Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded December 31, 2024
And welcome to the GRadio Year-Ender program. For many 2025 may be a Revolution-beginner year; so with that in mind, let's begin in song, for as Emma Goldman probably didn't say but would likely agree with the sentiment, "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution."
:30 2:49 Macklemore - Hind's Hall
3:20 1:00 Blatherskite
Macklemore dedicated Hind's Hall to the campus protests in the United States; specifically the one at New York's Columbia University, where students occupied Hamilton Hall, renaming it Hind's Hall in remembrance of Hind Rajab the six year old girl deliberately murdered along with her entire family by Israel's occupation army in a gruesome, hours-long "stand-off" in Gaza. [Find the link at the GRadio.Substack.com for details on both the Columbia student occupation and the short life of Hind Rajab].
Israel's genocide cum Holocaust in Gaza has inspired other musicians, none more perhaps than David Rovics, who put out two albums of music, 'Notes from a Holocaust', a 20 song compilation on the horrors of Gaza all but disappeared by Spotify, and 'Jabaliya'. Songs from both have featured prominently here over this past year.
4:20 2:21 David Rovics - Song for the Houthi Army (Remix)
6:41 1:00 Blatherskite
As well as numerous interviews about the Holocaust being perpetrated by Israel and its sponsors in the West against Palestine, I too attended most of the weekly demos held in Victoria, and posted quite a few of them at GRadio. Here's a bit from the march/rallies held weekly on the lawns of the provincial Legislature and through the streets, typically consisting of between one and two hundred stalwarts who continued come rain, shine, wind, and snow.
9:40 5:00 Ape Goes to Victoria Gaza Solidarity March and Rally Day #365 October 5, 2024 - (In: 00:00... 5:05 OUT: "...start calling us terrorists.")
https://gradio.substack.com/p/ape-goes-to-victoria-gaza-solidarity-849
14:35 1:00 Blatherskite
Those marches and rallies for Gaza continue yet, 452 days later, but now include solidarity for those suffering the Israeli pogrom in the West Bank, the assassination campaigns, and wholesale bombing of civilians in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.
As prolific as David Rovics is, that's more than any single bard, singer, and troubador can muster. Luckily, late in the year passing saw the reemergence of the The Protest Music Project. Begun as a feature of Kevin Gosztola and co.'s Shadowproof indy media organization that went into hiatus for most of 2024. According the them, The Protest Music Project is, "a response to the misplaced and false notion that bands or musicians are no longer making music that grapples with our present world or confronts pressing problems affecting humanity".
Here's the Protest Song of the Week, featured band, Godspeed You! Black Emperor's "SUN IS A HOLE SUN IS VAPORS" from their album, 'NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD'.
17:00 5:31 Godspeed You! Black Emperor - SUN IS A HOLE SUN IS VAPORS
22:30 1:00 Blatherskite
It's Saturday, December 28th as I write; at this moment Kamal Adwan Hospital, the last hospital in Northern Gaza is burnt, set alight after weeks of bombing, sniping, and other attacks by Israel's military. Now, its courageous director, paediatrician, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya is captive, and what remains of the hospital occupied and being used as a military base by the invaders. As seen before, Israel's army considers hospitals and medical infrastructure targets, as it does doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers, patients, and those just seeking refuge from the onslaught.
I spoke just before Christmas last year with Canadian-Palestinian doctor, Tarek Loubani, before we learned of the horrors befalling other captive doctors at the hands of Israel. It is one of the most poignant interviews I can remember in the 25 years Gorilla Radio has been on the air, moreso now.
23:31 14:31 Tarek Loubani (In: 29:50 Out: 44:21 "...they could be.")
https://gradio.substack.com/publish/post/139963863
38:02 2:40 David Rovics - 'The Arc of Justice'
40:45 1:30 Blaytherskite
As mentioned, Israel's terror war of conquest has spread to Lebanon. The Entity frames its land grab as defensive, as ever, even as it carpet bombs Beirut, and erases entire villages in southern Lebanon, making of it a "buffer zone" for northern settlement. "Benjamin Netanyahu and his generals", I wrote in November, "promised they would "make a Gaza of Beirut" and they've been as good as their word. Israel has killed thousands and made more than a million people homeless in Lebanon; most of those through bombing attacks against highrise apartment blocks. And as with its obliteration of Gaza, Israel's "justification" for the civilian carnage is a hunt for members of Hezbollah, hiding it says beneath the flats and hospitals and other vital infrastructure, using the population as a human shield".
I spoke with Laith Marouf several times in 2024; the last time in late November. Laith is a Canadian-Palestinian living now in Beirut, where he's Executive Director of FreePalestine.Video, an independent news organization providing coverage of what it says is, "the absence of media supporting the resistance forces in the English language due to the ban in the West.”
42:20 8:35 Laith Marouf - Nov. 20, 2024 (In: 2:30 Out: 11:05 "...is gone.")
https://gradio.substack.com/p/gorilla-radio-with-chris-cook-laith-6be
51:30 2:00 Blatherskite
Since recording that with Laith in November, there's been dramatic changes in the situation in Lebanon. A ceasefire of sorts was signed between the governments of Lebanon and Israel, seeing Hezbollah agreeing to stop its attacks. Israel has, incidentally, broken the terms repeatedly so far without retribution from Hezbollah, or recrimination from its western partners.
And of course the government in Syria has fallen, bringing to an end the 50-plus year Assad family rule there. Astonishingly, Bashir al-Assad, in power as president since the year 2000, fled the country on a Russian jet as his army evaporated, surrendering the country to the head-chopping horde armed and aided by Turkey, Israel, and the western powers with hardly a shot fired. What this means for Syrians is clear, as marauding gangs of Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham or HTS, the "Salafi-Jihadist transnational" terrorists formerly known as ISIS and Jabhat Al Nusra, Al Qaeda's branch outfit in Syria, are killing and chopping heads in the streets, but what losing its naval and air bases in Syria means for Russia is another question.
I spoke to John Helmer, principle behind the web news site, Dances with Bears about the stunning collapse of Syria and his then recent article, 'THE RUSSIAN GENERAL STAFF, KREMLIN DISCUSS HOLDING THE LATAKIA SANJAK TO DEFEND BASES — AGREE TO WITHDRAW UNDER TURKISH SAFE PASSAGE' a few weeks ago.
54:30 7:45 John Helmer (In: 2:05 Out: 9:50 "...in the Russian press.")
https://gradio.substack.com/p/gorilla-radio-with-chris-cook-john-374
59:00 1:00 Blatherskite/cart out
Of course and as usual, there was much more topic than time. Thanks to David Rovics, Grant Wakefield, and The Protest Music Project, and to Tarek Loubani, Laith Marouf, John Helmer, CJSF; and to all those supporting Palestine, a Happier New Year's for you all!
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