Jacobin Radio: US-Iran Crisis, Hong Kong Protests

On this episode of Jacobin Radio, Suzi focuses on the intensifying US-Iranian crisis and war brinkmanship that saw us about ten minutes away from military strikes, before Trump pulled back. We get MIT historian Pouya Alimaghum’s analysis of the crisis, the implications and goals of the increasing bluster and ever more draconian sanctions, and what they mean for domestic dissent in Iran.

Then Suzi talks to UCI professor of Chinese history Jeff Wasserstrom, who has just returned from Hong Kong and has written in the Atlanticabout the gigantic protest movement that was met with extreme violence, only bringing more people into the streets. The protestors were fighting against a bill that would allow the extradition of suspects to mainland China, a further threat to Hong Kong’s partial autonomy, and for the right to assemble without persecution, to speak freely, and enjoy freedom of information. For the moment the bill has been shelved, thanks to the massive protests in the streets, but not the efforts to erode the city’s freedoms. We get Wasserstrom’s analysis.