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In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, host Sean Blackmon is joined by Esther Iverem, artist, author and independent journalist, host and producer of “On The Ground: Voices of Resistance from the Nation’s Capital” on Pacifica Radio, to discuss the sentencing of now-former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to 22.5 years for his murder of George Floyd, why the latest ‘police lynching’ reinvigorated protests movements throughout Washington, D.C., and how police violence throughout the United States has its roots in the capitalist economic system which impacts so much of our lives.


In the second segment, Sean is joined by Sohrob Aslamy, a doctoral student at Syracuse University in the department of Geography and the environment, to discuss the “overwhelming uncertainty” in Afghanistan as the Taliban take over wide swathes of the country amid the ongoing US military withdrawal, the deadly impacts of two decades of US and NATO occupation on the besieged Afghani populace, and how the Covid pandemic contributed to the broader instability which has come to characterize life in the war-torn nation.


In the third segment, Sean is joined by Stepen Gowans, author of “Traitors, Patriots, and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Fight for Freedom,” to discuss his recent article, “A Brief History of Two Koreas,” why so many Korean people have historically “leaned towards communism,” and the South Korean pivot away from warring with its northern neighbor and towards being integrated into broader US efforts to militarily contain China.


Later in the show, Sean is joined by By Any Means Necessary producer Wyatt Reed to discuss the extent to which the Derek Chauvin sentence represents a victory for those fighting back against racist police violence, the call by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet for reparations, and the vast differences between the situation on the ground in Venezuela and the grim caricature portrayed by corporate media.