by Maximillian Alvarez | Oct 22, 2025 | Economy, Economy and Inequality, labor, Podcast, Politics and Movements: US, Trump, Working People
The federal government shutdown is now in its fourth week. Over 700,000 federal employees have been furloughed, with nearly as many continuing to work without pay, yet there are still no signs that an end to the shutdown is near. “Unlike past presidents, Mr. Trump appears to feel little urgency to strike a deal to reopen the government,” Luke Broadwater writes at The New York Times. “Instead, he has used the shutdown, which began Oct. 1, as an opportunity to further remake the federal bureaucracy and jettison programs he does not like, seizing on unorthodox budgetary maneuvers that some have called illegal.” In this episode, we speak with three furloughed federal employees about the harm government shutdowns cause working people, and we discuss why this shutdown is different.
Guests:
Adam is a furloughed federal employee who works in recreation for the US Forest Service, managing hiking, biking, and equestrian trails in central Idaho. He serves as chapter president of National Federation of Federal Employees Local 1753, and he is an organizer with the Federal Unionists Network.
Ellen is a furloughed federal employee who works in SNAP oversight and administration at the USDA Food and Nutrition Service. She serves as chapter president of National Treasury Employees Union Local 255, representing FNS employees at the Northeast regional office, and she is an organizer with the Federal Unionists Network in Boston.
April is a furloughed federal employee who works in the office of Head Start at the Administration for Children and Families HQ in Washington, DC. She serves as chapter president of the National Treasury Employees Union Local 250.
Additional links/info:
Federal Unionists Network website, BlueSky, and Instagram
Federal Unionists Network: “Join Us To
by Michael Fox | Oct 19, 2025 | chile, Podcast, Politics and Movements: International, Prisons and Policing, Stories of Resistance, The Cultural Front
On October 18, 2019, protests erupted in Santiago, Chile, over a hike in the cost of public transportation. But the demonstrations quickly grew into more than that. Those in the streets demanded change—real change. They demanded more rights. They demanded a new Constitution.
Police cracked down with impunity. Videos went viral of riot police beating people in the streets. Chemical water guns. Shooting rubber bullets at point blank range. The number of the dead and wounded skyrocketed.
Throughout the protests, which would ripple on for almost 6 months, Chilean state security forces would cause more than 400 eye injuries to protesters in the streets. Many people would never see out of those eyes again. But some of them also found each other… and began to sew their lives back together, with music.
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 was in the running for best episode host, and he also won a Gold Signal Award. 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.
Resources:
Here is the YouTube channel for Hasta La Victoria
Hasta La Victoria’s Instagram Page
Camilo Galvez Bugueño Instagram page
Michael Fox’s story for The World on
by Kelly Hayes | Oct 17, 2025 | big tech, culture, Interview, Media, Podcast, Social Media
“We can only be brave together,” says Mariame Kaba. In this episode of Movement Memos, host Kelly Hayes talks with Kaba and writer and organizer Red Schulte about political education, collective courage, and the mistakes we’ll make along the way. Music: Son Monarcas & Sarah, the Illstrumentalist Note: This a rush transcript and has been lightly edited for clarity. Copy may not be in…
Source
by Maximillian Alvarez | Oct 13, 2025 | censorship, labor, Podcast, Politics and Movements: US, Trump
“In Texas, a socialist professor is now in the fight of his life against MAGA’s New McCarthyism,” scholar and author Bill V. Mullen writes in Jacobin. “Tom Alter, a labor historian and tenured professor of history at Texas State University, was fired from his job on September 10 after a far-right troll doctored a videotape of Alter speaking at a virtual Revolutionary Socialism conference. After viewing the video, university president Kelly Damphousse fired Alter on September 10 with what Alter and his supporters say was no due process.” While Alter was provisionally reinstated on Sept. 26, he and his family remain in limbo as they wait for a final decision from Texas State University regarding his firing. In this urgent episode of Working People, we speak with Professor Alter himself about the sequence of events that have made his case a flashpoint in the MAGA right’s all-out assault on free speech, higher education, and the people who live, work, and study there.
Additional links/info:
Texas State Employees Union – CWA Local 6186: “Reinstate Dr. Tom Alter | Defend Free Speech”
Bill V. Mullen, Jacobin, “MAGA McCarthyism comes to Texas State”
Russell Payne, Salon, “Fox News “expert” says Hitler went to heaven”
Full video of Professor Alter’s Revolutionary Socialism conference speech.
Edward Helmore, The Guardian, “US anti-fascism expert leaves country day after being blocked from flying to Spain”
Featured Music:
Jules Taylor, “Working People” Theme Song
Credits:
Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor
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.
by Michael Fox | Oct 13, 2025 | Ecuador, Indigenous communities, Peru, Podcast, Politics and Movements: International, Stories of Resistance
It was once called Columbus Day, and it still is in many parts. A day to celebrate the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, who supposedly “discovered” America. But America was there long before Columbus came. And so were millions of people up and down the continent. Experts estimate that there were anywhere from 60–90 million people in the Americas at the time. Possibly even more people in the Americas than in Europe at the time.
But disease and successive wars by waves of invading Europeans decimated the local Indigenous populations. Over the next century, roughly 90% of Indigenous peoples in the Western Hemisphere had been wiped out.
But they have constantly resisted to this day.
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. If you like what you hear, please subscribe, like, share, comment, or leave a review. And please consider signing up for the Stories of Resistance podcast feed on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, or wherever you listen.Written and produced by Michael Fox.
Stories of Resistance Indigenous resistance episodes:
Episode 4: How Indigenous peoples in Brazil fought COVID-19
Episode 8: Celebrating Indigenous roots in Chile’s Arica carnival
Episode 23: Reforesting the Andes, one tree at a time
Episode 48: Protecting Q’eswachaka, the last Incan rope bridge
Episode 50: Inti Raymi returns as an act of resistance
Episode 54: How Indigenous field hockey is reviving Mapuche culture
Episode 56: Karipuna resistance: Defending the Amazon
Transcript
It was once called Columbus Day, and it still is in many parts. A day to celebrate the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, who supposedly “discovered” America.
But America was there long before Columbus came. And so were millions of people up and down the
by Marc Steiner | Oct 7, 2025 | Gaza, Israel, October 7: One Year Later, Palestine, Podcast, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, The Marc Steiner Show
Intent to destroy all or part of a group is required to meet the criteria of genocide, and Israeli officials have made their intentions towards the people of Gaza explicitly clear, says Phyllis Bennis. In this discussion of her new book, Understanding Palestine & Israel, she explains how other recognized genocides have been defined, the influence of the Holocaust and its aftermath on Zionism and Jewish identity, and why the ceasefire movement indicates a change in the movement for Palestinian rights.
Guests:
Phyllis Bennis is a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, where she also serves as co-director of the New Internationalism Project. She is a founding member of the US Campaign to End Israeli Occupation and served for six years on the national board of Jewish Voice for Peace. She is the author of numerous books, including Understanding Palestine & Israel.
Credits:
Studio Production: Cameron Granadino
Post-Production: Stephen Frank
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Marc Steiner:
Welcome to the Marc Steiner Show here in the World News. I’m Marc Steiner. It’s good to have you all with this as we open our program today. Somewhere between 66,000 and 80,000 people have been buried under the rubble and Gaza and killed the majority of women and children. Most of the infrastructure has been destroyed. Over 1.2 million people face starvation and seemingly nothing is being done to end this massacre. Many of the most profound voices and leaders of the fight against the war in Gaza are members of the Jewish community who say not in our name. And today we’re
