Political Advocacy Audiobooks | Politics

Buses Are a Comin': Memoir of a Freedom Rider

A firsthand exploration of the cost of boarding the bus of change to move America forward—written by one of the Civil Rights Movement's pioneers. At 18, Charles Person was the youngest of the original Freedom Riders, key figures in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement who left Washington, D.C. by bus in 1961, headed for New Orleans. This purposeful mix of black and white, male and female activists—including future Congressman John Lewis, Congress of Racial Equality Director James Farmer, Reverend Benjamin Elton Cox, journalist and pacifist James Peck, and CORE field secretary Genevieve Hughes—set out to discover whether America would abide by a Supreme Court decision that ruled segregation unconstitutional in bus depots, waiting areas, restaurants, and restrooms nationwide. Two buses proceeded through Virginia, North and South Carolina, to Georgia where they were greeted by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and finally to Alabama. There, the Freedom Riders found their answer: No. Southern states would continue to disregard federal law and use violence to enforce racial segregation. One bus was burned to a shell, its riders narrowly escaping; the second, which Charles rode, was set upon by a mob that beat several riders nearly to death. Buses Are a Comin’ provides a front-row view of the struggle to belong in America, as Charles Person accompanies his colleagues off the bus, into the station, into the mob, and into history to help defeat segregation’s violent grip on African American lives. It is also a challenge from a teenager of a previous era to the young people of today: become agents of transformation. Stand firm. Create a more just and moral country where students have a voice, youth can make a difference, and everyone belongs. A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press 'Shot through with vivid details of beatdowns, arrests, and awe-inspiring bravery, this inspirational account captures the magnitude of what the early civil rights movement was up against.” -- Publishers Weekly, starred review 'A vital story, this memoir is also an instructive gift to future generations fighting for change.” -- Kirkus, starred review

Charles Person, Richard Rooker (Author), Landon Woodson (Narrator)

Audiobook

Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination

Between its founding in 1966 and its formal end in 1980, the Black Panther Party blazed a distinctive trail in American political culture. Here Alondra Nelson deftly recovers an indispensable but lesser-known aspect of the organization's broader struggle for social justice: health care. The Black Panther Party's health activism was an expression of its founding political philosophy and also a recognition that poor blacks were both underserved by mainstream medicine and overexposed to its harms. Drawing on extensive historical research as well as interviews with former members of the Black Panther Party, Nelson argues that the Party's focus on health care was both practical and ideological. Building on a long tradition of medical self-sufficiency among African Americans, the Panthers' People's Free Medical Clinics administered basic preventive care, tested for lead poisoning and hypertension, and helped with housing, employment, and social services. In 1971, the party launched a campaign to address sickle-cell anemia. In addition to establishing screening programs and educational outreach efforts, it exposed the racial biases of the medical system that had largely ignored sickle-cell anemia, a disease that predominantly affected people of African descent.

Alondra Nelson (Author), Machelle Williams (Narrator)

Audiobook

An Undelivered Speech: Annihilation of Caste: Annihilation of Caste, and Castes in India: Their Mech

The most famous speech that was never delivered - ANNIHILATION OF CASTE - by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. Along with his paper, Castes in India: their mechanism, genesis and development! Combined to form one cohesive audiobook, the way Babasaheb envisioned it. For an abridged video version of it by the narrator, please see: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLn1Yg_BoyU6Y_O3YrYqM1fpqaR3DFX63W Acknowledgements: Rahul Borde for his rendition of Sanskrit Verses that can be heard towards the end of Annihilation of Caste Audio Engineer: Kevin Cleland Studio: LA Digital Recording Finally, this project would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of the Ambedkarite Community here in America. Jai Bhim! Jai Bharat!

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (Author), Siddhartha Valicharla (Narrator)

Audiobook

Chicano Movement For Beginners

As the heyday of the Chicano Movement of the late 1960s to early '70s fades further into history and as more and more of its important figures pass on, so too does knowledge of its significance. Thus, Chicano Movement For Beginners is an important attempt to stave off historical amnesia. It seeks to shed light on the multifaceted civil rights struggle known as 'El Movimiento' that galvanized the Mexican American community, from laborers to student activists, giving them not only a political voice to combat prejudice and inequality, but also a new sense of cultural awareness and ethnic pride. Beyond commemorating the past, Chicano Movement For Beginners seeks to reaffirm the goals and spirit of the Chicano Movement for the simple reason that many of the critical issues Mexican American activists first brought to the nation's attention then-educational disadvantage, endemic poverty, political exclusion, and social bias-remain as pervasive as ever almost half a century later.

