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

Low Wage Airport Workers Protest Scrooge Employers During Holiday Travel Season - 27:49  

Low Wage Airport Workers Protest  Scrooge Employers During Holiday Travel Season 
with
* Shareeka Elliot, a terminal cleaner at JFK's Terminal 8 (American Airlines) 
for a contractor called Airway Cleaners
* Rob Hill, Vice President, Local 32BJ, SEIU
* Rose Oby, a security guard at LaGuardia airport (Delta Airlines) 
for a contractor called Aviation Safeguard
* Hector Figueroa, President, Local 32BJ SEIU

Thousands of employees of the largest private contractors at airports are protesting to call the public’s attention to the prevalence of poverty wages and poor working conditions that are creating a crisis for workers and the traveling public at the airports.  “Supporting yourself on $7.90 is hard,” Shareeka Elliott, a terminal cleaner for Airway Cleaners at JFK told the crowd.  “Supporting yourself and two growing girls is nearly impossible.  My take home wage does not begin to cover bills, daycare, and food for me and my daughters. I feel like I’m drowning in debt.” “These are hard-working men and women doing some of the most vital jobs to keep our airports running smoothly and safely,” 32BJ SEIU President Hector Figueroa said. “They should not have to live in poverty to do it. Their families should not have to live without health care because they happen to be working at our airports.”  So, now during the busiest holiday travel season of the year workers are forced to take their complaints straight to the tarmac.

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The New South Africa and The Lonmin-Mar​ikana Mining Massacre - 28:05  

What The Lonmin-Marikana Mining Massacre Says About 
The New South Africa
with
Mazibuko Jara, editor, “Amandla, South Africa’s new progressive magazine Standing for Social Justice”, a leader of the Democratic Left Front in South Africa, bringing together 40 South African social movements into a broad anti-capitalist front, former media officer of the South African Communist Party, and first chairperson of the Treatment Action Campaign challenging big pharma and an AIDS denialist government to win ARV treatment. 

Nelson Mandela was an inspiration for reformers and revolutionaries through-out the 20th century. He galvanized a mighty force of freedom fighters to break the back of the apartheid system. But the transition from the apartheid system in South Africa left intact the capitalist economic system and the continued exploitation and poverty of South Africa's majority black population. On 16 August 2012 – the south African police massacred 34 striking miners at Marikana mine, owned by the London-based Lonmin company. A democratic South Africa was meant to bring an end to such barbarity. And yet the president 
and his ministers, locked into a culture of cover-up. 

Jara discuses the  political situation in South Africa in the after-math of the Lonmin-Marikana mineworker massacre, and its broader context, including internal ANC battles over that tragedy and what it means for working class struggles and efforts to build the left

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Protesting Wal-Mart's Brave New World of Business - 28:55  

Wal-Mart May Be The Face of Twenty-First-Century Capitalism 
But Now Its Workers at 1,500 Sites Across the US Risk Jobs and Arrest for Regular Hours, Better Pay, Benefits and Respect! 
with
the Wal-Mart workers and supporters, speaking out, 
engaging in civil disobedience and their arrests at the Secaucus,
NJ store protest

Wal-Mart is the nation’s largest retailer, second-largest corporation, and largest private employer (with over 1.4 million workers).  The Walton family is the richest family in the world, their wealth inherited from Sam Walton founder of Wal-Mart. Collectively, the Walton’s own over 50% of the company, and are worth a combined total of $150 billion.  In 2011, six members of the Walton family had the same net worth as the bottom 30% of American families combined. Wal-Mart made $16 billion in profits last year. Meanwhile Wal-Mart workers oftentimes make so little that they 
qualify for public benefits.  

Labor Historian Nelson Lichtenstein calls Wal-Mart a “template” firm. The Wal-Mart model of employment is based on low wages, low benefits and rapid job turnover, has become the template for American firms to follow, This model erodes the American middle-class standard of living, while its principals accumulate unimaginable profits. But, brave Wal-Mart workers aren’t taking this lying down - they risked their jobs to take part in more than 
1,500 protests around the country on Black Friday, including engaging in civil disobedience in nine cities -- Chicago, DC, LA, Dallas, Minnesota, Sacramento, Seattle, the Bay Area and New Jersey.  These actions came on the heels of strikes throughout the month in Miami, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Ohio and Dallas and the rise of fast food workers’ strikes and unionization drives and movements across the country for increasing the minimum wage. 

