The Real News Podcast

A decade ago, the so-called "Pink Tide" of leftist governments in Latin America seemed to be heading towards a tragic end. However, events in the past few years have raised questions about whether a new Pink Tide has emerged. The defeat of the coup government in Bolivia, the election of Xiomara Castro in Honduras, the rise of Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico, the historic election of Gustavo...

The dramatic fall of Silicon Valley Bank in the span of a single week has sent reverberations throughout the financial system and growing fears of bank failures. SVB over-invested in mortgage loans and treasury bonds to deal with a glut of capital brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, assuming these assets were secure as long as interest rates stayed low. In the past year, interest rates began to r...

Eddie Conway, former Baltimore Black Panther, 44-year political prisoner, and host of Rattling the Bars passed away on Feb. 13, 2023. Eddie's family and coworkers reflect on his life and example. Production: Cameron Granadino To read the transcript, click: https://therealnews.com/a-tribute-to-the-revolutionary-life-of-marshall-eddie-conway Help us continue producing Rattling the Bars by following...

Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/weymouth-police-demanded-to-see-his-id-his-refusal-led-to-assault-charges Across the US, people who attempt to resist the seemingly limitless power of the police often find themselves ensnared in a legal system that ostensibly exists for their protection. When a local police officer approached Paul Brophy of Weymouth, Massachusetts, and...

Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/chicago-mayoral-candidate-brandon-johnsons-plan-to-reduce-violence-and-rein-in-the-police-at-the-same-time With Lori Lightfoot ousted, Chicago's mayor seat is up for grabs in a Democratic Party runoff election between Brandon Johnson and police union-backed candidate Paul Vallas. A former public school teacher backed by a wide grassroots...

Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/wendy-brown-neoliberalisms-anti-democratic-stealth-revolution Half a century of neoliberalism has transformed the politics of the globe. The supremacy of free market ideology has stripped away the commons and reduced most states to their purely military and repressive functions. In this urgent discussion on the relationship between neoli...

In October of last year, over 100 workers represented by five labor unions—including production, distribution, advertising, and accounts receivable staff—walked off the job on an unfair labor practice strike at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The strike began after the newspaper's management, Block Communications, which is owned by the Block family, cut off health insurance for employees on Oct. 1. A...

Early in 1966, the people of Lowndes County, Alabama formed an all-Black, independent political organization called the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO). Organized with the support of activists from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the LCFO fought the disenfranchisement of Black voters against the palpable threat of white violence. The LCFO was a crucial chapter in t...

Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/cops-illegally-raided-his-house-this-is-what-happened-when-he-fought-back On Sept. 30, 2020, a SWAT team burst into the Henderson County, Indiana, home of Chris Reiter under a falsely obtained warrant. Reiter's girlfriend, Tiffany Napier, was severely injured as police ransacked the house, ultimately finding nothing before departing with...

The new one-woman play 'The Road to Damascus' reinterprets the biblical story of Saul and the tale of Little Red Riding Hood as an allegory for white complicity in the US prison system and the possibility of redemption through anti-racism. Creator and performer Kathy Randels joins Rattling the Bars to discuss her new work. Studio/Post-Production: Cameron Granadino Click here to read the transcript...

As more states and districts around the country push for legalization, the cannabis industry has exploded in recent years, with researchers estimating that the industry could generate over $70 billion in sales by 2030. While investors and business owners have dollar signs in their eyes, though, it is the everyday employees, from growers and packers to bud tenders, who are making the industry run....

Read the transcript of this podcast and see the full show notes here: https://therealnews.com/ The historic union election victory at the JFK8 Amazon warehouse on Staten Island sent shockwaves throughout the US and beyond, but New York is not the only place Amazon workers are organizing. In Moreno Valley, California, workers at the ONT8 warehouse have been doing the painstaking work of organizing...

Dan Berger's book, Stayed on Freedom: the Long History of Black Power Through One Family's Journey , tells the story about the fight against racism in all its blatant and hideous forms. It's about spiritual quests, and the work of real organizing and what can be created through it. It's a story of love, of political struggle in some of the darkest, most terrifying corners of the civil rights movem...

