This week, Iranian historian and returning guest Navid Zarrinnal calls in to the show from Tehran via telephone amid Iran’s continued internet shutdown to elaborate on his recent dispatch for BreakThrough News, “Iran’s Protests Explained: A Diary from Tehran.”
Navid is professor at the Lahore University of Management Sciences in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, host of The Colony Archive, and working on his first monograph, “Secularisation, Mass Literacy and Education in Modern Iran."
Navid gives us a timeline of events and shares his analysis, discussing key differences with previous waves of protest, the evidence and extent of foreign infiltration, the nature of the government’s response, and what Iranians think about “regime change”.
Check out Navid’s amazing work on The Colony Archive on YouTube.
If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, including the new and improved “Last Week in Lebanon” column and video blog by Roqayah and Lebanese war correspondent and our new third cohost Hadi Hoteit, you can subscribe on our Patreon for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on Apple Podcasts. We can't do this show without your support!!!
This week, Roqayah and Kumars introduce an interview with former Palestine Action UK prisoner and current Prisoners for Palestine campaigner Audrey Corno, who talks to Kumars about the criminalization of Palestine Action UK, now a proscribed terrorist organization in that country, and the rolling hunger and thirst strike undertaken by incarcerated former members still fighting the Israeli death machine.
Audrey and Kumars also discuss the movement’s success in shutting down Elbit Systems factories in the United Kingdom as well as another recent victory by the imprisoned organizers, many of whom ended their hunger strikes after the UK government canceled a proposed contract with Elbit. Audrey asks listeners in the UK and in the US to put pressure on the British government to agree to a meeting with the last remaining hunger striker, Umer Khalid, as he prepares to begin a thirst strike in protest of their refusal to do so.
Find out more about how you can support Prisoners for Palestine and continue the movement by organizing for direct action at prisonersforpalestine.org as well as directaction.org (if you’re in the UK) and global.palestineaction.org (if you’re not).
For those located in the US, the phone number for the British Embassy in Washington is (202) 588-6500. Call and demand that the UK government meet with Umer!
If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, including bonus episodes and the revamped “Last Week in Lebanon” column by Roqayah and our newest contributor Hadi Hoteit, you can subscribe on our Patreon for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on Apple Podcasts. We can't do this show without your support!!!
This is just a teaser for today's episode, which is available for Patreon subscribers only! We can't do the show without your support, so help us keep the lights on over here and access tons of bonus content, including the “Last Week in Lebanon” column by Roqayah and our newest contributor Hadi Hoteit, by subscribing on our Patreon for as little as $5 a month. While you’re at it, we also love it when you subscribe, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts.
This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by returning guest Nick Estes. Nick is a member of the Oceti Sakowin Oyate nation, Assistant Professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota, the author of the book Our History is the Future and coauthor of Red Nation Rising, cofounder of The Red Nation, lead editor at Red Media, and purveyor of nickestes.substack.com.
Nick breaks down the federal assault on Minneapolis, its precedents in the brutal settler-colonial history of Minnesota, and the inadequacy of the response from the liberal establishment. The gang also discuss the Lebanese Foreign Minister giving Israel permission to bomb Lebanon, the resilience of the Bolivarian Revolution after the abduction of President Nicolas Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores, the recent wave of protests and riots in Iran, and more.
For those interested, here is that clip of Palestinian martyr Nizar Banat.
Follow Nick on Twitter @nickwestes.
This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by historian and returning guest Alexander Aviña for an emergency update on the US attack against Venezuela, including the abduction of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, and what could happen next. Alex is Associate Professor of History at Arizona State University, contributor to the newsletter Foreign Exchanges on Substack, author of Specters of Revolution: Peasant Guerrillas in the Cold War Mexican Countryside, and a founding member of the Anti-Imperial Scholars Collective (AISC).
Alex, Roqayah, and Kumars break down the latest escalation by the Trump administration, the response from US media and Democrats, the outpouring of international solidarity with Venezuela from Cuba to Palestine, acting president Delcy Rodriguez’s commitment to the Bolivarian Revolution, and why Trump is right about Maria Corina Machado.
Follow Alex on Twitter @Alexander_Avina (not @Alex_Avina, who is someone else).
If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, including the new and improved “Last Week in Lebanon” column and video blog courtesy of Lebanese war correspondent and our new third cohost Hadi Hoteit, you can subscribe on our Patreon for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on Apple Podcasts. We can't do this show without your support!!!