative is created and then sold to the American public. If a Latin American leader supports US big business interests, why anything goes no matter how many are tortured and killed. If a leader supports equality and true democracy, why it is time for the CIA assassins.

We both knew about the School of the Americas, even though our government has changed its name to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. That is where dictators and death squad assassins have been learning their trade for the last 40 years. Of course, that truth is not part of the accepted story being so skillfully fed to us.

When it comes to empire, the truth never dares raise its head in the nation's schoolbooks or newspapers. Like a nation of sheep, millions of Americans don't really want to spend time researching a different narrative. And there is always a price to pay for truth telling that runs counter to what is red, white and blue.

Maybe that is how empires have always been. The Germans cheered while a racist madman led them into a disastrous and unwinnable war. Our own madman president is leading us into climate extinction, another unwinnable conflict with our life supporting mother earth. Isn't it time we created a new narrative of what our country is, and what is should be?

The CIA is not a consequence

August 8

GUEST: Moss Robeson, activist, political researcher and recent panelist at the Left Forum, talks about the CIA's legacy in Ukraine, and about the 5th anniversary of the House of Trade Unions Massacre.The World Banderite Council

Looking into any complex political movement can be disorienting. And in fact, most movements contain many often contradictory forces. Added to this complexity is the censorship of our nation's media, ever willing to present coups and uprisings through the prism of the Pentagon.

Ukraine is a perfect example: a US inspired coup involved thugs from various far right nationalist groups including the Nazi Party. The CIA working with Neo-Nazis? That is where the empire's media is at its weakest. Why most Americans don't know that the CIA has been working with such groups since the end of World War II.

Moss takes us down the rabbit hole of Neo-Nazi groups and the CIA. Yes, the CIA has a history of favoring Nazi sympathizers in Greece, Italy and other countries. After the war, the CIA immediately sided with the Nazi collaborators in hunting down and killing thousands of Greek patriots who had resisted the German occupation. If you do find that in our nation's history books, it will be categorized as one of the unfortunate consequences of the Cold War.

The CIA is not a consequence. It is the tool of empire, ever willing to torture and kill in the service of our nation's disastrous ambition to control the world. Empires have always behaved in that way, and we the people will ultimately pay the price for ours.

Further victims of our nation's imperialism

August 1

GUEST: Ellie Bernstein, human rights activist and film producer whose credits include “Closing the Open Door – The Fight for Higher Education,” “Waiting for Mercy- The Case Against Mohammed Hossain and Yassin Aref," and “We Are Still Standing: Stories of Women in Black,” will talk about her latest documentary, “The ISIS Trial” which will be showing Friday, Aug 9 (7 pm) at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Catskills, 320 Sawkill Rd, Kingston.

FBI Entrapment and Targeting of Muslims

This story is compelling. At a recent movie showing, the audience discussed racism, FBI entrapment, and empire. Almost all the victims of the FBI stings are poor, uneducated, and Black. They are also young Muslims looking for a father figure. Father figures get paid especially well for their skills in leading vulnerable teenagers to the bait. In the documentary The Isis Trial, the provocateur was paid over $119,000.

The long term effect on Muslim communities is incalculable. Teens face 35 years in prison for bragging about joining ISIS and playing paintball. The trials were tainted by endless videos showing Muslim atrocities. Some of the teenagers were tried for murder, simply because the provocateur was able to convince them to travel to LA to buy a fake passport.

In years to come, this will be part of the shame of US racism, FBI abuse and yes, empire. By provoking wars in Somalia, millions of its citizens are on the move and desperate. Some end up in the "land of the free," only to end up as further victims of our nation's imperialism. 

Crossing the border of acceptable thought

July 25

GUEST: Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party USA and the African Socialist International, the leading force to unify Africa and African people everywhere, talks about the intersection of racism and imperialism.

Chairman Omali Yeshitela

Chairman Yeshitela was never dependent on leftist rhetoric. He know the facts about Apartheid South Africa as well as he know the life of Blacks under America's Jim Crow. His gift is not being afraid of pointing out links between racism, violence and our current version of neoliberal capitalism.

That's one of the advantages Activist Radio has. We don't have to rely on some advertiser somewhere thinking our ideas are off the wall, or worse bad for business. Most of our nation's media is filled with journalists who have internalized the barriers to free thought. They know when to stop exploring if they want to be successful as a writer or reporter. There are things one can't say.

To link imperialism to our nation's racism is clearly beyond that acceptable barrier. Even to talk about US militarism is unacceptable. You don't love America?

Having Chairman Yeshitela on the air feels like we are in foreign territory, expressing thoughts that our society has warned us about time and time again. These are radical thoughts to have, much less say over the air.

