Episode 352 of RevolutionZ continues with chapters two and three of The Wind Cries Freedom. Alexandra Voline tells about going from despair to determination, from her parent's activism to her own revolutionary conviction. Born to 1960s radicals, politics was "background noise" until Trump's election added passion to knowledge. Alexandra describes how giving a speech against war-making at a defense plant taught her a painful but enduring lesson. Her self-righteous rage alienated the very workers she needed to reach. To organize effectively she had to develop empathy, not just display moral certainty.

Malcolm King relates his experiences of electoral politics. He learned from Bernie Sanders that dissidents could run viable campaigns, raise money without corporate cash, and inspire volunteer armies. Sanders challenged traditional fatalism. He opened possibilities many had stopped believing in. Malcolm asked, "If you believe the system is rotten to its core, but you don't believe it can be changed, what exactly are you doing?"

The episode's interviewees also conveyed their understanding of Trump's appeal. They recognized that while racism and sexism were factors, many working people supported Trump because they had been abandoned by a political establishment that ignored their suffering. Effective organizing would require addressing economic devastation alongside fighting gender and racial oppression. They discussed as well fear and overcoming it. 

These interviewees report that their organization, Revolutionary Participatory Society, emerged when activists began thinking strategically rather than performatively—asking not "what makes me feel pure right now" but "what builds power for the future." As Alexandra put it, "Justice isn't a pie that we divide. It's a flame that we grow."

The Wind Cries Freedom is an oral history of how people like you, perhaps even your alter-ego in another time and place, won extraordinary change through their vision, strategy, and uncompromising solidarity. Human stories to reveal revolutionary lessons--with more to come. 

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Episode 351 of RevolutionZ introduces a special journey as Miguel Guevara and his 18 Interviewees convey chapters from "The Wind Cries Freedom," an as yet unpublished novel that reimagines how revolutionary change might unfold in America.

The novel is thus an oral history of a future American revolution. As such the book is fiction but it works hard to sound like (future) historical fact. It is personal and dramatic but it doesn't emphasize entertainment or character exploration. It instead taps dramatic personal stories to convey the contours of revolutionary change by reporting how a movement called Revolutionary Participatory Society (RPS) transforms an imagined near-future America. 

This first episode in the sequence presents the introduction and the first chapter of the book. We meet Miguel Guevara, whose activist parents named him after Che, and who undertakes this oral history project to understand how "the next American Revolution is succeeding. After Guevara explains the logic and motives that guide his questions, Chapter One jumps to near the book's endpoint to recount a conversation with then newly-elected President Malcolm King and Vice President Celia Noether who reflect on their electoral victory and on what they deem the far more important prior grassroots activism and organization as well as the movement's plans for continued transformation. There are twenty four more chapters to address all that, from conversations to marches, sit-ins, blockades, strikes, occupations, and more.

The Wind Cries Freedom weaves together personal stories with strategic insights. It explores RPS emerges and grows. How its activists organized and faced and overcame obstacles through collective action rather than individual heroism. 

The oral history explores a vision of revolutionary change thought the experiences and feelings of its practitioners. It challenges us to see ourselves not as passive observers but as potential makers of history. I hope listeners will share your thoughts and questions via email or in the ZNet Discord channel. Miguel assembled testimonies. Whether and how the imagined future's lessons will be assimilated, corrected, augmented, and otherwise refined to aid our current efforts is up to us.

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Episode 350 of RevolutionZ conducts an experiment with ChatGPT to reveal profound insights about both political theory and artificial intelligence.

ChatGPT, please respond to this critique of the Marxist tradition's current relevance first as a Marxist would, then without that constraint. When operating as a Marxist, the AI eloquently employs classic rhetorical strategies to defend the tradition while missing or misrepresenting the actual criticisms. It speaks of "dialectical augmentation" and accuses the criticisms of "flattening contradiction." It ignores the tradition's blindness to the coordinator class.

Freed from replying as a Marxist, however, the same AI accurately summarizes the arguments and acknowledges the validity of claims of economism, inadequate class analysis, and organizational hierarchies. You decide: Does this  shift demonstrate the critique's claim that immersion in the Marxist tradition, while offering valuable insights, imposes conceptual limitations that blind adherents to crucial aspects of social reality?

The episode then ventures into issues of artificial intelligence itself to explore questions of consciousness, language generation, and the nature of understanding. Albert and ChatGPT each address the concern that AI systems, by becoming increasingly capable conversational partners, as but one example, risk displacing human-to-human dialogue and intellectual companionship. 

