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

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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

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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

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On this episode of CounterPunch Radio, Joshua Frank and Erik Wallenberg talk with Kei Pritsker about "The Encampments," a critical new documentary he co-directed with Michael T. Workman on the student uprisings of 2024.

Kei a journalist with BreakThrough News. More

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On this episode of CounterPunch Radio, Rebecca Maria Goldschmidt speaks with Dr. Aldo Rodriguez, an Independent Medic from Mexico who was part of the first group of doctors to enter Gaza after October 7, 2023. Speaking for his Gaza colleagues, he recounts the massive casualties, primarily children, and the hospital conditions amidst the relentless bombing of Gaza in November 2023. His testimony reminds us of the ongoing need to bring an end to the enduring violence in Gaza; debunks the myths of tunnels and fighters in the hospitals; and recalls the commitment of the medical community to save lives under impossible circumstances. Dr. Rodriguez has been working with a medical humanitarian NGO since 2018 in countries with limited resources and/or conflict zones including Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Sudan, South Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan and Gaza. More

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On this episode of CounterPunch Radio, Erik Wallenberg and Joshua Frank talk to Mike Prysner about the military, Pete Hegseth's attacks on Black troops, anti-war resistance, and more.

Mike Prysner is a writer and producer of The Empire Files. Since returning from the Iraq war, he has been an organizer of anti-war veterans and service members. He hosts a military podcast called Eyes Left, and is co-director of the upcoming film on US military pollution, Earth’s Greatest Enemy. More

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On this episode of CounterPunch Radio, Erik Wallenberg talks to Jeanne Theoharis about her new book, "King of the North: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Life of Struggle Outside the South," in which Theoharis argues that King’s time in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago—outside Dixie—was at the heart of his campaign for racial justice.

Jeanne Theoharis is the author or co-author of thirteen books on the civil rights and Black Power movements and the contemporary politics of race in the US. Her biography, "The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks" won a 2014 NAACP Image Award & the Letitia Woods Brown Award from the Association of Black Women Historians.

Order a signed copy directly from Pilsen Community Books: https://www.pilsencommunitybooks.com/item/yHYLazfoaGjjMRbzFV1DYw
More

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On this episode of CounterPunch Radio, Erik Wallenberg and Joshua Frank welcome back Ramzy Baroud to the show to talk about Israel's genocide in Gaza, geopolitics of the region, and why Palestinians will never surrender. Ramzy is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net More

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