Total Liberation

Rundown

Marine is back, baby! She and Mexie have a wonderful discussion about her journey into facilitation work with high school students. We discuss how facilitation differs as an educational tool from conventional lecturing or teaching, how she began her own anti-oppression facilitation program, and everything she’s learned along the way. We cover a lot of ground and end by shouting out her upcoming facilitation workshops, which are open to all! Send us an email if you are interested in participating (July 5-7 2021). They’ll be of interest to any activist or educator wanting to help facilitate dialogue to advance liberatory politics.

Sources and Links

* Race Dialogues: A Facilitator’s Guide to Tackling the Elephant in the Classroom: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43568628-race-dialogues* Learning For Justice: https://www.learningforjustice.org/

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Rundown

Mexie sits down with the Wrong Boys and Brett from RevLeftRadio for the *most wholesome conversation ever had*. We centre the convo around how fantastic it feels to help others and the importance of looking for the helpers in our society. We branch out into discussing the science of empathy and mutual aid, and get into some deep thoughts about dismantling the ego and expanding our sense of self to reflect our interbeingness with all our relations (human and nonhuman alike!).

Sources and Links

* SRSLY Wrong: https://srslywrong.com/* RevLeftRadio: https://revolutionaryleftradio.libsyn.com/

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Transcript

F1:  [MUSIC] How can we not only discover more compassionate relations with human beings but how can we develop compassionate relations with the other creatures with whom we share this planet?

F2:  There’s an us before the wound, there’s an us before oppression, and to me pleasure is the way that we tap down into that.

F3:  We live in capitalism.  Its power seems inescapable.  So did the divine right of kings.

MEXIE: Welcome everyone to the Vegan Vanguard.  I am Mexie and today we have probably the most wholesome conversation that you are ever gonna hear.  The brilliant and always sweetie-pie Wrong Boys of Srsly Wrong invited myself and the always-brilliant and always-principled — remarkably principled Breht from Rev Left Radio to have a discussion about helping others and looking for the helpers in our society.  We branch out into talking about the science of empathy and mutual aid, the importance of asking for help, and some pretty deep stuff about dismantling egos and expanding our senses of selves to adequately reflect our interbeingness with humans and non-humans alike.  I really hope you enjoy.  Before we get into it though, thank you endlessly to our new Patreon supporters TheBootsareOn and Joseph Baldoni Karlik.

We rely on your generous donations to keep the show going, so if you’d like to become a sustaining member, please go to patreon.com/veganvanguard and join our community on Discord.  We have community chats there twice per month which are always a great time, really fun to connect.  You can also give us a one-time donation via PayPal on our website veganvanguardpodcast.com, and please rate us up on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to us.  I love reading reviews and seeing the ratings come in, except one of them; except one of them that we got recently.  It was a one star.  You know, I’m very open to constructive criticism although I’d say maybe e-mail that in instead of messing up our ratings, but the comment didn’t make any sense.  If you left that comment, reach out.

I would love to know because I just couldn’t actually figure out what episode that they were actually talking about.  I was left really puzzled about it.  Anyway, now we’re at a 4.9, but you, you — everyone out there could help us get back up to that five-star rating by rating us five stars.  That actually really does help our content get noticed by more people.  Yeah, I just like clean lines, the five.  The five looks better than the 4.9.  Anyway, I’m mostly kidding, but also it does help us if you do give us ratings and reviews.  With that, prepare yourselves for some absolute wholesomeness.

[MUSIC]

SHAWN: Hello everyone,

Rundown

Mexie’s fiancé, Jacob, who is a Jewish anti-Zionist activist in Toronto, is taking over VV for this episode! He interviews Sheryl Nestel, an academic and activist who is on the executive committee of Independent Jewish Voices Canada, about the latest round of Israeli violence sparked by the incidents in Sheikh Jarrah. They discuss the brutality of the occupation, the harmful myths about Israel that are taught to Jews through various institutions, the cognitive dissonance associated with liberal Zionism, and much more. From Turtle Island to Palestine, occupation is a crime. Free Palestine!

