In the response to the LA anti-ICE protests, a large number of Democrats have called for peaceful non-violence in the spirit of MLK Jr. We review the history of the Civil Rights movement and how change actually took place. And we come to the conclusion that today's Democrats are the white moderate that MLK Jr warned us about. This includes progressive darlings Bernie Sanders and AOC, who recently headlined a Fight the Oligarchy tour. What is the Fight the Oligarchy tour actually doing? Why is this event relevant today? Why do we need to break with the Democrats and have class independent leadership?
We can't build a serious resistance movement to endless war, climate collapse and capitalist catastrophe within the Democratic Party. Bernie's Fight the Oligarchy tour, which is starting up again, is actually enabling and collaborating with the oligarchy. Bernie used to be much more radical before he allied with the Democratic Party. But today, Bernie Sanders has become the white moderate that MLK Jr. warned us about.
Show Notes:
In Part 2 of this series, we focus on foreign policy. In Part 1, we explained how Trump and his oligarchs enrich themselves off the backs of the world’s poor and working-class at home. But in the case of foreign policy, Trump’s plans involve the blatant pillaging and exploitation of other country’s sovereign lands and resources. And again, this was prepared by the Biden regime and the sell-out democrats. Both parties are beholden to Zionism and the Military Industrial Complex. And Trump is just executing the next logical step in the colonial projects that the Democrats began.
We cover the recent fight in the White House with Zelensky over the role of Ukraine, how Trump is continuing the Democrats Cold War on China, and Trump's plan for ethnically cleansing Gaza.
Reading Notes:
"Europe needs an independent foreign policy": Professor Jeffrey Sachs at European Parliament
Hard truths about the Trump-Zelensky-Vance Oval Office blow-up, Responsible Statecraft
Zelensky’s hostility to peace triggers White House meltdown, Aaron Mate
It's not Russia that's pushed Ukraine to the brink of war by Seumas Milne - Before the West flipped the script
Congress bans arms to Ukraine militia linked to neo-Nazis, Congressman Ro Khanna
US arming of Ukraine is a scandal on its own, the grayzone
The US is arming and assisting neo-Nazis in Ukraine, while Congress debates prohibition
Trump plans to make Ukraine a US economic colony, exploiting its critical minerals - Ben Norton
China accuses US of ‘Cold War mentality’ after release of Biden national security strategy , The Hill
Biden voters passed on Kamala Harris because of Gaza, new poll shows, Middle East Eye
'Uncommitted' leaders stand by 2024 strategy after Trump floats Gaza takeover, NBC News
Revolutionary Communists of America video
A Fighting Program for the Revolutionary Communists of America
Manifesto of the Revolutionary Communist International
In our first episode during Trump’s second term, we look at a short (but not comprehensive) list of horrors that the Trump MAGA coalition has unleashed on the US public and how the groundwork for this horror show was laid down by the Biden regime, along with decades of corporate Democratic failures to build any kind of real opposition to the fascist-leaning movements of the Republican Party. In fact, recent Democratic Presidential campaigns have promised to be “tougher” than Trump on certain vulnerable populations.
From the destruction of the social welfare state to ICE raids, deportations, the border wall, Guantánamo, tariffs and the new trade war, along with Trump’s ‘Drill Baby Drill’ ambitions, we have seen complete continuity between Democratic and Republican policies– with each successive administration moving further to the right– enriching more and more billionaires and oligarchs at the direct expense of the working- class, immigrants and refugees, and the environment.
We also examine how the capitalist media plays a pivotal role as a force-multiplier– profiting off of Trump’s domestic terrorism and obfuscating the role of Democrats in enabling this terrorism. Together, these two corrupt parties work hand-in-glove in what has become straight-up class war.
Thank you for listening to Crawdads & Taters: Red State Rebels. Please consider making a donation to support our rebellious work at patreon.com/crawdadsandtaters. We can do this work with you, but not without you.
