Fixing A Broken Immigration System: Latino Immigrants Rights Leadership Respond To Obama
with
Oscar Chacon, Executive Director, National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities (NALACC)
and
Benita Jain, Co-Director, Immigrant Defense Project, New York Univ.

Following the major speech by President Obama on immigration, and in the wake of rising xenophobic and racist attacks against the immigrant populations, immigrant rights advocates critique what is at the core of our current policy - that today’s immigrants pose a threat to the nation, and discuss what a new U.S. immigration law that is humane, fair & visionary should look like.
****************************
Mott’s Applesauce Management Is Rotten To The Core
with
Mike LeBerth, President, Local 220 RWDSU
and
Fred Acevedo, Mott's Worker, Member Local 220

More than 300 workers were forced to strike after being treated like a bunch of rotten apples by overpaid executives like CEO Larry Young who made $6.5 million last year in total compensation. The workers’ contract at the Williamson, N.Y. plant owned by Dr. Pepper Snapple expired April 16 and the company demanded a $1.50 per hour wage cut for all workers, a pension freeze for current employees and elimination of a pension for future employees, decreased employer contributions to the company’s 401(k) retirement plan and increased employee contributions toward health care premiums and co-pays.

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Que Viva Puerto Rico Libre!
with
Dylcia Pagan, former Puerto Rican political prisoner, who spent nearly 20 years in prison for her involvement in the Puerto Rican Independence Movement
and
Jan Susler, attorney, distinguished for her work with the Puerto Rican Independence Movement, having represented Puerto Rican political prisoners for over two decades. Served as lead counsel in the efforts culminating in the 1999 presidential commutation of the sentences of 16 Puerto Rican nationalist prisoners

Puerto Rico has endured over 100 years of colonialism by the US. Today it is still a colony that continues vehemently to ask for its basic democratic right of self-determination. Susler discusses the recent hearings on the status of Puerto Rico at the UN Decolonization Committee Hearings on Puerto Rico and Pagan evaluates the status of the Independence Movement and events on the Island now especiallyhighlighing Governor Fortuño's reneging on the deal made with student protesters at the University of Puerto Rico.

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A Mavi Marmara Survivor - The Next Steps Toward Victory
with
Rev. Herbert Daughtry, Pastor House of the Lord Pentecostal Church
and
Kevin Ovenden, a representative from Viva Palestina

When Israeli naval commandos stormed a Turkish ship loaded with humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza. They murdered 9 unarmed passengers. The oldest, Ibrahim Bilgen, was 61. the youngest, Furkan Dogan, a U.S. citizen born in Troy , N.Y., was just 19. Kevin Ovenden, international organizer working to break the blockade of Gaza was an eyewitness to this horror and spoke at a packed meeting in Brooklyn’s historic House of the Lord Pentecostal Church, pastured by the Rev. Herbert Daughtry. He spoke not only about the horror he witnessed butabout the next strategic steps forward to ending the blockade and freeing Palestine.

On June 14, City Council speaker Christine Quinn, Reps. Jerry Nadler, Anthony Weiner, Carolyn Mahoney, Charles Rangel & Manhattan BoroughPresident Scott Stringer gathered in Times Square at the behest of the "Jewish Community Relations Council." They shamelessly demanded that the State Department investigate Kevin Ovenden and the other invited speakers for "ties to terrorism." As a result, another witness to the atrocity a former Turkish parliament member and human rights activist Ahmet Faruk Unsal, was not allowed to board a plane from Turkey to join the event at the House of the Lord Church. This was a clear attempt to not only deny the passengers' right to speak but to deny the people of the United States theright to hear their words.

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Selections from Building Bridges Live Coverage
OF MASS RALLY OF NYC PUBLIC WORKERS
AGAINST THE CUTS!

With
. Michael Mulgrew, Pres., United Federation of Teachers
. Judy Wessler, Dir., Commission on the Public’s Health System
. John Samuelsen, Pres. , Transport Workers Union, Local 100
. Ed Ott, Distinguished Lecturer, Murphy Inst.of Workers Studies,
CUNY; former Executive Director, NYC Central Labor Council
. David Jones, Pres. & CEO of the Community Service Society

A coalition of municipal labor unions, turned out tens of thousands of
workers and community activits to protest job losses and service cuts
that will permanently alter the lives of NYC workers and residents.
Mayor Bloomberg is sharpening his carving knife and on the chopping
block are thousands of civil service jobs: educators, transit workers,
public health, social service workers, and library workers. The loss of
these jobs mean reduced transit services, education, healthcare, fire
services, and the myriad services provided by public sector workers.
And, as the city hemorrhages public sector jobs and services, it
aggressively advances the privatization of public sector jobs and the
services they provide. It’s an all out attack on public sector unions and
the workers, and benefits those unions fought for. So in the fight for its
life, public workers and their unions say hell no to pro-corporate
policies that serve the wealthy at the expense of the majority.

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Play 3-5 pm

Play 5-6pm

Above are links to the
WBAI (99.5FM) Live coverage of June 16 labor rally
against budget cutbacks at City Hall.
Hosted by Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg, co-hosts of
"Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report,"
regularly heard Mondays at 7pm.

