Unfortunately, our interview for this week fell through at the last minute, but we didn't want to leave you all without content! We dug deep into the Delete Your Account vault and pulled a clip from one of our favorite interviews, with one of our all-time favorite guests, Mariame Kaba. This clip was from Episode 27, recorded shortly after Trump's election, and we comment on how many of the points Mariame made then, particularly around the concept of left unity, are just as salient today. We also discuss how far the political discourse and balance of power has shifted, from then to now.

Follow Mariame on twitter @prisonculture.

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This week Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Garrett Kelly, a worker at the Anchor Brewery in San Francisco and a member of the new Anchor Brewing Organizing Committee, and Evan McLaughlin, the new organizing coordinator of the DSA SF Labor Organizing Committee. They’re both involved in the historic effort to unionize the Anchor factory, the biggest such facility in San Francisco, and earlier this month called on Anchor in a MoveOn.org petition to remain neutral and recognize the outcome of the union vote. After Garrett and Evan each share a bit about their personal paths to organizing, Garrett explains that the legacy of Anchor Brewing as the original craft brewery and a cultural icon in SF is a rallying point for workers, and points to the negative impacts of the company’s 2017 takeover by Sapporo as a catalyst for the current campaign.

Evan and Garrett describe how the organizing committee observed best practices while mapping out attitudes towards the union among the rank and file, and reached out for support to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) because of the union’s unique history of radical organizing and solidarity with social justice struggles in the Bay Area and beyond. They go on to share highlights from their actions, including a “drink-in” at Anchor Public Taps, and the state of play with regard to management as the union drive picks up steam.

Follow the Anchor Union on Twitter @AnchorUnionSF, and make sure to show your support by signing their petition at MoveOn.org. To learn more about starting a union drive at your workplace, check out Labor Notes for organizing workshops in your area.

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This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Olivia Katbi Smith and Isi Breen. Olivia is co-chair of the Portland, Oregon chapter of the DSA, and Isi is the former press secretary for then-Congressman Keith Ellison, and current Communications Director for Jewish Community Action in Minnesota.

They join us for an in-depth discussion of the firestorm surrounding tweets on Israel and the pro-Israel lobbyist group AIPAC from newly-elected Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar. We explain the accusation of anti-Semitism Omar has been smeared with, and talk about the racist framing and bad faith nature of the accusations. Isi draws on his own experience dealing with bad faith accusations of antisemitism as press secretary for Keith Ellison, and stresses the importance of moral clarity on the subject of Palestine while also being mindful of the language we use from a tactical perspective. Olivia, who herself has been at the receiving end of a character assassination campaign due to her own Palestine advocacy, dives into the toll these kinds of smears take on someone. We talk about the importance of not engaging with bad faith accusations, often propagated by those with their own anti-Semitic records, and instead focusing on building solidarity across all communities with justice in mind. 

Follow Olivia on twitter @livkittykat, and Isi @isaiah_kb. Find out more about the work Olivia is doing at @PortlandDSA, and learn more about the work Isi is doing over at @JCA_MN.

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This week, Roqayah and Kumars are rejoined by Katy Slininger, a former postal worker and DSA organizer who recently chronicled her personal experience of pregnancy discrimination and unemployment in an article for Popula.com. Katy was a member of the ad hoc steering committee for the Boston chapter of DSA before moving to Connecticut, where she started a DSA organizing committee in the rural Northeast, known as Quiet Corner DSA. Katy fills Roqayah and Kumars in on what she’s been up to and why she left DSA, then details how she suffered as a result of the US Post Office management’s disregard for pregnant workers’ health and the failure of existing union and welfare state protections like the Family Medical Leave Act to help her. She goes on to describe being forced to quit and undertaking the grueling process of applying for jobs given the grossly inadequate protections of pregnancy discrimination legislation for blue-collar and service workers. The gang ends on a practical note, examining Katy’s call for more radical unions and considering what organizers need to do differently to ensure that freeing reproductive labor is a priority on the left.

