by Maximillian Alvarez | Nov 6, 2025 | education, Israel, Palestine, Podcast, Politics and Movements: US, Prisons and Policing, Trump, Working People
Life on college campuses has changed dramatically in the last 10 months. While institutions of higher education continue to reel from the Trump administration’s top-down attacks and scramble to adjust, workers on campus say that their universities are simultaneously expanding their own internal repression and surveillance apparatuses to squash dissent. In this episode, we speak with a panel of graduate student workers and union members from Columbia University and the University of Michigan about the chilling new reality on their campuses and what it’s like to live, learn, and work there today.
Panelists include; Vayne, a PhD candidate in history at Columbia University and a member of the bargaining committee for Student Workers of Columbia; Conlan Olson, a PhD student in computer science at Columbia University and a member of the bargaining committee for Student Workers of Columbia; Jared Eno, a grad worker in sociology and public policy at the University of Michigan and a rank-and-file member of the Graduate Employees Organization.
Additional links/info:
Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) website, Instagram, Facebook page, and X page
Student Workers of Columbia-UAW Local 2710 website, Instagram, Facebook page, and X page
Glenn Hedin & Barrett Dolata, The Michigan Daily, “Three pro-Palestine activists arrested for protesting speech given by former Israeli soldiers”
Student Workers of Columbia press release: “Columbia threatens discipline for union picket, extends repression to labor action”
Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / The Real News Network, “‘The raids happened Wednesday, finals started Thursday’: FBI agents raid homes of pro-Palestine students at University of Michigan”
Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “‘Worse’ than McCarthyism: Trump’s war on higher education, free speech, and political dissent”
Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / The Real News Network, “‘A tremendous chilling effect’: Columbia students describe dystopian reality on campus amid
by Michael Fox | Nov 4, 2025 | Peru, Podcast, Politics and Movements: International, Stories of Resistance
In the late 1700s, Indigenous peoples in the Spanish colonies of the Andes were forced to work for the Spanish. They tilled the land, worked in the textile mills and the mines. Those that didn’t faced heavy taxes. But in early November 1780, Indigenous Incan leader Tupac Amaru II led an uprising against the Spanish that he hoped would end it all.
It was the largest revolt against colonial Spain. Thousands would join the months-long rebellion. It would inspire uprisings elsewhere across the continent, and independence leaders. South America would gain its freedom from Spain just 40 years later.
BIG NEWS! This podcast has won Gold in this year’s Signal Awards for best history podcast! It’s a huge honor. Thank you so much to everyone who voted and supported.
And please consider signing up for the Stories of Resistance podcast feed on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, or wherever you listen. And please take a moment to rate and review the podcast. A little help goes a long way.
The Real News’s legendary host Marc Steiner has also been in the running for best episode host. And he also won a Gold Signal Award. We are so excited. You can listen and subscribe to the Marc Steiner Show here on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Please consider supporting this podcast and Michael Fox’s reporting on his Patreon account: patreon.com/mfox. There you can also see exclusive pictures, video, and interviews.
Written and produced by Michael Fox.
Transcript
In the main square of Yanaoca, Peru, people dance. It’s carnival season. Yanaoca is a small town in the highlands of Peru. Population 1,500 people. But it is best known for rebellion.
See, just
by Michael Fox | Oct 31, 2025 | elections, New York, Podcast, Politics and Movements: US, Stories of Resistance
Just a year ago almost no one had ever heard of him. Just a name in a crowd. A fairly obscure member of the New York State Assembly. Just one in a packed pool of Democratic candidates running for mayor of New York City. A longshot.
Now he is the leading candidate in the city’s mayoral race next Tuesday, November 4. A democratic socialist who has ignited a movement. A glimmer of hope amid dark days. Hope for not just New York City, but elsewhere around the country, and a road map for other progressive candidates.
BIG NEWS! This podcast has won Gold in this year’s Signal Awards for best history podcast! It’s a huge honor. Thank you so much to everyone who voted and supported.
And please consider signing up for the Stories of Resistance podcast feed on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, or wherever you listen.
And please take a moment to rate and review the podcast. A little help goes a long way.
The Real News’s legendary host Marc Steiner has also been in the running for best episode host. And he also won a Gold Signal Award. We are so excited. You can listen and subscribe to the Marc Steiner Show here on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Please consider supporting this podcast and Michael Fox’s reporting on his Patreon account: patreon.com/mfox. There you can also see exclusive pictures, video, and interviews.
Written and produced by Michael Fox.
All clips in this episode were taken from Zohran Mamdani’s Instagram page.
