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

100 Year Battle to Integrate N.Y.C.'s Fire Dept - 27:16  

The Long and Victorious Fight to Integrate the N.Y.C. Fire Department
with Ginger Adams Otis , Staff Writer for the N.Y. Daily News  and author of Firefight: The Century-Long Battle to Integrate New York's Bravest


In 1919, when Wesley Williams became a NYC firefighter, he stepped into a world that was 100% white and predominantly Irish. Nearly a century later, many things in the FDNY had changed--but not the scarcity of blacks. N.Y.C. had about 300 black firefighters--roughly 3 percent of the 11,000 firefighters in a city of 2 million African Americans.. Decades earlier, women and Blacks had sued over its hiring practices and won. But the FDNY never took permanent steps to eradicate the inequities, which led to a courtroom show-down between N.Y.C.'s billionaire Mayor, Mike Bloomberg, and a determined group of black activist firefighters members of the Vulcan Society. They also faced an insular culture made up of relatives who never saw their own inclusion as favoritism. It was not until 2014 that the city settled the $98 million lawsuit. At the center of this book are stories of courage--about firefighters risking their lives in the line of duty but also risking their livelihood by battling an unjust system. Among them: FDNY Capt. Paul Washington, a second generation black firefighter, who spent his multi-decade career fighting to get equality on the job.

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Puerto Rico’s Debt Crisis: Who’s To Blame And What Can Be Done? - 27:59  

Puerto Rico’s Debt Crisis: Who’s To Blame And What Can Be Done?
with
. David Galarza, co-founder of SiemPReste, an organization committed
to working in the diaspora around the political/civil/economic crisis of Puerto Rico
. Michael Kink, Exec. Dir., Strong Economy for All Coalition
and Member Hedge Clippers


Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States with 3.5 million U.S. citizen residents who do not have the right to vote for President or representation in Congress-is making headlines these days because of its inability to pay a $72 billion debt owed to holders of its devalued bonds.  While there have been comparisons between Greece and Puerto Rico the reality is that they are totally distinct situations. Greece has sovereignty, Puerto Rico does not. Puerto Rico is unable to declare bankruptcy, cannot devalue its currency and cannot go to international financial institutions under
the present colonial system. In fact one of the solutions offered in the United States to solve the chaotic economic crisis is to place the entire island in receivership. In other words to go back to an even more rigid colonial system so that the bonds market can protect their investment. Building Bridges discusses how Washington helped create Puerto Rico’s staggering debt crisis and its effect on millions of what are effectively second-class U.S. citizens and what is to be done! 


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Mexican Farm Workers’ Struggle in Historical Strike in Baja California - 26:27  

Mexican Farm Workers’ Struggle in Historic Strike
with

. Al Rojas, a Founding Member of the United Farm Workers; current Pres. , Sacramento Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (AFL-CIO)
. Eduardo Rosario, Executive Board Member, NYC Chapter, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement
 


Mexican farm workers in the San Quintin Valley of the state of Baja California are calling for international action to support their demands for decent wages and an end to labor abuses by international produce companies that operate throughout Mexico primarily for export to the US under the label of Driscoll’s. More than 33,000 farm workers declared a historic strike in late March which stopped work at peak harvest and have continued their protests ever since waging intermittent strikes and road blocks and mass mobilizations which have extended to workers in Washington State.  They compare their working conditions to those that existed during the colonial period with workdays of more than 15 hours . The San Quintin Valley is a major producer of fruits and vegetables that are exported primarily to the United States. The workers here pick as many as 160 kilos a day that sell for more than $2,000, while the workers make on average US$7 a day. The workers are demanding a base salary of at least $13 for every 8-hour workday as well as recognition by companies and union officials. 

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A Labor History Of Queer America; NYC Council's ‘Ban The Box’ Bill -28:08  

Out In The Union: A Labor History Of Queer America
with
Mariam Frank, author


Against the backdrop of the historic ruling of the Supreme Court that gay marriage is legal in all the states of this union and in furtherance of addressing the numerous other inequities faced by LGBTQ and gender nonconforming people Miriam Frank, Prof. of Humanities at New York University and author of Out In The Union: A Labor History of Queer America, based upon 20 years of original research brings us the stories spanning half a century of U.S. labor history and the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender unionists.  She expands our horizons both in
exposing the complex challenges queer workers face in ‘coming out’ on the job and inside their unions and gives greater dimension to and continues to fill out the profile of queer life and the activism of the working class.
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NYC Council Passes ‘Ban The Box’ Bill
Restricting Use Of Criminal Records In Hiring
with
Brandon Holmes, Community Civil Rights Organizer, VOCAL-New York, a grassroots advocacy group


Carl Stubbs, 63, stood outside New York City Council chambers in anticipation of the council’s vote on the Fair Chance Act — a bill that would delay when many of the city’s private sector employers can ask job applicants about their criminal history.  He said, “I feel [that] being Black, having a felony, you don’t get hired”. “I have had a felony for over 30 years.”  Stubbs, who’s also an activist with
the group Voices of Community Activists Leaders (VOCAL-NY), wanted the bill to pass because it could improve his chances getting a job.  Now, the Bill arrives on the desk of the Mayor June 29th and we’ll find out if he signs it into law, precisely what it purports to do and just how beneficial it could prove to be for the employment opportunities of the formerly incarcerated, who have carried that
scarlet letter around with them and suffered the Jim Crow consequences into the jobs market. 


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