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

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 
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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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