THIS WEEK IN

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Crime Doesn’t Pay, But US Government Grants Do
The Reality of Defeat

What is Wrong with the American Left: the Abandonment of Class

The founding insight of the socialist tradition was that the central conflict of modern society is a relation, not a sentiment, between those who own the means of production and those who own only their labor. That relation, and not any catalog of identities, was the ground on which the left proposed to build a majority and to extend democracy into the economy. This frame, which even the revisionists who broke with Marx on tactics kept intact, the new new left has largely walked away from, and it did so with intellectual help. More

Geopathology and the Econopathology Behind it

America’s 2025 National Security Strategy calls for gaining control of the world’s oil trade. Toward this end, Donald Trump’s Oil War aims at depriving Iran, Iraq and its neighboring OPEC countries of their sovereignty over whom they may sell their oil to, just as he has done to Venezuela. There is no remorse for the collateral damage being caused by the disruption in energy trade that is plunging most of the world’s economies into depression. Such reckless (and wreckful) behavior conforms to the letter of what psychologists call a sociopath. More

Walking the Migrant Trail

There is nothing like walking quietly with a group of committed people through the hot Arizona desert to bring home the deadly reality faced by migrants coming to the U.S. through its southern border. Thousands of migrants have made this journey over the years. Forced into the Sonoran desert by the inhumane U.S. Prevention Through Deterrence policy and hunted by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), they have endured blazing heat and scarcity of water and shade as they have desperately sought asylum and a better life. Some have made it through, but many have not. Over 8000 migrant deaths have been recorded over the past 30 years. And there are many more whose bodies have not been found. More

Top Stories

When State Disaster Response Fails w/ Dr. Nadine Ortega

In this episode of CounterPunch Radio, Rebecca Maria Goldschmidt speaks with Dr. Nadine Ortega, co-founder of Tagnawa Hawai’i, about grassroots mutual aid disaster recovery. Dr. Ortega breaks down the socio-economic and historical conditions that have led to the recent Kona Low flooding on O’ahu and the 2023 Lahaina, Maui fires, which have disproportionately affected Native Hawaiian, Filipino, and other immigrant communities. She shares stories about the importance of cross-class and interethnic organizing when state-run disaster response fails.

Visit Tagnawa.org for more information.

The State of the US Left w/ Arun Gupta

Journalist Arun Gupta returns to CounterPunch Radio to discuss the state of the left, antiwar politics, and much more. Arun talks to host Eric Draitser and provides his analysis of the No Kings movement and how leftists should understand it, as well as a retrospective of the antiwar movements around Iraq and Vietnam. He explores the importance of physical community and organization using the example of New York’s Lower East Side, where he resides. The conversation also touches on the Left’s historic role in countering the hegemonic view of global affairs. A devoted leftist, Marxist, investigative journalist, chef, and food tour guide, Arun Gupta always brings incisive analysis and thoughtful critique to CounterPunch.

The Most Botched Imperial War w/ Gilbert Achcar

On this episode of CounterPunch Radio, Erik Wallenberg and Joshua Frank sit down with Gilbert Achcar to discuss Israel, Palestine, Iran, Lebanon, and the most botched US war ever.

Gilbert Achcar is Emeritus Professor at SOAS, University of London. He is the author of many books, most recently, The Gaza Catastrophe: The Genocide in World-Historical Perspective.