Rachel Hu and Chris Garaffa
Rachel Hu is a journalist with "BreakThrough News," a new independent media project, where she hosts the podcast "It's Not You, It's Capitalism."
She is also a host on WBAI 99.5FM in NYC and has been an anti-war and anti-racist activist with the ANSWER Coalition for the last decade.
Rachel can be reached at: rachel@wbai.org.
Chris Garaffa has been an anti-imperialist and social justice organizer since joining the movement against the Iraq war in 2003. Chris is a weekly guest on Sputnik Radio's "By Any Means Necessary," and co-hosts the podcast "The Reboot," focusing on the intersection between technology and human rights. Chris can be reached at: chris.garaffa@gmail.com.
In early June, cities in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S. were blanketed by smoke from wildfires in Canada, some hundreds of which are still burning. Air Quality Index levels reached nearly 500 in New York City at one point, well into the “hazardous” range. In fact, New York City was briefly the world’s most polluted city during that time. New York does not normally fall in the worst 3,000 global cities for air quality...
Pride month is here in the U.S. It’s a time for LGBTQ people to celebrate, to build community, to honor our elders, and to continue the tradition of protest for recognition, safety and equal rights. In the face of “don’t say gay” laws, book bans, street harassment, attacks on trans athletes and drag shows and laws targeting trans healthcare and even families who provide gender-affirming care for trans children, Pride has a stronger meaning and spirit behind it this year...
What is the real impact of Biden’s anti-immigrant policies on the border and where is the outrage? On May 11, the U.S. government’s Title 42 regulation expired. It had been in place for three years and prevented nearly all people who sought asylum in the United States from applying for it...
The “debt ceiling” crisis playing out between President Biden and Congressional Republicans is manufactured by capitalism to justify spending cuts to critical social programs while continuing to bail out big businesses and fund the Pentagon’s endless war drive...
To mark the occasion of the coronation of King Charles the III, Julian Assange wrote a scathing public letter to the new monarch from his cell at Belmarsh prison, where he’s been held for over four years. The coronation cost £100 million of tax-payer funds, and many across the country have been outraged that public funds are being spent on such pomp and circumstance during a cost of living crisis...
In this episode, we highlight the struggle of the workers at the Ford Cuautitlán Assembly Plant, just outside Mexico City. On January 8, 1990, workers at the plant were attacked by police and private hired thugs wearing Ford jackets. This happened during a prolonged period of labor action by the workers, and kicked off an occupation of the plant. This attack didn’t happen in a vacuum and the CIA played a role in squashing labor at the plant.
Earlier this month, Elon Musk released a portion of Twitter’s algorithm and has since asked netizens to pat him on the back for his contribution to bringing back the old “free speech” of the early days of the internet. As the controversy on Twitter surrounding blue checks being given to dead celebrities, Musk continues to portray himself as disrupting the social media market by being a true advocate for real journalism. The hypocrisy of that is glaring. We discuss what free speech on the internet means, and what role, if any, Musk has in bringing it about.
The Washington Post has published that it has reviewed over 300 leaked documents posted online allegedly from the CIA and other intelligence agencies. The documents' presence online prompted an investigation that led to the arrest on Thursday of a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman, Jack Teixeira...
The expulsion of two Black elected Representatives from Tennessee’s state government continues a long, racist tradition of the removal of Black people in political power in the United States. From the founding of the country through the Reconstruction era and to the modern day, white supremacy and capitalism have used every weapon at their disposal to disenfranchise Black voters and legislators...
Mass protests in Israel broke out after Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu fired his Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant. Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated against Netanyahu’s planned judicial reform—really, a legislative coup. But nowhere in the media coverage was any discussion of how the protests or the judicial reform itself would impact the Palestinian people who continue to live under Israeli occupation and terror...
