EP 292 of RevolutionZ Professions React, Part Two, continues the Next American Revolution Sequence with the host Michael Albert conveying the words of various oral history interviewees' accounts of religious renovations, legal upheavals, and media makeovers that they helped undertake in the early years of the emerging Revolutionary Participatory Society. The interviewees, channeled by Albert, discuss with Miguel Guevara their getting started, their movement methods, confusions, controversies, goals, failures and successes.  Reverend Stephen Du Bois first takes us from his early years as a seminary student though his encounters with religious fundamentalism, to significant milestones victories in church renovation by way of his personal hunger strike and much wider sustained  militant activism to overcome religious and societal controversy and opposition. Then famed lawyer Robin Kunstler does the same for the legal realm by recounting  the disillusionment that shifted his path from a conventional lawyer to a justice advocate. His stories highlight the systemic failures of earlier criminal justice systems including policing, incarceration, and court procedures and the urgent need for and means of transformation, but also acknowledge the vexing still open questions of exactly what structures to enact so as to do much better. Finally, Leslie Zinn sheds light on mainstream media’s role within society and  regarding RPS, emphasizing the importance of alternative media structures and practices including jobs balanced for empowerment, and recounting how activist RPS efforts led to changes in  media practices. From media profit seeking finance and political subservience to movement media improvements including cooperative planning efforts that reshaped the alternative media landscape, Zinn, like Du Bois and Kuntsler, offers a comprehensive look at RPS’s early multifaceted approach to creating a more just society regarding various professional domains. How relevant are their accounts of their future experiences to our current choices? You decide.

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Ep 291 of RevolutionZ discusses RPS organizing in the areas of film and sport. Celia Curie and Peter Cabral respond to Miguel Guevara as they move their focuses from rape to revolution with an oscar and governorship in between and from baseball to, again, revolution, with diverse organizing projects in between. How does support by participants in these fields develop? What resistance to becoming active arise? How are they addressed and overcome? What changes in people and in relations emerge? This episode delves into the dynamics of these two areas of life and their transformation during the development of the movements of the next American revolution. The means is personal stories of work in the areas, organizing the areas, and conflicts in the areas...all presented to further advance  Guevara's Oral History of The Next American Revolution.... 

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In Episode 290 of RevolutionZ, the seventh in the Oral History of the Next American Revolution Sequence, Lydia Luxemburg and Bert Dellinger discuss ideas, values, self management, diversity, flexibility, and various institutional practices of Revolutionary Participatory Society including their own very personal. reactions and experiences ranging from Lydia's 1960s to Bert 2000s and into RPS's early years years. They answer Miguel Guevara who asks how various revolutionary ideas attracted them to participate in RPS and then how those ideas impacted RPS's emergence and trajectory. They are big topics of important times and perhaps they convey useful possibilities for our own future, supposing we want a new world--not only instead of this world, but more likely, instead of no world.. So, again, this is not a short session. 

But why am I messing about with an oh so long fictional account of a fictional future? Well, before embarking on this episode, I shoved in this little spontaneous rant I primal screamed the day after the recent Supreme Court ruling  

Before Miguel begins, I just have to ask, am I missing something? What is to now prevent Biden from, I don’t know, jailing Trump, or firing most of the Supreme Court, or nationalizing Tesla or the whole pharmaceutical industry, or, hey, shutting down fossil fuel, or doing whatever else on behalf of we who are alive now and, more so, on behalf of those who would in that case thrive rather than suffocate or melt in the future?

If there really is a God, surely at this point she’d intervene. Or perhaps her power went to her head….do gods even have heads? If the current trajectory persists, we used to have a saying dating way back to the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Bend over, put your head between your legs, and kiss your ass goodbye. Hmm, I’d prefer to win a new world—right after preventing this one from self immolating. And so, here is Miguel's first question for Lydia...

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Episode 289 of RevolutionZ is the sixth episode in the Oral History of the Next American Revolution Sequence. In it Barbara Bethune, Emiliano Feynman, Bill Hampton, Cynthia Parks, Harriet Lennon, and Anton Rocker discuss the initial emergence and pursuit of various strands of RPS activism including health, transport, housing, rights to the city, minimum wage, and workplace focuses. In each realm participants discuss the oppressions addressed but more so the strategies and the emotional problems encountered and steps taken to keep moving forward. 

