It Could Happen Here Weekly 183

colonial history. For the necessary context, we have to start thousands of years before the name Mexico or Mexico even existed.

Of course, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the land we now call Mexico is home to some of the world's most unique ancient civilizations whose came the Olmechs, often called the mother culture of meso America, known for their colossal stoneheads and influence on later cultures there with their dazzlin cities, mathematics and calendars, and eventually the Aztecs, who built the Grand Empire, settled onto nor Stitland, which is now Mexico City. Unfortunately,

we can't spend much time on this rich history. We must progress to the time of European contact. In fifteen nineteen, everything changed. Spanish Conquistra and nan Cortez arrived, and within just two years the mighty Aztec Empire fell disease. Alliances with native enemies of the Aztecs, technological advantages and brutal

warfare aided the Spaniards overthrowing a civilization of millions. What followed was three centuries of colonial rule under New Spain, marked by extraction, Catholic conversion, and the mixing, often violently, of indigenous European and African peoples. By the early eighteen hundreds, the winds of independence were finally blowing. A Catholic priest named Miguel Hidalgo sparked the fight with a cry for

freedom in eighteen ten. Specifically, he sought the end of rule by Spanish peninsulars, which are the people who came from Spain and ruled over Mexico. He called for the equality of races, and he called for the redistribution of land. As a hill capbility put it in anarchism in Latin miracle, hid Illgo proposed to abolish, even if by gentle and gradual means, what he called, in almost Prudonian terms, the

horrible right of territorial property, perpetual hereditary and exclusive. This whole land topic is going to come up a lot in the history. By the way, you may be familiar with the phrase land and freedom, the aira liberdad that comes from Mexico. Anyway. It took more than a decade of war, but by eighteen twenty one Mexico had finally

broken free from Spain. Freedom, though didn't mean stability. The nineteenth century saw emperors come and go, because there was actually a time when Mexico as a monarchy, Foreign invasions by the United States via the Manifest Destiny and Napoleon's

France via monarchical Latin League, and internal power struggles. The Zapatec president Benito Juarez, who from eighteen sixty four to eighteen sixty seven had resisted foreign occupation by Napoleon's emperor Maximilian and fought for constitutional reform, sought to stabilize, secularize, and modernize the country. In the mid eighteen hundreds, figures like Quarez led a sweeping movement against the old powers of Mexico, the Catholic Church and the military, which had

long dominated both land and politics. To the layers de reformer. They seized church property, secularized education and promised a new era of rights and equality. But there was a catch, because to weaken the Church, the liberals sold off its land, not to the peasants or indigenous communities who had worked on it for generations, but to wealthy buyers, the heroes. The communal lands of indigenous peoples were privatized under this liberal banner freedom and progress. They created a new class

of landlords and pushed rural people deeper into poverty. Benito Juarez died, but his legacy lived on with those reforms to cement the separation of church and state, freedom of religion, the prohibition of forced labor, and so on. But following him came the Portfyriato, a thirty year long dictatorship under the mixed tech president Porfyrio Dias, who continued the modernization of the country but also deepened its long standing inequalities.

Portforio Dias surrounded himself with intellectuals known as the scientificos They were positivists, as in adherents of the positivist school of philosophy, which advocated for rational planning and economic development as a path of social progress. His slogan was ban Opalo, the bread or the stick, and reflected the policy of rewarding compliance with prosperity while punishing dissent with severe consequences.

The liberty order and progress equation sacrificed liberty as the Mexican people were expected to trade freedom for the benefits of these policies. Workers ended up facings low wages, long hours, and of course lacked rights, while estate laborers were landless and under the arbitrary rule of Mayo demos, education was largely restricted to elites. In major cities, groups like the

Yaqi Indians were forcibly relocated as cheap labor to plantations. Governors, those supposedly elected, were effectively presidential appointees, monitored by Hipe's politicals who intervened the local affairs. The roulatis and elite constabulary maintained order but often disregarded due process, which fostered a whole reign of terror in the rural areas. Diaz's popularity eventually waned as prosperity was monopolized by a small,

often foreign elite. This elite emulated European customs, which created a stark divide with the growing protis and middle classes. By the second half of the nineteenth century, Mexico was caught in a contradiction a state that promised emancipation through property rights, while this possessing the very people it claimed to free. The liberal project had failed them, and in its failure space opened for deeper critiques of property power

and the state itself. A younger generation began questioning the system, and with this rise in criticism came rising repression, which set the stage for the Mexican Revolution of nineteen ten.

like a driving these like global trends of like revoltant revolution. Yeah, and like we see this a lot in like the yeah, like the nineteen ten to nineteen twenty time period. I mean even just in Latin America.

the twenty ten is already over. The narratives around it are still formulated, right, We're still in the midst of the nineteen twenty in the nineteen twenties, the twenty twenties, say, you know, the nowseron it will still be development all now. But we're already halfway through, and I'm sure people have already seen suitent trends that are going to make for some excellent retrospective commentary.

of most popular consciousness. Yeah, to the point where even like the more like liberal parties are being quote unquote forced to adopt like similar rhetoric looking at like like like the Labor Party in the UK and hearing the States, how how much like the Democratic Party last year like completely caved on like far right populist talking points on immigration and stuff.

of their political message. Center the polical messages, you know, various culture related issues that they can use s rority their base, but it's nothing that's actually benefiting people, you know. And instead of circumventing that, that effort to dictate the course of conversation, dictate our own conversations instead of what it's kind of following along the tail. But that's a bit outside the scope of of this a bit of

a digression here. But before we get to the point of the Mexican Revolution, though, we should really take a look at the slow and steady development of radical ideas in Mexico during the nineteenth century. You see indigenous resistance persisted throughout Mexico's history through often quiet, revolved acts of non cooperation that would steadily ensure that Spain could never

fully establish his dominion. Even after independence, the culdnal structure lived on in the hasciendas, the church, and the state, so the indigenous communities would continue to resist, sometimes in profoundly anti authoritarian ways by the nineteenth century. And this history is courtesy and hill capialtes anarchism in Latin America. As I mentioned in eighteen sixty one, a man arrived in Mexico with a very distinct name. He was Platino

Constantino Rorocanati. He was a Greek immigrant radicalized by the revolutions in Europe and steeped in the works of Furia, who was a utopian socialist, and Prudon, who was an anarchist fust anarchist. He had fled the counter revolutionary tide crashing over the continent with a mission. Roccanati believed Mexico, with its long standing indigenous traditions of communal landholding and mutual aid was the perfect police to plant the seeds of a new utopian society. And in a lot of

ways he was right, you know. He saw in the a Hero system, the indigenous Kuna Lantennire a living echo of the kind of society Utopians in Europe could only dream of. Where the liberally saw backwardness, Rota Kanati saw potential. His aim wasn't to civilize these communities, but to learn from them and help them protect their autoroity from the encroaging state through political philosophy and practice. He seemed to be a very interesting fellow by the way. I mean,

he apparently spoke seven languages. He practiced medicine by day and philosophy by night. He was a Christian, but not anything like the Christians that dominated Mexico at the time, because, as anhil Capelt he puts it for him, the essence of Christianity is charity, that is love for all, as it is taught in the Gospels, and that essence is

the moral foundation of socialism and revolution as well. Pure Christianity, he wrote, is the religion that will regenerate the world when people finally come to understand the power of its basic principles liberty, equality and fraternity. But it is Christianity without dogma like Saint Simon's, and without priesthood, liturgy or hierarchical organization, the model for which he finds in the

life of Jesus and his earliest followers. Primitive Christianity is authentic Christianity, but has been entirely degraded by the Catholic and Protestant churches, and has nothing to do with so many sexs that call themselves Christian end quote. A few months after his arrival in eighteen sixty one, he published a socialist primary in Mexico that marked him as the first anarchist to put forward distinctly anarchist theory in the country.

In the mid eighteen sixties, he formed a group called Lass Social the goal of spreading the ideas of mutualism, free association, anti capitalist cooperation through books, pamphlets, and education. Barukannati and his collaborators launched workers schools aimed the promoting literacy, political consciousness, and autonomy. Once at school was the Esquila de Rao idel Socialismo, the School of Lightning and socialism hell. Yet it combined moral instruction with a deep critique of

the exploitative labor system. This was, you know, education as a rebellion, not just to read, but to recognize the exploitation and to imagine alternatives. Rudicnati thought of his socialism as the fullest expression of the French revolutionary motto of liberty, equality and fraternity, which no half measure like liberalism could

ever reach. He recognized that the immediate objective must be quote, the extinction of poverty, the distribution and increase to the commonwealth, the abolition of prostitution, and the conservation of all our faculties, including the intellectual, physical, and moral ones, for the transformation of humanity through science, beauty and virtue end quote. One of those things was not like the others. I'm surely noticed. There was a standout inclusion there, but it makes sense

considering his background. He also saw himself as a cosmopolitan, perhaps owing in part his unique circumstances as a man with a Greek father, Austrian mother, a French education, and Mexican who he said, quote, we are Cosmopolitans by nature, citizens of all nations, and contemporaries to all the Asias, the greatest and most heroic human actions belong equally to all end quote. In other words, our country is the

entire world, and all men are brothers. He also wrote that the abolition of all governments in the nations, which frightens you and you consider impossible and absurd they have ever tried it, will usher in a totally new world of institutions, in which the peoples of the world will

live in happiness end quote. Brouclati was a pacifist and his approached anarchism, which owed his original introduction of socialism being via Charles Furia, but eventually he came to the stand the need for a class struggle, as he said, quote, a social revolution in which many heroic victims will be sacrificed in the sacred altar to restore the justice denied it to the people end quote. His work attracted young radicals, many of whom would later play key roles in the

development of Mexico's labor movement. Before he started Laso Ciel, he'd initiated the first Grupo Destudiante Socialistas, from which came figures such as Santiago Villanueva, who tried to organize the worker's movement Permeneghuillo, Filla, Vicinzio, and Francisco's Alacosta, a leader

of rural masses. It's the core of this group that would help him to create Lasocil, which would educate and agitate, but also assist workers beyond mutual aid to an active class struggle posture in defense of the interests against bosses. So basically, he took these mutual aid societies and made sure that they didn't stay mutual aid societies, that they were radicalized into resistance societies. Because those sort of mutual aid associations were very common in Latin America at the time.

You know, workers would create these little groups where they would try and support each other. But it's very easy to fall back on that and to assume, you know, that's all you have to do. Making sure that they have a radical posture, a revolutionary posture. It's important to ensure that they're not just rest in your laurels and expecting change to come to you, and indeed, they did

not expect the change to come to them. In June eighteen sixty five, these resistant societies supported the first industrial strike in Mexico. Unfortunately, it was crushed by the leader of the country at the time, Emperor Maximilian, but it was his occupation and the economic harshness of it all that fermented the spread of anarchist ideas. Another stud on Talt of Rocannati school came Julio Chavez, a precursor to the more famous Emiliano Zapata and a fervent anarchist communist.

He agitated for a peasant rebellion and engage in land expropriations, which grew in popularity wherever he was active, from the Cholco texokore John where he began to all the states of Quibbler and Morella as Coupleleetti recounts quote. The federal army finally moved against him and defeated and imprisoned. He was executed in eighteen sixty nine by order of President Benito Juarez. Before he died, Chavez cried out, long Live

Socialism end quote. His manifesto, which was written a few months before he died, would help introduce more masses in the Mexican movement to the idea of class drugl and like a light bulb over one's head, it immediately it

clear who was responsible for their suffering. Santiago vil and Weaver and a fellow student to Rocanati named Villa Vicenzio worked arduously to organize the artisans and workers in Mexico City, and they definitely had the cards stacked against them, but they helped to organize an industrial strike in a textile mill in eighteen sixty eight, and in eighteen sixty nine they established a Circulo Peraltario, and in eighteen seventy the Grand Seculio de Obreros de Mexico and in eighteen seventy

one the newspaper Al Socialista. This is when the red and black so famously associated with anarchism came into the Mexican workers' movement. The eighteen seventies saw struggles between radical and moderate factions among workers, proletarian presses making a name for themselves, and the first convention of the General Workers Congress of the Mexican Republic in eighteen seventy six with a manifesto that indicated the crown influence of libertarian ideology

in Mexico. Of course, there was a tension in that Congress between the socialists and the anarchists, but water is wet. Sadly, Mexico wasn't ready for revolution, or rather the ruling class wasn't. While Roadcinnati and others sold seeds among students and workers, the country was swinging toward reaction. As I mentioned earlier, with the rise of Porfilio Diaz in eighteen seventy six, any space for radical thought began to close. Diaz, the

stronglan of Oneization, was obsessed with order and progress. He welcomed foreign capital, built railroads across the nation, and gutted the countryside to make room for exports, and he crushed dissent. While Roccarati avoided outright persecution thanks in partists foreign status and paspest leanings, the educational projects he inspired were dismantled or sidelined. The more confrontational elements of the ole anarchists

current went underground. Those who spoke of abolishing property or questioned the Porphylian vision of modernity were met with jail, exile, or worse. Rocnati's allies, Alacosta, through his newspaper Like International, promoted a twelve point socialist agenda. Advocated on universal social republic, municipal autonomy, workers' rights, workers associations, wage abolition, and property equality.

