Tag: self-promotion

countervortex

CounterVortex going on one-month hiatus

CounterVortex editor, chief blogger, podcaster and ranter Bill Weinberg will be in Mexico for personal reasons for next three weeks and change. So for the next month, we are going on hiatus. Bill may or may not do some blogging or podcasting from Mexico, but we will certainly be at a very reduced level of activity at best. This is neither a vacation nor a journalistic assignment, although Bill may do some journalism if a story presents itself. All will be explained on the CounterVortex podcast when he gets back, with a full account of his travels and experiences in early March. Please don’t forget us. Your pledge of just one or two dollars per podcast on Patreon will really help to keep this voice and this project alive. We pledge that we will in fact resume regular weekly podcasts and daily blogging in early March.

Planet Watch
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Support CounterVortex with a year-end donation!

The world faces multiple, urgent converging crises now: the war in Ukraine and relentless Russian disinformation campaign in its defense; the attendant threat of imminent nuclear war; democracy under attack from the fascist right in Europe, Asia, South America and here in North America; regimes of mass detention and genocide proliferating worldwide; countryafter country collapsing into chaotic warfare; an unprecedented global crisis of displacement; the rapid fraying of the planet’s life-support systems, and the endemic incapacity of the capitalist system to do anything about it. We are an admittedly small voice amid the online cacophony of bloggery, but we think it is a voice needed more than ever—ongoing coverage of under-reported conflicts, a critical dissident-left perspective with 0% unvetted provocation or state propaganda, a CounterVortex to the general downward spiral. We need your support to do it. Please give what you can.

Planet Watch
countervortex

Keep CounterVortex alive with a New Year donation!

In our holiday fund drive, we are only $100 toward our very modest goal of $500. We also gained a few new Patreon followers, so those funds (which we count toward the total) will be trickling in over the coming weeks. But we’d like to get a little closer to being over the hump before we get any deeper into 2022. We understand that our ultra-dissident perspective as well as the fact the we cover “obscure” wars, conflicts and social struggles outside the media spotlight, means that we will never have a mass readership that can raise thousands of dollars (as do our frankly rival websites that successfully play to the crowd). But if you want the latest news on revolution around the world from a radical dissident-left perspective with 0% unvetted provocation or state propaganda, you know where to turn: CounterVortex. If you appreciate our rigorous reportage and ultra-dissident analysis, please give what you can.

Planet Watch
CounterVortex

Podcast: CounterVortex at 20

In Episode 91 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg notes the 20th anniversary of the launch of World War 3 Report, as it was then called—a direct response to 9-11 and Dubya Bush’s declaration of the Global War on Terrorism. In 2005, it was renamed World War 4 Report, on the logic that the Cold War had been World War III, and to emphasize support for the “Fourth World”—land-rooted, stateless, and indigenous peoples. In 2016, the project was transformed into CounterVortex, in light of its expanding mission beyond our original mandate of the GWOT, and to emphasize the need for general resistance to humanity’s downward spiral into ecological collapse and permanent war. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon.

Planet Watch
CounterVortex

CounterVortex meta-podcast: our special offer!

In Episode 84 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg unveils a special offer for new Patreon subscribers. Become a Supporter for two dollars per weekly podcast, and you get to choose a topic for Bill to rant about for an episode. Any conflict anywhere on the planet, any hot political issue, any aspect of Bill’s far-ranging interests and work: human rights, indigenous peoples, drug policy, ecology, pro-autonomy and anti-militarist movements worldwide. Choose a book to review, ask Bill any question about his life, research, activism or analysis. We want to make CounterVortex a more interactive and participatory project, and we need your support to sustain us! Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon.

countervortex

Keep CounterVortex alive with a year-end donation

We at CounterVortex understand that we have a niche audience. Our ultra-dissidentperspective as well as the fact the we cover “obscure” wars, conflicts and social struggles outside the media spotlight, means that we will never have a mass readership that can raise thousands of dollars (as do our frankly rival websites that successfully play to the crowd). We accept this, and indeed wear it as a badge of pride. But we need to know that we have, at least, a small and dedicated readership that can raise hundreds of dollars once a year. Our modest goal for our year-end fund-drive is just $500—less than half of our annual operating costs (web-hosting, domain registration, site maintenance & development, etc). With multiple crises now converging—preparations for a domestic coup d’etat, war moves against Iran, the political weaponizing of a pandemic—the world situation is actually far more desperate now than when we first launched our website, long ago, in the immediate aftermath of 9-11. We are convinced that our voice, marginal as it may be, is at this moment more imperative than ever. We need your support. Please come through for us.

