I am not a fan of the oppressive government of Cuba where there is no vote, no guarantee of freedoms we here in the United States take for granted. As with all the revolutions in the last century based on Marxist philosophy the Cuban revolution devolved into a cult of personality. Unlike the others, Russian elitism and Chinese embrace of corporate identity to support the establishment as opposed to utopia, Cuba did establish two elements foreign to other Marxist revolutions. Cuba established an outreach of medical care for the poor and rural and a literacy campaign to educate the population… | more…
Eric T. Chester, author of the newly released Free Speech and the Suppression of Dissent During World War I, talks to Comrade Adam (a.k.a. Chairman Bane), host of the Red Library podcast, about the differing contexts of suppression of free speech in the UK and the U.S., Eugene Debs, the IWW, Samuel Gompers and the ALF-CIO legacy, and some of the legendary IWW strikes and labor drives during the period… | more…
RW: As far as Trump getting COVID-19, I think it’s a spectacle and palace intrigue – it serves as a distraction. The very fact that he contracted it is at the same time stupefying, astonishing, and yet utterly predictable…. | more…
We live in a world that is facing a profound and deepening ecological and social crisis. People are searching for an understanding of how this all happened, and what can be done about it. In The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology John Bellamy Foster has written a comprehensive account of the many socialist thinkers who have developed ecological critiques of society. It is essential reading for all who want to change the world…. | more…
Gerald Horne, historian and prolific author–most recently, of The Dawning of the Apocalypse–appears in this Powerhouse Arena launch for the publication of The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda, a play written by poet, essayist, and playwright Ishmael Reed. Originally produced at the Nuyorican Poets Café, The Haunting dismantles the phenomenon of Lin-Manuel Miranda and the Broadway hit musical, Hamilton. Reed uses the musical’s crimes against history to insist on a radical, cleareyed look at our past… | more…
Gerald Horne, historian and prolific author, talks with Allen Ruff, host of A Public Affair on radio WORT-FM, Madison, WI, about Horne’s most recent book, The Dawning of the Apocalypse. Dr. Horne retells the bloodthirsty story of the invasion of the Americas; how “whiteness” morphed into “white supremacy,” and how “genocide and mass enslavement is somehow a step forward for humanity.” He also offers examples of how colonial history manifests in the present day, including the Founding Father worship of the hit musical Hamilton and the growing popularity of QAnon conspiracies…. | more…
Helena Sheehan is a well-known and well-established presence on the Irish Left, an activist-academic with a strong form in meditative Marxist thought as well more accessible political commentary. As she shows in her new memoir, Navigating the Zeitgeist, it would be almost too obvious to say she led an interesting’ life, moving from post-war suburbia and a brief period as a nun, to communism and Irish republicanism; she narrates each of these stages of her life in a fast-moving and engaging (but not always problem-free) style…. | more…
Don Fitz taught Environmental Psychology at Washington University and Fontbonne University in St. Louis and was a research psychologist at St. Louis State Hospital for 25 years. He’s also the author of Cuban Health Care: The Ongoing Revolution. He recently spoke about his book to Kollibri terre Sonnenblume, host of the podcast Radio Free Sunroot… | more…
This is a remarkable political autobiography: of an academic, now Professor Emerita of Philosophy at Dublin City University in Ireland, who nevertheless in both achievement and self-conception, has always been more than ‘just’ an academic… | more…
The United States continues to be the only fully industrialized nation that lacks a public healthcare system, a feature of modern ‘democracy’ that is taken for granted in most developed countries. Most American proponents of healthcare reform typically cite the models utilized by Canada, Western Europe, or Australia as the most appropriate guides for the implementation of universal healthcare in the United States. However, Don Fitz, a Green Party activist, provides a comprehensive overview of a model for reform that originates from what many would consider to be a surprising place…. | more…
Vijay Prashad, Executive Director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, has also written several books, most recently, Washington Bullets: A History of the CIA, Coups, and Assassinations. He appears on the Friday, Oct. 9 edition of Democracy Now! to discuss with host Amy Goodman the breaking news that the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the U.N. World Food Programme. “I couldn’t be happier… This hunger pandemic is paralyzing perhaps 2.7 billion people,” says Prashad. “What could only make me happier, Amy, is if, next year, the Cuban doctors win the Nobel Peace Prize…” | more…