Despite Diaz's rise in eighteen seventy seven, he led a present uprising in Sierra Gorda and Planet the Lla Baranca, battling federal forces until eighteen eighty. Despite his defeat and imprisonment in eighteen eighty one, the rebellion persisted. Telacosta's ally, Colonel Albert to Santa Fe, introduced the Lays del Pueblo. Influenced by mcunan's ideas. Though not a purely anarchist manifesto, this document emphasized land distribution, national industry promotion, army suppression,

and free education. Stafe argued that true Mexican independence depended on reclaimant stolen lands, a movement which, of course gained traction among the peasants. General Negrete supported Santa Fe's revolutionary efforts, just as he had backed Chavez, Lopez and Sarlacosta earlier. Satafe's resistance against Diaz's dictatorship was more radical than mayor electoral opposition. It aimed at transference sovereignty to local municipalities

and land to peasant collectors. However, by the eighteen nineties, Diaz effectively suppressed most worker movements through bribery and repression. While industrial workers and miners fared slightly better than the peasants, wages steadily declined after eighteen ninety eight. Rodocanati left Mexico in eighteen eighty six after giving for two decades of his life to the cause. But it's two decades of so and seeds would eventually flourish in the Mexican Revolution.

What will be covering in the next episode. Thanks for tuning in, am Andra Sage. You can follow me on YouTube at Andrewism and patron dot com slash Saint Drew. Thanks again. This is it could happen here. All power to all the people. Please hello and welcome to it could happen here. I'm back with Yeason Davis.

Some of his students pushed even further and flirted with many bush and streams of anarchism. Even as Portfilio Diazis regime clamped down and anything that challenges dry for order and progress, Rocanati faded from view and many of his students that associates had to go underground for a time, but the ideas would live on like quiet sparks or waiting for the next revolt, and an actual volt would

come in nineteen ten, when the Mexican Revolution erupted. By keeping in mind the contexts here, when we talk about revolutions, the focus tends to be on the flashpoints, the gunfire, the slogans, the major figures, and I will do a lot of focus on so of them figures throughout this history. We have to keep in mind the revolutions have roots

that run deep, run deep below the surface. The revolutions are often shaped by decades or centuries of injustice, and Mexico's revolution was no exception because for over three decades for Fibio Diaz ruled Mexico with what was basically a velvet glove over an iron fist. He brought railroads in electrification, but also crave crave costs for the rural poor, the indigenous communities, and the working classes. By nineteen ten, thanks to his efforts, almost all the land in Mexico was

in private hands. The rural port and our found themselves as peons and haciendas abot those that fled to the city for themselves, proletarianized, made to work at various industries for long hours, low pay, and little protection. Despite appearance stable and efficient and orderly, the system in Mexico was profoundly unjust, and yet many saw it as a model for progress in a region full of instability, a description that seems eerily familiar to the situation that's currently taking

place in El Salvador. Beneath the Polish Venaier, tensions were breren workers were organizing journalists who were risking their lives. Teachers and lawyers, and even wealthy landowners began to murmur about the need for reform, and the countryside, those old communal memories refused to die. Even after the land was taken.

The land was remembered by the term twentieth century, Giaz approached his eighties with no successor in sight, and the people were getting fedter, which brings us into the first phase of the Mexican Revolution. According to A. Hill Cappaletti, the author of Anarchism in Latin America and the main source of this episode, Francisco I. Madero wasn't quite a revolutionary in all honesty. He just wanted to tweet the status ko to keep a free market, but banned reelection

of presidents came from money. He was an upper class intellectual, a believer in parliamentary democracy and in free markets. He read the Review spirit the religiously. It was a spiritualist journalism, and he believes in a kind of metaphysical liberalism where good governance and good intentions could stare history in the right direction. Madero's party, the Partido Democrata, was formed with a single claire goal, and in Porthio diazis decades long

grip on power. But to more radical forces like Coricardo Flores Margonne and the Partido Liberal Mexicano or PLM, Madero's vision was nowhere near enough to get fooled by the name.

By the way, the PM had some revolutionary credentials. It started off as a simple anti clerical, anti editatorial party, but perhaps with the influence of North American and Spanish immigrant anarchosynicalists, it eventually took on a libertarian character, guided also in part for the ideological evolution of Malgone himself. It was neither liberal nor truly a party in the end,

but rather a truly revolutionary libertarian organization. We'll get back to Macgone's story in Osaka, but the point is where mcgone was calling for social revolution, landry distribution, and worker's control of production. Madero merely wanted electoral reform. He had no real program for agreerian justice and was quote generally indifferent to the problems of the Mexican masses, as Capeletti

put it. Still, Madero's nineteen ten campaign electrified all of those who were unit for change, revolutionaries and reformists alike. His challenge Todas helped ignite a broader uprising that managed to bring Madero into power in nineteen eleven. Before we get into what happened during the Madero presidency, let's go back in time to follow Ricardo Flora's Macgone story. Macgon was Born in eighteen seventy three in the village of San Antonio, Iloxo Chi, then in Osaka, his roots straddled

both indigenous and Mestizo heritage. As a law students in Mexico City, he found himself swept into the tide of anti government agitation. Before he even toned twenty, he was jailed for the first time. He joined the radical press in eighteen ninety three with El Democrat and anti Diaz people. The regime quickly snuffed out, but he wasn't deterred. In nineteen hundred he co founded Regeneracion, the publication that would become the voice of the Mexican left in the twentieth century.

It was while behind bars, where he often found himself, that Macgone encountered the ideas that would shape his life's work. Thanks to the library of liberal landowner Camillo Ariaga, he read the writings of Kropotkin and Malichester, and through those texts crystallized his anarchist vision. Now, even though Magone's ideology incubated quietly in his early political life, it didn't stay buried for law as his conflicts of the diazre intensified. So

truly the radicalism of his actions. He edited L Ejo del Aquisote, a satirical rag that earned him yet another stint in prison, and after his release of nineteen oh four, Magroun fled to Texas where he re launched Geracion with renewed purpose. By nineteen oh five, the paper helped spark the creation of the Patido Liberal and the Hicano or PLM, which, as I said, wasn't much of a political party as it was a radical organ though it did have some

reformist demands mixed it. They were trying to soften their language at times to appeal to conservative sympathizers of reform. Away from the ADS, the PMS sought the abolition of the military tribunals, free secular education, workers rights at the eight hour workday minimum wage, and the expropriation of idle lands. In short, it went further than nineteen seventeen constitution that

would come a decade later. I could be seen as the crystallization of many of the Mexican Revolution's most popular aims. Margon and the PLM established alliances across borders, particularly among the industrial workers of the world, but that put a target on Magone's back. For both Mexican and US authorities. You already know they can't be having solid darity like that.

The Pinkertons rolled up, backed in part by Diaz himself, and they were on Magon's tail constantly, even ended up as far north as Canada just trying to escape their constant harassment. But despite the repression, the momentum could not be killed. Between nineteen or six and ninety oh eight, the PLM helped organize a string of strikes and uprisings. The most infamous was the canear Nea copper strike. Mexican miners were paid stop vation wages while their American counterparts

earned double for the same work. When the miners struck for fair pay and better conditions, they were met with deadly force. The rebellion that followed so American rangers in Mexican troops massacre more than two hundred people thousands were jailed. Another uprising ignited in Rio Blanco, where textile workers already paid a pittance, organized with the leadership of Jose Nierra,

a student of Magon. When negotiations failed and repression ramped up, the workers responded, not with another petition, both insurrection on January seventh, nineteen oh seven, they stormed the mill, freed prisoners, cut wires, and declared open rebellion. The state responded with a bloodbath. Entire families were dragged from their homes and executed. Another one of the uprisings was a peasant revolter, began in nineteen oh six in Akayukan and spread through Tuxtlas,

Mine Titlan and Tavasco. It was crushed, of course, in nineteen oh eight and Viscas, though their plans had been leaked to the authorities, revolutionaries had a firefight with police and freed a town jail. Just two days later, in Las Vegas, other students of Magon were fighting for justice. Another set of gorillas of rose in Palomas, but they failed. Yet another insurrection happened in Via the lead Yucatan, and

they suffered summary executions. And all those events, all those small revolutionary bands challenging the states, they failed, but they emboldened the dream of a different world with their will to act. Magone was jailed again in nineteen oh seven, but it wasn't over for him yet. And I really don't like to romanticize, you know, this idea of this uprisings, that they feel, but you know, they're still inspiring. We don't want to go too fun to that where you know,

your self sacrifice for self sacrifice sake. But I think it's important to point out that there were multiple failed attempts before the successful uprising that ushered in the Mexican Revolution. It wasn't you know, a first time successful attempt, and by the time Malgon was at least from prison in nineteen ten, the revolution had already begun to burn across Mexico, and that is in part in thanks to the efforts

of those uprisings. Even though those individual uprisings failed, the Catalan immigrant Amadeo Ferres pumped up this energy in nineteen eleven with El Tipograph for Mexicano, yet another newspaper with a fierce anarcho cynicalist spirit, meant to mobilize urban workers. At the same time, old anarchist typographers were not only printing their message, they were forming unions like the Union

de Canteras Mexicanos. In mid nineteen twelve, Juan Francisco Moncaliano arrived from Qure and quickly rallied a diverse group of workers into Grupo LuSE set on establishing a progressive education platform, al Francisco Ferrer. By September nineteen twelve, these unions and Grupo Loos united to form La Cassa Delbrero, forging a

distinctly anarcho synicalist identity. The organized lectures built libraries of classic anarchist works and launched a new bi weekly called Lucha, all while energizing a massive May Day rally in nineteen thirteen, where twenty eight thousand workers rallied. Like Margon, these radicals saw through the hollow promises of Madero's democracy. Voting for a new president wouldn't free the peasantry. The legislative seats wouldn't redistribute land. No congress, no matter how liberal, would

ever voluntarily dismantle the system that fed it. For them, revolution was no less than put in land and production in the hands of the people. No bosses, no landlords, no masters, just workers organizing life on their own terms. Madero's revolution, if we could even be called that, had mobilized peasants, workers, and radicals. But that moderate phase was about to end because once seated as president, Madero leaned heavily on old elites. He really siphoned energy away from

genuine social change. With that reformance to push that he was doing a move that sounds all through familiar, but there was refusals in oct meaningful change lost in his allies very quickly. Figures like Pasqual, Orosco and even Emiliano Zapata, who had initially supported the rebellion against Diaz, became dissillusion sowil Madero governed, the PLM continued its fight now against

the emergent new regime in northern Mexico. PLM aligned forces initially rose alongside Madero's, but they did not make common cause with him. When strategic positions and hiwawa were lost with the middle class and Orosco sided with Madero, the Mogonists turned their attention elsewhere. The next target was Baja California. In early nineteen eleven. They began seasoned towns Mexicali, Los Alcodonis, Tecate, and finally Tijouanna, seeking to establish a libertarian society, a

model for what they called a free America. But the backlash was swift. American, British and French businesses owned pretty much all of Baja California, landowners and newspaper mogules in California, USA, which were often the same people panicked and ended up smearing the mcgonists as secessionists trying to handle from Mexican land to the US. In truth, as mcgonn wrote in Regeneracion, does Baja California belong to Mexico. It does not, is

under the control of foreign capital. Mexicans owned nothing of it. The PLM's campaign was not about taking Mexico apart. It was about reclaiming it from the hands of foreign elites. Nothing less than land and liberty, as Capelletti puts it. Quote. On the contrary, mcgone's goal was nothing other than a classless and stateless libertarian society that will provide the archetype and pointed departure for the Mexican and World revolutionia end quote.

