Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Illegal Immigration, Targeting Muslims, War Resister, worker's rights
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How Weak Opposition Strengthened Capitalist Order
We, as ordinary people, are experiencing a profound change in the nature of who holds power in America today. Our constitutional democracy, however limited by race and class, is being replaced by an oligarchy, that is to say, the rule by the super rich few over the many. The separation of powers between the Congress, the Executive, and the Supreme Court has all but been eliminated. We are getting what the oligarchs wish for, “a unitary executive” where Trump is attempting to rule by executive decrees.
He and Musk want to cripple, shrink, and eliminate various government agencies that we have won to protect us. They include the Department of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institute of Health, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Social Security Administration. They are perpetuating a hoax that all they want to do is eliminate fraud and waste and corruption.
Trump has now been in power for seven weeks. It took Hitler one month, three weeks, and two days to consolidate his dictatorship. He had legally been appointed as Chancellor. After a mentally unhinged person set fire to the German parliament, Hitler got a law passed revoking the German people’s civil liberties so they could not speak out or organize. Trade unions were banned. Then shortly thereafter he got the infamous “Enabling Act” passed which gave him the power to legislate by decree. His power was thus consolidated
Opposition by the Democratic Party to the transformation here in our country has been feeble. They welcomed Trump into the White House and pledged cooperation. Despite Trump‘s falling popularity – more people oppose him than support him – the Democrats have not mobilized people in the streets nor have they come up with a broad program for better wages, jobs, housing, healthcare for all, housing for the unhoused, the end of deportations, an opposition to the ongoing Palestinian genocide
Guest – Margaret Kimberley, a New York-based writer and activist. She has been an editor and senior columnist for Black Agenda Report since it’s inception in 2006. She is a contributor to the anthology In Defense of Julian Assange.
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Advances For Workers Through Independent Political Action
It’s one thing to wring our hands in despair over the re-election of Donald Trump and decry his out of the gate authoritarian, neo-fascist assault on U.S. democracy and governance. It’s quite another to offer, and begin to employ, a comprehensive strategy for not only combating the new Trump Administration, but to also advance a political ideology that challenges conventional wisdom over what is needed to make our country a truly democratic country, and a country that meets the needs of all its people, not simply its billionaire class.
Yet the billionaire class just keeps getting richer and more powerful. Last year the world’s five richest billionaires increased their wealth by $542 billion. Elan Musk’s wealth alone is fast approaching half a trillion dollars. And globally we are seeing the highest levels of inequality in human history.
So today we’ve invited to the show a guest with a radical vision of what is needed to not only defend against Trump’s dictatorial moves and legislative plans, but in a vastly more profound way bring about the end of the unjust and exploitative capitalist system of the rich in America, and replace it with an equitable and democratic system of governance.
Guest – Kshama Sawant, a socialist economist who was elected to, and served 10 years on the Seattle, Washington City Council. Her election and her advancement of a strong progressive agenda on the Council was often national news. WorkersStrikeBack.org
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, worker's rights
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Emphasis On Christian Nationalism
Several recent developments in the United States have highlighted an increased emphasis on Christian Nationalism within government policies, raising concerns about the separation of church and state and its impact on daily life.
This heretical form of Christianity is being forced upon us. It is super masculine, misogynist, nationalist, homophobic, white, supremacist, and racist. It is Christian in name only. The religion of egalitarian Jesus, who preached the values of the sermon on the mount, is not their religion. The Christian nationalists want to use the power of the state to impose on us their brand of Christianity. It is not the solidarity of humankind.
In February 2025, Donald Trump signed an executive order creating the White House Faith Office. This office aims to strengthen partnerships between the federal government and faith-based organizations, enabling them to compete for federal funding and collaborate on initiatives addressing social issues. The order underscores the administration’s recognition of the significant role these organizations play in community development.
Also in February 2025, Trump announced the formation of a task force dedicated to eliminating what he termed “anti-Christian bias” within the federal government. This initiative involves a comprehensive review of federal agencies to identify and address policies or practices perceived as discriminatory against Christians. The task force’s mandate includes ensuring that faith-based organizations receive equal treatment in government programs and services.
The appointment of Russell Vought as the head of the Office of Management and Budget has raised concerns among critics. Vought, known for his Christian nationalist views, has been instrumental in shaping policies that integrate Christian principles into governance. His influence is evident in initiatives that seek to align federal policies with specific religious values, potentially affecting the secular nature of government operations.
Guest – Andrew Seidel, author and attorney who’s defended the First Amendment for more than a decade, both in and out of court. Andrew dedicated his career to challenging religious privilege and battling Christian Nationalism.