Incarcerated people across the US could find their commissary funds depleted by a new proposed policy from the Bureau of Prisons to automatically deduct three quarters of all funds prisoners receive from loved ones on the outside. If you'd like to help stop this new proposal from the BOP, click here for instructions on how to submit a public comment—Monday, March 13 is the last day to act. Tim Cur...

Read the transcript of this podcast and read the show notes: We hosted another Working People live show on Feb. 22 in New York City, in collaboration with the Action Builder / Action Network team and The People's Forum . In this panel discussion, introduced by Amazon Labor Union president Chris Smalls , Max speaks with worker-organizers from around the country about why they and their coworkers de...

The censorship and purging of critics of Zionism is a longstanding phenomenon in US academia. And a recent incident with Ken Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, shows even the mildest criticism of Israel can have professional repercussions. Ken Roth joins The Marc Steiner Show to discuss his ordeal with the Harvard Kennedy School. Help us continue producing The Marc Steiner Show...

Tax breaks such as TIFs, PILOTS, Brownfields Credits, Enterprise Zone Tax credits are used by corporate developers across the country to defer millions worth of property taxes for decades while working class property owners pay the full tax rate. TRNN reporters Taya Graham, Stephen Janis, and longtime Baltimore reporter Jayne Miller take a deep dive into this wealth creation mechanism that remains...

Read the transcript of this podcast and read the show notes: https://therealnews.com/rail-workers-of-the-world-unite From unions in the United States fighting to save our supply chain from the destruction wrought by corporate tycoons, Wall Street vampires, and bought-off politicians, to the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers (RMT) leading the fight against austerity politics a...

From 1910-1920, armed peasants and workers reshaped Mexico in a democratic and agrarian revolution. The Mexican Revolution rippled throughout the world, influencing radical politics from Chicago to Moscow. Despite its potent effect on contemporary revolutionaries, the Mexican Revolution's legacy has gone somewhat unrecognized today, particularly within the US. Author Christina Heatherton joins The...

The growth of the US prison population under a system of mass incarceration has now gone on for 50 years, according to The Sentencing Project . While awareness and political discourse about US prison expansion has grown in the last decade, we are still far from dismantling this violent and inhumane system of captivity. Nicole Porter from The Sentencing Project joins Rattling the Bars to explain he...

Texas cop watcher Manuel Mata has been jailed again after he confronted a Ft. Worth officer on sidewalk while he was making arrest. The charges of interfering with public duties Mata is facing raise serious questions about the right to film police, and if law enforcement is ratcheting up the pressure on 1st amendment activists. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/t...

Read the transcript of this podcast and read the show notes: Editor’s note: Since this episode was recorded, news broke on Feb. 16 that a judge dismissed Kroger’s motion to have the Seyfried’s lawsuit against the company thrown out. The family’s lawsuit against the company will be allowed to proceed. Content warning: This episode contains discussion of the topic of suicide. We kick off Season Six...

Feb. 21, 2023, marks the 58th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X. We honor his life and legacy by recalling his revolutionary message to the downtrodden peoples of the world and committing to carrying on his fight for liberation. In this special commemorative episode of Rattling the Bars, Mansa Musa speaks with freedom fighters Paulette Dauteuil and Ashanti Alston about how Malcolm X sh...

Read the transcript of this podcast and read the show notes: https://therealnews.com/for-the-texas-environmental-workers-union-the-fight-is-against-fossil-fuels-and-the-bosses After five months of the Texas Campaign for the Environment (TCE) not recognizing their union, members of the Texas Environmental Workers Union unanimously agreed to a one-day strike, which took place on February 6, 2023. Wo...

Read the transcript of this podcast and read the show notes: https://therealnews.com/east-palestine-ohio-a-hell-of-wall-streets-making It’s been nearly two weeks since the catastrophic derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in Northeast Ohio thrust the residents of East Palestine and the surrounding area into a non-stop waking nightmare. It will take weeks, months, if not years to appraise the dam...