Sources and Links

* Independent Jewish Voices Canada: http://ijvcanada.org/* #NoIHRA: http://noihra.ca/* Independent Jewish Voices: Solidarity in Uncertain Times: https://youtu.be/E5JO0mfKSEQ* Suzanne Weiss Holocaust survivor – Toronto Al Quds Rally 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdrG1mrna00* Vegan Vanguard, The Vegan-Washing of Israel Continues (Brand Israel, Palestine, and Occupation) w. Laura Schleifer: https://veganvanguardpodcast.com/11-the-vegan-washing-of-israel-continues-brand-israel-palestine-and-occupation/* Vegan Vanguard, The Great March of Return and Palestinian Resistance with Abby Martin: https://veganvanguardpodcast.com/29-the-great-march-of-return-and-palestinian-resistance-with-abby-martin/

Reading

* Jewish Currents: https://jewishcurrents.org/* My Happiness Bears No Resemblance to Happiness (Adina Hoffman): https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300164275/my-happiness-bears-no-relation-happiness* Gate of the Sun (Elias Khoury): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/234442/gate-of-the-sun-by-elias-khoury/* The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 (Rashid Khalidi): https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781627798556* The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited (Benny Morris): https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/birth-of-the-palestinian-refugee-problem-revisited/8AE72A6813CEA7DDDE8F9386313F0D97#:~:text=Its%20startling%20revelations%20about%20how,part%20of%20a%20systematic%20plan.* Journal of Palestinian studies: https://online.ucpress.edu/jps* 10 Myths About Israel (Ilan Pappe): https://www.versobooks.com/books/2430-ten-myths-about-israel* Why Racism Still Matters (Alana Lentin): https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Why+Race+Still+Matters-p-9781509535712* Avi Shlaim books: https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/avi-shlaim/238890/* Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundation of a Movement (Angela Davis): https://www.

Rundown

Mexie sits down with community activist and YouTuber, Sadlord777, for a captivating conversation about our spiritual journeys, the import of spirituality in political and community organizing, navigating tradition as a white settler on Turtle Island, and ancestral accountability.

Sources and Links

* Sadlord777’s Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/JohannDrivesMyBus* Sadlord777’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sadlord777* Sadlord777 on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sadlord777* Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: https://milkweed.org/book/braiding-sweetgrass* Fair Folk Podcast, Children of the Sun Part 1: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2LqL2IpnpyK47tjOsTs44R?si=U79wPVIKTbmIgUs8i0chxw * Fair Folk Podcast, Children of the Sun Part 2: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6yl4Fw3vCQ8NiuhJtGN3dX?si=yRd5K4pKT8mFrJJM-MB8rQ* Fair Folk Podcast, Children of the Sun Part 3: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4i8C7le09zNhP7vFbs6E5E?si=6CKeBqMzSTGLKRQKZPOkSw

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Transcript

F1:  [MUSIC] How can we not only discover more compassionate relations with human beings but how can we develop compassionate relations with the other creatures with whom we share this planet?

F2:  There’s an us before the wound, there’s an us before oppression, and to me pleasure is the way that we tap down into that.

F3:  We live in capitalism.  Its power seems inescapable.  So did the divine right of kings.

MEXIE: Hello, everyone.  Welcome to the Vegan Vanguard.  It is Mexie and today we have an amazing talk that I had with my friend and comrade here in Ontario.  They are a YouTuber, Sadlord777, and they make fantastic videos.  They also make fantastic zines, so definitely go check them out.  But, we had a really fantastic conversation about spirituality and leftism and the import of spirituality in political and community organizing and how it has been important for each of us and shaped our journeys.  We also talk a lot about grappling with tradition, especially in the context of whiteness and being a settler here on Turtle Island and not really being connected, necessarily, to our ancestral traditions, but also still having that ancestral accountability that we need to reckon with as settlers here, again, on Turtle Island.

I just thought it was such a fantastic conversation.  Sadlord777 is so brilliant and interesting and amazing and we wanted to having this conversation because these are topics that we feel are not really broached much on the left.  There’s kind of a real hard line drawn between the material and the immaterial, the political and anything that’s spiritual, emotional, or anything else like that.  As we talk about in the discussion, we think it’s largely a false dichotomy and that these are really important topics to discuss, too.  So, before we get into it, I would like to thank the new patrons, so thank you so much to Jill Mikkelsen and Eric Daniels.  This is a donor-funded show, so if you would like to become a sustaining member, you can go to patreon.

Rundown

In this episode, Mexie talks with author and professor, Tyler Shipley, about Canada’s dismaying place in the world. Tyler is the author of Canada in the World: Settler Capitalism and the Colonial Imagination, where he details how Canada’s genocidal relationship with Indigenous peoples has carried into imperialist aggression. Spoiler alert: we aren’t the good guys.

Sources and Links

* Canada in the World: Settler Capitalism and the Colonial Imagination: https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/canada-in-the-world * Twitter: https://twitter.com/canadainthewrld

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Transcript

F1:  [MUSIC] How can we not only discover more compassionate relations with human beings but how can we develop compassionate relations with the other creatures with whom we share this planet?

