Black Detroit: A People's History of Self-Determination
with
Herb Boyd, journalist, educator, author, and activist. His articles appear regularly in the New York Amsterdam News. He teaches Black studies at the City College of New York and the College of New Rochelle.

Herb Boyd excites and stimulates us with his inspiring, illuminating book that will interest students of urban history and the Black experience. 

Detroit was surely the capital of 20th-century African-America, as native son Herb Boyd recounts, this centrality dates back to the American Revolution but became pronounced at the time of the Civil War, when Detroit went from being an important station along the Underground Railroad to become an important source of abolitionism, industrialism, and sheer manpower for the war effort—including Black soldiers bound for the Union ranks.

As the author notes, however, the ascendancy of Black Detroit did not mean an end to racial tension; though he grew up on a block with Italian, Irish, and Jewish families, “our blackness was for our neighbors an object of derision and insult.” Boyd celebrates the rising-above that accompanied this ethnic contest, the grit and determination that put Berry Gordy’s Motown on the map, lifted the members of the Supremes and the Miracles from the projects, and ushered in a second black literary renaissance through the pens of Gwendolyn Brooks and Nikki Giovanni. As he reminds his readers, immigrants and exiles rom other regions and countries did their parts to shape Black Detroit: Malcolm X lived there before moving to New York and taking a leading part in the radical wing of the civil rights movement, while Rosa Parks moved there from the South in 1957. “Parks’s commitment to fight Jim Crow—North or
South —was unrelenting,” writes the author. Though the city has fallen victim since to outmigration, its population having fallen from 1.8 million in 1950 to about 670,000 today, Boyd writes confidently that the city’s African-American population will be central to its revival, concluding, “I’m proud to be a Detroiter.”
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Deadly Exchanges:
Policing Resistance Movements, and US and Israeli Collaboration
with
Eran Efrati, executive director of RAIA (Researching the American-Israeli Alliance), an investigative researcher into the Israeli military.  He formerly served as the chief researcher of Breaking the Silence, where he collected testimonies from hundreds of IDF soldiers about their activities. He has worked with the ICC and participated in both independent and UN investigations into Israeli military operations. Currently, his research is focused on international military and police partnerships between the United States and Israel.

Eran Efrati discusses the international relationships between the Israeli Military and the policing/security agencies throughout the United States. We will outline  shared tactics, weapons and policies that are enacted in a war against indigenous and oppressed people in Palestine, several countries in Africa and across the United States. 

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Boycott Israel, Go to Jail? 

with

Aaron Matte, The Real News

A bipartisan Senate bill would make boycotting Israel punishable by up to 20 years in prison. But a new pushback from groups including the ACLU could help stop the ‘draconian’ measure, says Josh Ruebner of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights

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Uber’s Race to the Bottom
with
Bhairavi Desai, NYTWA Bhairavi Desai, NYTWA Executive Director 

A NYS Administrative Law Judge upheld that Uber was the employer of former drivers, all members of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, who won unemployment insurance claims in NYS. This ruling sets the stage for other lawsuits in cases involving Uber’s assertion that its drivers are independent contractors. This comes close after Uber’s loss in a massive wage theft lawsuit filed by NYTWA and massive driver resistance to Uber imposed fare cuts. Uber’s race to the bottom extends to all taxi workers by

its flooding the streets with drivers so that making a living entails countless hours on the road. But Uber’s race to the bottom also extends to its business model which many observers contend is not sustainable in light of its continuing financial losses. And now Uber CEO Travis Kalanick was forced to resign by its  investors in a scandal exposing a workplace culture of sexual harassment at Uber.

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How Seattle Uber Drivers Won the Right to Unionize

with
Jessica Descarieux, the Real News Network Teamsters' Leonard Smith explains how drivers pushed for a bill that grants them collective bargaining power for higher wages since some full-time drivers only earn $3 an hour

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Rally Against Republican Health Care Plans that go Straight for the Jugular and Would Leave Us Hemorrhaging and Fight Like Hell for Medicare for All!


Whether the Republicans pass a version of TrumpCare, or work to sabotage Obamacare one thing is perfectly clear that health care should be a universal right, whether called single-payer or Medicare for all, and that until we implement such a system our lives are in jeopardy.