You can also download sound by going to the WBAI archives
http://archive.wbai.org/allshows.php
for June 16 3-6 pm

A coalition of municipal labor unions, are fed up and can’t take it anymore –
they’re saying that job losses and service cuts will permanently alter the lives
of City workers and the city’s residents. The Mayor is sharpening his carving
knife and on the chopping block are thousands of civil service jobs, educators,
transit workers, public health and social service workers, and library workers.
The loss of these jobs mean we are all faced with reduced transit services,
education, healthcare, and fire services, and the myriad services provided
by public sector workers. And, at the same time the city hemorrhages public
sector jobs and services, it aggressively advances the privatization of public
sector jobs and the services and resources they provide. Hey, it’s an all out
attack on public sector unions and the workers, and benefits those unions
fought for. So in the fight for its life, public workers and their unions say hell
no to pro-corporate policies that serve the wealthy at the expense of the
majority of New Yorkers.

The broadcast included the voices from the demonstration including
speeches, special interviews, and analysis of recent budget decisions
of Mayor Bloomberg, the City Council, and Governor Paterson, and the
State Legislature in Albany.

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Domestic Workers Urge NYS Pass Fair Labor Standards In 2010
with
Barbara Young, Domestic Workers United, Ed Ott, labor activist, Hector Figueroa, Sec. Treasurer Local 32BJ, George Gresham, 1199 SEIU Pres., Esther Cooper Jackson, civil rights activist, State Senator Diane Savino, N.Y. City Councilwoman Gale Brewer

Legendary Civil Rights-era activist Esther Cooper Jackson, distinguished labor activists alongside of cheering nannies, housekeepers, and elderly caregivers raised their voices in tribute to domestic workers and demanded basic benefits, such as paid leave, and notice, & protection from discrimination by passage of Senator Diane Savino’s andAssemblyman Keith Wright's Domestic Workers Bill of Rights which would make it the first, and hopefully not the last state to give justice to domestic workers.Recently both the NYS Senate and Assembly passed differing versions of the domestic workers bill of rights. The bill is in conference committee and then goes to Governor Patterson for his signature or veto.

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An Israeli In Palestine: Resisting Dispossession
with
Jeff Halper, Founder, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions

The actions of the brave band of activists from the Freedom flotilla
to break Israel’s blockade of gaza has resulted in worldwide
condemnation of the blockade and the suffering it has caused. But
what of the wider apartheid policies of the state of Israel towards
the Palestinian people both within Israel and in the occupied
territories? Drawing on his many years of directly challenging Israel’s
treatment of the Palestinians, Jeff Halper offers one of the most
insightful analyses of the occupation you’ll hear. Halper discusses
how Israel can not maintain its exclusive Jewish character without
imposing on the Palestinian population policies of ethnic cleansing,
occupation and discrimination, expressed most graphically in its
ongoing demolition of thousands of Palestinian homes, both inside
Israel and in the Occupied Territories. His voice cries out to be
heard as does the plight of the Palestinian people.

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Israel, Palestine and US
With
George Galloway, former British Parliament Member
and founder Viva Palestina

We present a wide ranging interview with George Galloway on the
key role of the U.S. maintaining Israeli apartheid policies towards the
Palestinians. Galloway talks about the recent challenges to the Israeli
blockade of Gaza, possible changes in U.S. public opinion and the
Obama Adminstration’s views on Israel and Palestine as well his
evolving views on a one state solution.

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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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TWU Local 100 – Keep America Moving - Fighting Layoffs
FeaturingJohn Samuelsen, President, TWU, Local 100
Rev. Jesse Jackson, President, Rainbow PUSH Coalition
Larry Hanley. ATU International Vice President

2500 Transit workers and supporters rallied at NYC’s Penn Station in an event timed to coincide with other actions taken around the nation to protest the insufficiency of federal funding for mass transit. The Rev. Jesse Jackson spoke as part of the Keep America Moving Coalition, an alliance of transit workers, advocates for workers and the poor, and environmentalists. For Local 100, the event was not only about Keep America Moving, but also about the immanent layoff of hundreds of Station Agents with threats of many more layoffs in other titles including bus drivers. Union members expressed their profound anger over the firings, which are seen as unnecessary because of the availability of $140 million in federal stimulus funds which could be used to cover operating expenses.
***********************************************
The Greek Meltdown
with
Prof. Costas Panayotakis, Professor of Sociology,NYC College of Technology, CUNY.

After weeks of massive, tumultuous worker protests over the austerity measures being forced on the Greece as part of the EU rescue package, the measures were approved by the Greek Parliament and the leaders of the European Union. The $146 billion three-year package would indirectly bail out the European banks that hold most of the Greek debt.by attempting to solve the crisis on the backs of ordinary Greeks. It raises taxes as well as imposes deep cuts in public sector wages and pensions in both public and private sectors. If it indeed works as intended, it will intensify the Greek recession, unemployment and poverty. This may exacerbate the very debt crisis it is supposed to solve

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Taking the Bull by the Horns: Labor Takes on Wall Street

Thousands of people marched on Wall Street April 29, in a major protest of financial sector greed and lending practices by big banks. Taking to the streets of downtown Manhattan, 10,000 labor and community groups shouted and jeered at the offices surrounding them, demanding three major changes to Wall Street culture. The first is to call off the lobbyists fighting regulatory reform. The second is to stop the incessant focus on market speculation over business lending. The third is to tax Wall Street to fund job creation The rally, was one of the largest in recent memory to take place at the epicenter of finance capital Wall Street.
*************************
The Socialist Bank of North Dakota with Dr Rozanne Everson Junker, political scientist

We’ve talked about a public option in health careBut what about for the banks?
Thanks to Michael Moore we have this case study.

