Building Bridges Radio: Your Community & Labor Report

Produced and Hosted by Mimi Rosenberg & Ken Nash over WBAI,99.5FM in the NYC Metro Area

WHO WE ARE

WORKERS OF THE WORLD TUNE IN! Introducing "Building Bridges: Your Community & Labor Report"

Our beat is the labor front, broadly defined, both geographically and conceptually. We examine the world of work and workers on the job as well as where they live. We examine the issues that affect their everyday lives, with a particular sensitivity towards human rights abuses, environmental concerns and the U.S. drive for global domination. We record their global struggles and provide analysis of their efforts to empower themselves and transform society to provide greater democratic, human, social, political and economic rights. Each program consists of feature stories, generally interviews, within a historical context, often accompanied by sound from demonstrations, rallies or conferences, and complemented and enhanced by poetry and instrumental or vocal -- people's culture.

Over the years Building Bridges has produced a weekly one hour program, Mondays from 7-8 PM EST, covering local, national and international labor and community issues over radio WBAI-Pacifica 99.5 FM in New York. We also produce half hour version, Building Bridges National, which is distribtued to over 40 broadcast and internet radio stations.


For more information you can contact us at knash@igc.org
In Struggle Mimi Rosenberg & Ken Nash

Stop the Layoffs: City Workers Protest Bloomberg’s Budget Madness - 19:33  

Stop the Layoffs: City Workers Protest Bloomberg’s Budget Madness

DC 37 Locals 1113 and 375 held an angry demonstration at City
Hall Park recently protesting the layoff of 129 Dept. of Finance
workers which is part of the 889 layoffs announced by Bloomberg
for this year. Recent forecasts by the NYC Independent Budget
Office and the City Comptroller say that NYC will have a budget
surplus in excess of $1 billion this fiscal year. Bloomberg’s
credibility has been further eroded by the $80 fraud in the
$800 million CityTime payroll contract which many speakers
mentioned as the tip of an iceberg of waste in the City’s $9 billion
budget for outside contracts and high paid consultants. They also
called for higher taxes on the rich to prevent layoffs and increase
NYC services.

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Building Bridges: Georgia Prison Labor Strike -28'  

Georgia Prisoners, In Longest Strike In History Against US Penal System Say Enough Is Enough Is Enough!
with
Edward O. Dubose, The Georgia State Conference, NAACP

On December 9, thousands of men, from Augusta, Baldwin, Hancock, Hays, Macon, Smith and Telfair State Prisons went on strike to press the Georgia Department of Corrections (“DOC”) to stop treating them like slaves and institute programs that address their basic human rights. Some of their demands are: 1) a living wage for work; 2) educational opportunities; 3) decent health care; 4) an end to cruel and unusual punishments; 5) decent living conditions; 6) nutritional meals; 7) vocational and self-improvement opportunities; 8) access to families; and 9) just parole decisions. The Georgia prisoners refused to work, stopping all activities, in a peaceful protest for their human rights. This is a heroic act of resistance to inhuman prison conditions and racism.

Plus
Excerpts fromPrison Labor: Made in the U.S.A.
Produced by Free Speech Radio Newsreporter Karen Miller.

Prison labor is every US Corporation's dream: cheap labor, no sick
leave, no time off, no holidays and employees that can be easily
replaced. For human rights activists however, it's a nightmare for
the very same reasons - but on the other side of the coin: forced
labor, no unions, low pay and no protection for employees. The US
has used or currently uses prison labor for anything from holiday
coffee for Starbucks, cutting airplane components or Boeing,
Game Boys for Nintendo, equipment for war , shrink wrapping
mouses for Microsoft, making dentures, down to sewing lingerie
for Victoria's Secrets. It's a multi-billion dollar business.

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Wal-Mart Discrimination Lawsuit Goes to Supreme Court 27:27  

Wal-Mart/Sam Club’s Lawsuit Could Be A Game-Changer For Corporate Gender Discrimination
with
Stephen Tinkler, lead attorney for plaintiffs

Employers everywhere want to see whether the Supreme Court says a single class-action lawsuit can include as many as 1.5 million employees of Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club. Initially six woman filed suit accusing the retail giant of not providing its female workers with the same compensation and promotional opportunities as men. If the court rules this now class action suit can include all 1.5 million workers, it could set a new precedent for how broad class-action suits against businesses, particularly large employers, can become. The suit encompasses workers from nearly 3,400 stores nationwide. The scope of the suit could put tremendous pressure on Wal-Mart to settle and to remedy its offensive practices, as well as seriously affect other employers discriminatory gender behavior.

