Green & Red: Podcasts for Scrappy Radicals

In celebration of MLK's 93rd birthday, we're re-posting two episodes about Martin Luther King Jr. Here's the first one from April 4th, 2020, the 52nd anniversary of his assassination.  In this episode, Bob and Scott get into the politics of Martin Luther King and how he's WAY more radical than most people realize.  Today, everyone from the Libertarian  Party to the anti-abortion movement to tech companies in Silicon Valley trying to sell you their ideology or latest gadgets by claiming his legacy.  In truth, MLK fought and opposed "the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism  (i.e. capitalism), and militarism" until the end of his life.  While many look at the surface levels of MLK's politics and legacy, Green and  Red goes deep into the real substance of who he was. Links// Bob Buzzanco: MLK for Sale? How to Package a Radical (https://bit.ly/2LzGR9S) Follow Green and Red// https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast https://greenandredpodcast.org/  Donate to Green and Red Podcast// Become a recurring donor at  https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast Or make a one time donation here: https://bit.ly/DonateGandR This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production.  Produced by Bob  (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969).  “Green and Red Blues" by Moody.  Editing by Scott

Noam Chomsky returns to the Green and Red Podcast!     In a new interview, Bob talks with Prof. Chomsky in detail about Oliver Stone's new documentary "JFK Revisited," the Vietnam War, and how both  liberal and conservative elites have use big lies to put leaders from JFK to Reagan to Trump in a pantheon of great leadership. They also talked about the anniversary of the Capitol Riots, politics in America and the failings of big left media.   Not to be missed interview with the "world's greatest living intellectual."    Professor Chomsky is an American linguist, political philosopher, social critic and political activist. He is Institute Professor Emeritus in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT and Laureate  Professor of Linguistics and Haury Chair in the Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona.    At 93, he is still active; writing and giving interviews to media all over the world. He is the author of scores of books, including American  Power and the New Mandarins, Towards a New Cold War, Necessary  Illusions, Hegemony or Survival, Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy and Requiem for the American Dream.   -----------------------------------------------------------------------------  Links//  G&R:Noam Chomsky on the 1960s and the New Left (https://bit.ly/ChomskyGandR)  G&R: Celebrating "America's greatest intellectual" Noam Chomsky  (https://bit.ly/ChomskyBdayGandR)   Follow Green and Red//  https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast   Donate to Green and Red Podcast//  Become a recurring donor at  https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast  Or make a one time donation here: https://bit.ly/DonateGandR   This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production.  Produced by Bob  (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969).  “Green and Red Blues"   by Moody.  Editing by Isaac

We go into a deep background on Chevron, their poisoning of the Ecuadoran Amazon and the company's persecution of attorney Steven Donziger.   While drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon from 1964 to 1990, Texaco deliberately dumped more than 16 billion gallons of toxic wastewater, spilled roughly 17 million gallons of crude oil, and left hazardous waste in hundreds of open pits dug out of the forest floor. In 2001, Chevron merged with Texaco. The result was, and continues to be, one of the worst environmental disasters on the planet.  It’s been called the “Rainforest Chernobyl.” There has been a concerted legal and corporate campaign to get Chevron to take responsibility for this disaster. Attorney Steven Donziger led the campaign in the US. The company retaliated with, in Donziger's words, "the most vicious corporate counterattack in American history." It includes attempts to destroy Donziger's reputation, as well as civil and criminal charges. In October, after more than 800 days of house arrest, Steven reported to Danbury FCI for a 6 month prison sentence for contempt of court. While, he was recently released, the saga continues.  We talk with Paul Paz Y Mino (@paulpaz) with Amazonwatch (@amazonwatch) about the history of Texaco and Chevron in Ecuador, the lawsuits and the campaign to demonize Steven Donziger and any anti-Chevron campaigns.  Bio// Paul is the Associate Director at Amazon Watch, where he has overseen its Chevron-Ecuador campaign since 2008. He has been a professional human rights, corporate accountability and environmental justice advocate for over 25 years. He has been Colombia Country Specialist for Amnesty International USA since 1995, served on staff at Human Rights Watch/Americas in 1995-1996, and was the Guatemala/Chiapas Program Director at the Seva Foundation for seven years. Paul has lived in Chiapas, Mexico and Quito, Ecuador, promoting human rights and community development and working directly with Indigenous communities. Outro//  David Rovics (@drovics) "When Chevron Came to Ecuador" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Links// ChevronToxico The Campaign for Justice in Ecuador: https://chevrontoxico.com/ ‘Every turn in this case has been another brick wall, and behind it is Chevron’ (https://bit.ly/3EfKOpB) Follow Green and Red// https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast Donate to Green and Red Podcast// Become a recurring donor at  https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast Or make a one time donation here: https://bit.ly/DonateGandR This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced  by Bob  (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969).  “Green and Red Blues"  by Moody.  Editing by Isaac. --------------------------------------------------------------- ***It's getting towards the end of year and we want to thank all of our friends and audience for listening and supporting us through 2021. Our audio audience has DOUBLED in size and our YouTube audience has TRIPLED in size this year. If you want to support us to make Green and Red even bigger and better in 2022, please make a donation or become a Patron here: Become a recurring donor at  https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast Or make a one time donation here: https://bit.ly/DonateGandR