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Thousands Gather For May Day, Immigrant Rights Rally In Arizona
with
Isabel Garcia, Director of the Pima County Legal Defenders and Co-chair of the Coalition de Derechos Humanos, Arizona
and
Leilani Clark, Youth Organizer, Coalition de Derechos Humanos

Immigrants rights organizers report on the tens of thousands of immigrant rights demonstrators who rallied on May Day in Arizona to protest the tough new immigration law 1070, and state and federal law enforcement harassment of Arizona’s immigrants, as they demand that stalled legislative reforms in Congress proceed.

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Will Obama Stop The Supreme Court’s Gallop To The Right
with
Theodore Shaw, former Director-Counsel and President of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where he litigated civil rights cases at the US Supreme Court, and former trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division, US Department of Justice

On the retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens we’ll look at the myth and reality of his legacy, possible nominees to replace him and the current and seemingly continuing drift to the right of the US Supreme Court and whether the Obama Administration is likely to or can move beyond appeasement of the center-right.

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Massey Energy Company Flaunts Power, Evades Regulation and Miners Die
with
. Tony Oppegard, Former General Counsel, Kentucky Dept. of Mine Safety
. Wes Addington, Mine Safety Project, Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center

PLUS
Mine Workers Pres. Roberts:
Massey’s Blankenship Should Be Jailed

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Massey Energy Company Flaunts Power, Evades Regulation and Miners Die
with
. Tony Oppegard, Former General Counsel, Kentucky Dept. of Mine Safety
. Wes Addington, Mine Safety Project, Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center

Owners of the Upper Branch Mine were warned over two years ago about a pattern of violations, which would have allowed far stricter federal oversight of the mine. But, while it continued to amass violations, the Mine Safety & Health Administration allowed Massey Energy Co.to avoid meaningful discipline, and the question as 29 miners die is what must be done to beef up mine-safety enforcement?

PLUS
Mine Workers Pres. Roberts:
Massey’s Blankenship Should Be Jailed

In a speech at the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO convention, Mine Workers
(UMWA) President Cecil Roberts says that Massey Energy Co.’s
continued inaction on safety violations at its Upper Big Branch Mine,
should send Massey CEO Donald Blankenship to jail.

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Don’t Mourn Organize:
The Loss of & Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
with
Dr. Clayborne Carson, African American professor of history at Stanford University, and Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research & Education Institute. Since 1985 he has directed the Martin Luther King Papers Project, a long-term project to edit and publish the papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.
and
Dr. Vincent G. Harding, African American historian and a scholar of religion and society. An activist as well, he is best known for his work with Dr. King (Harding drafted King's 1967 anti-Vietnam War speech) and his writings about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

April 14, 1967 Dr. King delivered a troubled speech, The Other America, made against the background of urban rebellions, pleas for black power, and the Vietnam War. The speech was masterful, and riveting expounding on the threats of militarism, racism, and economic degradation and wealth disparity – the promise of American and the reality of its duality based on race and class. Dr. Clayborne Carson and Dr. Vincent Harding discuss Dr. King, the context for the Other America then and now.

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Hundreds of Thousands Continue The March For Immigrant Rights
with
Amy Sugimori, Executive Director La Fuente
and
Laura Vasquez, Legislative Analyst, Immigration Policy Project, La Raza

There are more than 11 million immigrants in the country, and efforts to fix the current immigration system have failed in recent years. Liberals have sought a path for citizenship for undocumented workers, while conservatives have been just as adamant in opposing what they have called plans for amnesty. Both the Democrats and the Republicans do support efforts to secure the border with Mexico, albeit with some tactical differentiation and degree of militarization. But, what is the agenda of the masses of protestors carrying banners as they massed in Washington recently to march for immigration reform, & what are the prospects for their achieving progressive legislation?

Plus
REV. JESSE JACKSON'S SPEECH AT THE MASSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM MARCH IN WASHINGTON D.C. ON MARCH 21, 2010

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AFL-CIO To Banks: Pay to Create Jobs You Destroyed in the “Great” Recession
with
Dan Pedrotty, Director, Office of Investments, AFL-CIO

The AFL-CIO is mounting a national campaign to put America back to
work and ensure that the banks, whose reckless acts created the jobs crisis,
pay to create the jobs they destroyed, stop fighting financial reform and start
lending. Saying that neither Congress nor the Obama administration has
proposed an adequate jobs bill, the AFL-CIO is calling for extending
supplemental unemployment benefits, $2.2 trillion for unmet infrastructure
needs, & helping state & local governments overcome an estimated $588
billion shortfall over the next 4 years. The program would be paid for by
imposing fees on Wall Street banks to pay back the cost of the bank bailout,
a special levy on Wall Street bonuses, increased taxes on hedge fund &
private equity managers, & a financial transactions tax.