So, Building Bridges is broadcasting an Emergency Health Care Rally” THIS IS NOT A DRILL which was held in NYC recently sponsored by Metro NY Health Care for All and Local 1199. Tune into the rally and listen to health care professionals and we the people  as we mobilize for all of us to call on our Senators and Representatives to oppose bills in Congress that would gut the Affordable Care Act, decimate Medicaid, place Medicare’s finances in jeopardy, end family planning funding, and weaken or eliminate important consumer protections in health insurance.  Taken as a whole, these bills will blow-up our insurance markets, threaten the viability of many of our hospitals and community health centers, and leave many millions uninsured.

WE CANNOT LET THIS HAPPEN!

Listen as we mobilize for “Medicare for All,” a system in which a single public or quasi-public agency organizes health care financing, but the delivery of care remains largely in private hands. Under a single-payer system, all residents of the U.S. would be covered for all medically necessary services, including doctor, hospital, preventive, long-term care, mental health, dental, reproductive health care, vision, prescription drug and medical supply costs. 
The program would be funded by the savings obtained from replacing today’s inefficient, profit-oriented, multiple insurance payers with a single streamlined, nonprofit, public payer, and by modest new taxes based on ability to pay. Premiums would disappear; 95 % of all households would save money. Patients would no longer face financial barriers to care such as co-pays and
deductibles, and would regain free choice of doctor and hospital. Doctors would regain autonomy over patient care.

Attend our virtual rally and together we’ll fight for the Medicare for All Act, H.R. 676, which would establish an American single-payer health insurance system.

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Republican Health Bill Stirs Up Toxic Brew: A Comprehensive Analysis  
with 
U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat (NY13 Congressional District)
and
Dr. David Himmelstein, MD, FACP, distinguished professor of public health and health policy in the CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College and adjunct clinical professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine,  He is a co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program a leading single payer advocacy organization,

from Macbeth A dark Cave. In the middle, a Caldron boiling. Thunder.
1 WITCH. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
2 WITCH. Thrice and once, the hedge-pig whin'd.
3 WITCH. Harpier cries:—'tis time! 'tis time!
1 WITCH. Round about the caldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.— Toad, that under cold stone,
Days and nights has thirty-one; Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot! ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble. 2 WITCH. Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake; Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,— For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble. 3 WITCH. Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;
Witches' mummy; maw and gulf Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark;
Gall of goat, and slips of yew Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse;
Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips; Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,— Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron, For the ingrediants of our caldron.
ALL. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
2 WITCH. Cool it with a baboon's blood, Then the charm is firm and good. 

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Welcome to New York, Oscar! / ¡Bienvenido a Nueva York, Oscar!

Puerto Rican independence activist Oscar López Rivera, recently released from prison after 35 years, much of which was spent in solitary confinement was cheered as the “Mandela of Puerto Rico” before a packed house at Hostos College, and we’ll bring you highlights of the tribute.  Rivera, didn’t miss a beat after his decades behind the walls as a political prisoner, but rather seemed buoyed by his experience and certainly the ebullience of the crowd and immediately sounded the drum beat of resistance to the Puerto
Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act, PROMESA and the Act’s imposed junta.

He spoke in pained tones of the austerity budget that burdens the populace and denounced the wealthy elite turning Puerto Rico into their playground. He proclaimed loudly and proudly his ongoing resistance against the colonization of Puerto Rico.  Before his numerous supporters he stood, an undaunted freedom fighter intent to support the Puerto Rican people in struggle against the most pronounced manifestations of colonial exploitation and for independence. 

The night was filled with poems such as by acclaimed poet Martin Espada, folkloric music and dance performances which filled the auditorium with love for Oscar López Rivera and imbued all in attendance with the spirit of liberation and self-determination. 