The downfall of the Baja California campaign came in the hands of bourgeois Champion Madero, backed to where the US government and capitalists. By mid nineteen eleven, the mcgonists uprising in Maja California had effectively been extinguished, yet the saga didn't end there. On the fourteenth of June and nineteen eleven, magone and three of US associates were arrested, tried in Los Angeles, and mcgone himself was sentenced to McNeil Island

Prison in Washington, State of Faith. He endured until nineteen fourteen, which meant that macgone wouldn't be present in Mexico for the death of one of his biggest ops. Since Madero failed to gain the support of radicals or secure the loyalty of reactionaries, the conservative military overthrew and assassinated him in stolen Victoriano Huerta into power in nineteen twoty, and just like that, the so called moderate phase the Mexican

Revolution ended in blood. Quiet's dictator ship tried to imact the clock to the Porphyrian Eraqueta ruled with military force and repressure, the usual stuff, persecuting labor organizers, shutting down radical spaces, deporting for an activists, jail and dissenters, murdering people. Crackdowns eventually hit La Cassa de Lobrero's publications and destroyed the anarchist library. But out of this repression emerged a new tactic. They basically said, you know, you could burn

our books. That's fine, don't you have to do. We're not going to stop us from spreading our message. They established grassroots orators, the Tribuna Roha, who took the revolutionary message directly to the working classes, given speeches where they were at and sharing the message even without access to literature. By May nineteen fourteen, a new people in Antipascion Obrera

was launched. Do it too felt praise the regime's brutality. Thankfully, the regime wouldn't last long because Ptor's power didn't go unchallenged. From the north, Venustiano Carranza and the Constitutionalists rose to oppose him, claiming to defend the Madero's legacy. From the south, Emiliano Zapata refused to EXI accept any government that ignore the demands of landless peasants, and throughout the country armed

struggle reignited, which brings us to Emiliano Zapata himself. He was doing his own thing politically, but he was inspired in part for the anarchist supporters and Margon. His ideology was rooted in Nikalpui, the collective land systems of his condigous ancestors. He eventually adopted the slogan Tierra Ileritad and rallied behind the Plan de Ayala, demanding land redistribution and

local self governance. He had little tolerance for political maneuverent He saw the false promises of figures like Cuerta and Kranza. For Zapata, revolutionist thought about elections or modernization. It was what given land back. That's really all he cared about. In contrast, as the wariotis Mario, there was Pancho Villa. He was a charismatic northern general and a populist who

worked with and against Kranza. As Magon described him, Zapata delivered riches to their true owners, the poor via executes the proletarian who takes a piece of bread end coot. That both were opposed to Carranza. Their goals, strategies, and ethics were far apart. Like I said, mariotas warrior. Queta didn't last long. As I mentioned, he was ousted by nineteen fourteen, so just about a year of being in power and being a violent dictator. And after predator fell,

Perustiano Caranza rose to fill the vacuue. Like I said, he claimed to be continuing Madero's legacy, and his vision of Mexico was just as top down. He wasn't exactly fond of anarchists or the radical left in general, but faced with pressure from these appatistas in the south and VI's forces in the north, he courted his lab organizations like Cassa de la Brero Mundial offer gestures of support, a few favorable labor reforms, and even physical space like

giving them the Jesuit College Santa Brigida as headquarters. In return, Kranza hoped to build a loyal base of organized workers, integrate them into his constitutional army, and neutralize the more radical strains of revolution. And I'm sorry to say that it partially worked. He was able to buy off some

of these workers. While this alliance gave La Casa de Lobrero's space to organize workers throughout the country and ramp up educational and prostatizing efforts, much like what would take place in Spain years later, the anarchists began to lose their anarchist roots from the collaboration. Instead of back in the battle. In February nineteen fifteen, Lacassa signed a pact with the Constitutionalist forces and created quote unquote Red battalions

within Kranza's army. But although Lacassa expanded its influence and managed amount strikes among miners, teachers, drivers, bakers, oil workers, textile workers, carpenters, button makers, and barbers in nineteen fifteen, in response to the economic pressures of inflation and unemployment. By early nineteen sixteen, their government allies were cracking down on them. Not long after hiring the Red Battalions. They fired the Red Battalion, so they shut down La CASA's offices.

They sent key figures to jail. In response, the worker's movement held a national congress in Veracruz, and out of this emerged a new labor federation built on anarchist syniclust principles, committed not to capturing power but to dismantle it, the Confederacion del Trabajo de Larion and Hicana. In May nineteen sixteen, a general strike erupted in protest of the imprisonment of

La Caassa's leadership and to demand urgent economic relief. While the strike was an immediate success, its ease led many young militans to believe that change could come through a benevolent state, notably Luis Morones, who would later lead to Confederacion Nano Prera Mexicana was CROM signed agreements with Caranza's government. Matters intensified ten months later when a second strike broker due to lowpe. In response, Caranza ordered mounted police to

break up assemblies and declared martial law. The strike was crushed, its committee suspended all activities, and one prominent leader was nearly executed before his sentence was finally commuted. La Cassa shut down and the strike failed, but the anarchists endured. By mid nineteen seventeen, new groups like Loose and several

local cassas had reappeared throughout the country. However, internal debates culminated in the October nineteen seventeen National Workers Congress, where reformist forces led by Luis Moronees properly marginalized the anarchists, set in the stage for the rise of the CROM and a more moderate pro management approach aligned with of All People the American Federation of Labor the AFL. Caranza's crowning achievement came in that same year with the signing

of the Constitution of nineteen seventeen on People. It was progressive land reform, limited churish power, labor protections. But to many revolutionaries, including Magon, this wasn't the revolution fulfilled. Far from it. It was a revolution managed their wireless dreams trimmed down to a policy. Even its better reforms were hardly enforced. But with the Constitution of nineteen seventeen, Cranzer could still claim legitimacy, he could claim progress, and he

could claim that the revolution was over. But what happened to the revolutionaries. Zapata was still fighting for land in the South, but Caranza would assassinate him in By nineteen nineteen, Magone was in prison in the USA, denouncing the betrayal

from behind bars. Workers were still struggling for real power in their work places, and the vast majority of rural Mexicans remained poor, dispossessed, and dissillusion In case you're wondering what happened to Macgone in nineteen sixteen, he was jail in the US until a group of exiled anarchists led

by Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman paid his bond. That that feels like a cameo or crossover episode of some kind, right, And then in nineteen seventeen, the year of the new Constitution, he was back in jail again for speaking out against the First World War and calling for a social revolutionary war instead. He was sentenced to twenty years and his health deteriorated steadily. He wasn't a fan of care anzer at Tall. He called him a strike breaker, an assassin,

and a wolf in sheep's clothing. When a Karanza's government offered him a pension, he said, quote all money obtained by the stage represents the sweat, the anguish, and sacrifice of workers. If this money came directly from workers, I would gladly and even proudly accept it because they are my brothers. But when it comes to the invention of the state, after being compelled from the people the money, you would only burn my hands and fill my heart

with remorse. End quote. So long story short, he didn't accept the money. When the US said they might let him go if he said sorry and petitioned for a pardon, he said, in many words, hell no. Among his more beautiful words, he said, quote repentance. I have not exploited the sweat, anguish, fatigue, and labor of others. I have

not oppressed a single soul. I have nothing to repent for my life has been lived without my having acquired any wealth, power or glory, when I could have gotten these three things very easily, But I do not regret it. Wealth power and GLORI are only one by trampling others' rights. My conscience is at peace, for it knows that under my convict's garb beats an honest heart. So he died

in his jail cell in nineteen twenty two, possibly assassinated. Zapata, like I said, was assassinated by Cranzer in nineteen nineteen, and Kranz himself was assassinated in nineteen twenty in case who were keeping truck, both of Magone's major ops. He ended up outliving right. He outlived Madero and then he outlived Caranzer, but he still died in jail, which is,

you know, kind of tragic. But Kranza's successor, Alvaro Obregon, was both friendly with reformists in the crom and not as hostile to the anarchists as Caranza, which gave the anarchists an opportunity to regroup. Strikes built up across the country miners, oil workers, textile workers, dock workers, and more. Some sixty five thousand workers in July nineteen twenty alone. Out of this momentum came the Ferracion Communista del Proletariado

Mexicano or FCPR. It was an ideologically mixed group but leaned in an arctic direction and starkly contrasted itself with the reformist ways the CROM and the international ally the AFL. The FCPM went on testa wish the Confederacieneral de Tabajadores or CGT in nineteen twenty one as a direct challenge to CROM. They were fully declaring their independence from state and party. Their focus was on class struggle. The Mexican government flew to his socialist language from time to time,

but the anarchists saw through the charade. They called out that so called socialist light government's deportation of anarchists and socialists. They even called Maroney the guy who started ZROM, Mexico's Mussolini. It's an interesting insult. The CGT is still against the Moscow backed Third International and instead allied with councilists like Rosa Luxembourg and Anton Panacoec. They also formed a specifically anarchist section within the group, meant to play the same

role played by the FAI for the Spanish CGT. The Mexican CGT backed strikes, including in nineteen twenty one when they backed a real workers' strike against US companies, and in nineteen twenty two they expelled the CGT leaders who had fluted with electoral politics, reiterating their anti party stance. They would not allow themselves to be retaken and capitulated

to reformist aims. That same year, media protests turned into confrontations when right wing thugs kill the demonstrator's child in front of the US consolate, and they didn't stop there. Anarchists in the CGT helped organize tenant strikes in Mexico City and Vera Cruz. They led general strikes and textile mills and rallied against steed violence. They protested in solidarity with international struggles from Spain to Boston, from the murder of Salvador Sigwi to the gelin of Saco and Vencetti.

They also to deal with efforts to defame them through misinformation, such as the accusation that they were embeztling workers' funds. Throughout the early nineteen twenties you had some new libertarian publications jumping out. You had Verberrojo, you had Lahu, my dad, Sachiitario, Tierra Libre, Alba, Anakika, and so on. And by nineteen twenty four, under President Kayas, who followed the assassinated Obrigon, the tides began to shift. Cays was more hostile to

the anarchists than Abrigon and openly favored CRON. He gave Moronees a cabinet post past lawst undermined CGT organizing and escalated repression. The CGT held its ground, organizing general strikes, occupying textile mills, confronting the police, expanded into the countryside all their usual stuff. They fought for short term relief and long term revolution. By nineteen twenty six, CGT had grown into a federation of one hundred and fifty seven

affiliated groups, unions, syndicates, occurring communities all included. And yet by the late nineteen twenties things started to free. The CROM was declining due to the attachments to a government that was no longer conciliatory to their political ambitions, and the CGT couldn't capitalize on that decline of the CROM. The government sought to marginalize them entirely. Thousands of former CROM members joined the CGT, while the CGT itself began

to make some slides toward concession and reformer zone. And so it reached a point where they were calling themselves anarchists. But the anarchism was nowhere never and yet anarchism didn't die. It morphed, it migrated, and it regrouped. After the fall of Spain in nineteen thirty nine, exiled members the CNT and FAI arrived in Mexico, reinvigorating the scene for a time. They published Tierai Libertad, built new organizations, and kept the

memory and the fight alive. A few anarchists and impulses managed to english within the Mexican Communist Party into the early nineteen thirties as well. At least according to Kirkschaffer, President Cais ended up founding what became the Institutional Revolutionary Party, a contradiction if I ever heard it, And they basically ran the show in Mexico for seventy one years straight, from nineteen twenty nine to two thousand. They administered co

created the conditions. They were both the NEOs apatisms. In nineteen ninety four, they are anarchists, as they have been very clear to state, but maybe they'll get a two part in the future going into their history in more depth. The history of anarchism in Mexico has been quite the story, I must say, and with that we've reached the end of that classical history. Its modern history is still being written,

still being told. But this is the end of our exploration for now, not as of Mexico's anarchist history, but of this entire series of anarchism in Latin America. I joked about baking an episode about Quebec's anarchism scene, but that may remain a joke for now. We've justur neyed a very long way together, from the Andes to Buenos Aires,

to Montevideo to South Battlo all over. We've seen how long before the name anarchism arrived in Latin America's shows people who resisting hierarchy through indigenous forms of autonomy, African maroon communities, and peasant traditions of land sharing and reciprocity.

