America's 4-D Economy:
From Deficit Deals to Double Dip Recession
with
Jack Rasmus, author of "Epic Recesssion: Prelude to Global Depression"

First, we were frightened by politicians proclaiming that the
economic ceiling will fall in if the deficit wasn’t cut by trillions.
Then the politicians insisted that in order to raise the debt ceiling
we needed to endure, guess what cuts, cuts, cuts. But, the U.S.
manufacturing sector has collapsed, the public sector is
hemorrhaging jobs, and consumer spending is plunging, and
the jobs that were jobs created, may have kept the recent
unemployment figures from shooting up, but they were hardly
enough to keep pace with those about to enter the workforce and
certainly don’t effect those living on extended unemployment
benefits, those who simply can’t find work, and those who are
underemployed and really can’t support their families. The real
economy is accelerating its slide toward a double dip recession
and the deficit reduction deal approved by Congress will make it
harder to fight the coming re-recession. We’ll discuss why and
what really needs to be done to stimulate the economy.
*************************
Recesssion and Militarism
with
Vijay Prashad, George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut

At a recent lecture at NYC’s Riverside Church, Prashad explored
the boom and bust of the capitalist cycle. Even in boom years
people do not have enough to spend so the economy declines.
But if the people are not strong, even then capitalism resists
spending for social services, preferring to stimulate the economy
with spending on domestic repression and war. Prashad places
this in the context of globalization.

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One Nation Working Together
With.
. Arlene Holt Baker, Executive Vice President, AFL-CIO
. George Gresham, President of 1199SEIU

This October 2nd, triggered by the AFL-CIO, SEIU Local 1199 and the NAACP, now joined by hundreds of organizations we’re headed, to a mass demonstration in Washington D.C. to demand the jobs to put people to work, and back to work. Jobs, economic security, comprehensive immigration reform, safe and renewable energy policy and a reversal of national priorities from making wars to meeting human needs - that’s the message! We’re going to march to demand the change we voted for when Barack Obama was elected. That’s right - create jobs and stop moving money out of education and into wars and prisons. Plus sound from Wall Street Jobs Rally.

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The State of Working America
with
. Avis Jones-DeWeever, Director of Research & Public Policy,
National Council of Negro Women
. Juan Cartagena, General Counsel & Vice Pres. of Advocacy,
Community Service Society,
. Robert Pollin, Co- Dir., Political Economy Research Institute
& economics professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

The United States is experiencing its worst jobs crisis since the
Great Depression. Nearly 16 million Americans, our family, friends,
and neighbors are out of work. This national crisis demands a bold
plan to put people back to work. We must understand why there’s
a jobs crisis, and create a plan that would create millions of jobs
each year, every year. We do the analysis of the jobs crisis and
discuss what must be done to put America back to work.

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Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands
Made High Art Out of Desperate Timeswith
author Susan Quinn

President Roosevelt on Unemployment and the
Works Progress Administration (WPA)

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Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands
Made High Art Out of Desperate Times
with
author Susan Quinn

A vivid portrait of the turbulent 1930s and the Roosevelt administration
as seen through the WPA’s Federal Theater Project which managed to
turn a WPA unemployment program into a platform for some of the most
cutting-edge theater of its time. It electrified audiences with exciting,
controversial productions, created by some of the greatest figures in
20th century American arts—including Orson Welles, John Houseman
and Sinclair Lewis. Plays like Voodoo Macbeth and The Cradle Will
Rock stirred up politicians by defying segregation and putting the
spotlight on the inequities that led to the Great Depression.
**************
President Roosevelt on Unemployment and the
Works Progress Administration (WPA)

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1935 fireside chat broadcast to
a national radio audience on unemployment, public job creation through
the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and the pending Social
Security Act.

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For Wall Street It’s Paradise, But For Main Street It’s Hell:
A Conversation With Rev. Jesse Jackson On Rebuilding Our Street
With
Rev. Jesse Jackson, Founder & Pres. RainbowPUSH Coalition

The Rev. Jackson spoke with us about the “jobless recovery” and continuing foreclosure crisis, amidst what some claim is an economic recovery. Jackson will talk about his call for the bailed out banks to reinvest in America and for establishing a national infrastructure bank, providing guarantees for pension funds, to put people to work and invest in education. He’ll highlight the theme for this year’s summit Rainbow Push Economic Summit “Targeted Stimulus: a Call for Equity and Parity" and focus on strategies to directly invest in job creation, minority businesses and underserved communities. According to Jackson, “We have to get the stimulus down to the people.”

