Upstream

This is a free preview of the episode "The Imperial Boomerang w/ Julian Go." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast [https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast] As a Patreon subscriber you will have access to bi-weekly episodes ranging from conversations to readings and more. Signing up for Patreon is a great way to make Upstream a weekly show, and it will also give you access to our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes along with stickers and bumper stickers at certain subscription tiers. You’ll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us to keep this project going. The imperial boomerang, colonial feedback, fascism returning home. These are all phrases that convey the same basic idea—that the mechanisms of repression that originate in the colonies will, inevitably, return back home to the core where they will be utilized against not only marginalized populations here, but against the entire population as a whole. The boomerang exists in many different forms, but the form that we’ll be focusing on today is the form of police militarization. And we’ve brought on a terrific guest to walk us through how it all works. Julian Go [https://x.com/jgo34] is Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago and author of the book Policing Empires: Militarization, Race, and the Imperial Boomerang in Britain and the US, published by Oxford University Press. In this conversation, we explore the history of civil police forces starting with the Metropolitan Police Force of London back in the early 19th century. We explore the colonial roots of this historic force and how its architects were inspired by military tactics, tools, and technologies from England’s colonies in Ireland and elsewhere. We explore how racialized subjects were criminalized at home and treated as colonized subjects were abroad, how different waves of police militarization in the US mirrored various colonial wars and occupations through the past few centuries, and how the most recent wave of militarization is just one flow of a continuously rising tide of colonial repression boomeranging back home, the only differences being the subjects targeted and the specific tactics and tools utilized to shut down dissent and criminalize a racialized subproletariat that capitalism both relies on and simultaneously disdains. Further resources: * Policing Empires: Militarization, Race, and the Imperial Boomerang in Britain and the US, by Julian Go [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/policing-empires-9780197621660?cc=us&lang=en&] * Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/90837/say-nothing-by-patrick-radden-keefe/] * #CareNotCops [https://www.uchicagounited.org/carenotcops] Related episodes: * Abolish the Police (Documentary) [https://www.upstreampodcast.org/abolishthepolice] * The End of Policing with Alex Vitale [https://feeds.libsyn.com/435210/website/alex-vitale-the-end-of-policing-in-conversation] * Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism w/ Breht O'Shea and Alyson Escalante [https://sites.libsyn.com/435210/imperialism-the-highest-stage-of-capitalism-w-breht-oshea-and-alyson-escalante?_gl=1*tm3uo7*_gcl_au*MTM5MzM3OTcxOC4xNzQ1ODU5ODE0*_ga*MTUxMTQyODI4My4xNjUzNTE3MDAz*_ga_6MD8SMG8NT*czE3NDY0ODkyOTgkbzE1ODAkZzEkdDE3NDY0ODkzMDgkajUwJGwwJGgw] * Our ongoing series on Palestine [https://sites.libsyn.com/435210/category/Palestine?_gl=1*1koxj97*_gcl_au*MTM5MzM3OTcxOC4xNzQ1ODU5ODE0*_ga*MTUxMTQyODI4My4xNjUzNTE3MDAz*_ga_6MD8SMG8NT*czE3NDY0ODkyOTgkbzE1ODAkZzEkdDE3NDY0ODkzNDYkajEyJGwwJGgw] * Black Scare / Red Scare with Charisse Burden-Stelly [https://sites.libsyn.com/435210/black-scare-red-scare-with-charisse-burden-stelly] * Stop Cop City with Keyanna Jones and Matthew Johnson [https://sites.libsyn.com/435210/stop-copy-city-with-keyanna-jones-and-matthew-johnson-in-conversation] Artwork: Berwyn Mure [https://bmure.com/] Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/upstreampodcast [https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast] or please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support [https://www.upstreampodcast.org/support] If your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming documentaries, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at  upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship [https://gate.sc?url=http%3A%2F%2Fupstreampodcast.org%2Fsponsorship&token=fb395-1-1663029755269] For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org [https://gate.sc?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.upstreampodcast.org&token=efc9f5-1-1663029755269] and follow us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/upstreampodcast/] and Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/upstreampodcast.bsky.social]. You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upstream/id1082594532] Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/4KwWOMp24P9cVVR6d0i7Zq?si=ec90ca944bcb43cf&nd=1], or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