F2:  There’s an us before the wound, there’s an us before oppression, and to me pleasure is the way that we tap down into that.

F3:  We live in capitalism.  Its power seems inescapable.  So did the divine right of kings.

MEXIE: Hello, everyone.  Welcome to the Vegan Vanguard.  It’s Mexie and today we have one of my super-cool, super-brilliant friends and comrades on the show, Tyler Shipley.  He wrote the book Canada in the World: Settler Capitalism and the Colonial Imagination which is just absolutely fantastic, packed, packed full of info.  I would recommend this to everyone.  Today we’re gonna be busting that myth that Canada is just a peacekeeping force in the world, that we are not the aggressors, we are not the imperialists, because as Tyler’s book very aptly shows, that is so far from being true.  There are actually times in regime change operations and just imperialist aggressive wars where Canada is even more the aggressor than the United States which I’m not sure that people know about, but people should know about it.

So, I hope you all enjoy this conversation.  Before we dive into it, I want to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts to our new patrons this month.  Thank you to Isaiah, TJ, Hamza, and Mica or Mica for your very generous donations.  If you like what we do here, if you get something from it and you want us to keep making more, please consider supporting us monthly on Patreon at patreon.com/veganvanguard.  You can also give us a one-time tip or donation via PayPal on our website which is veganvanguardpodcast.com and/or please share this episode to amplify the message, and please give us those ratings and reviews on iTunes.  I love reading them.  Thank you so much to everyone who has given us five stars and written a review.  So, without further ado, let’s get into the interview with Tyler Shipley.

TYLER: [MUSIC] So yeah, my name is Tyler Shipley.  The book is called Canada in the World and it’s an attempt to I guess situate Canada within the story of colonial and imperial powers in the world.  So many people in Canada don’t understand or don’t want to understand that Canada is every bit a colonial and imperial power the way the United States is, albeit on a smaller scale and with some minor different details.  But I think that for a really long time this has been something that bothered me, and then as I sort of started doing the academic work to back it up, it was like I became more and more — I just felt more and more like I needed to articulate in detail the — this part of C...

Rundown

Mexie talks with Marxian economist, Dr. Richard Wolff, about COVID-19, the current economic recession, and the prospects for a post-capitalist future. Prof. Wolff argues that democratizing our workplaces from the ground up is critical to building that future.

Sources and Links

* Democracy at Work: https://www.democracyatwork.info/ * Democracy at Work on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/democracyatwrk/ * Prof. Richard Wolff on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RichardDWolff

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Transcript

F1:  [MUSIC] How can we not only discover more compassionate relations with human beings but how can we develop compassionate relations with the other creatures with whom we share this planet?

F2:  There’s an us before the wound, there’s an us before oppression, and to me pleasure is the way that we tap down into that.

F3:  We live in capitalism.  Its power seems inescapable.  So did the divine right of kings.

MEXIE:  Hello everyone, welcome to the Vegan Vanguard.  It is Mexie and as promised, I am releasing my series of talks with Dr. Richard Wolff, just kind of edited together.  We talked about covid-19, the end of capitalism, and the potential for building post-capitalist futures in part through democratizing our workplaces, so I think it was a fantastic series of talks.  I hope you enjoy it.  As I said on Patreon, we have some fantastic guests coming up that I am really excited about, so just another shameless plug for the Patreon.  This is a donor-funded show.  We rely on all of your generous donations to keep the show going.  For just two dollars a month, you can get access to the Total Liberation Discord server that I co-host with Kathrin and Mad Blender, and we host bi-monthly political chats on there, so that’s twice per month and they’re always so much fun and really engaging, so definitely head over there if you want to be part of that community.

Otherwise to help the show, you can share the episodes with friends and family or give us those ratings and — no, you must; you must go and give us ratings and reviews on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, or whatever you listen to us on, only if you’re gonna give us five stars.  But that really does help and I love reading the reviews, so thank you so much to everyone who’s done that.  You could also just give us a one-time donation via PayPal on our website which is veganvanguardpodcast.com.  With all of that out of the way, let us get into this interview with Dr. Richard Wolff.