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Stopping Stop & Frisk, and Ending the System of Mass Incarcerat​ion - 28:58  

Bloomberg Hasn’t Given Up and Neither Are We: Stopping Stop & Frisk, and Ending the System of Mass Incarceration  
with
* Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, one of the leading hip-hop generation intellectuals in the country, host of nationally syndicated TV show Our World With Black Enterprise, author "The Classroom and The Cell: Conversations on Black Life in America" by Mumia Abu-Jamal 
& Marc Lamont Hill
* Arturo O’Farrill, Grammy winning, pianist, composer, educator, founder and Artistic Director of the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance,
* Djibril Toure, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and Plaintiff in Daniels v. The City of NY

There was the most recent prominent police murder of 13 year old Andy Lopez, in California; there is the growing rate of incarceration and caging of millions of people in US prisons; there is still Stop and Frisk and other racial profiling 
policies.  And, thus there is the imperative to confront these policies and dismantle the practices of the discriminatory and cruel criminal justice system. Building Bridges presents highlights from two of the events sponsored by the STOP Mass Incarceration Network and Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) to STOP Stop & Frisk, to STOP Mass Incarceration!

https://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesStoppingStopFriskAndEndingTheSystemOfMass   
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https://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesStoppingStopFriskAndEndingTheSystemOfMass/stopfriskbedstyntl2.mp3

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Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): Corporate Power Tool of the 1% - 27:25  

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): Corporate Power Tool of the 1% 
with
Lori Wallach, Dir. Of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch

Recently WikiLeaks released "the secret negotiated draft text for the entire TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) Intellectual Property Rights Chapter. The TPP is the largest-ever economic treaty, encompassing nations representing 
more than 40 per cent of the world’s GDP."  WikiLeaks is sparking a public debate about the contents of this agreement that wasn't possible when the agreement was secret from public opinion. The TPP is much more than a 
trade and tariffs agreement, it will give transnational corporations greater control over our food policies, Internet access, medicines and health care, the environment, regulation of banks and labor standards. The TPP provides 
for trade tribunals permitting corporations to sue governments for the loss of “expected future profits,” if a country passes an environmental or a health law that will “cost the corporation money.”  Indeed corporations will have inordinate  power over virtually every aspect of our lives. Building Bridges entertains the discussion with Lori Wallach on the TPP that WikiLeaks intended.

https://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesTrans-pacificPartnershiptppCorporatePowerToolOfThe  
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https://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesTrans-pacificPartnershiptppCorporatePowerToolOfThe/tppntl.mp3  
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Hey Governor Cuomo, We Need a Real Minimum Wage Now! - 28:55  

Hey Governor Cuomo, We Need a Real Minimum Wage Now!
with
Assembly member Linda Rosenthal
Senator Jose Peralta
The Coalition for a Real Minimum-Wage Increase

The new minimum wage bill will not be indexed to inflation, instead Governor Cuomo’s wage bill raises the minimum wage to only $9 an hour in three years - too little, too late.  We need a real minimum wage increase that lifts people out of poverty and enables them to adequately support their families.  Governor Cuomo’s minimum wage law also excludes hundreds of thousands of tipped workers from receiving an increase and fails to allocate any resources for 
labor-law enforcement to investigate workers’ complaints of employers’ rampant violations of an failure to pay the minimum wage.  The Coalition for a Real Minimum Wage Increase is campaigning for a real minimum wage and to strengthen minimum wage law and its enforcement.

https://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesForARealNysMinimum-wageIncreaseNow     
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https://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesForARealNysMinimum-wageIncreaseNow/minimumwageconfntl2.mp3  

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Court Halts NYC Stop-and-F​risk Ruling - 26:57  