Chris Smalls had no idea the direction his life would take when he was discharged in 2020 for organizing a walk out in protest against Amazon’s safety protocols during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. He had no idea he was about to embark on one of the most challenging David and Goliath unionization efforts of our century.  In this episode, we speak with Chris Smalls [https://x.com/Shut_downAmazon], the founder and a former president of the Amazon Labor Union [https://www.amazonlaborunion.org/], or ALU, as well as Mars Verrone [https://www.instagram.com/varsmerrone/?hl=en], a filmmaker, musician, and educator from Los Angeles who recently produced the documentary film, Union [https://www.unionthefilm.com/], following Chris and the other organizers in their fight for better working conditions at Amazon. We hear the origin story of the Amazon Labor Union, learn about the internal and external challenges faced by Amazon labor organizers, and explore a broader view of the union movement and its crucial role in advocating for systemic change. Chris and Mars also talk about the importance of unions in today’s political landscape—especially under the Trump Administration—and the significance of this year's May Day and its resonance for workers around the world fighting for justice, dignity, and a post-capitalist future.  This episode was sponsored by EcoGather, an experimental educational project focused on heterodox economics, collective action, and belonging in an enlivened world. As EcoGather's active phase comes to a close its self-paced online courses are being made freely available at www.ecogather.ing and its vibrant community is reconvening in a new organization called otherWise. Find out more at www.otherwise.one. Further Resources * Union: A Documentary Film [https://www.unionthefilm.com/] * Request a Screening  [https://bit.ly/4hRoNCs] * Follow Union on social media @unionthefilm * Amazon Labor Union [https://www.amazonlaborunion.org/] * Donate to Amazon Labor Union [ttps://secure.actblue.com/donate/amazon-labor-union-2] * Congress of Essential Workers [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Essential_Workers] * DegrowNYC [https://x.com/degrownyc?lang=en] * Film Workers for Palestine [https://filmworkersforpalestine.org/] Related Episodes: * International Workers' Day w/ John from Working Class History [https://www.patreon.com/posts/102972688/edit] * Technofeudalism w/ Yanis Varoufakis [https://sites.libsyn.com/435210/technofeudalism-w-yanis-varoufakis] * Prefigurative Politics and Workplace Democracy w/ Saio Gradin and Nicole Wires [https://sites.libsyn.com/435210/prefigurative-politics-and-worker-self-direction-w-saio-gradin-and-nicole-wires] * Our ongoing From the Frontline [https://sites.libsyn.com/435210/category/From+the+Frontlines] series * International Workers' Day w/ John from Working Class History [https://www.patreon.com/posts/102972688/edit] Intermission music: "You Are Not a Number" Original score for Union by Robert Aiki and Aubrey Lowe Upstream is a labor of love—we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/upstreampodcast [https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast] or please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support [https://www.upstreampodcast.org/support] If your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming documentaries, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at  upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship [https://gate.sc?url=http%3A%2F%2Fupstreampodcast.org%2Fsponsorship&token=fb395-1-1663029755269] For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org [https://gate.sc?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.upstreampodcast.org&token=efc9f5-1-1663029755269] and follow us on Twitter [https://twitter.com/upstreamPodcast], Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/upstreampodcast/], Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/UpstreamPodcast], and Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/upstreampodcast.bsky.social]. You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upstream/id1082594532] Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/4KwWOMp24P9cVVR6d0i7Zq?si=ec90ca944bcb43cf&nd=1], or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

This is a free preview of the episode " China Pt. 5: A Socialist Approach to Ecological Development w/ Tings Chak". You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast [https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast] As a Patreon subscriber you will have access to bi-weekly episodes ranging from conversations to readings and more. Signing up for Patreon is a great way to make Upstream a weekly show, and it will also give you access to our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes along with stickers and bumper stickers at certain subscription tiers. You’ll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us to keep this project going. One of the primary challenges facing Global South countries in the 21st century is the question of sustainable and just development—how do you raise living standards and eliminate poverty, what some refer to as the process of industrialization, without going down the same ecologically destructive and often deadly path that Western capitalist countries went down—the path of slavery, genocide, colonization, and now, a form of neocolonialism that is essentially colonialism in all but name. How can you compete in a global capitalist economy against countries that have no qualms about ethnically cleansing an entire people just so that they can build a “riviera of the Middle East”? Well, this is a massive question that cannot be answered in a single episode, but we can begin to chip away at it and uncover some lessons and explore some evidence-based analyses that can help us to at least understand the alternative approaches that at least some Global South countries are experimenting with—because, despite what the monsters in power want us to think—there are alternatives to capitalism.   