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On Breaking the Blockade Against Gaza: Viva Palestina
with
George Galloway, long-term member of the British Parliament,
and outspoken and well-recognized defender of human rights
and supporter of Palestine

Following the massacre in Gaza that began in December 2008,
Galloway called to action the world community to organize
convoys to distribute medical aid, to highlight the inhumanity
of the continued siege of this devastated area, and amplify the
shift in public policy and growing solidarity of people around the
world towards greater support of the Palestinian struggle. We
listen to Galloway, recently in Brooklyn as he speaks about the
blockade and prepares for his latest mission to send a flotilla of
boats to Gaza to break the blockade by sea.

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Domestic Workers Uniting

“Your Home, My Work

”NY Metro Labor Communications Assn. Award Winner in Broadcast Media and Communications Category

Building Bridges allows domestic workers to tell their stories - stories of their pains, their pride and their efforts to organize for labor rights. Since slavery, the domestic work force has been predominately women of color. With the abolition of slavery African-American women were still the predominate workers, as immigrant woman began to enter that workforce. Today, women of color, from around the world work as domestic workers. Everyday, 200, 000 domestic workers (nannies, elderly companions, housekeepers) in New York make it possible for their employers to go to work. Most are employed without a living wage, healthcare, and basic labor protections. Domestic work is vital to the economy and the community, but domestic workers remain invisible, vulnerable, and under-valued. “Your Home, My Work” recognizes and values domestic laborers.

to listen or download go to :

http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/26910

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The Degradation of Workers in the 21st Century
With
Tom Juravich, Prof. of Labor Studies, author of At the Alter of the Bottom Line, and accomplished musician

Degraded Work – No WayCommie Taxi Drivers – You Talkin’ to Me?
An Excerpt from Michael Moore’s New DVD “Capitalism: a Love Story”

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The Degradation of Workers in the 21st Century
With
Tom Juravich, Prof. of Labor Studies, author of At the Alter of the Bottom Line, and accomplished musician

From workers at a Verizon call center, to immigrants in the fish-processing industry fired if they don’t work fast enough, cheated out of wages, and mistreated by supervisors, to nurses at the Boston Medical Center and then to a plant where workers made machinery for the paper industry, Tom Juravich channels the workers voices to provide a vivid account of the multiple challenges presented in today’s workplaces.
**********
Degraded Work – No WayCommie Taxi Drivers – You Talkin’ to Me?
An Excerpt from Michael Moore’s New DVD “Capitalism a Love Story”

Michael Moore investigates Union Cab –a cooperative taxi drivers union in Madison Wisconsin which constitute an alternative to the degradation of workers in the 21st Century

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Marathon Woman: Racing Across the Globe for Women’s Sports
with
. Kathrine Switzer
. Les Helfman, Marathon

Runner and Coach Kathrine Switzer will always be best known as the woman who challenged the all-male tradition of the Boston Marathon and became the first woman to officially enter and run the event. Her entry created an uproar and world-wide notoriety when a race official tried to forcibly remove her from the competition. Four decades later, the incident continues to capture the public imagination and is, in part, the reason Switzer has dedicated her multi-faceted career to creating opportunities and equal sport status for women. That career has included creating programs in 27 countries for over 1 million women that led to the inclusion of the women's marathon as an official event in the Olympic Games, changing forever the face of sports, health and opportunities for women around the world.

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Restaurant Workers ROC the Nation
With
Saru Jayaraman, Co-Director, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC)

plus

Tribeca’s Amish Market Accused Of Wage Theft in NYC

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Restaurant Workers ROC the Nation
With
Saru Jayaraman, Co-Director, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC)

Saru Jayaraman details the prevalence in the restaurant industry of wage theft, sub-minimum wages and widespread discrimination as well as ROCs innovative fightback which involved direct action, lawsuits, legislation, industry research and opening their own NYC cooperative restaurant “Colors”. Responding to demands from around the nation ROC has expanded operations to 8 cities nationwide.
***************
Tribeca’s Amish Market Accused Of Wage Theft in NYC

Wage theft is epidemic throughout New York and the nation.The NYS Department of Labor announced a $1.5 million enforcement action against the Amish Market, Park Place store among a number of others over stolen wages. To protect themselves from this and other abuses, the Amish Market’s low wage workers have been trying to unionize, but have been met with firings, harassment and intimidation from the store's management. Local 1500 of the United Food and Commercial Workers who the workers have been seeking to unite with rallied in protest and support of the workers, calling for a boycott of the store.

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Iran – A New Wave of Unionization?
With
Homayoun Poorzad, Central Council Member,
Network of Iranian Labor Unions (NILU)

Despite unrelenting state repression, there have been rumblings of
renewed labor organizing in Iran. While the most visible activities
are those of the Bus union of Tehran, the Sugar ‘Workers and
teachers unions, there is a good deal of spontaneous worker
protests that do not lead to any permanent organization. The current
recession is ratcheting up labor protests and the plan of the
Ahmadinejad government in March to do away with all subsidies
enjoyed by the population will increase prices to consumers and
produce huge layoffs which may be lead to a period of mass labor
unrest.

