Demystifying Diasporic Vietnamese Politics

On our 9 June 2008 edition, Subversity, a KUCI public affairs program, features a conversation with an editor and journalist who was fired from the country's top Vietnamese-language newspaper in a failed attempt to appease anti-communist protesters, and who has now resurrected himself as a blogger writing about Vietnamese diasporic politics in and beyond Little Saigon. We talk with the writer who goes by the moniker "Bolsavik".

The Bolsavik's meek alter ego is Hao-Nhien Vu, a mathematician with a knack for telling the truth, he says. He was previously employed at Nguoi Viet Daily News, the largest Vietnamese-language newspaper in California and probably in the country. For four years he was the Managing Editor, until anti-communist protests over an artwork involving a pedicure spa caused the paper to fire him. Since then, he has been writing and editing the blog Bolsavik.com, which is playing a major role demystifying all that's happening within the Vietnamese American community here in Orange County and elsewhere.

Our interview with The Bolsavik (coined from Bolsa, the main drag in Little Saigon, and Bolshevik) is set against continuing demonstrations against his former newspaper, Nguoi Viet, as well as against Viet Weekly, another publication in the region. Our earlier interview with Publisher Le Vu of the Viet Weekly appears here: mp3 audio.

To listen to the show with the Bosavik, click here: .

A new profile of Subversity's show host appears on the KUCI web site: "Spotlight on Dan Tsang.".

An earlier Subversity interview with outgoing UCI History Prof. Mike Davis is extracted in AMASS, issue 29 (2008), pp. 32-35: "The War at Home: Interview with Mike Davis" by Dan Tsang. (The issue is available from Atomic Books, or directly from the publisher, Society for Popular Democracy, see: Subscriptions).

James Petras on CIA Destabilization in Venezuela

Irvine -- On our next show, to air Monday 3 December 2007, Subversity focuses on the situation in Venezuela, a day after a referendum to decide whether or not President Hugo Chavez can re-run for office indefinitely, but also to decide on various measures to improve conditions of the poor in Venezuela. We talk with Prof. James Petras, a long-time observer of Latin American social change, about the role of the CIA in stirring up opposition to Chavez, in the wake of the disclosure of a secret document alleged to be drafted by the CIA to destabilize the country.

James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York. He is the author of more than 62 books published in 29 languages, and over 600 articles in professional journals, including the American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, Social Research, and Journal of Peasant Studies. He has published over 2000 articles in nonprofessional journals such as the New York Times, the Guardian, the Nation, Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Policy, New Left Review, Partisan Review, TempsModerne, Le Monde Diplomatique, and his commentary is widely carried on the internet.

His publishers have included Random House, John Wiley, Westview, Routledge, Macmillan, Verso, Zed Books and Pluto Books. He is winner of the Career of Distinguished Service Award from the American Sociological Association's Marxist Sociology Section, the Robert Kenny Award for Best Book, 2002, and the Best Dissertation, Western Political Science Association in 1968. His most recent titles include Unmasking Globalization: Imperialism of the Twenty-First Century (2001); co-author The Dynamics of Social Change in Latin America (2000), System in Crisis (2003), co-author Social Movements and State Power (2003), co-author Empire With Imperialism (2005), co-author)Multinationals on Trial (2006).

His website is: petras.lahaine.org.
See:
James Petras, "CIA Venezuela Destabilization Memo Surfaces," CounterPunch, 28 November 2007.
James Petras, "Venezuela Between Ballots and Bullets," CounterPunch, 14 November 2007.
James Petras, "China Bashing and the Loss of U.S. Competitiveness," CounterPunch, 22/23 2005.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "The Enigma of Chavez," Le Monde Diplomatique, 4 October 2000.

To listen to the show, click here:

Author/Journalist/Filmmaker John Pilger

On our next show, Monday 16 July, 2007, we chat with filmmaker, author and journalist John Pilger about his new book, Freedom Next Time (Nation Books, 2007). John Pilger has been war correspondent, author and film-maker. He has twice won British journalism's highest award, that of Journalist of the Year, for his work all over the world, notably in Cambodia and Vietnam. He has been International Reporter of the Year and winner of the United Nations Association Peace Prize and Gold Medal. For his broadcasting he has won France's Reporter Sans Frontieres, an American television Academy Award, an Emmy, and the Richard Dimbleby Award, given by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He has made 57 documentary films, most of them shown on ITV network television in the UK and around the world. In 2003, he received the prestigious Sophie Prize for "thirty years of exposing deception and furthering human rights". He holds numerous honorary degrees from British, Scottish and Irish universities. He is a Frank H.T. Rhodes Visiting Professor at Cornell University, New York. A complete CV and filmography is on his website www.johnpilger.com See also Who's Who UK and International Who's Who.

To listen to the show, click here:

Orange Coast Voice Debuts

On our Monday, September 25, 2006 show, kicking off our Fall season, we talked with return guest John Earl, the editor of a new community paper being distributed in Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa, Orange Coast Voice, which has just come out. We asked him about the economics and politics of independent publishing.

To hear the audio of the show, click here: .