The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur

Frederik Soderholm and Mehmet Ali Arslan interviewed me (Justin) for their Fredshetsarna (Swedish) podcast about nonviolence and military matters in West Asia.

Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Hungary's fates are decided at the conference in Paris in 1919.

Hamza from Defund the UAE joins to talk about the Sudan war. How did it start? Who are the belligerents? What makes the RSF the greater evil? What is the UAE doing in this war? What can be done from the West to help? Hamza mentions Sudanfunds.com and SudanNewsEnglish on telegram, to start.

The Anglo-Americans blamed the Germans for World War I, and won. Now they would impose terms. But if they sought too high an indemnity, Germany's economy would collapse and they would never pay. If they helped Germany rebuild, what kind of punishment would that be? In the end, the Allies chose a path that guaranteed … Continue reading "Civ 1919: Treaty of Versailles pt4 – Germany"

The Balkans are where the Great War began; there were two Balkan wars before the Great War and there was a Balkan war in the Great War. In Paris, delegations from the region made their cases, the Great Powers made their dispensations. New countries formed and new borders drawn, which would be changed again in … Continue reading "Civ 1919: Treaty of Versailles pt3 – the Balkans"

The biggest player at the peace conference, Woodrow Wilson, wants a League of Nations, which in the age of imperialism, is a rather underdeveloped idea. The other problem is, how to continue colonialism but with a nicer name? And so were invented the Mandates.

At the end of WW1, the Americans and British went to Paris to decide on the fate of Germany and the future of the world. The Treaty of Versailles and the conference in Paris in 1919 set up the Interwar period and made World War 2 inevitable. Here we begin our short series on the … Continue reading "Civ 1919: The Treaty of Versailles pt1"

Two and a half years. 50 episodes. 100+ hours. When we set out to cover World War I back in September 2022, after our Scramble for Africa and our Civilizations (1400-1900) series, we had a plan for how we were going to go about it. In this debrief, Dave and I talk about what we … Continue reading "World War Civ 51: The Debrief"

We have come to the end of our study of World War I, gone over its causes, events, and costs in great detail. Now it's time for a plot twist: the idea that the whole war was conceived and extended by a conspiratorial group of race patriots at the heart of the Anglo-American elite. We … Continue reading "Was World War I an Immense Anglo-American Conspiracy?"

From the transformation of all the technologies of war – railways, air travel, wireless, tanks, poison gas – to the changes to the institutions of daily life (notably health care) World War I made many changes into the world we recognize today. Also – my apologies – in the second half, my recurrent audio issue … Continue reading "World War Civ 49: How the war changed how things work"

Counting the costs and losses of World War I. 8.5 million killed on the battlefield, 21 million wounded. 10 million civilian deaths, then a flu epidemic that killed tens of millions more. The global economy transformed beyond recognition. The beginning of the end of the colonial empires. And various measures that are inevitably going to … Continue reading "World War Civ 48: Great War, at what cost?"

Ludendorff's final gamble has failed, fizzling out like every mass offensive of this war. The war is now unwinnable for Germany. But the Germans won't admit it, and can't find anyone to sign an armistice. Eventually someone is found, and the myth of the “stab in the back” begins to be written, a myth that … Continue reading "World War Civ 47: Germany Collapses 1918"

With peace in the East, Germany can finally try to win the war against France in the West, and the clock is ticking before America's troops make the war unwinnable. In addition to assembling a gigantic army and the largest artillery barrage in history, Ludendorff introduces Storm Troopers and a new tactic of “infiltration” past … Continue reading "World War Civ 46: Ludendorff's Last Gamble Spring 1918"

If politics is in everything, then what are the politics of martial arts as they're studied and practiced today? For audiences of this show, it's not a pretty sight. But Sam from Liberationist MA is trying to do things differently. He joins to talk about his play-based martial arts pedagogy, the world view it's embedded … Continue reading "AER 146: Martial Arts Pedagogy and Politics"

The Bolsheviks had made their revolution promising Peace, Land, and Bread. But peace meant a deal with Germany, which could bring British and French subversion of their nascent revolution. How could Lenin get out of this impossible dilemma? By sending Trotsky to lead the negotiations with Imperial Germany. Did Trotsky go rogue? Was he following … Continue reading "World War Civ 45: Russia and Germany make peace at Brest-Litovsk"

It's 1917. The French are suffering mutinies and the Entente is desperate for a breakthrough anywhere. It's not to be. Arras, Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele, Cambrai, and Caporetto – hundreds of thousands of men killed and no breakthrough. At the end of the year, the Germans have reason to believe they could win the whole war … Continue reading "World War Civ 44: The Agony of the Allies"

When Russia withdrew from the war, Britain and France were in the lurch, but America saved the day. Why? Successful war propaganda, propinquity, or making good on investments and seizing a chance for world domination?

