Solidarity Without Exception

About Solidarity Without Exception

Oppressed and exploited people from Puerto Rico to Palestine and Ukraine are fighting for self-determination against imperialism and autocratic regimes. This series sponsored by the Ukraine Solidarity Network (US) (https://www.ukrainesolidaritynetwork.us) and TRNN (https://therealnews.com) will feature interviews with intellectuals and activists discussing particular countries and peoples’ struggles for liberation, and stress the importance of building solidarity between them. In these shows, we will discuss the challenge the movements face in attempting to steer clear of the trap of becoming a catspaw for one or another imperial or regional power. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/solidarity-without-exception--6535723/support (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/solidarity-without-exception--6535723/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss).

Publisher

The Real News Network (TRNN)

Category

history · news · news

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

24 Feb 2025

Latest episode

4 Feb 2026

Latest episodes

12 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   4 Feb 2026

   Under Putin’s Thumb: War, Repression, and Resistance

   Over the last two decades, Vladimir Putin has transformed his government in Russia from a managed democracy into an authoritarian regime. Many now view it as neofascist. Abroad, it has launched war after war to rebuild Russia’s former empire, while, at home, it has crushed the democracy movement, repressed all protests against Putin’s imperialist war in Ukraine, and jailed thousands of political prisoners. Two Russian dissidents, Ksenia Kagarlitskaya and Ilya Budraitskis join Ashley Smith in this episode of Solidarity Without Exception. Resource links: Freedom Zone: https://www.futurerussia.ch/en/freedom-zone (https://www.futurerussia.ch/en/freedom-zone) Posle Media: https://www.posle.media/?page_id=136&lang=en (https://www.posle.media/?page_id=136&lang=en) Ilya Budraitskis, Dissidents Among Dissidents, https://www.versobooks.com/products/913-dissidents-among-dissiden (https://www.versobooks.com/products/913-dissidents-among-dissidents)ts (https://www.versobooks.com/products/913-dissidents-among-dissidents) Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/solidarity-without-exception--6535723/support (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/solidarity-without-exception--6535723/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss). Become a member and join the Solidarity Without Exception Supporters Club today! (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/solidarity-without-exception--6535723/support) Follow Solidarity Without Exception on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/2DVBYAiQXVKTodh31d42N1?si=d37c833faf0a47e7) or Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/solidarity-without-exception/id1798347437) Sign up for our newsletter (https://therealnews.com/newsletter-pod) Follow us on: Bluesky: @therealnews.com (https://bsky.app/profile/therealnews.com) Facebook: The Real News Network (https://facebook.com/therealnews) Twitter: @TheRealNews (https://twitter.com/therealnews) YouTube: @therealnews (https://www.youtube.com/therealnews) Instagram: @therealnewsnetwork (https://www.instagram.com/therealnewsnetwork/)

2. 

   11 Dec 2025

   Venezuela and the challenge of international solidarity

   Venezuelan journalist Simón Rodríguez Porras discusses the escalating tensions between the United States and Venezuela with Blanca Missé, highlighting the need for international solidarity amidst political turmoil in this interview.

3. 

   12 Sept 2025

   The US never stopped treating Mexico like an imperial colony

   Co-host Blanca Missé interviews labor activist and scholar Justin Akers Chacón about the historical and ongoing imperial domination of Mexico by the United States.

4. 

   26 Aug 2025

   Palestine, genocide, and the imperialist lie of the 'rules-based international order'

   Host Ashley Smith interviews Palestinian scholar-activist Eman Abdelhadi about Israel's actions in Gaza and the urgent need for global solidarity.

5. 

   10 Jul 2025

   Caught between the US and China, Taiwan’s future is uncertain

   Journalist Brian Hioe discusses Taiwan's complex history and current position between the US and China with Ashley Smith, highlighting the urgent need for international working-class solidarity in this interview.

6. 

   10 Jun 2025

   US empire is dying, and it’s more dangerous than ever

   Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez speaks with Blanca Missé and Ashley Smith about the decline of the US empire and the urgent need for an internationalist movement to prevent global disorder in this interview.

7. 

   27 May 2025

   Episode 5 | Genocide, imperialism, & grassroots resistance in Sudan’s civil war

   Host Blanca Missé interviews Nisrin Elamin and Ibrahim Alhaj Abdelmajeed Alduma about the roots of Sudan’s civil war, the political revolution of 2019, and the violent counterrevolution, revealing the oppression and genocidal actions impacting the Sudanese people.

8. 

   9 Apr 2025

   Episode 4 | Will the Philippines be a battleground for US-China war?

