Patricia Kullberg hosts this episode of the Old Mole, which includes the following segments:
Climate and Justice: Just three weeks after the disappointing outcome at the United Nations COP 29 (Conference of Parties) meetings in Azerbaijan, the largest case in the history of the International Court of Justice began this month with testimony from Pacific Islanders about the threats of climate change to their survival. Fifteen judges from around the world will seek to answer two questions: What are countries obliged to do under international law to protect the climate and environment from human-caused greenhouse gas emissions? And what are the legal consequences for governments where their acts, or lack of action, have significantly harmed the climate and environment? In their Left & the Law segment, Jan Haaken and Mike Snedeker talk about the significance of this landmark ICJ case and how the Trump administration is apt to respond. They also take up the use of the courts in the US in resisting the anticipated roll-out of repressive measures with the return of Trump.
Making Solidarity and Making Community: With the looming prospect of a new Trump administration, left activists face a perilous political moment. Today we look back at the Central America solidarity movement of the 1980’s to see what lessons can be learned from a movement that succeeded in blunting US military intervention in the region, opening space for regional activists to push their revolutionary projects and hardening stateside opposition to US imperial aspirations. Patricia Kullberg, who was herself active in the movement, speaks with three other veterans of Portland Central America Solidarity Committee: Millie Thayer was a staff person for PCASC in the mid-1980s, a Portland-Corinto Sister City liaison and a movement journalist in Nicaragua for the latter half of the 1980s. She is a sociologist of social movements in Latin America at UMass, Amherst. Diane Hess also worked with PCASC, American Friends Service Committee and the Portland-Corinto Sister City Association. She is a public policy advocate, educator, community organizer and planner. Gideon Hughes started organizing around central America as a student at Lewis and Clark College and later was active PCASC. He was on the first Ben Linder Construction Brigade to Nicaragua.