Follow Katy on Twitter @itsbreadtimebch, and read her piece ”Alienated Labor”.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

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This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Ciro Wagner of the climate justice grassroots organization Earth Strike to discuss the impact of climate change and the global general strike their group is organizing in response. Ciro explains the organization's international structure and goals, and why a global general strike is necessary to fend off climate catastrophe.

We discuss strategies for conveying the importance of striking to workers, including with those working in sectors of the economy—such as coal, oil, and gas—that would be impacted by a transition to a green world. The crew also gets into what other activists around the world are doing to fight for climate justice, from blockades to school walkouts.

Follow Earth Strike on Twitter @EarthStrikeInt and keep up with their efforts, and how you can get involved, over at their official EarthStrike website. Join with workers around the world by striking for the climate on September 27th, 2019.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

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This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by investigative reporter Ken Klippenstein, whose explosive work has appeared in The Daily Beast, and The Young Turks, among others.

Ken takes us through his reporting process, his use of FOIA requests and several of his most important discoveries, including his work exposing the dealing of utility company Whitefish Energy Holdings in Puerto Rico.

Ken discusses his most recent efforts covering the so-called government shutdown, and how mainstream discourse has all but marginalized the voices of the most disenfranchised furloughed workers, like federally contracted janitors, and why programs that are lifelines for low income communities, such as WIC and SNAP, are facing even more trouble should the shutdown continue. We discuss how the discourse around the shutdown takes for granted that government functions like the military are sacrosanct, while government functions that provide services to the poor must constantly be justified and deliberately funded. Ken shares with us several stories from affected workers, and we discuss the challenges and possibilities facing all of us as the shutdown continues.

Follow Ken and keep up with his work on Twitter @kenklippenstein.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

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This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined live in the Delete Your Account Studios by friends of the show Brett Payne and Bryan Quinby, hosts of the anarcho-comedy podcast Street Fight Radio. Kicking off the California leg of their West Coast tour, Brett and Bryan dish about their favorite moments from the tour so far and what they love about doing live shows. The gang discusses the ongoing government shutdown drama over border wall funding, as Trump holds an address blaming undocumented immigrants for the opioid epidemic. Bryan and Brett touch on their usual beat on Street Fight, sharing personal and listener stories about drugs and addiction, bad bosses and bad customers, before capping things off with a rundown of Rashida Tlaib’s swearing scandal.

Follow Brett on Twitter @BrettPain and Bryan @MurderBryan. You can also follow Street Fight Radio @StreetFightWCRS and get information on future tour dates and all things Street Fight on their official website.

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This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by returning guest Shaun Scott, organizer, filmmaker, and author of “Millennials and the Moments That Made Us: A Cultural History of the U.S. from 1982—Present”. Shaun joins us for the start of the show for a little pop culture talk before getting into a special announcement: his candidacy for City Council in Seattle’s 4th district.

Shaun explains his platform, and highlights some of his policy positions as well as the solutions to the issues facing Seattle's most vulnerable communities. We hear about the steps Shaun would take to address climate change and how he would confront corporate polluters who are destroying our environment and wrecking our climate. Shaun also discusses several proposals to address Seattle's housing crisis, and highlights how housing, transportation, and climate change are inextricably linked.

Shaun, a member of Seattle DSA, also talks about how he is going about building his campaign and remaining accountable to the organizers that will be necessary to get him elected. We discuss how one can build a winning coalition made up of a broad range of working-class constituents while not compromising one's principles for the sake of expediency.

Follow Shaun at @eyesonthestorm and follow his campaign at @ElectScott2019. Learn how to support his campaign here.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

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This week, Kumars is joined by Maya Little, an anti-racist organizer and PhD student-worker at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, for a conversation about the ongoing TA and faculty strike to prevent the reinstatement of a Confederate monument on that campus. Maya describes in detail the openly racist origins of “Silent Sam,” the statue of a soldier dedicated under Jim Crow in 1913 to honor UNC students who fought for the Confederacy, and its continuing function as a gathering place for white supremacists and symbol of the racial hierarchies that persist on campus and in the broader community.