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Beyond Resistance: A People’s Movement for a Just World
with
Deborah Burger, Co-President of America's RN Union: National Nurses United, co-convener of the Beyond Resistance Summit
and
Sen. Bernie Sanders

At a time of tremendous turmoil and progressive opportunity, thousands gathered to participate in a historic convening committed to social, racial and economic justice. Activists came together committed to a different kind of agenda: a People’s Agenda that can enhance and expand issue campaigns and hold all elected officials accountable to popular demands for justice, equality and freedom.  You’ll hear a report back from the Summit, which was envisioned as deepening the relationship between participating organizations rooted in principled anti-corporate politics,
development of community leaders, direct action, and strategic organizing to build power and we’ll hear the Summit’s keynoter Sen. Bernie Sanders.
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Trash Talking Trump Dumps it on Planet
with
Sean Sweeney, director and founder of the Murphy Institute’s
International Program on Labor, Climate, and the Environment

Energy is a core issue for the world and Trump’s response is more fracking, more gas and coal export terminals, and more projects like Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) as he dumps the Paris accord on climate change.  Trump is unprepared to accept the science of climate change, and unwilling to join with the effort being made across the globe through the Paris climate accord.  Trump is digging a ditch, and the only difference between a ditch and a grave is that one is normally a little deeper than the other.  As Trump seeks to bury climate justice policies we’ll talk about what are the policies we need to push for and actions to turn up the

pressure to Save The Planet, and create green jobs.  Don’t Dump on the Environment,

Dump the Trump!

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"When Silence is Not an Option" - A Message to the Nation from Rev. William J. Barber, II on Rekindling a Moral Vision for Justice, Movement Buildig and Social Change
with
The Rev. William J. Barber II, president of the North Carolina NAACP, architect of the Moral Monday protest movement, and Repairers of the Breach, his most recent  books include “Forward Together: A Moral Message for the Nation” and “The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics and the Rise of a New Justice Movement.”

"Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in."  — Isaiah 58:12

William Barber, one of the nations’ leading theologians advocates
tirelessly for the rights of the poor, the imprisoned, the disenfranchised and the working class, obliterating the social, cultural, religious and political barriers in society.  Barber’s Forward Together Moral Movement gained national acclaim with its Moral Monday protests at the North Carolina General Assembly in 2013. These weekly actions drew tens of thousands of North Carolinians and other moral witnesses to the state legislature. More than 1,050 peaceful protesters were arrested, handcuffed and jailed, bringing attention to the actions of the legislature.

Barber’s work is about building a progressive agenda rooted in a
moral framework to counter the ultra-conservative constructs that try to dominate the public square. He helps frame public policies which are not constrained or confined by the narrow tenets of neo-conservatism.  He brings together people from different faith traditions, with people  without a spiritual practice but who share the moral principles at the heart to repair the breaches caused by centuries old systems of racial and gender inequality
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Whose Streets: The History and Future of Labor Activism
with
Sarah Jaffe, an independent journalist covering labor, economic justice, social movements, politics, gender, and pop culture. She is the co-host, with Michelle Chen, of Dissent magazine’s Belabored podcast, as well as an editorial board member at Dissent and a columnist at New Labor Forum. Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt is her first book.  She was one of the first reporters to cover Occupy Wall Street and the Fight for $15
and
Mark Brenner, Director of Labor Notes, a media and organizing project that has been the voice of union activists who want to put the movement back in the labor movement since 1979.  Labor Notes also works with local unions and community
groups to organize Troublemakers Schools, bringing labor
activists together for a day of workshops on grassroots unionism and skills that officers and rank and filers need.

Sarah Jaffe  covers the class war one battle at a time.  She has criss-
crossed the country, asking people what they were angry about, and
what they were doing to take power back.  She penetrates the heart
of these movements, explaining what has made ordinary Americans
become activists. She attended a people's assembly in a church
gymnasium in Ferguson, Missouri; walked a picket line at an Atlanta Burger King; rode a bus from New York to Ohio with student organizers; and went door-to-door in Queens days after Hurricane Sandy.  From the successful fight for a 15 minimum wage in Seattle and New York to the halting of Shell's Arctic drilling program, Americans are discovering the effectiveness of making good, necessary trouble. Sarah Jaffe captures the essence of the class struggle, tells the stories of the movers and shakers in labor and community activities to empower the people towards building a just, egalitarian,  peaceful society. 

