In episode 60 of Global Majority for Peace, Ileana Chan speaks with journalist and author Finian Cunningham to dismantle one of the most enduring illusions in modern politics: the idea that the West, led by the United States, acts as a defender of democracy, human rights, and international law. Drawing from his new book "Killing Democracy: Western Imperialism, A Legacy of Regime Change and Media Manipulation", Finian traces how the U.S. and its allies built a global system of covert interventions, manufactured narratives, and media complicity that has shaped world politics for nearly a century.

The conversation explores how the post‑WWII international order, supposedly grounded in the UN Charter and sovereign equality, was systematically undermined by covert operations, CIA‑MI6 collaboration, and a regime‑change apparatus that has targeted more than 100 countries. Finian breaks down how this machinery evolved from the early Cold War to the present moment, culminating in openly brazen acts such as the U.S. invasion of Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Maduro.

Ileana and Finian examine the collapse of Western credibility, the media’s role in enabling imperial violence, and the dangerous return to unapologetic, early‑20th‑century‑style imperialism. They also discuss the shifting global landscape,including China and Russia’s insistence on multilateralism and adherence to the UN Charter, and what this means for the future of international law, sovereignty, and global stability.

Finian Cunningham is a former editor and writer for major news media organizations. He has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. He is the author of the new book “KILLING DEMOCRACY: Western Imperialism’s Legacy of Regime Change and Media Manipulation”.

Get the book here:

UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G4JZL8SY?psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&ref_=chk_typ_imgToDp

USA https://www.amazon.com/KILLING-DEMOCRACY-Western-Imperialisms-Manipulation-ebook/dp/B0G58SKRKB

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In episode 59 of Global Majority for Peace, Ileana Chan speaks with filmmaker Eduardo Flores Torres about the enduring significance of Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolutionary project in a moment of renewed U.S. aggression across Latin America. The conversation traces how Castro’s legacy continues to shape Cuban political life, national identity, and the island’s ongoing struggle for sovereignty under one of the longest and most punitive embargoes in modern history.

Drawing from Eduardo’s documentary "Fidel Up Close", the discussion explores the human, political, and historical dimensions of Castro’s life — from his early years and family relationships to the pressures that shaped Cuba’s alignment with the Soviet Union and its decades‑long resistance to U.S. intervention.

The episode also examines how the blockade has defined daily life for generations of Cubans, the extraordinary resilience that has allowed the island to endure, and the shifting geopolitical landscape that now includes deepening ties with China. Against the backdrop of new U.S. military initiatives in the region and escalating rhetoric targeting Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, the conversation situates Cuba’s experience within a broader pattern of imperial pressure and Global South resistance. It offers a grounded look at why Fidel Castro remains a central figure in understanding contemporary struggles over sovereignty, development, and multipolar realignment.

Eduardo Flores Torres is a Mexican cinematographer and co‑director of Fidel Up Close (2021), a documentary offering an intimate portrait of Fidel Castro through rare archival footage and testimonies from family, collaborators, and Cuban intellectuals. He is also a graduate of the London Film School and a member of the Mexican Society of Cinematographers (AMC) and the Society of Camera Operators (SOC) in Los Angeles.

Support Eduardo’s new project “Cuba and the Blockade”, the extraordinary story of how a Caribbean island has survived 60 years of blockade and remains standing.

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Keith Bennett, British analyst, activist, and deputy chair of the Kim Il-Sung Kim Jong Il Foundation, joins Ileana Chan for episode 58 of the Global Majority for Peace podcast.

In this episode, Keith debunks the dominant myths surrounding North Korea, from allegations of grave human rights violations to claims of deliberate starvation tied to its nuclear program. He traces his own politicization and first visit to the DPRK in 1983, situating the country’s struggle for sovereignty and socialist construction within the broader context of Cold War divisions, sanctions, and propaganda.

Keith highlights North Korea’s achievements in education, housing, and healthcare, its consistent support for liberation movements across Africa and Latin America, and the devastating legacy of the Korean War, including US bombing campaigns and napalm use. Keith also explains how the DPRK’s ideology of self‑reliance (Juche) has enabled survival under some of the harshest multilateral sanctions in modern history, and how shifting positions from China and Russia are reshaping the geopolitical landscape today.