For many years, black and brown Americans living in cities, towns and rural areas across the nation have rightfully been afraid of uniformed  officers. Far too often, police officers engage in indefensible violence against the very people they are supposed to serve and protect.      The long arm (and brutal violence) of the law also extends to homeless populations, the mentally ill, sex workers, people facing eviction, protestors, workers on strike and many others. This is a result of the emergence of the new Gilded Age brought on by austerity and ever-widening economic gaps.   We talk with Professor Alex Vitale (@avitale) at Brooklyn College about policing in our current state of affairs. We discuss the need for police, how liberal politicians continue to support the police (as well  large numbers of rank and file Democrats, according to polls) and the influence and role of police unions.  We also get into the "Defund the Police" movement, the backlash against it, the war on drugs, gun control and how the current debate around police is effected by rising homicide rates.   Plus a brief history of Cop-aganda (i.e. how police and Hollywood have  collaborated for decades to portray police as heroes in television and  film).  Like Brendan Behan said, "I have never seen a situation so dismal that a policeman couldn't make it worse."  We get into all of it.   Bio// Alex S. Vitale is Professor of Sociology and Coordinator of the Policing  and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College and a Visiting Professor  at London Southbank University. He has spent the last 30 years writing  about policing and consults both police departments and human rights  organizations internationally. Prof. Vitale is the author of City of  Disorder: How the Quality of Life Campaign Transformed New York Politics  and The End of Policing. He is also a frequent essayist, whose writings have been published in  The NY Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, The Nation, Vice News,  Fortune, and USA Today. He has also appeared on CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, NPR,  PBS, Democracy Now, and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.  You can get the new edition of "The End of Policing" at Verso Books (@VersoBooks): https://bit.ly/3q3rIy5    Outro music//  Capitalism (A Lonesome Rider) by Consolidated on the Emergency Hearts (@eHeartsATX) label. ---------------------------------------------------------------   Links//   The United States homicide rate continues to soar in 2021. Why?(https://bit.ly/3F1vUnY)   Americans Don’t Want to Defund the Police. Here’s What They Do Want. (https://bit.ly/3IWeRX8)   Vitale:“Policing Is Fundamentally a Tool of Social Control to Facilitate Our Exploitation”(https://bit.ly/3H2ig4X)   Hammer and Tongs: Alex Vitale on Cop-aganda (https://bit.ly/3IUKH6z)  Follow Green and Red//   https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast    Donate to Green and Red Podcast//   Become a recurring donor at  https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast   Or make a one time donation here: https://bit.ly/DonateGandR    This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced  by Bob  (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969).  “Green and Red Blues"  by Moody.  Editing by Isaac.