Mark Brenner knows that we don’t need a crystal ball to figure out
what a Trump presidency has in store for labor:  national “right-to-work” legislation, outsourcing and privatizing more public services, large-scale deportations, a ban on prevailing-wage laws and this is just the tip of the iceberg.   But that’s precisely when Labor Notes kicks into gear insisting, “after we mourn, we need to organize”. Mark will talk about how under Trump, labor must abandon its insider approach and concentrate on the power of the rank and file and where that’s happening.  

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South African Metalworkers Union Fighting Political Corruption and Building a Socialist Movement

with
Irvin Jim, General Secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), the biggest single trade union in South Africa. He is a strong critic of the ruling African National Congress, which he accuses of failing to implement the 1955 Freedom Charter. 

The Metalworkers union sees much of the leadership of the ANC as supporting a "post-Apartheid neoliberal capitalist South Africa with South African and multinational corporations and the South African white political community". Jim suggests that NUMSA is a union whose goal is the creation of a "Socialist Republic of South Africa" . The mission is to  convince society that capitalism has failed and a new worker-centered economic dispensation is required. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) is planning to form a political party to fight for the abolishment of capitalism The newly launched trade union grouping in South Africa – the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) – promises to be a voice for the growing numbers of unorganized and marginalized workers in the country. 

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Dilma Rousseff Discusses the Attack on Democracy

and Human Rights in Brazil

The parliamentary coup that forced President Dilma Rousseff out of power has resulted in mass opposition to the interim government of  Michael Temer, who has known throughout Brazil as a golpista.  The  international community will need to pay attention, and we will need solidarity with U.S. organizations like the Committee to Defend Democracy in Brazil formed in February 2016 by artists, scholars, representatives of human rights movements, women’s groups, political parties, activists of environmental movements, and sectors of health services, among many others, whose aim is to support initiatives that defend the rule of law and democracy in

Brazil. Listen to President Rousseff as she spoke before a standing

room only audience of labor activists in NY, as she decried the

impeachment proceedings as a betrayal and an injustice and how her government was the target of nonstop sabotage.  Rousseff said. "The objective was to stop her from governing and therefore allow an environment inviting the coup." Before the cheering audience President Rousseff talked about the opposing forces engulfing the media and sectors of the legislative, judiciary and executive powers, as well as a part of the Brazilian elite, who worked to destabilize the sovereignty of the people and of the Brazilian Constitution. She further insisted that only respect for the laws of the democratic State brought about by the popular vote would bring stability and prosperity to the people of Brazil, contributing to the real fight against widespread corruption and the obstruction of public policies as they are necessary to national and international growth.  

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Fighting the Debt Crisis in Puerto Rico
with
Antonio Carmona Reis, social science professor at the University of Puerto Rico, and a militant with the Association of University Professors and a pro-independence activist.

Puerto Rico has a poverty rate approaching 50 percent, and a public debt that amounts to over $20,000 dollars per inhabitant.  With its poverty rate, more than double that of the United States’ poorest state Mississippi Puerto Rico had serious long-term economic problems that, like its current massive public debt, have been historically papered over.  Most of the media attention on Puerto Rico’s debt has focused on technical issues relating to the solvency of municipal bonds and austerity measures. Ignored is the history of how U.S. policies have resulted in more than three and a half million Puerto Ricans being affected by its colonial status.

The bottom line is that Puerto Rico is the United States’ colony, that it decided to take by force 117 years ago, and has since treated like a resented orphan it has consistently undernourished politically and economically.  Puerto Rico’s current fiscal crisis is, in this sense, really a crisis of American colonial policies.    

Meanwhile amidst the poverty and debt, the hedge fund vultures and Wall Street banks and lawyers are circling Puerto Rico.  They, are, sensing a fiscal death spiral they can feed off and care little about the consequences for millions of residents as they manipulate a financial system devoid of any social conscience.  The board appointed to oversee Puerto Rico’s debt restructuring is turning the island’s recession into a depression, of a magnitude seldom seen around the world.  Unemployment, already at 12.4 percent, is soaring. The plan, which puts the creditors’ interests above those of the island’s economy and people, has created a debt/death spiral and growing resistance to it by Puerto Ricans who are suffering under its yoke. 

