At the time of recording, Israel’s relentless bombardment of Rafah continues. Around 1 million people have been forced to flee the city. Condemning the assault on Rafah, Spain, Ireland and Norway have joined 140 other countries in officially recognising a Palestinian state. It is a symbolic action that has undoubtedly damaged diplomatic relations between the three countries and Israel. Nevertheless, the destruction continues, the humanitarian crisis deepens, and people in Gaza have nowhere safe to go.

Many of us around the world have looked on in horror for the last seven months, watching a genocide being carried out, with many of our own governments actively complicit. In this month's episode, we consider the vital role that people in the international labour movement can play, leveraging their unions’ power to intervene directly.

We are joined by Rafeef Ziadah, a Senior Lecturer in Politics and Public Policy at King’s College London, and an organiser with Workers in Palestine; Riya Al'Sanah, an organiser and researcher with Workers in Palestine; and Katy Fox-Hodess, a Senior Lecturer in Employment Relations at the University of Sheffield, and a researcher and labour educator with Workers in Palestine.

Rafeef, Riya and Katy talk about the history of labour solidarity in the context of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, Palestinian workers’ conditions in Gaza and the West Bank, and how trade unions can move beyond simply issuing statements in solidarity with Palestine. We discuss the ongoing university encampments, dockworkers and 'Block the Boat' actions, and the ways in which the Palestine solidarity movement can build coalitions with arms industry workers, to stop the flow of weapons to Israel.

Find out more about Workers in Palestine: workersinpalestine.org

'Whether one is an anarchist or not, the contemporary turn of geopolitical events—from the global phenomena of pandemics, fascistic regimes, and collapsing infrastructure for any sort of social well-being, to capitalist-fueled climate catastrophes and displacement, to occupations spiraling into genocides—has compelled a shift toward prioritizing do-it-ourselves forms of taking good care of each other. Suddenly, the many anarcha-feministic practices that previously felt like “nothing” when people didn’t take the time or care to notice them—or worse, didn’t take the time or care to engage in those practices themselves—now feel like, and indeed are, everything.'—Cindy Barukh Milstein, Constellations of Care: Anarcha-Feminism in Practice

We are joined on the show this month by Cindy Barukh Milstein, editor of Constellations of Care, and Shuli Branson, a contributor to the anthology, and author of Practical Anarchism: A Guide for Daily Life. Cindy and Shuli explore the ways in which anarcha-feminist practices and care (in all of its guises) are vital to our efforts to resist militarism, fascism, ecocide, patriarchy and misogyny. They talk about the current wave of Palestinian solidarity encampments on university campuses, the importance of ritual and grief work, and the work being done by groups around bodily autonomy and trans-affirming care in the face of state attacks and abandonment.

Constellations of Care: Anarcha-Feminism in Practice is 40% off for podcast listeners on plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

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Cindy Barukh Milstein is a diasporic queer Jewish anarchist and longtime organizer. They've been writing on anarchism for over two decades, and are the author of Anarchism and Its Aspirations and Try Anarchism for Life: The Beauty of Our Circle. They edited the anthologies Rebellious Mourning: The Collective Work of Grief and Deciding for Ourselves: The Promise of Direct Democracy, among others.

Shuli/Scott Branson is a queer/transfemme Jewish anarchist writer, translator, community organizer, and teacher. They translated Jacques Lesage de la Haye’s The Abolition of Prison and Guy Hocquenghem’s Gay Liberation after May ’68, for which they also wrote a critical introduction on his queer anarchism. She coedited Surviving the Future: Abolitionist Queer Strategies with Raven Hudson and Bry Reed for PM Press. They are also a frequent co-host on the anarchist podcast The Final Straw Radio.

Forbes' annual rich list reveals that 2,781 people in the world have fortunes in excess of $1 billion. 141 people joined the list in 2023, with a combined wealth of around $14 trillion - a $2 trillion collective increase on the previous year. There are now more billionaires than ever before. It is a grotesque state of affairs, when we reflect on the misery and hardship that have been wrought by the cost of living crisis, soaring inflation, and years of stagnating pay and decaying public services. Clearly, amidst such stark inequality, there is an urgent need to do things differently.

That’s the argument made by Luke Hildyard in his new book, Enough: Why It's Time to Abolish the Super-Rich, which is out now from Pluto Press. Luke argues that far from being the hard-working and productive entrepreneurs that they claim to be, the super-rich are an extractive, parasitic force sucking up a vastly disproportionate share of society's resources – making the rest of us all poorer as a result.

Politicians make absurd promises about economic growth while ignoring the solution that's staring them in the face: a major programme of progressive taxation and economic reform that could be used to get the wealth of the one per cent flowing instead to the workers who actually create it.

Luke Hildyard is also the Director of the High Pay Centre, a UK think tank focused on pay, employment rights and responsible business.

Use the coupon PODCAST on plutobooks.com for 40% off the book.