Reading Notes:
In this post-mortem election breakdown, we look at bourgeois liberal and Democratic establishment reactions to Harris' spectacular electoral failure. We analyze a liberal pattern of maliciously blaming voters and spewing false narratives about why people vote the way they do.
We also examine the material impacts on US voters from the Democrats' own policies of economically abandoning the working class, abandoning left/progressive issues, campaigning with war criminals, and committing mass murder in Palestine, while violently repressing students at home.
We look at why a majority of voters say they are worse off than they were four years ago, by examining the failure of Biden's signature Build Back Better plan and the meager accomplishments of the Inflation Reduction Act.
And finally, we tackle the counter-revolutionary role of liberalism, its obsession with identity politics, and its refusal to acknowledge our class-based society. Liberalism creates a major obstacle in building class consciousness and class solidarity.
Show Notes:
Against the Stream - Trump's victory: What does it mean? – A communist analysis with Alan Woods
Bidenomics Isn’t Working For Working People - Stephen Semler
The Economy is Fine - Stephen Semler
Most Americans think the economy is bad but they’re split on whether Trump or Harris can fix it
2024 American Electorate Voter Poll- Hispanic Voters
"Love Me, I'm a Liberal" (for the 2024 Election) by Ben Grosscup
After a bit of a hiatus, Crawdads & Taters is back to discuss the 2024 Presidential election, the ongoing genocide in Palestine and the limits of real political change under a capitalist, imperialist economic system.
While identity politics are being sold to us as a smokescreen for progressive change, duping the public into believing that Kamala (as a black woman) will be the hope and change we've all been waiting for, C & T brings you back down-to-earth with a socialist perspective based in class consciousness and historical materialism.
Thanks, as always, for your support and please consider becoming a subscriber for as little as $3/month at patreon.com/crawdadsandtaters. And if you can't donate, then give us a good rating on your favorite podcast platform and share us with your friends.
Reading Notes:
Sanders Won the War of Ideas - by Erin McCarley
Democracy is dead - by Birrion Sondahl
Democracy Lost: A Report on the Fatally Flawed 2016 Democratic Primaries
Clinton Donors Have Picked Their 2020 Democratic Presidential Nominee | Observer
Black Left Critique of Kamala Harris
US Is Reportedly Working to Prevent Conference on Geneva Convention Violations
Minnesota activists criticize Tim Walz for refusing to meet with Palestinians
Harris shifts stance on fracking, healthcare and border
14 protestors calling on Walz to divest from Israel cited for trespassing at his residence
In this episode, we talk again about Fascism because we have entered into a Primary Election cycle where leftists of all stripes will once again be cajoled, harassed and even trolled by the neoliberal establishment to Vote Blue No Matter Who– in order to avoid Donald Trump and “Fascism.”
Many liberals feel entitled to attack leftists at election time because by their shallow, liberal definition, fascism is simply a right-wing ideology that is embodied by Donald Trump. But what the liberal establishment fails to understand time and time again is that fascism is not just an ideological project, but it is economic and political project, which is the inevitable result of working-class repression under neoliberal capitalism.
Looking at fascism's economic and political roots, we can see that what is actually pushing the world toward fascism is not simply a bunch of right-wing ideologues who just appeared out of nowhere. The breeding ground for fascism, the underlying conditions for fascism, rest within a global capitalist economic structure where the transnational capitalist class helps decide government agendas… the Military Industrial Complex, Big Oil, Big Pharma… These are transnational entities whose profit mandates influence and control government policies.
And this kind of global political economy not only leads to huge concentrations of wealth at the very top of society. It also leads to mass poverty at the bottom– all over the world. And this social inequality breeds class war, which results in a perfect breeding ground for the ideology of fascism to take hold. So voting for Joe Biden will not stop fascism. And until we address the root causes of fascism, we will not be able to reverse this counter-revolutionary cycle.