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https://archive.org/details/BuildingBridgesFightingTheDebtCrisisInPuertoRico 

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Angela Davis on Trump -
Trying to Make America White Again


Socialist, iconic scholar, and activist Angela Davis takes on Trump in this stirring call for protest linking his victory to America’s history of racism and capitalism. She builds bridges between  numerous issues and ongoing movements for social change starting with support for Native Americans, black lives matter, ending mass incarceration and the death penalty, feminism, labor, immigration and the environment. She calls for a robust reaction not organized by the elite but based on community and workplace activism to fight not only Trump but also a system built on racism and the

capitalism. And she notes that Clinton’s enthusiasm even among women was at best tepid because she adhered to a bourgeois or middle class feminism that played down the needs of working class and women of color

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Insurance coverage losses under the proposed American Health
Care Act replacement were a matter of life and death and how the defeat of Trumpcare can open the door to HEALTH CARE FOR ALL!
with
.  Deborah Burger, Co-President, National Nurses United and RN
.  Dr. Donald E. Moore, Physicians for a National Health Program, N.Y. Metro Chapter, and MD, MPH


As the Republicans pushed forward their abysmal replacement, the
American Heath Care  Act, much of the talk surrounding its impact
focused on insurance numbers and premium hikes. Those things are
certainly important.But this is more important: The Republican plan
would have caused unnecessary suffering and preventable death.
We’ll discuss how we know this, and how our great victory in
defeating Trumpcare opens the opportunity for the American public
to seize the time for HEALTHCARE FOR ALL, with a Single Payer System/Medicare for All!

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Trump’s Continuing War on Immigrants
With
Justin Flores , VP, Farm Labor Organizing Committee
Andrea Cristina Mercado, Campaign Director.

National Domestic Worker Alliance
Carlos Jimenez, Executive Director,

Metro Washington Council, AFL-CIO

While a Federal Appeals Panel unanimously rejected President Trump’s bid to reinstate his ban on travel into the United States from seven largely Muslim nations, a related threat now to undocumented immigrants by one of Trump's prior Executive Orders on immigrants already in the U.S. is surfacing. Guadalupe García de Rayos , a 35-year-old mother of two, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Phoenix on February 9th and  deported to Mexico, a country she left 21 years ago, because she used a false social security card in Phoenix in 2008. Trump persists in the absurd claim that America will be safe and great again only after an assault on “bad dudes” and “criminal aliens,” like Guadalupe García de Rayos whom he has promised to arrest and remove by the millions. Building Bridges talks with three union organizers who believe that immigrant rights and labor rights are interrelated and that we must fight to defend the rights of undocumented and other immigrants.

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Organizing Labor’s Left Pole 
with
Chris Brooks, staff writer and organizer, 
"Labor Notes"

As their membership and resources have continued 
to dwindle the question is what are the positions of 
and what can organized labor do to advocate for 
its workers against the likely assaults by the 
Republican  juggernaut.  We’ll talk with Chris 
Brooks about whether organized labor shows 
signs of returning to class-struggle unionism — 
to a no-shortcuts approach to organizing that 
centers labor’s relevance and strength on the 
capacity of workers themselves to take collective 
action in day-to-day battles with management. 
An injury to one is an injury to all.  Chris Brooks 
argues that it’s only this approach, the tried-and-
true method of the “left pole” within the labor 
movement, that will allow for there to be a 
renewed and a resurgent labor movement.

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Opal Tometi Speaks on the Black Lives Matter Movement

Opal Tometi, co-founder of Black Lives Matter is a dedicated activist working at the intersection of racial justice and immigrant rights for more than a decade, Opal Tometi was incensed by the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin—and inspired to take action. Starting the Twitter hashtag, #BlackLivesMatter, Tometi (with Alicia Garza and Patrisse Cullors), prompted activism nationwide and introduced the banner under which this generation’s civil rights movement marches.  As the Executive Director at the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Tometi is also at the helm of the country’s leading Black organization for immigrant rights, steering initiatives which include the first Congressional briefing on Black immigrants.  Tometi reveals raw insights into the adversity inflicted by social injustice, anti-black bias and uninformed views on immigration, educating and inspiring audiences, like the thousands that she addressed recently in Brooklyn to organize and stand together to fight Trump and to transform society into a world where the lives and contributions of all individuals are recognized equally.

