Top Menu

Fifty Years Later: Steve Early on the Forgotten Story of “Dissenting POWs”

“According to Wilber, and Lembcke, a Vietnam veteran and anti-war activist himself, what distinguished the dissenters from their accusers was their ‘disparate socioeconomic backgrounds.’ As the authors note, the senior ranking officers shot down over North Vietnam, like Stockdale, tended to be service academy graduates, from privileged circumstances which stood “in sharp contrast with the modest origins of war resisters.” U.S. soldiers captured in the South ‘were mostly enlisted personnel, younger and with less formal education.’ And those who joined the controversial ‘Peace Committee,’ during their imprisonment, were also more racially diverse….” | more…

Tigar on Chicago, 1968, and the Trial of the Chicago 8 (Watch: Dick Cavett Show)

The oscar-nominated “The Trial of the Chicago Seven,” has renewed interest in a particular flashpoint during the trials, when Bobby Seale demanded to represent himself. Judge Julius Hoffman ordered him bound and gagged. Seale was removed from the courtroom and thrown in jail. But in Director Aaron Sorkin’s reinvention of the events of 1968, a really good, but perhaps over-complicated story got “airbrushed” out: A lawyer was imposed on Bobby Seale against his will, and that lawyer was then arrested. The lawyer that was assigned to Bobby Seale was…..Michael Tigar. | more…

Why the sudden interest in Vietnam era movies? Coauthor of “Dissenting POWs” weighs in

“‘Why do we go back?’ she asked sardonically, ‘because they go back,’ the pro-war hawks and military establishment. The ‘patriarchy,’ as she put it, ruminates the defeat in Vietnam like a bad sandwich growling in its stomach through a night that will not end. The defeat in Vietnam struck at a pillar of American manhood. Vietnam veterans would sometimes be chided by older veterans: they had won their war; Vietnam veterans had lost—what kind of men were they?” | more…

A conversation between Michael Tigar, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz & more (Watch: Rapoport Center)

“The federal courts should be a sanctuary in the jungle,” said Clarence Darrow, the famous lawyer in the “Scopes” Monkey Trial. Legendary lawyer Michael Tigar took those words to heart. He hunted the jungle’s predators — the likes of Pinochet. He defended its prey — the likes of Lynne Stewart and Julian Assange. He gave counsel to Panthers like Angela Davis, and, as you just learned, briefly shared a cell with the likes of Bobby Seale. | more…

Horne on the true source of Chauvin’s crimes (Listen: The Analysis)

“The bargain was that if they worked together, they could expropriate the land from the Native Americans and accomplish what came to be called the American Dream, and with a little luck and a lot of pluck, they could then somehow down the road gain free labor from enslaved Africans, and so there was a sort of corrupt bargain at the onset of what is now the United States of America…And still to this very day, you have this kind of class collaboration between some of the ninety-nine percent and some of the one percent. How else can you explain how and why a faux billionaire, Donald J. Trump in November 2020, received almost seventy-five million votes?” | more…

“The Lie of Global Prosperity” as a work of popular education (Science & Society)

“Donnelly gives a short account of the origins of neoliberal imperialism, which emerged in the 1970s as a result of three challenges to the post–World War II global economic order: 1) the decline in the value of the U. S. dollar; 2) economic stagnation and a falling rate of pro t in the rich countries; and 3) the Third World “debt crisis”. Donnelly’s retelling of this story is remarkably concise and coherent; captured in a mere 30 pages, it is perhaps one of the best short overviews of the emergence of neoliberal global capitalism that I have read….” | more…

“Voices of Latin America,” post–pink tide (Science & Society)

“….almost half the book comes in the form of substantive interviews that are not simply rich and compelling in the sense of capturing the struggles and experiences of a diverse range of Latin Americans. They are also incredibly smart. The researchers interviewed some really sharp, experienced activists who have clearly thought deeply about political struggle for some time.” | more…

Tigar on “Sensing Injustice” and almost every case imaginable (Listen: Law and Disorder)

If you want to hear more of the details and stories around the trials of the Chicago 8, Julian Assange, Lynne Stewart, Pinochet, and dozens more dramatic court cases with direct impacts on each of our daily lives, then it will be well worth your while to give your ear to Law and Disorder’s most recent conversation with Michael Tigar. Still, in his book Sensing Injustice, Tigar goes well beyond merely, if magnificently, narrating a profound array of legal battles. Tigar well understands the limits of law in the fight for justice, and of the role of the lawyer — as do his fellow lawyers Heidi Boghosian and Michael Smith —and challenging existential questions about the nature of the legal profession also come up in the Law and Disorder interview. | more…

Rob Wallace, on Monkeypox, Kinkajou, state fairs, cute bats and “Dead Epidemiologists” (Watch: John Oliver Show)

Did you happen to catch Rob Wallace on Last Week Tonight With John Oliver? It’s a primer on what we all wish was “a once in a lifetime nightmare” but which “is actually part of a global trend, because the total number of disease outbreaks has increased significantly since 1980;” And “this is not, by any stretch of the imagination, the worst that mother nature has to offer us.” If the below John Oliver program were merely the ultimate in sardonic entertainment, it might be purely depressing, but instead it’s almost a relief to watch. It’s essentially a 20 minute summary of