Unraveling the Unemployment Insurance Lifeline
with
George Wentworth, Staff Attorney, National Employment Law Project


At a time when U.S. corporations are stockpiling cash, it’s outrageous
that state lawmakers have the audacity to make jobless workers pay
for decades of irresponsible business tax breaks that ultimately
undermined state unemployment insurance finances. But, corporate
lobbyists have ushered through legislative measures, behind closed
doors and with no public debate, of cuts to state unemployment
insurance programs when more people are out of work for longer
than any other period in generations. We have better wakeup and
smell the coffee, realize the consequences of what will be drastic
measures before our unemployment benefits are no longer there
when we need them.
**************
Plus

Occupy Wall Street Protesters including Pulitzer Prize winning
author Christopher Hedges arrested at Goldman Sachs headquarters
in NYC as they chant “Crooks & Thieves, Protected By Police!
The Criminals Are Inside"

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Occupy Wall Street Wins, Then Celebrates with Citywide Protests

Following a huge and rapid public outcry that included hundreds of
thousands of online petition signatures and phone calls to New York
City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office, a threatened clean-up/eviction
of Occupy Wall Street's home base at LIberty Square was postponed
just before the 7 AM deadline on Friday, October 14 as thousands of
99%ers massed at Liberty Square to defend Occupy Wall Street.

The next day saw a sea of protests starting at Liberty Square when
thousands marched around Wall Street targeting Chase Bank which
leads all others in predatory foreclosure evictions. It moved to college
protests at Washington Square Park featuring numerous issues including
health care. Tens of thousands of protesters then converged on
Times Square culminating a day in solidarity with protesters around
the country and the world in a new mass movement which is now
just one month old.

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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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Conyers on Jobs:
"We've Had It." Lays Out Obama, Calls for Protest at White House
With
Representative John Conyers, Founding Member and
Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus

Michigan’s U.S. Representative John Conyers brings us back to
fundamentals, The real crisis in this country is that of unemployment,
the recession &cutbacks. It’s time to explode the myth that budget
deficits are the imminent danger that pervades the rhetoric of Washington
from Obama to the Tea Partyers. The cure is to educate and pressure
them by mobilizations and demonstrations to do the right thing.
***********
The American Dream is Dying
With
Heather McGhee,Director of Demos' Washington office.

Amongst her many writings, McGhee is the co-author of a chapter on
retirement insecurity in the book "Inequality Matters: The Growing
Economic Divide in America and its Poisonous Consequences" .
Heather McGhee speaks to youth, at a national teach-in, with alarm
that they face potentially less opportunity and greater wealth deprivation
than their parents and the imperative for them to organize, organize,
organize for their interests.

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Unemployment, Poverty and the “Great” Recession
with
Avis Jones-DeWeever, Exec. Dir., National Council of Negro Women,
Marc Morial President & CEO of the National Urban League, and
former Mayor of New Orleans,
Dean Baker, Co-director, Center for Economic and Policy Research

Signs of economic recovery, well, maybe for Wall Street, and the banksters,
but what about our street? Where’s the beef, where’s the jobs? The United
States is still experiencing its worst jobs crisis since the Great Depression.
Officially in of May 2011 the unemployment rate increased to 9.1%. In 2009
there were 43.6 million people living in poverty, the largest figure in the 51
years for which poverty estimates are available, and the numbers have been
climbing. This national crisis demands a bold plan to put people back to work
and to prevent those wielding the ax from chopping more jobs and cutting
further holes in the safety net and jeopardizing entitlement programs.

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The State of the Union
Deficit Reduction and Common Sense:
Invest in the Economy, Reduce the Military Budget & Tax the Rich
with
Joseph Stiglitz, University Professor Columbia University,
Recipient Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics

The ink was hardly dry on the massive compromise federal tax bill
when Republican leaders restarted their call for spending cuts in
the new Congress to close the deficit. But Nobel Prize winning
economist Joseph Stiglitz sets the record straight in his speech
before the Roosevelt Institute. He says that the main cause of the
deficits is the recession which premature deficit reduction would
cause to deteriorate further. He also offers us a way to rebuild our
economy which would also fight the increasing mal-distribution of
wealth in this country by taxing the rich, reducing the military
budget and investing in our cities, our infrastructure and new
technologies to increase our productive capacities to increase
economic growth.