In this conversation, we’ve brought on Tings Chak [https://x.com/t_ings] to talk about China’s attempts to balance ecological and human development through the lens of a specific environmental project. Tings Chak is the Art Director and Asia Coordinator at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research [https://thetricontinental.org/] and Editor of Wenhua Zongheng [https://thetricontinental.org/wenhua-zongheng/]. She is the co-author of the recent piece “Reviving Erhai Lake: A Socialist Approach to Balancing Human and Ecological Development [https://thetricontinental.org/wenhua-zongheng-2024-2-reviving-erhai-lake/]” published in Tricontinental. In this conversation, we talk about Erhai Lake—which is the site of a restoration and cleanup project that China has been working on for quite some time now. A decade ago, Erhai Lake was a microcosm of how China’s rapid economic development led to ecological devastation. Today, it’s an example of quite the opposite—how China aims to move towards its own stated goal of creating an ecological civilization that represents a harmonious balance between ecological and human development.  How and why did the Communist Party of China initiate a massive poverty reduction and ecological restoration project across the country, and how does Erhai Lake fit into it? What can be learned from this project by other Global South countries looking for alternatives to the capitalist model of development? And why should we be exploring these questions in the first place? This is just some of what we cover in this conversation between Robert and Tings Chak. Artwork: Tricontinental Further resources: * Reviving Erhai Lake: A Socialist Approach to Balancing Human and Ecological Development, by Xiong Jie and Tings Chak [https://thetricontinental.org/wenhua-zongheng-2024-2-reviving-erhai-lake/]  * Wenhua Zongheng [https://thetricontinental.org/wenhua-zongheng/] * China and CoronaShock [https://thetricontinental.org/studies-2-coronavirus/] * Serve the People: The Eradication of Extreme Poverty in China [https://thetricontinental.org/studies-1-socialist-construction/]  * Chinese-Style Modernization: Revolution and the Worker-Peasant Alliance, by Lu Xinyu [https://monthlyreview.org/2025/02/01/chinese-style-modernization-revolution-and-the-worker-peasant-alliance/] * Without Culture, Freedom Is Impossible: The Thirty-Eighth Newsletter (2022) [https://thetricontinental.org/newsletterissue/culture-cuba-decolonisation/] * Culture as a Weapon of Struggle: The Medu Art Ensemble and Southern African Liberation [https://thetricontinental.org/dossier-71-medu-art-ensemble/] Related episodes: * (Chinese) Socialism vs (U.S.) Capitalism [https://www.patreon.com/posts/chinese-vs-u-s-121133610] * Listen to our ongoing series on China [https://sites.libsyn.com/435210/category/China] Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/upstreampodcast [https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast] or please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support [https://www.upstreampodcast.org/support] If your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming documentaries, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at  upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship [https://gate.sc?url=http%3A%2F%2Fupstreampodcast.org%2Fsponsorship&token=fb395-1-1663029755269] For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org [https://gate.sc?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.upstreampodcast.org&token=efc9f5-1-1663029755269] and follow us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/upstreampodcast/] and Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/upstreampodcast.bsky.social]. You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upstream/id1082594532] Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/4KwWOMp24P9cVVR6d0i7Zq?si=ec90ca944bcb43cf&nd=1], or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

“What is the price of an assassin’s bullet? Some dollars here and there. The cost of the bullet.  The cost of a taxi ride, a hotel, an airplane, the money paid to hire the assassin, his silence purchased through a payment into a Swiss bank, the cost to him psychologically for having taken the life of one, two, three, or four. But the biggest price is not paid by the intelligence services. The biggest price is paid by the people. For in these assassinations, these murders, this violence of intimidation, it is the people who lose their leaders in their localities.  Each bullet fired struck down a Revolution and gave birth to our present barbarity. This is a book about bullets.” These are the words of Vijay Prashad [https://x.com/VijayPrashad] in the opening paragraphs of his book, Washington Bullets: The History of the CIA, Coups, and Assassinations—a fascinating and meticulously researched and gut-wrenchingly evocative book which takes readers on a tour of the US empire’s wide-ranging project of global dominance.  Vijay Prashad is a journalist, political commentator, and Executive Director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He’s the author of many books including Red Star Over the Third World, The Darker Nations, and the book that we’ll be discussing today, Washington Bullets. This conversation explores many of the concepts outlined in the Washington Bullets, from the CIA’s manual for regime change to how economic shock and military coups were utilized to achieve said regime changes in countries like Chile. But more than just a chapter by chapter overview, today’s conversation with Vijay takes many side-alleys and side-paths that range from the importance of art and emotion in politics, why we need to rethink the idea of conspiracy theories, why cancel culture is a dead end, and why the left needs to reexamine its use of language and propaganda in the face of a US cultural apparatus that won the PR campaign against socialism decades ago.  