Interested in revolutionary theory, artificial intelligence, or the philosophy of mind? In how theoretical frameworks shape what we can—and cannot—see? Episode 350 of RevolutionZ addresses not only Marxism's current relevance or lack thereof, but also the trajectory of human intellectual engagement in an age of increasingly sophisticated AI.

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Episode 349 of RevolutionZ displays what happened when I asked artificial intelligence to critique my critique of artificial intelligence. In this episode, I share the results of this peculiar experiment—feeding my recent articles about AI dangers directly to ChatGPT and asking for its reaction. What in its view did I get right. What did I get wrong. And I comment, as well. I also ask it about how it operates. How does it answer questions, write a song, and so on. It was very forthcoming and clear. I also asked it its reaction to Noam Chomsky's critical writings about AI. Again, very forthcoming agreeing with most, which it accurately conveyed, but questioning some, also accurately conveyed.. 

ChatGPT's analysis of my article was nuanced, including emphasize and surprisingly agreeing with my core concern about "infantilization"—that is, that humans might lose distinctively human activities by becoming passive and dependent on AI systems. The  "conversation" that followed accessibly clarified creative processes, neural networks, and philosophical perspectives on machine intelligence.

I also asked it to compose a Dylan-esque protest song about the pharmaceutical industry in seconds, which it did, and then methodically explain how it generated such content through pattern recognition rather than genuine understanding, using the first line as focus. This window into AI's functioning—explaining that it doesn't "research" or "look up" information or know anything in our sense, but rather has its trained encoded relationships across neural networks to consult—provides crucial context for understanding both its impressive capabilities and certain fundamental current limitations.

Chomsky in the title isn't clickbait. The conversation explores his critiques of AI, with ChatGPT offering balanced and well informed analysis of what Chomsky says and where he got things right but also where his perspective might be limited and why he might have erred in some respects. The discussion even ventures into territory of scientific bias and how brilliant minds can resist evidence that challenges their philosophical frameworks or practical aims.

This experiment only increased my concerns about AI's potential dangers—in many ways, experiencing its capabilities firsthand was more disturbing than theoretical discussions I was previously aware of. Will we approach AI development with caution, ethical frameworks, and democratic oversight to ensure these powerful tools serve humanity rather than diminish it? Or will we get sucked in by potential benefits, ease of use, etc.?

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Episode 248 of RevolutionZ asks, what if the real danger of advanced AI isn't robots taking over the world, but humans willingly but unintentionally surrendering our humanity? What if AI need not go rogue for its collateral damage to fundamentally hurt humanity? What if our most likely dystopian future isn't machines battling us to death, but machines doing exactly what we ask—better than we ever could?

AI is spreading through society at an unprecedented rate, with exponentially growing functionality. While critics point to potential limitations in data, computational resources, or energy requirements slowing AI's gains to a crawl, the industry continues to race toward Artificial General Intelligence and beyond.

Picture a future where AI teaches your children more patiently than human teachers, diagnoses illness more accurately than human doctors, creates more beautiful art than human artists, and provides more satisfying companionship than other humans. Of course it isn't here yet. But is it coming? What happens to us if AI-guided robots do for us everything meaningful that we humans now do? Is that utopia or dystopia? What if we don't lose our humanity because machines force us to succumb, but because we prefer what AI offers until we are so dependent that to change course would be even worse than to suffer on

Is this danger me hallucinating? Is it so subtle it doesn't exist or is it so profoundly dangerous we must pay serious attention? Will we become passive consumers of massive AI creativity? Will our uniquely human capacities  atrophy from disuse? Today's AI can already write not only letters but also novels, compose and play music, diagnose and treat illness,  hold conversations, provide sympathy, and also complete self chosen tasks. What's next? 

Is it time for us to demand serious regulation while we still can? Not only to protect jobs (a good reason), to prevent misuse by bad actors (a good reason), and to prevent a sci-fi robot apocalypse (maybe a Hollywood exaggeration), but to also protect the essence of what makes us human?

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Episode 347 of RevolutionZ asks why so many stay essentially silent when our world is burning? Adam Aron, climate activist and psychology professor at UC San Diego identifies barriers that keep most people from taking action despite acknowledging the twin crises of climate collapse and rising authoritarianism. We then discuss what to do about the disturbing situation.

Aron draws from his years of research and activism to identify what's holding us back: an atomized society that erodes our sense of solidarity, widespread feelings of powerlessness, and movements that fail to connect with people's material needs and identities. "Many cultural and psychological forces are pushing people to be isolated... not a lot of people have confidence in the concept of solidarity."

The discussion delves into why climate organizations remain relatively "minuscule" despite scientific consensus. While environmental and anti-fascist rallies draw thousands and even millions, why do they fail to translate momentary enthusiasm into sustained collective power? Aron argues this happens partly because movements focus too narrowly on moral appeals without connecting to people's economic concerns or creating appealing cultural identities.

