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Welcome to ClassWars, the home of Activist Radio, a weekly program for all Americans who are not in the wealthiest one percent of the US population.

Class wars have been going on since the beginning of recorded history. As societies become more powerful and wealthy, they often become more corrupt. Towards the end of each cycle, a few rich families own practically everything and rule with an iron fist. Imperial wars for empire and military over-expansion are other trademarks of a debased and undemocratic society. Empire often brings about great poverty and suffering not only in the occupied and exploited lands, but at home as well.

Class wars is a dirty term in our media, which always implies that America is above such crudeness. But the very rich are not above that at all. They have been waging an especially intense attack on working people since the 1970's, and have accumulated immense wealth and power at the expense of the rest of us.

Of course, America's class wars are not fought with tanks and bombs, but with crooked politicians, right wing think tanks and corporate owned media. For the very rich to maintain and increase their share of the national wealth, they have to fool you. How else could one percent of our population call the shots for the other ninety-nine percent?

Well, there is another way. The very rich can bankroll a fascist demagogue who then uses racial fears and hatreds to overcome any form of worker resistance. Mussolini and Hitler are examples of how this was done in the 1930s. Trump is, of course, the most dangerous demagogue of the 21st century. To understand how he has gotten this far, check out: "The Unspoken Spread of Fascism."

Activist Radio will attempt to show you how the few richest of our citizens lie to the rest of us to expand their power and wealth. They are sick with greed, of course. But so far, the rest of us are what might be worse, and that is stupid. None of the information presented is particularly new or really very hard to find, although you won't read it in the mainstream press or see it on TV. If that is what you are relying on for news, you are being suckered, my friend. I don't know how to put it any nicer.

So sit back, relax, and listen to Activist Radio streamed live:

Thursdays from 5 - 6 pm ET
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Activist Radio can also be heard: Thursdays 8-9 am on KBOO 90.7 FM in Portland, OR; Thursdays 11-12 noon on WRFA 107.9 FM in Jamestown, NY; Thursdays 5-6 pm on WVKR 91.3 FM at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY; Thursdays from 7-8 pm on WBDY 99.5 fm at The Bundy in Binghamton, NY; Sundays 1:30-2:30 pm on WESU 88.1 FM at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT; Sundays 4-5 pm from WIOF 104.1 FM in Woodstock, NY; and Sundays 5-6 pm from the Progressive Radio Network at PRN.LIVE. Past programs are available as a podcast; search for Activist Radio on iTunes, Google Play, Digital Podcast, Stitcher. or Spotify. You can also listen to us anytime on the web at ClassWars.org. Our last ten programs can also be heard by clicking on the dates to the right.

Recent stories on Activist Radio may have you thinking about some important issues. Put another way, you could be wondering if most of what we say is totally made up, since you probably haven't seen it on TV. But here are some links to stories we have done recently.

News fashioned by the people in charge, the corporations and your government. Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine.





Fred Nagel is a Vietnam Era veteran and political activist whose articles have appeared in CounterPunch, Global Exchange, LA Progressive, Mondoweiss, Peace & Planet News, Popular Resistance, and Z Magazine. He also hosts a show on Vassar College Radio, WVKR (classwars.org).



#Candles4Assange



Eli wishing Assange a Happy Birthday



Eli and Fred "take a knee" for racial justice
while Jimi Hendrix goes out over the airwaves.




Reporting from the veteran's
encampment at Standing Rock




Fred at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London,
standing with a vigil for Julian Assange




Dave, Heather, Fred and DJ James Poe
at WABG - AM 960 in Columbus, MS

Dahr Jamail and Gary

Fred and Gary with Pete Seeger


Kathy Kelly and Gary


Thanks to Martha for this time
on the set of Democracy Now.


Fred and Gary on the air

In memory of Jordan Taylor,
Black Lives Matter organizer
and former Activist Radio co-host




The late 19 Century had its very own Gilded Age.






Milton Friedman, guru of deregulation and
self interest, made millionaires into billionaires
by robbing everyone else.






Feeding the Empire's war machine.

Listen to recent shows

You can also right click on the date to read your browser's other options. Listening in iTunes works nicely if that is available.




March 28

GUEST: Philippe Diaz, award winning French screenwriter, film director and producer with over 20 documentaries to his credit, talks about his latest project: I Am Gitmo, a movie that follows the travails of a Muslim schoolteacher sold to a CIA black site and transported to Guantanamo.

Cinema Libre Studio
From Wikipedia
I Am Gitmo (based on true events)

SONG: Hal Ketchum ... Trail Of Tears
SONG: Seth Staton Watkins  ... Oh Palestine, Oh Palestine

March 21

GUEST: Andy Izenson, staff attorney, member of the Family Law Institute of the National LGBT Bar Association, and past president of the NYC National Lawyers Guild, talks about the enormous effect the right wing, Christian Zionist movement has on US support for Israel.  