Court Halts NYC Stop-and-Frisk Ruling, Removes Judge 
with
Baher Azmy, Legal Director, Center for Constitutional Rights

On October 31, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit granted Mayor Bloomberg’s motion to stay the remedial decision in Floyd v. City of New York, a federal class action lawsuit filed against the NYPD and the City of New York that challenges the NYPD's practices of racial profiling and unconstitutional stop-and frisks. They also remanded the case to the District Court to assign a 
new judge. We’ll discuss what this decision means for the continuation of stop and frisk, the concerted, pernicious manifestation of racial stereotyping and criminalization of entire communities and whether judge Shira Scheindlin, who merely made public statements in which she answered critics of her ruling, 
was targeted for rebuke and removal from the case.

https://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesCourtHaltsNycStop-and-friskRulingInNyc
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 https://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesCourtHaltsNycStop-and-friskRulingInNyc/stopandfriskrulingntl.mp3   
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Building Bridges: Malalai Joya - an Afghan Woman Who Dared to Speak Out - 28:17  

A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of
an Afghan Woman Who Dared to Speak Out
with
Malalai Joya

Malalai Joya, is an extraordinary young woman who helped establish a free medical clinic and orphanage in her impoverished home province of Farah; and a constitutional assembly in Kabul, Afghanistan.  She became the youngest person elected to Afghanistan’s new Parliament, but in 2007 was suspended for her persistent criticism of the warlords, drug barons and their cronies.  She has survived four assassination attempts and now sleeps only
in safe houses, accompanied at all times by armed guards.  Malalai takes us inside her important and insufficiently understood country, explaining the desperate day-to-day situations its remarkable people face at every turn, and recounts some of the many acts of rebellion that are helping to change it. A controversial political figure in one of the most dangerous places on earth, Malalai Joya is a woman of tremendous grit and determination, a sheroe in the struggle for self-determination, for peace and justice.

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Former Mexican Guest Workers Seek $500 Million In Stolen Pensions - 26:32  

Former Mexican Guest Workers Seek $500 Million In Stolen Pensions 
with
Alianza de Ex-Braceros del Norte, a campaign affiliated with the International Migrants Alliance, a coalition of grassroots migrant organizations

A caravan of ex-braceros from Mexico in what they’re calling the Historic March for a Historic Debt came to the United Nations to denounce the human rights abuses of Enrique Pena Nieto’s administration that continue to this day.  The 
Bracero Program, established by the US and Mexican governments in 1942, was the country’s first guest worker program. The delegation of ex-braceros are calling public attention to the fact that millions of these workers, many of whom have died or are living under poor conditions, have yet to receive the 10% taken from their paychecks in promised pensions.  They are also calling for just immigration reform 
in the US because as the first guest workers, the ex-braceros can testify how guest worker policies legalize slavery and abuse. Currently, the Obama administration is 
pushing for a guest worker program as part of its Comprehensive Immigration Reform agenda.

http://archive.org/stream/FormerMexicanGuestWorkersSeek500MillionInStolenPensions 
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http://archive.org/download/FormerMexicanGuestWorkersSeek500MillionInStolenPensions/bracerosntl.mp3
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The I Am Troy Davis Campaign To Abolish the Death Penalty - 28:17  

The I Am Troy Davis Campaign To Abolish the Death Penalty
with
*  Kimberly Davis,  Troy's sister
*  Jen Marlowe, author I Am Troy Davis
*  Eve Ensler, playwright, activist
*  Yusef Salaam, Central Park 5 and death penalty abolitionist
*  Lawrence Hayes (death row exonoree)
*  Rebel Diaz, RAP cultural worker, activist

Two years ago, the state of Georgia ignored the facts, doubts and pleas of hundreds of thousands of people and killed Troy Davis.  Now on the anniversary of his execution we invite you to listen to Building Bridges and reflect on Troy Davis and his legacy to abolish the death penalty and dismantle our inhumane system of caging human beings – “it will inspire courage in the heart of those who are willing to use their efforts to save lives and increase the quality of life for all people.”  Maya Angelou

