AER 133: Tankie Group Therapy #5 Gaza War resumes after pause

Nora, Matteo, Rania, and Alex are gathered to talk about what we’re seeing and trying to make sense of on Israel’s War on Gaza after 8 weeks, a couple of days after the end of the “humanitarian pause”. We open with a discussion of the five premature babies left to die in Al-Nasr hospital when doctors and parents were forced out of the hospital at gunpoint by the Israeli military. We conclude with a discussion of what wars of resistance and guerrilla wars have looked like in history.

AER 132: The Gaza War as settler-Indigenous warfare & as people’s warfare – CAUKUSZIANS reunite

The CAUKUSZIANS unite once again, this time to look at the Gaza war through a couple of different lenses: Arama through the lens of settler-Indigenous warfare in the wars fought by the Maori to defend their land from Anglo settlers, and Carl through the lens of protracted people’s war and the Chinese experience of fighting the Japanese occupation.

AER 131: Tankie Group Therapy #4: Gaza War Week 6

The alliance between the East is a Podcast, the Brief, and the Anti-Empire Project continues as we discuss the Gaza War six weeks in (since October 7 2023). Structured as group therapy (the fourth in the series) we cover some of the news, the dynamic of aggression and resistance, military analysis of guerrilla war, the painful search for historical analogies to help us understand the moment, and more.

Anti Empire Radio 130: Palestine Action and the focus on Elbit Systems

A discussion with Calla and Fergie from Palestine Action US about the theory of direct action and how activists have tried stop the flow of Western weapons that are being deployed against Palestinians in Gaza, instead of, e.g., moral suasion on Western politicians. The Palestine Action UK precedent and the reason for Palestine Action’s focus on Elbit Systems, the flagship corporation of Israel’s military industrial complex.

AER 128: CAUKUZians speak out!

Arama Rata, independent Maori researcher, and Carl Zha of Silk & Steel podcast are both back! Carl reports on his lived experience as a survivor of the Prigozhin coup in Moscow; Arama outlines the anti-AUKUS speaking tour she is on with other journalists and activists; I continue my rant about the sheer plagiarism of Canada’s China panic using David Brophy’s book about Australia’s China panic. We conclude with the possibility of a regular meeting of CAUKUSZians (Canada + AUKUS + new Zealand)

AER 127: Has Imran Khan lost the battle with Pakistan’s Army?

On May 9 2023 ousted president Imran Khan was detained by the Pakistan army, who were forced immediately to release him. But in the month since, the crackdown on protesters (and their families) has been so widespread, reaching 10,000 arrests, that Imran Khan’s movement appears exhausted. The repression may have worked, but how long can the army rule like this? Waqas Ahmed returns for an update on Pakistan.

AER 126: Multipolarity? Schmultipolarity! A debate with Sam Gindin

Sam Gindin and Justin Podur, moderated with fairness and balance by Nora Barrows-Friedman, debate the proposition that the world is becoming multipolar as US hegemony declines. We clash over capitalism, colonialism, and the history of the past few centuries; as well as over the meaning of the Russia/Ukraine war and the relative power of Chinese billionaires. If you listen through to the end, leave a review on the podcast app saying who won.

AER 125: Maori Sovereignty or Death!

The New Zealand Parliament Protest inspired by Canada’s Trucker Convoy and with similarly hard-to-read politics; the continuing urgency of Maori sovereignty; An in-depth discussion of Donna Awatere’s extraordinary 1984 text, Maori Sovereignty; the connection between Chile and New Zealand; and a history of the Maori struggle since colonialism. With Simon Barber, Gabriella Brayne, and Arama Rata.

AER 124: China’s use of telepathy and WeChat to control Canadian elections, with Carl Zha

Carl Zha is back and I try to explain to him the hysteria of the accusations by the CSIS leaker in Canada of Chinese electoral interference. He can’t find a word of it in Chinese media which leads to the horrible possibility that Canada doesn’t matter very much to China. I try to explain to him what has been going on in the Canadian media and he reminds us that Australia has been concocting the same story – anonymous intelligence sources using the media to create a scandal around supposed Chinese electoral interference – since 2017. It’s hard to take seriously, so we don’t.