Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. The show is archived at: www.gorilla-radio.com. The GR blog is at: gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com, and you can find and support the program at GRadio.Substack.com. Financial support is also possible through Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PacificFreePress, or via e-transfer to: lex@gorilla-radio.com. Tweets found at @paciffreepress. Some past guests include: Jennifer Abbott, M. Shahid Alam, Joel Bakan, Ramzy Baroud, Eva Bartlett, Vanessa Beeley, Christopher Black, Kristina Borjesson, Helen Caldicott, Noam Chomsky, Paul Cienfuegos, Radhika Desai, Joe Emersberger, Yves Engler, Laura Flanders, William S. Geimer, Denis Halliday, John Helmer, Sam Husseini, Kim Ives, Dahr Jamail, Robert Jensen, Malalai Joya, Kathy Kelly, Dan Kovalik, Dimitri Lascaris, Jonathan Latham, Ingmar Lee, Dave Lindorff, Tarek Loubani, Stefania Maurizi, Nils Melzer, Glenn Michalchuk, Sharmine Narwani, Stavroula Pabst, Michael Parenti, John Pilger, Mazin Qumsiyeh, Andy Lee Roth, Richard Sanders, Pitasanna Shanmugathas, Vandana Shiva, John Stauber, Ken Stone, David Swanson, Andre Vltchek, Andy Worthington, Alfred de Zayas, Howard Zinn and many others.
Today a Gorilla Radio flashback to a 2001 interview with iconic Vancouver councilor, Harry Rankin on the prospects of a new neoliberalism era in British Columbia politics.
And; a 2000 interview with author and journalist, John Ross on his life in Mexico and the release of his then new book, The War Against Oblivion.
Welcome again to Gorilla Radio’s continuing efforts, NOT broadcast live from CFUV Radio in the basement of the Student Union Building at the University of Victoria, but emanating live-to-tape via skype from our home-based … studios on this date, June 30th, 2020.
As day by day the duration of this Covid disaster grows longer it becomes increasingly clear there will be no normal, new or otherwise, to return to; especially no economic one. What we’re witnessing, my first guest argues, is more cyclone than cyclical downturn; an effective overturning of the entire neo-liberal financial order. Not only are we not in Kansas anymore, but Kansas has done gone too!
Radhika Desai is a scholar, educator, author, editor. She is too director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group and professor in the Department of Political Studies at the University of Manitoba, and author of the books, ‘Geopolitical Economy: After US Hegemony, Globalization and Empire’, ‘Slouching Towards Ayodhya: From Congress to Hindutva in Indian Politics’, and ‘Intellectuals and Socialism: ‘Social Democrats’ and the Labour Party’. She also serves as co-editor with Alan Freeman of the Geopolitical Economy book series with Manchester University Press and the Future of Capitalism book series with Pluto Press. Radhika’s many essays, primarily on the topics of political economy, culture and nationalism can be found at among other places, CanadianDimensions.com where her seven part, multi-week series, WHAT IS TO BE DONE? A MANIFESTO FOR POLITICS AMID THE PANDEMIC AND BEYOND features.
Radhika Desai in the first half.
And; the people of Old Fort don’t know what to expect next. The small town in British Columbia’s Peace River Valley has been under an evacuation alert since June 19th when a landslide destroyed their only road access. It’s the second time the road has been wiped out in the last two years. Locals want to know what’s going on beneath them, but the provincial government has yet to shed light on the geological cause of the slides. Requests for information made through channels have been refused “pursuant to section 15” of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Section 15 regards disclosure of requested information as quote, “harmful to law enforcement”. Further explanation of how that may be has not been offered, but the geological and political fragility surrounding the contentious Site C dam has long been an issue for Peace Valley opponents of the project.
Ken Boon is a Peace Valley farmer and president of the Peace Valley Landowners Association. Ken and his family have lived at the heart of the resistance to the Site C dam project from the beginning.
Ken Boon and does the Old Fort slide mean things going sideways for Site C too? in the second half.
And; long-time Gorilla Radio contributor and ‘Green Vegan Grandma’ YouTuber, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events Bulletin of some of the good things to be gotten up to in and around Victoria in the coming week. But first, Radhika Desai and just what is to be done in a World undone?
