Dominican Republic Protests Rooted in Colonialism, Neoliberalism
In this segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Dr. Jeb Sprague, a Research Associate at the Institute for Research on World-Systems (IROWS) at the University of California, Riverside and author of “Globalizing the Caribbean: Political economy, social change, and the transnational capitalist class,” to discuss ongoing protests in the Dominican Republic after municipal elections were abruptly canceled by government officials, how the long history of colonialism on the island of Hispañola continues to inform the racial and economic dynamics underlying the class struggle there, the role of various political parties and 'civil society' in all the unrest, how the US State Department has responded to the protests, and how their preferred neoliberal factions serve to help them maintain capitalist hegemony.