Keith provides a critical lens on how the DPRK has been systematically demonized in ways even Cuba has not, and why narratives of “uniqueness” in human rights violations serve imperialist agendas. He situates North Korea’s struggle within the broader fight for sovereignty across the Global South, offering lessons for movements resisting empire worldwide. Keith Bennett is a British analyst, activist, and writer based in London. He serves as Deputy Chair of the Kim Il Sung–Kim Jong Il Foundation. He is also the co‑founder and an editor of Friends of Socialist China. Engaged with Korean affairs since the early 1980s, he has made numerous visits to the DPRK and written extensively on its struggle for sovereignty, self‑reliance, and resistance to U.S. imperialism.

People's China at 75 – The Flag Stays Red Paperback: https://redletterspp.com/collections/china/products/peoples-china-at-75

Ebook: https://redletterspp.com/collections/china/products/peoples-china-at-75-the-flag-stays-red-digital

Check out Friends of Socialist China here: https://socialistchina.org/

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Ollie Vargas, British-Bolivian journalist, political analyst, and co-founder of @KawsachunNews , joins Ileana Chan for episode 57 of the Global Majority for Peace podcast.

In this episode, Ollie analyzes the defeat of Bolivia’s Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party after nearly 20 years in power. He breaks down the internal divisions and external pressures, from US funded propaganda to institutional weaknesses, that led to this pivotal moment. The discussion traces Bolivia’s transformative "golden years" under Evo Morales, marked by nationalization, poverty reduction, and sovereignty, and contrasts it with the new government’s rapid re-engagement with the IMF, World Bank, and U.S. agencies like the DEA.

Ollie provides a critical lens on the US “war on drugs” as a tool of political destabilization and examines the precarious balance Latin American governments now strike between beneficial cooperation with China and coercive alignment with Washington. Drawing from his recent move to Beijing, he also shares insights on the lessons socialist projects worldwide can learn from China’s development model, institutional continuity, and defense against foreign hybrid warfare.

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Inem Richardson, organizer, journalist, and co-founder of the Thomas Sankara Center for African Liberation and Unity, joins Ileana Chan for episode 56 of the Global Majority for Peace podcast.

In this episode, Inem Richardson reflects on her move to Burkina Faso in 2021 to co‑found the Thomas Sankara Center for African Liberation and Unity. She situates the project within the broader struggle to dismantle colonial borders and build a Pan‑African socialist future, explaining how the center became a hub for revolutionary political education and community organizing at a moment when the Sahel was entering a new cycle of anti‑imperialist revolt.

Inem analyzes the revolutionary wave that swept Mali in 2020, Burkina Faso in 2022, and Niger in 2023, culminating in the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). She breaks down how these movements differ from Western‑engineered “color revolutions,” emphasizing their explicitly anti‑imperialist framing, popular mobilization, and the leadership styles of Assimi Goïta, Ibrahim Traoré, and Abdourahmane Tchiani.

She also interrogates the contradictions facing newly sovereign states, including Traoré’s declaration that “Africa doesn’t need the World Bank, IMF, Europe, or America” alongside Burkina Faso’s acceptance of IMF funding in late 2025. Finally, she examines the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the Sahel, pointing to projects like West Africa’s largest teaching hospital in Bobo‑Dioulasso, while highlighting the structural challenges of weak infrastructure, Western‑backed destabilization, and the ongoing struggle to assert economic independence.

For more about the Thomas Sankara Center:

https://lnk.bio/BurkinaBooks

For more about Inem:

https://culturalworkersbureau.net/inem-richardson/

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#sahel #burkinafaso #panafricanism #revolutionarychange #sovereignty

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James Fauntleroy grassroots organizer and co‑host of the Revolutionary Blackout Network (RBN) joins Ileana Chan for episode 55 of the Global Majority for Peace podcast.

In this episode, James situates the US within the broader imperial system, emphasizing how exploitation at home is inseparable from imperialism abroad. He explains how propaganda conditions the public to accept scarcity and fight over crumbs, even as abundance exists, and why mutual aid must be understood not as charity but as solidarity, education, and power‑building.

They delve into the contradictions of US politics, discussing how electoral victories, even by progressive figures, risk being used to pacify movements and defang revolutionary energy, while the structures of empire remain intact. James unpacks how reforms can act as pressure valves, lulling people into complacency rather than pushing toward systemic transformation, unless utilised as part of a dual power strategy.

