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The Red Scare Series: From the Guilded Age to Today - Part 1

While everyone is focusing on the elections, we thought we should look at something far more important: The Labor Movement. Because when there is a historically hostile presidency to labor, the only thing that will advance the cause of the working class is a strong labor movement. I want to take a look at the history of Anticommunism within the US Labor movement from both inside and outside factors with the knowledge this anticommunism often left the United States’ borders and had deep rooted effects that are still present in Labor today.Slater Mill, located on the Blackstone River, still stands in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. This Mill is famous for being the 1793 birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in the United States. I’ve seen this building countless times and my thoughts on it run the gamut. Mills like Slater, ushered in so much progress but also so much pain. In the struggles of that huge contradiction, workers and their families came together to fight for better lives and were torn apart by the propagandist lies and deceptions, sometimes coming from within, to keep only a handful of mostly white men in power.John Francis Bray, the American labor activist who also spent time in England as a Chairtist, he said“If the word had been in use with us a few years since, then every anti-slavery man would have been denounced as a Communist.”* (Footnote: Gutman, “Tompkins Square ‘Riot’”)As Bray implied, sometimes anticommunism isn’t a direct attack on those who push for or call themselves communists. It houses any anti-labor activity and the attacks on the ideologies under the Socialist umbrella including socialism, anarchism and of course communism.Many people believe capitalism doesn’t work, however, it works well for the very few,k mainly the top one percent of the population. The system is designed to work in a class system divided into  the “haves and have-nots”, and though there have been reforms put in place to create a middle class, these reforms protected the ones who already accumulated a majority of the wealth and created an even larger inequality between the rich and poor.Capitalism is the perfect system for the white supremacists that require a class system to gain power by funneling the wealth off what the workers, who they exploit, make. Whereas, socialism is a system that puts the workers, the major majority of the population, in power giving them control of means of production that they create themselves. This does not serve those in power and they will do anything to keep themselves in power and continue to profit from the fruits of the workers’ labor. In order to do this, they deploy tactics that including intimidation, manipulation, deception, outright lies, and even murder. They claim it is actually the “insert name of group that is going against the capitalist here” doing these things to them.The slave owning colonists figured out that they needed to pit the enslaved, poor whites, and the indigenous people against one another so those groups wouldn’t turn on them. They offered concessions to the poor whites and put them in positions of “middle management” like being the overseer of enslaved people in a field or offering awards for them to act as a police force that would be used to hunt down escaped slaves which were considered property for the slave owner of course. This was the base and still very much the mindset of our current police force.In these series of episodes and articles, we will look at the red scare and all the tactics used by them.Please read the accompanying This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.historicly.net/subscribe

The Casualties of War - Part 1 with Hamit Dardagan

Iraq Body Count is a website that has maintained the most thorough list of civilian casualties from the Iraq War. According to Jonathan Steele, writing in The Guardian, IBC "is widely considered as the most reliable database of Iraqi civilian deaths.” It has been featured in the Chilcot report, and other official government websites. But, there is much to the war that most people don’t know about:* The US began softening-up strikes in 2002, well before the official entry into the war. * A chilling story of how the US attacked a hospital in 2004 for reporting Morgue Deaths* The Al-Jazeera bombings and the US bombing of a Reuter’s desk in Baghdad* Within the first few weeks, they had recorded over 7,500 civilian deaths with more devastation comingViolence as Communication - FallujahPerhaps no city has been hit as hard as Fallujah, Iraq. After the shock and awe campaign that led to the capture of Baghdad, the city of Fallujah had already established its own local government and security forces. There was no need for US forces to be there because they had not met with resistance at all. But, on April 23, 2003, the 82nd Airborne Division occupied the city. As a result, on April 28 2003, children and parents were marching in protests towards a school. US troops indiscriminately shot them. With that memory still present in amongst the people of Fallujah, on March 31, 2004, four Blackwater mercenaries were killed on a bridge with their bodies mutilated in brutal way. Unfortunately, most of the western media chose to portray them as innocent victims, instead victims of revenge. The US authorities took this as a challenge to their dominance. Then in late 2004, they began a campaign to conquer Fallujah which was filled with unbelievable atrocities. According to the Boston Globe:Under the plans, troops would funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities through DNA testing and retina scans. Residents would receive badges displaying their home addresses that they must wear at all times. Buses would ferry them into the city, where cars, the deadliest tool of suicide bombers, would be banned.As well as being conscripted for forced labor:One idea that has stirred debate among Marine officers would require all men to work, for pay, in military-style battalions. Depending on their skills, they would be assigned jobs in construction, waterworks, or rubble-clearing platoonLater on, white phosphorous would be used in Fallujah. In part 1 of our series, we discuss the Iraq war, the implications of the casualties and also we try to form a memorial for the people who lost their lives. We also talk about the digital memory project for the Iraq war.Iraq Body Count is available on Twitter.Support UsWe are a 100% user-supported publication. If you like this episode, please consider giving us a tip. Every dollar allows you to help sustain high-quality content and our dedication for the truth. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.historicly.net/subscribe

