radiofree.asia

Category: CounterPunch+

  • Shaken America Syndrome

    Shaken America Syndrome. Image: JSC and AI Art Generator.

    In 2002, Robert Roberson raced his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki, to a hospital emergency room in the east Texas town of Palestine.  Nikki was limp, her skin blue.  Roberson told the emergency room doctors and nurses that the two had been sleeping when he awoke and found Nikki on the floor, having fallen off the bed. The child was unresponsive. Nikki Curtis never regained consciousness and died a few days later.

    To read this article, log in here or subscribe here.

    If you are logged in but can’t read CP+ articles, check the status of your access here

    In order to read CP+ articles, your web browser must be set to accept cookies.

    More

    The post Shaken America Syndrome appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

    This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org.

  • It’s a Capitalist World

    Image of a worker protest.

    Image by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona.

    Conditions for working people continue to get worse. The right to strike, or to join a union, is denied by increasing numbers of the world’s governments. The 2023 Global Rights Index report issued by the International Trade Union Confederation makes for grim reading, as has consistently been the case for the decade that the ITUC has issued its yearly reports.

    Once again, there is no country on Earth that fully protects workers’ rights, the Global Rights Index report informs us. Nothing new here, as this was the case in the 2022 report, and all the reports before that. Neoliberalism does not have a human face.

    To read this article, log in here or subscribe here.

    If you are logged in but can’t read CP+ articles, check the status of your access here

    In order to read CP+ articles, your web browser must be set to accept cookies.

    More

    The post It’s a Capitalist World appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

    This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org.

  • The Fight to Stop Cop City Won’t Stop

    The Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, intended to consume at least 85 acres of forest adjacent to Atlanta’s Black working-class neighborhoods, is more accurately called Cop City. Slated to be one of the largest militarized police training centers in the nation, Cop City is owned by the nonprofit Atlanta Police Foundation, which, by paying $10 […]

    To read this article, log in here or subscribe here.

    If you are logged in but can’t read CP+ articles, check the status of your access here

    In order to read CP+ articles, your web browser must be set to accept cookies.

    More

    The post The Fight to Stop Cop City Won’t Stop appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Susie Day.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Those Old Gerontocracy Doldrums

    Image of Captiol Hill.

    Image by Harold Mendoza.

    A spate of articles on gerontocracy have emerged over the last few months, spawned by recent events like Trump’s particularly unhinged campaign trail comments, 81-year-old Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell freezing mid-speech multiple times, and the 90-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a key member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, being hospitalized and publicly exhibiting confusion and a “rapidly deteriorating” memory. Feinstein’s extended absence earlier this year delayed numerous judicial confirmations—she missed over fifty votes during her ten-week vacancy. A Pentagon-funded study released in April this year identified dementia among high-level US officials as a national security threat.

    To read this article, log in here or subscribe here.

    If you are logged in but can’t read CP+ articles, check the status of your access here

    In order to read CP+ articles, your web browser must be set to accept cookies.

    More

    The post Those Old Gerontocracy Doldrums appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

  • America’s Auto Workers: On Strike Against Inequality. Again.

    “Just as in the 1930s,” Shawn Fain reminded his fellow auto workers, “we’re living in a time of stunning inequality throughout our society.” Back then, in those 1930s, UAW members began a generation-long struggle that put a significant dent in that “stunning inequality.” By the early 1960s, auto worker struggles and sacrifices had helped give birth — in the United States — to a mass middle class. A majority of a major nation’s households, after paying for life’s most basic necessities, actually had money left over. More

    The post America’s Auto Workers: On Strike Against Inequality. Again. appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Sam Pizzigati.

  • Africa’s Water and Sanitation Crisis

    One of the most notable changes in modern times is the rapid urbanization of our planet, which began in the 19th century. While in 1950, 29 percent of the global population lived in cities, that figure is estimated now at around 50 percent, and by 2030 it will reach 61 percent. It is estimated that, More

    The post Africa’s Water and Sanitation Crisis appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Cesar Chelala.

  • Brief for Murder: Pinochet’s Apologists Five Decades On

    During the Cold War, assassinations most foul were entertained as necessary measures to advance the set cause. In Latin America, military regimes were keenly sponsored as reliably brutal antidotes to the Marxist tic, or at the very least the tic in waiting. Any government deemed by Washington to be remotely progressive would become ripe targets More

    The post Brief for Murder: Pinochet’s Apologists Five Decades On appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Binoy Kampmark.

