Counterpunch Radio

CounterPunch co-editor Joshua Frank explains why abandoning the working class sunk the Harris campaign - blowback for 30 years of neoliberal capitalism. More The post Why Harris Lost: Joshua Frank appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This week Joshua Frank and Erik Wallenberg talk to Ramzy Baroud about the genocide in Gaza, Zionism's shaky future and the role of the international left in helping shape its future. Ramzy is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net More The post Zionism’s Tenuous Future: Ramzy Baroud appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

On this re-aired episode of CounterPunch Radio, Eric Draitser interviews Arun Gupta about Israel's propaganda campaign, the failed reporting of The New York Times, and how it's all been used to dehumanize and justify genocide in Gaza. More The post Israel’s October 7th Propaganda Machine: Arun Gupta appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

Rebecca Maria Goldschmidt speaks with Jumana Kaplanian, psychologist and founder of Psychology Spa, a mental health clinic in the West Bank. Jumana shares her experience supporting the mental health of youth and women in her community in Bethlehem throughout the genocide, the day-to-day impacts of the occupation, and the most recent invasion of the West Bank. Jumana Kaplanian is the founder of Psychology Spa, the first specialized non-profit company in Psychoeducation in Palestine since 2016. She is a social activist, a psychologist & mental health trainer. Since 2019, she is a member of the Board of Directors of Psychologists and Social Workers in Bethlehem. Jumana is a skilled, motivated, and ambitious psychologist experienced in providing a specialized psychological assessment of clients’ problems based upon collected data through counseling sessions in Bethlehem, Palestine. Queer Mikveh Project is currently raising funds for trauma-informed somatic and mental health programming for women and girls at Psyc

This week, Erik Wallenberg and Joshua Frank interview Eman Abdelhadi and Khury Petersen-Smith on all things Palestine, from organizing to liberation. Eman Abdelhadi is an academic, activist and writer who thinks at the intersection of gender, sexuality, religion and politics. She is an assistant professor and sociologist at the University of Chicago, where she researches American Muslim communities. She is co-author of Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052 – 2072. She is also a columnist for In These Times where you can follow her latest. She also organzizes with Faculty and staff for Justice in Palestine and Salon Kawakib. Khury Petersen-Smith is the Michael Ratner Middle East Fellow and Co-Director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). He researches the U.S. empire, borders, and migration. His work has appeared widely, including in Truthout, In These Times, and Foreign Policy in Focus. He is one of the co-authors and organizers of the

Unavoidable evidence of the catastrophic consequences of climate change confronts us at every turn. Record high ocean temperatures. Once-a-century storms that appear every other year. And on and on. In the face of ongoing ecological disaster, international best-selling author Kōhei Saitō asks why our society continues to prioritize corporate profits (and the rapacious expansion on which they depend), and proposes a revolutionary alternative to unfettered capitalism: degrowth communism. In Slow Down, Saitō provocatively argues that any solutions that don’t directly confront capitalism itself—from the COP agreements to the “Green New Deal”—represent dangerous compromises that may ultimately worsen the climate emergency. Because it creates artificial scarcity and endlessly produces commodities based on their value, rather than their usefulness, our economic system itself makes it impossible to reverse climate change so long as capitalism remains in place. The biggest contributor to the problem cannot be an integ

Last week the 2024 Democratic National Convention took over Chicago. Over the course of the week, the Democratic Party elite rubbed elbows and egos at the United Center and the McCormick Place Convention Center while outside, thousands gathered for meetings and marches, demonstrations and disruptions. CounterPunch Radio co-host and worker-owner at Chicago’s Pilsen Community Books, Erik Wallenberg, captured voices in the streets. Nathaniel St. Clair edited and produced the episode. We hear from leaders of the opposition including Cornel West and Medea Benjamin as well as protesters who organized against the 1968 DNC and came out in the streets this year too. A speech from Chicago for Abortion Rights leader Mandy Medley, music from Songs for Liberation, and words from Mennonites for Ceasefire ring out alongside members of Jewish Voice for Peace, Students for Justice in Palestine, and Veterans Against the War. The episode closes out with a song, Fields of Palestine, which was performed by Ryan Cason, a member of