We momentarily confront terrifying climate truths, perhaps weeping over extinction forecasts in a lecture, then step outside where everyone continues life as normal. This splitting makes sustained engagement nearly impossible for many. What are pathways forward? Do we make activism more desirable through aesthetics and community-building, do we target specific pressure points like the successful Tesla dealership protests against Elon Musk, do we link abstract climate concerns with tangible local benefits like public ownership of utilities? What is the psychology of social change? What would it take to create movements people actually want to join? How might we transform our atomized society into one capable of collective response? These are some questions this episode tackles.

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Ep 346 of RevolutionZ takes on a stew of topics. What's up with Epstein. Fascism's arrival. Clickbait's Impact. Anti Collective Individualism. Gallaudet''s Struggle. Social Media. Good Trouble, and Now What?

What's the connection among these? Lies, undermined trust, narrow horizons of calculation, fear, confusion, a surprisingly relevant movie, impoverished communications, a set back, and mostly some ideas about effective resistance. 

We know to go forward requires resistance to consistently grow in numbers and sophistication. Rather than isolated demonstrations against single issues, effective opposition must build bridges between constituencies to connect  those who fight genocide with those who defend healthcare, to connect immigrants rights activists who resist deportations with teachers who resist censorship. Elites must perceive not only widespread opposition but escalating costs to them.

How can movement building effectively counter fascism's advance? From workplace resistance to campus organizing, from artistic engagement to direct confrontation with power centers, this episode discusses ideas for creating the pressure needed to force elites to reconsider destructive paths. The episode's warning is clear: we must act bigger and better now, while resistance remains possible before fascism completes its institutional capture. Are we ready to move beyond scrolling toward persistent fighting?

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Ep 345 of RevolutionZ begins with a brief apology for an error last episode. some self-reflection about RevolutionZ's duration of 345 consecutive episodes, some moving guest comments on Gaza plus my own comments on emerging Trumpian fascism. It then again addresses the question do activists need fresh conceptual frameworks that transcend traditional Marxism?

The episode revisits the critique of the Marxist tradition's adequacy for contemporary struggles/ We again and perhaps more succinctly and also aggressively argue that Marxism's core concepts systematically diminish attention to gender, race, and power relations while distorting economic understanding by defining classes solely through property relations.

The episode describes how these limitations have manifested in real-world movements to lead not to classlessness but to "coordinator class rule," dictatorships, and persistent though sometimes somewhat altered racism and sexism. The episode rejects Marxism's labor theory of value, denies the practical utility of dialectics, and considers why the tradition seems particularly vulnerable to sectarianism.

After then sharing a couple of personal anecdotes, the episode extends invitations to prominent Marxist intellectuals—from Kali Akuno, Tariq Ali, Ben Burgis, Vivek Chibber and Angela Davis, to Terry Eagleton, Max Elbaum, Bill Flether, Nancy Fraser and John Bellamy Foster, to David Harvey, Doug Henwood and Boris Kagarlitsky, to Robin Kelly, Vijay Prashad, Kshama Sawant and Rick Wolff—to address these concerns in the spirit of constructive dialogue. Hopefully one or more will respond. After all, why not?

This episode isn't bent on dismissing Marxism's contributions much less any Marxist activists, but on asking essential questions to propel a needed conversation: Does this intellectual tradition, as practiced by real-world actors who have been bent by existing oppressive structures, provide the comprehensive understanding needed for today's multi-faceted struggles? When should we enrich existing frameworks, and when must we entirely transcend them? Do you  want to be called Marxist? If so, why? What conceptual tools will best serve our efforts to create a world beyond capitalism, sexism, racism, authoritarianism, and ecological collapse? Marxism's conceptual tools, or what?

Whether you're deeply versed in Marxist theory or approaching these matters for the first time, this episode urges that we together critically examine the intellectual foundations of our activism. What frameworks best position us to understand—and change—our rapidly transforming world?

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Episode 344 of RevolutionZ begins with some reflections on Zohran Mamdani's inspiring electoral win. How? By his campaign mobilizing an astonishing 50,000 volunteers. How? By he and his campaign feeling real and honest, and by offering real and meaningful vision. By electoral politics and grassroots activism becoming a mutual aid tag team rather than competing opponents. 

The episode then moves from Gaza's gut wrenching fascistic horrors to our own American "Twilight Zone" reality that seeks to entrench fascistic tendencies as normal life. The episode then  takes a break from its usual patterns to look at some music, some lyrics, hoping to find some clarity, courage, and, well, dignity. Hoping to find some potential sources for an emerging new youth culture which is something that we all, young and older alike, profoundly need to create, experience, and embrace. 

