AlternativeRadio

We are in the midst of a new cold war. In this go-round, the principal adversary is China with Russia taking second place. In the old Cold War, it was the reverse. Today, Russia is nowhere near China economically. And Moscow’s performance in Ukraine suggests its military has serious problems. China is already an economic superpower and is seen by the U.S. as a long-term threat to its hegemony. Washington’s so-called pivot to Asia is aimed at Beijing. Its strategy is to impose sanctions and surround it with more and more bases and to get Australia, Japan and other countries into military alliances. If the new cold war either intentionally or unintentionally, morphs into a hot war we can say goodbye to our precious planet. Recorded at KGNU.

Conspiracy. Conspiracy culture. Conspiracy theories. Just hearing those words can make some people cringe and others embrace them. Conspiracy theories are as old as the hills. But today, thanks to social media algorithms that push users toward ever more emotional, fact-adverse content, it's never been easier for wild implausible ideas and hate to go viral. It’s a rabbit hole that detracts attention from predatory economic policies that have created a gargantuan gap in wealth and power. Instead of focusing on what elites are actually doing, people are diverted into cultural wars about all-gender bathrooms, anti-racist education, non-white immigrants, and LGBTQ athletes which are all part of a deep-state cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who control the world. Conspiracy culture makes the ruling class secure in knowing societal anger isn’t aimed at them.

A constant throughout history from Ancient Rome to today is the rich and powerful seek ever more wealth and control. If a popular leader innovates reforms that help the poor they come under sustained attack or worse they are killed. Go back to Caesar in Rome. The standard view is he was a power-hungry tyrant who was slain by the “noble” Brutus and his cohorts to save the Roman Republic. These were some of the measures Caesar implemented which so infuriated his enemies. He distributed land to thousands of veterans and poor Roman families. He began a program of public works. He pushed through rent reductions, reduced debt burdens, and granted Jews the right to practice their religion. These reforms, Michael Parenti says, were unacceptable to the ruling class. Thus, Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March 44 B.C.

The 1993 Oslo Accords between Israelis and Palestinians. You might recall the scene. Arafat, Rabin and Clinton at the White House beaming away and shaking hands. It was a euphoric moment. Peace and stability were at long last at hand. Did that happen? Take a look at a map. Oslo enabled greater Israeli control and expansion of colonies, euphemistically called settlements. There is no peace process rather it should be called an annexation/occupation process with an ever-shrinking possibility for a viable independent Palestinian state. And Washington? One administration after another went along with this charade. And the beleaguered Palestinians and their woeful leaders? They are to be grateful if they have a few malls, direct traffic and collect garbage. Rarely in the history of diplomacy has there been such a one-sided outcome as Oslo. Recorded at UCLA. This never-before-broadcast marks the 30th anniversary of Oslo and the 20th anniversary of Edward Said's death on September 25, 2003.

Zhou Enlai of China once said, "One of the delightful things about Americans is that they have absolutely no historical memory." Perhaps the former Chinese premier was being too harsh, but then again maybe he wasn’t. Take the case of Iran. Some people remember the 1979 hostage crisis when Iranians stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 53 Americans hostage. But how many recall the coup the U.S. engineered that put the Shah back in power thus crushing democracy in Iran? The consequences of the coup were enormous and ultimately led to the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran. While Iran remains a repressive theocracy the struggle for democracy, spurred by women and young people, continues. Interviewed by David Barsamian.

September 11 is now engraved on the consciousness of Americans. Yet for the South American country of Chile, the date has a different and much more tragic significance. It was on that day in 1973 that the democratically-elected government of Salvador Allende was overthrown in a CIA-backed military coup. Augusto Pinochet seized power. In the ensuing years, tens of thousands of Chileans were killed, jailed, tortured and driven into exile. The U.S. role, under Nixon and his National Security Advisor Kissinger, in first destabilizing and then overthrowing the Allende government was decisive. It will rank among the most grotesque interventions ever undertaken by the U.S. A few years after the coup, Nobel Peace Prize winner Kissinger visited Chile. He told General Pinochet, “In the United States, as you know, we are sympathetic with what you are trying to do here.” Recorded at the Wellfleet Public Library as part of Ethel & Robert Levy's speakers series Talking Together.

Almost every country in Africa was colonized by Europe. Today, while nominally sovereign many of these countries are in the clutches of the big international banks.  The old colonial masters Britain and France still have a foothold in Africa but the U.S. has been pushing them aside, moving in to capture resources and markets. Washington has established an Africa Command, deployed troops, and built a string of bases. But France won’t let go of its grip on its former colonies. The coup in Niger, a former French colony, is not your run-of-the-mill coup. It must be understood in the context of widespread discontent with ruling elites and their collaboration with imperialism. Genuine independence is still far off for Niger and other countries in the Sahel region of West and Central Africa.

The crises facing humankind are, to use a much overused but accurate word – unprecedented. Plutocratic power in the hands of the few is a disaster for democracy and our ecosphere. The ruling class is driven by its voracious lust for domination and money. It’s an old American story. Over a century ago Theodore Roosevelt warned against “a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power.” From war to the climate emergency, the threats facing the planet are acute and getting worse. We can protect and nurture the Earth but it won’t happen by magic. We have to work for it. It’s up to us. As Bernie Sanders says, “You can save the planet.”

The corporate takeover of food with its toxic chemical inputs poses serious health and environmental problems. Corporate agriculture, The New York Times states unequivocally "is causing irreparable harm to the planet." It is "ravaging the air, soil and water, destroying wildlife habitats and spurring climate chaos. The system, a vast web of industries and processes that stretches from seed to pasture, to packaging, to the supermarket, to the trash dump, produces at least a third of all human-caused greenhouse gases." There are alternatives. We can learn much from traditional organic farming techniques as practiced by indigenous farmers. In this program, Vandana Shiva describes the importance of biodiversity and the interconnectedness of all life. She says, "What we do to the Earth, what we do to the land, what we do to biodiversity eventually comes back to us. There is no separation."

As ecosystems collapse and the climate emergency intensifies, the government often uses its authority to allow the very harm that it is supposed to prevent. Sound crazy? It is. The granting of permits is a battleground where corporations, with their oodles of money to buy influence, have the upper hand over nature. In the face of corporate greed and the enormity of the climate crisis, we need action now before it is too late. An ancient and enduring principle is the trust doctrine. It asserts public property rights to crucial resources such as forests, rivers, minerals, and fisheries. Its core logic compels the government, as trustee, to protect nature and to safeguard the resources we rely on for survival. UN Secretary-General Guterres says, “We must end the merciless, relentless, senseless war on nature.” Amen to that. Recorded at the University of Oregon.