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Betsy DeVos Trump’s Nominee for Education 
Secretary is an Enemy of Public Schools

with
Carol Corbett Burris became Executive 
Director of the Network for Public Education 
Foundation in August 2015, after serving as 
principal of South Side High School in the 
Rockville Centre School District in NY since 
2000.  In 2010, she was named Educator of 
the Year by the School Administrators 

Association of NYS and in 2013, she was 
named SAANYS NYS High School Principal 
of the Year. Dr. Burris co-authored 
Detracking for Excellence and Equity and 
authored On the Same Track: How Schools 
Can Join the 21st Century Struggle against 
Re-segregation. .

DeVos has not taught or worked in public 
schools, or been a parent of public-school 
children, or  earned experience or expertise as 
a leader, scholar, or teacher educator in public 
school districts. Yet to advance Trump’s call 
to deregulate and privatize, she would be ideal.

Through her family foundation (funded by the 
Amway fortune), and through her personal role 
on boards for such advocacy organizations as 
Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in 
Education, she has effectively leveraged her 
wealth to shape policy, including the expansion 
of school-choice and voucher programs, 
alongside the deregulation of charter schools. 
The research is clear: none of these 'reforms' 
will strengthen public education overall, and 
instead, have already proven to indirectly or 
even directly exacerbate inequities.

Public education should be treated as a 
centerpiece for strengthening any democratic 
nation, and what the U.S. needs now is not 
the heralding of silver bullets but instead the 
investment in systemic reforms that draw on

both a sound body of research and a 
compelling vision of the promises of public 
schools. The narrow and ill-informed vision 
and rhetoric put forth by Trump and DeVos 
take us in the wrong direction.

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In the Prophetic Tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King,
Rev. William Barber II Talks About  the Fight for Justice and Against Poverty and Discrimination
with
Rev. William Barber II, a preacher who described himself as the son of a preacher, pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, N.C., president of the North Carolina NAACP, a member of the organization's national board, chair of the NAACP's Legislative Political Action Committee and one of the primary organizers of Moral Mondays.

“We have witnessed the power of “moral fusion,” or organizing across racial lines …to build a coalition for progress in 21st-century America …The months and years ahead will not be easy, but right here in North Carolina we have seen a Moral Movement that can overcome Trump’s extremism. Join the Moral Movement…. Together, following the Second Reconstruction of the civil rights movement, we can look forward to a Third Reconstruction of racial justice and healing in America."

The Rev. William Barber, is one of the most important social justice leaders in the country today, who speaks in the moral tradition of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Cornel West and who’ll talk to us about “The Moral Foundation of Worker Rights”. 

Rev. Barber has been prominent on the national stage calling for racial and economic justice: for immigration reform; against police brutality; and for $15 and a union.  He has been at the forefront of mighty rallies, marches and engaged in civil disobedience in his home state of North Carolina in the battle against homophobia, the suppression and
weakening of the African-American vote, attacks on Medicaid and reproductive rights and recently against the Republican’s efforts to legislate a coup that would strip the incoming Democratic Governor of political power.. 

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Forty Years of Imprisonment, Forty Years of Injustice

Attorneys Seek Clemency for Indigenous Activist Leonard Peltier

Attorneys for indigenous activist Leonard Peltier have submitted a formal application for executive clemency to the Office of the Pardon Attorney, at the U.S. Department of Justice.  An innocent man, Native American activist Leonard Peltier was wrongfully convicted in connection with the shooting deaths of two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1977 and has been imprisoned for over 40 years.