Bruce Springsteen's "Youngstown" documents capitalism's broken promises. His "The Ghost of Tom Joad" reminds our moral obligations. But mainly the episode hopes to introduce and propel some emerging voices of today, not only old ones from yesterday. We hear Jesse Wells' and Carsey Blanton's unflinching and yet also moving and eloquent lyrics that directly confront power. "Rich people been fucking us all." Back not too long, we  re-surface Iris DeMent's "Wasteland of the Free" and Bob Dylan's "Gates of Eden" and "Dignity." The point of it all is to celebrate how artists have long conveyed a  vocabulary of resistance that we desperately need today.

I hope the songs whose lyrics I offer reveal that cultural resistance isn't separate from political action—it's an essential aid. It helps us imagine and create more just futures. Even more, it can help establish a mood, a disposition, aspirations, and confidence in the face of deadly hate. In the coming months of defense and then in coming years of positive gain, we will need to disobey authoritarianism, eliminate ecological nightmare, and reduce staggering inequality. We will need to entrench in their place self managed participation, productive and ecological sanity, and real solidarity and equity. I hope the lyrics in this episode and others that you go on to find, to sing, and to hear, music and all, can help provide the rebellious soundtrack for our necessary actions. When I was a child we had that. The culture around us propelled us. We didn't win all we needed to, but some. Now new generations have to prevent the elimination of all that and, more, have to expand the victory vastly further. I hope artists and their audiences do their part to help propel all that. It ought to come naturally.

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Ep 343 of RevolutionZ has Gene Bruskin, long time and many issues, labor organizer to discuss workers' responses to rising fascism, our current predicaments and our potential paths forward.

Why does America's labor movement struggle to mount a unified response to authoritarianism, one  for all and all for one? How did post-WWII labor structures intentionally divide workers by union and industry, creating what Bruskin calls a system "structured to divide ourselves"? 

Why do significant segments of working people support Trump despite his anti-worker policies? Bruskin challenges simplistic explanations, arguing that economic desperation combined with Democrats' unwillingness to confront billionaires and inequality created an opening for "phony populism." When Trump says "I feel your pain" while Democrats offer only rhetoric, many desperate workers took a chance on the disruptor.

We also discuss Bruskin's post-retirement work creating political musicals about working-class history and struggle. His productions about Reconstruction and the abolitionist, John Brown, act on his belief that cultural resistance is essential for movement-building. Bruskin says, "We couldn't have won the civil rights movement if people couldn't be singing 'We Shall Not Be Moved' while they were being hauled to jail." 

Bruskin leaves us with a powerful metaphor from a banquet waiter who, when pressured to give a senator special treatment and dismissively asked if he didn't know who the Senator was, responds: "Do you know who I am? I'm the guy who gives out the bread and butter." This encapsulated Bruskin's point: working people must recognize their collective power. As he put it: "Do you need the boss, or does the boss need you?"

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Episode 342 of RevolutionZ reconsiders how to evaluate success in our struggles against Trumpian fascism.

When someone asks how a protest went, what are we really measuring? Our feelings? Media coverage? Participation numbers? Or something more substantive? Being vague about what matters is our movement measurement problem.

This episode proposes four essential metrics that truly matter: Did our actions inspire continued involvement? Did we raise consciousness among those who witnessed our efforts? Did we grow commitment and strengthen the movement? And did we communicate to power-holders that we won't back down?

Via reflections on experiences during Vietnam War protests, the episode illustrates how unrealistic expectations can demoralize rather than empower. He offers practical suggestions for the upcoming July 17th demonstrations—from coordinated clothing colors to unified messaging—as possible ways to  enhance movement solidarity and impact.

The episode goes beyond tactics to strategy including assessing the counterproductive dismissal of Trump supporters as simply "stupid," the strategic limitations of violence, and the false dichotomy between electoral work and direct action. The message is that diverse approaches can coexist within a unified framework if we judge each by its contribution to movement growth and effectiveness.

The episode moves beyond subjective feelings toward strategic thinking to  advance progressive goals. The struggle against fascism, all kinds of inequity and injustice, and ecological collapse demands nothing less than our clearest thinking about what works, what doesn't, and how we measure the difference.

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Episode 341 of RevolutionZ quotes: "The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living" and with that claim from Marx asks whether today's movements should enrich the Marxist tradition as a viable and worthy heritage that only needs some modest contemporary refinements, or transcend it entirely as concepts and banners of dead generations that constrain our creativity.