This week on CounterPunch Radio, Erik Wallenberg and Joshua Frank interview M.V. Ramana on nuclear power and why it's not an answer to the climate crisis. Ramana is the Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security and Professor at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He is the author of The Power of Promise: Examining Nuclear Energy in India (Penguin Books, 2012) and co-editor of Prisoners of the Nuclear Dream (Orient Longman, 2003). Ramana is a member of the International Panel on Fissile Materials, the Canadian Pugwash Group, the International Nuclear Risk Assessment Group, and the team that produces the annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Leo Szilard Award from the American Physical Society. He is the author of the new book, “Nuclear is Not the Solution: The Folly of Atomic Power in the Age of Climate Change” published by Verso. More The post Nuclear is Not the So

In this episode of CounterPunch Radio, Rebecca Maria Goldschmidt talks with fellow members of California Jewish Artists for Palestine Sophia Sobko and Steph Kudisch, about their collective decision to submit and withdraw explicitly anti-Zionist artworks to an open call for Jewish artists at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. They discuss the process of pulling their works out of the exhibition; the importance of the academic and cultural boycott of Israel (PACBI); and what it means to be Jewish artists publicly confronting Jewish arts institutions that receive Zionist funding and are struggling to address the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. Steph Kudisch is a trans genderfluid artist whose work uses mutated intertidal aesthetics and personal storytelling to dwell in in-betweens. They work as a teaching artist on Lisjan Ohlone land, also known as the San Francisco Bay Area. Kudisch and their collaborator Kate Laster form Clear as Schmutz Press as well as the collective Hevra Kadisha i

In this episode of CounterPunch Radio, editor Joshua Frank and Pilsen Community Books worker-owner Erik Wallenberg talk with Ray Acheson, Director of Reaching Critical Will, the disarmament program of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). Ray provides analysis and advocacy at the United Nations and other international forums on matters of disarmament and demilitarization. They served on the steering group of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its work to ban nuclear weapons, and is also involved in organizing against autonomous weapons, the arms trade, war and militarism, the carceral system, and more. They are also author of Banning the Bomb, Smashing the Patriarchy (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021) and Abolishing State Violence: A World Beyond Bombs, Borders, and Cages (Haymarket Books, 2022). Ray is a regular columnist at CounterPunch+. Two of their most recent articles are “Solidarity to Stop AUKUS: Saying No to Nuc

Join Counterpunch Radio contributor Rebecca Maria Goldschmidt, in conversation with activists and community organizers, Alakaʻi Kapānui and Fatima Abed, to discuss the Palestinian Solidarity movement in Hawai’i. From being the first “state” to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, to the #CancelRIMPAC campaign against the world’s largest Navy exercises, Hawai’i organizers are drawing deeper connections between the military occupations of Hawai’i, Palestine, and the Israeli apartheid state. Decades of Native Hawaiian-led demilitarization efforts and current Palestinian and Jewish-led grassroots community are finding ways to collaborate towards genuine security. Alakaʻi Kapānui is a Kanaka ʻŌiwi and Jewish activist and community organizer. She is the poʻo (head) of Kona 4 Palestine and co-founder of Huliau o Nā Wahi Kapu both of which focus on the demilitarizations and deoccupations of Hawaiʻi and Palestine. She has been a Hawaiian Kingdom and sovereignty activist since 2018 through Hui Aloha ʻĀina and

In this episode of CounterPunch Radio, Joshua Frank and Erik Wallenberg interview Silky Shah, author of "Unbuild Walls: Why Immigrant Justice Needs Abolition" (Haymarket, 2024). Silky has been working as an organizer on issues related to racial and migrant justice for over two decades. Originally from Texas, she began fighting the expansion of immigrant jails on the US-Mexico border in the aftermath of 9/11. In 2009, she joined the staff of Detention Watch Network, a national coalition building power to abolish immigrant detention in the United States, and now serves as its executive director. More The post Silky Shah appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

