Essential Dissent

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Mosab Abu Toha has written two books of poetry…the award winning “Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear” in 2022, and “Forest of Noise” in 2024.

His writings have been published in The New Yorker and The New York Times, and he has been featured on Democracy Now!.

He is also a columnist, a teacher, and founder of the Edward Said Library in Gaza.

Mosab Abu Toha and his family fled Gaza after bombings, displacement, and detention by the IDF.

He spoke on January 11, 2025 at ArtRage Gallery in Syracuse, NY.

Sponsors: Syracuse Peace Council, Justice for Palestine-SPC, ArtRage Gallery, Jewish Voice for Peace - Syracuse, Syracuse Collective for Palestine and Global Liberation, Veterans for Peace-Chapter 51, SJP-SUNY Oswego, Women and Gender Studies at SU, Oswego Sociology Club, Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine at SU, All Saints Church

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A webinar organized by UNAC, the United National AntiWar Coalition, and held on December 28, 2024.

UNACpeace.org

Featuring: Saher Al-Khamash, Sara Flounders, Joe Lombardo, Jacqueline Luqman, Mick Kelly, Bahman Azad (read by Saher Al-Khamash), Judy Bello, Cody Urban, Richie Marino

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An evening in remembrance of Refaat Alareer and in honor of the publication of his book of poetry and prose, If I Must Die.

With Najla Said, Norman Finkelstein, Sara Roy, Debra Winger, Mosab Abu Toha and Rashid Khalidi

Recorded by Wilton Vought on December 4, 2024 at the Francis Kite Club in NYC, which is also home to OR Books, the publisher of If I Must Die.

https://www.franciskiteclub.com/

https://www.orbooks.com/

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The Opening Keynote speech given by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author Chris Hedges on November 1, 2024 at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

The event, organized by the Green Party vice presidential nominee Butch Ware, was a conference titled "End of Empire."

Chris Hedges can be found on Substack and on the Chris Hedges YouTube Channel.

https://chrishedges.substack.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHedgesChannel

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Metropolitan AME Church, Washington, DC; December 10, 2024

A forum featuring diplomats and organizers of the Sanctions Kill/Americas Without Sanctions Campaign, the International People's Tribunal, the Zone of Peace Campaign and La Vía Campesina's Latin American Coordination of Rural Organizations, and the United National AntiWar Coalition (UNAC). Topics include U.S. hybrid warfare and threats to human rights in Syria, Palestine, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Including, in order of first appearance:

Moderator Sara Flounders, of the Sanctions Kill Campaign;

Rev. William Lamar IV, Pastor, Metropolitan AME Church;

Moderator Jill Clark-Gollub, Coordinator, Americas Without Sanctions;

Austin Cole, Coordinator, The Americas as a Zone of Peace campaign;

Eyad Kishawi, Juror of the International People’s Tribunal on US Imperialism: The Verdict of the Tribunal Regarding Sanctions on Palestine, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and reprisals against Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela for their opposition to the Genocide in Gaza;

Alejandro Garcia del Toro, Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of Cuba to the US;

Ambassador Lautaro Sandino, Permanent Representative of Nicaragua to the United States: People-centered human rights in Nicaragua;

Carlos Ron, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela: People-centered human rights in Venezuela;

Dr. Samira Addrey, graduate of the Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba and member of the organization that founded the Americas Without Sanctions campaign, Friends of Latin America.

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Jerry Elmer was a Vietnam-Era draft resister who publicly refused to register for the draft. He later burglarized the offices of fourteen draft boards in three cities, destroying the files of men eligible to be drafted.

Jerry Elmer spoke at Burning Books on April 10, 2024. Burning Books is a radical bookstore in Buffalo, NY, specializing in activism, social justice, and liberation struggles.

For more information visit burningbooks.com

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YouTube: https://youtu.be/mk4oXlq7tgY?si=6qkot5jgIpGMITqJ

This episode is a talk by Douglas Rushkoff, in conversation with Marissa Feinberg.

It took place at the Francis Kite Club in NYC on November 3, 2024.

The Francis Kite Club is also the home of OR Books, which recently published an updated edition of Douglas Rushkoff’s book, “Program or Be Programmed.”

https://orbooks.com

https://www.franciskiteclub.com/

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Bill Ayers spoke on October 27, 2024 at Burning Books in Buffalo, NY to promote his new book, “When Freedom is the Question, Abolition is the Answer: Reflections on Collective Liberation.

Burning Books is a radical bookstore in Buffalo, NY, specializing in activism, social justice, and liberation struggles.

For more information visit burningbooks.com

Paraphrased from Wikipedia:

In 1969, Bill Ayers co-founded the Weather Underground, a revolutionary group that sought to overthrow American imperialism.

During the 1970s, the Weather Underground conducted a campaign of bombing public buildings in opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

The FBI described the Weather Underground as a domestic terrorist group.

Ayers was hunted as a fugitive for several years, until charges were dropped due to illegal actions by the FBI agents pursuing him and others.

Ayers went on to become a professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, holding the titles of Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar.

He is married to lawyer and law professor Bernardine Dohrn, who was also a co-founder of the Weather Underground.

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Organized by Friends of Socialist China, and Workers World Party.

This event celebrates the release of two books: "People's China at 75 - The Flag Stays Red", co-edited by Carlos Martinez, and the English translation of "Western Marxism - How It Was Born, How It Died, How It Can Be Reborn", by Domenico Losurdo, edited by Gabriel Rockhill.

Carlos Martinez is a researcher and political activist from London, Britain. His first book, The End of the Beginning: Lessons of the Soviet Collapse, was published in 2019 by LeftWord Books. His most recent book, The East Is Still Red – Chinese Socialism in the 21st Century, was published in 2023 by Praxis Press. He is a co-editor of Friends of Socialist China.

Gabriel Rockhill is the Founding Director of the Critical Theory Workshop, Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University, He has published ten books. He also just completed Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? Gabriel is an Editors-in-Chief of the World Marxist Review and a co-director of the AIM—Anti-Imperialist Marxism book series with Iskra.

Danny Haiphong is an independent journalist now covering geopolitics relating to China, West Asia, the Ukraine war and the development of a multipolar world. He helped found Friends of Socialist China and is co-author of the book American Exceptionalism and American Innocence, and a long time contributor to Black Agenda Report.

Sara Flounders chaired the meeting. She is part of the Friends of Socialist China, helps coordinate the International Action Center, the SanctionsKill Campaign and is Contributing Editor of Workers World Newspaper.

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Includes: Larry Holmes, Sara Flounders, K.J. Noh, Chen Weihua, Omowale Clay

October 1, 2024 marked the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, when Mao Zedong declared that "the Chinese people have stood up."

These unified events are monumental because of the enormous role China plays in the world today. The People’s Republic of China 75 years ago was a colonial holding looted by the world powers. China is now the economic powerhouse of the world providing hope for other developing countries of Africa and the Global South fighting for sovereignty against the forces of imperialism.

U.S. threats, military encirclement and hostile propaganda are escalating daily. In this consequential moment, it is paramount that socialist, anti-imperialist, and progressive forces join together to explain and defend the role of China today.

Discussions will include the ongoing processes of poverty alleviation and modernization; China's role in the struggle against climate catastrophe; China's contribution to Marxist thought; the significance of the Africa Summit and recent meeting of all the Palestinian organizations in China and more.