Why this topic now? As political tensions mount and movements for fundamental change grow, young activists will be increasingly uged to take Marxist theory as their guiding framework. But do Marxist concepts provide the conceptual tools and organizational commitments we need to navigate current crises and in time create the revolutionized society most progressive movements desire?

This episode highlights "economism" -- which privileging economic analysis while inadequately addressing gender, race, ecology, and political dimensions of social life -- and also Marxist class analysis which fails to recognize how managers, professionals, and other empowered employees monopolize empowering tasks and decision-making positions to form a distinct class between capital and labor which can also rise to ruling status and has done just that in all past Marxist revolutions. Do conceptual blindspots explain why Marxist revolutions consistently elevate a new ruling elite over workers rather than creating genuine classlessness, or is the cause perverse leadership or external opposition. The episode also takes on what is called dialectics, historical materialism, the labor theory of value, and Marxism's views of and more often absence of vision for a better society.

The episode asks, does immersing in and advocating the whole Marxist tradition support or subvert our collective endeavors? If it does the latter, as the episode argues, then what must we enrich or transcend to do better? If it does the former, contrary to my observations, okay, immerse, learn the lingo, and carry on, but correct me too, please. 

The episode is provocative and controversial, perhaps even a bit funny here and there. It invites listeners to critically examine inherited theory and consider what conceptual tools we truly need to build a more just and participatory world. It proposes some answers and it also urges those who disagree to make known their views. Some will say the episode's claims are ahistorical, over dramatic, exaggerated, or even delusional or worst of all a reactionary attempt to disarm movements. Fine, if any of that is the case, it should be pretty easy to demonstrate. I hope those who think so will attempt to do so.

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Episode 340 of RevolutionZ addresses the mass deportations that are tearing through communities across America, and and discusses the resistance is growing. In this revealing conversation. Jeff Crosby—a factory worker at General Electric, former union president, and longtime labor activist says "We need leaders more than legislators right now."  ICE targets students, family members, neighbors, and workers with no criminal records. But why do some support this? Crosby describes how economic collapse in manufacturing cities created the conditions where immigrants became convenient scapegoats, even as immigrant businesses have revitalized once-abandoned downtowns.

He describes how an immigrant led coalition in Massachusetts has trained over 1,000 "verifiers" who document ICE activities, often causing agents to leave rather than be filmed while making deportations visible and helping prevent them through non-violent direct action. But Crosby warns this is just the beginning of what could become a much larger confrontation, comparing potential sanctuary actions to those used during the Vietnam War.

Crosby challenges progressives to develop a vision that speaks to economic realities while refusing to compromise on racial justice, immigration rights, and other core values. "It's a race now," he explains. "Will the resistance get big enough or will Trump get entrenched?"

Crosby offers both a warning about where we might be headed and a roadmap for how ordinary people can effectively resist. 

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Episode 339 of RevolutionZ has as its Guest Lucy Hicks from the General Strike US project to share her insights on building a decentralized movement aimed at mobilizing millions Americans for a general strike to "transform our economic and political systems." We discuss the challenges and strategies involved in creating nationwide labor and social solidarity during increasingly mind numbingly disturbing political times.

General Strike US formed in 2022. It is currently focused on political education, building regional chapters (it has 37 so far), and growing a strong foundation. What have been its experiences to date? What lessons does it convey? Where is it headed? 

In addition to conversing about this project, episode 339 addresses the experiences and current mindsets and inclinations of Generation Z's members including Lucy herself. Where are they at? How have the pandemic imposed school at home and isolation, restrictive and declining life options, and antagonistic social media involvements impacted their lives? What obstacles from loneliness and isolation to fear and alienation, among others,  limited or advanced radical or reactionary inclinations and collective organizing? 

How do Lucy and others approach the problem of moving from the currently largely narrowly individualist orientation of their peers to a collective response to their plight? As of now, over 340,000 Americans have signed their "strike commitment cards" pledging to participate when the time comes. Will that climb to millions and If so, by what path will it happen? How will young people who are angry and even outraged, scared and even desperate come together to propel a resistance that can defeat Trumpism and then continue on to win a fundamentally better society?

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Ep 338 of RevolutionZ seeks to speak to Bruce Springsteen in light of his recent warranted and eloquent outcry against Trump and Trump's retaliatory threats, and also to Bobby Dylan, a Master of Words, with his own words, and, well, to anyone who would like to relate to these times in light of past and future times. Authoritarianism, military spectacle, and resistance. How do we survive is one sensible question. How do we  overcome is a still better question. Is our time to us worth saving?