  • The Racketeering of State Violence

    Image of No Cop City rally.

    Image: YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons

    On 5 September, the US state of Georgia made public an indictment under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act against 61 activists involved in the Stop Cop City movement. The indictment alleges a “criminal conspiracy” among people who have distributed flyers, coordinated a bail fund, and participated in protests to prevent the construction of a militarized police training facility in the middle of a public forest in Atlanta. The charges explicitly name solidarity, protest, and mutual aid as activities that “intimidate” law enforcement and other citizens.

    To read this article, log in here or subscribe here.

    If you are logged in but can’t read CP+ articles, check the status of your access here

    In order to read CP+ articles, your web browser must be set to accept cookies.

    More

    The post The Racketeering of State Violence appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

    This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org.

  • The Tragedy of Allende-era Chile: A Strong Start Countered by Imperialist Assault

    Image of an Allende protest in Chile.

    James N. Wallace – This image is available from the United States Library of Congress

    The 50th anniversary of the first 9/11 — the military coup that overthrew the democratically elected government headed by Socialist Party leader Salvador Allende — is this month. Chilean working people made enormous advances during the first year of the Allende government, formally a multiparty coalition known as Popular Unity, before Chilean capitalists, U.S. corporate interests firmly backed by the Nixon administration and right-wing elements in both countries were able to regroup and begin a heavy-handed sabotage campaign waged with increasing vehemence. In this excerpt from What Do We Need Bosses For?: Toward Economic Democracy, some of those first-year successes are recounted but the bourgeois forces are already beginning their efforts to obstruct and ultimately reverse all advancement.

    To read this article, log in here or subscribe here.

    If you are logged in but can’t read CP+ articles, check the status of your access here

    In order to read CP+ articles, your web browser must be set to accept cookies.

    More

    The post The Tragedy of Allende-era Chile: A Strong Start Countered by Imperialist Assault appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

  • The Strategic Nightmare That Follows the “Forever War”

    The various pipe dreams of the United States are major obstacles to dealing rationally with the strategic triangle.  The U.S. belief in huge defense budgets; modernization of strategic forces; military bases and facilities the world over; and the illusion of an anti-missile shield have overwhelmed the task of compromise and negotiation that is essential.  Inter-service rivalries and military-industrial triumphs represent additional obstacles.  The mainstream media, particularly the New York Times and the Washington Post provide ample cheerleading for the weapons industry.  Senator Bernie Sanders’ efforts to reduce defense spending this year engendered little debate and failed by a vote of 88-11.  As Walt Kelly’s Pogo said: “We’ve met the enemy and he is us.” More

    The post The Strategic Nightmare That Follows the “Forever War” appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Melvin Goodman.

  • The Tie That Truly Binds Grand Fortune and Great Talent

    The richest among us have always loved to claim they have more talent — more smarts — than the rest of us. They can do things the rest of us can’t. They fully deserve, in other words, the grand fortunes they’re so busily amassing. Those of us who worry about the inequality those grand fortunes create have never swallowed this deservedness claim. We’ve spent massive amounts of our time demonstrating how grand fortunes reflect all sorts of dynamics — from exploiting workers and shortchanging consumers to monopolizing markets and paying off politicos — that have nothing to do with talent and brilliance. More

    The post The Tie That Truly Binds Grand Fortune and Great Talent appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Sam Pizzigati.

  • Halmahera: EVs For Uncontacted People

    Image of EV plug in.

    Image by Juice.

    One very dangerous new norm that all humans should be worrying about is who most benefits and accumulates most power in this death-dealing system, or who can be held largely responsible for the plight the world’s in. Let’s start with the richest man, Elon Musk. Asked last year if he has more influence than the American government, he complacently replied, “In some ways”. Ronan Farrow describes how “Musk has sought out business opportunities in crucial areas where, after decades of privatization, the state has receded. The government is now reliant on him”. For example, he “seeded so much of the country with … [Tesla’s] proprietary charging stations”, that he pushed the Biden Administration into pushing his electric cars and now, “His stations are eligible for billions of dollars in subsidies”.

    To read this article, log in here or subscribe here.

    If you are logged in but can’t read CP+ articles, check the status of your access here

    In order to read CP+ articles, your web browser must be set to accept cookies.