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesTheIAmTroyDavisCampaignToAbolishTheDeathPenalty 
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http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesTheIAmTroyDavisCampaignToAbolishTheDeathPenalty/troydavisanniversaryntl3.mp3  

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Iraqi Workers in the Turbulent Middle East - 28:13  

Iraqi Workers in the Turbulent Middle East
with
Hassan Juma’a Awad,  founding member of and President of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions   

Building Bridges brings you an exclusive interview with Har labor 
rights, and the place of Iraq in the broader turmoil of the Middle East.ssan Juma’a Awad who was an opponent of the Saddam Hussein regime, a human rights activist, and unionist who was imprisoned by the Ba’athist regime three times for “subversive” activity.  Now, under the current Malaki government, Hassan and 
many others continue to face threats of jail and heavy fines for "threatening the economic interests and stability of the state" for challenging the ill-treatment of oil workers and the give-away of Iraqi oil to private companies.  

Unions played a vital role in the Arab Spring rebellions in Tunisia and Egypt as do the Iraqi workers who are also challenging their government. Hassan Juma’a Awad is a leading force in the movement of Iraqi workers, part of a broad mobilization of civil society organizations struggling to establish a democratic, non-sectarian society in Iraq after the war, with internationally accepted labor rights.  The Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions faces many of the 
same issues we face in the U.S.: struggles against privatization, the right to organize unions without retribution and with legal protection; and for the active role of unions in securing the interests of working people.  Tune in to hear Hassan’s report on the lives of Iraqi workers today, their fight for labor rights, and the place of Iraq in the broader turmoil of the Middle East.


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The Robin Hood Tax Campaigners Take to the Streets - 27:58  

Riding with Robin Hood to Take from Wall Street
and Distribute to Main Street!
with
The Robin Hood Tax campaigners who take to the streets


Think about it, in this the wealthiest country in the world the newest USDA 
data shows more than 48.9 million Americans lived in households struggling against hunger in 2012. But, despite this the House Republican Leadership’s Nutrition-Only Farm Bill just cut $40 billion dollars from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the newest term for food stamps. They also voted to defund President Obama's health care law, setting up another fiscal showdown just before the October 1st  federal budget 
deadline. These draconian cuts are a renewed attack on all safety-net and poverty-alleviation programs. They say “where’s the beef, there’s no money”. 

But we say we’re sitting on a virtual pot of gold that could fund hunger, healthcare, and education.  So we’ll head to the streets of NY where Robin Hood and his followers say it's time to tax Wall Street to feed Main Street with a Robin Hood Tax.

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Arrests in NY Walmart Union Action - 27:50  

Four Arrested in NY Walmart Action in OurWalmart Nationwide Protests
with
The workers during the protest! 

Walmart workers visited the office of Board of Directors’ member Chris Williams to deliver a petition signed by over 200,000 people demanding Walmart commit to provide full-time work with a minimum salary of $25,000, reinstate workers who were fired for striking and agree to stop all retaliation against workers calling for better jobs. Four  were arrested when Williams failed to meet with them concerning their demands.Nationwide, one hundred Walmart workers and community members were arrested in 11 cities 

OurWalmart, is a union-backed members group, that has filed more than 100 unfair labor practice charges against Walmart with the National Labor Relations Board, including 20 illegal terminations and 80 disciplinary actions.

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesArrestsInNyWalmartUnionAction  
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http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesArrestsInNyWalmartUnionAction/ourwalmart2013ntl.mp3  
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Fast Food Forward Strike Again in NYC and Nationwide - 28'  

Fast Food Forward Strike Again in NYC and Nationwide

Fast-food workers in New York City and around the country struck and rallied for higher wages and union protection.  They want a raise with those fries.  New York’s fast-food employees joined thousands of colleagues from across the country in a strike aimed at boosting their salaries to $15 an hour — more than double the current minimum rate- and the right to form a union, without retaliation or unfair labor practices.  It’s time for corporations to pay up.  

