While the day is used to remember the terrible sacrifice of those killed in war it is also used by politicians to pump out support for militarism and uncritical support for all U.S. wars past and present, few know that in fact the holiday’s origins are in the fight against slavery. How did Decoration Day become Memorial Day, and what was the reason for its hijacking?

Host of Radio Sputnik's Loud & Clear Brian Becker is joined for the full hour by Michael Prysner, a US Marine veteran who served in Iraq who is now an ANSWER Coalition activist; Ben Becker, an editor of Liberation newspaper; and by Eugene Puryear, activist and author of “Shackled and Chained: Mass Incarceration in Capitalist America”.

Listen to the interview here