Harvard Law School LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic
Christian Zionist cowboys
Polyamory Legal Advocacy Coalition

SONG: The Marsh Family ... If That Day Comes Round
SONG: Uncle Devin  ... Move the Money

March 14

GUEST: Shahd Safi, born and raised in a Gaza refugee camp and now in Rafah with her family, talks about her work as a freelance journalist and the desperation of the Palestinian people with nowhere else to go.  (Interview from Report Gaza)

Palestinian Women in Gaza: Cruel Realities of Displacement
Shahd Safi - We are Not Numbers
Voices without borders: Four young writers from Gaza

SONG: David Rovics ... Sing a Song for Gaza
SONG: Zaytouna-Oliva ... Song for Gaza

UPDATE: Shahd and her family have escaped from Gaza

March 7

GUEST: Ann Wright, author, retired United States Army colonel, and former US diplomat who resigned in March 2003 in opposition to the invasion of Iraq, talks about genocide and Palestinian liberation.

Why Would Anyone Kill Themselves to Stop a War?
Ret. Col. Ann Wright Unmasks the Truth in Arms Transfer Debate
For God's Sake Joe, What Are You Doing

SONG: David Rovics ... Just Like the Nazis Did
SONG: Anne Feeney ... Have You Been to Jail for Justice?

February 29

GUEST: Yakov Pipman, long time Israeli citizen who fought as an IDF soldier for three wars, talks about winning Palestinian human rights and the history of Matzpen, the revolutionary socialist movement in Israel.  

Matzpen, Israeli peace movement
Anti Zionist Israelis. full film with English subtitles
Wikipedia on Matzpen

SONG: Kirk Franklin ... Are You Listening?
SONG: David Rovics ... As the Bombs Rain Down

February 22

GUEST: Ann Larson, antipoverty activist and contributor to the anthology, Going for Broke: Living on the Edge in the World's Richest Country, talks about how the poorly paid get by in a country designed for the billionaire class.

Ann Larson: The Cashier Philosopher
To the Corporate Media, Workers May as Well Not Exist
Economic Hardship Reporting Project

SONG: David Rovics ... Wounded Child With No Surviving Family
SONG: Jim Page, Collateral Damage ... Collateral Damage

February 15

GUEST: Rahul Kumar, high school activist and founder of Poughkeepsie 4 Palestine, talks about how his generation is organizing local rallies and public speak outs against the genocide in Gaza, and the warmongering of our political elites.

Rally in Poughkeepsie, NY
Free Palestine rally held in Newburgh
Poughkeepsie 4 Palestine

SONG: Jim Page, Collateral Damage ... My American Name
SONG: Jim Page, Collateral Damage ... Long Corner Turning

February 8

GUEST: Michael Zweig, author of the newly published book, Class, Race, and Gender: Challenging the Injuries and Divisions of Capitalism, talks about the uprisings against the wealthy elites who run our state.

Class, Race, and Gender
NPR Roundtable review
BOOK TALK: Class, Race, and Gender

SONG: Jim Page, Collateral Damage ... Palestine
SONG: Jim Page ... I'd Rather Be Dancing

February 1

GUEST: Shahd, young Palestinian activist and political writer living with her family in Gaza, is now missing and perhaps one of the tens of thousands murdered by the Israeli state.

UPDATE: Shahd is still alive and reporting on Gaza!

Egyptian officials are demanding a massive ransom
The long walk to Palestine’s freedom

SONG: Nancy Griffith & Lucinda Williams, The Dust Bowl Symphony ... It's a Hard Life
SONG: Nancy Griffith & Lucinda Williams ... Wings of a Dove

January 25

GUEST: Raz, Jordanian/Palestinian researcher and artist, talks about being part of the diaspora, and how views about the US and its commitment to human rights are changing in light of the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Urge ICJ to invite journalists covering the war in Gaza
Middle East Crisis Response
Reality and Reflection Mazin Qumsiyeh

SONG: Black Bird Dread ... We Are All Palestinians
SONG: David Rovics ... Famine & Disease



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Some Favorite Lies
of the Very Rich