Reading Notes:
Delving into John Pilger’s 2002 documentary: 'Palestine is still the issue'
The Question of Palestine- A Brief History- by the United Nations
Netanyahu’s corruption trial resumes amid Israeli war on Gaza. What to know
Poverty rates in Israel are among the highest - opinion
One-third of Israeli Holocaust survivors live in poverty, advocates say
The top 1% captured nearly twice as much new wealth as the rest of the world over last two years
Poll finds wide disapproval of Biden on Gaza, and little room to shift gears
Global Capitalism Has Become Dependent on War-Making to Sustain Itself by William I. Robinson
Israeli weapon seen used by Neo-Nazi Ukrainian unit against Russia
Palestine: a communist perspective
Israeli estate agent defends ads offering beachfront villas in Gaza
Please consider making an urgently-needed donation to Crawdads & Taters, as we are ramping up coverage during this genocide. As we find ourselves in the midst of an information war, where critical voices are being censored, banned and bombed, we need your support now more than ever. Please become a subscriber for as little as $3/month at patreon.com/crawdadsandtaters.
Episode Description:
As the official death toll in Gaza soars to more than 8,500, with 5,500 children likely dead, and US-backed Israel prepares for a ground invasion, we bring you Part 2 of our analysis of the forces at work behind this genocide.
Today, we discuss Biden's complicity with war crimes, his unwavering support for Israel, and Biden's history as a Zionist. We define Zionism, and we use a lens of Settler Colonialism, Zionism and Disaster Capitalism for understanding what Israel and the United States are now executing.
We also shine a light on Israel's future capitalist development plans for a canal/corridor, and look at how these plans may be connected to the genocide happening in Gaza.
As socialists, we understand how capitalism's plans for endless expansion require constant war, genocide and the destruction of nature, and the brutal oppression of the world's most vulnerable.
We offer you a list of media resources to stay informed, as non-coporate, anti-war voices are being banned, censored, and bombed.
Reading Notes
Global Capitalism Has Become Dependent on War-Making to Sustain Itself | Truthout
Peace Propaganda And The Promised Land U.S Media & the Israeli Palestinian Conflict 2004
Chris Hedges - Exterminate all the Brutes
'Peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia will truly create a new Middle East': Netanyahu
Gaza Fights For Freedom (2019) | Full Documentary | Directed by Abby Martin
In Part One one of our series on Palestine, we review the horrific events since October 7th as the death toll in Gaza reaches nearly 6,000.
We analyze the US role in funding and providing political cover for Israeli settler colonialism, apartheid and genocide in the occupied territories of Palestine.
We explore the history of Israel as a settler colonial regime that began in 1948.
We hear from various Jewish voices for peace- Dr. Norman Finkelstein, Holocaust survivor Dr. Gabor Maté, Jewish Voices for Peace as well as historians of holocaust and genocide who describe why what's happening now in Gaza is a textbook definition of genocide.
We explore the history of the Zionist land claim on Palestine and deconstruct it through a settler-colonialist lens.
And we discuss Palestinian attempts at non-violent resistance that have been met with mass murder and extreme violence.
Stay tuned for Part Two of this series coming later this week.
We are in the midst of an information war, where non-corporate and independent voices are being highly suppressed and censored. Please support our work and become a subscriber at patreon.com/crawdadsandtaters so that we can continue to bring you independent news and analysis from a socialist lens. For as little as $5/month, you can keep us up and running!! Thank you!!!
Reading Notes:
Israel Has No Right of Self-Defense Against Gaza
Gaza’s terrified children all too aware Israel’s bombs steal their joy
800+ Legal Scholars Say Israel May Be Perpetrating 'Crime of Genocide' in GazaGaza by Norman Finkelstein - Paperback - University of California Press
The roots of Israel's ethnic cleansing in Gaza
US opposes peace as Israel ethnically cleanses Palestinians, waging war on ‘entire nation’ of Gaza
Outrage spreads across Middle East after attack on Gaza hospital
Decolonization is always a violent phenomenon. Would that it were otherwise.