    More

    The post Halmahera: EVs For Uncontacted People appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

    This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org.

  • Shoplifting as Capital Offense

    On the first day of August, Ta’Kiya Young turned 21. She’d been struggling since her mother’s premature death, but she’d recently found a new place to live and was eager to explore a career as a social worker. To celebrate her birthday, she took her two sons, 3-year-old Ja’Kenli and 6-year-old Ja’Kobie, to the Ohio […]

    To read this article, log in here or subscribe here.

    If you are logged in but can’t read CP+ articles, check the status of your access here

    In order to read CP+ articles, your web browser must be set to accept cookies.

    More

    The post Shoplifting as Capital Offense appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

    This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org.

  • Why UPS Workers Were Ready to Strike

    Image of striking UPS workers.

    Image by Joe Piette.

    Richard Hooker has worked at the United Parcel Service (UPS) for over twenty years and after long, sweltering shifts spent at the warehouse, sweat burning his eyes, his limbs feeling like they’ve been filled with concrete, he would just sit in his car, unable to drive home.

    “You’re physically drained, you’re mentally drained from moving packages all day, non-stop,” he explained, “And you need to take a nap cause you’re too scared you’ll fall asleep when driving home.”

    Hooker, now a union leader for Teamsters Local 623 which represents over 5,000 workers at both facilities in Philadelphia, is part of a broader Teamsters campaign to address many of the lingering issues impacting workers at the company, from conditions inside the warehouses and trucks to pay for part-time employees and drivers.

    To read this article, log in here or subscribe here.

    If you are logged in but can’t read CP+ articles, check the status of your access here

    In order to read CP+ articles, your web browser must be set to accept cookies.

    More

    The post Why UPS Workers Were Ready to Strike appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

  • Lost Generations? Millennials and Gen Z in a Post-Pandemic World

    Image of girl in face mask.

    Image by Yuan Rong Gong.

    We’re over three months out from the official end of the COVID state of emergency, declared in the US on May 11, yet its tremendous social upheaval is only beginning to manifest. It will take us many years to reckon with COVID’s full toll, but its malign effects are already evident. My generation, adrift well before the pandemic, finds itself more unmoored than ever. Preexisting mental health, debt, and underemployment crises have all worsened. The brunt of long COVID, an inflation crisis, astronomical rents, and the turbulence of readjusting to office life after years of fear and social isolation all conspire to render life nearly unbearable for millions of members of my cohort, the millennials.

    To read this article, log in here or subscribe here.

    If you are logged in but can’t read CP+ articles, check the status of your access here

    In order to read CP+ articles, your web browser must be set to accept cookies.

    More

    The post Lost Generations? Millennials and Gen Z in a Post-Pandemic World appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

    This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org.

  • Picket Lines and Political Science

    As an academic – a political scientist specifically – the conferences I attend usually pass unnoticed by the general public. This is with good reason, as they are short, highly specialized affairs. Occasionally, though, the world of academics collides with that outside the university. This is exactly what is happening this week in Los Angeles, More

    The post Picket Lines and Political Science appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Peter LaVenia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Writing Palestine

    In Palestine – a country whose existence goes unrecognized by most of the West – Palestinians are arrested, humiliated, beaten, killed by Israeli military or settlers every day, if not every hour. What began in 1948 as the Nakba has taken on force, ramped up control, occupied every aspect of Palestinian life. And, given Israel’s […]

    To read this article, log in here or subscribe here.

    If you are logged in but can’t read CP+ articles, check the status of your access here

    In order to read CP+ articles, your web browser must be set to accept cookies.

    More

    The post Writing Palestine appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

  • The Sins of Butte

    Image courtesy of the US EPA.

    Standing on a ridge overlooking the expansive Berkeley Pit, a pungent smell emanates from the murky waters below, leaving a slight burn in my nostrils. This is Butte, nestled in a valley that straddles the Continental Divide, high up in the Rocky Mountains of western Montana. A little over a hundred years ago, Butte was a boomtown, ruled by copper and raging with prosperity. Industrious miners from Ireland to China ventured to this remote place to strike it rich or at least make a decent living. In its heyday, Butte was a bastion of socialist politics. International Workers of the World (IWW) was active in the early 1900s and, along with other labor factions, fought the monopolies of Butte’s three Copper Kings; Marcus Daly, William A. Clark, and F. Augustus Heinze. It was a tough, violent era, and miners were known to let off steam in local gambling dens, brothels, and bars. A historical plaque in town sums Butte’s past well: “She was a bold, unashamed, rootin’, tootin’, hell roarin’ camp in days gone by, and she still drinks her liquor straight.”