We saw how these anarchic and anarchist instincts met new ideas genuinely and intentionally anarchist ideas coming from prudin Bacunin and Kropotkin brought over in pamphlets and in the minds of exiles and immigrants in Mexico, those forces took on a revolutionary scale. Roda Kanati planted the seed, Macgone amplified

its voice. The workers, the peasants, the students, they all gave it their all, their fire, And even when that fire was smothered by reformists, by nationalists, by reactionaries, by capitalists, by the bullets and the bribe, it never truly went out. Across the Americas, these movements rarely one in the traditional sense. They were often betrayed, suppressed, and erased from history. But although anarchy was not achieved, anarchists and the anarchist idea

will survive. Anarchist thought is radically resilient, and it never really disappears, and usually just goes underground or into the margins, or into new forms, from student collectives to feminist organizations to squads to ecological struggles, inspiring movements that aren't necessarily anarchists, but lean in a direction that questions some of the familiar patterns of authority. Thank you for walking this journey with me. I've been Andrew Saige You can find me

on YouTube at Andrewism. Support the work over our patreon dot com slash change threw. All sources, citations and further reading can be found in the show notes. This has been It could happen here. All power to all the people. Peace.

we talked about this a little bit before. The very basic sort of elements of this conflict. We talked about partition on the show before when India sort of gained independence from the British ere it split into Indian Pakistan. Millions died, horrific sort of conflict, people killing each other like mass migrations across the borders.

But the short version of it basically is that this series is sort of escalating conflicts, end ends basically in a short war and then kasher being split into between India and Pakistan, where like about a third roughly of Kashmir ends up under Pakistani control and then about two thirds ends up under Indian control. Now there's an agreement signed by sort of Kashmir's ruler at the time to let India like annex like two thirds of Kashmir or so the actual dividing line basically ends up being like

where the armies stopped. You know, it changes over the years. But the important thing here, right is that Kashmir is supposed to have had an independence referendum, right that was like, yeah, the deal now in a move that is, like Genny Winey, even more stunning than the ship that, like Indonesia pulled in West Papua so ins Papua. Right, like Indonesia pulls a like fake independence referendum here, they've never even done that, Like, they never pretended to have the referendum, and.

pretending to defense, external affairs, and communications. The article was supposed to be temporary and provisional because there was a promise of a referendum by which the people of Kashmir would decide their own political fate to remain part of India, to join up with Pakistan, or become an independent state. But as you've already mentioned, this has never happened. I mean, they didn't even do a sham one. It just literally didn't ever happen. And India has just been imposing its

rule in Kashmir ever since. And I mean it's also worth pointing out that Pakistan has also been imposing its rule on like it's part of Kashmir. But the Indian occupation has become increasingly brutal basically since its starting, it's just continued to get worse and worse, and it is sort of a full blown military occupation, right there's just like a bunch of fucking Indian troops in the street. And as it becomes clear that India is like never going to let Kashmir be free or just even let

the Kashmi people decide what they want. Milton struggles en sews and as Kate points out, it's originally spearheaded by the secular Jamu Kashmir Liberation Front, and this group has just sort of wiped out because it wanted an independent Kashmir. And this was convenient to neither the Indian or the Pakistani government because Pakistan and Pakistan talks about this a lot internactually, like one of their sort of international political

things is like, yeah, we want free Kashmir. But it's like, no, you don't. You want Kashmir to be part of Pakistan. And that is not the same thing is it being free?

Pakistani intelligence. Yeah, So, like they have a lot of relations with a bunch of people who absolutely fucking suck, and they've you know, sort of used a lot of these a lot of these groups as like a way to sort of poke a stick in India and also you know, like attempt to obtain their sort of like domestic political goals of like weakening India for the real sort of internal stability, which we'll come back to later, well, the interior's ability of like military of the power of

the military in Pakistan, and also like taking the rest of Kashmir. Yeah, and so this has caused a really horrific conflict in which the people of Kashmir have suffered

a bunch of horrible shit. In twenty nineteen, that autonomy, you know again that the autonomy that was the carrot in order to like join in order in exchange for cashmer joining India, right, and I supposedly getting this referendum, like the like the carrot was supposed to be that they're supposed to have an unbelievable amount of internal autonomy.

And in twenty nineteen, it had been being eroted for a long time, but in twenty nineteen, India is just like each hit fuck you, it's gone, now have fun. And this causes a bunch of protests, It causes Milton Group attacks, it causes a genuinely astonishing crackdown. I mean, like they they turned off the phones in the internet in Cashmir. The Indian government just like did this and it became unbelievably difficult to get any information out. They

arrested unbelievable numbers of people. There are I mean just absolutely horrifying accounts of the ship that Indian security forces were doing to people. You know what I mean, Like this is this is this is a colonial occupation, right, The things that happened in the colonial occupation. They fucking torture people, they kill people, they like they rape people.

It's it's really fucked And during this as as more sort of like militant attacks rupt like in India, does the first version of its well not the first version, but it does. It does like it launches a series of attacks on southern Pakistan and this is kind of you know, there were escalations of it a couple of years ago, but you know, the sort of big deal this time was insurgents and it's we have a group

that claimed responsibility for it. It's still I don't know, it's still unclear the extent to which packs INNY government was actually involved. There's the whole thing with this. But a bunch a bunch of sort of insurgents killed like twenty five Hindu tourists in a KASHMIRII tourist town and it's really fucking horrifying. This immediately causes this just unhinged wave of Indi nationalism, like you do for sort of

nationalism in India. We talked last time about all of these Indian government officials like literally talking about quote in Israel style final solution to Kashmir. So a bunch of very very horrific shit is happening. Yeah, and then India decides that it's going to start launching attacks across the border.

There's like the immediate small arms fire, there's missile strikes, there's drone attack, and then as this sort of escalates, India launches attacks on three Pakistani air bases and again like they hit an air base that is in the city where Pakistan's Army General headquarters is, which is a kind of provocation that has not happened since like the last time these two countries were just straight up at war. And you know, like that could have killed us all.

It didn't, but it absolutely could have, and it was also just horrifying for it. And it's worth pointing this out right. The people who are getting killed on both sides of the border here, like ur Kashmiri's right, because like their home has been occupied by these two powers.

When when India and Pakistan go to war, the people who die on both sides are ar kashmiris right, who are being killed by two states who decided, fuck you, we get to control your fate, We get to be the people who fucking occupy your land and then claim to be the people who represent you. And you know, the civilian toll of this is fucking horrifying. There's a bunch of a bunch of civilians are killed. People spend a huge amount of time cowering in these like horrifying

overcrowded bunkers. There's a good sort of BBC report on this of like there's so many people packed into bunkers that like you can't even like walk. Everyone's just like pressed against each other. And three days later you come out of your bunker and your fucking house is gone. And those are the people who survived, right. It's it's just horrifying, and eventually there's a ceasefire. Everyone is now saying different things about the ceasefire. The Indian government is

trying to downplay the US's role in the ceasefire. The Pakistani government has been talking about how a whole bunch of places were involved, including like Iran and Turkey to some extent, or Turkey more than I Ran. It seems like the US, the UK, and Saudi Arabia all played a role in sort of mediating it that we can sort of confirm. The US seems to have played the

law just roll, which I guess I don't know. Like Marco Rubio was like, we should probably not have a war between to nuclear powers, which okay, I'm glad that like he's finally found a thing a level that he won't stoop to which is we all die in nuclear war.

bigger target. And they apparently it seems like the Indian government has sort of concluded that they can do this now it's also very bad that like most of the like domestic Indian left supported this, including CPIM, the comediest party of India Marxists, which is like the sort of social democratic technically Maoist party that is supposed to be like the left in India, like back the attacks, and they've always had a fucking terrible line on Kashmir. So

it's also we're mentioning a little bit. There's been a lot of reporting about India. You know, Modia isn't making a bunch of noise about trying to just straight up cut off Pakistan's access to water, which is very scary. Yeah, it's worth noting. Kay talks about this in that Jocobin piece. Case argument basically is that like they don't actually have the infrastructure to do this, which is good because I

mean that would be a genocide. Like if they just knocked out all back Then's access to water for agricultural purposes and for drinking purposes, it'd be really bad. But here's what I'm going to read this quote. Under the treaty regulations, India is required to share hydrological data that is essential for planning to deal with floods and or drought dream monsoon seasons. Denying Pakistan access to this data

would have a damaging impact. Moreover, because of the limited storage capacity, India can change the timing of water flow, which is crucial for many crops during sewing seasons. So there is still a lot of damage they can do. They can't straight up do like a genocide, but they can do a lot of damage. And while both sides have backed off of like direct military conflict, India still is committed to every single thing they can do to fuck with Pakistan, which affects just like the people Pakistan.

This has also been plit very good for Modi because alternationalism has been bolstering the sort of like Pakistani military government because there are alternationalists feed off of this, and it's once again really fucking bad for the people of Kashmir, who are the ones getting killed on both sides of the border. Yep, war is bad. Free Kashmir hate this.

The Houthis stance is different. Started launching a series of missile attacks, both aimed at Israel and aimed at shipping in the Gulf of Aden, right in order to disrupt because the significant amount of the world's trade goes through there. And this took a number of forms. They have ballistic missiles, some of them are indigenous, by which I mean made by the who. These oftentimes using stocks that were captured

from the military and government of Yemen previously. You know that they supplanted in a lot of areas and other times using missiles that were given to them by Iran. Yeah, right, So it's a mix of tactics. They have also used drones and they have also landed troops in order to capture bulk freighters, including one called the Galaxy Leader and I think twenty twenty three that was full of cars and their claim was that it was a British vessel, and obviously the Brits had been helping to arm and

support Israel. The vessel was actually registered in Lebanon. However, whenever we get to discussions about like whose vessel is, who's none of that. None of what is registered matters. Vessels are registered all over the place for a variety of nothing. It's always nonsense. That means nothing. I'm masha, and nothing in the entire world matters less to the reality of a situation than where the vessel is registered.

I'm not saying that justifies or does it with the houthis that, I'm just saying it does not matter where the vessel is registered. Yeah, yeah, the ship was owned by a Lebanon based company, But also given the nature of capitals, it doesn't all matter all that much. Now.

What also doesn't matter is that in January of this year, the Hoothi's freed the captain of that ship and they made an announcement that they would limit further attacks to vessels flagged deed as Israeli or owned by Israeli individuals

or entities. Right now, that also doesn't mean a lot, right because the nature of international trade means that there are a lot of you know, you could basically argue, if you're the houthis, well, this is owned by a multinational corporation who owns companies in Israel or who has heavy investments in companies in Israel. Therefore, right, as a result, you know, the Hoothi's continued doing the hoothy stuff, and Trump saw them as kind of a convenient target, a

convenient place to flex's military muscles. And there were some people within the United States defense establishment that considered that extremely convenient too, right, And this is largely due to the fact that Biden prescribed a very limited campaign against the Huthies. Now this does not mean inexpensive or insignificant. We kept at least one aircraft carrier carrying out strikes in Yemen for like a year or so, which is kind of the first combat duty that an aircraft carrier

has had in quite some time. That was really like active taking incoming fire, not incoming fire that ever really threatened the carrier itself. But that's sort of beside the point.

And there were people within the US military establishment who were consistently frustrated with the Biden administration that they were not letting them operate at a high enough tempo, right, And kind of the number one guy advocating for this side of events was General Michael E. Carilla, who is the head of Central Command or syentcom right, and his attitude had been we need a much more aggressive, high tempo campaign he pitched the Trump administration when they came in.

I think it's like an eight to ten month long campaign where initially they would degrade who their anti air asset. So first we go in there and we use our air power to establish air what's called air supremacy.

obviously and have accidents. We weren't losing F eighteens in Afghanistan, right, like they weren't getting knocked out of the fucking sky by the Taliban. We had air supremacy in Ukraine. Depending on what part of the battlespace you're talking about, either things have been more or less at a standstill, or Russia has had air superiority but not supremacy, right because Ukraine has very solid modern anti aircraft defenses and it

has been able to exact a toll. We will talk to a greater extent about what's been happening with India and Pakistan. It is exceedingly unclear at the moment who got the better of the engagement. Did any of those Chinese anti aircraft missiles actually knock out aircraft? Did any

India lose any aircraft? Did Pakistan down an aircraft? We actually like everyone's making different claims right now, and I don't have objective evidence right other than that we can we know that things that there's at least evidence of, at least one case what looks like refkage of a rough fall, and in at least one case there's what

looks like a knocked down Chinese anti aircraft missile. I'm spacing on the exact name right now, but again, that doesn't mean anything about how they actually affair in the battlespace, right So anyway, Yeah, this motherfucker he had a syncom.

Michael Lee Corilla was like, I've got this plan. We need a much more force we're going to knock out their anti air defenses, and then we're going to basically carry out a modified version of what is real carried out against Hamas and has belat right, where we start targeting and killing the leadership Cadro once we've knocked out their defenses, and he estimated that would take about a little under a year, right, but the better part of

a year. And the Trump administration said, you can have your higher tempo war, but you've got to show results in about a month. Right, In about a month, the US military carrid out about eleven hundred strikes they killed. They say hundreds of hoo thy fighters, destroyed quite a bit of weapons and equipment. Very unclear how many fighters they killed, certainly hundreds of people. Were those all hoothy fighters?