As of recording this episode, the Hollywood Labor Strike is entering its seventh week. It's the first time actors and screenwriters have been on strike together since 1960. And while 87 percent of SAG-AFTRA union members make less than $26,000/year, Barbie and Oppenheimer, together, have so far grossed $1.83 billion at the box office. This is the real-life backdrop for the release of these two summer blockbuster movies.
In this episode, we focus on Hollywood's treatment of the atomic bomb in its recent blockbuster film, Oppenheimer. Because of the narrow focus of this film on Oppenheimer, the man, we feel it extremely urgent and necessary to teach a deeper history of the global and historical impacts of US nuclear proliferation.
According to the Union of Atomic Scientists, the doomsday clock is closer to midnight now (that is, closer to nuclear doomsday) than it’s ever been in human history. The United States has approved more than $120 billion (and counting) to Ukraine to fight a proxy war against Russia, while ramping up its hostile Cold War rhetoric against China. This corporate-backed government is taking us closer and closer to the brink of nuclear war with these two major nuclear superpowers. And it's important to remember that there’s only country in the world that has ever used a nuclear bomb against civilians, and that country is the United States.
At this incredibly volatile point in world history, we find many of Oppenheimer's historical omissions to be unforgivable. As entertaining as the film is, it is not the anti-war film that US audiences need in order to catalyze an anti-war movement and avoid WWIII. And given that so many people use Hollywood and the mass media as their main information source for US History, we feel compelled to clarify the historical record.
So join us for another episode, and become a patron at patreon.com/crawdadsandtaters.
Reading Notes
Is Hollywood Still Afraid of the Truth About the Atomic Bomb?: Greg Mitchell on “Oppenheimer”
Oppenheimer: The Real Plan for U.S. Nuclear Domination, Then and Now
NMPBS: ‘Forever chemicals’ found at Los Alamos
Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety: Is Our Drinking Water Safe?
The War Was Won Before Hiroshima—And the Generals Who Dropped the Bomb Knew It | The Nation
Atomic Bomb Museum: Counting the Dead
The Holocaust and World War II: Key Dates
Hollywood Studios’ WGA Strike Endgame Is To Let Writers Go Broke Before Resuming Talks In Fall
In this episode, we explore the manufactured debt-ceiling crisis of June 2023. Sold to the US public as a financial emergency that required immediate action in order to avoid impending doom and "the scourge of default," we look at what the debt-ceiling negotiations actually resulted in: a giant cash giveaway to big business, the war industry, fossil fuel companies and the ruling class. While feigning the need to cut federal spending across the board, military spending and funding for fossil fuel projects actually increased, while the US government slashed the budgets of the minuscule federal food stamp program and ended student debt relief. In addition, the bipartisan debt-ceiling deal included the legislative fast-tracking some of the most protested and lethal pipelines to people and the planet.
As the corporate duopoly marches in lockstep in their war on the working class, the poor, and the planet, there was almost no corporate media analysis of this phony crisis and the giant financial gift to the one-percent that resulted from these debt-ceiling negotiations, which is why we provide you with a deeper analysis here.
If you appreciate our in-depth reporting and analysis, please support our work and become a patron today at patreon.com/crawdadsandtaters.
Show notes:
In this episode, we take a deep look at the Norfolk Southern train derailment in Palestine, Ohio on Feb. 3rd, and how this incident is connected to the corporate management of the railways– a topic that we dove into, in depth, in our last episode, Off The Rails.
The United States averages 1,700 train derailments per year. Since the disaster in East Palestine, there have been dozens more derailments to date. Norfolk Southern averages approximately 164 derailments and three hazardous material releases per year. This Ohio disaster was only exceptional–only widely reported – because of the incredibly dramatic, visceral and toxic nature of the event - a two-mile-long “bomb train” of 141 cars, holding up to 32,000 gallons each of highly flammable toxic chemicals. In addition to the spill, an out-of-control fire raged for days afterwards, sending the cargo up into a giant mushroom cloud above a small Ohio town of some 5,000 residents.