Rebecca Maria Goldschmidt, sitting in for Eric Draitser on CounterPunch Radio, talks with Hanin Siam, a Palestinian organizer based in Tokyo, Japan. They discuss the challenges of organizing the Palestine solidarity movement in Japan, including the nuances of their communities in Tokyo and Hiroshima. From the history of Japanese support for Palestine, to BDS, to the social and legal limitations of protest, Rebecca and Hanin cover the diverse strategies and public response to the fight for Palestinian Liberation in Japan. Follow @palestinejapan for more. Edited by Kryzia Villada. More The post Rebecca Maria Goldschmidt & Hanin Siam appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

Eric Draitser sits down with CounterPunch Editor Joshua Frank to discuss the reasons why CounterPunch Radio has been mostly quiet in recent months. Eric details some of his physical and mental health issues in recent months, and the prospects for his return to regular podcasting. More The post Eric Draitser appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This time Eric welcomes activist, author, and neuroscientist Yoav Litvin back to CounterPunch to discuss Palestine, Zionism, and the Israeli war. Yoav discusses his upbringing in both US and Israel, his time in the IDF in Lebanon, and the ways in which he first confronted his Zionism and began to decolonize his mind. From there, the conversation explores the nature of Zionism and the Zionist project in Palestine, the importance of non-Israeli Jewish opinion internationally, the necessity of being in solidarity with Palestinians, the centrality of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement, Israeli politics and the future of Netanyahu, the role of the US and Israel's place within US imperialism, the specter of Trump's return, and so much more. Don't miss this important conversation only on CounterPunch! More The post Yoav Litvin appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

Conversation originally recorded in January 2022 This time Eric chats with Dr. Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University and author of The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance 1917-2017. The conversation explores the early years of the Zionist movement and how it was perceived by prominent Palestinians, including Dr. Khalidi’s ancestors, and the inextricable link between Zionism, colonialism, and imperial power. Eric and Rashid discuss everything from attempts to erase Palestinian culture and history to the impact that Israel’s rightward shift has had on younger generations of Jews, especially in the US. So many topics covered in this important conversation with one of the most prominent voices of opposition to Israeli policies and oppression. Don’t miss this CounterPunch Radio! More The post Rashid Khalidi appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This week, CounterPunch Radio presents another conversation between CounterPunchers Richard Falk, Matthew Stevenson, and Daniel Warner about Trump, the nature of Trump's fascism, the internationalization of fascist politics, and much more. Note: This conversation was recorded prior to the events of October 7, 2023 and the Israeli attack on Gaza. More The post Richard Falk, Matthew Stevenson, and Daniel Warner appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This time Eric welcomes to the show artist, peace activist and CounterPunch contributor Rebecca Maria Goldschmidt to discuss her recent article "This Is Genocide: All Out to End the War on Gaza," and the long road she's taken to anti-Zionist activism. Eric and Rebecca explore the forms of indoctrination used to inculcate Zionism in young American Jews, the differences between secular and non-secular Zionist propaganda, the use of the term "genocide" to refer to Israel's oppression of Palestinians, the fascist nature of the Israeli state, and much more. More The post Rebecca Maria Goldschmidt appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

On this emergency episode of CounterPunch Radio, Eric speaks with longtime author, journalist, and Editor of The Palestine Chronicle, Ramzy Baroud, all about the war in Gaza, the resistance of Palestinians, and the historic developments of recent days. More The post Ramzy Baroud appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This time Eric welcomes to CounterPunch author, activist and organizer Bill Fletcher, Jr. to discuss his recent writing, his past as a labor organizer, his outspoken position on Ukraine and imperialism, and much more. Bill and Eric discuss Bill's youth and first exposure to radical politics, his entry into organized labor, his role in helping organize Minor League Baseball, and more. The second half of the conversation explores international affairs, the responsibility of the Left in clarifying political questions, the red-brown phenomenon on the Left, and why so many leftists are so wrong on critical international issues, etc. The final part of the discussion centers on Bill's new fiction book and how he infused the story and characters with the radical politics he's professed all his life. Don't miss this belated, but exciting, conversation only on CounterPunch! More The post Bill Fletcher Jr. appeared first on CounterPunch.org.