Could This Be the Year in NYS for a Single-Payer 
Health Care System?
with
Assemblyman Richard Gottfried,Chair NYS Assembly Health 
Committee
and
Dr. Mary O'Brien, Board Member,Physicians for a National 
Health Program, primary care physician at Columbia University who also participates in the medical economics section of the clinical practice course for 4th-year medical students.

Assemblyman Richard Gottfried,  is rolling out his bill establishing a statewide single-payer health care system, a structure often shorthanded by advocates nationwide as “Medicare for All.”  Even though the nation is only beginning to implement the federal Affordable Health Care Act, Gottfried said the Empire State shouldn’t have to wait years before seeing where it falls short. “Federal health care reform has done a lot of good, but it still leaves us in the hands of insurance companies.,” “It would save the billions of dollars that we now spend on insurance company administrative costs. … You and your doctor would work to keep you healthy. New York Health would pay the bill with funding from broad-based revenue based on ability to pay,” Gottfried said and “New York can do better.”

Plus
Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Jim McDermott discuss the state by state approach to enacting Medicare for all single payer health insurance plan as pioneered by Vermont which could become the model for the nation.

stream

download

Read More...

PRESENTE: In Conversation & Song with Pete Seeger  

No, death cannot silence our beloved Pete Seeger.  His rhythms and tunes will find their way beyond time and across borders to wherever people toil and yearn to build a way for humankind against greed and hate.  His songs will forever inspire a chorus and when sung by enough people  the choir can tear down walls, overthrow tyrants and, break the chains of serfdom. Not overnight in a crescendo, but little by little.  Pete Seeger knew a song could not stop a bullet, could not stop a truncheon, but he believed that from little things, big things grow. He was a messenger of a power invisible and indivisible. As he once wrote: ''Songs won't save the planet, but then neither will books or speeches. Songs are sneaky things. They can slip across borders. Proliferate in prisons.Penetrate hard shells.''  Pete Seeger never tired and indeed was inspired and energized to make the world a better place through his music and activism. His lifelong commitment to the cause of peace and to addressing the plight of the downtrodden has been an inspiration to all those who have championed society's victims and have done what they could to combat injustice.

play stream

download

Read More...

A Building Bridges Expose  - How  the U.S. Government Profits from Child Labor, Forced Overtime, Wage Violations, and Other Illegal, Dangerous and Inhumane Conditions
with Ian Urbina,  N.Y. Times investigatory reporter
and
Molly McGrath, International Campaigns Coordinator, AFL-CIO

Just as major brands and retailers buy from thousands of global suppliers who fail to comply with laws, protect workers and respect workers' rights, the federal government’s system for purchasing goods and services has failed to ensure that workers who produce these goods in global supply chains do so free from danger and exploitation. From its workers’ uniforms, to clothes using the logo of its armed forces, to goods sold at large stores on military bases, the U.S. government is the buyer, brand owner or retailer of more 
than 1 billion dollars of clothes. Yet it pays virtually no attention to the conditions in the many thousands of workplaces around the world (including the U.S.) where the goods are made 

Play stream

Download

Read More...

Unpackaging the US Role and What Happened in this 
Latest Round of Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks
with 
Rashid Khalidi, author of six books about the Middle East, his writing on Middle East history and politics has appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe and numerous other journals
and newspapers.  His most recent book is "Brokers of Deceit:
How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East". Khalidi is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University in N.Y.C.  

Khalidi draws on his own experience as a Palestinian negotiator and combines history, common sense, and his first hand understanding of Arab-Israeli peace talks, as brokered by Washington, to unpackage the latest endeavor and discussing the difficult but essential steps needed to achieve peace in the region.

play stream

download

Read More...

Live, In Conversation with Peoples’ Lawyer and Former U.S. Political Prisoner Lynne Stewart, and Commentaries from Political Prisoners Representatives, her Attorney and Family on Her Release

Lynne Stewart, just freed from prison following a worldwide campaign to release her and even as she battles cancer is preparing for the next phase of her life – “I see myself fighting to bring home all of the political prisoners, who have sacrificed their lives for causes and community.  I see myself taking up the cause of women in prison and the inequities they and their children face.  Mostly, I hope I will be able to speak to new would-be lawyers who have just embarked on the yellow brick road toward justice and rouse their hearts and souls …” and that of all who will be listening.

play stream
download

Read More...