As East Palestine residents continue their battles with toxicity-related illnesses-- headaches, nausea, rashes, and chemical pneumonia, we look at the response from the Biden Administration, the Transportation Secretary, former President Trump, and compare these responses to the donations that both parties have received directly from Norfolk Southern.
On President's Day, the Proud Boys handed out water to Ohio victims whose water was poisoned. Trump promised Palestine residents they would not be forgotten. And Biden went to Ukraine to sell more weapons. It is in this upside-down world, we feel compelled to examine how Democratic failures to fight for the working-class continually create a vacuum and an opening for fascism.
And finally, we talk about what Railroad Workers United is still demanding after all these months- nationalization of the railroads. Perhaps this could be a first step on the path toward socialism.
Links
Chris Hedges: The Age of Social Murder - scheerpost.com
Music - The Revolutionary Communist Progressive Labor Party
Support Public Ownership of the Railroads
Pete Plays IDENTITY POLITICS While Failing at His Job
The Ohio Train Disaster: Corporate Greed & Regulatory Failure | The Problem With Jon Stewart Podcast
Norfolk Southern BAILS on Town Hall in East Palestine
Dems STRUGGLE to Defend Biden as Trump Plans East Palestine Visit - w/ Punch Up Pod
Outraged Ohio residents erupt at town hall: 'Where's Pete Buttigieg?'
East Palestine derailment aftermath: How worried should people be?
A History of Norfolk Southern Train Crash Reports - Columbus Underground
Spilled drink: train derails beside Montana river, tipping out cases of beer
Union Pacific reopens Cima Subdivision after derailment of runaway iron ore train
Train derails in rural North Dakota and spills chemicals | AP News
In this first episode of 2023, in the midst of ongoing US wars, pandemics and record inflation, we take a deep look at "the railroad strike that wasn't" in December 2022. In this US political moment, we see an uptick of strikes, walkouts and labor organizing inside the United States. And we feel it's crucial to hear from railroad workers directly in order to understand their working conditions, as well as the role the US government played in shutting down this strike- stripping workers of their democratic rights.
We take you through the timeline of railroad negotiations over the last three years, looking closely at the Biden Administration's use of the 1926 Railway Act as a strike-breaking tool, in the service of multi-billionaire railway carriers, lobbyists and their CEO's. In a time of record-breaking profits for the railway industry, we look at the basic demands of workers- a handful of paid sick time days that were denied to them through a bipartisan consensus.
We also take a lens to the corporate media's coverage of the railroad issue and examine its intensely corporate bias, as it relentlessly warns of economic disaster should workers strike, yet never reports on workers' demands.
Finally, we discuss the role of neoliberalism and the bipartisan betrayal of workers as a real political force pushing the country toward fascism. We hear from other socialists about the powerful history of US railroad strikes and what must be done today in terms of the labor movement and electoral politics in order to stop a fascist uprising and revitalize the labor movement inside the United States.
As always, we bring you this analysis from a socialist perspective, and we very much depend on your subscriptions to continue this podcast. Please become a patron today at patreon.com/crawdadsandtaters.
Reading Notes:
We Rise Fighting Episode 21: Interview w/ Marilee Taylor of Railroad Workers United
Fake Populists See A Real Opportunity
PEB 250 - Report and Recommendations
Global capitalism, global police state
[Audio] The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 | NYC Marxist School 2022 - Socialist Revolution
Railroad Workers United Statement
Bad Faith: Episode 233 - Fraud Squad? (w/Kshama Sawant & Ryan Grim)
As Congress has approved almost $70 billion now in Ukraine spending and a more-than $800 billion US military budget for 2023, we look at the costs of "Forever Wars" - the financial, political, and ecological costs. And we examine how global capitalism, as a political-economic system, is becoming more and more dependent upon war-making to sustain itself.
As the new Cold War rages on, and Ukraine becomes more and more of a permanent US proxy state, we look at Biden’s threats against China as a history of peaceful US-China relations is shattered.
We also look at Biden’s escalating rhetoric against Cuba, Venezuela and other “failed states” that have in some way resisted the forces of global capitalism. We look at all of these provocations through the lens of military industrial profits and a declining US empire trying desperately to maintain unipolar world dominance.