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Instruction, Not Destruction: Protesting Proposed School Closings
with
Carmen Applewhite, Teacher, Candidate for UFT President, Chancellor, International Assocation of Educators for Peace.
and
James Eterno, Teacher, Jamaica High School, UFT Chapter Chair, Candidate for UFT President
and
William Hargraves, Member Coalition for Public Education, Parent

The Department of Education’s Panel for Education Policy was meeting at Brooklyn Technical High School, and thousands of teachers, parents, students and concerned community members were out on a chilly January evening to protest the D.O.E.’s plan to close at least 19 city schools this year. All 21 of the schools slated to close are in largely Black and Latino areas and overwhelming populated by students of color. We’ll talk with parent and teacher representatives who were chanting “Instruction, not Destruction”, and claim there’s no justifiable reason for closing the schools and even raise the spectre of privatizing the public school system.

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Haiti’s Earthquake Exposes The Faultline of US Domination
with
Ray Laforest, Haitian-American labor leader
and
Kim Ives, journalist with the newspaper Haiti Liberté

Ray Laforest discusses how the earthquake in Haiti revealed the faultlines of United States intervention in Haiti’s governance and economic development and Kim Ives warns against reconstruction that proceeds under the supervision of foreign troops and international development agencies capable of usurping the interests of the vast majority of Haitians. Ives insists Haitian sovereignty must prevail and international aid must be oriented away from neoliberal adjustment, sweatshop exploitation and non-governmental charity, and towards systematic investment in Haiti's own government and public institutions.

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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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Nation’s Largest RN Organization Says Healthcare Bill Cedes Too Much to Insurance Industry
With
Jean Ross, Co-President, National Nurses United

San Francisco Hotel Workers Heat Up the New Year
Produced by
The Labor Video Project

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Nation’s Largest RN Organization Says Healthcare Bill Cedes Too Much to Insurance Industry
With
Jean Ross, Co-President, National Nurses United

National Nurses United, the nation’s largest union of registered nurses, criticized the healthcare bill passed by the U.S. Senate saying “it is tragic to see the promise from Washington this year for genuine, comprehensive reform ground down to a seriously flawed bill that could actually exacerbate the healthcare crisis and financial insecurity for American families, and that cedes far too much additional power to the tyranny of a callous insurance industry.” NNU believes that the bill seems more likely to be eroded, not improved, in future years due to the unchecked influence of the healthcare industry.
*********
San Francisco Hotel Workers Heat Up the New Year
Produced by
The Labor Video Project

Over 1400 hotel workers and their community allies demonstrated in down-
town San Francisco, on Jan 5 against major hotel corporations’ refusal to
settle fair contracts. They were joined by Richard Trumka, President of the
AFL-CIO, and UNITE HERE President John Wilhelm, who along with over
150 union members and community supporters sat down in front of the Hilton
Hotel to launch a customer boycott of the Hilton San Francisco Union Square.
The action comes after nearly five months of negotiations and street actions
(including strikes), in which Hotel Managements have called for cutbacks while
the workers have been seeking modest increases to sustain health care and
retirement benefits. Meanwhile, despite the economic downturn, major hotel
companies have continued to prosper.

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Argentina: This is What a Labor Movement Looks Like
With
Marina Kabat, Prof., Argentinean History, Univ. of Buenos Aires; Coordinator, Working-Class Studies Workshop, Center for the Study & Investigation of Social Sciences (CEICS)
and
Immanuel Ness, Prof., Brooklyn College, CUNY and author The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest: 1500 to the Present

Fighting Unemployment and Poverty:Evergreen Laundry and Worker Cooperatives in Cleveland OhioProduced
by the Evergreen Cooperative Initiative

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Argentina: This is What a Labor Movement Looks Like
With
Marina Kabat, Prof., Argentinean History, Univ. of Buenos Aires; Coordinator, Working-Class Studies Workshop, Center for the Study & Investigation of Social Sciences (CEICS)
and
Immanuel Ness, Prof., Brooklyn College, CUNY and author The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest: 1500 to the Present

The economic collapse in Argentina has created a new labor movement for dignity and control over the work process and democratization of their communities. Recently, the Kraft food workers’ insurgent union successfully fought firings with a strike & plant occupation which receivedmass community and labor support despite violent state repression. The United Education Workers, a militant worker-led union, struck for living wages, closing all schools in the Buenos Aires region, to resist the government's austerity plan. Workers have also shut down the Buenos Aires subway system, suspended major construction projects & defended wages against government cutbacks. The piqueteros, unemployed & low-wage workers movements, are successfully staging mass actions, including blocking major roads & highways, even as police brutality grows. They have occupied & taken over factories leading to a national cooperative movement which has democratized workplaces for more
than a million workers.
*****************
Fighting Unemployment and Poverty:Evergreen Laundry and Worker Cooperatives in Cleveland Ohio
Produced by the Evergreen Cooperative Initiative

“Something important is happening in Cleveland.” With the opening of the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry on October 21st – a worker-owned commercial-scale “green” business based in the Glenville neighborhood, one of the most severely disinvested areas in Cleveland. Mayor Frank Jackson called the laundry, “a model for how we can put our people back to work and rebuild our community.” This new model for economic development was inspired by the network of worker cooperative in Mondragon, Spain. It is the first in a network of worker cooperatives that is being launched in the city by the Evergreen Cooperative Initiative.