What's Ahead for More than One-Million who Just Lost Unemployed Benefits ,  the Unraveling of the Safety Net and Planning for Job Creation,  to Address Income Stagnation and Wealth Inequality

with 
Richard Eskow, Senior Fellow, Campaign for America’s Future

The unemployment insurance program provides laid-off workers with a fraction of their old salary for a fixed period of time while  the  search for a new job.  Roughly 1.3 million out-of-work Americans lost their unemployment insurance Dec. 28,    because Congress declined to renew an emergency aid  program for the jobless that expired.   While Congressional Democrats are now attempting  to renew the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program , if that  effort fails, the nation's safety net for the unemployed will shrink drastically.  Congress is also slated to debate how much more to cut the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program (food stamps).   But what's not on the agenda for Congress is  devising a way out of the recession for the 99% , which has been prolonged by continued federal deficit reduction and income inequality.   Richard Eskow discusses these challenges and looks at what is to be done about job creation, wage stagnation,  and income and wealth inequality.

STREAM 

DOWNLOAD

Read More...

Obama Tried to Stop Judge From Path-Breaking Victory for Fourth
Amendment Against NSA and Shows Flaw in Obama Arguments About 1979 Supreme Court Decision.
withBrett Max Kaufman, ACLU National Security Project  

Ho, ho, ho it’s the holiday season and we’re calling, texting, emailing, and engaging in digital communication like never before, but at least, thanks to Edward Snowden who initiated a historic debate about surveillance and privacy we now know our private communications aren’t as private as we thought, the NSA is tuning in and collecting massive amounts of our data.  But, perhaps Judge Richard Leon’s recent court decision, the recommendations of a government panel on surveillance policy and pressure on Congress to abolish the spy agency’s surveillance programs will finally dump the lump of coal in the NSA’s  stocking it so deserves. Building Bridges will shed light on how the government is collecting, sharing and storing our data, go inside Judge Leon’s ruling, analyze the government’s panel's recommendations on changes to the NSA and discuss what else we need to do to protect our privacy.

Plus 
Whistleblower Edward Snowden, who revealed the mass surveillance programs organized by the US and other governments, gives this year's The Alternative Christmas Message on Britain’s Channel 4.

play stream

download 

Read More...

Low Wage Airport Workers Protest  Scrooge Employers During Holiday Travel Season 
with
* Shareeka Elliot, a terminal cleaner at JFK's Terminal 8 (American Airlines) 
for a contractor called Airway Cleaners
* Rob Hill, Vice President, Local 32BJ, SEIU
* Rose Oby, a security guard at LaGuardia airport (Delta Airlines) 
for a contractor called Aviation Safeguard
* Hector Figueroa, President, Local 32BJ SEIU

Thousands of employees of the largest private contractors at airports are protesting to call the public’s attention to the prevalence of poverty wages and poor working conditions that are creating a crisis for workers and the traveling public at the airports.  “Supporting yourself on $7.90 is hard,” Shareeka Elliott, a terminal cleaner for Airway Cleaners at JFK told the crowd.  “Supporting yourself and two growing girls is nearly impossible.  My take home wage does not begin to cover bills, daycare, and food for me and my daughters. I feel like I’m drowning in debt.” “These are hard-working men and women doing some of the most vital jobs to keep our airports running smoothly and safely,” 32BJ SEIU President Hector Figueroa said. “They should not have to live in poverty to do it. Their families should not have to live without health care because they happen to be working at our airports.”  So, now during the busiest holiday travel season of the year workers are forced to take their complaints straight to the tarmac.

play stream   or  download

Read More...

What The Lonmin-Marikana Mining Massacre Says About 
The New South Africa
with
Mazibuko Jara, editor, “Amandla, South Africa’s new progressive magazine Standing for Social Justice”, a leader of the Democratic Left Front in South Africa, bringing together 40 South African social movements into a broad anti-capitalist front, former media officer of the South African Communist Party, and first chairperson of the Treatment Action Campaign challenging big pharma and an AIDS denialist government to win ARV treatment. 

