For years the indigenous peoples of the U.S., after having been dispersed and decimated and relegated to reservations, were reduced to caricatures. We all knew Indians and their culture. There was the familiar medicine man, the trading post, Geronimo and Crazy Horse, papooses and squaws, tepees and tomahawks, war dances and war parties. Tonto was the epitome of faithfulness and subservience. The formation and rise of the American Indian Movement, AIM, in the late 1960s and early 1970s did much to break down conventional stereotypes. AIM, through its actions at Wounded Knee, Alcatraz, Mount Rushmore and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, demonstrated that Native Americans could and would fight back against racism and oppression. Recorded at the Boulder Public Library.

[Russell Means] Knowing Who You Are: Lessons from Native America

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Empires come and go. They’re sometimes long, sometimes short. But ultimately they fall. Hubris, incredible arrogance, is often the element that brings the mighty down. The U.S. is not immune from decline. With its ruinous wars, bloated Pentagon budget, military bases all over the earth, grotesque levels of inequality and an economy that spews red ink we are witnessing its diminishing power. Recall the words of President Eisenhower in his 1961 Farewell Address. He warned of the dangers posed by “the military-industrial-complex” and its “potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” Recorded at the University of California.

[Johan Galtung] The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

"India's democracy is being systematically disassembled,” says renowned writer and activist Arundhati Roy. She adds, “Any kind of dissent is just smashed with an iron fist." Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party openly espouse Hindutva, a racist ideology rooted in a mythical past and fueled by magical thinking. It’s a supremacist doctrine that privileges and elevates one group, Hindus, over all others. Its animus toward Muslims is particularly acute but Christians and other minorities also incur its wrath. Hindutva nationalists want to dominate Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state. The Himalayan region has endured decades of occupation by hundreds of thousands of Indian troops. There is resistance. Tens of thousands of Kashmiris are dead and missing. Human rights violations are routine. Yet the Kashmiri quest for azadi, freedom, continues.

[Mohamad Junaid] Modi, Hindutva & Kashmir

The award-winning Oppenheimer film has brought attention to the origins of the atomic bomb and the anguish of its inventor. Almost 80 years after that first explosion in New Mexico, the threat of global Armageddon not only remains but has increased. Until and unless nuclear weapons are abolished, humankind will always be in danger of massive death and destruction. Yet instead of moving toward abolition, the U. S. is upgrading its arsenal. The Doomsday Clock is ticking. Sooner or later, intentionally or unintentionally, terminal war will destroy the planet. The only way to prevent that from happening is to eliminate all nuclear weapons. As long as they exist, humanity hangs by a thread.

[Sarah Scoles] The Future of Nuclear Weapons

How can the Palestinian struggle for freedom and dignity take lessons from the Black Liberation Movement? Historical circumstances are clearly different yet there are similarities. Both are located in a colonial-like situation, where a powerful oppressor dominates another less powerful group. Racism is a major factor. The Black Liberation Movement and Malcolm X’s eloquent voice and militant politics resonate with Palestinians struggling for their freedom. Liberation struggles are not easy. Resistance to change is entrenched. Power does not readily give up its prerogatives. 2CDs

[Eugene Puryear] From Birmingham to Bethlehem (part 2)

Hindutva is theocratic Hindu nationalism. It is a powerful force in what is now the world’s most populous country. Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, is a lifelong member of the RSS, an openly Hindu supremacist organization. Le Monde Diplomatique reports: Hindutva “followers regard India as a Hindu country. Non-Hindus are at best guests, at worst invaders, and must be identified, watched, deprived of certain rights, and in some cases expelled or even eliminated. The main victims of Hindutva are India’s large Muslim minority. Hindutva adherents oppose mixed Hindu-Muslim marriages, calling them a ‘love jihad’ that aims to convert Hindu women so that their offspring will be raised as Muslims. This paranoid fantasy has encouraged violence and widespread denigration of Indian Muslims.” Recorded at the Swedish Academy at the Thought and Truth Under Pressure conference.

[Russell Means] Knowing Who You Are: Lessons from Native America

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