GODFREE ROBERTS—Social discontent – rooted in workers’ material lives – was real. Workers’ productivity had increased by 250% since 1957 and the cost of living had increased by 10% but their incomes were 5% lower. Their protests about wages, benefits and work conditions expressed a yearning for human dignity and democratic control over socioeconomic life. One temporary worker recalled, “We were simply inferior. In the factory, if people didn’t know your name, they would just call you linshi gong [temporary worker], which sounded contemptuous. Therefore the word linshi gong was a taboo among us. We would rather call one another lin xiong or ‘temporary brothers’”.
IDIOTIZED PUBLICS
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Billy Bob’s Dispatches: Avant-Garde Journal Team
8 minutes readBILLY BOB—Blowback: Exposing Imperial Decline welcomes special guests Jeremiah Kim, Serafina Harris, and Jahan Choudhry. These activists, journalists, and artists are contributors to the Avant-Garde journal that launched on November 9th. All contributors are associated with the Saturday Free School. Each guest discussed their work including Jahan’s provocative critique of Gerald Horne, Serafina’s Black Reconstruction painting: “The Black Worker and World Peace”, and Jeremiah’s provocative article on Norman Finkelstein. The roundtable also discussed current events and the necessity of properly contextualizing our current situation in order to make the most of the opportunities that present themselves due to the increasing geopolitical upheavals that lie ahead.
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MARGARET KIMBERLEY—The horrific scenes of carnage have evoked revulsion for millions of people in the United States and around the world. Huge protests have taken place nationally and internationally and the zionists find themselves on the public relations defensive but will not concede defeat. They are using brute force to dox, damage careers, end careers before they start, withhold funds, and use other means to silence righteous indignation over Israeli war crimes.
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THE BROADER VIEW: Debunking Zionist LIES With Noura Erakat
6 minutes readKATIE HALPER: Human rights lawyer Noura Erakat debunks the Biden Administration’s claim that Israel is not engaging in genocide. Then Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro explains why Zionism is antisemitic.
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EDITOR—Israel has unleashed a horrific war of collective punishment against the people of Gaza, the latest in a long history of anti-Palestinian oppression. As corporate media shamelessly provides cover for what is undoubtedly a genocide unfolding in real time, the need to ground our understanding of the conflict in its proper history is more important than ever. Norman Finkelstein joins The Chris Hedges Report to discuss Israel’s 17 year blockade of Gaza and its crucial significance to understanding the events of the past two weeks.