Nelson Mandela was an inspiration for reformers and revolutionaries through-out the 20th century. He galvanized a mighty force of freedom fighters to break the back of the apartheid system. But the transition from the apartheid system in South Africa left intact the capitalist economic system and the continued exploitation and poverty of South Africa's majority black population. On 16 August 2012 – the south African police massacred 34 striking miners at Marikana mine, owned by the London-based Lonmin company. A democratic South Africa was meant to bring an end to such barbarity. And yet the president 
and his ministers, locked into a culture of cover-up. 

Jara discuses the  political situation in South Africa in the after-math of the Lonmin-Marikana mineworker massacre, and its broader context, including internal ANC battles over that tragedy and what it means for working class struggles and efforts to build the left

play stream                                                                       download

Read More...

Wal-Mart May Be The Face of Twenty-First-Century Capitalism 
But Now Its Workers at 1,500 Sites Across the US Risk Jobs and Arrest for Regular Hours, Better Pay, Benefits and Respect! 
with
the Wal-Mart workers and supporters, speaking out, 
engaging in civil disobedience and their arrests at the Secaucus,
NJ store protest

Wal-Mart is the nation’s largest retailer, second-largest corporation, and largest private employer (with over 1.4 million workers).  The Walton family is the richest family in the world, their wealth inherited from Sam Walton founder of Wal-Mart. Collectively, the Walton’s own over 50% of the company, and are worth a combined total of $150 billion.  In 2011, six members of the Walton family had the same net worth as the bottom 30% of American families combined. Wal-Mart made $16 billion in profits last year. Meanwhile Wal-Mart workers oftentimes make so little that they 
qualify for public benefits.  

Labor Historian Nelson Lichtenstein calls Wal-Mart a “template” firm. The Wal-Mart model of employment is based on low wages, low benefits and rapid job turnover, has become the template for American firms to follow, This model erodes the American middle-class standard of living, while its principals accumulate unimaginable profits. But, brave Wal-Mart workers aren’t taking this lying down - they risked their jobs to take part in more than 
1,500 protests around the country on Black Friday, including engaging in civil disobedience in nine cities -- Chicago, DC, LA, Dallas, Minnesota, Sacramento, Seattle, the Bay Area and New Jersey.  These actions came on the heels of strikes throughout the month in Miami, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Ohio and Dallas and the rise of fast food workers’ strikes and unionization drives and movements across the country for increasing the minimum wage. 

play stream

 download

Read More...

Bloomberg Hasn’t Given Up and Neither Are We: Stopping Stop & Frisk, and Ending the System of Mass Incarceration  
with
* Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, one of the leading hip-hop generation intellectuals in the country, host of nationally syndicated TV show Our World With Black Enterprise, author "The Classroom and The Cell: Conversations on Black Life in America" by Mumia Abu-Jamal 
& Marc Lamont Hill
* Arturo O’Farrill, Grammy winning, pianist, composer, educator, founder and Artistic Director of the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance,
* Djibril Toure, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and Plaintiff in Daniels v. The City of NY

There was the most recent prominent police murder of 13 year old Andy Lopez, in California; there is the growing rate of incarceration and caging of millions of people in US prisons; there is still Stop and Frisk and other racial profiling 
policies.  And, thus there is the imperative to confront these policies and dismantle the practices of the discriminatory and cruel criminal justice system. Building Bridges presents highlights from two of the events sponsored by the STOP Mass Incarceration Network and Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) to STOP Stop & Frisk, to STOP Mass Incarceration!

https://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesStoppingStopFriskAndEndingTheSystemOfMass   
play stream
https://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesStoppingStopFriskAndEndingTheSystemOfMass/stopfriskbedstyntl2.mp3

download

Read More...

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): Corporate Power Tool of the 1% 
with
Lori Wallach, Dir. Of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch

Recently WikiLeaks released "the secret negotiated draft text for the entire TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) Intellectual Property Rights Chapter. The TPP is the largest-ever economic treaty, encompassing nations representing 
more than 40 per cent of the world’s GDP."  WikiLeaks is sparking a public debate about the contents of this agreement that wasn't possible when the agreement was secret from public opinion. The TPP is much more than a 
trade and tariffs agreement, it will give transnational corporations greater control over our food policies, Internet access, medicines and health care, the environment, regulation of banks and labor standards. The TPP provides 
for trade tribunals permitting corporations to sue governments for the loss of “expected future profits,” if a country passes an environmental or a health law that will “cost the corporation money.”  Indeed corporations will have inordinate  power over virtually every aspect of our lives. Building Bridges entertains the discussion with Lori Wallach on the TPP that WikiLeaks intended.

https://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesTrans-pacificPartnershiptppCorporatePowerToolOfThe  
play stream
https://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesTrans-pacificPartnershiptppCorporatePowerToolOfThe/tppntl.mp3  
download

Read More...

