The Movements: A Podcast History of the Masses

Fulgencio Batista has fled Cuba and the Cuban Revolutionaries are victorious. As Fidel Castro implements a revolution from above, the Latin American bourgeoisie and Central Intelligence Agency plot a destabilization campaign (modeled after the 1954 coup against Jacobo Arbenz).

Guatemalan President Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes invites the CIA to establish anti-communist training camps in Guatemala. In the opening shots of the Guatemalan Civil War, anti-Castro Cubans piloting CIA B-26s bomb rebel soldiers in defense of the coup regime.

Recalling his firsthand experience witnessing the CIA coup in Guatemala, Che Guevara takes a leading role in purging the Cuban Army of counter-revolutionaries. As the anti-Commmunist Cubans of Brigade 2506 prepare to invade the Bay of Pigs and roll back the Cuban Revolution,  Che and Fidel take measures to ensure that Cuba 1961 will not become Guatemala 1954.

• Prologue - November 13, 1960
• Chapter 1: Counter-Revolution in Guatemala
• Chapter 2: Cuba’s Revolution From Above
• Chapter 3: Defending the Cuban Revolution
• Chapter 4: Yanqui Terror
• Chapter 5: The Bay of Pigs

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Full Episode available in October 2022!

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royalty free music by Giorgio Di Campo
freesoundmusic.eu
youtube.com/freesoundmusic

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Adam returns to the show to discuss the historical context for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. We discuss Ukraine and Russia's relationship within the Soviet Union, the shock privatization of the post-Soviet Russian economy, Yeltsin's 1993 attack on the Russian parliament, NATO expansion, Putinism as a product of hyper-capitalism and far-right nationalism, and how to take a principled anti-imperialist position in the face of Russia's ruthless invasion of Ukraine.

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Comrade KG shows off months of training in long-form narration by re-recording the show's first episode from 2016. Plus an update on the future of the show. Skip to 7:59 to get straight to the content.

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Che Guevara links up with Cuban revolutionaries in Guatemala, but is forced to leave the country after the US sponsored coup against moderate President Jacobo Arbenz. Communists and the left are being persecuted throughout Latin America, sending them into exile in Mexico, where Che joins Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement, which aims to overthrow the US backed dictator of Cuba, Fulgencio Batista. The broader anti-Batista movement is deeply divided and scared of antagonizing the Americans. However, Fidel is determined to drive out both Batista and the Americans, and Che is determined not to repeat the mistakes of President Arbenz.

***

Using Guatemala and Cuba as narrative case studies, this series tells the story of Latin America during the Cold War and the social movements that challenged both local elites and American capital.

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An experimental episode! An audiobook adaptation of "The Weapon of Theory", by Amilcar Cabral. Brief intro and foreword by Comrade KG, host of The Movements.

***

The Weapon of Theory
by Amilcar Cabral
Published on the Marxists Internet Archive (www.marxists.org)
https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/cabral/1966/weapon-theory.htm

Foreword, The War Comes Home
By Comrade KG
Written September 2020   
All references and quotes from the Foreword found below:

https://libcom.org/files/Firoze-Manji_-Bill-Fletcher-Jr-Claim-No-Easy-Victories_-The-Legacy-of-Amilcar-Cabral-CODESRIA-Consei.pdf

https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/cabral/1965/tnlcnev.htm

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/support-for-black-lives-matter-surged-during-protests-but-is-waning-among-white-americans/

https://morningconsult.com/2020/06/01/floyd-protests-are-backed-by-most-americans-as-more-say-racism-isnt-taken-seriously-enough/

https://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/monmouthpoll_us_060220/

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/09/national-guard-protests-309932?fbclid=IwAR1Aq-7jcrIrgTgxIMQ1Izdp9RRVOKcabGdhfelZb2SBsHlxeJw7VXqbRCc

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/after-protests-some-soldiers-reconsider-their-service.html?fbclid=IwAR2rehukrjKj4omB0aEOeNo9k7saxRpRq-VP4l6bDvmlpxqwS0u_8VfxpPw

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/us/politics/national-guard-protests.html?referringSource=articleShare&fbclid=IwAR21UUvx4j8Xs6YyZzf9boPtgBqffpmlXhYUSE4zyrJAf3oxF02c_yx67GU

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In 1944, a wave of Democratization hits Latin America. After generations of semi-feudal labor conditions under successive liberal dictatorships, Guatemalan school teachers rise up and overthrow the regime. Inspired by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, these New Deal reformers join with indigenous activists and their commmunist party allies to launch the "Ten Years of Spring", a political movement to emancipate the indigenous majority of Guatemala and liberate it from foreign domination.

The Guatemalan right-wing immediately launches coup attempt after coup attempt, but fails to dislodge the popular, legitimate governments of Juan Jose Arevalo and Jacobo Arbenz. But Americans, in the form of the United Fruit Company, in alliance with both New Deal liberals and right-wing conservatives in Washington, are determined to restore their near-total domination over the region.

Their efforts will become the template for "regime change" in the 20th and 21st centuries.

***

Using Guatemala and Cuba as narrative case studies, this series tells the story of Latin America during the Cold War and the social movements that challenged both local elites and American capital.

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Marxist historian, researcher and biographer of Auguste Blanqui and Michael Harrington joins the show to discuss the life and career of Democratic Socialists of America's founder, the Sanders campaign and what lies ahead in this new period of American politics.

Read Doug's work!

• Michael Harrington and His Afterlives
• Communist Order of the Samurai: Trotsky and the Red Army
• Communist Insurgent: Blanqui's Politics of Revolution available from Haymarket Books
• Doug's Articles at Left Voice

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Adam returns to the show to discuss the unprecedented, still-growing uprising sparked by the murder of George Floyd. Simultaneously terrified and excited, we discuss the possibilities, good and bad, and the remarkable tactics that demonstrators have used to consistently defeat the police four nights in a row.

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Peasant uprisings break out throughout revolutionary Russia, forcing the Communist Party to acknowledge their excesses during civil war. The Kronstadt revolt forces communists to weigh the legitimate grievances of the sailors against the real threat of SR-White Russian resurgence. Emergency measures are taken to ensure the survival of the regime, deepening the bureaucratization of an already centralized state. As the war approaches its final phase and Lenin attempts to decentralize political power, Russian chauvinists prepare to seize the revolutionary movement.

The Movements is a leftist history and politics podcast. Transcripts may be requested for accessibility reasons by e-mailing [email protected]. Find us on facebook and twitter @movementspod and support the show by donating at patreon.com/movementspod

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