Latest News: Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

“Biden’s State of the Union Was a Paean to Liberalism’s Complacent Status Quo” — THE DEAD CENTER author Luke Savage writes for Jacobin

Monday, March 14th, 2022

“In his first State of the Union address, Joe Biden commendably stuck to most of the progressive policy stances he campaigned on in 2020 — but steered clear of identifying or pointing fingers at those culpable for the injustices he claims to want to remedy.”

Read the full interview here.

“Interventionism vs. Isolationism” — HATE INC. author Matt Taibbi debates Bret Stephens on Honestly with Bari Weiss

Monday, March 14th, 2022

Listen to the full episode here.

“On the fight for constitutional reform in Chile” — THE COMPENSATION BUREAU author Ariel Dorfman’s recent article for The New York Review of Books featured by The New York Times

Monday, March 14th, 2022

Read the full article here.

“The Political Transformation That Happens When Workers Speak for Themselves” — THE WORK OF LIVING author Maximillian Alvarez speaks with Working People

Monday, March 14th, 2022

Listen to the full episode here.

“How To Be A Foreign Correspondent Without Swallowing Propaganda” — THE BROKEN BOY author Patrick Cockburn interviewed by Current Affairs

Monday, March 14th, 2022

“Cockburn’s memoir The Broken Boy, about his childhood during the Cork polio epidemic of 1956, is a story of everyday people who find themselves caught up in the tides of history having to struggle through as best they can.”

Read the full interview here.

“The Poetry of Labor: On Rodrigo Toscano and the Art of Work” — THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS author Alissa Quart writes for Literary Hub

Monday, March 14th, 2022

“The 57-year-old’s verse, like the courses that empower workers that he sets up around the country, is poetry that engages with the world of work, including its impasses and oppressions. He tracks the places that refined—or literary and academic—language meets everyday speech, as in the poem below, ‘Linemen'”:

Thirty thousand linemen in bucket trucks
Streaming into your distressed environs
Hitting sixteen-hour shifts, repairing
Lines that keep your identities well lit

Read the full interview here.

“Russia’s Invasion Strengthens the ‘Splinternet’”— SPLINTERNET author Scott Malcomson writes for Observer

Monday, March 14th, 2022

“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought the fragmentation of the world-wide web—which I described in my 2016 book Splinternet—back to public consideration, from South Africa to global media (here and here). It’s oddly fitting, because If I had to pick one moment when the splinternet began, it would be when current-Russian-resident Edward Snowden’s stolen information began to reach the public in June 2013. In a general sense, Snowden’s revelations were not surprising, in that one had known that Silicon Valley and U.S. security agencies had always had close if discreet relations.”

Read the full interview here.

“Makes the case that successful social change requires both visionary creativity and rational strategic planning” — THE ART OF ACTIVISM authors Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert interviewed in Nonviolence 3.0

Thursday, February 24th, 2022

I think it’s a natural thing that if you’re an activist, you’re thinking about your day-to-day. You encounter those obstacles and you know them really well because you know the issue. And over time, it becomes harder and harder to imagine success.

So, we spend a lot of time with people trying to help them think about what the actual goal is, or what a real win would be. When you have that vision of the outcome, it’s easier to chart ways around the obstacles.

Read the full interview here.

 

“The Media Class vs. The Working Class” — HATE INC. author Matt Taibbi interviewed by Russell Brand for Under the Skin

Thursday, February 24th, 2022

“In this episode, we discuss the phenomenon of Trump vs. The Media, the question of when the Democratic Party changed its values, and The Media Class vs. The Working Class. Are there any news outlets we can trust? And how can we address the culture war that seems to be getting worse?”

Listen to the full episode here.

 

“The problems working people face are common throughout the world. What is also common throughout the world is that those problems exist because of the global capitalist system” — ALWAYS RED author Len McCluskey interviewed for High Profiles

Thursday, February 24th, 2022

I do believe that the wealth that is created by working people should be distributed in a more equitable fashion than the current system allows.

Do I want to bring down capitalism? If only I had a magic wand to do that!

“The strange story of ‘Project Chameleo’” — CHAMELEO author Robert Guffey interviewed on Coast to Coast AM

Thursday, February 24th, 2022

Listen to the full interview here.

 

Steve Duncombe interviewed about THE ART OF ACTIVISM on 11:11 Talk Radio

Thursday, February 24th, 2022

Listen to the full interview here.

 

“The Northern Ireland Peace Agreement is crumbling, but Boris Johnson does not seem to care” — THE BROKEN BOY author Patrick Cockburn writes for the i

Thursday, February 24th, 2022

“I was sitting in a cafe in heavily nationalist West Belfast three years ago when a local radio reporter came in looking for residents to interview about the effect of Brexit on Northern Ireland. She said that the impact was already massive, adding: “Stupid, stupid English for getting us into this pickle. We were doing nicely and then they surpassed themselves [in stupidity].” The pickle is about to get a lot worse.”

