The Real Story: BDS And The Battle For Free Speech
The Socialist Program with Brian Becker
The Socialist Program
4.7 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 27 May 2021
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Journalist Abby Martin, the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF), and CAIR won a major victory for free speech and the right to protest in solidarity with Palestine in a May 24 federal court ruling. A judge ruled that Georgia’s law against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movements was a violation of constitutionally guaranteed free speech rights. PCJF Executive Director Mara Verheyden-Hilliard and host of The Empire Files Abby Martin join the show to discuss what this means for the BDS movement and the state of civil liberties in the US.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | States around the country have passed and are passing laws that make it illegal to engage in or |
| 0:07.4 | advocate for the boycott of the apartheid government in Israel. Filmmaker Abby Martin fought back |
| 0:14.3 | against these laws. She said they violated the Constitution and the cherished right to free speech, |
| 0:22.0 | and she won. |
| 0:27.2 | Today we'll talk about this landmark battle for free speech and the First Amendment. |
| 0:34.4 | We need a new system. We need a new society. We need to demand that which may have sounded impossible even a few weeks ago, but is not only realizable, but an imperative necessity. Welcome to The Real Story on the Socialist program. I'm your host, Brian Becker. We bring you independent programming three days a week every week. |
| 1:12.3 | If you enjoy this show, if you support independent media, become a patron of our program |
| 1:18.0 | by going to patreon.com forward slash the socialist program. |
| 1:23.2 | Become a subscriber today. |
| 1:25.5 | We are happy to be joined by filmmaker Abby Martin and Constitutional Rights Attorney |
| 1:30.6 | Mara Verhaden Hilliard. |
| 1:32.8 | Abby Martin produces invaluable video and podcast resources through the Empire Files. |
| 1:39.0 | Check out her work at the EmpireFiles.TV and their Patreon at patreon.com forward slash Empire Files. |
| 1:49.1 | Mara Verhaden Hilliard is the executive director of the Washington, D.C., based partnership for |
| 1:54.7 | Civil Justice Fund, PCJF, and she is also the director at the Center for Protest Law and Litigation. |
| 2:03.5 | Abby Mara, welcome to the show. |
| 2:05.5 | Thank you for happiness. |
| 2:07.2 | Glad to be with you. |
| 2:08.6 | Thank you so much. |
| 2:09.8 | This is big. |
| 2:11.4 | I mean, welcome news, especially coming in the middle of this global uprising in support of the Palestinian people |
| 2:19.7 | in the wake of another round of Israeli bombing of Gaza and forcible evictions of Palestinian people from |
... |
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