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

Mumia Must Live - 28:29  

Mumia Must Live: An Emergency Report On the Medical
Mistreatment Of The World’s Most Renowned Political Prisoner

with

Esperanza Martell, a peace and human-rights activist, who has worked on social justice issues dealing with Puerto Rican independence, political prisoners, education and health care from a class, race and gender perspective.  She teaches
community organizing at Hunter College, School of Social Work.
andJohanna Fernandez, with the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home, who teaches 20th-century U.S. history, the history of social movements, the political economy of American cities, and
African-American history


In 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that prisoners were entitled to the same medical and dental treatment as everyone else in their communities, and that prisons withholding treatment may be held liable for violating the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.  However, the reality is that we might never know how many prisoners have suffered or died from medical and health care neglect, or willful mistreatment behind the walls.  But, the case of journalist, world-renowned humanist and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, now in the fight for his life against the outrageous and deadly medical treatment in the prison system is highlighting for the public the necessary fight to ensure that no more members of this vulnerable population suffer and are deprived of adequate health care – that the Supreme Court holding be followed!  


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Junipero Serra: The Fabrication of a Saint - 26:04  

The Fabrication of a Saint: Native Peoples Horrified
Over Canonization of Junípero Serra, Whom They Say
is Responsible for Genocide
withChristine Grabowski, author of Serra-gate the Fabrication
of a Saint published in Indian Country Today


The decision of Pope Francis to canonize 18th century Spanish
missionary Junípero Serra has provoked the ire of indigenous
peoples, whose ancestors were murdered and  maimed during
Serra’s founding nine of the 21 missions in California that later
were the basis of what is now the modern state. Hundreds of
thousands of native peoples are purported to have died after the missionaries arrived. According to historian Alvin Josephy, what happened in California "was as close to genocide as any tribal people had faced, or would face, on the North American continent." We’ll speak with Christine Grabowski, author of serra-gate the fabrication of a saint about why indigenous people oppose Pope Francis’ decision to canonize Father Junípero Serra.


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Relaunching OUR Walmart Campaign - 28:50  

OUR Walmart Campaign, with New Partners Readies To Turn
“Black Friday” into a Red-Letter Day in its Fight for $15 and
Full-Time Employment for Employees


Walmart workers, fortified with a growing number of allies in their
reinvigorated OUR Walmart organization are readying to push the world’s largest corporation to pay  $15 an hour minimum and provide full-time employment hours for its workers. OUR Walmart, which has already won a wage increase for some 500,000 Walmart workers is on the move and along with its new allies, Demos, the Restaurant Opportunities Center, Color of Change, Domestic Workers Alliance and Jobs With Justice, among others is launching a mass campaign for a $15 an hour wage for all associates; consistent, full-time hours for its employees; to end unfair coachings and terminations; and for Walmart to address racial justice, women’s rights and to address climate change.  “We are standing up against Walmart because we are fighting for $15 an hour and 40 hours a week,” said Wanda Banks, a Walmart worker from Louisiana. “If I had $15 an hour and 40 hours a week I would be able to pay off a lot of my bills – I could sleep better at night without tossing and turning. I have a granddaughter that I need to get through college. So that would help me in a great and awesome way.” “We’re standing up to Walmart to stop retaliating against workers that speak out,” said Janet Sparks, a Walmart worker from Louisiana.


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Migrants, Refugees and Workers Unite at UN Meeting In NY - 27:02  

Migrants, Refugees and Workers Unite at UN Meering
In NY To Demand -
Open Up the Borders! Provide Safety!

Stop the Violence! End the Wars!

The plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty,
inscribed with poet Emma Lazarus's words reads:

     "Give me your tired, your poor
     Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
     The wretched refuse of your teeming shore
     Send these, the homeless, tempest-toss'd to me
     I lift my lamp beside the Golden Door."


For hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees, the "land of the free" isn't something to be found at the American border or in New York Harbor. Rather they have been risking life and limb to get into Europe.  Recently, images circulated online of a drowned 3-year-old Syrian boy, lying face down on a Turkish beach. The photograph, which many journalists and activists insisted be shown despite its graphic nature, was a stark reminder of the realities of a crisis that has gotten steadily worse.  Whether through "small wars" of destabilization or labor export programs, millions are displaced from their home countries due as the plutocracy’s drive to control markets, resources, territories, and extract super-profits. With the drive for hegemony at the root, neoliberal economic policies and mercenary armies are unleashed on countries, in order to undermine and overturn economic and political sovereignty.  While initially slow to rise to the occasion, New Yorkers are now rallying to demand:

     .  End Forced Migration! No to Neoliberalism!    
     .  End Labor Export Policies!
     .  Stop U.S.- backed wars of destabilization in Syria,
        the Middle East, and Africa!
     .  Justice for the Aylan Kurdi and safe haven for all Syrian
........  .............. refugees!
     .  Justice and Accountability for the Ayotzinapa 43!
     .  Justice and Safe Haven for Rohingya refugees!
     .  Justice and Safe Haven for Burmese refugees!


And Building Bridges takes you there!

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