Hey Governor Cuomo, We Need a Real Minimum Wage Now!
with
Assembly member Linda Rosenthal
Senator Jose Peralta
The Coalition for a Real Minimum-Wage Increase

The new minimum wage bill will not be indexed to inflation, instead Governor Cuomo’s wage bill raises the minimum wage to only $9 an hour in three years - too little, too late.  We need a real minimum wage increase that lifts people out of poverty and enables them to adequately support their families.  Governor Cuomo’s minimum wage law also excludes hundreds of thousands of tipped workers from receiving an increase and fails to allocate any resources for 
labor-law enforcement to investigate workers’ complaints of employers’ rampant violations of an failure to pay the minimum wage.  The Coalition for a Real Minimum Wage Increase is campaigning for a real minimum wage and to strengthen minimum wage law and its enforcement.

https://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesForARealNysMinimum-wageIncreaseNow     
play stream
https://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesForARealNysMinimum-wageIncreaseNow/minimumwageconfntl2.mp3  

download

Read More...

Court Halts NYC Stop-and-Frisk Ruling, Removes Judge 
with
Baher Azmy, Legal Director, Center for Constitutional Rights

On October 31, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit granted Mayor Bloomberg’s motion to stay the remedial decision in Floyd v. City of New York, a federal class action lawsuit filed against the NYPD and the City of New York that challenges the NYPD's practices of racial profiling and unconstitutional stop-and frisks. They also remanded the case to the District Court to assign a 
new judge. We’ll discuss what this decision means for the continuation of stop and frisk, the concerted, pernicious manifestation of racial stereotyping and criminalization of entire communities and whether judge Shira Scheindlin, who merely made public statements in which she answered critics of her ruling, 
was targeted for rebuke and removal from the case.

https://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesCourtHaltsNycStop-and-friskRulingInNyc
play stream
 https://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesCourtHaltsNycStop-and-friskRulingInNyc/stopandfriskrulingntl.mp3   
download

Read More...

A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of

an Afghan Woman Who Dared to Speak Out

with

Malalai Joya

Malalai Joya, is an extraordinary young woman who helped establish a free medical clinic and orphanage in her impoverished home province of Farah; and a constitutional assembly in Kabul, Afghanistan.  She became the youngest person elected to Afghanistan’s new Parliament, but in 2007 was suspended for her persistent criticism of the warlords, drug barons and their cronies.  She has survived four assassination attempts and now sleeps only

in safe houses, accompanied at all times by armed guards.  Malalai takes us inside her important and insufficiently understood country, explaining the desperate day-to-day situations its remarkable people face at every turn, and recounts some of the many acts of rebellion that are helping to change it. A controversial political figure in one of the most dangerous places on earth, Malalai Joya is a woman of tremendous grit and determination, a sheroe in the struggle for self-determination, for peace and justice.

https://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesMalalaiJoya-AnAfghanWomanWhoDaredToSpeakOut  
play stream

https://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesMalalaiJoya- AnAfghanWomanWhoDaredToSpeakOut/joyantl.mp3
download

Read More...

Former Mexican Guest Workers Seek $500 Million In Stolen Pensions 
with
Alianza de Ex-Braceros del Norte, a campaign affiliated with the International Migrants Alliance, a coalition of grassroots migrant organizations

A caravan of ex-braceros from Mexico in what they’re calling the Historic March for a Historic Debt came to the United Nations to denounce the human rights abuses of Enrique Pena Nieto’s administration that continue to this day.  The 
Bracero Program, established by the US and Mexican governments in 1942, was the country’s first guest worker program. The delegation of ex-braceros are calling public attention to the fact that millions of these workers, many of whom have died or are living under poor conditions, have yet to receive the 10% taken from their paychecks in promised pensions.  They are also calling for just immigration reform 
in the US because as the first guest workers, the ex-braceros can testify how guest worker policies legalize slavery and abuse. Currently, the Obama administration is 
pushing for a guest worker program as part of its Comprehensive Immigration Reform agenda.

http://archive.org/stream/FormerMexicanGuestWorkersSeek500MillionInStolenPensions 
play stream
http://archive.org/download/FormerMexicanGuestWorkersSeek500MillionInStolenPensions/bracerosntl.mp3
download

Read More...