*Citizen Cash: The Political Life of Johnny Cash* is a fantastic new  book by Michael Stewart Foley, and we sat down and talked to him all about it.  This is a must-listen, must-see episode. We talked about Cash's upbringing in the depression and how the New Deal helped his family and led him to develop a "politics of empathy."  We  discussed his views on race, and especially his "Blood, Sweat, and  Tears" album. We talked about his work on behalf of prisoners and Native Americans, his views on the Vietnam War, and the way he stood up to Richard Nixon at the White House. We also discussed his legacy in today’s politics. Cash wasn't only one of the most important entertainers of the 20th Century but a profound political figure as well. You can buy *Citizen Cash* as your local indy bookstore, among other places, or order from the publisher at https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/michael-stewart-foley/citizen-cash/9781549112249/ . Michael Stewart Foley is a writer, historian and professor of American Civilisation at Université Grenoble Alpes. His website is at https://michaelstewartfoley.com/. --------------------------------------------------------------- ***It's getting towards the end of year and we want to thank all of our friends and audience for listening and supporting us through 2021. Our audio audience has DOUBLED in size and our YouTube audience has TRIPLED in size this year.  If you want to support us to make Green and Red even bigger and better in 2022, please make a donation or become a Patron here: Become a recurring donor at  https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast Or make a one time donation here: https://bit.ly/DonateGandR --------------------------------------------------------------- Links// Man in Black at 50: Johnny Cash’s empathy is needed more than ever (https://bit.ly/33gPJdc) Johnny Cash Is a Hero to Americans on the Left and Right. But His Music Took a Side.  (https://bit.ly/3rQLEXi) The Boys Who Said No: https://www.boyswhosaidno.com/ Follow Green and Red// https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast Donate to Green and Red Podcast// Become a recurring donor at  https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast Or make a one time donation here: https://bit.ly/DonateGandR This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced  by Bob  (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969).   “Green and Red Blues"  by Moody.  Editing by Isaac.

Hi all- As 2021 comes to an end, we just wanted to say a very heartfelt "THANKS" to all of you.  We've seen our audience double in size this year.   We've tackled some big issues and have a scrappy take on all of them.  This year our program has included talks with Noam Chomsky, historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, economist Richard Wolff, labor writer Sarah Jaffe and many organizers, water protectors and journalists. We've done shows on pop culture, climate change, COVID-19, labor, Trump, the ruling class and peoples' history.  We're still growing, still recording and still fighting and owe most of it to you. 2022 is only going to be better and if you'd like to support us, you can: Make a one time donation at https://bit.ly/donateGandR2022 Become a patron at www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast Thanks for all you do. Solidarity, Bob and Scott

Cited as "America's greatest intellectual," Noam Chomsky is know for his deep critique of the ruling class and his role in supporting movements fighting it. As Chris Hedges has said he "makes the powerful, as well as their liberal apologists, deeply uncomfortable.” December 7th is Noam's 93rd birthday and we are celebrating him with this new segment and sharing our past episodes about and with him all week.  In this new episode, Scott and Bob speak about the impact that Chomsky has had on our own academic and political work.  We also talk about how it's been a recent trend in the left media universe to attack Chomsky.  But, we note, that those irrelevant hipster podcasters and YouTubers won't be remembered in a hundred years, but, of course, Noam Chomsky will be.  So, please enjoy. And Happy Birthday Noam Chomsky! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Links// G&R: Noam Chomsky on the 1960s and the New Left (https://bit.ly/ChomskyGandR) G&R: Noam Chomsky's Life of Dissent w/ Prof. Clinton Fernandes (https://bit.ly/31n7jex) Following Green and Red// https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast Donate to Green and Red Podcast// Become a recurring donor at  https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast Or make a one time donation here: https://bit.ly/DonateGandR This is a Green and Red Podcast    production. Produced by Bob  (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969).    “Green and Red Blues" by  Moody. Editing by Scott.

Mike Elk, frequent guest and great friend of Green & Red, sat down with Bob to discuss the Major League Baseball owners lockout of the players amid talks for a new collective bargaining agreement.  Mike and Bob discussed the history of free agency and the economics of baseball--billionaire owners pinching pennies with players, the way that service time is rigged against players, the way team owners get public money for stadiums yet get all the profits.  Yes, pro athletes make a lot more money than the average American workers, but the owners are robber barron billionaires, and we should always support labor, no matter how much these ballplayers make. ---------------------------------- Links// Payday Report: https://paydayreport.com/ In the Era of “The Great Resignation,” Baseball Players Want to Choose Where They Work (https://bit.ly/3dhLGPG) Follow Green and Red// https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast Donate to Green and Red Podcast// Become a recurring donor at  https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast Or make a one time donation here: https://bit.ly/DonateGandR This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob  (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969).   “Green and Red Blues" by Moody.  Editing by Scott.

