On this episode of CounterPunch Radio, Erik Wallenberg and Joshua Frank are joined by Kathleen Brown and Michael Mueller to discuss the violent crackdown and subsequent criminal charges lodged against pro-Palestine activists at the University of Michigan. It's a tale of a iniquitous D.A., an Israel-friendly Board of Trustees and students persevering against all odds.

Kathleen Brown is a doctoral student at the University of Michigan and former vice president of her labor union, Graduate Employees' Organization, AFT Local 3550, where she was involved in grad worker strikes in 2020 and 2023. She has been active in organizing for divestment on campus. Most recently, she was part of the year-long legal defense campaign "Dana Nessel, Drop the Charges" to pressure Michigan Attorney General to end her prosecution of 12 anti-genocide activists from U-M. Her political writing can be found on The Abusable Past, Against the Current, Spectre Journal, and Long Haul Magazine.

Michael Mueller is a former PhD student at the University of Michigan, an organizer in the Graduate Employees' Organization during the 2023 graduate worker strike, and a participant in the local movement demanding that UM divest its ties to the genocide in Palestine. He is one of seven people -- including students, workers, and community members -- whom Michigan Attorney Dana Nessel pursued felony charges against for pro-Palestine action at the UM Gaza Solidarity Encampment, on top of her additional charges against participants in the encampment and in an August pro-Palestine die-in.

You can support their legal fund here: https://chuffed.org/project/um-palestine-legalfund More

The post The Crime of Opposing Genocide w/ Kathleen Brown & Michael Mueller appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

On this episode of CounterPunch Radio, Joshua Frank and Erik Wallenberg talk with Hadley Austin, director of the new documentary, Demon Mineral, which traces the radioactive legacy of uranium mining on the Navajo Nation.

CounterPunch, Pilsen Community Books and Science for the People are co-sponsoring a screening of the film at Socialism 2025 in Chicago on July 4th. You can also check out Demon Mineral on Kanopy.

Hadley Austin is a filmmaker/director, producer, poet, photographer, and aerialist. Along with Yoni Goldstein, she is one half of Formidable Entities, a Chicago-based film production studio. More

The post The Radioactive Southwest w/ Hadley Austin appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

On this episode of CounterPunch Radio, Joshua Frank and Erik Wallenberg talk to Sim Kern, author of the brand new, New York Times bestseller, Genocide Bad: Notes on Palestine, Jewish History, and Collective Liberation.

Sim is also the author of The Free People’s Village and an environmental journalist who made a name for themself investigating petrochemical polluters. They’re also a book influencer and activist. Sim used their platform to create The Trans Rights Readathon, which raised over $250,000 for trans-supporting organizations. Since October 7th, 2023, Kern has shared educational content about Palestine and mobilized their followers to raise more than half a million dollars in direct aid for families in Gaza.

Their website is https://www.simkern.com/ More

The post Genocide (Very) Bad w/ Sim Kern appeared first on CounterPunch.org.