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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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Prostrated At the Altar of the Balanced Budget: Sacrificing Social Security, Medicare, and Economic Recovery
with
James Galbraith, Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr. Chair in Gov't/ Business Relations, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin

The Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction Commission established by the president, will deliver an attack on Social Security and Medicare dressed up in the sanctimonious rhetoric of deficit reduction. The Obama spending freeze is another sacrifice to the deficit gods. But, the deficit phobia of Wall Street, the press, some economists and practically all politicians is one of the deepest dangers that we face. It's not just the old and the sick who are threatened; we all are. To cut federal budget deficits without first rebuilding the economy is a sure path to stagnation, to a double-dip recession--even to a second Great Depression.
***********************
It's Time to Play "Social Security Survivor"
with
Gerald W. McEntee, Pres., American Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees

A broad coalition of groups has been formed to defend Social Security. Of all the ideas proposed this one comes from AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee: A new reality show starring the people who want to cut Social Security. He suggests having John Boehner, billionaire
benefit-cut advocate Peter G. Peterson, and Deficit Commission chairs Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles live for a year on the average Social Security benefit of $14,000.

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NYC Times Square Demonstration – US Out of Afghanistan

Jobs for All and A Green Economy by Cutting Military Spending and Taxing Securities Transactions
with
Robert Pollin, Professor of Economics and Co-Director, Political Economy Research Institute, Univ. of Mass., Amherst

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NYC Times Square Demonstration – US Out of Afghanistan

The day after President Obama announced the escalation of troops
to Afghanistan by 30,000, Demonstrations across the country
protested Obama’s War. We go the Times Square demonstration
in NYC protesting the War’s devastation as well as the resources
which could better be spent here fighting poverty and putting people
to work in this deep recession.
*************
Jobs for All and A Green Economy by Cutting Military Spending and Taxing Securities Transactions
with
Robert Pollin, Professor of Economics and Co-Director, Political Economy Research Institute, Univ. of Mass., Amherst

While the stock market is recovering, the official national unemployment rate is still in the double digits and the real rate, which includes underemployment and discouraged workers, is at 17 percent! Pollin argues that this jobs crisis should be addressed by a jobs program which includes shrinking the military and fossil fuel based economy and shifting resources to programs that create more jobs for the money we spend which are also in areas we need such as health, education, social services and green jobs. This jobs program would be paid for by savings from a reduced military budget and a national stock and securities transfer tax.

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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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Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report
National Edition
********************************************
Is the Economy Stupid?
with
Prof William Spriggs, Chair, Economics Department,
Howard University

"Sisters in the Brotherhoods: Working Women Organizing for Equality in N.Y."
with
author Jane LaTour

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Is the Economy Stupid?
with
Prof William Spriggs, Chair, Economics Department,
Howard University

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Indy Mac, Bear Streans, Lehman Brothers, AIG...
We've been treated to the failure of more
major financial firms that in any year since the Depression.
What's the fallout for us, what is to be done and what is the
role of government now that the markets have failed?*********************************************************
"Sisters in the Brotherhoods: Working Women Organizing for Equality in N.Y."
with
author Jane LaTour

"Sisters in the Brotherhoods profiles the indomitable women who fought their way into some of the best-defended male monopolies in the U.S. labor force: the skilled trades of N.Y.C. . Jane Latour's engaging oral histories reveal the diverse routes women traveled to claim these jobs, the alliances that sustained them, & the strategies they developed to master their crafts in the face of employer hostility, co-worker harassment, union corruption, and a government that all but abandoned them.
**********************************************************
for more information contact Ken Nash - knash@igc.org

Building Bridges is regularly broadcast live over WBAI, 99.5 FM in the N.Y.C
Metropolitan area on Mondays from 7-8pm EST and is streamed, archived
and pod cast at http://www.wbai.org/