[MUSIC] Richard D. Wolff is professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a visiting professor in the graduate program in International Affairs of The New School University NYC.  He’s the founder of Democracy at Work and host of their nationally syndicated show Economic Update.  His latest book is The System is the Sickness: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself.  It’s available with his other books Understanding Socialism and Understanding Marxism at www.democracyatwork.info.  So, I highly encourage everyone to check out the Democracy At Work YouTube channel and also Richard Wolff’s personal YouTube channel because he does a really, really great job making all of this incredibly important and incredibly complex economic information accessible to a really wide audience.  So,

Rundown

In this episode, Mexie talks with journalist, activist, and documentary film-maker, Abby Martin, about U.S. empire under Biden. We discuss his scary cabinet picks, his administration’s positioning with respect to various countries that have long been in the imperial crosshairs, and the importance of building a powerful anti-war and anti-imperialist movement.

Sources and Links

* Empire Files: theempirefiles.tv* Empire Files on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG29FnXZm4F5U8xpqs1cs1Q * Empire Files Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/empirefiles* Media Roots Radio: https://soundcloud.com/media-roots * Gaza Fights for Freedom: https://gazafightsforfreedom.com/

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Transcript

F1:  [MUSIC] How can we not only discover more compassionate relations with human beings but how can we develop compassionate relations with the other creatures with whom we share this planet?

F2:  There’s an us before the wound, there’s an us before oppression, and to me pleasure is the way that we tap down into that.

F3:  We live in capitalism.  Its power seems inescapable.  So did the divine right of kings.

MEXIE: Hello everyone.  Welcome to the Vegan Vanguard.  This is Mexie and I — I’m having a time.  I am having a time.  It is the last month that I have too many jobs all at once.  It’s the last couple weeks of my lecturing term.  I have some fantastic guests lined up that I am so excited to bring to your ears.  But this month I’m going to be releasing two really amazing talks that I had with activists and academics on my YouTube channel.  I posted about this on Patreon and everyone said that they were very interested to have me release both of these on the Vegan Vanguard, so that is what I am doing.

The first, what you will hear today, is my talk with Abby Martin about US empire under the Biden administration, looking at his very scary cabinet picks and the way that his administration is posturing, or the policies that they are either enacting or planning to enact in various countries of geostrategic interest of the US.  It was a really fantastic conversation and I was actually just speaking with Abby and Robbie Martin, her brother, on their podcast Media Roots, so I believe this will be coming out around the same time, so you can go and check out my talk with them on that platform as well.  I will link that in the description box as soon as it is available.  The next talk that I am planning to release probably next week or maybe just a few days after this one will be my talk with Dr. Richard Wolff.

Well, my series of talks that I will kind of edit together where I spoke with Professor Wolff about covid-19, about the end of capitalism and about building a post-capitalist future in part through democratizing our workplaces.  So, I very much hope you enjoy and thank you so much to all the patrons who stick with us even through the hard months.  Next month I am going to resume with some amazing new guests and I’m really, like I said, just really excited about it.  Before we get started, I would like to say that this is a donor-funded show, so if you would like to become a sustaining member, you can go to patreon.com/veganvanguard or give us a one-time donation via PayPal o...

Rundown

In this episode, Mexie talks with Dalit anti-caste and anti-speciesist activist, Prateek Kumar, about life as a Dalit in India. We discuss how the caste system operates, how casteism and speciesism are interlinked and how this affects both lower caste people and animals, and how things have changed and worsened under Modi’s Hindu nationalist regime. We end by discussing the potential for revolution here, and what comrades in the Global North can do to help amplify Dalit voices.

Sources and Links

* Prateek on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/polycycloid_polysemous/* Prateek on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deadwallflower/ * Prateek Kumar, Casteism In India Puts Both Humans And Animals Through Horrific Torture: https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2019/01/interconnecting-casteism-and-speciesism/ * Suraj Yengde, Caste Matters: https://penguin.co.in/book/caste-matters/* B.R. Ambedkar, Annihilation of Caste: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2150-annihilation-of-caste* Yashica Dutt, Coming Out as Dalit: http://www.alephbookcompany.com/book/coming-out-as-dalit/* Bojja Thakaram, Mahad: The March That’s Launched Everyday: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43154698-mahad

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Transcript

[MUSIC]

F1:  How can we not only discover more compassionate relations with human beings but how can we develop compassionate relations with the other creatures with whom we share this planet?

F2:  There’s an us before the wound, there’s an us before oppression, and to me pleasure is the way that we tap down into that.

F3:  We live in capitalism.  Its power seems inescapable.  So did the divine right of kings.