New York City
Fifth Estate

Fifth Estate Live with Bill Weinberg

Portland-based musician and vlogger David Rovics interviews CounterVortex editor Bill Weinberg for Fifth Estate Live. The two discuss Weinberg’s upcoming story for the anarchist journal Fifth Estate on the “two faces of fascism” the US confronts at this moment—a Trumpian dictatorship or a post-pandemic “new normality” of complete surveillance and social control. But the moment is also pregnant with possibility, witnessing the mainstreaming of anarchist ideas such as abolishing the police. Initiatives such as cannabis legalization as a first step toward this aim are gaining ground nationally. Looking back, they draw lessons for the current revolutionary moment from the Tompkins Square Park uprising on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the 1980s, and the rebellion of the Zapatistas in Mexico in the 1990s—who continue to hold liberated territory in the southern state of Chiapas even today. Watch the video archive on YouTube or listen to the audio version on SoundCloud.

CounterVortex

CounterVortex unveils new website

At long last, our new image-heavy mobile-friendly website has been unveiled. Without compromising our characteristic seriousness, comprehension and rigor, we have finally caught up with the smartphone zeitgeist. It was overdue and inevitable, and our developer has generously donated his services pro bono. HOWEVER: Our hosting costs are going up considerably to accommodate this change, effective immediately. Please help us close this gap. So far, six of you have responded to our year-end donation request, for a total of $413. And we salute these six loyal readers! But this is about half of our annual operating costs. And we only ask you for money once a year. So the time is NOW. Please come through for us. In the age of online media, it is critical that you put your money where your reading eyes are, to assure the survival and growth of the voices you support. We’re depending on you. Here’s all the info you need to make a donation, either via check or Paypal.

Watching the Shadows

Podcast: Against the Left-Fascist Convergence

In Episode 36 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg reads the full text of his presentation at the Left Forum, at the panel “Confronting the Resurgence of Authoritarianism, Right and ‘Left’,” held by the Marxist-Humanist Initiative. Weinberg argues the intentionally provocative but nonetheless entirely accurate thesis that the consensus position of the contemporary “left” is now pro-fascist. Sounds illogical? That’s because you haven’t thought it through. Listen before you judge. Some choice words for Amy Goodman, Noam Chomsky, Sy Hersh, Stephen Cohen, Jill Stein, Tulsi Gabbard, ANSWER, etc. Listen on SoundCloud, and support our podcast via Patreon.

Watching the Shadows

Bill Weinberg to speak on left-fascist convergence

CounterVortex editor and chief blogger Bill Weinberg will speak at the Left Forum in Brooklyn, New York, on Sunday, June 30, at the panel “Confronting the Resurgence of Authoritarianism, Right and ‘Left.'” Weinberg’s talk will be entitled “The Consensus Position of the American ‘Left’ is Now Pro-Fascist: What Do We Do About It?” Other panelists include Anne Jaclard and Andrew Kliman of the Marxist-Humanist Initiative, and Jason Stanley, author of How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. Attendees must register with the Left Forum.

countervortex

CounterVortex on one-week hiatus

CounterVortex will be on one-week hiatus June 10-17, while producer and main blogger Bill Weinberg is traveling. Both our Daily Report and weekly headlines mailing (subscribe here) will resume upon his return. As always, we need your support. If you appreciate our rigorous coverage and dissident views, please show it with a small donation. This is an especially critical time for us, as we are preparing a new, upgraded, mobile-friendly and more visually exciting website—and the transition is a rather arduous process. We hope to unveil the upgraded site within the coming weeks. Please stay tuned.