Nora joins and we go over our memories of following Seyed Hassan Nasrallah's speeches over the decades. He led the resistance for 32 years and freed Lebanon from occupation once. His successors will operate under a new set of rules of engagement.

The scientific principles of war propaganda that we're all suffering from today were laid down by Anglo-American writers amazed by their own performance in World War 1. What are these principles? Why did Anglo-American propaganda work better than German?

From July through to Red October 1917. The Kornilov Affair to the Bolshevik takeover. The culmination of our series on the Bolshevik Revolution.

With Joe Emersberger. The co-authors of the Monthly Review Press book Extraordinary Threat: The US Empire, the Media, and Twenty Years of Coup Attempts in Venezuela, discuss the seventh coup attempt on Chavismo which is in the process of being defeated.

Way back in World War Civ 6,7, and 8, we covered the Russian Revolution of 1905 including future main characters Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin. Now as the 1917 Revolution unfolds we revisit these protagonists and study their actions and writings in the years leading to October 1917. Perhaps history is grand movements of masses, but … Continue reading "World War Civ 41b: Russian Revolution pt2 – Lenin and Trotsky"

A scholar who grew up in a Christian Zionist tradition, Jamin Hubner joins to talk about how the ideology is unrolled to kids and how he found his way out of it.

The leadup to the February 1917 Revolution, including the assassination of Rasputin, the abdication of tsar Nicholas II, and the rise of dual power between the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet.

A report with Jon Elmer on the fierce fighting in Gaza on day 224 of the war and a breakdown of Qassam spokesman Abu Obeida's speech on that day.

General Allenby, Sharif Hussein and his son Feisal, and their handler TE Lawrence array the forces of the British Empire and the Arab Revolt against the Turco-German forces in Palestine. The battle starts in Gaza and ends with Allenby walking into the Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem. The story of the fateful campaign that brought British … Continue reading "World War Civ 40: How Britain Took Palestine in 1917"

On the Anti-Empire Project Youtube Channel there are frequent situation reports or Sit Reps that are posted late at night. Not all of them are reposted here to this podcast, but we're posting this one on the day of the Rafah invasion. A breakdown of the ceasefire negotatiations and an assessment of where the war … Continue reading "AER 141: Gaza War Sit Rep Day 213 – the invasion of Rafah has begun"

From crashing test flights to close air support and strategic bombing – on the breakneck innovation in aerial warfare over the course of WW1. An issue with some implications today, you'll agree?

It could be argued that World War I was decided at sea. The British blockade; the Germans try unrestricted submarine warfare, and massive consequences follow. We talk about Jutland, Skaggerak, the Luistania, and civilian hardships, in the war at sea.

Among the many changes wrought by WW1 was an irrevocable change in the status of women. “Munitions girls”, women running the Paris Metro and the buses in London, policewomen and auxilaries. We conclude with some notes on a conscription crisis in Canada that also played a role in women getting the vote.

The conditions may not have been optimal but they didn't look to be getting better – so the Irish Revolutionaries made their move in Easter 1916. A week of urban warfare followed – the revolutionaries lost – but they succeeded in transforming the Irish question forever and setting the nation on the inevitable road to … Continue reading "WW Civ 36: The Easter Rising in Ireland 1916"

We didn't have quorum for a tankie therapy session but we got together anyway – Matteo and Alex joined for a discussion of several psychological warfare methods being used on us: normalizing crimes, treating the criminals like they are a natural phenomenon, and the abuser's method of “look what you made me do”, absolving the … Continue reading "Tankie Therapy on Day 163: Do we debate genocide?"

The battles of Verdun, the Somme, and the Brusilov Offensive. Epic, tragic military errors, horrors of trenches, battles that killed hundreds of thousands and changed the course of history.

The siege on Gaza and the role of the Palestinian Authority are critical context for the Israel's assault on Gaza. On this episode we take a look at the history of the blockade and how Israel has ghettoized the Palestinian population. Co-production with The Brief.

