In Episode 45 [29] of the CounterVortex podcast [30], Bill Weinberg notes with alarm the rapid consolidation of a global detention state, extending across borders and rival power blocs. In the United States, Trump moves toward indefinite detention [31] of undocumented migrants, with horrific rights abuses [32] widespread in the fast-expanding camp system [33]. In China, up to a million Uighurs have been detained in "re-education camps," and are facing such abuses as forced sterilization [34]. As India hypocritically protests China's treatment of the Uighurs, it is also preparing mass detention [35] of its own Muslim population. Russia's Vladimir Putin is similarly preparing mass detention [36] of the Crimean Tatars. In Syria, the Bashar Assad regime has detained hundreds of thousands, and is carrying out a mass extermination [37] of prisoners, almost certainly amounting to genocide [38]. In Libya, countless thousands of desperate migrants have been detained [39], often by completely unaccountable militias, and an actual slave trade [40] in captured Black African migrants has emerged. Yet Trump exploits the mass internment of the Uighurs to score propaganda points [41] against imperial rival China—and some "leftists" (sic) in the US are so confused as to actually defend China's detention state [42]. International solidarity is urgently needed at this desperate moment to repudiate such divide-and-rule stratagems. Listen on SoundCloud [29], and support our podcast via Patreon [43].
Production by Chris Rywalt [45]
We ask listeners to donate just $1 per episode via Patreon [43]. A total of $30 per episode would cover our costs for engineering and producing. We are currently up to $25.