How many weapons and equipment were destroyed? I don't have access to that sort of data, and I'm not entirely confident that anyone in the US military has a much better idea. Certainly a little bit more data, but also they get that shit wrong all the fucking time.

thirty million dollars each. And in addition, now four f eighteen jets have been lost not probably yeah, probably just to fuck ups that are a result of the tempo of activity. Right. These all tend to be craft that are landing and don't get caught by the catapult system that they've got on these aircraft carriers or otherwise wind up in the Red Sea. Right, there is some suspicion and debate is to like, is there any sort of like internal treason going on here? Is somebody on the

aircraft carrier making these fuck ups happen. This is being investigated, I believe, although there's no confirmation about like what exactly has gone down. It's weird to lose this many FA eighteen super hornets and a very short period of time.

reserves necessary right these munitions. When we talk a lot about the capacity of US firepower, people talk about shit like in twenty eighteen, how we like a There was this Arqaita guy who had been responsible for the attack on the US coal twenty something years ago.

precise strikes. However, that capacity is reliant both upon a functional network of human intelligence, a functional network of operators of aircraft and drones who are not completely burnt out by the tempo of operations, and access to incredibly advanced munitions, which we do not have an inexhaustible capacity, and are reliant upon an international supply chain to continue to manufacture, right, and all of that has been endangered by the tempo

of this campaign. And ultimately there's a great New York Times report on this that's just absolutely damning to the military that came out as called why Trump suddenly declared victory over the Hoothy militia, that declared that after all of this, the best we can say is perhaps a modest degradation of Hoothy capacities that they can easily recover from given enough time, which they're going to get because Trump both declared victory and stated that the Hoothies had

yet again agreed to stop striking shipping in the Red Sea, and he was like, this is a win. We made a deal with him, big deal maker, Donald Trump made a deal. Now, if you look at what the Houthi said, all they said is we're going to stop striking Israeli shipping, which, if you'll recall, is what they had said in January. So did we win Now? Did the Hoothies win? Not yet,

but they're you know, they didn't lose. And again, if you understand your insurgent warfare, you win by just not losing for long enough.

we are currently fighting a trade war with China. A bunch of the our li strategic planning is about stopping a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. So and we've just expended a shit ton of our stack pilot shots that we can only replace by using shit we get from China. So absolute, just gedious brain shit that that that's happening here right now at the highest levels of the highest levels of the regime.

has been based in a Rack or Southern Kurdistan. Right, it convened its twelfth Congress in the second week of May, and it decided to disband itself late down its arms. And I think the phrasing it used was to cease armed activities under the PKK name, which is a way of saying things more broadly. It did genuinely seem to indicate a commitment to like this sort of ballot not

the bullet approach. And I'm going to quote kind of extensively here from the statement that the PKK released, and then from other statements from like people Genial Bick, the leader one of the co chairs of the KCK, the KSEK, if you're not familiar, it's a Curdistan Communities Union that is a group that allows the different areas of the Kurdish Freedom movement, all of which are inspired by the political thought of ab Aujerlan, to sort of come together

and discuss their paradigm, their goals, their methodologies. I guess. So I want to read from the PKK statement to begin with quote the process initiated by Leader Abdullah or Janan statement of February twenty seventh, and further shaped by his extensive work and multi dimensional perspectives, culminated in the successful convening of our Twelfth Party Congress between May fifth

and May the seventh. Despite ongoing clashes, aerial and ground attacks, continued siege of our regions and the KDP embargo, our Congress was held securely under challenging conditions due to security concerns. It was conducted simultaneously in two different locations, with a participation of two hundred and thirty two delegates in total.

The PKK twelfth Congress discussed leadership, martyrs, veterans, the organizational structure of the PKK and armed struggle, and democratic society building, culminating in the historic decisions marking the beginning of a new era for a freedom movement. It's a very long statement, as tends to be the style of statements from the Curdish Freedom movement. It talks a lot about Abdullah ja Lene as tends to be the style of statement from

the Kurdish freedom movement. I've have linked itin the shown as if you'd like to read all of it, you know, and encourage you too, you're interested in this sort of thing. They talk a lot about the democratic nation concept and the idea that occurs in Turks of coxisted in Turkey for a long time, I thought this part was of interest, and going to quote again here, the decision of our Congress to dissolve the PKK and end the method of armed struggle offers a strong basis for a lasting piece

and a democratic solution. Implementing these decisions requires that leader Appo Appo. It's the evocative form of the Kurdish word for paternal uncle, but in this in this instance, it's referring to abdulah Jaalan, right, that's his nickname. Leader Appo, Lead and guide the process that has right to democratic politics be recognized and that solid, comprehensive legal guarantees be established. At this stage, it is essential that the Grand National

Assembly of Turkey plays its role with historical responsibility. So a couple of things that are of note there. One is that they're talking about this this transition towards democracy or a brotherhood of nations. So talk about somewhere else, right, brotherhood of people's it's occurring under the leadership and direction of Abdulla Ujerlan. If you are not familiar with Abdullah Ousjerlan,

you can listen to Roberts theories. So the women's wards are the great job of explaining a lot of the stuff that we won't have time to get into today. Very briefly, Appo has been in Imrali and various other Turkish prisons since nineteen ninety nine. For long periods of that time, no one was able to see him. He was held completely in communicado. At times there were hundreds of troops guiding only him on this Turkish prison island.

That is no longer the case. Right. He made this statement on the twenty seventh of February, and since then the Kurdish Freedom Movement has had access to Ouscherlan. Right. He actually made another statement on the eighteenth of May where he said, I quote, a new contract is needed based on the law of brotherhood. What we are doing represents a major paradigm shift. The nature of the Turkish Kurdish relationship is fundamentally different. What has been broken in

the bond of brotherhood. It seems like through the DEM Party right, which is a left leaning party in Turkey, which has supported the Kurdish cause and for a long time has served as like the interlocutor between Turkey and the Kurdish Freedom movement. Through the DEM Party, they have access to Ouserland and they're able relatively frequently. It seems like these dem party officials to go to him rally and talk to him, and so they're talking about his

leadership continuing through this democratic transition. Right. For the Curdish Freedom Movement, Jimil Bikes Jimil Bike again is the co chair of the ksey K and institutions within the Kurdish Freedom Movement. There's a co chair system, right, which means so that a man and a woman share the chairmanship of an institution such that they triarchal structures aren't replicated in the movement. That's the goal of the co chair system. He has a two part interview in A and F

which I've linked again in the notes. He talked about how like the first role of the PKK, of the movement, even before it was called the PKK, was to quote unquote reveal the Kurdish quote unquote Kurdish question, right, That's how they refer to it. Other times I talk about her Kurdish people were on their knees and like under

the leadership of Augiland they stood up. They talk about also how matt Arrarat Turkey has a plaque apparently where it says like here is buried the imaginary Kurdish nation, and like the Kurdish nation is certainly not buried anymore. Right like it, it's very active. Kurds are very politically empowered in two of the four countries where Kurds live, right Like in Turkey they are to a lesser extent, but they're still present. No one could deny their presence.

In Iran, it's still, i guess more difficult the time for the Kurdish freedom movement, Biack said. Within our initial paradigm and our first manifesto, the Kurdish identity, the Kurdish people and Kurdish society were formed. A society in love with freedom was formed. People emerged that would fight for freedom under any circumstances. On this basis, we are now

developing a new paradigm, a second manifesto. This paradigm, this manifesto aimed to resolve not only the Kurdish question, but also the issues of the peoples of the Middle East and humanity as a whole. Rabert Apple, rayber Smith's leader, Rabert Apple is no longer leading only the Kurdish people. He's leading all peoples in humanity. Yeah it's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's yeah. This is the sort of rhetoric we can expect from the case k right, Like they're very dedicated

to Julan as a leader. Yes, yes, and you know, Robert and I have both been trus Java.

in approach has not changed that. In fact, it underlines that, right, Like from the letter that Ocherlean wrote and he wrote letters to different parts of the Kurdish Freedom movement came this change, right, So it's still at the instruction of Ochelin, albeit with the consent of these delegates who went to this PKK Congress right and voted. I've reached out to the k CK to ask for a comment on like exactly what this means in terms of like most of the KCK, as I said, are in the mountains of

southern Kurdistan now, and they have fought Turkey there for years. Right, We've covered that on this podcast North in Iraq, Southern Kerdistan, however you wish to call it, like Turkey has been bombing. They were bombing it last time I was there. I'm sure they were bombing it last time Robert was there. They've been bombing it ever since. And the villages that have really suffered as a result. Right, people have lost their theildren, they've lost their lands, they've often had their

crops burned right by these bombs. So I'm interested to know that will the idea of the Kurdish Freedom Movement leaving the mountains there is I mean, it would be a hell of a site they've been in, they've been in those mountains for a long time. But I don't know what this means for the Kurdish Freedom Movement in

Southern Kurdistan. But I've asked. I don't know if this means that they will attempt like a straight up electoral strategy, right, or when Ogerland's asking for new contract, right, like a new social contract. That's how in Rajaba they literally have a social contract.

So when when we see Appo asking a bandon new contract, does that mean that they will engage like on the basis of a new Turkish constitution. I don't know. I don't think any of us have answers to these questions, and I imagine that they don't either, write like they have decided to pursue this strategy of peace. They've decided that through their armed conflict they were able to prove

that they exist. And that's a phrase that specifically people have said to me in the Kurdish Freedom movement, like we had to pick up arms to prove that we exist. And now that there's no denying their existence, they can use different methods, right like they put down their weapons and talk and established with Turkey how to coexist, having established that they exist through the armed struggle. So for them, this is like they're celebrating it, right. They'll draw the

analogy very often to like Shinfein in Ireland. That's one that you're here pretty often, and that this is their Good Friday. Now. In the Good Friday Agreement, Britainer released people from prison. Number of very highly cherished, very highly respected members of the Kurdish Freedom movement are still in prison. Of course, Oderlan being the most sort of widely loved and respected member of the Kurdish Freedom movement. I don't

think we're seeing Osderlan come out of prison. I don't think there's a world in which Turkey would let that happen. But maybe we will see some other people released. Maybe we will see those people. I don't enter into electoral politics. Some of them have been in the struggle for fifty plus years, right, like fifty years living in the mountains and constantly being worried about being bombed. So it'll be fascinating to see how this This has been a long

and bloody conflict. It has been going for longer, but any of us have been alive. If the friends are happy, then I'm.

And they have endured some of the worst conflict on the planet in the last few decades, right, They've fought some of the worst fucking people on the planet on one and if there is a way that the people of Kurdistan can enjoy peace, I want that for them because they've been at war for a very long time. Yep, Hi everyone, it's James, and which is adding this pick

up to the episode. I was able to get some questions answered on behalf of the Kurdish Freedim movement, and I would just like to share those answers with you. So I asked Ifvojulan was able to address the Congress. I'd prieviously been told he was. This is a response. Throughout the more than twenty six years that Kurdish People's Leader Abdula Ogelan has been held hostage in the prison island of him Rally, he has always found ways to convey his messages and perspectives to the Congress of the

PKK that has taken place. So it was again regarding the twelfth Congress of the pKa, which convened from May the fifth to May the seventh in the Free Mountains

of Kurdistan. He was able to forward his ideas and analysis via the various delegations that have visited him throughout the last few months, I asked about Ojulan's call for a new social contract and they told me Turkish People's Leader ab Dela Ojulan's calls and the historic initiative that he has taken do not imply that the Turkish State has adopted the same attitude or that the state has

changed its approach. Kurdish People's Leader ab de la Aujulin is not simply hoping for a change of mentality in the state, but it's moving forward developing his project and thereby pulling the state along with him. What he is currently primarily concerned with is a redefining and reconstruction of the historical alliance of the Kurdish and Turkish people, which

has been derailed during the past century. A long term democratic solution to the Kurdish question necessitates a recognition of the role of the Kurds in the establishment and development

of the republic. Relations between the peoples must be brought back to the historical routes, so division cannot be realized Unilatterally, it lays in the nature of the way the struggle at the Kurdish People's Leader ab Del Ajulan and the p that when they want to achieve a solution to a specific issue, they initially create through struggle the necessary

conditions and contexts for it. What Abdul Ojiland does is to set the context and to encourage all related circles in Turkey to take upon their responsibility for our lasting peace. And then I wanted to ask about the people who are incarcerated and like the steps that they needed from the Turkish state in order for this peace process to continue. And this is what they said. A historic initiative was taken by Curdish People's Leader Abdula Aujilan and the PKK.