The I Am Troy Davis Campaign To Abolish the Death Penalty
with
*  Kimberly Davis,  Troy's sister
*  Jen Marlowe, author I Am Troy Davis
*  Eve Ensler, playwright, activist
*  Yusef Salaam, Central Park 5 and death penalty abolitionist
*  Lawrence Hayes (death row exonoree)
*  Rebel Diaz, RAP cultural worker, activist

Two years ago, the state of Georgia ignored the facts, doubts and pleas of hundreds of thousands of people and killed Troy Davis.  Now on the anniversary of his execution we invite you to listen to Building Bridges and reflect on Troy Davis and his legacy to abolish the death penalty and dismantle our inhumane system of caging human beings – “it will inspire courage in the heart of those who are willing to use their efforts to save lives and increase the quality of life for all people.”  Maya Angelou

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesTheIAmTroyDavisCampaignToAbolishTheDeathPenalty 
play stream

http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesTheIAmTroyDavisCampaignToAbolishTheDeathPenalty/troydavisanniversaryntl3.mp3  

download

Read More...

Iraqi Workers in the Turbulent Middle East
with
Hassan Juma’a Awad,  founding member of and President of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions   

Building Bridges brings you an exclusive interview with Har labor 
rights, and the place of Iraq in the broader turmoil of the Middle East.ssan Juma’a Awad who was an opponent of the Saddam Hussein regime, a human rights activist, and unionist who was imprisoned by the Ba’athist regime three times for “subversive” activity.  Now, under the current Malaki government, Hassan and 
many others continue to face threats of jail and heavy fines for "threatening the economic interests and stability of the state" for challenging the ill-treatment of oil workers and the give-away of Iraqi oil to private companies.  

Unions played a vital role in the Arab Spring rebellions in Tunisia and Egypt as do the Iraqi workers who are also challenging their government. Hassan Juma’a Awad is a leading force in the movement of Iraqi workers, part of a broad mobilization of civil society organizations struggling to establish a democratic, non-sectarian society in Iraq after the war, with internationally accepted labor rights.  The Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions faces many of the 
same issues we face in the U.S.: struggles against privatization, the right to organize unions without retribution and with legal protection; and for the active role of unions in securing the interests of working people.  Tune in to hear Hassan’s report on the lives of Iraqi workers today, their fight for labor rights, and the place of Iraq in the broader turmoil of the Middle East.

http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesIraqiWorkersInTheTurbulentMiddleEast/iraqoilntl.mp3 

download

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesIraqiWorkersInTheTurbulentMiddleEast 

stream 

Read More...

Riding with Robin Hood to Take from Wall Street

and Distribute to Main Street!
with
The Robin Hood Tax campaigners who take to the streets

Think about it, in this the wealthiest country in the world the newest USDA data shows more than 48.9 million Americans lived in households struggling against hunger in 2012. But, despite this the House Republican Leadership’s Nutrition-Only Farm Bill just cut $40 billion dollars from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the newest term for food stamps. They also voted to defund President Obama's health care law, setting up another fiscal showdown just before the October 1st  federal budget 

deadline. These draconian cuts are a renewed attack on all safety-net and poverty-alleviation programs. They say “where’s the beef, there’s no money”. 

But we say we’re sitting on a virtual pot of gold that could fund hunger, healthcare, and education.  So we’ll head to the streets of NY where Robin Hood and his followers say it's time to tax Wall Street to feed Main Street with a Robin Hood Tax.

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesTheRobinHoodTaxCampaignersTakeToTheStreets

stream

http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesTheRobinHoodTaxCampaignersTakeToTheStreets/robinhoodntl2.mp3 

download

Read More...

Four Arrested in NY Walmart Action in OurWalmart Nationwide Protests
with
The workers during the protest! 