Attorneys Martin Garbus, who has written numerous briefs that have been submitted to the United States Supreme Court; a number of which have resulted in changes in the law on a nationwide basis; participated in  drafting several constitutions and foreign laws and been involved in prisoner exchange negotiations between governments and Cynthia Dunn, director of a nonprofit corporation that works with youth on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota subsequent to having worked for 28 years as an Assistant United States Attorney, where she prosecuted a broad variety of cases including public corruption and civil rights offenses make the case for clemency for Leonard Peltier 

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Unions to Trump: “Pay your hotel workers fair wages and recognize our union!”
with
Bethany Khan, Director of Communications,
Culinary Workers Union Local 226

As far as Nevada’s unions are concerned, hotel mogul-turned-Republican president elect Donald Trump should put his money where his mouth is, and pay his hotel’s workers in Las Vegas fair and living wages and recognize their union too.  The 500-plus workers, who seek to join Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 226, are battling Trump management over union recognition, wages and working conditions.  They say that hotel management is not only breaking labor law – including by verbal threats and physical assaults, but that they’re sure not following Trump’s campaign slogan
“Make America Great Again!”  So the hotel workers’ Geoconda Arguello-Kline, secretary-treasurer for the 55,000 member union local, Nevada’s largest, said “Trump should start right here in Las Vegas with workers at his hotel. Many of them are immigrants who work hard to provide for their families. They deserve equal treatment and should be respected for their contributions to this city,” she added, “I came from Mexico many years ago and became an American citizen to have a better opportunity for me and my family.” Maria Jaramillo, a housekeeper at the Trump Las Vegas, told the union “This country is a nation of immigrants, and we all work hard and deserve to be treated fairly.”
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Driscoll’s Harvest of Shame: the stories of the Farmworkers in San
Quintin (Mexico) and Skagit County (Washington State) and Why
They Say Boycott Driscoll Foods
with
. Al Rojas, a Founding Member of the United Farm Workers; current Pres. , Sacramento Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (AFL-CIO)
. Eduardo Rosario, President, NYC Chapter, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement 

70,000 farmworkers in the Valley of San Quintin, Baja California (Mexico) have been waging intermittent strikes, organizing road blockades and mass mobilizations since March 2015 to demand an increase in their daily wage from $7.50 per day, an eight-hour workday, health care, overtime pay and vacation days, an end to the widespread sexual abuse, and, the legal recognition of their independent union— as the bargaining agent for these 70,000 workers.  These farmworkers pick strawberries, tomatoes, and other
fruit primarily for export to the United States under the label of Driscoll’s, through its Mexican subsidiary, BerryMex.

The workers describe conditions in San Quintin as rat-infested camps, some without functioning toilets, where they routinely having their wages illegally withheld, and face debt after being gouged by the overpricing of necessities sold at company stores, and with pay so low that it amounts to less than one-tenth of what U.S. based farmworkers earn.  And, how has the Baja California government responded to the farmworkers, they sent in police to quash the farmworkers’ protest, severely wounding 70 workers, many with rubber bullets shot at close range, leaving some of the workers
in critical condition.  There’s blood on Driscoll’s fruit and vegetables and the question is how we can support the farmworkers, who through their blood, sweat and tears put food on our tables.
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To Download or listen to this 26:53 minute program,
https://archive.org/details/VegasHotelUnionSaysBoycottTrumpBajaFarmworkersFightBack

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Standing Rock Sioux Victory over Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL)

with
Jeffrey Haas, who has an extensive background in mass defense
from his days as a lawyer for Black Panthers and co-founder of the
People’s Law Office, a Chicago lawyers’ collective that rose up to
meet its historical moment—the defense of hundreds of Vietnam War
protesters in the aftermath of the 1968 Chicago Democratic Party
convention. The People’s Law Office would go on to challenge police
brutality and prisoner torture, achieving significant victories and key
vindications. Haas as well authored The Assassination of Fred
Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black
Panther

We’ll celebrate the victory of the denial of the easement for
installation of the Dakota Access Pipeline by the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers. 

Jeffrey Haas, civil rights attorney who joined the legal team at the

Standing Rock Camp in North Dakota, where Native Americans and

others have been protesting to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline joins us

to talk about the momentous occurrence, and why the struggle isn’t over

and the ligation that remains over the violence perpetrated against the

protectors.   

