Thu, 13 June 2019
Welcome to Episode 11, the final installment of No Wall They Can Build, the Ex-Worker Podcast’s serialized audiobook exploring borders and migration across North America. This episode concludes the book with personal reflections about the author’s own journey in and out of the desert and the unavoidable links that bind all of us across all borders. To become a real force for change, those who would act in solidarity must overcome the limits of privilege politics and guilt, understanding our activities as fighting for our own lives and dismantling the illusion of separation between ourselves and others. What links migrants, solidarity workers, and all people struggling to survive amidst the disorienting nightmare of postmodern civilization is the pursuit of dignity—a sentiment beautifully expressed in a message sent by Rachel Corrie, an American solidarity worker in occupied Palestine, to her mother in 2003 just weeks before she was murdered by an Israeli bulldozer while attempting to stop a home demolition. Two final stories—one chilling and one touching—illustrate the astonishing peril of the desert even for experienced travelers, and the solace that unexpected alliances with creatures of the desert can provide for migrants and solidarity workers alike. Ultimately, the book concludes, to end death in the desert, to rediscover our own humanity, and to have any hope of our survival on this planet, there is one thing in common that we all must do—find our way back home. {June 13th, 2019}
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Direct download: No-Wall-They-Can-Build_Episode-11_From-East-to-West-Part-II_Solidarity-and-Home.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:20am PDT |
Thu, 6 June 2019
Welcome to Episode 10 of No Wall They Can Build, the Ex-Worker Podcast’s serialized audiobook exploring borders and migration across North America. Over the past two months, we’ve explored the ins and outs of irregular migration across the US/Mexico border. Where does it leave us? As the crises produced by climate change and economic exploitations intensify across the world, revolutions turn in to wars, which beget tyranny, which in turn provoke revolutions. In this climate of escalating chaos, what can we do? This episode explores the meaning of revolution in the twenty-first century, looking at the forms it has taken and assessing what it would take to defend it today. The Zapatista struggle offers one of the most durable and promising models of autonomy we’ve seen in recent decades—yet the limits it has encountered point towards unavoidable contradictions facing those who wish to avoid warfare and bloodshed but also cannot defend their achievements against remorseless foes without the force of arms. A harrowing story about the siege of San Juan Copala, an indigenous community whose effort to secure autonomy from the Mexican state was brutally crushed, illustrates the agonizing dilemma that faces would-be revolutionaries today. This episode offers an unflinching look at the perils confronting those who would defy these global systems driving displacement and death, setting the stage for our final installment next week on solidarity and coming home. {June 6th, 2019}
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Direct download: No-Wall-They-Can-Build_Episode-10_From-East-to-West-Part-I_Chaos-and-Order-and-Transformation.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:45pm PDT |