Maya explains the #StrikeDownSam campaign’s demands, and how it came together to block the UNC leadership’s proposal to reconstruct the statue after direct actions, including her unique own unique protest, finally resulted in its toppling on August 20th. As she once more faces charges for protesting in the wake of the university’s proposal, Maya describes how the backlash she’s experienced from the university has outstripped the legal ramifications of her protest, and how the UNC administration’s tacit support for open fascists points to the work of dismantling white supremacy that will remain to be done after the last statue falls.

Follow Maya on Twitter @readkropotkin and the Strike Down Sam campaign @strikedownsam. You can donate to the legal and strike fund for Maya and other TAs facing charges here.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

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This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Adam Johnson. Adam is a media analyst with Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting or fair.org. He is also the co-host of the media criticism podcast Citations Needed alongside Nima Shirazi.

Adam joins us for an in-depth discussion of a number of important media-related topics. We start out dissecting the recent case of academic Marc Lamont Hill who was fired from his position at CNN for his remarks before the United Nations about the Palestinian struggle against occupation. We also discuss the oversaturated media coverage of the death of George H.W. Bush as well as the larger issue of American attitudes towards deceased domestic political figures, and how appeals to civility undermine conversations we must have regarding the human rights abuses these figures have had a part in.

Adam also takes us through the article by New York Times opinion writer Bari Weiss and Eve Peyser of VICE (intentionally not linking), where they examine how they became friends despite political differences, a superficial and conciliatory attitude that exposes extreme privilege and more common political ground than either Bari or Eve might like to admit. We also talk Russiagate, the migrant caravan, and more.

Follow Adam on twitter @AdamJohnsonNYC.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

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This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Ares and Kristen, volunteers with the Tech Workers Coalition (TWC) — a democratically-structured group of tech and tech-adjacent workers based in industry hubs across the country — to discuss organizing for social justice in the tech industry, from workplace rights to international solidarity. After Ares, who is based in the Bay Area, and Kristen, who is based in Boston, share a bit about their personal paths to tech labor organizing, they discuss how TWC has evolved from a solidarity campaign with striking tech industry service workers to a leaderless, decentralized network of resources that have supported Google workers to win rights for victims of sexual abuse in the workplace as well as end their company’s contract to develop drone AI for the Pentagon.

We also discuss the obstacles, including ideological ones, to unionizing and labor organizing generally in the tech industry, and how Silicon Valley’s liberal reputation belies the conservative politics of its leadership. Finally, the gang ends by reflecting on the way forward for Tech Workers Coalition, expanding workers’ power at home and constantly building connections with communities most affected by the inescapable violence of the industry.

You can follow Tech Workers Coalition on Twitter @techworkersco and find out more about how to get involved on their website.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

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This week, Kumars is joined by Wendi Muse for a primer on Brazilian politics and the lessons from the recent election of fascist president Jair Bolsonaro. Wendi is the host of the Left POCket Project podcast and a PhD Candidate in History at New York University whose dissertation analyzes Portuguese Africa’s impact on the Brazilian left through intellectual and political exchange during the Cold War. Wendi begins by providing necessary historical context, discussing how Brazil remains indelibly shaped by slavery and the military dictatorship that purged leftists and workers’ institutions and kept poor people, most prominently the sizeable Afro-Brazilian population, in fear and misery.

Wendi and Kumars discuss how the wealthy and middle class in Brazil chose the unfettered economic and racial domination of Bolsanaro over the tangible but moderate reforms of imprisoned former President Lula and his successors, including the Workers’ Party (PT) candidate Fernando Haddad. Wendi explains how the Brazilian right’s co-optation of protests over increased bus fares led to the impeachment, on trumped-up corruption charges, of PT President Dilma Rousseff, and outlines the US role in legitimizing this 2016 coup. After discussing what Bolsonaro’s open bigotry and nostalgia for the dictatorship represents in Brazilian politics, how he differs from Trump, and why he should be considered a fascist, Wendi shares her thoughts on the outlook for social movements and the Workers’ Party in Brazil, and how concerned people in the US can show solidarity.

Follow Wendi on Twitter @MuseWendi and keep up with the Left POCket Project at @LeftPOC.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

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This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by René Christian Moya. René is an organizer with the LA Tenants Union and has been working over the past year to pass California's Proposition 10, which would restore the rights of cities to expand rent control.