As you can probably tell from the unexpected length -- it took me by surprise too --- this episode covers a lot more ground, as well bicycle campaigns to shorter work week and friction and play along the way. The interviewees put their experiences into words. Miguel Guevara elicits their words with his questions. Finally, I convey those words and also question or expand on them a bit as your host for this trip. If you find the time, drop me a line to let me know your reactions, or better yet, you might visit ZNetwork.org where you can read the text and also partake of discussions in the ZNet Discord system. 

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Episode 288 of RevolutionZ is the Fifth in our Next American Revolution Sequence that presents an Oral History of, well, a future revolution as recounted by its participants. Another long episode, it focuses on building RPS chapters and the personal, interpersonal, and programmatic issues that arose after the convention. The discussion emphasizes the importance of avoiding insularity by continually reaching out and  describes strategic efforts made to include influential campus figures able to broaden outreach as Bill Hampton, Cynthia Parks, and Andre Goldman discuss immediately post convention vision, structure, and program, and particularly how they went about creating local chapters. 

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Episode 287 of RevolutionZ is the fourth presenting An Oral History of the Next American Revolution. How did informed hope plus strategic activism merge into a new organization, Revolutionary Participatory Society, and inform its first convention? 

Here is what an AI spit out as its proposed summary of this episode: "Join us on this compelling episode of Revolution Z, where we dissect the elements necessary for sustainable activism through the lenses of pivotal characters like Andre Goldman, Bill Hampton, Senator Malcolm King, and Cynthia Parks. By reflecting on the fleeting revolutionary fervor of Paris 1968 and comparing it to the modern efforts for a Revolutionary Participatory Society (RPS), we uncover how informed hope can propel revolutionary progress. Through historical context and personal stories, we explore how these elements are interwoven with fostering enduring social movements.

Hear Bill Hampton recount an unforgettable encounter at a sanctuary for immigrants in San Antonio, Texas, which forever altered his path towards radical activism. What does it take to stand in solidarity in the face of brutality? As Bill shares his experience of linking arms with a congregation against violent police attempts to deport immigrant families, we delve into the deeper implications of compassion and unity in activism. We also spotlight the strategic importance of welcoming marginalized communities into public spaces and reallocating resources from militarization to social welfare, underscoring the power of grassroots organizing and mutual aid.

Lastly, embrace the transformative journeys of activists like Cynthia and Miguel, who reveal the psychological and internal barriers that often hinder social change. Through candid dialogues and reflections, we explore the resilience required to overcome personal doubts and fears of failure. From the first RPS convention to the creation of multi-issue organizations, this episode captures the essence of building collective resistance and solidarity. Tune in to discover how profound societal transformation begins with a unified vision and the courage to confront both external and inner adversities." 

The AI is actually an in-built part of the platform I use to post and distribute RevolutionZ episodes. When I upload a file, like the one for this episode, the AI whirrs a bit and then proposes five possible titles, a description such as this one, a transcript, and I think some other stuff too. Others celebrate this kind of instant "assistance." It makes me a bit ill. So I think soon I will do another episode about AI, to add to those I did some time back, but still think relevant. At any rate, I hope you will give this episode and this whole NAR sequence a chance. It is pure vision and strategy, albeit I hope at least somewhat engagingly and emotively "packaged," and as such, I would think, indeed I would hope, it would warrant critique or support, extension or correction, whichever suits you, but not nothing.  I even tried a bit of clickbait in the title, not untrue, and not, say: "Blood flowed, Tears Spilt, Baggage Jettisoned, Next American Revolution Taxis for Take-Off. " but nonetheless a bit more punchy than usual.

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Ep 286 of RevolutionZ has Evan Henshaw Plath, also known as Rabble, a visionary technologist with personal roots in developing Indymedia and even Twitter. He replays the history, logic, and implications of social media from its root democratic and participatory  intentions to its corporatization and erosion of privacy and meaningful engagement. Plath takes us, as I suspect few if any others could, from the shift from social media's early, open protocols to the centralized corporations like Twitter and Facebook that came to dominate. He then explains his ongoing quest to reclaim the decentralized spirit of the web including working on modern advancements like Nostr, and his current adaptation called Nos.social. Reflecting on historical movements like Indymedia and Occupy Wall Street, Plath emphasizes the need for autonomous spaces that support radical change and envisages the potential of independent, decentralized, privacy-focused platforms. He also discusses possible  sustainable funding of these independent platforms, underscoring a needed shift from owners and consumers to co-creators and the vital role of community collaboration. RevolutionZ listeners will likely know the depth of my antipathy for social media as usually encountered. So I hope you will listen and wind up feeling as I do, that  Plath's new project, Nos.social, is  well worth our attention and support.

