Stories of Resistance

Today, March 31, is Cesar Chavez Day. The day, celebrating the birth and life of the great U.S. farmworker labor leader. In 1962, Cesar Chavez co-founded the United Farm Workers, alongside Dolores Huerta.  The organization would go on to wage strikes and boycotts, winning tremendous victories for workers picking the crops in the fields of California and elsewhere in the United States. In 1969, he...

On March 8, 2025, ICE agents detained, without a warrant, Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil at his home in New York City. Khalil is a U.S. resident, but Trump officials said they’d stripped him of his green card. His crime? Standing up and speaking out against the U.S.-backed Israeli attack on Palestine. As a graduate student at Columbia University last year, he helped to lead protests against I...

In late 2023, Panamanians shut down their country for months to demand the closure of a Canadian copper mine. And they won. It was not just a protest against a foreign company. It was about the country’s sovereignty after a century of US occupation and invasions.  The US occupation of Panama is not ancient history, here. It is still in the forefront of everyone’s mind. So are the decades of blood,...

Today, March 24, is the anniversary of the 1976 coup that led to the brutal Argentine dictatorship. In Argentina, it’s known as the National Day for Memory and Truth and Justice. It honors the victims of the military regime. 30,000 people were disappeared under the 7-year-long military regime. Each year, big marches and demonstrations are held in Buenos Aires to mark the date. The Mothers of the P...

Monsignor Óscar Romero was the archbishop of San Salvador. They called him la voz de la sin voz, The voice of the voiceless. He spoke out against the government repression, violence and killings in the late 1970s El Salvador. It cost him his life. He was killed on March 24, 1980, while at the altar while delivering mass. In 2018, Pope Francis declared him a saint. His legacy lives on. This is the...

In the 1840s, hundreds of Irish soldiers joined the Saint Patrick’s Battalion to help defend Mexico against the invading US army. They fought under Irish Captain John Riley and they marched under the green flag of Saint Patrick, with the harp and the shamrock and the Irish words Erin Go Bragh embroidered across it. “Ireland forever.” Today, the Saint Patrick's Battalion is still remembered in Mexi...

Chile’s largest carnival is an act of resistance. A celebration of multicultural identity and Indigenous roots in a land where soldiers forced assimilation with the barrel of a gun. In this eighth episode of Stories of Resistance, we go to Northern Chile, to the streets of the Arica carnival celebrating Aymara, Quechua, and African culture. Stories of Resistance is a new project, co-produced by  T...

The average transgender man or woman in Uruguay lives to just 35 years of age. They are often ridiculed and rejected. Forced from school at far too young an age. Forced into prostitution and other dangerous jobs. But one woman has been standing up. Collette Spinetti Nuñez helped to push the passage of Latin America’s first trans law in 2018. This week, she became the first trans woman, ever, to ho...

In 2019 Venezuela, U.S. sanctions are wreaking havoc. Broken cars sit along roadsides, because there are no parts to fix them. Water systems are failing, because replacement parts can’t be purchased from abroad. Health supplies are hard to find. In particular, medicine. But neighbors in one Caracas commune are standing up for each other. They’ve created a community pharmacy. They get the medicine...

In the Caribbean jungles of Quintana Roo, two Mayan brothers lived. They were fierce warriors. And they are still defending their land, in the forest of present-day Mexico. This is the fifth episode of Stories of Resistance. Stories of Resistance is a new project, co-produced by  The Real News  and  Global Exchange . Each week, we’ll bring you stories of resistance like this. Inspiration for dark...

In the early days of COVID, when the disease spreads like wildfire, and ICU units overflow capacity, there are few places as bad as Brazil. But Brazilian Indigenous communities take action. They set up roadblocks in the entrances into their territories. They block unwanted visitors, test temperatures, and distribute masks. They also turn to their ancestral medicine—their native plants, and share t...

They were building not just any basement. It was to house printing machines that would make books and leaflets. Flyers and pamphlets. Materials for the cause. And not just any printing press. The largest clandestine printing press in the country of Argentina—the social media of the 1970s. This is the third episode of Stories of Resistance.  Stories of Resistance is a new project, co-produced by Th...

It was a cold day in Washington when Trump came to town. But the people would not stay silent. Despite the cold, thousands marched. And though you won’t hear about this in the inaugural address or on the nightly news, in neighborhoods across the United States, people are organizing. They have been for months. This is the second episode of Stories of Resistance.  Stories of Resistance is a new proj...

Hope does not die. But it can fade until it's transformed and reborn. In the wake of Chile’s 1973 coup, Chilean folk musician Victor Jara was detained with thousands of others. But amid the suffering and chaos, Victor Jara found a paper and pencil. He wrote his last poem just hours before he was killed. It continues to inspire until today. This is the first episode of Stories of Resistance.  Stori...

Stories of Resistance is a new podcast featuring vignettes pulled from journalist Michael Fox 's 20 years of interviews, research, and reporting from across the Americas. Each week, we’ll bring you stories of resistance. Inspiration for dark times. Each episode is an example of investigative journalism, prose, poetry, historical memory, reflection on struggle—and, above all, story. Stories that re...