    To read this article, log in here or subscribe here.

    If you are logged in but can’t read CP+ articles, check the status of your access here

    In order to read CP+ articles, your web browser must be set to accept cookies.

    More

    The post The Sins of Butte appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

    This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org.

  • Better Red Than Dead

    A Scene from Jesse Short Bull & Laura Tomaselli’s LAKOTA NATION VS. UNITED STATES. Courtesy of IFC Films. An IFC Films release.

    A Scene from Jesse Short Bull & Laura Tomaselli’s LAKOTA NATION VS. UNITED STATES. Courtesy of IFC Films. An IFC Films release.

    Whenever I think about the “Manifest Destiny” genocide U.S. rulers wrought against this continent’s original inhabitants – arguably the greatest land theft in human history – the sheer injustice of it all makes me feel like tearing my hair out, gnashing my teeth, slashing my flesh, rending my garments and howling at the moon. At a time when racist reactionaries suppress dissident histories, the new documentary Lakota Nation Vs. United States, co-directed by Oglala Lakota Jesse Short Bull and Laura Tomaselli, bravely and poetically presents a version of America’s story told from the Indigenous point of view. Indeed, Lakota’s parts I and II – “Extermination” and “Assimilation” – could be titled: “How the West was Lost.”

    To read this article, log in here or subscribe here.

    If you are logged in but can’t read CP+ articles, check the status of your access here

    In order to read CP+ articles, your web browser must be set to accept cookies.

    More

    The post Better Red Than Dead appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

    This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org.

  • Bombshells: Barbie and the Nuclear Age

    Stills from ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’

    Stills from ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ | Photo Credit: Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures

    In 1945, against the dry, sun-drenched backdrop of the American Southwest, two events took place that would alter the course of history. One was Trinity, the world’s first nuclear detonation, and the moment that would prompt Robert Oppenheimer to cite from the Bhagavad Gita: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” The other was the founding of Mattel.

    The coincidence of the Oppenheimer–Barbie release dates incited a frenzy amongst the movie-going public precisely because they seem so at odds. And yet, beneath their grit and camp, the two share more than meets the camera. They are, at heart, both stories of America at war—a war defined by the success of Oppenheimer and his colleagues, and which would in turn define the best-selling doll. The world into which Barbie was born, and of which she would become both symbol and soldier, did not exist before that first successful detonation in the early hours of July 16.

    To read this article, log in here or subscribe here.

    If you are logged in but can’t read CP+ articles, check the status of your access here

    In order to read CP+ articles, your web browser must be set to accept cookies.

    More

    The post Bombshells: Barbie and the Nuclear Age appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

  • The World’s Food System Brings us Inflation, Hunger and Waste

    Image of tractor on a farm.

    Image by Scott Goodwil.

    Market fundamentalists would have us believe that if only we left the provisioning of all human needs to the tender mercies of unregulated markets, a cornucopia of fabulous wealth would trickle down to all. A powerful fire hose of propaganda ceaselessly proclaims this, amply funded by those whose interest lie in accumulating unlimited wealth without regard to social or environmental harm.

    To read this article, log in here or subscribe here.

    If you are logged in but can’t read CP+ articles, check the status of your access here

    In order to read CP+ articles, your web browser must be set to accept cookies.

    More

    The post The World’s Food System Brings us Inflation, Hunger and Waste appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

    This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org.

  • The Other 9/11

    Today the sordid story of our government’s involvement in the effort to prevent Allende from being elected President of Chile and then provoking the coup d’état that led to the murderous dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, is well known.   But though less than a month from when this was written September 11 will mark 50 years since the coup in Chile took place few politicians and journalists will draw attention to that fact.  Rather, as they have been doing since 9/11/20021 they will focus on recalling the terrorist attack on our country that brought down the World Trade Center, destroyed a section of the Pentagon and led to the death of nearly 3000 people (about the same number that died at the hands of the Pinochet regime after the coup d’état).  More

    The post The Other 9/11 appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Paul Cantor.

