Recently the US Military has been bombing boats in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Venezuela. This marks a major escalation, and a new development in the US Empire’s hybrid war on Venezuela that has been waged over the last 20 years. In this episode we speak with Joe Emersberger who along with Justin Podour authored the book Extraordinary Threat: The US Empire, the Media, and Twenty Years of Coup Attempts in Venezuela for Monthly Review Press.

"All Elements in Place for a US Strike on Venezuela" by Joe Emersberger and Richard Harris on Venezuelanalysis

We talk about the origins of this tactic of aerial assassinations, its deployment in international waters, and whether we could see the US expand its assassination program to target government leaders like Nicolas Maduro as we have seen the so-called state of Israel do - with full US backing - across West Asia. We also discuss the merging of war on drugs policies with the policies of the war on terror, and contextualize these so-called wars.

Finally, we talk about some of the dynamics that hem in progressive and socialistic projects in Latin America, using Joe’s long engagement with Ecuador as an example.

Joe Emersberger is based in Canada. He is co-author of Extraordinary Threat: The US Empire, the Media, and Twenty Years of Coup Attempts in Venezuela. His work can be found on Substack “Unedited Anti-Imperialism”. Older articles of his can be found on VenezuelAnalysis, Counterpunch, Fair.org, Znet and Mint Press News

As always if you like the work that we do, the best way to support the show is through either to become a patron of the show at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism or through either an ongoing pledge or one time donation through BuyMeACoffee.

In this episode, we speak with Iker Suárez, who authored a searing piece in the Monthly Review titled "The Migrant Genocide: Toward a Third World Analysis of European Class Struggle." In it, he challenges the dominant humanitarian framing of migrant deaths at sea, arguing that it isn’t a moral crisis but a structural necessity of late imperialism. What unfolds on Europe’s shores, he contends, is but a violent expression of global capital’s unraveling.

Further, diving into the works of scholars like Ali Kadri and Samir Amin, we explore how unresolved agrarian contradictions in the Global South, the accumulation of waste, and the labor-capital contradiction are converging in the form of the systemic genocide of migrants. We unpack why immigration is not a peripheral issue, but the return of capital’s deepest contradiction to the imperial core—and how this rupture shapes Europe’s ideological terrain, from the failures of social democracy to the rise of fascism.

Iker Suarez is an author and doctoral researcher. He studies neocolonialism in Europe and organizes in socialist, anti-racist and anti-imperialist movements in Madrid and New York. His work revolves around European borders, class struggle, and immigration politics from a political economy perspective grounded in the Third World. He co-authored a book on Spain's southern border enclave in northern Morocco (Melilla), focusing on the neocolonial dynamics that undergird European social democracies. His current research focuses on linking European state racism with a holistic understanding of imperialism to better think through strategy. You can follow his work at @ikersuarz.

If you like what we do and want to support our ability to have more conversations like this. Please consider becoming a Patron. You can do so for as little as a 1 Dollar a month.

Related:

“War Is the Basis of Accumulation” - Ali Kadri on Genocide, Waste, Imperialism, and the Commodification of Death

Study Group Ali Kadri's Accumulation of Waste (only about 5 spots left)

This is an episode recorded this week with Tara Alami to talk about a piece she wrote about Jordan for Vox Ummah last Spring. The essay’s title is “The Price of Peace” and it delves into Jordan’s role within the US-Imperialist led world system. And Alami discusses the history of the Hashemite monarchy, and the political legacy of Jordanian rulers with respect to Palestinians, Zionist colonizers, and western imperialism. This discussion gets into many of the contradictions of the history of Jordan, Tara’s own family history as Palestinians living in Jordan, as well as her personal history as a student there. And she talks about the ideology promoted by the state, the enticement to maintain fealty to the monarchy, and the role Jordan plays as a buffer state in the region.

Tara Alami is a Palestinian writer & researcher from occupied Jerusalem and occupied Yafa. Check out Tara's substack as well.

A reminder that on October 1st we launch our study group on Dr. Ali Kadri’s The Accumulation of Waste: A Political Economy of Systemic Destruction. It’s available to everyone who supports the show. There are only about 25 spots left in the group as we publish this, so if you want to join us, make sure you do so ASAP to reserve your space.

As always if you like the work that we do, the best way to support the show is through either to be come a patron of the show at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism or through either an ongoing pledge or one time donation through BuyMeACoffee