Low-wage workers from around the country engaged in the largest walkout ever to hit the $200 billion fast food industry. “I’m not going to stay quiet,” said Shaniqua Davis, 20, a Bronx resident and McDonald’s worker. “I’m going to continue to fight. ... I’ve got a daughter to take care of. I struggle to make ends meet.”  Paying the bills is tough for employees who typically earn the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Aside from New York, what was a nationwide walkout included 60 other cities, targeting chains like McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Wendy’s.

http://archive.org/stream /BuildingBridgesFastFoodForwardStrikesAgainInNycAndNationwide 
PLAY STREAM

http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesFastFoodForwardStrikesAgainInNycAndNationwide/fastfood2013ntl.mp3 

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Marching on Washington - 27:23  

                             Realizing the Dream!
Across the March of Time 1963 - 2013, for Jobs & Justice  
              Marching on Washington 

Spurred on by the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of unarmed African-American teen Trayvon Martin, and the recent Supreme Court decision that ripped the heart out of the Voting Rights Act, legislation written in the blood of a people, both of which again exposed the wide racial divides in the nation, people boarded buses and headed to D.C. on the fiftieth anniversary of the 63’ March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.  They came again for voting rights, for educational opportunities, for employment 
and workers rights, and against the system of incarceration, police violence and laws the permit the murder of their children – all still unsettled issues. 

You’ll listen to and contrast the demands and sounds from the 63’ March with those of today.  You’ll hear the most heartfelt messages and evocative presentations that remind us of the original 63’ message - that the struggle for freedom and economic rights must coalesce for meaningful change. Be inspired, be renewed and recommit to agitate for Jobs, and Freedom after listening to interviews with civil rights icons, the sheroes and heroes who recount their sacrifices of then and prescriptions for today.  Be moved and excited by the fierce oratory from then and now.  

http://archive.org/stream/RealizingTheDream-MarchOnWashingtonForJobsAndJustice  
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http://archive.org/download/RealizingTheDream-MarchOnWashingtonForJobsAndJustice/Bb2013Marchntl.mp3 

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Landmark Stop & Frisk Decision; NYPD Killing of Ramarley Graham - Fed Gov Must Investigate - 27:46  

Analyzing The Landmark Decision
Holding Stop & Frisk Unconstitutional
with 

Samuel Walker, criminal justice expert, witness in the historic trial

Judge Scheindlin's decision confirms what the communities subject to being stopped and frisked  already knew, the NYPD's Stop & Frisk program violates the constitutional rights of Black and Latino New Yorkers every day.  Samuel Walker, takes us through Judge Scheindlin's voluminous decision to discuss what a monitor can do, what they’ve done in other states, and Judge Judge Scheindlin's  other recommendations included in her decision and still others that institutionalize the attack on racial profiling.  We’ll also discuss AG Eric Holder’s comments on minimum sentencing and criminal justice reform.
********************
Calls for Fed Gov to Investigate NYPD Killing of Ramarley Graham
with
Constance Malcolm, mother of Ramarley Graham


In the wake of a grand jury’s failure to indict killer cop Richard Haste, Constance Malcolm, the slain youth’s mother said,  “[I] am more than outraged, Richard Haste broke into our home and killed my son in cold blood.  The criminal justice system has failed us, just as it failed the family of Trayvon Martin.  We demand an immediate federal investigation into my son’s death.  We will continue to fight without rest until we win justice.”

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesLandmarkStopFriskDecisionNypdKillingOfRamarley

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Detroit: Pensions, Racism and Bankruptcy - 28'  

Detroit: Pensions, Racism and Bankruptcy 
with
. Ross Eisenbrey, VP, Economic Policy Institute
. Richard (RJ) Eskow,  Senior Fellow, Campaign for America's Future
. Al Garrett,  President AFSCME Council 25

Detroit's economic woes can be tracked to capital flight, governmental policies and the results of institutional racism, not the wages and benefits its public workers received. But, ignoring these bedrock realities Michigan's Governor Snyder has appointed an Emergency Financial Manager for the cash strapped Detroit, Kevyn Orr ,  who has rushed into bankruptcy - seeking to balance the books on the workers's backs.  His bankruptcy filing will result in pilfering workers’ pension funds, while fundamentally ignoring the causes of the City's fiscal crisis.  Bankruptcy will seriously wound pensioners, despite the fact that the unfunded portion of the pension funds are minuscule and the plan's nconstitutional under Michigan’s Constitution.  Orr's undue attention to public workers pensions is part of a nationwide trend targeting the retirement security of working Americans -- especially pensions, Social Security, and Medicare.