   Since 1565, the Philippines has been in the grip of one imperialist power after another. Even after independence, the archipelago remains a kind of functional US colony. Now, territorial conflict in the South China Sea could turn the Philippines into a battleground for US-China war. Josua Mata joins Solidarity Without Exception to discuss the Philippines long history of colonization and resistance. Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer. (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support) Sign up for our newsletter (https://therealnews.com/eos-pod-subscribe) Follow us on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/therealnews.com) Like us on Facebook (https://facebook.com/therealnews) Follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/therealnews) Donate to support this podcast (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support) Pre-Production: Ashley Smith Audio Post-Production: Alina Nehlich Music Credits: Venticinque Aprile (“Bella Ciao” Orchestral Cover) by Savfk | https://www.youtube.com/savfkmusic (https://www.youtube.com/savfkmusic) Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com (https://www.free-stock-music.com/) Creative Commons / Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

9. 

   9 Apr 2025

   Episode 3 | Unmasking PROMESA: The unelected board perpetuating colonialism in Puerto Rico

   Puerto Rico first became a US colony in 1898—and remains so well into the 21st century. Today, that colonial relationship is structured through PROMESA, an unelected board that controls the island’s budget and has unleashed a vicious cycle of debt and privatization that has mired Puerto Ricans in poverty, unemployment, and underdevelopment. Rafael Bernabe joins Solidarity Without Exception to discuss PROMESA’s role in perpetuating colonialism in Puerto Rico, and the longer history of the island’s oppression under US rule. Rafael Bernabe is a Puerto Rican activist, sociologist and historian. He was one of four island-wide representatives of the Movimiento Victoria Cuidadana (MVC) who won office in the 2020 elections. He is the author of Walt Whitman and His Caribbean and co-author of Puerto Rico in the American Century: A History since 1898 with César J. Ayala. Read the transcript of this podcast here (https://therealnews.com/promesa-and-colonialism-in-puerto-rico). Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer. (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support) Sign up for our newsletter (https://therealnews.com/eos-pod-subscribe) Follow us on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/therealnews.com) Like us on Facebook (https://facebook.com/therealnews) Follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/therealnews) Donate to support this podcast (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support) Pre-Production: Blanca Missé Audio Post-Production: Alina Nehlich Music Credits: Venticinque Aprile (“Bella Ciao” Orchestral Cover) by Savfk | https://www.youtube.com/savfkmusic (https://www.youtube.com/savfkmusic) Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com (https://www.free-stock-music.com/) Creative Commons / Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

10. 

    14 Mar 2025

    Episode 2 | Can Syria's revolution bloom after Assad?

    Editor's note: This episode was recorded on March 4, 2025. In Syria, Assad is gone, but the country's challenges remain. Over a decade of civil war and foreign intervention has devastated the country's economy and politics, but a fragile optimism still exists. Joseph Daher and Ramah Kudaimi join this second episode of Solidarity Without Exception for a discussion on Syria's long journey from the 2011 revolution to today, and what solidarity with the Syrian people should have looked like then, and could look like now. Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer. (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support) Sign up for our newsletter (https://therealnews.com/eos-pod-subscribe) Follow us on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/therealnews.com) Like us on Facebook (https://facebook.com/therealnews) Follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/therealnews) Donate to support this podcast (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support) Pre-Production: Ashley Smith Audio Post-Production: Alina Nehlich Music Credits: Venticinque Aprile (“Bella Ciao” Orchestral Cover) by Savfk | https://www.youtube.com/savfkmusic (https://www.youtube.com/savfkmusic) Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com (https://www.free-stock-music.com/) Creative Commons / Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

11. 