Genocides happen in broad daylight – it is only afterwards that they are covered up. There are still fewer countries that recognize the Armenian Genocide than countries that do not. We read scholars that take the view that it was a genocide as well as a scholar that describes the events without using the label, … Continue reading "World War Civ 34: The Armenian Genocide 1915-16"

Waqas Ahmad is back and we recap Pakistan politics since the 2022 coup against Imran Khan. After assassination attempts, vexatious lawsuits, thousands of arrests, torture, and the banning of Imran Khan's party and symbol, voters still foiled the best-laid plans of the Pakistan military. Where things stand after the elections of February 8, 2024 in … Continue reading "AER 139: Pakistan Election Rigging Fails"

In desperation, the European empires turn to the people they've colonized and press them into sacrificing their lives for their imperial masters, setting off a chain of events that makes decolonization in a few decades inevitable.

Israeli media recently published a minute-by-minute chronology of the morning of October 7th from the Israeli military perspective. Jon and I go over it as part of my youtube series of Gaza Sit Reps (for Day 104). Cross-posted over at The Brief, reposted here in case you missed it.

Early in the Great War Britain decided to dismantle the Turkish Empire and made promises to Arab leaders of independence if they would rebel against Britain's Turkish enemy. While one British leader was making these promises, another, Mark Sykes, was making a deal with other imperialists for the division of Arab lands between them. Follow … Continue reading "World War Civ 32: Britain's plans for Arab lands – Sykes-Picot, 1916"

By the end the World War had mobilized 65 million troops, killed 20 million people and wounded 21 million more. The money was supposed to run out in a year, the armies were big but never that big. How did the war go on? Because the belligerents made immense and irreversible changes to their economies … Continue reading "World War Civ 31: Towards Total War"

Solo episode discussing Nasrallah's speech about the war on the Israel-Lebanon border and an analysis of the 2006 war based on a US military analyst's paper titled, “We Were Caught Unprepared”.

Germans use poison gas on the battlefield at Ypres, British lose 60,000 and Germans 40,000. French attack at Artois with casualties of 100,000 and German 75,000. Russians lose 2 million casualties fighting Germany on the Eastern front. British defeated at Loos, lose 50,000 and Germany 20,000. French offensive in Champagne results in 190,000 casualties and … Continue reading "World War Civ 30: Allied Disasters 1915"

Our usual group gets together to talk about the Gaza War but this time we're joined by Lara, an actual therapist, who guides us through as we try to understand where things stand on Day 78 of the war.

World War 1 goes global in 1915, as Japan takes advantage to seize more territory in Asia; Turkey fatefully aligns with Germany; Italy joins the Entente.

Joined by Nora and Jon from The Brief / Electronic Intifada to talk about the War in Gaza. More information emerges about what happened on October 7; New atrocities committed since Refaat Alareer's murder, including bulldozing patients at a hospital and snipers killing women at a church. Some strategic speculations using the history of the … Continue reading "AER 135: Gaza War Day 73"

Our usual group gets together to talk about the Gaza War, this time we all share some words about literature prof, teacher, poet and hero Refaat Alareer, assassinated by Israel a couple of days ago. Some discussion of military tactics and strategies as always.

Russia invades Germany and loses badly at Tannenberg. Austria-Hungary fights Serbia. The Russian losses in 1914 force a reevaluation of the whole strategy pursued by the Russia-France-England alliance, and before long will cause even bigger changes than that.

Nora, Matteo, Rania, and Alex are gathered to talk about what we're seeing and trying to make sense of on Israel's War on Gaza after 8 weeks, a couple of days after the end of the “humanitarian pause”. We open with a discussion of the five premature babies left to die in Al-Nasr hospital when … Continue reading "AER 133: Tankie Group Therapy #5 Gaza War resumes after pause"

Germany brings the big guns to Belgium, sacks Louvain and follows the doctrine of terrorizing civilians. The British Expeditionary Force whose commander's name is French, joins France for some battles. A war of maneuver ends with a non-breakthrough on the Marne and the race to the coast. 1914 ends with no winner, and no one's … Continue reading "World War Civ 27: Western front 1914 from Belgium to the Marne"

Stan Cox is back to talk about climate refugees, rebellious scientists, and of course Gaza. Our monthly chat finds us both a bit discombobulated by the war, but we try to survey the climate situation anyway.

The CAUKUSZIANS unite once again, this time to look at the Gaza war through a couple of different lenses: Arama through the lens of settler-Indigenous warfare in the wars fought by the Maori to defend their land from Anglo settlers, and Carl through the lens of protracted people's war and the Chinese experience of fighting … Continue reading "AER 132: The Gaza War as settler-Indigenous warfare & as people's warfare – CAUKUSZIANS reunite"