Biden’s Student Loan Cancellation Fails to Address Root Causes

Imran Khan Prosecuted On Terrorism Charges, Upcoming CurbFest Highlights Political Prisoners, TikTokers In Solidarity With Amazon Workers

In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by journalist Waqas Ahmed to discuss the prosecution of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan with charges of terrorism and the flimsy legal basis those charges are based on, how the Pakistani military has worked to keep Khan out of power despite a mass movement that continues to support him, the involvement of the Pakistani military and the US in the initial ouster of Khan from government and in maintaining human rights abuses in Pakistan, and the regional and global gepopolitical implications of the current political crisis.

In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Erica Caines, founder of Liberation Through Reading and Editor of Hood Communist Blog to discuss an upcoming CurbFest in Baltimore commemorating political prisoners, why it’s important to commemorate Black August by remembering the lessons we learn from political prisoners as we fight for their freedom, and why the call to free them all continues.

In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by technologist Chris Garaffa, co-host of the CovertAction Bulletin podcast to discuss solidarity demonstrated by TikTok creators who are refusing to be a part of Amazon’s influencer program and instead uplift the demands of the Amazon Labor Union, Amazon’s efforts at using influencers to drive more consumption of products on its platform, AirBnb’s new “anti-party” technology and the very obvious problems of classism and racism that are raised by the criteria that the program uses, and a case that demonstrates some of the issues around the monitoring of information by tech companies to stop the spread of child sexual abuse material.

Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie discuss Joe Biden’s reported plan to cancel some student loan debt and why such a plan is ultimately a half measure that will fail to address the economic distress that will ensue when repayment begins again, the stigmatization of students who take out loans to go to college and its connections to the broader stigmatization of poverty in the US, and how the stigma associated with student loans is connected to the rugged individualism of people leaving home at eighteen years old.

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