And as Biden ramps up his nuclear rhetoric, now warning of Armageddon with Russia, we finish our history lesson on US interventionism in Ukraine— this time, starting from 2019 and going to February 24, 2022— the day that US and Western Media claim that history started.
Finally, given that war is one of the most carbon-intensive projects on the planet and the US cumulative emissions exceed those of any other country, we look at the environmental crisis as a crisis of military emissions— understanding that ending fossil-fuel-driven wars is absolutely essential if we are going to survive as a species in the midst of an ongoing ecological collapse.
The stakes are rising for all of us, and as socialists, we see a dire need for all of our movements to come together— international, working-class, anti-colonial, environmental, racial justice and anti-war movements. It’s all hands on deck now and perhaps our last hope for survival.
Noam Chomsky & Vijay Prashad on Ukraine, Why U.S. Must Negotiate with Russia & What Media Gets Wrong
Capitalism's Structural Crisis and the Global Revolt- w/William I. Robinson
It's Time to Call It What It Is—A Capitalism-Induced Ecological Crisis- Erin McCarley
Global Capitalism Has Become Dependent on War-Making to Sustain Itself
Who sabotaged Nord Stream pipelines? US boasts ‘tremendous opportunity’ to weaken Russia. CIA knew.
Jacque Baud's US-Ukraine Timeline
CBS censors its own report on Ukraine weapons corruption
ACTION ALERT: NYT Celebrates Neo-Nazi Azov Unit
Doves Die in Ukraine: When Did Liberals Turn On Peace? With Eugene Puryear
The Costs of War website- Neta Crawford
In Part 2 of our series on Ukraine, we pick up with the history of Ukraine starting with the aftermath of the Maidan Coup in 2014. The post-coup government in Ukraine with hand-picked Prime Minister Yatsenyuk cozied up to the EU, IMF, and US and enacted a law targeting the Russian language. These actions led to widescale protests in predominantly Russian speaking areas of Ukraine. We explain how the story we hear in the western media has been mostly propaganda and that Crimea was not invaded by Russia, but voted by general ballot to join Russia. The same is true of the independent republics of Donetsk and Luhansk who held general referendums to breakaway from Ukraine after the coup government launched a bloody civil war targeting these regions in the Donbass.
And while Ukrainian neo-Nazi battalions carried out this war in the Donbass, then Vice-President Joe Biden was working closely with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to impose IMF structural adjustment programs on Ukraine. These programs were a direct war on the working class and only served to enrich corporate interests. One of these corporations, oil and gas company Burisma, appointed Hunter Biden to their board after Joe Biden visited Ukraine. The Poroshenko/Biden friendship is one rife with corruption.
The current proxy war in Ukraine was set up by the Maidan coup, orchestrated by Jake Sullivan, Victoria Nuland, and Joe Biden under an Obama presidency. The actions of Joe Biden under the Obama administration make it clear that this was set up to be continued under Hillary after 2016, though the strategy changed when Hillary was defeated. Russiagate was created to prepare the public for this war against Russia. The media-military-industrial-complex is complicit in creating this tragedy, which could have been avoided if the US had just left Ukraine alone.
Related Materials
2010 Ukrainian presidential election -To give you an idea of the historical political divide in Ukraine, here is an article on the electoral split during the 2010 national election between Yanukovych and Tymoshenko. Yanukovych was democratically elected, even though he was heavily opposed by NATO and the West. This map shows how the Eastern regions of Ukraine, including the Donbass, Crimea, and Odessa (where a majority speak and identify as Russian) went heavily for Yanukovich while the more Western, EU-affiliated regions of Ukraine voted for Tymoshenko.
