The Real News Podcast

We cover a lot of important worker struggles on this show, but it's important to cover worker victories as well—and workers in South Dakota just landed a huge victory. After suffering one of the worst COVID workplace outbreaks in the country last year, leading to four deaths and over 1,200 infections, workers at the Smithfield pork processing plant in Sioux Falls refused to back down on demands for better pay and to retain a 15-minute break during the second half of their shifts. When negotiations with Smithfield stalled, UFCW Local 304A members voted overwhelmingly (98%) to authorize a strike, and the company backed down. On this extended mini-cast, we welcome back president of the South Dakota Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, Kooper Caraway, to discuss this important victory and what lessons the labor movement should take away from it.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

What would cause a former cop to cross the thin blue line and use his camera to monitor law enforcement and hold police accountable? For well-known police auditor James Madison, it was a fraught encounter with a police officer who threatened to falsely arrest him on his own property for filming him. In this week's PAR, we speak to Madison about his conversion from cop to cop watcher, and about the deep issues that plague law enforcement.Help us continue producing Police Accountability Report by following us and making a small donation: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-yt-parSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/nl-yt-parGet Police Accountability Report updates: https://therealnews.com/yt-up-parLike us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnewsFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealnewsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

There is a battle happening in rural America: Across the country, rural farming communities are struggling to combat the relentless onslaught of Big Ag and the factory farming industry. With help from the federal and state governments, industrial farming and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) have colonized greater swathes of rural areas, upending what remains of the independent farming economy and polluting the air, land, and waterways. Throughout the month of July, as part of their investigative series “The Wisconsin Idea,” TRNN is teaming up with In These Times magazine to bring you in-depth coverage from three rural counties in Western Wisconsin (Burnett, Polk, and Crawford) where farmers and other community members have been engaged in a tireless battle to halt construction of two factory hog CAFOs that they fear will do irreparable damage to their communities.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and making a small donation: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-ytSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/nl-ytLike us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnewsFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealnewsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

The Trump administration's frequent antagonism toward China ushered in what many analysts have called a "new Cold War" between the two world powers. Rather than reverse course, President Biden has committed to thrusting the US further into a world-historical contest with China, declaring in his first speech to Congress in April, "We're in a competition with China and other countries to win the 21st century.”While it is clear that the relationship between the US and China will come to define the geopolitical terrain for decades to come, many among the Western left are unsure about what their own positions and responsibilities should be. As the slogan “Neither Washington nor Beijing!” continues to gain traction, it is important for leftists to critically assess what they know and don't know about China. TRNN contributor Radhika Desai speaks with John Ross, senior fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China, whose most recent book, China's Great Road, is published with 1804 Books.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and making a small donation: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-ytSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/nl-ytLike us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnewsFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealnewsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

In our first segment for this week’s episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc talks with Marjorie Cohn about the highly anticipated report from the International Commission of Inquiry on Systemic Racist Police Violence Against People of African Descent in the United States, which issued a blistering indictment of police-perpetrated racist violence in the U.S. As Cohn writes in Truthout, “The Commissioners concluded that the systematic police killings of Black people in the U.S. constitutes a prima facie case of crimes against humanity and they asked the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to initiate an investigation of responsible police officials.” Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former president of the National Lawyers Guild, and a member of the bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and the advisory board of Veterans for Peace. In our second segment, we bring you the latest installment of our ongoing series “Not in Our Name,” which highlights the diverse voices of Jewish activists, artists, intellectuals, and others who are speaking out against the Israeli occupation. In this installment, Marc talks with writer and translator Joanna Chen about the role of literature in understanding and resisting the inhumanity of occupation. Chen teaches poetry at the Helicon School of Poetry and her work has been published in outlets like Guernica, Poet Lore, Consequence, Poetry International, Narratively, and the L.A. Review of Books. Her full-length translations include Less Like a Dove, Frayed Light, and My Wild Garden. Tune in for new episodes of The Marc Steiner Show every Tuesday on TRNN.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

Public debates about "Defund the Police" have seemingly devolved into an all-or-nothing rhetorical war with little room for nuance. But opponents of the slogan and the movement behind it routinely ignore the decades of profligate spending and wasteful use of taxpayer dollars that has become commonplace for many police departments. In this TRNN podcast, the hosts of the Police Accountability Report take a close look at the numbers and expose some of the most egregious police spending.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

Earlier this month, No Evil Foods, a “progressive” vegan meat company founded in North Carolina, notified its staff that they were closing their Asheville production plant and moving to a co-manufacturing facility in Illinois. After working through the COVID-19 pandemic, workers were suddenly notified that they were now unemployed and would be receiving no severance. In this urgent episode, Jon Reynolds and Meagan Sullivan, two former NEF employees who shared their testimonies in our previous Working People episode on NEF's union-busting campaign, join us again to discuss the plant closure and how to support laid-off workers.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

Voters in Georgia stunned the nation in 2020 by delivering key presidential and Senate victories for Democrats. In response, Republicans have launched a renewed assault on voting rights that, critics argue, directly targets traditionally non-Republican voters and will be especially detrimental to Black, Brown, and working-class people. Among other provisions, Georgia Senate Bill 202 (the Election Integrity Act of 2021), imposes stricter voter identification requirements and makes it even more difficult to secure and submit absentee ballots. In this week’s first segment of The Marc Steiner Show, we continue our ongoing investigation into the battle over voting rights in the US by talking with State Rep. Renitta Shannon (District 84) from the Georgia House of Representatives about this blatant attack on democracy and how we can fight back.Then, in our recurring monthly segment featuring writers for Jacobin magazine, Marc talks with Suyapa Portillo Villeda and Miguel Tinker Salas about Vice President Kamala Harris’s recent trip to Mexico and Guatemala. Having vowed to address the “root causes” of Central American migration, Harris did everything but on her trip, and instead delivered a particularly callous message to would-be migrants: “Do not come” to the US. Miguel Tinker Salas is the Leslie Farmer Professor of Latin American Studies and Professor of History and Chicana/o Latina/o Studies at Pomona College and the author of Venezuela: What Everyone Needs to Know and The Enduring Legacy: Oil, Culture, and Society in Venezuela; Suyapa Portillo Villeda is associate professor of Chicano/a Latino/a Transnational Studies at Pitzer College and author of Roots of Resistance: A Story of Gender, Race, and Labor on the North Coast of Honduras.Tune in for new episodes of The Marc Steiner Show every Tuesday on TRNN.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

We will be back to our regular Working People schedule next week. Until then, to tide listeners over, and to celebrate his book recently receiving Honorable Mention for the Merle Curti Intellectual History Award, we're unlocking our bonus episode conversation with historian Nate Holdren. We talk with Nate about his latest book, Injury Impoverished: Workplace Accidents, Capitalism, and Law in the Progressive Era, and about what exactly people lose when they are injured at work. (C/W: some descriptions of workplace injuries.)Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

While Max is traveling for The Real News Network, “Working People” producer Jules Taylor makes his host debut by interviewing his stepfather Ric Ortiz about his career as a death investigator and paramedic. In a way, it feels like Ric was meant to work around death—he grew up across the street from a cemetery and his first job involved assisting a local gravedigger before he was 10 years old. He would go on to work as the chief medical investigator for Nueces County, Texas, for 20 years. In this special episode, Jules speaks with Ric about the events in his life that shaped his career path, and they discuss how working around death influences the way one sees the world.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!