Maceo Montoya (Author), Gary Tiedemann (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Torture Trial of George W. Bush

During a dark period in the history of the United States, a few powerful government officials twisted the meaning of our laws and trivialized our human rights principles. This novel peels back the deceitful veneer of political gamesmanship to expose travesties committed against our fundamental human values and the US Constitution. The narrative exposes the criminal actions of individuals who continue to make bold assertions that torture was necessary and that the torturers are above the law. It does not redeem us, the American people, of our culpability. Crimes have been committed and we have yet to meet our responsibility to prosecute the perpetrators. The story unfolds within the bounds of existing statutes and develops a practical approach for bringing the perpetrators to justice—the first step in any attempt at reconciliation. There is realism in the background which relies heavily on information gathered by professional journalists and investigators around the world. The legal basis is drawn from US Code and the published opinions of qualified legal experts. Here is a work of fiction, with fictional paladins reacting to the actions of non-fictional characters and historical events. We can envision real people following in the footsteps of the story’s protagonists. It is only necessary to find the courage to act. Torture should never happen again—but if left unchallenged and unpunished, it will. “President Obama signed Executive Order 13491 in January 2009 to prohibit the CIA from holding detainees other than on a 'short-term, transitory basis' and to limit interrogation techniques to those included in the Army Field Manual. However, these limitations are not part of U.S. law and could be overturned by a future president with the stroke of a pen.” It is Time to re-establish our nation under the principle championed by John Adams who espoused a government of laws—not of men,

Joseph Suste (Author), Joseph Suste (Narrator)

Audiobook

Resisting Illegitimate Authority: A Thinking Person's Guide to Being an Anti-Authoritarian-Strategie

The capacity to comply with abusive authority is humanity's fatal flaw. Fortunately, within the human family there are anti-authoritarians-people comfortable questioning the legitimacy of authority and challenging and resisting its illegitimate forms. However, as Resisting Illegitimate Authority reveals, authoritarians attempt to marginalize anti-authoritarians, who are scorned, shunned, financially punished, psychopathologized, criminalized, and even assassinated. Profiling a diverse group of US anti-authoritarians-including Thomas Paine, Ralph Nader, Malcolm X, and Lenny Bruce-in order to glean useful lessons from their lives, Resisting Illegitimate Authority is the first self-help manual for anti-authoritarians. Discussing anti-authoritarian approaches to depression, relationships, and parenting, it provides political, spiritual, philosophical, and psychological tools to help those suffering violence and marginalization in a society whose most ardent cheerleaders for 'freedom' are often its most obedient and docile citizens. Resisting Illegitimate Authority is about bigotry, but not bigotry directed at race, religion, gender, or sexual preference. It is about bigotry directed at rebellious personalities and temperaments.

Bruce E. Levine (Author), Patrick Lawlor (Narrator)

Audiobook

Central America's Forgotten History: Revolution, Violence, and the Roots of Migration

Restores the region's fraught history of repression and resistance to popular consciousness and connects the United States' interventions and influence to the influx of refugees seeking asylum today. At the center of the current immigration debate are migrants from Central America fleeing poverty, corruption, and violence in search of refuge in the United States. In Central America's Forgotten History, Aviva Chomsky answers the urgent question "How did we get here?" Centering the centuries-long intertwined histories of US expansion and Indigenous and Central American struggles against inequality and oppression, Chomsky highlights the pernicious cycle of colonial and neocolonial development policies that promote cultures of violence and forgetting without any accountability or restorative reparations. Focusing on the valiant struggles for social and economic justice in Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras, Chomsky restores these vivid and gripping events to popular consciousness. Tracing the roots of displacement and migration in Central America to the Spanish conquest and bringing us to the present day, she concludes that the more immediate roots of migration from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras lie in the wars and in the US interventions of the 1980s and the peace accords of the 1990s that set the stage for neoliberalism in Central America. Chomsky also examines how and why histories and memories are suppressed, and the impact of losing historical memory. Only by erasing history can we claim that Central American countries created their own poverty and violence, while the United States' enjoyment and profit from their bananas, coffee, mining, clothing, and export of arms are simply unrelated curiosities.

Aviva Chomsky (Author), Aida Reluzco (Narrator)

Audiobook

Oaxaca sitiada. La primera insurrección del siglo XXI

Esta nueva edición de Oaxaca sitiada describe la dimensión real de la lucha que el pueblo oaxaqueño emprendió en el año 2006 en pos de justicia social. Su cometido era ponerle punto final a los abusos de un régimen autoritario cuya legitimidad siempre estuvo en entredicho. En estas páginas se asienta con detalle la historia de una rebelión: los orígenes del descontento entre los más desprotegidos, la necesidad de una reconversión de nuestro anquilosado sistema democrático, los liderazgos necesarios, el choque de un legítimo movimiento popular contra las altas estructuras del poder del estado, la represión, las cenizas que aún arden en la memoria viva de la sociedad.

