Neither Rain Nor Snow Stop Black, Latino, Asian American
Unionists March for Occupy Wall Street

Despite the rain and snow of the season’s first big storm hundreds
in NYC braved the weather to hail Occupy Wall Street and vowed
to help protect the protesters from the increasingly inclement
weather as winter approaches and the increasing attacks by the
city governments nationwide. The rally at City Hall and march to
the Occupy site at Wall Street’s Freedom Square was organized by
the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, the Labor Council for Latin
American Advancement, the NAACP and the Asian, Pacific
American Labor Alliance all representing workers who have been
particularly hard hit by the recession. This Rally and March signaled
the increasing movement of people of color both in support and
joining the Occupy Wall Street movement.

play stream or
download

Read More...

All Day, All Week – N.Y.C. Occupy Wall Street Actions
atSotheby’s Auction Lockout,
Harlem Protest Against Stop and Fisk
andVerizon Workers Contract Protest

It’s been a busy week for NYC’s Occupy Wall Street protesters.
Building Bridges brings you coverage of three of the multitude of
actions the've joined with community and labor activists. First we
went to NYC’s posh Upper East Side where Teamster Local 814
art handlers have been locked out for months in a contract dispute
over cutbacks and outsourcing demands by Sotheby’s Auction house
which caters to the 1%. Then uptown to Harlem where hundreds
demonstrated in front of the Harlem 28th Precinct where 33 activists
led by noted author, activist and Princeton Prof. Cornel West and
veteran revolutionary fighter Carl Dix were arrested protesting the
N.Y. Police Department’s racist, illegal, illegitimate stop and frisk
policy which is on track to impact over 700,000 people, mostly Black
and Latino youth, in 2011. Then downtown to Wall Street to protest
for a fair contract for 45,000 Verizon workers whose negotiations are
not going well. Like Sotheby, Verizon is an extremely profitable
company whose demands include cutbacks and outsourcing.

play stream or
download

Read More...

Occupy Wall Street Wins, Then Celebrates with Citywide Protests

Following a huge and rapid public outcry that included hundreds of
thousands of online petition signatures and phone calls to New York
City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office, a threatened clean-up/eviction
of Occupy Wall Street's home base at LIberty Square was postponed
just before the 7 AM deadline on Friday, October 14 as thousands of
99%ers massed at Liberty Square to defend Occupy Wall Street.

The next day saw a sea of protests starting at Liberty Square when
thousands marched around Wall Street targeting Chase Bank which
leads all others in predatory foreclosure evictions. It moved to college
protests at Washington Square Park featuring numerous issues including
health care. Tens of thousands of protesters then converged on
Times Square culminating a day in solidarity with protesters around
the country and the world in a new mass movement which is now
just one month old.

play stream or
download

Read More...

“Occupy Wall Street” Creates a Movement
with Labor & Community Support Despite Police Repression.

Occupy Wall Street, the movement whose organizational forms & demands
are evolving continues to pick up support including organized labor.
Transport Union Local 100, hospitals Local 1199, city workers' DC 37
AFSCME, UAW Local 2110, Teamster Local 814 and building service
workers Local 32-BJ and the United Federation of Teachers were just
some of the unions which pledged solidarity at a massive support rally
in NYC which drew tens of thousands. An earlier rally saw thousands
march from the newly named “Liberty Square” on Wall Street to Police
Plaza over what they view as excessive force and unfair treatment by
the police. The foundation of “Occupy Wall Street” is recognition the
richest 1% own more than half of this country’s wealth while 1 in 5 in
New York City live in poverty. Instead of bailing out people and helping
them get jobs, government bailed out the same institutions that had
created the economic crisis, giving them trillions of dollars. "Occupy
Wall Street” continues to grow and represent the 99% of the have
nots against the have mores and more as they march and rally
and gain more adherents across the city, the nation and the world.

play stream or
download

Read More...

Building Bridges Radio: Abolish the Death Penalty - in memoriam of Troy Davis

Read More...

Do you know what it says on the death certificate for anyone
who’s executed?
with
Stephen Bright, President and Senior Counsel of the Southern
Center for Human Rights, law professor who twice argued and
won cases before the United States Supreme Court, involving
racial composition of the juries. He has testified on many
occasions before committees of both the U.S. Senate and House
of Representatives. His and the Center's work has been the
subject of a documentary film, "Finding for Life in the Death Belt",
and two books, "Proximity to Death" and "Finding Life on Death
Row".

When they say cause of death, do you know what the word is?
“It’s homicide”. Homicide! It certainly felt like murder watching the
TroyDavis hashtag tick away the last minutes of aman’s life. The
death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights. It is the
premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the state.
While, this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment is done in the
name of justice it violates the right to life as proclaimed in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Building Bridges opposes
the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of the
nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or the method
used by the state to kill the prisoner. This show, in memoriam of
Troy Davis (9/21/2011), Stan “Tookie” Williams, (12/13/2005),
Dominque Green (10/26/2004), and Gary Graham a/k/a Shaka
Sankofa (6,22/2000) to name but a few victims of state executions,
Stephen Bright makes the case for abolishing the death penalty

download
or
play stream

Read More...