The Ruthless Truth

Last Saturday we saw a historic display of resistance from the Palestinian people. We saw Gazans break out of their open air prison and strike a blow against their oppressors. To discuss this, give context, and speak about the role of progressives and socialists here in the US, we have Ali Abdel-Qader from the Party for Socialism and Liberation to talk us through this and speak on a solidarity ral...

UPS drivers and warehouse workers are prepared to go on strike at the end of this month if UPS does not accept their demands in their contract negotiation. This nationwide strike would be historic as UPS transports about 4% of US GDP daily and pulls in $300M every month. We are very excited to be joined by local UPS driver and Teamsters steward Anthony Cantu to discuss why the Teamsters are prepar...

(Originally aired June 22 2023) Starbucks workers at the Honore and University location in Sarasota have announced their intention to have a union vote early next month! We interviewed two partners at the location who have been playing leading roles in the unionization effort. They spoke on the issues that the workers there have been facing, the retaliation that they've been facing from Starbucks,...

Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed 6 right-wing members to the New College Board of Trustees, paving the way to majority control of the board.  Among the appointees is reactionary homophobe and racist Chris Rufo, who is well known for leading the attack on "CRT" and will attack any program at NCF that sheds light on the injustices of the US and the patriarchal, racist, imperial, and capitalist system he...

[This episode originally aired on August 17th.] Tampa and St. Petersburg have both recently struck down attempts to get rent control on the ballot after declaring states of emergency on housing. Over the last two years, and especially here in Florida, the working class has been suffering through a housing crisis, with incomes unstable and housing prices rising dramatically, more and more working c...

We are excited to be joined by the Legal Chair of the Tampa Chapter of the ACLU, James Shaw. James helped to uncover the racist "Crime Free Multi Housing"program run by the Tampa Police Department that encouraged and may have coerced landlords into evicting families where one of the residents committed a crime, even one as minor as pan-handling or a crime of poverty. This program is also known as...

[This episode was originally released on the radio on July 20th.] We're joined once again by community activist Jack Wallace to speak on the recent pulled opinion piece from the Herald Tribune written by the wife of a Proud Boy in defense of the Proud Boys, a fascist and white supremacist organization. We also discuss the recent Moms For Liberty event in Tampa, and how Jack helped organize a count...

[This episode was released on July 6th on the radio and was not uploaded as a podcast. We are now releasing it and remind our listeners that this took place in the throes of the massive protests across the country in reaction to the overturning of Roe v Wade.] Karla Correa and Jack Wallace, both community organizers of large reproductive protests, speak on the current crisis exposing the flaws of...

We begin this episode with an important discussion about the origins of Juneteenth and local events celebrating this important holiday. The show continues with important discussion about the ongoing housing struggles and local solutions being adapted by Tampa and Pinellas County which can be duplicated in the Sarasota/Manatee area.

We have been hearing a lot about inflation, and we are certainly feeling it when we go to the grocery store, when we pay our rent, and definitely when we get gas. The price of everything is going up. The mainstream media, which is controlled by corporations, likes to frame inflation as something that just happens. But the truth is that it doesn't "just happen," it is a deliberate choice of profite...

As we all know, there has been a wave of mass shootings recently across the country, with the Uvalde elementary school shooting being the largest one in recent news. What is so uniquely alienating about our country that makes incidents like these happen do often? Our government has completely failed the people, and more money for police has proven to be a wasted measure as they hide when children...

It's official. The Supreme Court is planning on repealing Roe v Wade and opening the door for states to ban abortion entirely. This is set to impact millions of working class women and people across the country, and calls into question the safety of other rights that have been fought for like gay marriage. We're joined by local community activists Luna Brazell, Peyton Hoey, and Karla Correa to tal...

We're very happy to be joined by national ANSWER coalition member Juliana Musheyev to take on local issues here in Sarasota. On this episode, we discuss the string of anti semitic flyers found in Sarasota and the struggle against antisemitism, while also clarifying that antizionism and antisemitism are not equivalent. We also discuss the recent police killing of a man during an eviction in Sarasot...

It's been over a month since Russia began its military operation, or invasion, of Ukraine. The destruction, loss of human life, and devastation is heart wrenching. We here on this program are strongly against war, and while we condemn Russia's invasion, we also condemn our own government and its role in causing this war, which we are going to discuss further in this episode. It's been over a month...

In previous episodes of the Ruthless Truth, we've talked about some of the reactionary bills that the Republican Party here in Florida have been trying to pass into law. Now Ron Desantis and the Florida Republicans have been pushing another large group of reactionary bills, including the anti-abortion bill we covered last month, that we want to talk about here today. Today we're going to lay out w...

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought the world to the brink of all out war, with devastating consequences if NATO were to intervene. How did we get here? Why did Russia invade Ukraine? What was the role of the American empire in the 2014 coup in Ukraine and the ensuing 8 year civil war? How could this war have been avoided? What should anti-imperialists be demanding from our government? We...

Reproductive rights is healthcare, and healthcare is a human right. So reproductive rights are human rights! And right now, across the United States and right here in Florida, reproductive rights are under attack! In this episode, we go over the history of Roe v Wade and the Struggle for Reproductive rights, how reactionary forces are attacking those rights across the US, and how activists and wor...

Chris Tonsel, a 17 year old Chris Tonsel was shot in the stomach by SPPD officer Leighton Williams unjustly, is stuck in jail unable to pay bail while fighting off bogus charges! To support him as well as celebrate Black History month, we'll be giving away 10 black Liberation books to the first 10 listeners who donate to Chris's Bail Fund! For more info, visit our Facebook at https://facebook.com/...

It has been a year of the Ruthless Truth, and we're very excited to look back on the many topics that we have discussed with you on the show over the past year, and review the most important struggles and movements we've been a part of locally over the last year as well. If you haven't listened to our Socialism 101 series, do yourself a favor and go listen to that to celebrate our one year anniver...

The Omicron variant is spreading like wildfire across the world, with over a million new cases per day in the US, despite testing being hard to come by. Workers are being forced to go in sick as hospitals are overrun, all while Biden declares that there is "no federal solution" as profits are put over people once again. How did we get here? Why has the U.S. abandoned controlling the spread of the...

During our last episode,  we started to talk about the ways that we can transform our society out of capitalism and into socialism, and we talked specifically about reformism and why reform alone cannot save us. During today's episode we will define and discuss revolution, we will explore what revolutionaries mean when they say reform or revolution, exactly what is revolution. During our last epis...

Througout our Socialism 101 series, we've talked about what capitalism is and why it must go, how capitalism needs imperialism, the role of the state in maintaining the rule of capitalists, and what socialism is. If you're still with us at this point, I imagine you also agree that we need a new system, and I hope you agree that that system is socialism, a truly democratic government and economic s...

As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgivings, we should keep in mind that our Indigenous brothers and sisters will be mourning the death and exploitation of their ancestors. We will discuss what is known to Indigenous people as the National Day of mourning and Indigenous resistance.  

We're happy to return to our Socialism 101 series with a topic we've been building up to throughout the series, what is socialism? In the context of the century long red scare that demonized and obfuscated it, and now it's rising popularity of socialism in the US, especially among people of color and younger people, it is especially important to clearly define socialism. Join us as we define socia...

With chronic shortage of affordable homes, U.S home prices have climbed at a record pace during the pandemic: a shrinking housing inventory and a dramatically risen rental cost in Florida and all over the nation have left working families desperate and scrambling to find affordable housing. In the midst of all of this, millions of Americans are at risk of being evicted from their homes, and Tampa...