  • American Roulette

    The six white Mississippi cops called themselves “the Goon Squad.” Give them points for accuracy, if not originality. They prided themselves in going the extra mile. For not playing by the rules. For not feeling any level of force was excessive. For not ratting each other out. They had a good run. But it appears […]

    To read this article, log in here or subscribe here.

    If you are logged in but can’t read CP+ articles, check the status of your access here

    In order to read CP+ articles, your web browser must be set to accept cookies.

    More

    The post American Roulette appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Jeffrey St. Clair.

  • Cultural Apartheid in Germany 

    Given the continual resurgence of the populist Far-Right under the all encompassing banner of the AFD (Alternative für Deutschland), the Alternative for Germany party, a shocking coalition agreement has just been reached between the Christian Democrat Party (formerly led by Chancellor Angela Merkel) on a local and regional political basis.  It has become imperative for […]

    To read this article, log in here or subscribe here.

    If you are logged in but can’t read CP+ articles, check the status of your access here

    In order to read CP+ articles, your web browser must be set to accept cookies.

    More

    The post Cultural Apartheid in Germany  appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

    This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org.

  • Inside the Mind of Ted Kaczynski

    Image of Unabomber being arrested.

    Image by Federal Bureau of Investigation.

    Kaczynski’s analysis of how the economy works was spot on and was also given short shrift, in part because of the stupid name, “Unabomber,” that he has been tagged with. The word derives from the Unabomb Task Force, the group the FBI assembled to track down Kaczynski. “Unabomb” was short for “University and Airlines Bombings,” which were the first targets of Kaczynski’s mail bombs. Despite tons of physical evidence, the FBI completely failed at locating Kaczynski until they asked the major media to publish his manifesto. Kaczynski’s brother recognized his sibling’s handwork and gave the FBI directions to the cabin in the woods.

    To read this article, log in here or subscribe here.

    If you are logged in but can’t read CP+ articles, check the status of your access here

    In order to read CP+ articles, your web browser must be set to accept cookies.

    More

    The post Inside the Mind of Ted Kaczynski appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

    This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org.

  • How NAFTA Ate the West

    In the two years following the enactment of NAFTA, the price of beef dropped by as much as 50 percent. If hamburger eaters exulted at the news, they should have also been aware that with this fall in beef prices has come a crisis for the nation’s small ranchers as grave as that which put […]

    To read this article, log in here or subscribe here.

    If you are logged in but can’t read CP+ articles, check the status of your access here

    In order to read CP+ articles, your web browser must be set to accept cookies.

    More

    The post How NAFTA Ate the West appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

    This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org.

  • Fascism is the Western Answer to Class Struggle

    Setting aside culture war animosities for the moment to consider the direction of politics in the US— to the extent that doing so is psychologically and / or economically possible for dedicated culture warriors, recent revelations that the FBI and CIA were active participants in the 2016 and 2020 national elections run headlong into longer history. While ‘American democracy’ has always been tenuous and abstract (‘representative’), the US has now returned to a pre- and inter-War melding of state with commercial interests. The American political ‘system’ now fits the Marxist-Leninist conception of the capitalist state. More

    The post Fascism is the Western Answer to Class Struggle appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Rob Urie.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Bringing the War Home to the Border to Make Imperialism Great Again

    There is no use arguing that Donald Trump hasn’t existentially altered the conversation on war in this country and sweet Kali knows that I’ve tried. I’ve been crying bullshit in all caps on that swinging bologna salesman’s phony isolationist, Pat Buchanan-with-dick-jokes act since he crashed the GOP primaries on his golden escalator in 2016. The More

    The post Bringing the War Home to the Border to Make Imperialism Great Again appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Nicky Reid.

  • Scared to Death!

    I met U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT) for the first time recently. I had a short, but revealing conversation with him. I don’t know what he thought coming away from the exchange, but I know what I felt. I felt afraid. I saw someone who was enthusiastic about the current proxy war with Russia and More

    The post Scared to Death! appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by John Miksad.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Term Limits Wouldn’t Fix the Supreme Court

    “According to respected polls,” Ira Shapiro writes at The Hill, “public approval of the Supreme Court has dropped precipitously to the lowest level in the 50 years that it has been measured.” And not, he cautions, not just to recent revelations concerning the less than ethical (those are my polite words for “bribe-accepting”) behavior on More

    The post Term Limits Wouldn’t Fix the Supreme Court appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Thomas Knapp.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.