  1. Class wars don't exist in America, the land of the free. (The very rich have taken the rest of us to the cleaners, especially since the mid 1970's. Democracy in America has become little more than a useful fiction.)
  2. The two party system promotes the will of the people. (Both parties are paid for by the major corporations, leaving the people with very little power to change domestic or foreign policy.)
  3. Multinational corporations encourage free enterprise. (They spend most of their time getting handouts from governments while trying to eliminate workers' rights and environmental regulations through "free" trade.)
  4. The billions spent on defense contracts make Americans safer. (Most defense contracts are no-bid, billion dollar scams. Of the first world countries, only America spends so much on weaponry that there is nothing left over for the poor and middle class: no education, no health care, and no housing.)
  5. High drug costs are necessary to pay for research. (Most drug profits go towards advertising and CEO stock options. Other first world countries, like Canada, control drug prices.)
  6. Charter schools increase the quality of the nation's education. (Charter schools allow corporations to control what students learn, while draining dollars from public schools.)
  7. US foreign policy is used to spread democracy and to make the world a safer place. (Most US policy is military action aimed at countries that threaten corporate profits. In America, the poor fight the wars, the middle class pays for them, and the very rich make out like the bandits they are.)
  8. Free health care, daycare, and college tuition for all are simply unaffordable. (The most successful capitalist countries provide their citizens with all these benefits and much more.)
  9. Social Security needs reform to save it. (Social Security is good for another 40 years, and with a little more paid by top earners, good forever. That is if we can keep Wall Street thieves from getting their hands on it.)
  10. It's all Trump's fault! Vote for the Democrats to change the system. (If you believe that whopper, you are part of the problem.)

The Hidden Verses
to This Land Is Your Land

Was a high wall there that tried to stop me
A sign was painted said: Private Property,
But on the back side it didn't say nothing --
This land was made for you and me.

One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
By the Relief Office I saw my people --
As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering if
This land was made for you and me.

WOODY G. (Feb. 23, 1940)





Workers of the world, awaken!
Beak our chains, demand your rights.
All the wealth you make is taken
By exploiting parasites.

Shall you kneel in deep submission
From your cradles to your graves?
Is the height of your ambition
To be good and willing slaves?

JOE HILL (1910)




One blue sky above us
One ocean lapping all our shore
One earth so green and round
Who could ask for more
And because I love you
I'll give it one more try
To show my rainbow race
It's too soon to die.

-Pete Seeger





We have been added to Progressive Radio Voices
and can be heard every Sunday from 5 - 6 pm ET on
prn.live




Selected as one of PlayerFM's
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Listen as a podcast on Spotify





Crony capitalists have always been with us.
Here is Boss Tweed of New York's Tammany
Hall sometime in the 1860's.









The policy of the American Empire since World War II.


<
I see in the future a crisis approaching that fills me with anxiety. As a result of the war, corporations have become enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow. The money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its rule by preying upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is concentrated in a few hands and the Republic destroyed.
Abraham Lincoln
And above all Fascism denies that class-war can be the preponderant force in the transformation of society.
Benito Mussolini
The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism - ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
A revolution is a class struggle. It was one class - the oppressed, and that other class - the oppressor.
Fred Hampton
Surely, in the history of lies told to the population, this is the biggest lie. In the history of secrets, withheld from the American people, this is the biggest secret: that there are classes with different interests in this country. To ignore that--not to know that the history of our country is a history of slaveowner against slave, landlord against tenant, corporation against worker, rich against poor--is to render us helpless before all the lesser lies told to us by people in power.
Howard Zinn
The clinical definition of "fascism' is when private concentrated economic power takes government away from the people, turns government into a guarantor, a subsidizer, a covering of corporate power.
Ralph Nader
There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning.
Warren Buffet
This [$700 billion bailout] was the largest single act of class warfare in the modern history of this country.
Dennis Kucinich
I think this has been a class war waged by the rich against the poor, and I think that they won. And I think the poor are fighting back.
Naomi Klein
The solution is revolution, first in the spirit of the gospel; Jesus could not accept people going hungry. It is a conflict between classes, rich and poor. My role is to preach and organize.
Jean-Bertrand Aristide
The effect of the [European Central Bank] policies is to weaken the welfare state measures and to reduce the power of labor. That's class war. It's fine for the banks, for financial institutions, but terrible for the population.
Noam Chomsky
The US has a highly class-conscious business class. If you read the business literature, it's like reading Mao's "Red Book." The values may be inverted, but the terminology is the same. They're fighting a bitter class war constantly. They never relax for a minute.

Noam Chomsky
The breakdown [of American society] is not caused by economic laws. They are policies, a kind of class war initiated by the rich and powerful against the working population and the poor. This is what defines the neoliberalism period, not only in the United States but in Europe and elsewhere.

Noam Chomsky
For 45 years there has been a war in this country waged by the corporate elite against the working class of America.

Bernie Sanders
If there is going to be class warfare in this country, it's about time the working class won that war.

Bernie Sanders
The theft of public resources for the military and militarism domestically and abroad represent a one-sided class war waged on the working class in the U.S. The 6 trillion dollars spent on U.S. wars since 2003 are resources that could have been directed to address the increasing desperate plight of workers and poor people in the U.S.

Ajamu Baraka
You look at the reality, neoliberalism translates as bitter class war. That?s the meaning of it, everywhere you look, every component of it.
Noam Chomsky
Now I'm finding out there's just one kind of war.
It's the one going on 'tween the rich and the poor.
I guess that I don't know a lot about class,
But the upper and middle can all kiss my ass.
Utah Phillips