Super-Exploitation and Resistance

In this episode, we touch on electoral politics and the impacts of the Ukraine/Russian war in the region. We speak with Pamela Arancibia Toronto labour activist and researcher and Michelle Munjanattu an International Solidarity organizer living in New York City.

In today's episode, we’re going to look at the struggle by afro-descendent and afro-indigenous peoples to defend their territory in the face of capitalist development and violent efforts at territorial dispossession, which are underpinned by systemic racism.

We will speak with Maria Miyela Riascos, an educator, anthropologist and member of the Buenaventura Civic Strike Committee, which coordinated a civil strike that paralized the port city in Colombia in early 2017 in protest over lack of services, insecurity, and long-standing government neglect. 

We also talk to Carla Garcia, International Relations Coordinator at OFRANEH, the Honduran Black Fraternal Organization, who speaks about her people’s world vision and their effort to protect their ancestral land.

Super-Exploitation and Resistance brings you our first Field Report, dispatches from our on-the-ground coverage in Latin America. In this episode we take a look at three recent elections in the region—Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Honduras—where the left secured important victories in each country, striking important blows against imperialism in Latin America. What are the implications of these results for the left and US-LatAm relations? How will US and Canadian imperialism react?

Our guests are: Teri Mattson, Latin America Coordinator with CODEPINK who participated in the elections in all three countries; Michelle Munjanattu, a member of the creative committee of this podcast and an internationalist who accompanied the presidential election on Nov. 7; as well as Raul Burbano, SER producer who visited Venezuela during regional elections on Nov. 21; and host José Luis Granados Ceja who accompanied the vote in Venezuela and Honduras.

Music:

Impact Prelude by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7565-impact-prelude

License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

United by a shared history and a common struggle, for centuries the peoples of Latin America have fought to unite, but powerful interests have worked to stop regional integration.

In this episode we take a look at the recent summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), we speak with Montreal-based writer and political activist Yves Engler about the role of Canada in advancing the interests of imperialism in the region, and hear from Marlen Sánchez Calero, International Relations secretary for the Nicaraguan Farm Workers Association, about an effort to build regional integration from below.

In this episode we explore the concept of proletarian internationalism. We begin by looking at the effort to promote regime change in Cuba and the urgent need to defend the Cuban Revolution.

We speak with Issam Khawaja, graduate of a Cuban medical training program, he serves as General Vicesecretary of the Popular Unity Party in Jordan and recently travelled to Caracas, Venezuela as delegate to the Congreso Bicentenario de los Pueblos, a space to facilitate networking for movements and organizations and advance the causes of the working class.

We also chat with Michelle Munjanattu, a member of the creative committee of this podcast, she is an expert on Latin American issues also participated in the Congreso Bicentenario de los Pueblos.

For over a month the people of Colombia, mostly youth, have been on the streets demonstrating against the far right government of Ivan Duque. What began as a protest against a tax reform that once again favoured the wealthy and punished the popular sectors has become arguably the most significant social uprising in modern times in the country. 

On the program we’ll speak with Blandine Juchs, a human rights defender from Quebec who has been based in Colombia for the past ten years. We’ll also hear from Hans Fhilip, a young Colombian photographer who has been on the front lines of the street demonstrations in Bogota as part of the “Primera Linea”. As well as Yarima Rojas, a Colombian woman living in Mexico City who has been organizing solidarity efforts with Colombia.

Music: New Tradition Music, Son Rompe Pera

The "Pink Tide" of leftist governments in Latin America showed how the quality of life of millions of people can be improved when leftist and progressive politicians are able to win state power through elections; but the conservative wave that followed also served to prove the limitations of this strategy. We speak with Nick Estes, citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and an Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico, who participated as an election observer in the recent vote in Ecuador. We also take a look at the upcoming presidential elections in Peru and speak with Rosa María Leyzaquía Vargas, Gender and Equity Secretary for the Peruvian Teachers' Union, and Kayla Popuche, a Peruvian-Haitian student and worker based in New York City.

Music: DESMAK - 30 Pesos

In this episode we’re going to take a look at “lawfare” in the context of Brazil. What is “lawfare” and how is it used as yet another instrument to attack the left and defend the interests of the ruling class and imperialism? We will also explore what it could mean for Latin America if the left returned to power in Brazil.

Music:

Caminhos Alternativos - Zé Pinto (MST)

Samba da Natureza - Lupércio Damasceno (MST)

Game Theme - JamesFarrell_97 (freesound.org)

On today’s program we will take a look at how US and Canadian imperialism exerts its power and influence over Latin America and the state of the anti-imperialist struggle today.

We’ll hear from former Bolivian Vice-President Alvaro Garcia Linera, Canadian professor Tyler Shipley, author of “Canada In The World: Settler Capitalism and the Colonial Imagination” as well as Laura Nieto, a member of the Anti-Imperialist Coordinating Group in Solidarity with Latin America and the Caribbean.

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com