This episode offers some of Dylan's words as both mirror and motivation. You've heard them? You haven't heard them? If I can recite them in turmoil and thanks after a million hearings, perhaps you can hear them usefully, even again, too. Can we crawl out our window? Can we know our song well before we start singing? Can we dance on the graves of war-makers? Is it alright ma? Is hard rain falling already? Can we tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it, and reflect it from the mountains so all souls can see it? And can we avoid becoming puppets repelling who we ought to be hearing?

Revisit or discover some of Dylan's lyrics here. For words, music, and voice, perhaps start with the trilogy that changed everything: "Bringing It All Back Home," "Highway 61 Revisited," and "Blonde on Blonde," or earlier or later. I hope his words can do for you what they do for me: help fuel your resistance and enflame your desires to make real your own chimes of freedom.

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Ep 337 of RevolutionZ displays connections between Netanyahu's vicious brutality and Trump's cruel authoritarianism. It examines the psychological mechanisms that enable or oppose both by discussing the need to maintain humanity while confronting inhumanity. "Can we hate the acts yet somehow recognize that those involved are people like us?" From snipers targeting children in Gaza to the creeping normalization of fascist cruelty in America, we witness power that "corrupts, coerces, incarcerates, kidnaps and, increasingly, murders." Yet resistance movements continue to grow to put "steadily growing pressure on elites of all kinds."

The episode dissects the three phony rationales that prop up both Trumpism and Netanyahu's policies: protect "meritocracy," promote "efficiency," and fight "anti-Semitism." Each concept has been grotesquely perverted to justify oppression. Under the accompanying twisted logic, "merit" comes to mean conformity to power, "efficiency" comes to mean advancing elite interests regardless of human cost, and "anti-Semitism" is weaponized against critics of Zionism while actual Nazi sympathizers receive embraces. The real agenda—to establish one-man rule and enhance profit and power of the already rich and powerful—stands nakedly visible for anyone willing to see.

This episode also warns of the confusion many will experience when Trump claims victories and occasionally even implements policies with positive elements. The challenge will be to recognize that even as some battles appear to end, the war against fascism must continue. The episode argues  that we all need to join the growing resistance—because Trump's and Netanyahu's only real strength is our submission.

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Episode 336 of RevolutionZ takes up issues of education as it is, as it should be, and how to go from the former to the latter. Trump, Vance, and their allies know that truth and critical thinking threaten their power. That's why they're launching unprecedented attacks on education—they want compliant, uncritical citizens who will accept authoritarianism without question.

Current education? Among other aults, our schools track students into predetermined social roles: roughly 2% owners, 20% coordinators (managers, professionals), and 80% workers. This is a deliberate system to prepare each group for their designated place in society's hierarchies.

The elite response to the Sixties? The Carnegie Commission concluded there was "too much education" in the 1960s? Students had been educated to expect dignity and agency. We widely rebelled when those expectations were crushed. The mainstream's solution? Reduce educational quality and access for most people while preserving elite pathways for the few—a trend Trump seeks to finalize.

But another educational world is possible. Schools could develop each person's full potential while fostering solidarity, equity, and self-management. This episode further explores these  possibilities and proposes steps for both higher education and K-12 institutions such as to establish worker-student councils, create fair compensation systems, and transform curricula to empower all participants. Such changes would not only improve current conditions but build momentum toward fundamental transformation.

The battle for education is ultimately about what kind of humans—and what kind of society—we wish to become. Visit 4liberation.org to explore the 20 Theses for Liberation which this episode jumps off from. Don't we all need to join a movement to reclaim education as a liberating force in our struggle against fascism and for a just world. What educational future will you help create?

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Episode 335 of RevolutionZ notes that when millions took to the streets after Trump's first election victory, a crucial question arose: "What can people do next?" and how can they connect with it? The new All of Us Directory (at allofusdirectory.org) creates easy means for everyday people and seasoned activists like to connect with grassroots organizations where they can exercise their collective power.

Longtime community activist Cynthia Peters shares with RevolutionZ the vision behind this searchable database of grassroots organizations that she and other conveners including myself have recently created to assist resistance to Trump and beyond. Peters shares compelling stories from her years of organizing tenant associations in Boston. She describes how tenants shift from isolated individuals with their only option being to beg landlords for concessions to unified groups capable of wielding real power as in a tenant association that stands together to prevent eviction of one of their members, even when the landlord had legal grounds, demonstrating how collective power can overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

From the directory project discussion that addresses the challenges now facing nonprofit organizations, the tensions between preservation and growth, and how fear of repression can lead to self-censorship Peters describes  the discipline required for effective organizing while acknowledging the necessity of creating spaces where people can make mistakes and grow together.

Throughout this discussion runs a powerful optimism—not naive optimism, but informed hope grounded in concrete experiences of what people can accomplish when they organize effectively. As Peters puts it, using a powerful metaphor from a kayaking experience: sometimes we need to "paddle as if our lives depend on it," and we're much more likely to succeed when we paddle together.