René joins us to discuss the tenant-led movement against mass evictions, landlord harassment, and unfair rent increases. René gives us an important background lesson on the history of rent control in California, including the devastating impact of the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, which allowed for landlords to price-gouge tenants by exempting units from rent control if they were built after February 1995. We also examine the impact of this legislation on homelessness and food insecurity in California, which impacts some 300,000 children per year, and how the Prop 10 campaign aims to fight on their behalf. René closes us put with some critical optimism and necessary reflections on what the fight for housing and tenant rights will look like after votes as cast.

Follow Renè on twitter @rcmoya84. You can also visit the LA Tenants Union’s website to become a member.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

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This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by two members of the NYC Democratic Socialists of America Street Medics, pathology resident Tatyana Zinger and Jacob Clary, an EMT, pre-med student studying structural epidemiology, and program director of the Street Medics’ Opioid Overdose Prevention Program (OOPP). After sharing how they got involved in left politics, Tatyana and Jacob outline the origin and primary functions of the NYC DSA Street Medics, including conducting trainings, first aid and logistical support at protests, and projects in the works like mental health directories for marginalized people. Jacob discusses the Opioid Overdose Prevention Program's distribution of Naloxone, an antidote to opioid overdose that routinely saves the lives heroin addicts. The crew also talks about the history of street medics in radical movements and the NYC DSA Street Medics’ own philosophy as an organization. Finally, we discuss the possibility of scaling up this type of organizing to create permanent health care infrastructure that can give communities real autonomy where government policies fail.

Follow Tatyana on Twitter @sweetbabyruski and Jacob @dirtycollar. You can also follow NYC DSA Street Medics @nycdsamedics and request support at your upcoming action here.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

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This week, Roqayah and Kumars welcome back Jessica Raven. Jessica is a mother, community organizer, and Executive Director of Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS), a DC-based grassroots organization working to build safer public spaces using community-based, non-criminal solutions. In this role, she has lead the growth of the Safe Bar Collective, which works to end harassment and discrimination in nightlife.

Jessica joins us to discuss her recent impromptu campaign to become president of her Parent Teacher Association (PTA). She was inspired to run after the then-unopposed PTA presidential candidate, a producer for Fox News, tweeted favorably about Brett Kavanaugh following Senate testimony where he attempted to refute multiple sexual assault allegations. Jessica describes what motivated her to run, and how a viral tweet turned into national coverage of a hyper-local PTA race and nationwide support for her run. We discuss how race and class intersect within Jessica's PTA as well as countless other organizing spaces, with gentrification leading to an influx of wealthier white parents which now dominate the leadership of a PTA made mostly of poor parents of color. We discuss the potential of local organizing in the context of the PTA, including how a radical candidate like Jessica could implement more equitable representation, and bring about better conditions for teachers, parents, and students. Jessica discusses the type of hostile pushback she received after announcing her PTA run and how her opponent relied on solidarity from other fellow white women to help her coast toward victory. Finally, we hear Jessica's thoughts on why it is necessary for everyone to engage in local community politics, and the value of the fight itself even when the odds are stacked against us.

You can follow Jessica on twitter @thejessicaraven.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

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This week, Roqayah and Kumars discuss one of the ways that people are fighting the rising costs of insulin. The cast is joined by Anthony DiFranco and Yann Huon de Kermadec, of the Open Insulin Project which is developing a cheap, easy, and open-source protocol for insulin production. Anthony, founder of the Open Insulin Project and boardmember of Counter Culture Labs in the Bay Area, explains how deeply the American healthcare apparatus has failed people, and describes his own experience living with Type-1 Diabetes. Yann, a French protein biochemist working on the project, gives listeners the scientific background necessary to understand the basics of what insulin is, and why their project is so important for diabetics and their families around the world.

We talk about horrific cases of people dying while being forced to crowdfund for their supplies and trying to make their insulin last, and how the pharmaceutical industry has taken a life-saving drug—with a patent sold for $1 in 1923—and turned it into a oligopoly dominated by three companies (Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, Sanofi) that charges patients hundreds of dollars for what they literally cannot survive without. We discuss the possibilities and limitations of open-source, crowd-funded citizen science for addressing the global healthcare crisis, and give ways for people to get involved in the fight for open-source insulin.

