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

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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