By Any Means Necessary Discussion of post-Covid Recovery Prospects (5/8/2020)

From Ahmaud Arbery to Amazon, Imperialism Is Showing Its True Colors

In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Atlanta-based community organizer and activist Monica Johnson to talk about the news that Georgia police have finally charged the men involved in the videotaped killing 26-year-old Ahmaud Arbery, how various conflicts of interest between the accused killers and local law enforcement appear to have obstructed the investigation thus far, and why the case's handling seems to only confirm long-term doubts about the inability of Black families to get justice from the state.

In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Yasemin Zahra, Chairwoman of US Labor Against the War, to talk about the renewed wave of public pressure facing shipping giant Amazon after it fired a number of workers seemingly in retaliation for union activity, why organizing under such conditions presents a serious challenge, and how Trump's executive order mandating the continued operation of meat and poultry-packing plants has given way to workplace conditions straight out of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle."

In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Dr. Edward Onaci, author and Associate Professor of History and African American & Africana Studies at Ursinus College, to talk about his new book, "Free the Land: The Republic of New Afrika and the Pursuit of a Black Nation-State," how name choice and self-identification came to be seen as key elements of the fight for self-determination, and why so many contemporary liberation struggles—from efforts to secure reparations for Black communities to the push to abolish prisons—have their roots in the struggle to achieve a Black homeland in North America.

Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Jim Kavanagh, a political analyst and contributor to Counterpunch and ThePolemicist.net, to talk about why so many continue to underestimate the severity of the crisis even as we approach unemployment levels not seen since the Great Depression, the links between settler-colonialism, imperialism, and the mentality of those who murdered Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, and why the corporate-owned media's grip on public opinion must be broken for the left to have any chance of influencing public policy.

[My segment begins at 57:45] 
Listen to "From Ahmaud Arbery to Amazon, Imperialism Is Showing Its True Colors" on Spreaker.

“By Any Means Necessary” on Radio Sputnik is hosted by Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman and aims to connect the political, social and economic movements shaping the world around us. With a sensibility informed by movements from Black Power to #BlackLivesMatter with a dash of Occupy, the show elevates the people and narratives that (while often ignored) are driving some of the most important changes in the world.