The IMF connection with the Ukraine crisis - Details on how the IMF uses loans to impose neoliberal austerity measures
Revealing Ukraine: Documentary by Oliver Stone - An important documentary on the aftermath of the Maidan, featuring Oliver Stone interviewing Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk
Time Documentary: Inside A White Supremacist Militia in Ukraine
Joe Biden Delivers Remarks to Ukrainian Parliament- Dec. 2015 - Joe Biden addresses Ukrainian parliament
Former Ukraine president returns to Kyiv to face treason charges - Former Ukrainian President Poroshenko charged with treason over his corrupt actions as president
‘This is a war of propaganda’: John Pilger on Ukraine and Assange | Talking Post with Yonden Lhatoo
In Part I of our Ukraine series, we take a deep dive into the history of US interventionism in Ukraine from the dissolution of the Soviet Union to the present. We feel that this history provides essential context for understanding the current US position in reigniting a Cold War with Russia (and China). As leftists, we know that capitalist wars are always waged on behalf of the ruling class and against the world's poor and working classes, and against the natural world.
The fact that this crucial political history is omitted by the mainstream corporate media is no accident. It is deliberately missing, and anyone who dares to bring it up will be shadow-banned on social media, de-platformed, outright censored, or labelled as a Kremlin propagandist-- all of this in order to prevent the public from understanding the true geopolitical and capitalist nature of the US proxy war in Ukraine, as a staging ground for a potentially decades-long global war against people and the planet.
The first casualty of war is the truth, and we are in the midst of a Media Cold War. As independent journalists, Crawdads & Taters is asking for your support. The corporate media has shut down all critical debate and become a megaphone for the "uni-party"-- Democrats and Republicans (neo-liberals and neo-conservatives) all representing the same for-profit interests of the military industrial complex. This uni-party has pulled off a massive PR feat. It has weaponized public sympathy toward Ukrainians in order to reinvigorate a Cold War of unprecedented historical and financial dimensions, and unprecedented global risks: WWIII, nuclear war, and an imminent climate collapse that is already in progress, but will be accelerated with the expanded use of fossil-fuels-- something that war always requires.
So join us for this critical discussion and become a patron to support our rebellious work at https://www.patreon.com/crawdadsandtaters. We can do this with you, but not without you.
Related Material
Colonel Doug MacGregor on the Grayzone
A US-Backed, Far Right–Led Revolution in Ukraine Helped Bring Us to the Brink of War
Calling Russia’s Attack ‘Unprovoked’ Lets US Off the Hook
‘Not One Inch Eastward:’ How the War in Ukraine Could Have Been Prevented Decades Ago
The IMF connection with the Ukraine crisis
Ukraine’s Propaganda War: International PR Firms, DC Lobbyists and CIA Cutouts
The Battle for Ukraine, with ex-UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter
Ukrainegate Impeachment Saga Worsens US-Russia Cold War
Ukraine as a Pawn w/ Vijay Prashad
Ukraine on Fire w/Oliver Stone
Revealing Ukraine w/Oliver Stone
The Masks of the Revolution by Paul Moreira
In this episode, we want to expand on our last episode, where we described what neoliberalism is, and the resulting economic inequality and class resentment that has been brewing across the global political spectrum, following 40-plus years of global capitalism and neoliberalism. Today, we want to make the case for why opposing neoliberalism is necessary in order to defeat fascism.
"A government that delivers for people inoculates them against the appeals of fascist demagogues." - Nathan J. Robinson
We can see, throughout recent world history, when economic inequality is surging and working-class resentment is high, fascist and right-wing demagogues are able to use conservative social values, religious conservatism, patriarchy, white supremacy, settler colonialism (in the case of the United States), and imperialism to rally their conservative base in order to obtain political power. And once in power, they enact hyper-capitalist agendas that deprive the working-class of basic material needs and shift the political spectrum to the right, while enriching transnational capitalists.
Conversely, when socialist, indigenous, and working-class movements take hold politically, and there is a redistribution of wealth across classes, as well as a strong social safety net for everyone, fascists are not able to get a foothold politically, and their movements tend to dissipate or go underground.
This is why we argue that opposing neoliberalism and supporting international working-class movements, as well as indigenous and abolition movements, is absolutely essential for countering global fascism and a global police state.