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Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report
National Edition
******************************
Domestic Workers Hit Hard By Recession
with
Ai- Jen Poo, Domestic Workers United

Will Obama’s Stimulus Plan Provide Jobs and a
Breath Life Into The Economy? with
Arun Gupta, Editor, the Indypendent
and
William Tabb, Prof. Emeritus of Economics, Queens College & of
Political Science & Sociology, Gradate Center, City University of NY

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Domestic Workers Hit Hard By Recession
with
Ai- Jen Poo, Domestic Workers United

DMU represents over 200,000 nannies, housekeepers, and elderly care-
givers in NYC. Now, however, their organization is hemorrhaging members
as the growing joblessness of their employers trickles down to the number
of hires of these caregivers. Aside, from growing unemployment amongst
their members,the spike in joblessness for those remaining on the job has
fostered competition resulting in wage cuts, increased workload, and
worsening conditions on the job. Under these conditions, & excluded from
the protections of most labor law, DWU’s efforts to secure a NYS Domestic
Workers Bill of Rights is even more pressing.
****************************************
Will Obama’s Stimulus Plan Provide Jobs and a
Breath Life Into The Economy?
with
Arun Gupta, Editor, the Indypendent and
William Tabb, Prof. Emeritus of Economics, Queens College & of
Political Science & Sociology, Gradate Center, City University of NY

While the meat has yet to be put on the skeletal frame of President-Elect
Obama’s proposed stimulus package, he has revealed enough to cause
alarm for present and future beneficiaries of Medicare and Social Security
and serious questions as to whether it will create “shovel ready” jobs and
whether its tax cuts can jump-start the sputtering economy.

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WBAI Radio's Building Bridges: Your Community & Labor Report
Produced & Hosted by Mimi Rosenberg & Ken Nash
Monday, January 12, 2009, 7 - 8 p.m. EST, over 99.5 FM ****************************************
Israel's Hands Are Stained Red With Gazan Blood:
Insights Into The Middle East
with
Former Ambassador Edward Peck

Domestic Workers Hit Hard By Recession
with
Ai- Jen Poo, Domestic Workers United

Will Obama's Stimulus Plan Provide Jobs and a
Breath Life Into The Economy?
with
Arun Gupta, editor of the Indypendent
and
William Tabb, Prof. Emeritus of Economics, Queens College & of
Political Science & Sociology, Gradate Center, City University of NY

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Israel's Hands Are Stained Red With Gazan Blood:
Insights Into The Middle East
with
Former Ambassador Edward Peck, Special Asst. to the Under
Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Nixon Administration, Chief
of Mission in Baghdad, Carter Administration. Also served as a
Foreign Service Officer in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia & Egypt, &
as Ambassador in Mauritania. At the State Department he served
as Deputy Director of Covert Intelligence Programs & Director of
the Office of Egyptian Affairs. Deputy Director, White House Task
Force on Terrorism, Reagan Administration. Pres., Foreign
Services International, a consulting firm that works with
governments, businesses & educational institutions across the
world.

Ambassador Peck, recently returned from a trip to the Mideast organized
by the Council for the National Interest, discusses the media blockade that
prevents balanced information on Gaza and the West Bank reaching the
U.S. public, Israel's imprisoned of dozens of democratically elected
Hamas parliamentarians and analysis of Israel's bombardment and full
scale grand invasion of Gaza.
****************************************
Domestic Workers Hit Hard By Recession
with
Ai- Jen Poo, Domestic Workers United

DMU represents over 200,000 nannies, housekeepers, and elderly care-
givers in NYC. Now, however, their organization is hemorrhaging members
as the growing joblessness of their employers trickles down to the number
of hires of these caregivers. Aside, from growing unemployment amongst
their members,the spike in joblessness for those remaining on the job has
fostered competition resulting in wage cuts, increased workload, and
worsening conditions on the job. Under these conditions, & excluded from
the protections of most labor law, DMU's efforts to secure a NYS Domestic
Workers Bill of Rights is even more pressing.
****************************************
Will Obama's Stimulus Plan Provide Jobs and a
Breath Life Into The Economy?
with
Arun Gupta, editor of the Indypendent
and
William Tabb, Prof. Emeritus of Economics, Queens College & of
Political Science & Sociology, Gradate Center, City University of NY

While the meat has yet to be put on the skeletal frame of President-Elect
Obama's proposed stimulus package, he has revealed enough to cause
alarm for present and future beneficiaries of Medicaid and Social Security
and serious questions as to whether it will create "shovel ready" jobs and
whether its tax cuts can jump-start the sputtering economy.

Read More...

WBAI Radio's Building Bridges: Your Community & Labor Report
Monday, January 5, 2009, 7 - 8 p.m. EST, over 99.5 FM ****************************************
A Tri-State Protest: Stop Israel's Assault On Gaza

Baristas Beat Starbucks with Isis Saenz,victorious barista,member, Starbucks Workers Union, IWW andDaniel Gross, barista, Starbucks Workers Union, IWW & co-author with Staughton Lynd of the new edition of "Labor Law for the Rank & Filer"

Battling the Economic MonsterwithStanley Aronowitz, Prof. of sociology, cultural studies, and urban education at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is also a veteran political activist, cultural critic and champion of organized labor

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A Tri-State Protest: Stop Israel's Assault On Gaza

