Sun, June 20, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Pacific time Working on documentary film “Déjà vu”, the team of Bedabrata Pain, Sristy Agrawal, Rajashik Tarafder & Rumela Gangopadhyay, took a 10,000 km journey through the heart of rural America. They met farmers across the spectrum covering dairy, grain, poultry, beef and hog along the mid-western agricultural states. They found out why rural people supported Trump. A surprised discovery was that the American farm landscape, like India’s, is dominated by small farmers. They make up 90% of all farms, but produce only 25% by prices of products and that farmer suicide rates today are 4-5 times the national average in the US. Exactly almost three decades ago, neoliberal economic reforms were inaugurated with much fanfare in India in form privatization and liberalization with the goal of making India more integrated with the international finance capital, as well as turning India into a world power. Today, the Modi government is...

ICSS 20210627 Norman Finkelstein on Gaza, Palestine & Israel in the shifting sands of US & World Politics  Sun, june 27, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Pacific Israel has become increasingly militarily stronger ever since its founding in 1948 approved by the UN Commission. It's founding was opposed by the Palestinians, Arab countries, India and many other countries. The US, Britain, France, and the USSR had supported the founding of Israel, though the USSR had initially supported a secular state with both the Palestinians and Jews as having equal rights. Palestinians have since split between the secular PLO which rules the West Bank and Gaza ruled by Islamist Hamas. Every few years Israel finds a reason to attack densely populated Gaza, which has been described by many as an open prison, access to which from outside is completely controlled by Israel. There is a change in politics in the US, with a section of the coalition that supported Biden, opposes the dominance of Israel...