In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Dr. Bill Honigman, California State Coordinator and Co-Coordinator of the Healthcare as a Human Right Issue Organizing Team for Progressive Democrats of America, to talk about why California Governor Gavin Newsom is insisting that the aggressive hoarding of supplies by the federal government means states must form a parallel "consortium" to purchase their own PPE, whether Newsom's repeated references to California as a "nation-state" could signal a broader split between the federal government and states which no longer view it as a "reliable partner" in protecting their residents, and the broader implications of Trump's failed coronavirus response on working people here and abroad.
In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Steven Powers, an organizer with the Philadelphia Liberation Center, to talk about how the group is stepping up efforts to ensure Philadelphia's most vulnerable communities have access to food and supplies amid the shelter-in-place order, why the government's inability or unwillingness to seriously address the coronavirus outbreak means the onus of dealing with its impacts has fallen to working communities themselves, and why the bonds formed as we struggle to address the crisis together are crucial to developing the kind of mass working-class movement needed to bring about real liberation.
In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Jeb Sprague, a research associate at the University of Cali Riverside and author of “Globalizing the Caribbean: Political Economy, Social Change, and the Transnational Capitalist Class," to talk about heightening concerns of a widespread outbreak in Haiti as the US deported 61 Haitians despite the serious risk of contagion, why the neocolonial model imposed on Haiti ensures the country's social services are unable to meet the needs of the people, and how the country's dysfunctional healthcare system is fueling fears that up to a million Haitians could die if the virus continues to spread.
Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Eleanor Goldfield, a creative activist, journalist, and co-host of the Common Censored podcast with Lee Camp, to talk about why the White House is accusing Voice of America of 'promoting foreign propaganda' after the US government-funded outlet acknowledged China's coronavirus response as a "model" for other nations, how mutual-aid and serve-the-people organizations are demonstrating the superiority of worker-led organizations in meeting community needs, what explains the increasing racialization of social distancing enforcement, and why so many progressives are through voting for the "lesser of two evils."
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