The Triumph of the Sandinistas with Dan Kovalik (feat Ben Rubenstein)

Perhaps no country has been subjected to the whims of US imperialism as much as Nicaragua. In the 1800s, it was seen a new breeding ground for the Monroe Doctrine, and sent mercenaries over there to fight wars. In the early 1900s, during the quest for colonies, the US marines invaded again, and through the efforts of Agosto Sandino, they were pushed out, not before establishing a foothold in the form of Anastasio Somoza and his sons who ruled the country with an iron fist. Somoza and his allies grew wealthy while most of the peasants starved and impoverished. Somoza, even took blood from the Nicaraguans and sold it to the US. However, the Sandinistas began their resistance in 1961 to the Somoza dictatorship. It was a David vs Goliath fight. Somoza had bombers from the US, while Sandinistas merely had their guns. Through their determination, the successfully defeated the Somoza dictatorship not before Somoza absconded with over $3 billion of aid. However, even victory was bittersweet as the US decided to train one of the most horrific militias known to man: the Contras. No action was deemed off-limits for the Contras. They beheaded children, they gouged out eyes of peasants. As one activist puts it, “The contras don’t win the hearts and minds of the people. They take the arms and limbs”However, the Sandinista Revolution improved the lives of the Nicaraguan people in unprecedented ways. Within just 5 short months, the literacy rate rose up from the 50s to the 80s. But, they were fighting a brutal civil war with the Contras for the next decade, while under US sanctions.Being under the axe of imperial sanctions, and tired from the constant civil war, and under the pressure from the US, the Nicaraguan people voted out the Sandinistas for a US-backed leader: Violeta Chamorro. Once again, the gains from the revolution were rolled back. Literacy went down, many essential services were privatized. But, the Sandinistas did not give up. They continued to organize for the next 16 years and finally, their efforts paid off. Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas came back to power in 2006. However, they Sandinistas have been under attack by the US through organizations like the NED that fund the violent opposition including the coup attempt in 2018 where 100s of innocent civilians in Nicaragua were killed. The US put Nicaragua under economic sanctions. The Sandinistas and Ortega skillfully navigated through this minefield using caution. For example, they did not immediately recognize the one-china policy because of all the factories Taiwan had put in. Only when the opportunity came forward did they do that. Finally, we walk about Ben and Dan’s experience in the latest Nicaraguan elections and compare it with the US elections. We also discuss the US propaganda campaign against Nicaragua. In the end, Dan says “ God Bless the Sandinistas”Follow Ben on TwitterFollow Dan on TwitterOther Episodes with Dan Kovalik This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.historicly.net/subscribe

Entering the Dragon of Bruce Lee with Carl Zha

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.historicly.netToday, we have the lovely Carl Zha join us again to tell us about the history of Bruce Lee, whose family story is the story of Hong Kong itself! Show Notes:3:17 - The Coolie Trade - “Coolie” is a transliteration from a Chinese (and Indian) word. Coolie, in Chinese, means “bitter labor.” In the mid-to-late 1800s the slave trade was abolished in many So…

Blindingly Unjust with Christopher Dilworth - Part 2

On Part 2 of Blindingly Unjust, we look at the way the law, public relations, the media interact with each other in order to manufacture consent. We start by examining the kid-gloves in which Sam-Bankman Fried is treated with and then we move on to examine the larger power structures that allows impunity for some and imprisonment for others. Show Notes0:50 - Sam Bankman-Fried Scandal1:30 - Elizabeth Holmes2:00 - Sam Bankman-Fried admits to running a Ponzi Scheme10:36 - Coordinated Pump and Dump12:42 - FTX’s backdoor: The exchange is supposed to be a safe that cannot cracked, but FTX figured out how to “crack” the safe. 14:19 - FTX being embedded with politicians and appearing with Zelensky15:13 - Old lady being in jail over Christmas 16:38 - Prosecutorial power 17:30 - Arrested over “a 1000-yard stare”: Racial discrimination where a black person was sitting outside. 19:15 - Prosecutor’s office and Police are extremely comingled which is why we cannot get a single conviction20:50 - The limits of Law - it is an expression of societal power.23:12 - Bush Vs Gore and Legal fiction25:42 - The same power circle within the USA27:38 - China’s meritocracy30:22 - The way China works vs the Way the USA works 32:50 - Who owns BMW36:15 - Media driven blood-lust38:15 - Korean War Posters43:17 - Who the us fights a war with..Christopher Dilworth can be found on Twitter This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.historicly.net/subscribe