This is only part of our interview with Eoin Higgins. If you want to get the whole interview, support the show, and receive access to tons of other bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon page for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts. We can't do this show without your support!!!
Roqayah is still off this week, so Kumars is joined from the top of the hour by onetime guest host and freelance journalist Eoin Higgins, who has written for The Intercept, Common Dreams, FAIR.org, Vice, and the Washington Post. After sharing a bit of his personal background and political trajectory, Eoin breaks down his most recent reporting for The Intercept on the ongoing scandal surrounding Massachusetts Democratic Party efforts to torpedo the primary challenge of progressive House candidate Alex Morse, mayor of the Western Massachusetts town of Holyoke, who is running to unseat entrenched incumbent Rep. Richard Neal in MA’s 1st congressional district on Sept. 1.
Eoin walks listeners through the initial coverage by his colleagues Ryan Grim and Daniel Boguslaw, which revealed that members of College Democrats at the University of Massachusetts Amherst had been plotting to entrap Morse for over a year by engineering a situation in which they could frame him as a predator, before detailing the most recent developments, which suggest that the state Democratic Party actively coordinated with College Democrats to amplify the smear that has now blown up in their faces.
Subscribe on Patreon to hear the full version of this interview, including Eoin’s predictions for another Massachusetts Democratic primary battle he’s been covering — the Senate race between Green New Deal sponsor Ed Markey and his conservative challenger, Rep. Joe Kennedy III — and his assessment of the eclectic coalitions assembled on either side
You can follow Eoin on Twitter @EoinHiggins_ to stay abreast of his future work for other outlets as well as his personal blog at eoinhiggins.com.
Roqayah is off this week, so Kumars is joined from the top of the hour by the hosts of the Left POCket Project Podcast, returning guest Wendi Muse and Richard, who makes his Delete Your Account debut. Wendi is the creator of the Left POCket Project and a PhD Candidate in History at New York University, where her dissertation analyzes the impact of anticolonial struggles in Portuguese Africa on the Brazilian left during the Cold War. Richard is a gig worker and cohost the now defunct Progressive Army’s The Discourse podcast.
After sharing a bit about his political origin story, Richard talks about what he learned from participating in the uprisings in Washington state this summer, and Wendi updates listeners on what’s been new in her life since her previous appearance. Wendi and Richard react to this week’s Democratic National Convention and the selection of Kamala Harris as Joe Biden’s running mate. They discuss Democrats’ appropriation of identity politics and pro-worker rhetoric, corporate attempts to co-opt Black Lives Matter, the discourse around “cancel culture,” and how socialists should think about the relationship between capitalism and white supremacy.
Follow Wendi on Twitter @MuseWendi and Richard at @Road2Revolution. The Left Pocket Project podcast is on Twitter @LeftPOC, and available to listen and download whenever pods are cast, but you can find every episode for free as well as support their work at https://www.patreon.com/leftpoc.
If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, 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!!!
Roqayah is off this week, so Kumars is joined from the top of the hour by Food Not Bombs cofounder and veteran organizer Keith McHenry. Keith has been active with various chapters of the network of mutual aid collectives known as Food Not Bombs for four decades and is the author of several books including Food Not Bombs: How to Feed the Hungry and Build Community, which is the original handbook for the group’s model of movement building through vegan food distribution.
Keith shares moments from an eventful life, like the mentorship of Howard Zinn and facing massive repression and criminalization from the highest levels of government, including staring down 25 to life under California’s “three strikes” law. Keith talks about the stories of organizers from Myanmar to Iceland who have engaged in direct action under the banner of Food Not Bombs, and Keith and Kumars reflect on the legacy of the movement, including the role of anarchism and punk culture in sustaining and how mutual aid projects inspired by Food Not Bombs are responding to the current moment.
You can find the current Food Not Bombs handbook in addition to every other imaginable resource for finding a chapter near you or starting your own at foodnotbombs.net.
If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, 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!!!
Roqayah is off this week, so Kumars is joined from the top of the hour by returning guest Olivia Katbi Smith and first-timer Albert Lee, both members of Portland DSA who have been in the streets of Portland since the uprising sparked by George Floyd’s killing began. Olivia is the co-chair of Portland DSA and a board member of CAIR Oregon. Albert Lee is a Portland-based activist, a member of Portland DSA and former Our Revolution-endorsed congressional candidate who earlier this year ran as an open socialist in an unprecedented primary challenge to incumbent Democrat Earl Blumenauer in Oregon’s 3rd.
Olivia and Albert share their experiences of the ongoing federal occupation of Portland by DHS and paramilitary forces from other agencies as well as their insights into the way imperial tactics and far-right ideology have become more glaringly apparent in policing practices from local cops to the now nationwide wave of federal repression. The gang closes out by discussing the latest out of Portland, including the conflicting reports of DHS troop withdrawal and new evidence regarding the effects of the tear gas being used on protesters, as well as the newsworthy reinforcements and the ongoing mutual aid projects helping to sustain the movement.
And you dear listener can follow Albert on Twitter @AlbertLee2020 and Olivia at @livkittykat.
If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, 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!!!