First of all, there was the publication of the quote call for Peace and democratic Society and quote on February twenty sevenths. Then there was a declaration of the unilateral ceasefire on March first, and now there was the twelve PKK Congress May fifth to seventh was a decision to dissolve the PKK. All of those steps were unilateral steps that were not the result of negotiations with the state. So far, no official negotiations to take a place, and

the original verbal agreements have been reached. The steps taken were only assign goodwill and expression of seriousness about peace. Now it is upon the Turkish state to answer to this initiative and take the first practical legal steps. So far,

all we have seen is empty rhetoric. For the process to actually unfold, Kurdish People's leader Abdullah Oujelan must first of all, regain his physical freedom, and the conditions for him to work freely, healthily and securely must be guaranteed so that he can fulfill his role as a chief negotiator of the Kurdish people. Also, the constitutional reforms that grant the basic rights of the Kurds and recognize him as one of the primary constituents of a republic must

take place now. These are the first necessary steps. From there a peace process can unfold. If you're wondering about Rajava, just to finish up, Muslumabdi made a statement a Slumubdi, leader of the Syrian Democratic Forces Right, sometimes called General muslium Hova Muslum depends who depends what side of things you're on, I guess. Muslum Abdi made a statement congratulating the PKKA, saying he hoped to all parties supported the

peace process. The SDF is still in clashes with remnants of the so called Islamic State and increasingly with Sunnis within the Syrian Revolution who are growing disheartened with what they see as al Shara's moderate turn right, the Damascus government being to lib for some of these Sunni groups, and so isis the Islamic State, whatever you want to call it. Dash is using that as a chance to recruit people, and that is why we are seeing ongoing fighting.

I literally I saw that they were they were burying one of their SDF fighters in Kamishlow today.

the target. Luthen ends up killing Lonnie to tie up loose ends and passes off the information to Claya to relay it to the Rebel Alliance while he goes to thermite their computer hard drive, saying yeah, he quotes, I'll do the burn again. It's it's it's jover like our our shop, our little home, our little base of operations in Coruscant. Yeah, is getting destroyed. This is this is truly the end of an era.

you are at last, uh huh. Every line in their exchange, like but before before she lets him know, like hey, I know you are, Like but like every line leading up to that is a double entendre, like like every single exchange they have is actually communicating something else and it's wild. Forgery is the sad curse of antiquities. At the moment, only two pieces of questionable providence in the gallery. Yea insane stuff.

this way. And then she unveils this, this artifact that she is brought to Luthen for evaluation. She says, it's a little damaged perhaps, but I'd say it's held its value, as she looks Luthen up and down again, same thing again, singing very efficient. Luthen is a little damage, but he has held his value. And Dedra reveals the vintage Imperial StarPath unit that first brought Luthen's operation under Dedra's eye.

And now that like both of them have their cards like displayed on the table, they get to exchange a little bit more clearly without having to use these like coded coded phrases like they were before, and they had this fascinating back and forth. She talks about how Luthan's been hiding in the shelter of imperial peace and quiet and just wants to burn the galaxy down, and Luthan gets gets to poke at her for how he's been aware of her this entire time and she's only learned

who he is. Quote, I've known you all along. Hardly seems fair. She says, you disgusted me everything you stand for, and he says, do you know why freedom scares you? This is what Dedra's last arc is like really about, and it eventually, you know, paradoxically leads to leads to her fate.

radio call. It's it sounds like a lot of the shit you heard and like the Collateral Murder video, like some of the stuff that got leaked by Chelsea Manning where people are like, yeah, hit every everything on that hill dies, you know, anything past this this point in this like line of buildings, anyone you see on the heat scope, kill them, Like it's that kind of stuff, right, Yeah, And it's it's it's very much like it's very non st Our Wars chatter.

like a very like a very blank expression. And like when I first saw that episode, to me, it felt like Luthen was like first confronted with like the fatality that he's dealing with, like like confronted with like the consequences for actually engaging in revolution because he's always been kind of in the shadows. He's been more of this like orchestrator. He doesn't see like that like the tactile

death that accompanies his actions. It's like that's how I first saw that scene, and now this has been fully recontextualized as like Eric's is like a PTSD moment for him, Like this is that's that's not the first time he's seeing combat.

as far as he does. And you get in those lines that he's just repeating him to himself over and over again as he like make it Like that's his whole motivation, right, Like that's the next twenty years of his life. Are him trying to make it stop?

is arrested in the hospital by an ISB. Marshall for at first unclear reasons which we will get into later. The ICP has found Lonnie's body, so there's a dead yes B agent in Cororriscant. They've heard of how Dedra did this raid without authorization without notifying the agent now in charge of the Axis investigation, and then she's taken into custody. In these flashbacks, we see Luthen and Clia going town to town pawning historical artifacts while he teaches

young Claya insurgent warfare. One of the most devastating exchanges is when Luthen describes Claia as his daughter to a shopkeeper to help like negotiate a price, and afterwards Claya asks, am I your daughter now? He replies when it's useful.

to happen, he like chooses to like not watch. He's like, we don't need to be here, we can we can, we can just leave, but but Claia chooses to stay and watch and then runs back to him, and he he tells her we fight to win. That means we lose and lose and lose and lose until we're ready. All you know now is how much you hate you bank that you hide, that you keep it alive until you know what to do with it.

that he can give her. There's another line coming where's she asks if he's scared, and he's like, only about what I'm doing to you, right that like you, But he is still deeply he feels deeply compromised by this position he's put himself in with this only other person that he really can trust.

Clia says to Luthin, you're afraid, He says, I'm only afraid of what I'm doing to you, as he hands this child a detonator. Yeah.

that's the core of his character. He does believe she has a future outside.

There is no escape for his character. Yeah, Like Luthen never gets to see that sunrise, but he did everything he could to give the rebellion the best chance, and Claia gets to finish and like live out what he started. He wants to give Claia that sunrise and like this this relates to his core motivation as a character. He's not getting revenge against the Empire for killing his family or something like that kind of cliched stories is not

what they're doing here. Instead, this is all all about Clia. Yeah, it's about how he's like found Claya and both of them are broken by what he has done. So then he spends the rest of his life building the rebellion for Claia so that she can live on and she can beat the Empire. And that's the entire point of him. Like that, that is what's driving him. He is like

the most selfless character. Tony in an interview said, quote, there are only a certain number of reasons that you can change your life, and one of them is just absolute self discussed. So we found a way for him to have a belly full of it at the right moment.

She's really embodying the line from Rogue one, make ten men feel like a hundred Yeah, and yeah, she's able to infiltrate this hospital, like she's working with a team of like ten people and it's and it's just her shout out to the Granny alien in the elevator, very very great little comment.

thing that is probably closest to the real Luthan, the one that existed before his military service, before the Empire ruined him, is completely remade in the service of making himself into something he's not.

who has all the information that he has. And you know, I was like kind of worried that it was Okay, Well, now she's effectively his daughter, and it's like, no, it's actually like she is still the only person like even though Luthen has been sort of raising her is like he's been trying to raise her as an equal as much as much as he possibly can. I think that's a really really yeah, sort of fascinating like way for this thing to have gone.

kind of love him through that. But it's it's not like it's not like that that like immediate familial love like it's it's it's it's a different rationalization that she can still like give him like a final kiss on his deathbed and like does like does care for him, but like it's so much more like complicated and murky and like like roped in with politics and roped in with Yeah.

sharing operation across different imperial branches. H and Credit says to her, if you're not a rebel spy, you missed your calling, which is the biggest insult you could say. Oh my god, this destroys her. Yeah, like this is the this is the same mistake that like Cyril makes. Right, they're trying to like to like do this like try hard stuff.

accidentally added to HOO THEPC small group. Uh, she had she had information on the desk that she shouldn't have that she sorted that she stored on her computer that then Lonnie was able to access with like a stolen code cylinder, and this is why she's detained.

It it shows how like important Luthin's operation is. Like this is I think what these last episodes are really about is kind of like, yeah, the redemption of Luthen in the eyes of the other rebel agents. So so yes, Dedra is completely fucked and it's hilarious and Ben Mendel is trancing around the scene.

They just can't. They were they were relying on all of like the republic holdovers that actually knew how to like run like run a state.

than the imperial ones because they survive. And there's there's this other like there are lots of these interesting parallels too, where like the death of the Administrative State was also sort of an old canon thing where it's like, so the way it plays out in the old canon's like at endor and this like is the thing that you canon too, I guess but like all of the best officers are trying to get promoted up the ladder, and

so they're all on the Emperor the Emperor Superstar Destroyer. Yeah, and when that thing goes down, it's like yeah, it like and this is this is partially just a thing that also about like how imperial administration works is how centralized it is, is that they have single points of failure.

her comrades on Yavin. Meanwhile, a divorced Cassian and Melchie get drunk and start bullying their autistic robot friend while playing poker.

have to keep. I have to keep all of this in my head. I can't write any of it down. I haven't slept in days. I ate nothing, but Tom's like, I can't even drink hot coffee because otherwise my fucking ulcers light on fire. I don't even remember when I hate solid food. My ibs has ibs. Can you please stop taking off in the middle of the night.

ISP as quote unquote healthcare providers. We treat sickness, We identify symptoms, We locate germs, whether they arise from within or have come from the outside. The longer we wait to identify a disorder, the harder it is to treat the disease unquote. And then when the ice P decides on what grounds they are looking to apprehend Clia Partogras proclaims that quote she's diseased. She escaped the hospital with infectious condition that threatens everyone with whom she may come into contact.

just the core of fascism. And you're just getting You're just getting to watch like the people in the middle of the Empire just literally trying to do the thing and in the most literal way possible, right Like they're just they're just coming out and saying what the ideology is and how it works.

But they say that Luthan targeted the storage files and the radio signal library when he burned the console, but still they were able to track Claya's pulsecode to a nearby apartment on Coruscant, and in preparation for the raid on the safe house, the ice Peed jams calms around the area right as Cassian, Melchi and K two arrive to extract Claia. As Cassie gets into the apartment and finds not Luthan but Claia and then tries to plead

with her to come to Yavin. He also like kind of lambass Luthen for not coming to Yavin sooner because he couldn't swallow his pride, and Claia says, quote, thank the Galaxy, he didn't. He stayed for this that people in Yavin have to know what they're up against. Think, thank the Galaxy. He did it so good. All right, let's go on break and then we'll return to discuss

the final episode. Okay, we are back. Episode twelve. Jetta kiber urso so Cass is trying to convince Clia to leave, like right now, right this very second, please dear clot come with me, and Claya is still like kind of pissed up with the whole situation, like Gavin after all these years, what a bitter ending. Cass tries to argue that if she comes, she's helping to keep Luthan alive, which she calls big words the Imperial Swat Team importantly

not stormtroopers. Instead, these goofy s swat guys surround the apartment trying to locate Claya. As the ISB locates Cass, Claya, and Melchi, they throw a stun grenade, which, this is very interesting to me, does not really affect Cass and Melchie as much like Claya gets knocked out, but the Narkina five prison shocks conditioned Melchi and Cass against the sun grenade. Yeah, which is again phenomenal.

dealing in. Bail says that that Luthen stayed on Corussants too long and again no, no Luthen state for this piece of information.

in part because of what he's done. And that's not saying he was right about every single thing, but he he but that still is true, right like he this is he is still very important to this. And everyone's being quite dismissive of Cassian and and and the intel from Luthen and Cassian kind of gets you know, put into put into confinement, and and gets dismissed and requests

to visit Claya in the hospital. And this is where Mon finally speaks up and immediately grants him permission because like she's she she knows all these people, like like the she's and she's the only one on on this little council that like knows all of these people and knows like how much they have sacrificed. Yeah, but still like mon Mon is still like a good operator here. And she asked her cousin Vell to like talk with cassiean and like suss out how real this death Star

intel is. When Belle does this, she doesn't try to do it like covertly. She likes talks to Cassie ad very like flatly, being like hey, like mom, set me here to try to figure out if if this is legit?

Is is this legit? And they discuss the intel. Meanwhile, Claia gets up from like her like medical medical bay and starts walking around Yavin in the rain and like, oh my god, somebody please hug her, like someone like do something like she should not be left alone, like she's had one of the one of the most traumatic days of her life. Someone like take care of her.

