The Red Nation Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Red Media Press and Common Notions are proud to announce our second co-publication!

Bordertown Clashes, Resource Wars, Contested Territories: The Four Corners in the Turbulent 1970s by legendary warrior John Redhouse is a one-of-a-kind lyrical and fast-paced memoir of the frontlines and trenches of Native liberation in the Four Corners and Southwest in the 1970s. 

This episode is a recording of the first in a series of events celebrating the publication of the book. John and his wife Carol spoke with Red Power Host Melanie Yazzie about their lives and work. We will be publishing more episodes of these events in the coming weeks!

Watch the video edition on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel

Press Release:

"From the late summer of 1972 to the late summer of 1974, John Redhouse and many other Navajo and Indian rights activists threw all they had into mass movement organizing and direct action. And they were pretty good at it too in terms of effectiveness and impact.

Written in the first-person and above all, with a collective spirit of generosity and witness, John Redhouse describes the hot temper of the times in the racist and exploitative border towns in the Four Corners area of the Southwest region.

As John Redhouse says, “Without the People, you have nothing. But back then, we had a lot of people WITH us.” Yes, the Power of the People, the collective human spirit of the emerging local and regional Indian civil movement, thousands of us marching in the streets of Gallup and Farmington in northwestern New Mexico with our demands. A bold citizen's arrest at city hall, a downtown street riot, burning images of enemy leaders in effigy. And more marches, demonstrations, and direct actions.

Above all, though, there was that Spirit—that unbroken, unconquerable spirit—that moved us, that drove us, that led us. And that was just in the border towns. In that turbulent decade, there was also the rapidly rising and spreading with-the-people, on-the-land resistance struggles in the coal, uranium, and oil and gas fields, and in disputed territories in the San Juan and Black Mesa basins that were targeted for ethnic cleansing and mineral extraction.

Bordertown Clashes, Resource Wars, Contested Territories: The Four Corners in the Turbulent 1970s brings readers to the enduring issues of the day, traced over half a century ago, where John Redhouse and many more were in the middle of a revolution that unfolds to this day."

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***Producer's note: This is a preview of the latest episode of Kuskalla, a trilingual (Quechua-Spanish-English) podcast produced by Red Media and hosted by our comrades Yojana Miraya Oscco and Renzo Aroni. Listen to the full episode on the Kuskalla podcast feed***

In this episode, I talked with Jonathan Ritter, who is the Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology and Chair of the Department of Music at the University of California, Riverside. We discussed his viral Quechua Pumpin song “Karumanta Qamurqani” (I have come from far away).  Characterized by a carnivalesque style, Pumpin is often interpreted as testimonial music from the Fajardo province in Ayacucho, a central region deeply impacted by the Peruvian internal armed conflict between the Maoist Shining Path guerrillas and Peruvian state security forces, lasting from 1980 to 2000. This conflict resulted in nearly 70,000 deaths, primarily affecting Quechua-speaking Indigenous peasants in this region, as noted in the 2003 report of Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

In 2001, shortly after the conflict ended, the Truth Commission began its efforts in communities throughout the Pampas River valley in central Ayacucho, where the Pumpin enjoys popularity. A year earlier, Jonathan Ritter started his fieldwork in the village of Colca for his dissertation focused on this music. After mastering the Pumpin guitar, he composed his song “Karumanta Qamurqani” to perform at the newly relaunched Pumpin contest held on the Waswantu plateau in February 2001. This contest had been on hold since 1983 when government security forces shut it down, targeting locals for allegedly supporting the Shining Path guerrillas. In February 2002, he performed his song again, and Asto Producciones filmed it for the first time on video cassette.

In this episode, we talk about how Pumpin transforms from traditional music into a powerful form of testimony that recounts wartime experiences and survival in the aftermath. We then examine the lyrics of “Karumanta Qamurqani,” discussing their meanings and the song’s reception both during the live performance in Waswantu and after its 2008 upload to YouTube. The response from Peruvians sheds light on issues of race, class, and identity, as well as the reclamation of Quechua language and culture in the post-war context. 

This episode is dedicated to Alejandro Mendonza Alca from Colca, Jonathan Ritter’s mentor and maestro of Pumpin, who sadly passed away a few years ago.

For more information on Pumpin music and its history, check out Jonathan Ritter’s articles, including “Carnival of Memory: Songs of Protest and Remembrance in the Andes,” published by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings in 2013.

Thank you for tuning in to the Kuskalla Podcast. 

If you enjoy this podcast, you can support it by sharing it, hitting subscribe, or leaving a review. Our podcast is produced by Red Media and Red Nation; please consider supporting our work if you don't already on Patreon: www.patreon.com/redmediapr

Follow us on social media: @KuskallaPodcast on Twitter; @KuskallaPodcast on IG

Kuskalla Abya Yala https://kuskallaabyayala.weebly.com/

TRN Podcast host Nick Estes is joined by legal scholar Nina Farnia (@NinaFarnia) to discuss America's supposed slide into oligarchic fascism, what remains of the Western "rules-based order," and how the war in Ukraine and the Gaza holocaust have enriched the US ruling class.

Check out her article, "Imperialism in the Making of U.S. Law" 

Watch the video edition on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel

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GoFundMe:
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www.patreon.com/redmediapr

From 2010 to 2020, the world experienced mass protests. Yet, those protests have not brought about more democracy and freedom. Why did these protests lead to the opposite of what they supposedly demanded? In this episode, journalist Vincent Bevins (@Vinncent) joins the podcast to discuss his latest book, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution (2023).

Watch the video edition on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel 

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Indigenous Peoples' Day 2023 live episode special! 

TRN Podcast co-host Nick Estes (@nickwestes) in conversation with Ali Abunimah, founder and Director of The Electronic Intifada, on the unprecedented events in Palestine and what lessons they offer about the nature of decolonization.

Folllow Ali on Twitter and Blue Sky

BDS homepage
https://bdsmovement.net/

Watch the video edition on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel

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*Editor's note: This episode was recorded on 9/25/23*

Jen, Demetrius, and Kiley sit down with Mohammed El-Kurd (@m7mdkurd) to discuss what is happening in El-Kurd’s hometown, Al Quds, settler colonialism, and the Palestinian/Native connection.

You can learn more about our guest here: https://www.mohammedelkurd.com/

Watch the video edition on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel

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Radhika Desai (@raddesai) is Professor at the Department of Political Studies and Director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group (YouTube channel) at the University of Manitoba.  In this episode, she and TRN Podcast co-host Nick Estes discuss the waning days of the Neoliberal world system dominated by the United States.

Watch the video edition on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel 

Check out her latest book, Capitalism, Coronavirus and War: A Geopolitical Economy (2022), available as a free PDF from the publisher.

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On Monday, September 25, the Red Nation and an alliance of community members hosted a press conference in Española, New Mexico outside the Rio Arriba County administrative building where officials are planning to restore a statue of violent Spanish colonizer Juan de Oñate to public view.

Come and join us for a protest action this Thursday, September 29 at 9 am MT outside the building as the statue is unveiled. 

Watch the video edition on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube Channel

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RPH co-hosts Elena Ortiz and Melanie Yazzie are joined by TRN podcast host Jennifer Marley and Christina Castro, founder of Three Sisters Collective, to discuss recent developments in the Native liberation struggle in New Mexico.

Read more here about the press conference this Monday September 25 
https://therednation.org/rio-arriba-county-do-not-resurrect-onate-statue/

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