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A Golden Age of Oligarchs
Last month, Elon Musk said something about the Trump election with which we agree. He said “this was no ordinary victory. This was a fork in the road of human civilization.“ How true. Now our democracy, however, restricted by class and race, is in the process of being replaced by a super wealthy oligarchy. There are more than 800 billionaires in the United States. They are now in the saddle.
The Citizens United Supreme Court case of 2010 eased the process. Trump was elected with money, truly big money from 10 people. Elon Musk alone contributed $277 million. Biden himself in his farewell address warned of the takeover by an oligarchy. Echoing President Eisenhower‘s famous warning of a military industrial complex, Biden talked about the “tech industrial complex.“
This second Trump term will not be like the first. It won’t be incoherent and chaotic. This has been guaranteed by the Heritage Foundation which wrote a 920 page playbook for dismantling democracy.
The process has begun with Trump pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord and calling for more drilling. “Drill baby drill” is his mantra. This is a race towards human extinction. On January 21st he pulled out of the World Health Organization. The day he was sworn in he pardoned some 1500 people who participated, and even lead the January 6th insurrection. This is a greenlight for fascist mobs who now must feel they can get away with anything.
The Democratic Party has greased the skids for this transition. It cannot be relied on for the defense of the American people. Biden and Harris after accurately calling Trump a fascist to the last few weeks of the election, then did an about face welcoming him in to the White House saying they would cooperate with him and praising the peaceful transition, a transition that Trump if he lost promised not to abide by.
Guest – Chris Hedges, the journalist and author spent two decades as a foreign correspondent serving as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for The New York Times where he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. He is the author of 14 books including War is a Force That Gives us Meaning, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, which he co-wrote with the cartoonist Joe Sacco, and The Death of the Liberal Class. Chris’ forthcoming book is titled A Genocide Foretold.
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, worker's rights
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We Are the Union: How Worker to Worker Organizing Is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big.
The bank robber Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks. He famously replied, “because that’s where the money is.” We’re interested in the labor movement not only for humanitarian reasons but because that’s where the power is. Union members can withhold their labor and bring the economy to a standstill.
Unionized workers gained ground in 2024. Union workers in the private sector saw a 6% rise in real wages last year. But overall, the working class has not had an increase in their real wages in 50 years. The cost of rent, groceries, health care and other basic needs are becoming more and more out of reach, even for those working full-time jobs.
As Donald Trump takes office on January 20th, many are preparing for a real threat to our standard of living and democratic rights. After all, his cabinet includes architects of the controversial Project 2025 initiative – the conservative blueprint that the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees calls, “a radical attack on working people and their unions.” How will the battle for workers’ rights unfold this year and beyond?
Guest – Professor Blanc teaches Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers University, and he’s an organizer trainer in the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee. He’s the author of Red State Revolt: the Teachers’ Strike Wave and Working-Class Politics, and his research has appeared in the Nation, the Guardian and Jacobin, among other publications. His latest book is We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big. Laborpolitics.com
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The Power Of Labor And A Workers’ Party
The forces of the gathering authoritarian storm in our country are evident in many ways. It is manifesting itself in powerful and continuing nationalism, in disdain for human rights, in the entwinement of government and religion, in a controlled mass media, in the protection of corporate power and the suppression of labor power and in the encouragement of violence.
The power of labor has been channeled into the Democratic and Republican Party, the twin parties of capitalism. We need a workers ‘ party, but we don’t even have the nucleus of one. Race and gender are formative in the building of authoritarian regimes. We see this in the United States. Haitians, who are Black, have been accused of eating cats and dogs. Women’s right to control their own bodies is under attack from the Supreme Court on down and women are marked as “childless cat ladies” and told to stay home and bear children.
Guest – Dianne Feeley is an editor of the magazine Against the Current. She is a leader of Solidarity, a socialist feminist organization. Dianne lives in Detroit where she has been an activist for many years in the United Automobile Workers union.
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Gaza, genocide, Human Rights, Targeting Muslims, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister, worker's rights
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Fascism on Trial: Education, and the Possibility of Democracy
Fascist Germany’s industrial murder of Jews in Europe 80 years ago has been seared into the consciousness of humankind. Today its a great irony of history that the Israeli government, which claims to be the moral legatee of the holocaust, is carrying out a genocide against millions of Palestinians in Gaza.