And Bell runs into Claia and like Vell and Clay have had like kind of a kind of like a dicey relationship, but like in this moment we see like just the importance of like sheer solidarity and Vell like cares for her, gets her to like cover, gives her like a place to sleep, and it's a really touching scene.

pulling myself together. You have to hold this together. Yeah, And it's like her and you have this bot like her task. This is when she's finally is able to break. Yeah, she's been holding in so much. Yeah yeah, yeah, Like one her task is finally over and so she can like let herself fall apart. And two it's like a thing that could finally actually drive her to fall apart is the fact that she just had to fucking to kill Luthan kill the person who raised her. Yeah, she

had to fucking kill Lutheran and then get out. And you can see this thing where that I think is like very familiar to a lot of people were like she's been. And she also has to hold all this information in her head because if she forgets any of the information that she's been told by Lutheran, the rebellion is doomed. And and and when Ander like first meets her on Corrusons, she's just like spilling it out, springing

it out. She's out jumble of words. Yeah, and it's like and it's and it's a thing where like she's she's finally reached the point where it's like she has one last thing to do and she can fall apart, and then she can finally, instead of having to be the one who's caring for literally everyone and holding literally everyone else together, she can finally like.

Cassian doesn't repeat it back to her. And but yeah, like like that small like you know, like like you have to have like a ritual, you have to have like you have you have have like a protocol to make sure you actually like to make sure that I know you actually have this information, you need to like express it back to me. Yeah, it's it's just a nice little short moment. In the next morning, we see

Cassian taking care of Bix's plants. Good for him. Yeah, And then this is when cass and Vell talk and they say that they're gonna drink to luthen Justice once, which again Cassiean's drinking right in the morning, good time.

this like a disease like rhetoric. He then asks for a moment to collect himself and then shoots himself in the head. This is one of the most fascinating parts of the show, like like knowing like the kind of the tear that he's going to face for like for failing, while also being confronted with like how much of his work for the Empire has been worth it? Like it's it's not his emotions here are not clearly laid out to you, because it's more interesting for you to think about them yourself.

You have divorced Parrin flying flying around on Coruscant. You have Dedra in a Narkina prison, and Claya gets to see the life of the rebellion, Saws at Jedda, Kredit is at the death Star be too, Emo has a new friend, and Bix is holding a baby watching the sunrise.

if that's okay, sure, sure, yeah, yeah yeah. So Tony has talked a lot about this ending scene and about how he wanted to end with a sense of hope and like the hope for like life beyond you know, the empire, like like life beyond imperial oppression, and and Bix with the babies was to like symbolize this, and Bix is literally like looking at the sunrise right like the and this this metaphor of the sunrise has been something for Luthin, how he's never gonna get you actually

get to see like life beyond the Empire, and he knows that he sacrificed that. It also calls into calls into view a Cassian dying at like the false sunrise of the Death Star. And I've seen I guess some people upset about Bicks just you know, being like off planet with a baby and feeling this is a kind of like relegating her character. And I think that there's

a lot of things going on here. This show goes so so like way way beyond like simple politics of like representation and like voc casting right, which can often end up feeling like shallow boxes to check, because this show actually like depicts things like carceral injustice, manufactured consent for genocide, how structural patriarchy drives imperial oppression. Like the depth of the political mechanisms the show is tackling, I think is so much more worthwhile, and it's it's not

immune to criticism for those reasons. But I think that aspect can be overlooked oddly. I think it'd we kind of like take for granted, like how good the show is at so many aspects, so many aspects of politics, and like this show specifically has women and in so many different roles beyond like the you know pop feminist girl boss Badass, which has been linked to Star Wars through Lea Ahsoka and to a lesser extent like Ray and Jim, and this trobe is itself kind of low

key misogynistic. But in and Or, we have mon Mathma, we have Vel, we have Sinto, we have Claya, we have Dedro, we have Marvel, we have Bix, And I think motherhood is something that characters should be allowed to embrace. And like motherhoods always had a very tricky relationship with Star Wars because of Padme, But like, being a mom is not the issue with Bix's character. No, you can still critique how she was relegated to becoming like the punching bag for the show, but being a mother is

like not bad. There's a quote from the Palestinian militant Leila Khalid like revolution must mean life, also every aspect of life, and she specifically referenced motherhood. And like Bix is a fighter, she is a survivor. She fights her way out of depression and PTSD, and she does spend years in age and revolutionary action, and yes, it may it may have been nice to see more of that

revolutionary action on screen. We do see some it might have been nice, but this is also write a limited series show with a ton of characters, like four hundred speaking roles, and yeah, that is not been afforded to everybody, and that can be unfortunate. But I think I understand what's going on with this character, and I do not

think the problem is the baby itself. I think that's actually fine, and her deciding after years of fighting to take like a few years off to have a baby should be viewed as a choice that like she's like allowed to make. I guess.

scanned to me. I do like thinking that in this last scene is where like watching these last bits of all our characters, you know, not only people have pointed out is Cassie and going to be dead in like two days, along with Ben Mendelssohn and shortly thereafter grandmav Tarkin, but like all the other stuff that's canonically going down, like right right as fucking Clea sees that first sunrise, Like you have to imagine Han Solo somewhere is doing a line off of like a space prostitute in some

sleazy bar. It's like four am in the morning where he is. He hasn't slept in days. You know, Luke Skywalker is looking at his on uncle being like, well, they're never going to be lit on fire, obviously. Just beautiful to.

but really they're not. Look at what happens to Dedra, Look at what happens to Potographs, Look what happens to Cyril Karn he tries to believe in the dream. It's the carelessness and the cruelty and the lack of empathy. That's what I'm pitching. Even in this little final montage, we have this brief shot of Parin, which is interesting.

That's man Mathma's a strange husband, I guess. And Tony has discussed paren as well, and during like the wedding scene, we learned that that as a kid, like while he was in school, he was kind of a a quote unquote political fire brand, and he has sacrificed that a little bit. Tony says, quote there are a lot of sacrifices in this show, all variety of sacrifices. He's made his sacrifice for hedonism. He doesn't look happy in that

car unquote. Now I do like the little wrap up we have we have on parents' character there.

And there's some places where you don't want to poke to aggressively because you don't really want to get into the undercarriage. That was a place where I didn't really want to get into the undercarriage very much. That's that is that is understandable. And then finally on Clay and Luthen and specifically like Clia's last look there, like in the morning after her walk in the rain, after all of this, you know, frustration between like Luthen and Yavin.

Tony says, quote Cleia and Luthen are over amplifying the distrust and hate in the same way that some of the people on the Alliance are over ramping the disagreement. I think one of my favorite moments in that montage at the end is when clay A wakes up the next morning after her night in the rain, and she looks out and sees that there's people running and people

caring supplies, and she's seen how big Yavin is. And there's this mona Lisa's smile that she has that's almost beginning to take pleasure in some sense of ownership of what she's helped create. She realizes how much of a contributor, how much of an investor, she and Luthen are in Yavin. She's watching the people there and just a little moment of pride comes on her face that she warms up just a little bit and begins to take ownership of the rebellion. That's everything to me, unquote.

kitty through the brit Yeah, Willman, Willman's French resistance girlfriend makes.

not really a hater of Luthen. I just I just don't want the most annoying people in the world to try to replicate him in real life. But also like the central rebel command is a shit show. It's complete disasterate.

They're like top down hierarchical command from that council. Those people at every every single instance of this attempt to lose the boar, Right, they're too pissed off at Luthan to like listen to the information that he literally fucking died to give them, right, Like this entire operation a bit about giving them the information to destroy the super weapon that will destroy the empire, and they don't want

to listen to it. They like in Rogue one, like that council tries to surrender, like they literally vote to be like yeah, sorry, we can't fight the Empire.

bring all these things together, and they're useless. They are worse than useless. They they they nearly destroy the rebellion that they had been sort of like trying to together on multiple occasions. And they're only stopped by doing that by these sort of like unhinged gorilla like people who are completely out of control and like these like rogue operator people who.

out is like it's not even necessarily like your class background, it's not even necessarily like what your politics are because a lot of these people believe the same things. It's like when when the chips come down, will you fight or will you try to surrender?

Center for Imperial Power right the Imperial Core. There is some organization happening there, right, Like there is people based out of there. There's networking, right, like Luten's intel shop is there. But most of like the physical arm struggle is on other planets. The first base for the Alliance is built on the aff and four, but the rebellion isn't initially like overthrowing the Empire on Correscant, though through their interplanetary efforts, the whole galaxy gets liberated and the

seat of power can be seized. And that's sort of like galaxy wide cooperation mirroring like a worldwide cooperation that we have like really like lost in the past past few decades. Yeah, I think is one of I think one of the points that that should be taken away from from and or here.

well known. But no, I have been thinking about how that whole auditorium broke out and chanting thank you Joe for like nearly five.

I'm a little bit sympathetic to their arguments. I understand where they're coming from. Anti natalism is to belief that procreation is unethical. This could be based on the idea that there's been like this rapid increase in human population, which is done extensive damage to the planet, or that's simply being born is inherently a non consensual act, especially being born into a world with high levels of suffering. So these people opt to do not have children. As

this ethical standpoint, everyone's entitled to their own choice. You don't need to agree with it, but whatever. Now, Interestingly, this past weekend there was a quote unquote active terrorism that has been linked to anti natalist philosophy. I'm just talking about this as it is an instance of kind of the brain ratification of this entire society and the reditification of terrorism, combined with this growing sense of like

nihilism driving violent extremist actions. No one was killed except for the perpetrator alleged for perpetrator in this incident, but I still think this is worth talking about as it can be seen as in a sequence of weird terrorism. This is something that Roberts can be working on on for a piece later later down the line. Right, this is not the first car bomb this year. We had the Tesla Tesla cyber truck explosion earlier, which was similarly kind of a weird, a weird incident. Yeah, that one was.

Investigators believe that the suspect attempted to live stream the bombing, with a website being found online that appeared to be in connection to the incident, where the suspect describes himself as a quot unquote pro mortalist.

you can thank your parents for that one. All a pro mortalist is saying is let's make it happen sooner rather than later to prevent your future suffering and more importantly, the suffering your existence will cause to all other sentient beings. That's his definition of a promortalist. It can be linked to other philosophies that encourage like self harm and ending

your own life as a conscious choice. On this website, he discussed his goal of quote sterilizing this planet of the disease of life unquote great and declared the need for a quote unquote war against pro lifers. His website also highlights other philosophies such as negative utilitarianism, ethlism, abolitionist veganism. Quote. Basically, philosophies that have realized religion is are worded that there is objective value in the universe and it lies in

the harm being experienced by sentient beings. So although it may seem quote unquote dark, it's the polar opposite of nonsense like nihilism unquote. Negative utilitarianism is something that comes

up a few times on his site as well. This is the viewpoint that instead of positive utilitarianism where we try to maximize, you know, human pleasure, this is trying to minimize suffering, human suffering and like the suffering tied to existence and the like aggurate suffering as well as if you if there's more people and there's going to be more suffering, so you should both make choices in your own life that that may that may limit your suffering,

but also make sure that you don't reproduce, because then even more suffering will happen because of your actions through your children.

destroy the Internet. A quote that he has on his website is quote I've known for years now that I wasn't going to allow myself to make it past my twenties unquote, And like this is a sentiment I hear even a lot of like young people saying, is it's like this like belief that they're not going to survive their twenties, Like like their belief that like the world is so bent on destruction that I'm probably not going to make it out of my twenties right now, and

that that that changes the kind of choices that young people are making. And this is this is getting increasingly common.

right now in the United States. But yeah, the general sense of like widespread dread and the interconnectedness of this is more unique.