Gaza is under attack by one of the most deadly military machines on the
planet – the Israeli military, and, silence in the face of such suffering is
unsupportable for anyone devoted to peace and social justice. The U.S.
government supplied Israel with the military means to carry out this attack
and has generously underwritten the Israeli government and military with
tens of billions of U.S. tax dollars. Building Bridges brings you the voices
of those piercing the silence and raising their support for a Free, Free
Palestine at a rally in Times Square which was several blocks long.
We must form a chorus demanding an end to the siege of Gaza and a
fundamental reorientation of our foreign policy. The Time Is Now!.
Free, Free Palestine!
*********
Baristas Beat Starbucks
with
Isis Saenz,victorious barista,member, Starbucks Workers Union, IWW
and
Daniel Gross, barista, Starbucks Workers Union, IWW & co-author with
Staughton Lynd of the new edition of "Labor Law for the Rank & Filer"

Starbucks calls its employees partners, but when they tried to unionize it was
so long partner. But, the baristas took legal action against the company that
masquerades as socially conscious and now a judge has ordered that the
baristas be reinstated and receive back wages. The judge also called on
Starbucks to end discriminatory treatment of other pro-union workers at four
Manhattan locations named in the case. The decision marks the end of an
18-month trial in New York City that pitted the ubiquitous multinational corp.
against a group of twenty something baristas who are part of the Industrial
Workers of the World.
**********
Battling the Economic Monster
with
Stanley Aronowitz, Prof. of sociology, cultural studies, and urban
education at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is also a veteran political
activist, cultural critic and champion of organized labor

The main news these days is the global economic crisis, an event ascribed
by economists and most pundits to a 'financial' meltdown caused by the
irresponsibility of mainly, but not exclusively, US lending institutions and
consumers in offering-and accepting-'sub-prime' mortgages. But, Prof.
Stanley Aronowitz instructs that the crisis is buried deep within the structure
of capitalism and that there is little or no prospect that, within the current
framework of neo-liberal, market capitalism, that the deepening economic
crisis can be significantly reversed and a stimulus package bring prosperity.
But, Prof. Aronowitz opens a dialogue on how the left can wrestle the
economic monster until it cries uncle.

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WBAI Radio's Building Bridges: Your Community & Labor Report
Monday, November 17, 2008, 7 – 8 PM EST, over 99.5 FM
58:50
****************************************
Anti-Immigrant Hate In Suffolk Responsible for Stabbing Death of Ecuadorian
Laborer Marcelo Lucero
with
Rev. Allan Ramirez, Pastor, Brookville Reformed Church, & noted immigrant advocate

How To End The Recession
with
Robert Pollin, Economics Professor, & founding Co-Director of
the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Mass.
Co-author of Green Recovery: A Program to Create Good Jobs &
Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy

Fighting Governor Paterson's Budget Cuts
with
Nancy Wackstein, Exec. Director, United Neighborhood Houses
Judy Wessler, Director, Commission on the Public's Health System
Billy Easton, Executive Director, Alliance for Quality Education

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Anti-Immigrant Hate In Suffolk Responsible for Stabbing Death of Ecuadorian Laborer Marcelo Lucero
with
Rev. Allan Ramirez, Pastor, Brookville Reformed Church, & noted immigrant advocate

Jeffrey Conroy, and 6 other teens declared that they were going to "attack
a Mexican" and headed to the village of Patchogue to hunt, according to
their friends and the authorities. They found Marcelo Lucero, a 37-year-old
immigrant from a poor village in Ecuador who had lived in the U.S. for
16 years, worked in a dry cleaning store, sending savings home to support
his mother, a cancer survivor. After the boys surrounded, taunted and
punched Mr. Lucero, the authorities say, Mr. Conroy plunged a knife into
his victim's chest, fatally wounding him. While County Executive Steve
Levy, himself distinguished for anti-immigrant legislation, would like to
isolate the attack to what he is now calling "white supremacists" others
believe the attack is a reflection of widespread anti-Latino sentiment and
racial intolerance in Suffolk County.
*******
How To End The Recession
with
Robert Pollin, Economics Professor, & founding Co-Director of
the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Mass.
Co-author of Green Recovery: A Program to Create Good Jobs &
Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy

The recession is certainly here, so the question is how to diminish its
length and severity. A large-scale federal stimulus program is the only
action that can possibly do the job. The economy needs a shot of public
investment – and if it's green, the payoff will be greatest. What does a
green stimulus look like; should there be an auto industry bailout and what
happened at the world economic summit?

*******
Fighting Governor Paterson's Budget Cuts
with
Nancy Wackstein, Exec. Director, United Neighborhood Houses
Judy Wessler, Director, Commission on the Public's Health System
Billy Easton, Executive Director, Alliance for Quality Education

NYS Governor Paterson has proposed that the State Legislature cut $2B
from the State Budget this year and $3.2 B the next by slashing health care,
education and social service funding. Now hundreds of unions & community
groups have banded together in new coalitions 1 NY and Better Choice
Budget Coalition to demonstrate in Albany this Tuesday to demand that
we stop the cuts by raising taxes on higher income people as we did
successfully in the 2003 recession.

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