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AIDS Activists Arrested; Deny Waiver Coalition; Unemployment Emergency  

Deny Waiver Coalition Rally at Tweed Shows Outrage over Appointment of Cathie Black as Schools Chancellor

The Deny Waiver Coalition gathered hundreds of parents, elected officials educators and community leaders at the Tweed Courthouse, Headquarters of the NYC Dept. of Education, in a broad based demonstration to denounce Bloomberg's appointment of millionaire publishing Executive Cathie Black as Schools Chancellor despite her lack of qualifications for the position. The Coalition, which will not accept Ms. Blacks appointment as a done deal, is filing a lawsuit to challenge the waiver by NYS Education Commissioner Steiner and is continuing demonstrations across the city. The protests, are evolving into a wider movement against Mayoral Control and the capture of educational decision making by business interests to the exclusion of parents and teachers. For 8 long years, NYC children have enduring the destructive education policies of the Bloomberg Administration and the time has come for a parent and educator led movement to fight for & protect the educational opportunities of NYC's 1.1 million public school children.
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Nine AIDS Activists Dressed As Bagels Arrested In Schmear Campaign Of Mayor Bloomberg
with
. Charles King, Pres. & CEO, Housing Works, a/k/a, an aggressive bagel
. Johnny Guaylupo, arrested baked goods

ACTing UpOn World AIDS Day—Police arrested nine Housing Works AIDS activists wearing giant bagel costumes outside Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s annual World AIDS Day Bagel Breakfast at the Brooklyn Public Library. “Mayor Bloomberg’s attitude to poor people with AIDS is ‘Let them eat bagels!’” said Charles “Sesame” King, president and CEO of Housing Works Bagels’ Schmear Campaign. “We bagels refuse to be implicated in the mayor’s World AIDS Day Bagel Breakfast hypocrisy.” The activists chained themselves together and blocked traffic at Grand Army Plaza to draw attention to Bloomberg’s relentless attacks on AIDS housing services for the poor. The brave bagels were cheered on by dozens of others, many wearing breakfast table costumes. AIDS activists are fed up with Bloomberg.
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Emergency Unemployment Protest
2 Million More Are Loosing Benefits in December
with
. Trudy Goldberg, Chair, National Jobs for All Coalition
. Bill Henning, Vice President of CWA, Local 1180
. Jon Bloom, Executive Director, Workers Defense League,
. Noreen Connell, Past Pres., NOW, NY State

The National Jobs for all Coalition held a protest demonstration in NYC to call for extension of unemployment benefits being held up in Congress by a Republican filibuster and to raise public awareness of the need for bold and decisive federal action to create jobs. The action came on the very day when the newly released monthly statistics reported that the unemployment rate increased to 9.8% highlighting the need for decisive action now. Over 5,000,000 workers have already exhausted their 99 weeks of extended benefits and if unemployment benefits are not extended by Congress beyond the basic 26 week limit over 2,000,000 more are loosing their benefits in December. The coalition will be holding vigils for jobs every first Friday of the month when the unemployment statistics are released, hoping to build grassroots support for jobs now!

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NFL Lockout Threat with Dave Zirin - 26:33  

Austerity & Lockout Threats Roil NFL & NBA
with
Dave Zirin, author of "Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love"

The former Indiana guard A.J. Moye starts rehabilitation after having a stroke following a head-on collision with a teammate. There has been an avalanche of media coverage of the helmet to helmet hits, and the cover of Sports Illustrated is about concussions. Meanwhile the response of the owners has been to sue 262 players over their workers compensation, and it still takes at least a 3 year NFL career to get any health care after retirement, and oh yes the League seeks to extend the playing season and threatens drastic cuts or elimination of health benefits to the players.

Plus
Host of Edge of Sports Radio Dave Zirin and former NBA guard Laron Profit speak with NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith
about the players standing strong against the league's attempts to break their will. Smith also reveals that the NFL owners share the same legal representation as
the ownership groups in the NBA, MLB, and the NHL. All of these leagues are in labor talks as 2011 marks the year in which the four major sports' collective bargaining agreements expire.


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Unemployment Crisis NYC Demonstration -27:46  

Emergency Unemployment Protest
2 Million More May Loose Benefits in December
With
Trudy Goldberg, Chair, National Jobs for All Coalition
Bill Henning, Vice President of CWA, Local 1180
Jon Bloom, Executive Director, Workers Defense League,
Noreen Connell, Past Pres., NOW, NY State

The National Jobs for all Coalition held a protest demonstration in
NYC to call for extension of unemployment benefits being held up
in Congress by a Republican filibuster and to raise public awareness
of the need for bold and decisive federal action to create jobs. The
action came on the very day when the newly released monthly
statistics reported that the unemployment rate increased to 9.8%
highlighting the need for decisive action now. Over 5,000,000
workers have already exhausted their 99 weeks of extended
benefits and if unemployment benefits are not extended by
Congress beyond the basic 26 week limit over 2,000,000 more
will loose their benefits in December. The coalition will be
holding vigils for jobs every first Friday of the month when the
unemployment statistics are released, hoping to build grassroots
support for jobs now!

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