Resources
Your guide to the billionaire-backed groups working to push Dems right in 2026
4 Reasons why Trump is afraid of Zohran Mamdani
CNN Anchors shill for Cuomo as mainstream
by Maximillian Alvarez | Oct 31, 2025 | Gaza, Israel, October 7: One Year Later, Palestine, Podcast, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Working People
In September, before the current ceasefire deal was announced, we spoke with two Palestinians in Gaza—Mohamed Abu Tawila (a former English teacher) and his nephew Abdul Rahman (a would-be college student)—about surviving 700 days of genocidal destruction at the hands of Israel’s military and with the full backing of the United States. In this critical follow-up episode, we speak once again with Mohamed Abu Tawila from Gaza to get an on-the-ground account of life for Palestinians after the shaky implementation of the ceasefire began on Oct. 10.
Additional links/info:
Mohamed’s Instagram account
Living Water Mutual Aid in Gaza Chuffed fundraiser page and Instagram account
GoFundMe campaign to support Mohamed’s water delivery operation and his family
Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / The Real News Network, “‘Hearts are crying and bodies are bleeding’: Gazans describe their daily struggle to survive”
Tareq S. Hajjaj, Mondoweiss, “Israel’s repeated ceasefire violations are part of its strategy to keep waging war on Gaza”
DropSite News, “Israel kills over 100 Palestinians in overnight bombardment of Gaza; thousands killed in Sudan’s El-Fasher”
Featured Music:
Jules Taylor, Working People Theme Song
Credits:
Audio Post-Production: Alina Nehlich
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Alright. Welcome everyone to Working People, a podcast about the lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles of the working class today. Working People is a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and is brought to you in partnership within these Times Magazine and the Real News Network. This show is produced by Jules Taylor and made possible by the support of listeners like you. My name is Maximilian Alvarez and we’ve got a short but extremely important episode for you
by Maximillian Alvarez and Marc Steiner | Oct 29, 2025 | AI, Economy, Economy and Inequality, labor, Podcast, Politics and Movements: US, The Marc Steiner Show, Working People
In this special crossover edition of Working People and The Marc Steiner Show, hosts Maximillian Alvarez and Marc Steiner examine how the “artificial intelligence” (AI) boom is shaping the economy and the impact it is already having—and will continue to have—on working people’s lives, livelihoods, and jobs. Alvarez and Steiner speak with two members of a new mutual aid and advocacy group called Stop Gen AI, which formed this year out of the critical need to provide material support for creatives, knowledge workers, and anyone else impacted by generative AI.
Guests:
Kim Crawley is a former cybersecurity professor and co-author of The Pentester Blueprint. She founded Stop Gen AI in May 2025 in response to the immense socioeconomic harm generative AI has done to her and her peers, and to the vast environmental, cultural, scientific, psychological, and economic harm it does to the world. Stop Gen AI is unique for its anticapitalist focus and commitment to raising survival funds for people who are struggling.
Emmi is an information security expert with experience across many niches of the industry, including application security across a number of verticals, and she is a specialist in insider threat and cyber threat intelligence. She joined the efforts of Stop Gen AI in 2025 due to the overwhelming amount of friends she has seen lose their entire lives and careers due to the out-of-control AI bubble. She also has nearly two decades of experience with boots-on-the-ground union organizing, protesting, and activism.
Additional links/info:
Stop Gen AI website and Mastodon page
Stop Gen AI Twitch Fest information
Khiree Stewart, WBALTV 11, “‘Just holding a Doritos bag’: Student handcuffed after AI system mistook bag of chips for weapon”
Marc Steiner & Maximillian Alvarez, The Marc
by Michael Fox | Oct 27, 2025 | ICE, immigration, Podcast, Politics and Movements: US, Stories of Resistance
ICE agents are detaining thousands of people a day from communities across the country. But people are resisting. And it’s having an impact. Millions have protested in recent weeks, from the #NoKings rally to demonstrations in front of immigration detention centers, and protests against ICE in their communities.
Neighbors in one Chicago suburb pushed back by yelling and honking car horns when ICE agents descended on their community. Elsewhere they’ve handed out thousands of whistles to neighbors at risk. And people are lifting up their cell phone cameras and their voices, and putting their bodies on the line to foil ICE raids in cities around the country.
BIG NEWS! This podcast has won Gold in this year’s Signal Awards for best history podcast! It’s a huge honor. Thank you so much to everyone who voted and supported.
And please consider signing up for the Stories of Resistance podcast feed on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, or wherever you listen.
And please take a moment to rate and review the podcast. A little help goes a long way.
The Real News’s legendary host Marc Steiner has also been in the running for best episode host. And he also won a Gold Signal Award. We are so excited. You can listen and subscribe to the Marc Steiner Show here on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Please consider supporting this podcast and Michael Fox’s reporting on his Patreon account: patreon.com/mfox. There you can also see exclusive pictures, video, and interviews. Written and produced by Michael Fox.
Transcript
There’s this video that’s gone viral.
Two unidentified and masked ICE agents are trying to wrestle a man into their vehicle.
He’s doing his best not to go.
A crowd