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Day of Outrage NYC Student Rally at MTA Headquarters
Protesting Metrocard Cutbacks
With
New York City High School Students:
Jordan Orvam, Kyle Maer, Francine Prince, Sherana Woods

NYS Governor’s Budget Attacks School Children
With
Alan B. Lubin , Exec. Vice Pres., NYS United Teachers
and
Geri D. Palast, Executive Director, Campaign for Fiscal Equity

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Day of Outrage NYC Student Rally at MTA Headquarters Protesting Metrocard Cutbacks
With
New York City High School Students:
Jordan Orvam, Kyle Maer, Francine Prince, Sherana Woods

More than a thousand students from across NYC protested against a proposal passed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Board in favor of serious budget cuts taking place next year. Among the most critical effects of these budget cuts is the discontinuation of a program which provides free subway and bus MetroCards for more than 500,000 city students. This outrageous plan will hit poor families the hardest and will affect many students ability to attend school and obtain the free education that they deserve
**************
NYS Governor’s Budget Attacks School Children
With
Alan B. Lubin , Exec. Vice Pres., NYS United Teachers
and
Geri D. Palast, Executive Director, Campaign for Fiscal Equity

Governor Paterson unilaterally withheld $750 million in scheduled payments to schools and local governments. The impact of these cuts on education statewide from kindergarten to college level will be devastating, especially in the poorer districts. A coalition of teachers’ unions and local school officials countered with a lawsuit againstPaterson arguing that his decision violated New York’s Constitution. Paterson argues cut back while a broad coalition urges among other things tax the rich.

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NYC Transit Workers Take Back Union After Bitter Election
with
. John Samuelsen, President-Elect ,TWU Local 100
. Israel Rivera. Secretary Treasurer-Elect
. Benita Johnson, Recording Secretary-Elect
. Angel Giboyeaux, Administrative VP Elect

Brave New Films presents:Where Was the Fed
with
Senator Bernie Sanders

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NYC Transit Workers Take Back Union After Bitter Election
with
. John Samuelsen, President-Elect ,TWU Local 100
. Israel Rivera. Secretary Treasurer-Elect
. Benita Johnson, Recording Secretary-Elect
. Angel Giboyeaux, Administrative VP Elect

Subway Track Inspector John Samuelsen & the Take Back Our Union slate won the hotly contested TWU Local 100 elections Dec. 7 after a multi-year campaign of criticizing the administration of Roger Toussaint & Acting Pres. Curtis Tate over issues of union democracy & militancy. Their first priorities will be getting the MTA to honor an arbitration award granting union members 11% raises under a 3-year contract & fighting cutbacks due to the reduced revenue to the MTA.
******
Brave New Films presents:
Where Was the Fed?
with
Senator Bernie Sanders

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, in charge of the central bank since 2006, could have demanded that Wall Street provide adequate credit to small and medium-sized businesses to create decent-paying jobs in a productive economy, but he did not. He could have insisted that large
bailed-out banks end the usurious practice of charging interest rates of 30 percent or more on credit cards, but he did not. He could have broken up too-big-to-fail financial institutions that took Federal Reserve assistance, but he did not.

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President Manuel Zelaya In An Exclusive Interview Condemns
Sellout of Honduran Democracy

Building Bridges speaks with the legitimate President of Honduras in the aftermath of the country’s recent fraudulent election. President Zelaya urges the U.S. to reject the election, as the Honduran people have in their mass boycott of it, subsequent to the ouster in a coup of their populist, democratically elected President. Haunted by the ghosts of authoritarian governments not long in the grave, countries like Brazil, Argentina and Chile have argued that an election held by an illegal government is, by definition, illegal, but the U.S.’s fingerprints are all over the coup as Obama supports the oligarchy and dashes hopes for a new engagement with Latin America. Andres Conteris, with the Program on the Americas, Director for Nonviolence International & Coordinator of Democracy Now! en Espanol also joins us from the Brazilian Embassy in Honduras where President Zelaya has taken refuge.

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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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Rally at NY City Hall Fights for Paid Sick Leave Now

Student Power Scores Win for Honduran Workers and Tackles U.S. University Budget Cuts
With
Jack Mahoney, National Organizer, United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS)
And
Sana Javed, USAS Activist and Senior, University of Maryland

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Rally at NY City Hall Fights for Paid Sick Leave Now

Whether it’s the swine flu or another illness, workers shouldn’t have
to go without their pay, risk retaliation or even losing their jobs when
they are sick or need to take care of a sick child. But that’s the
situation for 1.8 million NYC workers and it’s not just unfair for them,
it’s a public health risk. Last week A Better Balance and the NYS
Paid Family Leave Coalition sponsored a rally on the steps of NY
City Hall where community and labor coalitions joined NYC elected
officials and special guest Gloria Steinem in supporting long overdue
NYC legislation mandating employers provide paid sick leave.
***************
Student Power Scores Win for Honduran Workers and Tackles U.S. University Budget Cuts
With
Jack Mahoney, National Organizer, United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS)
And
Sana Javed, USAS Activist and Senior, University of Maryland