The  pipeline demonstrators injured by rubber bullets, water cannons
and tear gas canisters during the wintry nighttime standoff with police two
weeks ago have filed a class-action lawsuit against the sheriff of the North
Dakota county involved. The suit describes in new detail the evening of
November.20, when more than 200 people protesting the Dakota Access
oil pipeline were injured by “less-than-lethal” weapons.  The lawsuit alleges
that sheriff’s deputies and police officers used excessive force when they
deployed impact munitions,like rubber bullets, as well as explosive tear
gas grenades and water cannons against protesters. It argues that the
tactics were retaliatory, punishing those involved for exercising free

speech rights.

Plus
"We beg for your forgiveness": 
Veterans join Native elders in celebration ceremony
Wes Clark Jr., the son of retired U.S. Army general and former supreme

commander at NATO Wesley Clark Sr., was part of a group of veterans at

Standing Rock one day after the Army Corps announcement. The veterans

joined Native American tribal elders in a ceremony celebrating the Dakota

Access Pipeline easement denial. Lakota spiritual leader and medicine

man Chief Leonard Crow Dog and Standing Rock Sioux spokeswoman

Phyllis Young were among several Native elders who spoke, thanking the

veterans for standing in solidarity during the protests.

click here to listen or download 

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‘We Won’t Back Down’ says The Fight for $15,
Strike Nationwide!
featuring
. Isaias Sapon, McDonald's worker, Texas 
. Rob Hill,  VP and Organizing Director of 32BJ                             

As newly-elected politicians and newly-empowered corporate special interests threaten an extremist agenda to move the country to the right, working Americans announced that their four-year-old Fight for $15 will not back down and that any efforts to block wage increases, gut workers’ rights or healthcare, deport immigrants, or support racism or racist policies, will be met with unrelenting opposition.  To show their determination in the face of the seismic shifts in the political climate, workers in the Fight for $15 waged their most disruptive protests yet, expanding their movement
to nearly 20 airports serving 2 million passengers a day, and risking arrest via mass civil disobedience in front of McDonald’s restaurants from Detroit to Denver. Workers spanning the economy—including baggage handlers, fast-food cooks, home care workers, child care teachers and graduate assistants— demand $15 and union rights, no deportations, an end to the police killings of black people, and politicians keep their hands off Americans’ health care coverage.
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Attend the rally to close the notorious jail marked by violence and
corruption and impervious to substantive reform: Close Rikers Island!

We’ll bring you highlights of the rally to Shut Rikers Down!  Johnny Perez, a member of the Jails Action Coalition who experienced solitary confinement himself, Akeem Browder the brother of Kalief Brower, who tragically became the face of everything wrong with Rikers when he committed suicide after spending three years there--two of them in solitary--because his family couldn't afford the bail when he was charged with  allegedly stealing a backpack say SHUT IT DOWN!

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Attica, Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy! 

with
Heather Ann Thompson, author of Blood In The Water


Although much has been written about the take over and ensuing assault on the Attica prison by state police and national guard troops some four days later which resulted in the murder of forty three individuals, including ten hostages, one statement by a 21 year old spokesperson for the inmates, himself later executed by police after they retook the prison, rings no less true or powerful today, some 45 years later:

Forty-five years after the rebellion at Attica, one of the greatest civil rights uprisings of that century stunned the nation, millions of Americans mostly men and women of color are locked away in prisons often for decades. But, Attica continues to serve as the inspiration, most recently for the largest prison strike in the history of this country and as Eddie Ellis, our recently deceased WBAI radio journalist, prisoner reform advocate and former Attica prisoner who was locked in one of the secured areas of the prison during the uprising said: “the bloodshed at Attica did something important it exposed what was being done to people and it also showed what men were able to do in a few short days when we work together. That history will serve us, one way or another. The choice, as it has always been, is up to us to dismantle the system of mass incarceration”. 

Heather Ann Thompson, author of Blood In The Water, draws from more than a decade of extensive research and sheds new light on every aspect of the uprising and its legacy, giving voice to all those who took part in this forty-five-year fight for justice: prisoners, former hostages, families of the victims, lawyers and judges, and state officials and members of law enforcement. Blood in the Water is the searing and indelible account of one of the most important civil rights stories of the last century.

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