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Episode 285 of RevolutionZ, the third in the Next American Revolution sequence, has future revolutionaries Senator Malcolm King and Andre Goldman discuss with Miguel Guevara their experience of their world's 2016 electoral campaign and followup. They address Sanders' incredible impact, Clinton's and the Democrat's machinations, the moral, personal, and practical dilemmas of strategic voting, the multifaceted appeal and impact of Trump, the complexities of third-party politics, and more. They reveal some of the precursor thoughts that helped lead to the emergence, growth, and success of Revolutionary Participatory Society or RPS. RevolutionZ host, Michael Albert, channels the interviews by Guevara for your listening and also interjects, as well, some comments, criticisms, and clarifications along the way.

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Episode 284 of RevolutionZ  presents chapter two (of fourteen) of An Oral History of the Next American Revolution. It relates personal precursors of revolutionary participatory society through the life experiences of  interviewees Alexandra Voline, Andre Goldman, and Senator Malcolm King who  discuss with their interviewer,  Miguel Guevara, all from their own world their personal trajectories into activism including the first major march, the early gun and militarism boycotts, overcoming early resistance and doubt,  achieving early momentum, and much much more on the road to forming and working toward Revolutionary Participatory Society in the U.S. And yes, that is a whole lot which is why this episode is by far the longest so far at four minutes under two hours.  (See the long list of topics below -- to get them, I skimmed the earlier article on ZNet, excerpt two of the serialization and grabbed here and there. It could have gone on and on...lives are big things and so is revolution....)

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Episode 283 of RevolutionZ, An Oral History of A Next American Revolution is the first episode of what hopes to be a Sequence of 14 episodes based on excerpts from a book in progress in which Miguel Guevara interviews 18 revolutionaries from a future parallel earth that is shifted 28 years forward from our own earth. The text excerpts will be published earlier in each week that each audio episode appears. The audio RevolutionZ episodes include the text material plus spontaneous reactions to it including questions, criticisms, elaborations, and clarifications that I deliver on my first hearing the material. This week has a foreword to the book by your RevolutionZ host, an introduction by Miguel Guevara the book's co-author, plus the book's first chapter which features a look forward to just after inauguration day 2048, plus many host interjections. What is the point of such a strange and risky project? To provide for discussion, evaluation, and refinement a realistic account of a possible next American Revolution's aims, methods, and lessons as discerned by a set of its very prominent and effective participants. 

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In Episode 282 of RevolutionZ, Alex Han,  of In These Times, addresses the current  surge, aims, and prospects of both labor and student activism and their possible intersection, as well as media responses and prospects. We discuss union bargaining strategies including and going beyond contract issues, campus organization and tactics, and urge the need to break down barriers between independent media outlets to forge a more strategically unified left media ecosystem. 

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Episode 281 of RevolutionZ has Avi Chomsky as guest to discuss current  campus  and community activism, colonialism, nation states, immigration, borders,  lessons from Central America and the Global South, and the role of students, labor, and religious organizations in sustaining resistance. We consider the logical and emotional innards of dissent, where strategic pursuit of immediate relief intersects with a longer term quest for societal transformation.

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Ep 280 of RevolutionZ has as guest William Lawrence, cofounder of the Sunrise Movement, housing organizer, DSA member, and much mor, to discuss  the inner workings and ideological conflicts within the Democratic Socialists of America. Should DSA work within the Democratic Party to expand progressive representation, or should it cut ties completely and forge a new path without electoral emphasis? What existing structural features exacerbate factionalism? What new features might prevent ideological conflict from overshadowing  policy discourse, or vice vers?. Reform or revolution--or both? Biden or Never Biden--or both? 