This is being done with the full support of the American government which supplies political, diplomatic, and propaganda cover for what Israel is doing. It supplies the bombs, planes, artillery shells, tanks and bulldozers to physically destroy the buildings and infrastructure of the Gaza strip. The people who live there have been systematically starved, as the Nazis starved the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto.
The response of American students and college campuses across the country was magnificent. Tent encampments sprung up in several hundred places. They became the focal point for a full-throated discussion of the realities in Gaza and American complicity in the ongoing genocide. Demands for cease-fire were raised. Demands that the universities divest themselves of investments in Israel and American arms manufactures were put forward.
Sadly, this manifestation of critical thinking came to a crashing end. The wealthy and their servants in Congress, and in the mass media, accused the students of being antisemitic and of supporting terrorism. Congressional hearings were held. University presidents were fired. Professors lost their jobs. Students were expelled from schools. The great campus uprising was closed down. And new and much more restrictive rules for protest have been imposed in campuses all across the United States.
Guest – Professor Henry A. Giroux currently holds the McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest in the English and Cultural Studies department and is the Pablo Frère, Distinguished Scholar in Creative Pedagogy. Henry Giroux has authored many books, most recently with Anthony DiMaggio, titled, Fascism on Trial: Education, and the Possibility of Democracy.
Sending a another big thank you to a generous donor from Wisconsin bringing us closer to our fundraiser goal. Please consider helping us reach our fundraiser goal by sending us a donation of any amount.
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The Power Of Labor And A Workers’ Party
The forces of the gathering authoritarian storm in our country are evident in many ways. It is manifesting itself in powerful and continuing nationalism, in disdain for human rights, in the entwinement of government and religion, in a controlled mass media, in the protection of corporate power and the suppression of labor power and in the encouragement of violence.
The power of labor has been channeled into the Democratic and Republican Party, the twin parties of capitalism. We need a workers ‘ party, but we don’t even have the nucleus of one. Race and gender are formative in the building of authoritarian regimes. We see this in the United States. Haitians, who are Black, have been accused of eating cats and dogs. Women’s right to control their own bodies is under attack from the Supreme Court on down and women are marked as “childless cat ladies” and told to stay home and bear children.
Guest – Dianne Feeley is an editor of the magazine Against the Current. She is a leader of Solidarity, a socialist feminist organization. Dianne lives in Detroit where she has been an activist for many years in the United Automobile Workers union.
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Crony Capitalism, Human Rights, Prison Industry, Targeting Muslims, worker's rights
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Understanding Capitalism
The great German playwright, and political figure, Berthold Brecht, observed that to understand fascism you have to understand capitalism, from whence it springs. Today, it is also helpful for us to understand that the rise of fascism in Germany 100 years ago, has parallels we can see now with the rise of fascism in the United States.
Prior to World War I, which began in 1914, the German working class and middle class were relatively prosperous. The German unions were strong and influential. Prior to World War I, Germany also had the largest and strongest socialist party in the world, and it was the second largest political party in the German Parliament. The German economy was booming. And German culture was the jewel of Europe.
This all came to a crashing end in 1917, when Germany was defeated in what was an inter-imperial war against the United States, France, Great Britain and Russia. The consequences of that defeat brought us fascism and World War II, 20 years later. In the 1920’s, inflation wiped out the savings of the German people. When the depression hit in 1929, the German working class was desperate. The ground was fertile for the rise of Adolf Hitler, a ruthless, cunning and violent demagogue.
Here in the United States, our economy boomed for 100 years, from the end of the Civil War until the 1970s. But since then, American workers have not made any progress. Their wages, in real terms, have not risen in 50 years! “Neo- liberalism”, which is just another word for aggressive capitalism, has wiped out 30 million industrial jobs in the US, starting in the 1980s. Women were driven back into the workforce. People had to work two jobs just to keep up.
In Germany, it was the Jews who were blamed. Here in the US, it is immigrants and people of color who are scapegoated. The demagogue Trump, like Hitler before him, is a captivating speaker and a very effective cult leader, who is now poised to take the power of the government and turn it against “we the people.”
Guest – Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus from the University of Massachusetts, and the author of the forthcoming book, “Understanding Capitalism”. According to New York Times, Richard Wolff is, probably America’s most prominent Marxist economist. He is the founder of Democracy at Work and host of their national syndicated show Economic Update. Professor Wolff has authorized numerous books on capitalism and socialism, including most recently “The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us From Pandemics or Itself“, “Understanding Socialism“; and “Understanding Marxism”, which can be found at democracyatwork.info.