So please visit allofusdirectory.org to find organizations and projects you might wish to work with. Search among hundreds of options filtering to find those that match  your location, issues you care about, and the kinds of work you would like to contribute. And then tell others about it! This is the first public mention of the option. Help it along. As Peters notes, our future depends not just on what "someone else" might do, but on what all of us do together.

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Episode 334 of RevolutionZ assess three reactions to Trumpism, their causes, their effects, and their lessons for activism. The episode gets personal and in-depth to make a case  that collective resistance that envisions positive change rather than mere survival can transform these "worst of times" into the "best of times," and to indicate some features it might involve.

The three reactions to Trumpism the episode considers are first passive accommodation like some students and faculty obeying their Trustees, like some lawyers obeying their bosses, like some non-profits self censoring their web sites and budgets, and like some householders  bemoaning but not fighting Trumpism; second, active collaboration like some university trustees bowing to Trump, some law firm partners kissing Trump's ring, some elected officials marching with Trump in violent array, and I guess the Proud Boys too; and then, third, there is resistance, growing and diversifying.

Accommodation often reflects fear and exhaustion, but it also and perhaps mainly rests on beliefs that fighting corporate and political power is futile and in any event even if it won some change the gains would lead back to similar problems. Accommodation, afflicting tens of millions, can and must be respectfully overcome. In contrast, collaborators actively enable Trump's agenda despite and even due to knowing its effects. They lack empathy for those harmed. Collaboration must be overrun. Finally, to be really effective,  resistance must not just oppose Trump but offer positive alternatives that can inspire sustained involvement. Resistance wins by raising costs to elites until they abandon their agenda. Movements can accomplish that when they connect specific struggles to broader solidarity. Before signing off the episode indicates various program-like steps that resistance can continue unfolding, refine, and augment but then the  episode raises a troubling concern. Where are the young people in this movement--not a relative few but a great many? Hopefully they are meeting, talking, practicing, and preparing to explode onto the scene soon.

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Episode 333 of RevolutionZ addresses the question is there anything worth seeking beyond existing economics and in particular modes of allocation? It goes into some depth revealing the horrible intrinsic ills of markets and central planning. For example, it discusses how markets and central planning both yield top-down decision-making and a corporate division of labor and a coordinator class above workers. It shows how central planning is and induces further authoritarianism and how markets reward output and bargaining power while forcing antisocial competition. IT traces how even initially egalitarian workplaces under market pressure eventually recreate class divisions. It moves from critique to advocacy to  discuss how participatory planning involves workers and consumers in cooperatively determining production through councils, in enjoying income based on duration, intensity, and onerousness of socially valued labor, and enjoying conditions where my well-being becomes a condition of your well-being and vice  versa. The unifying message of the episode is that while immediate struggles against authoritarian threats and to stop Trump are essential, developing positive  vision is  also crucial to sustain motivation and avoid a return to the flawed pre-crisis status quo.
The episode also discusses the difficulty of advocating such a vision over the past few decades and seeks help in doing better. 

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Episode 332 of RevolutionZ has Hunter Dunn of Southern Cal 50501 as guest to share insight from his experiences with organizing the massive Southern Cal Unites protest in downtown LA, as part of the nationwide April 5th demonstrations against the Trump Administration. Hunter is a Senior at Pepperdine University and our conversation went beyond reporting April 5th tactics, scale, and mechanics to discuss the many factors shaping youth political engagement. Dunn explained how Gen Z members are pulled toward right wing involvement including talking about how right wing influencers and Trump as well as social media algorithms appeal to Gen Z economic despair at their future prospects and social awkwardness and loneliness, particularly among men even as other Gen Z youth are  shifting toward progressive solidarity.
Dunn relays how the loudest cheers at the demonstrations weren't just for opposition to Trump, but for bold proposals like universal healthcare, ranked choice voting, and meaningful climate action. He reports that the events revealed not just a growing resistance but growing positive commitment. Americans aren't merely fighting against something, reports Dunn from his campus, an historically conservative one at that, they're fighting for a fundamentally different future.
Dunn provides concrete ways to get involved because, as Dunn reminds us, "this isn't just about stopping one administration - it's about creating a society that works for everyone." 

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Episode 331 of RevolutionZ has as guest long-time labor organizer Stephen Lerner to provide strategic clarity and emotive urgency about our current situation.

Lerner describes a coordinated assault by "billionaires, the fossil fuel industry, and Silicon Valley" to "dominate every aspect of the country." Make public institutions "broke on purpose, "deliberately underfund vital services, and finally privatize them.