Collective and the Jane Adams Collective. Adams spelled with two d's. There a double Dams. We will have links to both of them in the Showdoues. You can also put them into Dug dut go. And they were the first responses that came up for me. If you need those resources, reach out to those people.

quote be a free man in Libya after signing. Obviously unclear how one can be a free man when one is just dumped into a country, when one does speak the language, has no contact, there is a war.

the karen Home Lang, which part of Myanmar. On the nineteenth of this month, that's two days ago, I sent a notification to his lawyer saying that they'd read him a notice of removal in English that they were removing him to South Africa. Ten minutes later, they attempted to recall this message, and then later that same day they notified his lawyer that they'd once again read notice of removal to him in English that he was being removed

to South Sudan. South Sudan the world's youngest country, if we're not familiar, a country that is in which conflict is escalating as we speak, government carrying out a barrel bombing campaign this very week. His council set up a video meeting at nine am on the twentieth, but just before that meeting, his council found out that he had already been removed. Mister m had refused to sign the order of removal to South Sudan. And we're seeing right

now in a court case it's a class action. Mister NM is one of the members of the class right that there was a preliminary injunction against these people being removed because they are the same people who the Trump administration previously tried to remove to Libya, and at this point they tried to remove them to South Sudan. Before they are sent to these places, they're supposed to have

a reasonable fear screening right. That is where someone can articulate if they have a reasonable fear of being removed to that country, right like if they will be persecuted there, they're likely to face torture or violence, or or be picked on because of who they are. Right then they're supposed to have a fifteen day opportunity to submit a motion to reopen. If the Department of Home out Security

finds that they don't have reasonable fear. Right, So they're supposed to be this process where they can say I have a reasonable fear of going there, if I go there or be persecuted, and if the AHPs says nobody don't believe you, then they have fifteen days to submit more evidence.

are afraid to go to South Sudan. This is clearly insufficient. Yeah, so what he's articulating here is like this chance to articulate reasonable fear right. I do want to point out that in Biden's asylum ban that he passed in twenty twenty four, they move from a question of are you afraid to go back to your home country to what's called a shout test where the migrant has to articulate that reasonable fear unprompted right to have a chance at

asylum in the United States. So it's again, like all these immigration things, I'm not saying things what the same under Biden, by I'm saying that there is a pathway to how we got here, and it goes through Biden's executive boarder.

within Irish politics about Irish neutrality here. Right. The jet then flew onto Djibouti, which it is believed is where the migrants are right now, in court the discussion probably half an hour before we recorded this, DHS is claiming that they can do their credible fear interviews there on the tarmac in this plane, which people are saying is

in Jibouti. Right, there's some suspicion that's in Djibouti. DHS is claiming that the location of the plane is classified, but this widespread belief that this plane is currently in Djibouti, including as I say, Julian was first and y T published something that didn't credit her, should have credited her. So to do the credible fear into you, right, they have to have a chance to research what will happen to them in South Sudan. They have to have access

to a lawyer. Most of these people like mister NM will also have to have a translator. Right. Then will also have to have privacy, right, their credible fear may be something they don't want to share with everyone else on that plane.

at this point. Now, last night we learned that one of the Burmese people, it appears that there are two Burmese people. We know this because the Department of Homeland Security today started tweeting shots of these people Jesus yeah and uh wow yeah, claiming that they were convicted of various crimes. Among them were Tubamese men and m appears to be Neio Miant and the other appears to be Cure Mea. Both of these men have been accused of various a big convicted, I believe of sex crimes. That's

where they got their removal orders. Other people among the dozen or so people on the plane have been convicted of some of them like one of them is South Sudanese and he was convicted of removing the serial number from a firearm and of armed robbery, others, murder, and various other fairly serious crimes. Right, none of that means that you should just get dumped in seulth Sudan. Right, that's not a punishment in US, Lord, it is not a morally or legally acceptable thing to do.

to Burma today or late last night. I'm still waiting on my sources in mean Martin confirm that the Burmese hunter is as leaky as a sieve. Right, If those people are land that we will know about it pretty soon. We have pretty good sources in Burma, so if that happens, we will know. They also discussed another party, right, someone who goes by OCG a gay Guatemalon man who assertain

credible fear of being returned while in immigration court. He was deported to Mexico, where he also asserted in credible fear. Mexico gave him a choice of remaining Mexico going to Guatemala. He went to Guatemala, where he is now in hiding. The DHS claimed he said he didn't have credible fear and then later reverse it, and so they didn't ask. So the judge is now asking how on earth they got this conclusion he didn't have credible fear and deported him.

He's saying he might potentially put DHS officers on the stand to explain how this happened. In other immigration use ice just today, this is Wednesday has apparently been dismissing court cases against people who turn up before hearing an immigration court and then immediately arresting them. What the fuck? Right there is this fucking cross. Yeah, Like it's a little unclear what the move is here, but clearly they're

trying to remove them in a more expeditious way. Right, they have a court case, try to remove this person, they're saying.

underlying theme here. Unfortunately, this removal will likely now affect a lot more people because a Trump administration has removed the twenty twenty three Temporary Protected Status for Nezuelan people. We talked about TPSS in my Darian series. The TPS provides protection from deportation to people who are already present in the USA when it passes. Generally, it's if a country has experienced war or other like instability that makes

it dangerous. You have to apply to the TPS. They don't provide a pathway to permanence or citizenship, but they do give people work authorization, and they often have to be frequently renewed by the Executive Branch. You have to be in the US the date it's issued, so you can't enter after. Despite what you might have seen on Twitter or whatever, that's not the case. It also doesn't count as a legal entry, so you can't use the

bridge to a green card. Trump stripped this protection from about three hundred and fifty thousand Venezuelans under the twenty twenty three TPS. This does not impact there are two different tpss for Venezuelan people. They're in a bit of a unique situation. The quarter of a million people covered by the twenty twenty one TPS are still for now covered by that, but it doesn't exactly bode well for them.

it's really fucking heartbreaking to hear. Like when you think of three hundred and fifty thousand people, understand that a good number of those people will be little children, Yeah, right, people who never had any agency, People whose parents risked their lives to give their kids a chance at a better future, and that's been ripped away from them right now with the consent of the Supreme Court.

they're also likely to face political persecution. So yeah, that's all the exciting and uplifting news I have from the immigration side of things. Hey everyone, it's James with a pickup Today me and Mar now is reporting that the United States has deported twenty people since April. To Me and mar most of those people, seven of them have

been released. The remainder of those people are being held by Burmese military intelligence in a prison that is notorious for torture, sexual violence, and the general inhumane treatment of incarcerated people that we've become very familiar with in our writing about Meanma. We don't know who these people are yet. Obviously, this is a story that I'm looking into and I will continue to get back to you on. But it seems like somehow we have not been aware of this

until now, but dozens of people have been deported. They're saying that twenty seven people in total are expected to be deported, and twenty already have. So obviously this is very disturbing news and something we'll keep reporting on.

the country. In this same interview, Cash Brittel and Dan Bongino went on TV to say that Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide and of course Mega, yes, very normal to this. What do they have on this.

where where Trump. I was asked if he was going to release the whole file, and at first he said yes, and then he caught himself and was like, well, actually no, we'll probably be We'll probably be careful about releasing the whole file because it could compromise people, Like what kind of people you're talking about? Their don Anyway, we have.

That the US's demands on the negotiating table, which is again the political we're economic rationale behind this, is that the US should not have a trade deficit with China that can't be solved, and it's already breaking down. The talks are going almost certainly going to fail, and we're going

to be right back to where we were. It's also worth talking about a bunch of companies have been doing price raises, and I think it's worth going back a little bit to some of some of the economic work we've done in this show with the people at Strange Matters and talking about in our previous episodes about inflation, about how price works, because this is really really badly understood by just about everyone, which is that the way that people think about tend to think about price is

as like, okay, it's supply and demand.

direct like directly threatening sanctions on companies that raise prices. Mattel, for the people who make Barbie, said that they were gonna raise prices on toys, and Trump is now threatening them with one hundred percent sanctions or one hundred percent tariffs.

they companies have been publicly talking about this. The problem is the suppliers, because the the the distributors tend to have pretty high margins, right, like your Walgreens, like Amazon a sub except like their margins are okay, and like Amazon makes most of us money from government computing contracts anyways, so it's not as catastrophic. But the supply years operate

on very low margins. The shipping companies, everything else along the supply chain operates on really really low margins, right, And those people have to raise their price because otherwise they are just going to die. And when they raise their price right in, that's an increase to the next company's costless markup, which increases the next company's costless market, which increases the next companies. And we're starting to see this ripple to the supply chain. Things are disappearing from

grocery stores. They're going to continue disappearing from grocery stores. And as as this goes on, and as presumably the teriffs from China come back into effect, when these negotiations break down and the next round of tariffs goes into effect and deliberation day tariffs come off their ninety day pause and go to effect, this is all gonna get worse. This has been tariff talk lovely U. This unfortunately was the fun part of the episode.

Last week, I thought the crisis was going to be the eleven week blucket of Gaza and the fact that everyone is about to starve. Yeah, and so the actual specific thing that we're getting to right now is Israel it is attempting to evacuate. That's their wording. What they're actually doing is ethnically cleansing basically the entire population of

Conunis by just forcing everyone out of the city. Right The United Nations has said that nearly one hundred thousand Palestinians have been displaced in Gaza in the last four days as Israel has been expanding its its ground invasion to the Gaza strip. This has been combined with the eleven week long blockade of Gaza. I think by the end of this week, on the week twelve, this has set off an enormous risk of famine. I'm just going

to read this from Al Jazeira. Quote some sef days after the Israeli military halted the entry of food, water, medicine, and all other life saving supplies into Gaza, the report said. This is a report from a UN a UN back set of food security group of analysts. The report said, quote goods indispensable for people's survivals survival are either depleted or expected to run out in the coming weeks.

directly from the Times of Israel. If you want to understand how bad the situation is, the Times of Isael is reporting that a groups from the ground say that none of the ilia's gotten through and none of it has been attributed. This is I don't know how to convey how bad it is. Indescribable. Numbers of people are on the verge of starv and go death in the

Israelis are simply not letting any food arrive. They keep talking about how they're going to let food arrive because this is actually, this is the first thing I've seen them do that's actually seriously gotten. I mean not even seriously, but it's like gotten A lot of their Western allies pissed at them because they're just very obviously trying to

exterminate entire population by starving them the death. And this has caused the UK, Canada, and France to issue a joint statement coming out against the Israeli policy and telling them to fucking stop and let food through so these people don't starve. The UK is talking about suspending free trade agreements with Israel, they're talking about like sanctions at West Bank settlers. The whole group has threatened that they're

going to take more actions unless the Israelis let food in. Now, the Israelis, because of the Israelis shot at a bunch of diplomats who were visiting a refugee camp in Janine.

backing from the DHS. After sending Trump's DHS a thirty five page pitch, Warsof wants it to be quote unquote the biggest loser for immigration, which again, reality TV is inherently evil. That's fucking insane. It should not be tolerated on any aspect of human society. No, the Wall Street Journal header reads, quote, this isn't the Hunger Games for immigrants, says the producer behind the pitch. If you have to say this isn't the Hunger Games for immigrants, that means

this is the Hunger Games for immigrants. Getting a lot of questions about my this isn't the Hunger Games for Immigrants shirt already answered by the shirt to quote the Wall Street Journal quote. DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said that she had spoken to the producer of the proposed television reality show and that consideration of the idea was ongoing.

It is quote in the very beginning stages of that vetting process, she said, adding that quote each proposal undergoes a thorough vetting process prior to denial or approval unquote. McLoughlin was also quoted in The Daily Mail as saying she thought the television show was quote unquote a good idea.

heritage challenges to prove they are the most American. Such cultural contests include balancing on logs in Wisconsin, building a rocket at the Florida NASA headquarters, assembling a model t Ford in Detroit, and collecting gold in a San Francisco mind shaft. Prizes would be quote unquote iconically American, like one million American Airlines points, a ten thousand dollars Starbucks give card, or a lifetime supply of seventy six gas.

Immigrants would be split into teams that compete head to head across one hour episodes, ending with an elimination challenge, followed by a town hall and a final vote to quote the producer quote along the way, we will be reminded what it means to be American through the eyes of people who wanted most.

The pitt recommends Sophia Vrighera or Ryan Reynolds. Upon arriving, the host would give each of them a personalized baseball glove America's past time.

During the Battle of Bune, he personally led a charge against several Japanese pillboxes, which he eliminated with grenades. He then had his ear drum perforated, and I believe he was shot in the arm. He was awarded, I think he wasn't ordered the Medal of Honor. He was recognized for his bravery. Congress pass and act to make him a citizen, and he declined to attend the ceremony because he wanted to get back to the front lines. That rules, Yeah, a bit of a legend.

staff are looking at this pitch. It might not go through now based on all this backlash, but they were looking through the pitch, including possibly Corey Lewandowski. But yeah, that is that is the Reality TV news. James, Do you have anything anything to end on here.

So this is a rare dub I guess. Clearly, as we enter the time of year when things need to be picked in the fields, this will be a place where ICE sees the opportunity to conduct its enforcement operations.

And like it is genuinely positive to see that this company, I guess, critical support to this company that obviously underpays and takes advantage of migrant labor that they have provided them, according to an anonymous source in sf Gate with know your rights training, and in this case, the gatekeeper was able to not let the ICE agents enter and eventually they left.