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Present Danger Of Fascism In The United States
The rise of Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters has transformed American politics, perhaps more than anything else has since the gathering of forces of the rebellious slave owners in the south, a century and a half ago. His first four years in office were chaotic, uninformed programmatically, and not animated by any kind of cadre of capable administrators. It was, instead, full of his statements and actions that many critics deemed to be racist, sexist and Xenophobic.
He lost the election in 2020, although he received 74 million votes! As he runs for the Presidency again, this time he is talking rather openly about wanting dictatorial authority, if he is elected again.
And this time if he does win, he now has the aid of the right-wing Heritage Foundation, which has produced the 900-page “Project for 2025” document on how to radically change our country so as to make it far, far more conservative, providing far fewer rights to the American people, and allowing any president so inclined, to run the country as an authoritarian, a virtual dictator. He has an authoritarian right wing Supreme Court, which in its latest decision, aptly named “Donald Trump versus the United States of America,” has given the presidency carte blanche immunity, placing the president above the law, allowing the president to do almost anything he or she wants to do, as long as it’s deemed to be “an official presidential act”.
Today’s program is the lead off to a series of shows on fascism, how to resist it, and how to defend against it. I will be conducting this series with my co-host, Michael Smith, who cannot be with us today due to illness.
Guest – Chris Hedges, the journalist and author spent two decades as a foreign correspondent serving as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for The New York Times where he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. He is the author of 14 books including War is a Force That Gives us Meaning, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, which he co-wrote with the cartoonist Joe Sacco, and The Death of the Liberal Class.
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Human Rights, Prison Industry, Supreme Court, worker's rights
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USPS: Concerns With Louis Dejoy And Election Integrity
Free elections can too easily turn into hollow formalities when coercion, manipulation, or biased governance replace voter choice and participation. The United States Postal Service has historically been one of the most trusted government institutions in the United States, with a strong reputation for reliability and nonpartisanship. Until now.
Louis DeJoy, a prominent Trump donor and former logistics executive, was appointed as Postmaster General in May 2020, just months before the 2020 presidential election. His tenure has been marked by a series of controversial reforms, including slowing mail delivery, removing mail sorting machines, reducing post office operating hours, and limiting overtime for postal workers. These changes have triggered widespread alarm, given the heightened dependence on mail-in voting during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite public outcry and congressional investigations, DeJoy continues to oversee an agency crucial to the functioning of our democracy. With the 2024 election on the horizon and the ongoing reliance on mail-in ballots—particularly in swing states—the stakes are high. Voters in rural areas, the elderly, and people with disabilities, often rely on it to cast their ballots. Any disruptions could disproportionately impact these communities and undermine public confidence in the electoral process.
We examine the potential impacts of delayed ballots, changes in USPS service standards, and the wider implications for voter turnout and trust in the system.
Guest – Chuck Zlatkin, legislative director of the New York Metro Area Postal Union.
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Sending a big thank you to station KKFI for their generous donation bringing us closer to our fundraiser goal. Please consider helping us reach our fundraiser goal. We’re getting close.
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Abolition Labor: The Fight To End Prison Slavery
Operating in the secrecy of the nation’s more than 1,800 prisons, a kind of shadow slave culture is being fostered. Few Americans are aware of the exploitative and pervasive practice of forced prison labor. The 13th amendment to the US Constitution abolished slavery, but it made one exception: prison labor.
Prisoners are forced to work with minimal or non-existent wages, and often with no labor protections. Understanding the scope and implications of forced prison labor is crucial for anyone concerned with social justice and equity. It calls for a re-examination of our treatment of incarcerated persons and for alternatives that promote fairness for everyone, regardless of their legal status. By shining a light on this issue, we can advocate for reforms that prioritize rehabilitation over punishment and strive towards a more just and humane criminal justice system. A new book, Abolition Labor: The Fight To End Prison Slavery, provides an eye-opening overview of the extent of this problem.
Guest – Andrew Ross is a renowned social activist, author, and Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University, where he also directs the Prison Research Lab. Andrew has contributed to prominent publications like The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Nation. He has authored or edited over twenty-five books, with the recent work, Abolition Labor, co-authored with Aiyuba Thomas and Tommaso Bardelli.
Guest – Aiyuba Thomas recently earned his M.A. from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study and is an affiliate of the NYU Prison Research Lab. He currently serves as project manager for the Movements Against Mass Incarceration’s archival oral history project at Columbia University. There, he documents the experiences and challenges faced by those affected by the criminal justice system. His firsthand perspective and his extensive knowledge on the subject makes him a powerful voice in the conversation of abolishing forced prison labor.
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