Building Bridges National Edition is regularly broadcast over: WGOT - Gainesville, Florida.
WUOW - Oneonta, N.Y.
WWUH, - West Hartford, CT
WVJW- Benwood, WV
KRFP, Moscow, ID
KCSB, Santa Barbara, CA
WXOJ, Northampton, MA
KSOW,Cottage Grove, Oregon
WKNH ,Keene, NH
CKDU, Halifax, N.S., Canada
KRFC, Fort Collins, Colorado
WRPI, Troy, New York
WNRB, Wausau, WI
KRBS, Oroville, CA
WHLD, Buffalo, NY
Radio Free Olympia,Olympia,WA
KQRP Salida, California
East Hill Radio, Snoqualmie, WA
KGHZ, Aberdeen/Hoquiam and Olympia, WA.
KSKQ, Ashland, Oregon

as well as internet stations:
Radio Veronica,West Point, PA
The Journey Radio
WXXE
Seattle Radical Radio
Radio for Peace International
Radio Labourstart
AmericanFM.org
RadioDriftless.org
Grateful Dread Public Radio
=========================================
For archived Building Bridges National Programs go to http://www.archive.org/details/building_bridges
For archived Building Bridges program go to our new website: http://www.buildingbridgesradio.org/

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Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report
National Edition
********************************************
McCainonomics vs. Obamanomics
with
Dean Baker, Co-Director of the Center for Economic
Policy and Research

*Less Jobs. More Wars: What is this 'Iraq war'
charge on my bill?
*Why Won't McCain Sign the GI Bill? Presenting
the most blatant hypocrisy of the McCain campaign*
Plus John McCain Singing his hit tune "Bomb Iran"

by Robert Greenwald and Brave New PAC team

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McCainonomics vs. Obamanomics
with
Dean Baker, Co-Director of the Center for Economic
Policy and Research

For over a generation, in so called good times and bad,
incomes of all but the rich have fallen while poverty has
increased in the Bush years, and, that was before the
economic crisis that began last year. Barak Obama is
addressing these issues, but is his plan enough? While
McCain hardly recognizes that it’s still the economy,
stupid.
**********************************************************
Less Jobs. More Wars: What is this 'Iraq war'
charge on my bill?
*Why Won't McCain Sign the GI Bill? Presenting
the most blatant hypocrisy of the McCain campaign
*Plus John McCain Singing his hit tune "Bomb Iran"

byRobert Greenwald and Brave New PAC team
**********************************************************
for more information contact Ken Nash - knash@igc.org

Building Bridges is regularly broadcast live over WBAI, 99.5 FM in the N.Y.C Metropolitan area on Mondays from 7-8pm EST and is streamed, archived and pod cast at http://www.wbai.org/

Building Bridges National Edition is regularly broadcast over: WGOT - Gainesville, Florida.WUOW - Oneonta, N.Y.WWUH, - West Hartford, CTWVJW- Benwood, WV KRFP, Moscow, ID KCSB, Santa Barbara, CA WXOJ, Northampton, MAKSOW,Cottage Grove, Oregon WKNH ,Keene, NHCKDU, Halifax, N.S., Canada KRFC, Fort Collins, Colorado WRPI, Troy, New York WNRB, Wausau, WI KRBS, Oroville, CA WHLD, Buffalo, NY Radio Free Olympia,Olympia,WAKQRP Salida, California East Hill Radio, Snoqualmie, WAKGHZ, Aberdeen/Hoquiam and Olympia, WA.KSKQ, Ashland, Oregonas well as internet stations: Radio Veronica,West Point, PAThe Journey Radio WXXESeattle Radical Radio Radio for Peace International Radio Labourstart AmericanFM.orgRadioDriftless.orgGrateful Dread Public Radio=========================================
For archived Building Bridges National Programs go to http://www.archive.org/details/building_bridges
For archived Building Bridges program go to our new website:http://www.buildingbridgesradio.blogspot.com/

Read More...