Against The Death Penalty: Wrongful Conviction & Exoneration
with
Jeffrey Deskovic, exoneree, The Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice

Exoneration has been incredibly important for those who oppose capital punishment  —since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, 138 death row inmates have had their convictions overturned. Building Bridges highlights The Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation For Justice that came into being for the prevention and eradication of wrongful convictions, as the result of its founder’s own wrongful conviction for rape and murder at age 16.  At 33 years of age Jeff was exonerated and left prison, with a mission to prevent what happened to him from happening to others.

 

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesAgainstTheDeathPenaltyWrongfulConvictionExoneration

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Mayor Bloomberg Provokes School Bus Strike, Hurting
Workers, Parents and Children
with
Richard Gilberg, Attorney, ATU Local 1181
and
Jimmy Hedge, Exec. Board Member, ATU Local 1181

Union busting is disgusting.  NYC's Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181, representing school bus drivers, escorts, and mechanics was forced onto picketlines to save its very existence, due to Mayor Bloomberg's insistence on removing Employee Protection Provisions from contract language affecting the 9,000 workers. This change would impact current and future union members, allow companies to low bid contractors due to cheap labor, and put 150,000 children’s lives in the hands of inexperienced drivers to navigate the hectic streets of NYC.  This is a lose lose situation for union members and parents and children!  

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesNycMayorBloombergProvokesSchoolBusStrike

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Lincoln Used Greenbacks To Fight Civil War, Can’t We To Eradicate Debt!

With
Timothy A. Canova, Prof. of Law & Public Finance

In 1862 Pres. Lincoln signed an act to create a new government-issued paper money, Greenbacks, not redeemable in gold or any precious metals. His successful experiment helped finance the North to prevail in the Civil War. We’ll explore why Lincoln chose this path and the lessons we can learn, including discussing the issuance of a $1 trillion dollar coin, as our recovery is threatened by obsessive concern by both parties about cutting deficits and funding the government – the so-called debt limit and the fiscal cliff.

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesLincolnGreenbacksTodaysDebtDebate

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Unprotected Sandy Cleanup Hires Face Health and Safety Threats.
With
Joel Shufro, Exec. Dir. NY Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (“NYCOSH”)
and
Luzdary Giraldo, NYCOSH Community Outreach Organizer

NYCOSH is demanding employers and government agencies respond to the massive health and safety violations thousands of cleanup workers face in the wake of Sandy, so as not to repeat the 911 fiasco which continues to cost the lives of first responders. Thousands of Sandy workers are facing health and safety hazards as they clean up the wreckage, and are forced to work 10 - 12 hour
shifts often without even receiving the minimum wage.
*****************
350 Economists Warn Obama and Congress:

Unwise Deficit Reduction Could Kill Recovery.
Economy Needs Growth and Jobs, Not Austerity.
With
. Robert Pollin, Univ. of Massachusetts, Economist and
co-director, Political Economy Research Institute (PERI)
. Teresa Ghirarducci, Director of the Schwartz Center for
Economic Policy Analysis at the The New School

Warning that the U.S. economy is still “marked by mass unemployment, rising poverty, and declining wages.” 350 prominent economists issued a statement with the Campaign for America’s Future that, “the fragile recovery is threatened by obsessive concern with cutting deficits that
has infected both parties.”

The economists’ statement highlighted that drastic spending cuts adopted in a “grand bargain” aimed at avoiding sequestration could have such a contractionary impact on the still-fragile economy that the U.S. could join European countries in plunging into recession as a result of misguided
austerity policies.

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesSandyCleanupHiresFaceHealthSafetyDangersAnd  
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Building Bridges Special
for January 1st, Haiti’s 209th Independence Day

Trade Union Leaders From Latin America & Caribbean

Demand UN Haiti Occupation End!
with
. Julio Turra, National Exec. Dir. , United Trade Union Central

of Workers of Brazil (CUT) . Fignolé St. Cyr, Gen. Sec'y, Autonomous Confederation of Haitian

Workers (CATH);
. Jocelyn Lapitre, leader with Front Against Profit (LKP), Guadeloupe
. Alan Benjamin, Intl. Liaison Committee of Workers & Peoples (ILC)
 
January 1st marks the 209th anniversary of Haitian independence. And, in commemoration of Haiti, the 1st Black Republic in the world Building Bridges talks with world-renowned trade union representatives both about the issues of their working classes and about their demand that the foreign military occupation of Haiti known as the UN Mission to Stabilize Haiti or MINUSTAH,

deployed since 2004 immediately end, and that Haiti’s sovereignty and right to self-determination be respected.

The delegation was part of a broad continental campaign that came to the UN to tell its officials “if the United Nations genuinely wants to help the Haitian people, they should do like Cuba and Venezuela. These are the two countries that really helped Haiti after, and even before, the earthquake. There is not a single Cuban or Venezuelan soldier on Haiti’s territory. But there are Cuban doctors. There is Venezuelan oil. Venezuela and Cuba are building an international airport in Cap Haitien. This is the kind of help that Haiti needs.We have problems of roads, water, electricity, and food. Haiti does not need soldiers! Instead of giving us soldiers, give us technicians. We don’t need soldiers they don’t help us with any development. On the contrary, they killed thousands of Haitians by bringing cholera to Haiti, explained the Haitian labor representative. 

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesUnHaitiOccupationMustEndSayTradeUnionLeadersFrom

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“And The Walls Came Tumbling Down” 
with
Mumia Abu-Jamal, Angela Davis, Soffiyah Elijah,
and Marc Lamont Hill
Recalling in now its 41st year the Attica prison massacre of courageous prisoners who rose up against dehumanizing conditions, thousands came together to follow their lead and resist the burgeoning system of caging human beings.  Insisting that solitary confinement cease, that Attica be closed, and that the pipeline from community to prison be turned off, and rallying against what has now become referred to as the “New Jim Crow” the crowd reached a crescendo after Mumia Abu-Jamal, political prisoner, author, journalist and social critic, reached by phone spoke to them delivering a message that left everyone present with a sense of hope, good feeling and determination, to tear down the walls and shutter the prison-industrial system.

This extraordinary event was sponsored by the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal; The Riverside Church Mission and Social Justice; the Riverside Church Prison Ministry; the Correctional Association of New York; the New York State Justice Network and the Campaign to End the New Jim Crow.

 

http://archive.org/stream/EndMassIncarcerationWithMumiaAbu-jamalAngelaDavisSoffiyahElijahAnd

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