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Resistance Report

Prisoners, Unions Sue Alabama, Alleging ‘Modern-Day Slavery’

February 27, 2024 Mansa Musa, The Real News Network. , , , , , ,
A group of current and former prisoners have sued the state of Alabama with the support of two unions who have signed on as co-plaintiffs, the Union of Southern Service Workers, and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. The lawsuit claims that Alabama’s system of prison labor amounts to a “modern-day form of slavery” that generates massive profits for private businesses and revenues for the state by forcing incarcerated people to work for little or no pay. Jacob Morrison and Adam Keller join Rattling the Bars to discuss the lawsuit and the importance of the fight for prisoners’ rights to the overall labor movement.

The Death Of Liberal Zionism

February 25, 2024 Chris Hedges, The Real News Network. , , , ,
Liberal Zionism, the notion that Israel’s existence can be compatible with liberal values, has run its course. As Israel’s genocide in Gaza continues despite the outcry of the world and the International Court of Justice, it is clear that any hopes of earlier generations to build a humanistic society in Israel have failed. Israel has long legitimized itself by purporting to be necessary for the protection of Jewish people from antisemitism. But Judaism and Jewish identity are far older than Zionism, and far more diverse than Zionism’s narrow claims to monopolize the meaning of faith and ancestry.

Stella Assange: ‘The World Is Watching’ Assange Extradition Hearing

February 23, 2024 Ross Domoney and Nadia Peridot, The Real News Network. , , ,
The world is watching. And finally, there’s a realization about what this is really about, which is an attack on the truth, an attack on the public’s right to know. And a country’s attempt to further their impunity and their coverups and continue to kill with impunity, without the threat of a media that will scrutinize them, of a public that will demand change. That cannot stand. Everything turns on the outcome of this case. Whether states can criminalize journalism and put journalists in prison like they’ve been doing in the UK with an Australian citizen; a publisher who’s won many, many awards for his journalism and they’ve stuck him in the deepest, darkest hole of the UK prison system.

United States Kills Fourth United Nations Call For Peace In Gaza

February 22, 2024 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. , , , , , , , , , ,
The United States has since October voted against four United Nations Security Council resolutions that called for peace in Gaza. Top UN officials have called for a ceasefire, but the US government has stood in their way, facilitating further violence. In January, the highest UN judicial authority, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), ruled that Israel must abide by the Genocide Convention and stop killing Palestinians. But Tel Aviv ignored the Hague’s decision and killed thousands more Palestinian civilians. By vetoing a fourth Gaza-related Security Council resolution on February 20, and by continuing to provide weapons to Israel, the US government has helped Israel violate an ICJ order.

This Is Why Coming Home From Prison Is So Difficult For So Many

February 20, 2024 Mansa Musa, The Real News Network. , , ,
The US has one of the highest prisoner recidivism rates in the world: over 70% of incarcerated people who are released from prison in the US will be rearrested within five years of their release date. That is not an accident. Our system of mass incarceration sets people up to fail as they leave the prison system and try to reintegrate into society. That is why organizations like Hope for Prisoners in Nevada are working to provide returning citizens with the resources and support they need to rebuild their lives and maintain their freedom. In this episode of Rattling the Bars, Mansa Musa speaks with Jon Ponder, founder and CEO of Hope for Prisoners.

Israeli Peace Activist Calls For Sanctions, No-Fly Zone On Israel

February 18, 2024 Miko Peled, MintPress News. , , , ,
Israel’s latest refusal to accept the Palestinian offer for a cease-fire and prisoner exchange demonstrates again that it only wants to continue the killing. Furthermore, the latest cold-blooded assault on Palestinians in Rafah – most of whom are displaced, having had to escape their homes in other parts of the Gaza Strip, presents an urgent need for the international community to intervene. The purpose of the intervention is to force Israel to comply with terms that will make it impossible for it to continue the killing. An absolute guarantee for the safety and security of Palestinians must be put in place and monitored by the international community.

The Collapse Of US Media Is Accelerating Our Political Crisis

February 17, 2024 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. , , ,
Yet another wave of media layoffs is putting hundreds of journalists out of work across some of the largest major news outlets in the US, including CNN, the LA Times, Vox, Business Insider, CNBC, Garnett, and others. In an already-grim media landscape that’s been decimated by decades of tanking revenues, this latest round of cuts raises serious questions about how the loss of so much journalism will impact our society. Newspapers closed at a rate of 2.5 per week in 2023, up from 2 per week in 2022. 3,000 of the US’s 9,000 newspapers have permanently closed, and since 2005, two thirds of all journalists have lost their jobs.

Colombian Farmers Take Back Land Stolen By Big Oil

February 17, 2024 Rodrigo Vazquez-Sales, The Real News. , , ,
The story of multinational corporations taking land and resources from working people can be found all over the world. In Colombia, farming families have joined forces to reclaim their stolen land and defend it from local security forces acting on behalf of the Occidental Petroleum Corporation. The Real News reports from Arauquita, Colombia, on the frontlines of a land defenders’ campaign that stretches back decades.  In Arauquita, Northeast Colombia, 150 farming families were displaced from this land 20 years ago. It’s been exploited by the Occidental Petroleum Corporation ever since. However, the farmers returned to reclaim their land.