Diego Enrique Osorno (Author), Jaime Collepardo (Narrator)

Audiobook

ذكريات رجل غير مهم - فلسطيني عاصر النكبة

سيرة ذاتية لأحد أبناء قرية بيت سوريك بالقدس، يصف أحوال القرية قبل النكبة والحرب ثم العودة لإحياء القرية على يد أهلها وأملهم في استرداد بقية فلسطين المحتلة ينقل تفاصيل الحياة اليومية في الريف الفلسطيني فيما بعد النكبة وحتى خروجه منها إلى الشتات . مأساة فلسطينية يعرضها لنا الكاتب محي الين عبد الرحمن في كتابه 'ذكريات رجل غير مهم' استمع إليه الآن على تطبيق كتاب صوتي

محي الدين عبد الرحمن (Author), سلام ديك (Narrator)

Audiobook

معذبو الأرض

هذا الكتاب في العلاقة بين المُستعمِر والمُستعمَر، في كيفية إشعال الثورات، وكيفية الحفاظ عليها من تلاعبات الاستعمار والنخب المحلية الخاضعة له. ورغم أن 'فرانز فانون' كتبه لثورات التحرُّر الأفريقي والآسيوي من الاستعمار القديم، إلا أن ما جرى، على الحقيقة، بعد مرور أكثر من نصف قرن على هذه الثورات أن الأوضاع الاستعمارية لم تتغير كثيرًا. بل استبدل الاستعمار العسكري المباشكر ذي الكلفة المادية والبشرية الضخمة، باستعمار محلي، أقل كلفة، وخاضع تمامًا لقوى الاستعمار السابقة، وترتبط مصالحه الثقافية والسياسية والاقتصادية بها داخل إطارٍ من ديباجات النعرات القومية والقبلية القُطرية الضيقة المصنوعة -أساسًا- بواسطة جهاز المعرفة الاستشراقية. ولهذا جميعًا من المهم إتاحة هذا النصِّ للقراءة والتأويل مرة أخرى في ظرف تاريخي ربما يكون أصعب وأكثر تعقيدًا من الظرف الذي كُتب فيه، وله.

فرانز فانون (Author), كريم مسعد (Narrator)

Audiobook

Silicon Values: The Future of Free Speech Under Surveillance Capitalism

What is the impact of surveillance capitalism on our right to free speech? The Internet once promised to be a place of extraordinary freedom beyond the control of money or politics, but today corporations and platforms exercise more control over our ability to access information and share knowledge to a greater extent than any state. From the online calls to arms in the thick of the Arab Spring to the contemporary front line of misinformation, Jillian York charts the war over our digital rights. In Silicon Values, leading campaigner Jillian York looks at how our rights have become increasingly undermined by the major corporations' desire to harvest our personal data and turn it into profit. She also looks at how governments have used the same technology to monitor citizens and threatened our ability to communicate. As a result our daily lives, and private thoughts, are being policed in an unprecedented manner. Who decides the difference between political debate and hate speech? How does this impact on our identity, our ability to create communities and to protest? Who regulates the censors? In response to this threat to our democracy, York proposes a user-powered movement against the platforms that demands change and a new form of ownership over our own data.

Jillian York (Author), Megan Tusing (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Movement

The civil rights movement was among the most important historical developments of the twentieth century and one of the most remarkable mass movements in American history. Not only did it decisively change the legal and political status of African Americans, but it prefigured as well the moral premises and methods of struggle for other historically oppressed groups seeking equal standing in American society. And, yet, despite a vague, sometimes begrudging recognition of its immense import, more often than not the movement has been misrepresented and misunderstood. For the general public, a singular moment, frozen in time at the Lincoln Memorial, sums up much of what Americans know about that remarkable decade of struggle. In The Movement, Thomas C. Holt provides an informed and nuanced understanding of the origins, character, and objectives of the mid-twentieth-century freedom struggle, privileging the aspirations and initiatives of the ordinary, grassroots people who made it. Holt conveys a sense of these developments as a social movement, one that shaped its participants even as they shaped it. He emphasizes the conditions of possibility that enabled the heroic initiatives of the common folk over those of their more celebrated leaders. This groundbreaking book reinserts the critical concept of ''movement'' back into our image and understanding of the civil rights movement.

Thomas C. Holt (Author), Corey Allen (Narrator)

Audiobook

Political Advocacy Audiobooks in Politics