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesDetroitPensionsRacismAndBankruptcy  
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http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesDetroitPensionsRacismAndBankruptcy/detroitbankntl.mp3 
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Building Bridges: The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom - 27'  

Fifty Years Later, Commemorating and Learning from One of the Great Moments in History - The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs, Freedom and Civil Rights  
with 
Professor William P. Jones, author of The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom and Forgotten History of Civil Rights 

We’ll probe deeply into the significance of the massive 1963 march and the movement it inspired with civil rights and labor historian William P. Jones .  While in a resounding cadence, King lifted the crowd when he told of his dream that all Americans would join together to realize the founding ideal of equality, the very power of  King speech has also narrowed our understanding of the march organized by A. Philip Randolph Pres. of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Prof. Jones reminds us that this was a movement of sustained grassroots organizing, linked locally to women’s groups, unions, civil rights and faith-based organizations across the country – it was a movement of the grassroots.  Prof. Jones restores the march to its full significance and with his fresh, compelling history delivers a new vision of this emblematic event and the broader movement it propelled and what it instructs for building a movement now for Jobs Freedom and Civil rights as we get ready to return once again  to March on Washington on August 24th to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the first March to demand the implementation of its still unrealized goals of Jobs and Freedom.
  http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesThe1963MarchOnWashingtonForJobsAndFreedom  
play stream   

http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesThe1963MarchOnWashingtonForJobsAndFreedom/MarchJonesntl2.mp3  

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Building Bridges: Restaurant Workers Discrimina​tion Is As American As Apple Pie - 27:44  

Restaurant Labor Leader Responds to Paula Deen Controversy: 
For Restaurant Workers Discrimination Is As American As Apple Pie
with
Saru Jayaraman, Co-Founder and Co-Director, Restaurant 
Opportunities Centers United, Director of the Food Labor Research Center at U.C. Berkeley, author Behind the Kitchen Door

Lisa Jackson who sued Paula Deen, said that her “lawsuit has never been about the "N-word,”  its purpose was “to address Deen’s patterns of disrespect and degradation of people that she deems to be inferior.”  The former manager at Deen’s restaurant Uncle Bubba's Seafood and Oyster House, sued Deen and her brother Bubba Hiers saying that the work environment was rife with discrimination, and she could no longer tolerate Deen’s abuse of power as an owner, nor Mr. Hier’s despicable behavior routinely.  Unfortunately, the revelations about  Deen's treatment of workers of color is neither new or unique in the restaurant industry. More than a third of all workers of color, who were surveyed reported that they experienced discriminatory treatment on the basis of race, including verbal abuse, being passed over  a promotion, racial epithets, and more. This treatment has real impact for the lives of workers and their families - because they have been discriminated against, workers of color are segregated into the industry's lowest-paying positions and segments (e.g. fast food rather than fine dining). Saru Jayaraman takes us Behind The Kitchen Door to expose the extensive discrimination and hardships of restaurant workers. 

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesRestaurantWorkersDiscriminationIsAsAmericanAsApplePie   play stream 

http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesRestaurantWorkersDiscriminationIsAsAmericanAsApplePie/sarurocntl.mp3   download

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Thousands Continue to Rally for “Justice for Trayvon” - 28'  


Thousands Continue to Rally for “Justice for Trayvon”  

As legal experts continue to deconstruct the “not  guilty” verdict in the George Zimmerman trial — the man accused of murdering Trayvon Martin — an ugly truth rears its head again: racial disparities are alive and well in our criminal justice system. “In truth, when African-American boys and men are killed by non- blacks, more often than not, justice will not be served.  Trayvon Martin is the latest name on a long list of African-American men and boys whose non-black killers escaped justice in America's courts — a list that runs from Emmett Till to Amadou Diallo to Oscar Grant to Sean Bell. Meanwhile, "Justice for Trayvon" rallies and vigils continue to be held throughout the country.  