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Ep 279 of RevolutionZ, Students Teach, We Learn, hopes to answer some questions that I felt folks might have. I try to address, spontaneously, as one might in a discussion: Why are campuses rebelling? Why now, why so many, why so fast? What are the students seeking? What reactions are rebels encountering   from other students / from administrators / from cops? Summer is near, most importantly, what’s next? Is this 1968 again, how similar is it, how different? Will it be smarter? Will it change colleges, education, and society too? Will it transform campus power relations? Plus a recent article from ZNet that addresses all that and more. in carefully prepared text.

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Episode 278 of RevolutionZ takes the character of and support for MAGA fascism, Mideast genocide, and earth-wide ecological suicide as focus, but spends little time on their cause, texture, or impacts. Rather, we consider why and how there is any support for the first two and massive obliviousness to the third. What is going on in various constituencies  to produce much less sustain such alignments? I want to know, and I assume you want to know. Indeed, unless we know, how can we effectively address people with such horrifyingly harmful views? That is our topic this time.

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Episode 277 of RevolutionZ examines the concept economic growth from a few angles to hopefully provide some insights for further thought--and then spins off into a very tenuously related personal birthday greeting about staying young offered on my 77th birthday. 

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Episode 276 of RevolutionZ takes up the issue of who is, and who isn't part of the left, including splits and divisions from the 60s to now, addressing motives and demarcation lines, and finally possible alternative approaches to the whole issue that might be more  unifying  than what now occurs.

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Episode 275 has as guest Emma River-Roberts to discuss class structure, habits, hierarchy, and possibilities inside the Degrowth movement and really pretty much all movements on the left. Why are working class people largely absent in ecological organizations and when present what do they encounter? For that matter why is discussion of such class issues largely absent and when present largely defensive and  tortured. And, of course, what is to be done?

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Episode 274 of RevolutionZ offers and comments on a searing critique of  the champions of democracy and human rights from Arundhati Roy, plus a disturbing but compelling  view of pro-war sentiments of various prior supporters of Palestine  within Israel. Why do some progressives rally behind Israel's war machine? 

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Episode 273 of RevolutionZ addresses Class (The PMC or as I call it, the Coordinator Class) and left organizing in the Degrowth movement. The episode is built around an essay by Emma River-Roberts, a Degrowth activist, working class organizer, and founder of The Working Class Climate Alliance, which is an affiliate of the Post Growth Institute.  The article is on ZNet and I offer it here and also some comments on it because I believe the article has bearing not only on Degrowth organizing, but really on all organizing for a better world. 

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Episode 272 of RevolutionZ presents and comments on a recent Rebecca Solnit essay about two strands of left thought and activism, a bit through history and a bit today. In the song, Which Side Are You On, is it right and left, or is it right and left and other left, where the latter two are far from a single thing?

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Episode 271 of the Podcast RevolutionZ looks at Evangelical Voting, Magical Thinking, and Evidentiary Reasoning - Organizing or Even Just Conversing in Difficult Times. Why do people believe what they do? Supporting Trump, abetting Israel, ignoring climate calamity or even being left in very contradictory ways. How can words change minds? 

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Episode 270 of RevolutionZ discusses a new attempt to link fund raising, dating, and social activism va- an unusual and ambitious web system and app called  Singles Project. Why try this? How try this? What will emerge from trying this? Nikla Widmark, from Sweden and Alexandria and Michael consider these innovative matters and more.

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Episode  269 of RevolutionZ considers the concept and practice of privilege as in, for example, white privilege, male privilege, and class privilege. Is to uncover, call out, and renounce privilege, a powerful tool for overcoming racism, sexism, and classism, or does this approach instead have unintended consequences that interfere with its own aims? In offering a controversial exploration of a widespread activist approach am I defending my own white, male, class privilege? Or am I trying to contribute to anti-racist, feminist, and economic justice? You decide. And by all means, then let me know your assessment.

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Episode 268 of RevolutionZ addresses the upcoming U.S presidential election. Will there even  be one? If there is, who will be candidates? Should a revolutionary, a radical, a progressive, or a typical citizen vote, get out the vote, watch Netflix, block a bridge, hibernate? All the above? None of the above? Is there even a way to sensibly think about such choices? Hate fascist Trump? Hate Genocide Joe? Okay, then what? 

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