Crawdads and Taters: Red State Rebels

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

Corporate Greed and Deregulation Fuel Threat of More Bomb Trains as East Palestine Demands Answers | Democracy Now! 

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

Raymond, Minnesota, train derailment: Cars carrying ethanol rupture and ignite. Now crews assess 3 more cars with highly flammable material | CNN

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

“Enough Is Enough”: Rail Workers Decry Biden’s Push to Impose Strike-Breaking Labor Deal | Democracy Now!

[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

Biden's Threat of Armageddon

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

US military is a bigger polluter than as many as 140 countries – shrinking this war machine is a must

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 Speaks

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

Idaho Lt. Governor Assembling Task Force to Examine Indoctrination in Idaho Education Based on Critical Race Theory, Socialism, Communism, and Marxism

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'