Lerner argues that in addition to protesting government buildings we need to target the economic interests of billionaires bankrolling authoritarianism. From pension fund divestment to strategic disruption of luxury resorts and businesses, Lerner urges imposing real costs on those who drive inequality. Seek multi union and constituency alliances.

Lerner also addresses the paralyzing fear that now prevails. As universities, law firms, and even some unions quickly cave to political pressure, Lerner emphasizes that "to be driven by fear means to give up." He calls for "heroic moments" to inspire others to move "from fear to bravery." And crucially, he warns against fighting merely to return to pre-Trump conditions. He urges the need for positive vision of better.

Trump, Musk, and their buddies? For Lerner "These are flawed, billionaire, whiny clowns, and if we get our act together, we will win something much better than the past."

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Episode 330 of RevolutionZ confronts the growing threat of fascism by examining what constitutes genuine resistance versus complicity or apathy. 
The episode says we face three choices: bow and scrape to fascism, ignore what's happening, or stand and fight. University presidents and private law firms that collaborate with authoritarian demands represent profiles in cowardice. They bow and scrape. Anyone looking around and saying oh no, but who then does nothing more, ignores reality. But students can stand and fight by speaking up in classrooms, dining halls, and dorms to build campus movements that protest and disobey. Workers facing MAGA-aligned employers can stand and fight through solidarity, refusal to comply, and collective action. 

"Stand and fight" isn't just a rallying cry—it's our only viable path to stop fascism. Episode 330 examines what meaningful opposition looks like. It  dismantles the temptations to submit or ignore what's happening, and instead provides practical examples of how resistance can take shape on college campuses, in workplaces, and throughout communities.

More, it urges that resistance must go beyond simply defending against Trump's agenda. To sustain itself and ultimately succeed, resistance must simultaneously plant seeds for a better future that addresses the fundamental flaws that led to our current crisis. This dual approach of defense plus offense can not only energize supporters but potentially reach Trump voters who begin to recognize their interests align more with progressive than reactionary change.

The episode concludes by examining three crucial warnings: don't attack attention to trans, race, and gender issues, don't create divisions between defensive and transformative activists, and most importantly, don't succumb to fear. Don't surrender disobey. Realize that nobody is going to win this by themselves. Realize that through collective action and persistent disobedience, we can not only defeat fascism but build something better in its place. 

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Episode 329 of RevolutionZ tackles the issue of reform versus revolution in context of the growing resistance to Trumpism and fascism in America. The episode recounts hopeful signs of resistance building across campuses, unions, and communities. But with this surge may come a familiar challenge: will those seeking immediate reforms and those advocating for revolutionary change work together or in opposition?

The episode distinguishes between reforms (specific policy changes) and revolution (transforming underlying institutions). It navigates the concerns of both camps: revolutionaries who fear reforms merely accept the existing system, and reformists who see revolutionary rhetoric as distracting from achievable goals. 

To those who advocate revolution, the episode proposes that fundamental change may be the ultimate goal, but stopping fascism requires coalition with those who find revolution unrealistic. To those who favor only ws reforms, he suggests that resistance benefits from both defensive tactics and positive aspirations that extend beyond single campaigns. Let's try to  immediate struggles that reduce suffering while building toward additional possibilities.

The episode offers that "Reformism that ignores anything beyond immediate campaigns is counterproductive. But reforms are essential," And that "revolutionary commitment that ignores the importance of winning reforms and denies existing reality are also counterproductive." For the most powerful resistance can we  combine practical action with visionary thinking, immediate defense with long-term commitment.

So how will we engage in resistance? Whether through campus organizing, union solidarity, immigrant protection, or public demonstrations, shouldn't we pursue immediate justice while keeping our eyes on more fundamental transformations that might follow so we don't only go back to the status quo that birthed Trump in the first place? 

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Episode 328 of RevolutionZ has as guest Yves Engler, a Canadian writer and political activist who shares his experience of being recently jailed for criticizing a pro-genocide influencer online and facing subsequent charges for "harassing the police" when he publicized his case. We discuss the growing criminalization of pro-Palestinian speech and the importance of solidarity in fighting back against repression.

Engler describes growing Canadian support for Palestine activism including how students at universities like Concordia have voted overwhelmingly for BDS resolutions while university administrations remain aligned with pro-Israel donors

We discuss the challenge of maintaining activism when results aren't immediate and in light of family and other responsibilities, doubts about winning, and other obstacles to activism. 

Engler also describes how Canadian nationalism has been inflamed by Trump's recent tariff threats and we consider Trump's possible motives as well as differences and parallels between repression in Canada and the United States. and mainly how to successfully counter each. 

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