The often raucous student movement announced that it had achieved
its biggest victory so far. USAS pressure tactics forced one of the
nation’s leading sportswear companies, Russell Athletic, to agree to
rehire 1,200 workers in Honduras who lost their jobs when Russell
closed their factory soon after the workers had unionized. In addition
to organizing around the end to sweatshops here and abroad, USAS
is active in fighting against university budget cuts, tuition increases
and layoffs including the campaigns that led to the current wave of
massdemonstrations and occupations at the University of California system.

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Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions:A Quest for Justice, Human Rights and Peace
with
Omar Barghouti, A Founding Member, the Palestinian Civil Society Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) Campaign
and
Nancy Kricorian, NYC Coordinator of CodePink

Barghouti analyzes the global growth of the movement for boycotts, divestment initiatives & embargos and sanctions against the Israeli apartheid regime involving unions, church groups and even governmental actions. In the U.S. Codepink is sponsoring a boycott campaign against the Israeli cosmetics company, Ahava, which illegally manufactures and appropriates its products in occupied Palestinian territory and the NY Campaign for the Boycott of Israel is focused on a boycott of the communications giant Motorola over its sale of technology to the Israeli army and settlements.

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Health Care Reform or Insurance Industry Rip-Off?
withKatie Robbins, Asst National Coordinator, Healthcare-Now
and
Don McCanne, M.D., Senior Health Policy Fellow , Physicians
for a National Health Program

Tax the Rich to Create Jobs for All
with
Bill Barclay, Chicago Political Economy Group

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Health Care Reform or Insurance Industry Rip-Off?
with
Katie Robbins, Asst National Coordinator, Healthcare-Now
and
Don McCanne, M.D., Senior Health Policy Fellow , Physicians
for a National Health Program

Democrats said the sweeping overhaul of the US health care
system passed by the US House of Representatives would extend
coverage to 36 million people now without insurance while creating
a government health insurance program. They say it will end insurance
company practices like not covering pre-existing conditions or
dropping people when they become ill. But, what sort of coverage will
the now to be heavily subsidized insurance industry provide especially
without a robust public option? Will they truly end up extend coverage
to all those eligible? And, as the debate now moves to the Senate,
what becomes of the single-payer option which would cover everyone
and cost less?
*************************
Tax the Rich to Create Jobs for All
with
Bill Barclay, Chicago Political Economy Group

With the official national unemployment rate exceeding 10 percent and
the real rate way above that, we present Bill Barclay from the Chicago
Political Economy Group who presented one of the many proposals for
full employment offered at the National Jobs for all Coalition Conference
held in New York City Nov 13-14 .This jobs program would be paid for
by a redistribution of wealth including a national stock transfer tax and
increased inheritance taxes on the wealthy - the Paris Hilton Tax.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++

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Obama Continues Bush Policy Towards Undocumented, Lock Them Up & Throw Away The Key with
Families in sanctuary & supporters of the New Sanctuary Movement

Rethinking Afghanistan
By Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films
Testimony of Rick Reyes, a member of Iraq Veterans against
the War to the Senate foreign relations committee April 2009
that the Afghanistan war must end.

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Obama Continues Bush Policy Towards Undocumented, Lock Them Up & Throw Away The Key with
Families in sanctuary & supporters of the New Sanctuary Movement

The Obama administration has continued the Bush's enforcement-only approach to immigration, leading to the imprisonment and deportation of countless family members, many with no criminal record, leaving the deportees’ families abandoned. A national gathering of the new sanctuary movement under the banner “celebrate & defend community without borders” brought that message and their protest to the Varick Street Detention Center in New York City.
**********
Rethinking Afghanistan
By Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films

Testimony of Rick Reyes, a member of Iraq Veterans against
the War to the Senate foreign relations committee April 2009
that the Afghanistan war must end.

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Africa: Its Labor News & Views In Focus
produced by
Radio Workers World Productions, Cape Town, South Africa

Billionaires For Wealthcare
presents
Battle Hymn of the Insurance Companies

Senator Bernie Sanders Unfiltered: Health Care Reform
Produced by
Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films

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Africa: Its Labor News & Views In Focus
produced by
Radio Workers World Productions, Cape Town, South Africa

Building Bridges in collaboration with South African based radio Workers
World Productions brings us the issues for and protests of Africa’s laboring
class, amidst the global economic crisis.
**********
Billionaires For Wealthcare
presents
Battle Hymn of the Insurance Companies
**********
Senator Bernie Sanders Unfiltered: Health Care Reform
Produced by Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films

One of the reasons that Senator Sanders is a strong proponent of a single-
payer, Medicare-for-all proposal is that it is much less complicated than
other proposals. A single-payer approach saves hundreds of billions of
dollars a year because you don’t end up with thousands of different health
insurance programs appealing to all different kinds of people and costing
a fortune to administer. He's going to continue the fight for legislation that
will allow states to go forward with single-payer if they want to.