Building Bridges brings you highlights of the New York City rally, where the Rev. Al Sharpton demanded that the Justice Department pursue a federal civil rights case against Zimmerman and called for a rollback of stand-your-ground self-defense laws.  Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, also spoke to the New York crowd. "Today it was my son. Tomorrow it might be yours," she said. 

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CA Prison Inmates Hunger Strike for Their Lives - 27:49  

Prison Inmates Hunger Strike for Their Lives
with
Delores Canales, member of California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement (Cfasc),  Advisory Board of CURB (Californians United for a Responsible Budget) and LWSGI (Lives Worth Saving Gang Intervention), mother of a Pelican Bay SHU prisoner
and 
Carol Strickman, attorney, Legal Services for Prisoners With Children, member of the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition, member of the team mediating between the prison hunger strikers and rison authorities, and part of the litigation team in Ashker v. Brown, a case challenging solitary confinement in California prisons

Nearly 29,000 inmates in California state prisons have efused meals during a protest of prison conditions and rules. The protest extended to two-thirds of the 33 prisons across the state and all 4 private out-of-state facilities where California sends inmates.  Thousands of prisoners also refused to attend their work assignments and state officials are bracing for a long-term strike.  The protest is centered on the state’s aggressive solitary confinement practices, but has attracted support from many prisoners with their own demands for changes in prison conditions.

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesCaPrisonInmatesHungerStrikeForTheirLives
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Egypt's Second Revolution - 27:50  

"Street Action" is the Kernel of Revolution”
Egypt’s Second Revolution

with
Atef Said, Egyptian human rights lawyer and scholar, author of two books about torture in Egypt, currently working on his dissertation about the Egyptian revolution
and
Sherief Gaber, Mosireen Independent Media Collective in Cairo

What is the Egyptian revolution if not "street action", the ability to express yourself and be heard said Bassem Youssef a popular Egyptian satirist on his popular show “Al Bernameg,” of the growth of the grass-roots Tamarrod movement.  Just as with the 2011 revolution, this "second revolution" began with youth activists, and now has spread like wildfire through the population.  The Egyptian revolution is far from over and we’ll go on the ground live to Egypt to ferret out the forces that comprise the Tamarrod movement, 
examine the civil stratification in the wake of deposed present Morsi failure in leading Egypt on a democratic path, parse out the role historically and currently of the Egyptian military and determine the promise of a revolution that is far from over.

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesEgyptsSecondRevolution

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Supreme Court Gives Go Ahead For Re-segregating - 27:13  

How The Supreme Court Gave Go Ahead For Re-segregating and How We Can Fix It?
with
Damon Hewitt, Dir., Education Practice Group, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (“LDF”)
and
Ryan Haygood, Director of the, Political Participation Group, LDF



The Supreme Court gutted a key voter protection, stepped up scrutiny of race in college entry and made it more difficult to sue for workplace discrimination.  For African-Americans, the politics and public policy that make for a more humane & equitable society remains elusive. Despite the hardship and struggles that African-Americans face, there are many who oppose the correction of the disparities still rooted deeply in American life and the  promise of equality.  We’ll examine what happened, what’s likely as a result of these collection of decisions, and how we fix it!


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Newark Mayoral Candidate Ras J. Baraka - 27:52  

One On One 
With 
Ras J. Baraka, Candidate for Mayor, Newark N.J.

Newark's South Ward Councilman and principal at Central High School, long-time activist and son of poet/activists Amina & Imamu Amiri Baraka wants to become Newark, New Jersey's 39th mayor. Baraka explained "I would have been comfortable staying in the City Council a lot can be accomplished there, but Mayor [Corey] Booker is making a run for the Senate; and our city is at a crossroads. The plan is for me to run for mayor." With 50 % of Newark residents living below the poverty line, and with an unemployment rate of 29% we'll find out how candidate Baraka believes he can "transfer the city's resources to benefit" everyday working people.

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