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Asian America on the Black-led Uprising for Racial Justice

The Black Lives Matters protests that have spread around the country for the last several months have been punctuated by solidarity protests led by Asian American groups. We spoke to Thenmozhi Soundararajan of Equality Labs about the connections between anti-caste discrimination and anti-Black racism and the role of the South Asian American community in fighting both.

The Future of Dissent in Hong Kong

When Beijing passed a new security law for Hong Kong at the end of June, many activists on the island were both outraged and terrified, fearing that the law marked a death knell for the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement. It imposes major restrictions on dissent, massively expands Beijing’s political influence and control over the city’s legislature and judiciary, and enables some national security cases to be tried on the mainland. All these elements severely undermine the one country, two systems regime that was put in place during Hong Kong’s transition to mainland rule following the handover from its former colonial master, Britain. While many activists are panicking, it’s worth taking a step back and asking what exactly this means for the long-term future of political dissent in Hong Kong and the wider diaspora. We speak with Gina Anne Tam, a professor of Chinese history at Trinity University and observer of Hong Kong politics, about why the new Hong Kong security law matters, but maybe not the way a lot of people think it does.

Addendum: Tam noted after our interview that she drew from some of the work of Wilfred Chan, who has also been a guest on APF. For further reference, see:

• Hong Kong's Fight for Life
• The Left's Role in the Hong Kong Uprising

Cultural protest in Chile and Palestine (Part 2)

Natisu, a Chilean-based musician and cultural worker with Trabajadoras de la Música, and Tarin Gonzalez, a Bronx-based activist with Existence is Resistance, reflect on militarized violence and the role of art in social movements.

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Cover Photo: Scott Lum, CC BY-NC 2.0, cropped from original.