Read the full article here.

“The American dream of the middle class isn’t what it used to be” — THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS author Alissa Quart speaks with CNBC

Thursday, February 24th, 2022

“It was at least a secure category…there were certain kinds of assumptions around being a middle class person that have now kind of shattered”

Watch the full video here.

“Ambassador of Memory” — THE COMPENSATION BUREAU author Ariel Dorfman to be named ambassador of Chile’s Museum of Memory and Human Rights”

Thursday, February 24th, 2022

“‘La lucha es por la memoria enterrada, marginada, dejada de lado, de aquellos que hacen la historia pero que rara vez aparecen en los libros de historia. Y en el caso de Chile se vuelve cuerpo, se vuelve carne, se vuelve fotografía, se vuelve palabra y se vuelve edificio el Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos.’

Read the full article here.

“Max powerfully reminds us that… it is our fellow human beings that this pandemic history is happening to” — THE WORK OF LIVING featured by The Real News Network

Thursday, February 24th, 2022

The Work of Living: Working People Talk about Their Lives and the Year the World Broke, forthcoming from OR Books, brings together an incredible set of in-depth interviews with working people living and fighting their way through the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Read the full article here.

“The Cypherpunks Mobilize to Save Julian Assange” — JULIAN ASSANGE IN HIS OWN WORDS editor Karen Sharpe writes for CounterPunch

Thursday, February 24th, 2022

It was an auction like no other. When it opened on February 7 at 2 p.m. GMT, the equivalent of more than $40 million in crypto currency had already been raised to bid on the single-edition NFT artwork titled “Clock”. When the auction closed 48 hours later, the winning bid was 16,593 ether, or more than $52 million, pooled from a group of supporters of Julian Assange.

The prized object, which is part of an NFT collection called “Censored”, is not something one can take home, like, say, one of Louis XIV’s famous clocks; rather it’s a dynamic generative artwork that exists only in a digital format, changes daily, and was created with a very specific goal: to free Julian Assange through raising funds for his legal defense and raising awareness of the free-speech implications of his case.

Read the full article here.

“Michael Ratner handled some of the most significant cases In American history. This book tells why and how he did it” — Michael Smith and Zachary Sklar interviewed about MOVING THE BAR for The Puffin Cultural Forum

Thursday, February 24th, 2022

Listen to the full interview here.

“Chile’s Bold Adventure in Democracy” — THE COMPENSATION BUREAU author Ariel Dorfman writes for The New York Review of Books

Thursday, February 24th, 2022

“Despite challenges and disputes aplenty, my country has embarked on a remarkable project: a truly popular debate about what sort of nation it should aspire to be.”

Read the full article here.

“A tremendous amount of insight into the problems of the QAnon conspiracy… Very informative and entertaining” — OPERATION MINDFUCK author Robert Guffey interviewed on The Independent Riot

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2022

Listen to the full interview here.

“A leader in black radical thought” — THE BLACK AGENDA author Glen Ford featured on Law and Disorder

Friday, February 11th, 2022

“The book is… rich, it’s informative. College courses and syllabi should include this book.”

Listen to the full episode here.

 

Reading List: Shimrit Lee — DECOLONIZE MUSEUMS author featured in Africa Is A Country

Friday, February 11th, 2022

 
The author of DECOLONIZE MUSEUMS assembles a list of essential reading on the past, present and future of museums.

Read the full article here.

“When the MS-13 Played Possum in Guatemala” — A YEAR INSIDE MS-13 author Juan José Martínez d´Aubuisson writes for InSight Crime

Thursday, February 10th, 2022

“The MS-13 has opted for what he calls the ‘possum strategy.’ Move in silence, in the shadows, and play dead in the face of danger. And once the threat has passed, keep on going. As an evolutionary strategy, it’s not the most honorable or something that inspires tall tales. But one thing is certain. No hunter cares about having the head of a possum displayed on the wall.”

Read the full article here.

New exhibition celebrating the life of SURF, SWEAT AND TEARS protagonist Ted Deerhurst to open at Croome Court in Worcestershire in June 2022

Wednesday, February 9th, 2022

In the early 1970s, Ted Deerhurst, the only son of the 11th Earl of Coventry of Croome, seemed to have everything in his grasp: the prospect of an earldom and living a country life in Worcestershire.

Ted rejected this traditional aristocratic life, however, and decided to pursue his dream of surfing. It was his greatest passion and he spent years on the amateur circuit before becoming the UK’s first professional surfer.