MEXIE: Hey everyone, welcome to The Vegan Vanguard.  It is Mexie and today we are talking to Prateek Kumar who is a anti-casteist and anti-speciesist activist from the Dalit community in India.  We had a fantastic conversation — pretty heavy conversation about life as a Dalit in India, especially under Modi’s Hindu nationalist regime.  Just a content warning; we do talk about physical and sexual assault, including rape of Dalit women, so I wanted to give you a heads up on that before getting into the interview.  The last thing before diving into the interview is to thank the new patrons, the new sustaining members of the show.  Thank you so much to Rachel Zummo, Katie Mae, and Ayoola White.

As you know, this is a donor-funded show and we rely on the generous donations of all of you to keep the show going, so if you have just two dollars per month, you can become a sustaining member at patreon.com/veganvanguard, and that two dollars will get you access to the Total Liberation Discord server where myself, Kathrin, and Mad Blender host bi-monthly political chats which we really love.  We also have stickers and pins available from the amazing Meneka Repka of Nooch Design Co. on Instagram.  One of them says Animals Are Our Comrades and the other says Animals Want Capitalism to End, and they are just adorable.  So, check those out if you would like to support us by becoming a sustai...

Rundown

In this episode, Mexie sits down with Rachel Bromberg and Asante Haughton of the Reach Out Response Network in Toronto to talk about their work, which is revolutionizing crisis response in the city. Rachel and Asante are working to actualize a paradigm shift away from coercive, forceful, police-led intervention towards an anti-oppressive, trauma-informed model that will empower individuals in crisis and promote their dignity, autonomy, self-determination, and resilience.

Sources and Links

* Reach Out Response Network: https://reachouttoronto.ca/* Resources and Information: https://reachouttoronto.ca/resources* Reach Out Toronto on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reachout_to* Reach Out Toronto on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReachOutToronto* Reach Out email: [email protected]

* Nooch Design Co. on IG: https://www.instagram.com/noochdesignco/* LaborKyle on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/laborkyle* LaborKyle on Twitter: https://twitter.com/laborkyle

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Transcript

[MUSIC] 

F1:  How can we not only discover more compassionate relations with human beings but how can we develop compassionate relations with the other creatures with whom we share this planet?

F2:  There’s an us before the wound, there’s an us before oppression, and to me pleasure is the way that we tap down into that.

F3:  We live in capitalism.  Its power seems inescapable.  So did the divine right of kings.

MEXIE:  What is up everyone?  New year, new channel art, and new music.  Thank you so much to the incredibly talented Meneka Repka of Nooch Design Co.  That’s @noochdesignco on Instagram for the new channel art.  We absolutely love it.  This is Rodney, the anti-fascist raccoon.  Just absolutely love that.  Thank you also to the incredibly talented LaborKyle for the new intro music featuring some of the revolutionary women that we look up to the most.  We just absolutely love that as well.  LaborKyle is @laborkyle on Twitter and on YouTube and he’s making just absolute masterpieces on YouTube, so definitely go check those out.  Labor spelled in the American way.  Yeah, we’re just excited about the fresh, new face of the podcast, the fresh, new sounds of the podcast and we’re starting the year off by talking to Rachel and Asante of the Reach Out Response Network in Toronto.

This is a network dedicated to revolutionizing crisis response, basically moving away from having police be the responders to crises like mental health crises, moving away from police doing things like mental health checks or wellness checks because we know that those can go horribly awry.  You’re just escalating a situation that is already incredibly volatile.  Instead, the network and the project puts money into communities and funds community-led teams of mental health professionals and people who are of the community and know the community and are for the community to respond to things like this and to actually help people who are going through crises.  I cannot sing the praises of this project enough.  I think it’s fantastic.  I think you all will really enjoy the interview.

Rundown

In this episode, Mexie talks with anti-oppressive, anti-speciesist activist and lecturer, Christopher Sebastian, about the intersections between race, class, and species. We discuss the links between speciesism and white supremacy, the ongoing bigotry and racism in vegan activism, and the connections between the Black Lives Matter uprisings and anti-speciesist activism. We end by touching on the importance of queering animal liberation, or moving away from a patriarchal and heteronormative approach to vegan activism.

Sources and Links

* Christopher Sebastian’s website: https://www.christophersebastian.info/* Christopher Sebastian on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ChristopherSebastian* Christopher Sebastian’s lecture, Race, Class and Species: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_ebX07H4wM * Christopher Sebastian’s lecture, Queering Animal Liberation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkRke88QKPs* Marjorie Spiegel, The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1046666.The_Dreaded_Comparison* David Nibert, Animal Oppression and Capitalism: https://books.google.ca/books/about/Animal_Oppression_and_Capitalism_2_volum.html?id=F6UxDwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y* Patrice Jones, Queering Animal Liberation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36oPVbrU5uY

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