Dominance of the Delta Variant is the Fruit of Vaccine Imperialism
In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Stephen Gowans, author of “Traitors, Patriots, and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Fight for Freedom,” to discuss vaccine imperialism and the WHO’s ask that rich countries halt booster dose programs, how capitalism slows the production of vaccines and allows more variants of COVID-19 to develop, and the United States’s use of the pandemic as an opportunity to plunder poor countries and further its violence around the world.
In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta and Co-host of the Renegade Culture podcast to discuss the targeting of Community Movement Builders by real estate developers and the city of Atlanta, Atlanta’s prioritization of policing to serve real estate interests and promote gentrification, and the surveillance and intimidation of community organizing by police.
In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Mike Sampson, co-host of the RedSpin Sports podcast and Miguel Garcia, host and creator of the Sports As A Weapon Podcast, to discuss Donald Trump’s attack on “wokeness” on the US Women’s National Soccer Team after they earned a bronze medal at the Olympics and the recent release of a photo by the accuser of Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer, who is under investigation for allegations of domestic violence.
Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Dr. Layla D. Brown-Vincent, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Africana Studies at Northeastern University to discuss the anti-people logic of the neoliberal U.S. state that manifests in sanctions designed to punish the people in the targets of imperialism and in its insufficient and callous response to the pandemic, and the stark contrast in the responses to the pandemic between capitalist and socialist governments in light of the eviction moratorium.