It’s the 22nd anniversary of the direct action shutdown of the World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings in Seattle. The WTO is a transnational economic institution created to regulate and facilitate global (corporate) trade. Organized by a scrappy group of organizers, the shutdown kicked off an anti-corporate globalization moment in North America which challenged austerity and the capitalist political economy. Globally, those movements had already been fighting austerity and corporate power for decades. We talk with Nancy Haque, Stephanie Guilloud and David Solnit (@dsolnit)- three organizers that were all part of Direct Action Network to Stop Corporate Globalization (DAN), the body that organized the shutdown.  Bios// In 1999, our three guests were all grassroots lead organizers and co-founders of the Direct Action Network to Stop Corporate Globalization which organized the mass action shutdown of the WTO in Seattle.  Nancy was a labor-community organizer with Portland Jobs with Justice which uniquely bridged the labor movement with the Direct Action Network and mobilized hundreds of students and community folks from Portland.  Now, Nancy is the Executive Director of Basic Rights Oregon (@basicrights), ensuring that all lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Oregonians experience equality by building a broad and inclusive politically powerful movement, shifting public opinion, and achieving policy victories. Stephanie was a student at Evergreen State College where she worked with the Labor Education and Research Center and with student groups that mobilized hundreds of trained organized students. Now, Stephanie is co-director of Project South (@ProjectSouth). Stephanie is the editor of two anthologies: Through the Eyes of the Judged; Autobiographical Sketches from Incarcerated Young Men and Voices from the WTO; First-person Narratives from the People who Shut Down the World Trade Organization. David was with Art and Revolution Collective in the San Francisco Bay Area, and moved to Seattle for 6 months to organize as part of the Direct Action Network.  Now, David is an arts organizer with the Climate Justice Arts Project--working to center arts organizing and narrative with Stop the Money Pipeline, Build Back Fossil Free and the Poor People's Campaign. He edited/co-authored "Globalize Liberation"--a post-Seattle WTO global justice and anti-capitalist analysis and organizing anthology and "The Battle of the Story of the Battle of Seattle."  About the Shutdown WTO Organizers History Project// On the 20 year anniversary, a small group of friends and fellow DAN organizers put together The Shutdown WTO Organizers History Project-a website of organizers and first person accounts and analysis and co-published a 20-Year-Anniversary series of articles with Common Dreams. --------------------------------------- Links// The Shutdown WTO Organizers' History Project: https://www.shutdownwto20.org/ Remembering the Battle for Seattle: Organizers Launch Project to Reflect on 20 Years of Lessons (https://bit.ly/3ljIOpL) WTO Shutdown: A Few Things From the WTO Shutdown I Carry Into the Future (https://bit.ly/3xC853d) Follow Green and Red// https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast Donate to Green and Red Podcast// Become a recurring donor at  https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast Or make a one time donation here: https://bit.ly/DonateGandR This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969). Executive consultation by Jeff Ordower. “Green and Red Blues" by Moody.  Editing by Isaac.  

Mike Elk of Pay Day Report joined Bob to talk about the current state of labor conflicts in the U.S.  Huntington Steel, a Warren Buffet company, is on strike amid demands for givebacks.  The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is on strike.  The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and workers at John Deere just settled.    We also talked about the so-called labor shortages, which are resulting in workers getting higher wages now; the number of people who've left jobs in the past year; and the continued docility of union leadership.  Links// Payday Report: https://paydayreport.com/ Follow Green and Red//  https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast  Donate to Green and Red Podcast//  Become a recurring donor at  https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast  Or make a one time donation here: https://bit.ly/DonateGandR  This is a Green and Red Podcast production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969).  “Green and Red Blues" by Moody.  Editing by Isaac