You can follow the project on twitter at @OpenInsulin. You can also read more about the initiative on their website.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

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This week, Roqayah and Kumars talk surveillance and repression with first-time guest Kade Crockford, director of the ACLU Massachusetts Technology for Liberty program, as well as returning guest Freddy Martinez, a hacker, activist, and director of the transparency and digital rights organization Lucy Parsons Labs. Freddy fills everyone in on the circumstances surrounding his arrest at a far-right rally in Berkeley called “No to Marxism,” after which his name and mugshot were tweeted out by the Berkeley Police Department as part of what emails obtained by Lucy Parsons Labs show was a deliberate social media strategy to punish him and other leftist organizers.

Kade and Freddy touch on the historical role of surveillance in the repression of radical organizing, particularly in marginalized communities, before detailing the current landscape and latest developments in the expansion of surveillance by local, state, and federal police forces. We learn about the Preventing Emerging Threats Act and leaks showing FISA is being used to spy on journalists. The gang ends with a discussion of the longstanding, mostly unspoken alliance between law enforcement and the far-right, going beyond overlaps in membership to consider the ways state power and the supposed right-wing fringe collaborate against their common left enemy.

Follow Kade on Twitter @onekade and Freddy @b_meson. Check out Freddy’s write-up of the leaked Berkeley PD emails on the Lucy Parsons Labs blog, and keep up with Kade’s work on the ACLU Massachusetts’s blog Privacy Matters.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

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This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by game developer and cofounder of Game Workers Unite Emma Kinema and journalist and game designer Ian Williams for an in-depth discussion of the context and challenges of unionizing workers in the video games industry. The gang begins with Ian’s 2016 article laying out the case for game developers organizing. Ian and Emma describe the exploitative labor practices of major companies and how the uniqueness of the industry compounds the difficulty of organizing. Emma describes the current efforts of Game Workers Unite to create an international network of solidarity and guidance and build a unionized games industry.

Emma and Ian talk about the history of unionization efforts by game workers, refute some common arguments used to dismiss game workers' fights to win power in the workplace, and explain how the conservative leanings of the industry impact organizing campaigns.

Follow Emma on Twitter @EmmaKinema and Ian @brock_toon. You can also follow Game Workers Unite @GameWorkers, and find out how to get involved on their website.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

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This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by prisoners’ rights advocate Jared Ware. Jared is an activist, writer, producer of the prison abolitionist podcast Beyond Prisons, and co-host and co-producer of the anti-capitalist podcast Millennials Are Killing Capitalism. Ware is part of the press team for Jailhouse Lawyers Speak publicizing the ongoing nationwide prison strike. Jared gives us necessary background on the strike, which began on August 21st, the 47th anniversary of the death of Black Panther prison organizer George Jackson, and is set to continue until September 9th, the 47th anniversary of the Attica Rebellion. Jared describes the important role that jailhouse lawyers are playing in organizing strike actions, and how authorities at prisons around the country are trying to suppress all participation in what is likely the largest prison strike in US history. Jared explains the different forms of resistance manifesting within prisons as part of this strike—from work stoppages and commissary boycotts to sit-ins and hunger strikes—and how detained immigrants impacted by America’s fascist border policies are participating in the strike as well.

Jared discusses his work with the press team for Jailhouse Lawyers Speak and the importance of amplifying the voices of those incarcerated. We learn why prisoners themselves are drawing connections between incarceration and slavery, and how the strike is part of a broader, longer-term effort to undermine and ultimately abolish the prison system. We also discuss the importance of shows of solidarity from non-incarcerated people, and talk about ways people can get involved.

Follow Jared on Twitter @jaybeware.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

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On this episode, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Australian comedian and writer Ben McLeay, known better by his Twitter handle @thomas_violence. Ben has written for Pedestrian and SBS Comedy’s The Back Burner and is a co-host on the Boonta Vista podcast.