He also examines the global context, noting how the Global South increasingly sees abundance and possibilities for sovereignty, while the US public remains trapped in a scarcity mindset. This dynamic, he argues, reflects the persistence of imperial domination strategies, where narratives are manufactured to justify exploitation and maintain control. James underscores that genuine change will not come from voting out fascism or relying on the system to reform itself, but from daring the working class to imagine abundance, refusing crumbs, and building collective power from within the empire.

For more from James: https://linktr.ee/jaybefaunt

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The Global Majority for Peace podcast brings you in-depth interviews every TUESDAY to discuss our mission of building a global movement in opposition to the war drive against China, Russia and countries in the Global South.

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Jesús Rodríguez, founder and editor of Orinoco Tribune @OrinocoTribune joins Ileana Chan for episode 54 of the Global Majority for Peace podcast.

In this episode, Jesús situates Venezuela within the broader geopolitical struggle: a country with the world’s largest oil reserves, representing, like Cuba and Nicaragua, a “bad example” of independence in a region the US seeks to dominate. He recounts how figures such as Marco Rubio pushed Donald Trump toward unprecedented military escalation, including the deployment of eight US warships, a nuclear submarine, and the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier to the Caribbean. While Washington framed these operations as “anti‑narcotics,” Jesús underscores the weakness of this narrative: Venezuela has been certified by the UN as free of cocaine cultivation, and only 5% of regional drug flows transit through its territory.

Jesús delves into the contradictions of U.S. policy, exposing how the scope of military operations expanded to Colombia, how extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean have been carried out under the guise of interdictions, and how bounties on President Nicolás Maduro’s head have risen from $15M in 2019 to $50M in 2025, amid far‑right campaigns openly discussing mercenary operations. He explains how these actions reflect not genuine anti‑drug policy but the persistence of imperial domination strategies, where “creative narratives” are manufactured to justify aggression.

Jesús also explains how Venezuela’s alliances with Russia, China, and other Global South partners are reshaping the terrain, creating new possibilities for sovereign nations to resist endless US global domination. He warns that while Cold War‑style military alliances may no longer function as they once did, multipolarity is opening space for systemic transformation in Latin America and beyond.

Jesús Rodríguez-Espinoza is an expert in international relations, Venezuelan politics, and communication. He served for several years as Consul General of Venezuela in Chicago (United States); before that, he was part of the foundational editorial team of Aporrea.org. He is the founder and editor of the Venezuelan anti-imperialist news outlet Orinoco Tribune.

For more from Jesus:

https://orinocotribune.com/

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#venezuela #maduro #narcoterrorism #trump #latam

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Peter Mertens, General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB/PVDA), joins Ileana Chan for episode 53 of the Global Majority for Peace podcast.

In this episode, Peter recounts how the PTB rose from near extinction in 2003 to become one of Belgium’s most formidable political forces, now boasting over 30,000 members and 258 elected officials. He outlines how a Marxist foundation, strategic discipline, and deep roots in the working class enabled the party to build power within the heart of the imperial core—defying Cold War narratives and relentless anti-communist disinformation campaigns. Peter revisits the party’s pivotal 2008 Renewal Congress, where it reaffirmed its commitment to Marxism, rejecting the pressures to dilute its politics in favor of imperial consensus.

Peter delves into the PTB’s internal democratic structures, where strategic debates are conducted with rigor and discretion to safeguard ideological clarity and materialist analysis. He describes how the party fuses revolutionary leadership with mass participation, ensuring that the rank-and-file shape the struggle while maintaining a clear anti-capitalist horizon.

The conversation also confronts the ongoing imperial offensive against sovereign socialist projects—from Cuba to China—and how the unraveling of neoliberal hegemony is creating fertile ground for systemic transformation. As ecological collapse, economic instability, and militarized conflict escalate, Peter warns that unless the left asserts itself with clarity and courage, reactionary forces will fill the vacuum.

For more about the Workers Party of Belgium: https://international.pvda-ptb.be/

For more about Peter and to get his books: https://www.petermertens.be/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mertens.p/

TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@peter.mertens

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/peter.mertens.pvda

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For more about the Workers Party of Belgium: https://international.pvda-ptb.be/

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The Global Majority for Peace podcast brings you in-depth interviews every TUESDAY to discuss our mission of building a global movement in opposition to the war drive against China, Russia and countries in the Global South.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.