Walmart workers visited the office of Board of Directors’ member Chris Williams to deliver a petition signed by over 200,000 people demanding Walmart commit to provide full-time work with a minimum salary of $25,000, reinstate workers who were fired for striking and agree to stop all retaliation against workers calling for better jobs. Four  were arrested when Williams failed to meet with them concerning their demands.Nationwide, one hundred Walmart workers and community members were arrested in 11 cities 

OurWalmart, is a union-backed members group, that has filed more than 100 unfair labor practice charges against Walmart with the National Labor Relations Board, including 20 illegal terminations and 80 disciplinary actions.

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesArrestsInNyWalmartUnionAction  
play stream
http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesArrestsInNyWalmartUnionAction/ourwalmart2013ntl.mp3  
download

Read More...

Fast Food Forward Strike Again in NYC and Nationwide

Fast-food workers in New York City and around the country struck and rallied for higher wages and union protection.  They want a raise with those fries.  New York’s fast-food employees joined thousands of colleagues from across the country in a strike aimed at boosting their salaries to $15 an hour — more than double the current minimum rate- and the right to form a union, without retaliation or unfair labor practices.  It’s time for corporations to pay up.  

Low-wage workers from around the country engaged in the largest walkout ever to hit the $200 billion fast food industry. “I’m not going to stay quiet,” said Shaniqua Davis, 20, a Bronx resident and McDonald’s worker. “I’m going to continue to fight. ... I’ve got a daughter to take care of. I struggle to make ends meet.”  Paying the bills is tough for employees who typically earn the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Aside from New York, what was a nationwide walkout included 60 other cities, targeting chains like McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Wendy’s.

http://archive.org/stream /BuildingBridgesFastFoodForwardStrikesAgainInNycAndNationwide 
PLAY STREAM

http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesFastFoodForwardStrikesAgainInNycAndNationwide/fastfood2013ntl.mp3 

DOWNLOAD

Read More...

                             Realizing the Dream!
Across the March of Time 1963 - 2013, for Jobs & Justice  
              Marching on Washington 

Spurred on by the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of unarmed African-American teen Trayvon Martin, and the recent Supreme Court decision that ripped the heart out of the Voting Rights Act, legislation written in the blood of a people, both of which again exposed the wide racial divides in the nation, people boarded buses and headed to D.C. on the fiftieth anniversary of the 63’ March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.  They came again for voting rights, for educational opportunities, for employment 
and workers rights, and against the system of incarceration, police violence and laws the permit the murder of their children – all still unsettled issues. 

You’ll listen to and contrast the demands and sounds from the 63’ March with those of today.  You’ll hear the most heartfelt messages and evocative presentations that remind us of the original 63’ message - that the struggle for freedom and economic rights must coalesce for meaningful change. Be inspired, be renewed and recommit to agitate for Jobs, and Freedom after listening to interviews with civil rights icons, the sheroes and heroes who recount their sacrifices of then and prescriptions for today.  Be moved and excited by the fierce oratory from then and now.  

http://archive.org/stream/RealizingTheDream-MarchOnWashingtonForJobsAndJustice  
play stream
http://archive.org/download/RealizingTheDream-MarchOnWashingtonForJobsAndJustice/Bb2013Marchntl.mp3 

download

Read More...

Analyzing The Landmark Decision
Holding Stop & Frisk Unconstitutional
with 
Samuel Walker, criminal justice expert, witness in the historic trial

Judge Scheindlin's decision confirms what the communities subject to being stopped and frisked  already knew, the NYPD's Stop & Frisk program violates the constitutional rights of Black and Latino New Yorkers every day.  Samuel Walker, takes us through Judge Scheindlin's voluminous decision to discuss what a monitor can do, what they’ve done in other states, and Judge Judge Scheindlin's  other recommendations included in her decision and still others that institutionalize the attack on racial profiling.  We’ll also discuss AG Eric Holder’s comments on minimum sentencing and criminal justice reform.
********************
Calls for Fed Gov to Investigate NYPD Killing of Ramarley Graham
with
Constance Malcolm, mother of Ramarley Graham

In the wake of a grand jury’s failure to indict killer cop Richard Haste, Constance Malcolm, the slain youth’s mother said,  “[I] am more than outraged, Richard Haste broke into our home and killed my son in cold blood.  The criminal justice system has failed us, just as it failed the family of Trayvon Martin.  We demand an immediate federal investigation into my son’s death.  We will continue to fight without rest until we win justice.”