Are we a free society, or only a society that has been taught that we are free? Are we a country that spreads democracy in the rest of the world, or are we a country that uses the concept of democracy to invade and conquer other lands for our own advantage?

Thank you, Chairman Yeshitela, for helping us cross the border of acceptable thought.

The devil's bargain

July 18

GUEST: Jessicah Pierre, founder of Queens Company (dedicated to empowering women of color), and Media Specialist for the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, talks about what must happen next to give Blacks in America an equal share in our nation's prosperity.Institute for Policy Studies

I am torn about what needs to happen if we are ever to achieve racial and social justice. Is it our military empire and economic system of exploitation that has to be changed? Or should a progressive movement bring us incrementally closer to our goal of justice for Blacks and other oppressed minorities?

The interview with Jessicah Pierre was in some ways influenced by my own search for a way out of militarism, colonialism and "savage" capitalism. The closest other societies have come to a perfect system can be seen in the Scandinavian democracies. Not perfect, but these countries do offer a tolerable mix of economic freedom and social responsibility.

Or maybe the perfect system can be seen in countries that our gigantic military machine tries to destroy, like Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Maybe capitalism itself is the enemy, since it encourages selfishness, ruthlessness and exploitation.

Jessicah Pierre wanted to talk about concrete steps to diminish the gross unfairness of our economic system, especially when it comes to minorities. Part of this effort involves creating an awareness of white history in the "land of the free." Maybe we can't really go anywhere unless we understand the history of slavery and Jim Crow. Or the ethnic cleansing of native Americans and the slow genocide of their reservations. Maybe we are still on the first step, understanding how we got here. The racist brew that Trump stirs up for his own political power has been there for the last several centuries. It is in our DNA as much as it is in his. Perhaps a new world can only begin when we acknowledge the devil's bargain that has always been part of America's Manifest Destiny.  

Not ready to jump ship just yet

July 11

GUESTS: Maria and Michael Quackenbush, activists and cofounders of the Dutchess County Progressive Action Alliance, talk about the origin and present day goals for this grassroots progressive organization.

Dutchess County Progressive Action Alliance -Facebook

I welcomed the chance to look at some local progressive activism that emerged after the last presidential campaign. Maria and Michael were part of the Bernie campaign, and they wanted to bring his ideas as well as organizing techniques to the Hudson Valley.

The Dutchess County Progressive Action Alliance was only one of many such organizations that sprung up to resist Trump. But the group has not only lasted but prospered. The DCPAA has action committees that meet regularly on women's rights, on climate activism, on gun control, and universal healthcare. As the marching chant says, "This is what democracy looks like."

Can grassroots activism be effective in wresting back our democracy form corporate ownership? That is the real question. Can people get together in the inner cities and the suburbs and create change? All by themselves?

We will soon see if the Democratic Party can be taken back. Pelosi, that corporate hack, is more fearful of her own party's new leftist representatives than she is of Trump. Will the people stand up and demand an end to corporatism, militarism and racism?

As a member of the Green Party, I am happy to see so many of our priorities adapted by the Dems. I am not ready to jump ship just yet. It would take the overthrow of Pelosi to get me to change my registration.

Exceptionalism must be rejected

July 4

GUEST: Rabab Abdulhadi, founding Director/Senior Scholar in Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies and Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University, talks about her widely published anthologies and how the Israel Lobby has attempted to destroy her freedom of speech on Palestinian rights. 

“Do not be silent,” says professor Rabab Abdulhadi

In the decades long fight for Palestinian rights, there are those who have never given up. In fact, giving up is not an option for them, since doing so would weaken the whole. Palestinian rights is based on the hope that one day Israel will end its imperialist theocracy and replace it by a democratic system that transcends racism and violence. Those working for a just peace have to believe it is possible.

Dr. Abdulhadi has sacrificed so much to keep focusing on Palestine. She could have explored human rights violations in other parts of the world. She could have made peace with the Israeli Lobby by talking about enemies coming together to understand each other. She could have given up on equality in the Holy Land.

Dr. Abdulhadi describes the fascist mechanisms of the Israeli Lobby, as well as its tendency to use distortions and threats of violence. We must understand that Zionism is a threat to our Constitutional rights. Laws criminalizing the boycott of Israel are no different than what went on during the McCarthy Era. Careers were destroyed and people were put in jail, all for expressing a political point of view not favored by the state. Dr. Abdulhadi knows her U.S. history, and makes the connections between Jim Crow America and apartheid Israel. The fight for human rights is universal, and any exceptionalism must be rejected.

We can't in good conscience be for Black Lives Matter and not for Palestinian rights. There is no chosen people when it comes to human rights.