The Socialist Program

Biden just landed from a multi-day tour in the Middle East where he  spectacularly failed at his goals, including bringing more Arab  countries into an alliance with Israel and bringing the price of oil  down. This week, Russian President Putin is meeting with Iranian &  Turkish leaders including Supreme Leader Khamenei and President  Erdogan--showing that Iran and Russia are not as isolated as Biden makes  them out to be. U.S. influence is declining, but will U.S. officials  change their approach?

Brian is joined by Professor Mohammad  Marandi. He is an expert on American studies and postcolonial literature  who teaches at the University of Tehran.

In an escalation in the cold war against China, the heads of the U.S. FBI and UK MI5 spoke jointly in London on the “serious threat“ that they say the Chinese government poses to Western businesses. Meanwhile, New York City released a PSA on what to do in a nuclear war, where the main recommended tactic is to go inside. What is behind the sensationalist language and where have we seen it before?

Brian is joined by Dr. Ken Hammond, professor of East Asian and Global History at New Mexico State University, founding director of the Confucius Institute at New Mexico State University, and activist with Pivot to Peace.

Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram. We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.

On today's episode Walter Smolarek and Prof. Richard  Wolff discuss how the leaders of the wealthy G7 nations gathered in  Germany this week for a summit focused on isolating Russia from the  world economy. The summit discussed attempts to  impose a “price cap” on Russian oil exports and a prohibition on  trading Russian gold, but is this sanctions regime backfiring on the  west?

Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can find his work at rdwolff.com.

Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram.  We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you  consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more  are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.

The Supreme Court – an unelected group of nine millionaires with  lifetime appointments – have overturned Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed  the right to abortion at the federal level. Tens of thousands have been  in the streets all over the country since the Dobbs  decision was announced on Friday, and in the weeks prior to that in  response to the draft decision leak. Biden called abortion “a  fundamental right” in his speech Friday reacting to the decision, but  has so far taken no action to restore this right. How can  a militant women’s movement overcome the indifference and outright  hostility of the political establishment towards abortion rights?

In this special edition of The Socialist Program, we air two interviews  from our video partner BreakThrough News from their live coverage just  after the Dobbs decision came down. Hosts Eugene Puryear and Rania  Khalek BT were joined by Kym Smith -- an organizer  with the Party for Socialism and Liberation in South Carolina -- and  Mara Verheyden-Hilliard -- a constitutional rights lawyer and executive  director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund.

Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram. We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more  are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.

In a true show of intercontinental solidarity, words from Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel joined the speeches of Native activist and Co-Director of the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee Jean Roach, National Director of BYP100 D’atra Jackson, and host of this show, Brian Becker, at the final plenary of the three-day-long People’s Summit for Democracy in early June.

Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram. We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.

On today's episode, Brian Becker and Prof. Richard  Wolff discuss the elections in France's legislature that led to  a large upswing in   seats won by the progressives and current President Macron's  center-right party losing their governing majority. What does this  energy behind the left in France tell us?

Professor Richard Wolff is an author &  co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can find his work  at rdwolff.com.

Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram.  We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you  consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more  are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.

Anti-China news and disinformation dominate the mainstream press in Western countries. When the pandemic hit, several researchers, mainly in the Global South, decided that they needed a news source for the facts of what is going on in China day to day.

Tings Chak, based in Shanghai, and others founded Dongsheng News, which covers national policies like the campaign that eradicated extreme poverty and new advances in the fight against the climate crisis, news issues like agriculture and regional government, and important topics like culture and society for a true perspective into China.

Brian is joined by Tings to take you inside China to discuss the necessity of alternative media about China, the realities of Covid in China, the US, and the world, the views in different parts of China about the U.S. and Chinese governments, and more.

Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram.  We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you  consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more  are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.

Working class communities around the world are organizing against capitalism. They are also forging a new international movement of solidarity and cooperation in the International People’s Assembly. How can organizers build international unity, and oppose the tools used by the ruling class to divide and defeat the popular movements that are expanding democracy while fighting to save the planet?

Brian is joined at the People's Summit for Democracy by Stephanie Weatherbee Brito with the International Peoples' Assembly.

Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram.  We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you  consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more  are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.

On today's episode Walter Smolarek and Prof. Richard Wolff discuss the newly-released inflation report that found that prices rose at a breathtaking pace – 8.6 percent, the highest in over 40  years. Anger is spreading across the country as working people struggle to afford the basic necessities in life as fuel, food and other essential commodities become increasingly unaffordable. What can be done to solve the crisis?

Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can find his work at rdwolff.com.

Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram.  We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more  are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.

On today's episode, Brian Becker interviews Roberto Lovato. Since the  Monroe Doctrine, Latin America has resisted U.S. attempts to dominate  the region. Last week, another instance of resistance took place around  the Summit of the Americas, which many heads  of state boycotted over the Biden administration's decision to exclude  Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Brian and Roberto Lovato discuss this,  the urgent need to end the blockade of Cuba, and the hypocrisy of U.S.  immigration policy as Ukrainians are welcomed  but immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean are caged.

Roberto Lovato is the author of the critically-acclaimed memoir Unforgetting. Lovato is a journalist and visiting professor of English  at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Lovato has reported on numerous  issues—violence, terrorism, the drug war and the refugee  crisis—from Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Haiti,  France and the United States, among other countries.

Photo credit: Midia Ninja

Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram.  We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you  consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more  are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.