Related Readings
Almost one in three of Republicans say violence may be necessary to ‘save’ US
Trump Supporters at Iowa Rally See 'Civil War Coming,' Say He Will 'Save the World'
The rise of domestic extremism in America
Five shocking facts about extreme global inequality and how to even it up
“An Outrage”: House Passes Largest Military Budget in Generations Despite End of Afghanistan War
Biden is approving more oil and gas drilling permits on public lands than Trump, analysis finds
In 2021, the Best Way to Fight Neofascist Republicans Is to Fight Neoliberal Democrats
Let’s Remember How Authoritarianism Takes Hold
Crawdads and Taters have an impromptu discussion on the definition of Neoliberalism, a few ways it has played out in the US and global economy, and how it paves the way for modern-day fascism.
Episode Notes
Border Deaths
Stop Enbridge Line 3
Neoliberal Trade Deals fueling the “immigration crisis”
Reagan and privatization
Germany and Forced Labor
Biden and Deportation
In this second part of a two-part series on Critical Race Theory, Crawdads & Taters review the way CRT, like many once-radical US social movements, has been largely captured by neoliberalism and its funding institutions, stripping it of its original class politics and its revolutionary potential for broad-based political transformation. We also review popular anti-racist literature like Ibram X. Kendi's "How to be an Anti-Racist" and imagine what Critical Race Theory might have looked like today had it maintained a solid anti-capitalist analysis over the last several decades. Finally, we offer up the work of a few key movement leaders, as a way to uplift today's revolutionary voices in the anti-capitalist, anti-racist and abolitionist left.
Related links:
Marxism Is Way Better Than Critical Race Theory with Vivek Chibber
Critical Race Theory: An Introduction by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic
Fred Hampton on Revolution and Racism
Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti
William I. Robinson, "The Global Police State"
Angela Davis: ‘We knew the role of the police was to protect white supremacy’
Episode 41: Racism and Capitalism in Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor's Race For Profit
Ibram Kendi on the critical race theory culture war.
Trump Says Go Back, We Say Fight Back by Robin DG Kelley
Martin Luther King - The Three Evils of Society
Ruth Wilson Gilmore - famous abolitionist
Keeanga Yamahtta Taylor - journalist, professor, author
Marc Lamont Hill - journalist, professor, activist, abolitionist
Robin DG Kelley - professor, author, activist
Derecka Purnell - legal scholar, activist, abolitionist
Nick Estes - professor, revolutionary Lakota leader
Cedric Robinson - activist, author of Black Marxism
Assata Shakur - revolutionary, BPP member
WEB DuBois - sociologist, scholar
In this first part of a two-part series on Critical Race Theory, Crawdads & Taters discuss what Critical Race Theory is, who's behind the war on Critical Race Theory, who's profiting from it, and how US public education is again being endangered by white-supremacist authoritarian movements to white-wash history. We also discuss how this "white-lash" fits into a broader US political terrain where the Republican Party is shifting further and further toward fascism in order to maintain political power.
Please help support us by becoming a patron.
Further resources:
Critical Race Theory (Third Edition) by Richard Delgado
Education Week What Is Critical Race Theory, and Why Is It Under Attack?
White People’s Fear of Critical Race Theory is Based in Ignorance
How a Conservative Activist Invented the Conflict Over Critical Race Theory
Marc Lamont Hill Interviews Key Opponent of Critical Race Theory Marc Lamont Hill vs Chris Rufo
Nevada group suggests teachers wear bodycams to ensure critical race theory isn’t being taught
Oklahoma teacher says summer class canceled due to bill that bans teaching critical race theory
The War on Critical Race Theory
Trump Says Go Back, We Say Fight Back
Oklahoma teacher says summer class canceled due to bill that bans teaching critical race theory
Critical Race Theory: What It Is and How to Fight It
Candace Owens weighs in on Biden policies and critical race theory in US schools
Ted Cruz: Critical race theory is racist as 'Klansman in white sheets'