Ted graced the biggest waves around the world, making a name for himself not just in competitions but also in surfboard design and through his charitable work. Ted eventually settled in Hawaii, but met a tragic end at only 40 years old in 1997.

In partnership with the Croome Heritage Trust and Ted’s friends and family, this new exhibition will explore his epic life, the struggles that he encountered and his incredible achievements through personal objects, surfing memorabilia from around the world and stories from those who knew and loved him.”

Read more about the exhibition here.

“Everybody deserves equal justice under the law” — ABOVE THE LAW author Ben Cohen featured on NBC5

Tuesday, February 8th, 2022

“‘No one should be above the law, everybody is entitled to their day in court, everybody deserves equal justice under the law,’ Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice cream and co-chair of the Campaign To End Qualified Immunity, added.

Senate Bill 254 is currently sitting in the Senate Judiciary Committee. If passed by the legislature, it would get rid of Qualified Immunity in Vermont.

Those in favor of S. 254 believe it will make more police officers accountable for their actions taken on the job.”

Read the full article here.

“Unpacking the latest round of book banning in America” — ROSSET author Barney Rosset featured on On the Media

Thursday, February 3rd, 2022

“In 1951, Grove Press was a tiny, almost-defunct independent publisher, with just three titles in its catalog, including Herman Melville’s The Confidence Man. But then Barney Rosset took over and, with a few choice books, helped push America past its Puritanical roots and into the sexual revolution. He died in 2012 and we are re-airing this interview I did with him many years back, to set up this week’s show in which we’ll be trying to unpack the latest round of book banning in America. ”

Listen to the full episode here.

“A deep dive on the process, principles, history and practice of artistic activism… [An] important resource” — THE ART OF ACTIVISM reviewed by Waging Nonviolence

Thursday, February 3rd, 2022

“When it comes to supporting activists in using arts and culture more effectively and strategically, there’s much work to be done. That’s why I was excited to see the release of another important resource last year: ‘The Art of Activism: Your All-purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible’ — a new book from our compatriots Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert, founders of the Center for Artistic Activism.

From chapters on developing your own artistic process to the critical role of persuasion, the Steves (as they are often called) make the case that art needs activism and activism needs art. As a longtime ‘hard core’ activist/artist myself, that’s an argument I can get fully behind. However, ‘The Art of Activism,’ which includes an accompanying workbook for developing your own creative actions, is not for the faint of heart. The Steves are both college professors, and it shows — in that the book/workbook could be the basis for an intensive college course…

You and your campaign will benefit greatly from investing in ‘The Art of Activism’ package. Thanks to the Steves, you’ll graduate with a solid handle on the process, principles, history and practice of artistic activism and how this can move us towards a better (utopian!) future.”

Read the full review here.

“A revolutionary lawyer unlike any other” — MOVING THE BAR author Michael Ratner featured on Scheer Intelligence

Thursday, February 3rd, 2022

“The late human rights lawyer took on some of the most important cases of our time, including defending Guantanamo Bay detainees and representing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange…

In a new, posthumously published book, ‘Moving the Bar: My Life as a Radical Lawyer,’ readers are able to learn from Ratner’s life and words about how and why he took on the critical cases he did. Fellow attorney Michael Smith and former executive editor at The Nation Zachary Sklar join Robert Scheer on this week’s ‘Scheer Intelligence’ to talk about their late friend Michael Ratner. Sklar, who edited ‘Moving the Bar’ for OR Books, and Smith, who wrote the book’s introduction, discuss Ratner’s most significant cases, including what he would think of how Assange is being treated today, and also offer insight into Ratner’s unwavering dedication to ethics.”

Listen to the episode here.

“Full of score-settling” — Len McCluskey’s ALWAYS RED reviewed by Socialist Standard

Tuesday, February 1st, 2022

“Originally a ‘planman’ on the Liverpool docks (drawing up plans of where cargoes from various ports would be held on ships), [Len McCluskey] rose through the ranks of the Transport and General Workers’ Union before playing a key role in the creation of Britain’s most powerful union, Unite – formed in 2007 from a merger of the T & G and Amicus. From 2010 until recently, he became its General Secretary.

The ‘red’ in the title refers not only to McCluskey’s politics – he was an early supporter of Militant, though says he was never a member – but also to his love of Liverpool FC, with which he appears to have travelled all over Europe. He also appears to have seen red many times in the more metaphorical sense during his union career and the book is full of score-settling. Former Labour Deputy Leader Tom Watson – who was McCluskey’s old flat mate – comes out of it particularly badly. And there is clearly no love lost with Keir Starmer either, who he accuses of duplicity.”

Read the full review here.

“The need for international solidarity, economic change and a new social order” — Slavoj Žižek interviewed about HEAVEN IN DISORDER on Radiotelevizija Slovenija

Sunday, January 30th, 2022

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