US political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal never signed the open letter “To Iran’s Political Prisoners” — and Vijay Prashad says The Guardian owes us answers. The executive director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research joins Rania Khalek and Zoe Alexandra alongside Tehran-based journalist Navid Zarrinnal to dissect the “shady” text signed by more than twenty Western academics and activists, including Angela Davis, Judith Butler, and Robin D.G. Kelley, and why Prashad argues it provides exactly the kind of ideological cover the US war machine needs to keep bombing. He breaks down why the letter was never addressed to Iranians at all, but to Western liberals. He asks why the same signers never put their names behind the Palestine Action activists jailed by the UK government, or the 1,400 Palestinian prisoners at Ktzi’ot. Zarrinnal argues Iran’s resistance, “the most material expression of anti-imperialism and decolonization in the world right now,” shows how “hollow” academic virtue signaling really is. As the Trump administration pledges harsher sanctions on Iran and its partners, and China already vowing to sanction back if Washington follows through, Prashad notes Iran’s president said Monday his country is fighting to avoid becoming another Venezuela — with its oil, its sovereignty, and its elected president held hostage by Washington. Watch full episodes of BT Live, join breakthroughnews.org as a member today!

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