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesLandmarkStopFriskDecisionNypdKillingOfRamarley

play stream

http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesLandmarkStopFriskDecisionNypdKillingOfRamarley/stopandfriskntl.mp3

download

Read More...

Detroit: Pensions, Racism and Bankruptcy 
with
. Ross Eisenbrey, VP, Economic Policy Institute
. Richard (RJ) Eskow,  Senior Fellow, Campaign for America's Future
. Al Garrett,  President AFSCME Council 25

Detroit's economic woes can be tracked to capital flight, governmental policies and the results of institutional racism, not the wages and benefits its public workers received. But, ignoring these bedrock realities Michigan's Governor Snyder has appointed an Emergency Financial Manager for the cash strapped Detroit, Kevyn Orr ,  who has rushed into bankruptcy - seeking to balance the books on the workers's backs.  His bankruptcy filing will result in pilfering workers’ pension funds, while fundamentally ignoring the causes of the City's fiscal crisis.  Bankruptcy will seriously wound pensioners, despite the fact that the unfunded portion of the pension funds are minuscule and the plan's nconstitutional under Michigan’s Constitution.  Orr's undue attention to public workers pensions is part of a nationwide trend targeting the retirement security of working Americans -- especially pensions, Social Security, and Medicare.

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesDetroitPensionsRacismAndBankruptcy  
listen to stream

http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesDetroitPensionsRacismAndBankruptcy/detroitbankntl.mp3 
download

Read More...

Fifty Years Later, Commemorating and Learning from One of the Great Moments in History - The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs, Freedom and Civil Rights  
with 
Professor William P. Jones, author of The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom and Forgotten History of Civil Rights 

We’ll probe deeply into the significance of the massive 1963 march and the movement it inspired with civil rights and labor historian William P. Jones .  While in a resounding cadence, King lifted the crowd when he told of his dream that all Americans would join together to realize the founding ideal of equality, the very power of  King speech has also narrowed our understanding of the march organized by A. Philip Randolph Pres. of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Prof. Jones reminds us that this was a movement of sustained grassroots organizing, linked locally to women’s groups, unions, civil rights and faith-based organizations across the country – it was a movement of the grassroots.  Prof. Jones restores the march to its full significance and with his fresh, compelling history delivers a new vision of this emblematic event and the broader movement it propelled and what it instructs for building a movement now for Jobs Freedom and Civil rights as we get ready to return once again  to March on Washington on August 24th to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the first March to demand the implementation of its still unrealized goals of Jobs and Freedom.
  http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesThe1963MarchOnWashingtonForJobsAndFreedom  
play stream   

http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesThe1963MarchOnWashingtonForJobsAndFreedom/MarchJonesntl2.mp3  

download

Read More...

Restaurant Labor Leader Responds to Paula Deen Controversy: 
For Restaurant Workers Discrimination Is As American As Apple Pie
with
Saru Jayaraman, Co-Founder and Co-Director, Restaurant 
Opportunities Centers United, Director of the Food Labor Research Center at U.C. Berkeley, author Behind the Kitchen Door

Lisa Jackson who sued Paula Deen, said that her “lawsuit has never been about the "N-word,”  its purpose was “to address Deen’s patterns of disrespect and degradation of people that she deems to be inferior.”  The former manager at Deen’s restaurant Uncle Bubba's Seafood and Oyster House, sued Deen and her brother Bubba Hiers saying that the work environment was rife with discrimination, and she could no longer tolerate Deen’s abuse of power as an owner, nor Mr. Hier’s despicable behavior routinely.  Unfortunately, the revelations about  Deen's treatment of workers of color is neither new or unique in the restaurant industry. More than a third of all workers of color, who were surveyed reported that they experienced discriminatory treatment on the basis of race, including verbal abuse, being passed over  a promotion, racial epithets, and more. This treatment has real impact for the lives of workers and their families - because they have been discriminated against, workers of color are segregated into the industry's lowest-paying positions and segments (e.g. fast food rather than fine dining). Saru Jayaraman takes us Behind The Kitchen Door to expose the extensive discrimination and hardships of restaurant workers. 

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesRestaurantWorkersDiscriminationIsAsAmericanAsApplePie   play stream 

http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesRestaurantWorkersDiscriminationIsAsAmericanAsApplePie/sarurocntl.mp3   download

Read More...