    24 Feb 2025

    Episode 1 | The War in Ukraine: An internationalist, working-class perspective

    Three years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, roughly 20% of the Ukrainian territory remains occupied by Russian troops. Before the invasion, there were 41 million people living in Ukraine; today, the UN Refugee Agency estimates that 3.7 million people still in Ukraine have been displaced from their homes, while almost 7 million refugees had to flee abroad. The war has severely damaged the Ukrainian economy and the living conditions for people in Ukraine. Like everywhere else in the world, there is a class divide in Ukraine, and the impact of the war has not been equally felt: while the average Ukrainian was forced to migrate, lose wages, and fight on the front, the wealthy were able to escape conscription and put their money abroad. While economic elites reportedly took $35 billion out of the country since the start of the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelesnky not only refused to expropriate and nationalize their assets but, instead, chose to impose harsh anti-labor measures on workers and unions and make further cuts to social services using the national emergency laws. The fight to ensure Ukrainian people’s right to self-determination is not just about removing all Russian troops from Ukrainian territory and allowing the Ukrainian people to decide their own fate without fears of coups and invasions. It also has to do with stopping and reversing the encroachment of Western corporate and US imperial interests that seek to further exploit the country. However, prospects for this are growing darker by the day as President Donald Trump’s new administration engages in bilateral negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and without Zelensky, to end the war, all while suggesting that the US take ownership of 50% of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals. Solidarity with working people in Ukraine and their fight against Russia’s invasion never meant support for the Zelensky government, the US government, NATO, or the designs of rival imperial powers, but lack of international solidarity has left Ukrainians in an impossible situation. This is Solidarity without Exception, a new podcast series brought to you by The Real News Network (https://therealnews.com/), in partnership with the Ukraine Solidarity Network (https://www.ukrainesolidaritynetwork.us/), hosted by Blanca Missé and Ashley Smith. In Episode One of this series, released on the three-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we analyze the current state of the war and the last three years from an internationalist, working-class perspective. Cohost Blanca Missé speaks with Denys Bondar, a native of Ukraine, professor of Physics at Tulane University, and one of the coordinators of the Ukraine Solidarity Network in the US; and Hanna Perekhoda, a researcher at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, a founder of the Switzerland-based Committee of Solidarity with the Ukrainian People and Russian Opponents of the War, and an ethnic Ukrainian who grew up in the Russian-speaking the city of Donetsk in the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine. Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer. (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support) Sign up for our newsletter (https://therealnews.com/eos-pod-subscribe) Follow us on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/therealnews.com) Like us on Facebook (https://facebook.com/therealnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/therealnews" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer...

12. 

    24 Feb 2025

    Episode 0 | How the wars in Ukraine and Gaza blew up the old world order

    As we cross the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Russia has launched its largest drone attack in Ukraine to date, and Israeli tanks are rolling into the Occupied West Bank for the first time in decades. US President Donald Trump has issued repeated threats to “take over” and “own” Gaza, “buy” Greenland, and “absorb” Canada as the “51st state.” Even the fiction of the US-enforced “rules-based international order” has collapsed, and a new, terrifying world disorder—one that more closely resembles the geopolitical periods preceding World Wars I and II—is emerging. This new era is characterized by heightening inter-imperial conflicts between great powers like the US, Russia, and China, and emerging regional powers, the rise of far-right and authoritarian governments around the globe, and the accelerated drive of those governments to annex and take over other countries, deny their populations the right to self-determination, and plunder their resources. But this tectonic shift in 21st-century geopolitics has, in turn, provoked growing struggles for self-determination and national liberation. From Palestine to Puerto Rico, from Ukraine to Xinjiang, how can working-class people in the United States and beyond fight for a different future and an alternative world order founded not on imperial conquest, war, and capitalist domination, but on solidarity without exception among all poor, working-class, and oppressed peoples who yearn to live freely and peacefully? This is Solidarity Without Exception, a new podcast series brought to you by The Real News Network (https://therealnews.com/), in partnership with the Ukraine Solidarity Network (https://www.ukrainesolidaritynetwork.us/), hosted by Blanca Missé and Ashley Smith. In the inaugural episode of this series, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez joins Missé and Smith to dissect how the world order has changed in the three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and how the simultaneous unfolding of the war in Ukraine and Israel’s US-backed genocidal war on Palestine has revealed both the centrality of anti-occupation struggles for self-determination in the 21st century, and the need for global working-class solidarity with all oppressed peoples waging those struggles. Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer. (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support) Sign up for our newsletter (https://therealnews.com/eos-pod-subscribe) Follow us on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/therealnews.com) Like us on Facebook (https://facebook.com/therealnews) Follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/therealnews) Donate to support this podcast (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support) Pre-Production: Maximillian Alvarez, Blanca Missé, Kayla Rivara, Ashley Smith Studio Production: David Hebden Audio Post-Production: Alina Nehlich Music Credits: Venticinque Aprile (“Bella Ciao” Orchestral Cover) by Savfk | https://www.youtube.com/savfkmusic (https://www.youtube.com/savfkmusic) Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com (https://www.free-stock-music.com/) Creative Commons / Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) <a...

Who has been a guest on Solidarity Without Exception

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Simón Rodríguez Porras
• Justin Akers Chacón
• Eman Abdelhadi
• Brian Hioe
• Nisrin Elamin

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

249,254,100

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

5 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 54 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

39

Social presence

97

YouTube

93

Engagement

32

Contact Solidarity Without Exception

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.