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Labor President Trumka Takes Fight For Workers To Wall Street

Scrooge Bosses Steal From Low-Wage Workers
with
John DeFilippis, Assoc. Professor, Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University
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Labor President Trumka Takes Fight For Workers To Wall Street

The new President of the AFL-CIO Richard Trumka called for tough new regulations on the financial industry and a new approach to making the U.S. economy responsive to working people. Trumka took to the streets as part of the new leadership team’s national tour to set out a jobs-focused, progressive vision for the economy, and to fight back against the
corporate agenda that left workers behind.
******
Scrooge Bosses Steal From Low-Wage Workers
with
John DeFilippis, Assoc. Professor, Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University

Low-wage workers are routinely denied overtime pay and are paid less than the minimum wage, according to a new study based on a survey of workers in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. The study, the most comprehensive examination of wage-law violations in a decade, concludes that "the sheer breadth of the problem, spanning key industries in the economy, as well as its profound impact on workers, entailing significant economic hardship, demands urgent attention."

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Iraqi Labor Leaders: Their Fight For Workers & Against Occupation
with
. Hassan Jumaa, Pres. Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions
. Rasim Awadi, Pres., General Federation of Iraqi Workers
. Sardar Mohammed, Pres., Iraqi Kurdish Workers Syndicates & Unions
. Falah Alwan, Pres., Federation of Workers Councils & Unions in Iraq

Iraqi labor leaders share their views and stories, from the conditions workers face on the ground, to their struggles against privatization, and the law banning public sector unions and their perspectives on the United States occupation of their country. Who are our fellow labor activists and what are their perspectives on class struggle.

http://www.archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesIraqiLaborLeadersSpeakOut/BuildingBridgesIraqiLaborLeadersSpeakOut_vbr.m3u
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http://www.archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesIraqiLaborLeadersSpeakOut/BuildingBridgesIraqiLaborLeadersSpeakOut_vbr_mp3.zip
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Obama Inherits Bush ICE Policies, But Won’t Let Them Thaw Out!
with
Marielena Hincapié, Exec. Director, Ntl. Immigration Law Center

Hunter College Cafeteria Workers Can’t Stomach AVI Food Systems
with
Deborah Johnson, Hunter College Cafeteria Worker
Gilbert Palacios, Lead Organizer, Local 100, Unite-HERE

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Obama Inherits Bush ICE Policies, But Won’t Let Them Thaw Out!
with
Marielena Hincapié, Exec. Director, Ntl. Immigration Law Center

American Apparel in downtown Los Angeles (you know their
immigration slogan, "Legalize L.A.") had a quarter of its workforce,
about 1,800 employees fired as the Obama administration authorized
federal investigations of employers seeking "irregularities in the identity
documents the workers presented when they were hired." A crackdown
that forces 1,800 taxpaying would-be Americans into joblessness in a
dismal economy as a solution to the problem of undocumented workers
— 1,800 down, millions to go — it’s ludicrous.
**********

Hunter College Cafeteria Workers Can’t Stomach AVI Food Systems
with
Deborah Johnson, Hunter College Cafeteria Worker
Gilbert Palacios, Lead Organizer, Local 100, Unite-HERE

AVI Food Systems came to Hunter with the promise of improved food service operations. What they didn’t mention is that they would refuse to continue providing the same health and pensions benefits that the cafeteria workers have received for years.

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Joining Honduran President Zelaya In Brazilian Embassy
with
Andres Conteris, Director, Program on the Americas, Nonviolence International, in the Brazilian Embassy in Honduras where Pres. Zelaya has taken refuge
and
Tim Russo, Correspondent, Free Speech Radio News, has been reporting live from Tegucigalpa, Honduras since the return of Pres. Zelaya

Stella Workers Rally vs. Goldman Sachs & Mayor Bloomberg

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Joining Honduran President Zelaya In Brazilian Embassy
with
Andres Conteris, Director, Program on the Americas, Nonviolence International, in the Brazilian Embassy in Honduras where Pres. Zelaya has taken refuge
and
Tim Russo, Correspondent, Free Speech Radio News, has been reporting live from Tegucigalpa, Honduras since the return of Pres. Zelaya

More than 90 days since the military coup d’etat in Honduras
Pres. Zelaya returned to join the resistance movement in the
final stretch of the fight to restore constitutional order. Report
from inside the Brazilian Embassy where Pres. Zelaya has
sought sanctuary and from the streets of Honduras after the
escalation of repression by the coup government. How is
Zelaya lining up his support and strategy in these moments,
how are the masses responding and what has been the role
of the U.S.?.
******
Stella Workers Rally vs. Goldman Sachs & Mayor Bloomberg

Anti-union Lance Inc., based in No.Carolina is poised to buy Stella
D'Oro cookies and if they do the Bronx plant will be shut and its
unionized workers, who have waged a courageous struggle for more
than a year will lose their jobs. So, the Stella workers and their
supporters brought their pleas to keep the plant in New York to
Goldman Sachs one of Lance's high-profile investors and then to
Mayor Bloomberg to intervene to keep Stella D’oro in the Bronx.

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