Further Resources * Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research [https://thetricontinental.org/] * Washington Bullets, by Vijay Prashad [https://1804books.com/products/washington-bullets?srsltid=AfmBOorXmgNAdqPQteDZi5QMXJgzdViZbrWxgWQnv-HpRnznAKVlgcnx] Related Episodes: * China Pt. 3: Bourgeois Democracy vs Socialist Democracy w/ Vijay Prashad [https://www.patreon.com/posts/china-pt-3-vs-w-123859701] * The Fight for The Congo w/ Vijay Prashad [https://sites.libsyn.com/435210/the-fight-for-the-congo-w-vijay-prashad] Intermission music: "Stolen Empires" by Andrew Glencross [https://andrewglencross.bandcamp.com/track/stolen-empires] Artwork: Tings Chak [https://www.instagram.com/tingschak/?hl=en] Upstream is a labor of love—we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/upstreampodcast [https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast] or please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support [https://www.upstreampodcast.org/support] If your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming documentaries, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at  upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship [https://gate.sc?url=http%3A%2F%2Fupstreampodcast.org%2Fsponsorship&token=fb395-1-1663029755269] For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org [https://gate.sc?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.upstreampodcast.org&token=efc9f5-1-1663029755269] and follow us on Twitter [https://twitter.com/upstreamPodcast], Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/upstreampodcast/], Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/UpstreamPodcast], and Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/upstreampodcast.bsky.social]. You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upstream/id1082594532] Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/4KwWOMp24P9cVVR6d0i7Zq?si=ec90ca944bcb43cf&nd=1], or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

This is a free preview of the episode "How Fascism Works." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast [https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast] As a Patreon subscriber you will have access to bi-weekly episodes ranging from conversations to readings and more. Signing up for Patreon is a great way to make Upstream a weekly show, and it will also give you access to our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes along with stickers and bumper stickers at certain subscription tiers. You’ll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us to keep this project going. In this episode of our reading series, Robbie reads and provides real-time analysis of the opening chapter of the classic book Blackshirts & Reds: Rational Fascism & the Overthrow of Communism by Michael Parenti. The text covers the topics of plutocracy and autocracy, whom the fascists last century supported, a bit of history on Hitler and Mussolini, the rational and irrational aspects of fascism, patriarchy and pseudo-revolution, collaboration, and much more.  The analysis provided in the reading brings this text into our current conditions and looks at where Parenti's analysis holds up and where it might need to be stretched and adapted to help us understand the rise of neofascism in the United States under Trump and his modern day fascist footsoldiers. We explain why it's more important than ever to resist collaboration and to stand in full solidarity with all of the racialized and criminalized "others" in order to combat the fearmongering and scapegoating that fascism relies on in order to grow in strength.  Further resources: * Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism [https://citylights.com/city-lights-published/blackshirts-reds-rational-fascism/], by Michael Parenti Related episodes: * From the Frontlines: State Repression and Anti-Imperialist Organizing w/ Calla Walsh [https://sites.libsyn.com/435210/from-the-frontlines-state-repression-and-anti-imperialist-organizing-w-calla-walsh] * Capitalism, The State, and How We Got Here with Christian Parenti [https://sites.libsyn.com/435210/capitalism-the-state-and-how-we-got-here-with-christian-parenti-in-conversation] Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/upstreampodcast [https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast] or please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support [https://www.upstreampodcast.org/support] If your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming documentaries, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at  upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship [https://gate.sc?url=http%3A%2F%2Fupstreampodcast.org%2Fsponsorship&token=fb395-1-1663029755269] For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org [https://gate.sc?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.upstreampodcast.org&token=efc9f5-1-1663029755269] and follow us on Twitter [https://twitter.com/upstreamPodcast], Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/upstreampodcast/], Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/UpstreamPodcast], and Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/upstreampodcast.bsky.social]. You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/upstream/id1082594532] Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/4KwWOMp24P9cVVR6d0i7Zq?si=ec90ca944bcb43cf&nd=1], or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.