The The Hello and

welcome to Behind the News. My name is Doug Henwood.

Three guests in two segments today.

V.J. Parshad will talk about China and Sinophobia,

Kerala, and the crucial importance of social organization.

And at the bottom of the hour, Megan Day and Michael Utricht, authors of Bigger Than

Burning, we'll talk about socialism, electoralism, and where it all goes from here.

V.J. Prashad is an intellectual and activist with many interests and skills.

A sharp critic, he's also capable of evoking hope, which is something often in short supply

for me.

Born in India, Prashad went to college and graduate school in the US.

For 20 years he taught history and international relations at Trinity College in Hartford,

where he is persecuted for being a Marxist and opponent of the Israeli government.

He left academia in 2017 to head up the Tricontinental, a new hybrid think tank, publisher,

and activist organization that, in its own words is focused on

stimulating intellectual debate that serves people's aspirations.

Barshan is a prolific author publishing roughly a book a year since the turn of

the millennium. He writes a newsletter published by the

Tricontinental, which you can subscribe to you by visiting their website the Tricontinental.

org, V.J. Pishad. China, there's an awful lot of sinophobia circulating here, not just from the president, but even people you think might know better, are engaging all kinds of anti-Chinese rhetoric, you know, starting with the origin of the disease is somehow in sick Chinese

practices and then the Chinese covered up the story for months and made things worse.

Set us straight on the China angle.

...