Baltimore’s ‘Downward Spiral’ Of Poverty, Disinvestment, And Policing

February 12, 2024 Mansa Musa, The Real News Network. , , , , ,
The crisis of mass incarceration is about more than the conduct of police officers—it’s a question of public expenditures, and how pouring taxpayer money into incarceration at the expense of other, more humanizing ventures takes a toll on society at large. As public schools and public health programs across the nation grapple with a host of preventable problems arising from underinvestment, state and local governments across the nation spend over $200 billion each year on prisons, jails, and police. Now, a new report from the Justice Policy Institute, “The Right Investment 2.0”, takes a detailed look at the “downward spiral” low-income, predominately Black and Brown communities across Maryland are forced into by this imbalance in public expenditures.

Putin Debunks Tucker Carlson’s Warmongering Anti-China Propaganda

February 11, 2024 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. , , , , , , , , ,
The US TV host Tucker Carlson set off a political scandal by traveling to Moscow this February to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin. This provoked a debate in the media, which – as is so often the case in partisan US politics – completely missed the forest for the trees. Liberal war hawks like Hillary Clinton portrayed Tucker Carlson as a traitor and “useful idiot” of Putin. Democrats have been blinded by their obsessive hatred of Russia, and are utterly incapable of seeing what is happening geopolitically. In reality, Carlson and other Donald Trump allies in the Republican Party have tried for years to drive a wedge in between Russia and China, while maniacally pushing for war on Beijing.

Israel Destroyed My University – Where Is The Outrage?

February 10, 2024 Chris Hedges, The Real News Network. , , , ,
On Jan. 17, the Israeli military detonated 315 mines to destroy Gaza’s last standing university, al-Israa University, located south of Gaza City. For 70 days prior, the Israelis occupied the university as a military base, posting snipers in its buildings and using it as a detention and interrogation center. According to university authorities, prior to the detonation Israeli soldiers looted the university museum, which contained 3,000 artifacts dating back as far as the Roman era. With al-Israa University’s destruction, Israel has now destroyed or damaged all of Gaza’s 12 universities, and also targeted 280 government schools and 65 UN schools, many of which were sheltering civilians when they were attacked.

How To Go From Neoliberalism To A Productive, Sustainable Economy

February 10, 2024 Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson, Geopolitical Economy. , , ,
In our last show, which we entitled “The Debt Explosion: How Neoliberalism Fuels Debt Crises“, we promised that our next show would be about what the solution is, what is the solution to the myriad problems that we were describing. And that is indeed what we are going to discuss today. The solution, we feel, in the United States and in all countries that have gone down the road of neoliberalism and financialization involves a root and branch reform of the financial system. And this would be the foundation for the urgent economic transformation. It will be the single largest component of the economic transformation that so many of us realize we also badly need.

CIA Director Calls China Biggest ‘Threat’, Says Ukraine War Benefits US

February 8, 2024 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. , , , , , , , ,
The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, William J. Burns, published an article in which he referred to “the United States’ principal rivals—China and Russia”, while emphasizing that “China is the bigger long-term threat”. Strongly implying that we are in the early stages of a new cold war, he wrote that “China and Russia consume much of the CIA’s attention”. Burns revealed that “the CIA has been reorganizing itself” in order to counter China. The notorious US spy agency has created a special “mission center” focusing exclusively on Beijing, and has doubled its budget for anti-China operations.

US DEA Used Criminals To Spy On, Destabilize Venezuela, Mexico, Bolivia

February 6, 2024 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. , , , , , , , , ,
Numerous reports in major media outlets have documented how the US government has used the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in order to spy on and try to destabilize left-wing governments in Latin America. DEA meddling schemes have targeted Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, Bolivia’s former President Evo Morales, and Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. In these scandals, the DEA has collaborated with known criminals, including drug traffickers and money launderers, to launch sting operations against leftist politicians. The Associated Press revealed this February that the DEA “sent undercover operatives into Venezuela to surreptitiously record and build drug-trafficking cases against the country’s leadership”.

Noura Erakat: Colonial Law And The Erasure Of Palestine

February 3, 2024 Chris Hedges, The Real News Network. , , ,
In Palestine, the law has been used as a tool of oppression to legitimize and advance the dispossession of the Palestinian people for more than a century. From the theft of Palestinian land by legal mechanisms to the non-recognition of Palestinians as a people with the inalienable right of self-determination, the law is yet another weapon wielded against the Palestinian people by Israel and its patrons. Activist, attorney, and Rutgers University professor Noura Erakat joins The Chris Hedges Report to discuss the use of lawfare against Palestine and her new book, Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine.
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