Ben shares some important Australian diggerydo’s and diggerydon’ts, imparting his wisdom on how to navigate a country like Australia where every animal has the ability to kill you. We dive into the political crisis gripping Australia just as word was coming in of the departure of now-former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Ben also offers some background on Australia's colonial attitudes, and the surging racism and incitement of violence against refugees that is dominating Australian politics.

You can follow Ben on Twitter, and listen to him on Boonta Vista.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

There is an extended version of this episode, for patreon subscribers only! If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon page for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on iTunes. We can't do this show without your support!!!

This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Aaron Cantú, a journalist with the Santa Fe Reporter and one of more than 200 people arrested at the #J20 protests on the day of Trump’s inauguration. As he describes in his article “Enemy of the People: An indicted journalist reflects on conspiracy in today's America,” Aaron was charged with 8 felonies and faced up to 80 years in prison before the charges were dropped in July after almost 18 months. Roqayah and Kumars ask Aaron about his experience of prosecution, and Aaron shares historical examples the of the criminalization of dissent that provide context for the collective identity and guilt attributed to the #J20 defendants by the prosecution.

We talk about the chilling effect of government suppression of left-wing dissent, as well as how antifa tactics including doxxing have forced the far right to regroup. We also discuss the false equivalence between fascist and antifascist protesters in mainstream media reporting, citing recent examples. Finally, Aaron shares his views on the responsibilities journalists have while reporting left- and right-wing movements.

Follow Aaron on Twitter @aaron_con_choco and read his latest work at the Santa Fe Reporter. You can also read Bobby London’s article “Your Camera is a Snitch” on her blog, and check out our previous coverage of the #J20 protests and prosecutions with Alexei Wood here.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

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On this episode, Kumars interviews Fatema Ahmad, deputy director of Muslim Justice League, a Boston-based community organization committed to providing support to Muslims and others targeted by state surveillance. She has also worked with the American Friends Service Committee’s Communities against Islamophobia project and Muslims for Social Justice.

We learn about Countering Violent Extremism or CVE, a federal anti-terrorism program that provides training, funding and otherwise enables people to report on and stamp out the "seeds of radicalization" in mosques, universities, restaurants and other cultural spaces. Though it is deeply racist and has been proven ineffective, CVE's infiltration and surveillance has fed a climate of fear and distrust among US Muslims. CVE programs encourage people to view common Muslim religious and cultural practices, as well as political activity as innocuous as going to an anti-war protest, with suspicion. Fatema highlights the dangers of addressing the racist implementation of CVE with calls for "equal opportunity surveillance" of both white and non-white extremists. Fatema argues that as long as a surveillance apparatus exists, it will always be enforced in a racist manner, so the focus should be on ending these programs rather than expanding them to others. We also talk about the tensions inherent in trying to prevent political extremist violence without acknowledging and addressing the root causes, western imperialism and capitalist exploitation chief among them. Fatema discusses ways that people can get involved in fighting against CVE programs and against the surveillance and criminalization of Muslim communities, and how to avoid accidentally feeding into narratives that stigmatize.

Follow Muslim Justice League on Twitter at @MuslimJustice.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

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Today Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Ellie Virrueta, a student at Cal State LA and youth organizer with the Inglewood-based Youth Justice Coalition and the San Gabriel Valley Chapter of the Immigrant Youth Coalition. We discuss California Assembly Bill 931, the proposed legislation that would limit circumstances under which use of deadly force by police is allowed. Currently, police can get away with murder if their actions are deemed "reasonable", an impossibly vague standard. This new law instead requires lethal police violence to be "necessary", meaning all non-lethal alternatives have been exhausted. Ellie talks about the story of her 14  year-old cousin, Junior Rodriguez, who was killed by police during a mental health episode, and how this event motivated Ellie to get involved in the fight to pass this bill and against police brutality in general. We hash out the details of the legislation and go over the flimsy and laughable arguments against it from police unions and other pro-cop organizations. Finally, Ellie explains the timeline for AB 931’s passage and how you can support this and other efforts to end police violence in California.  

You can follow Youth Justice Coalition on Twitter @YouthJusticeLA, plus find out more information on how to get involved on their website.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon page for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on iTunes. We can't do this show without your support!!!