Building Bridges Radio: Your Community & Labor Report

Produced and Hosted by Mimi Rosenberg & Ken Nash over WBAI,99.5FM in the NYC Metro Area

WHO WE ARE

WORKERS OF THE WORLD TUNE IN! Introducing "Building Bridges: Your Community & Labor Report"

Our beat is the labor front, broadly defined, both geographically and conceptually. We examine the world of work and workers on the job as well as where they live. We examine the issues that affect their everyday lives, with a particular sensitivity towards human rights abuses, environmental concerns and the U.S. drive for global domination. We record their global struggles and provide analysis of their efforts to empower themselves and transform society to provide greater democratic, human, social, political and economic rights. Each program consists of feature stories, generally interviews, within a historical context, often accompanied by sound from demonstrations, rallies or conferences, and complemented and enhanced by poetry and instrumental or vocal -- people's culture.

Over the years Building Bridges has produced a weekly one hour program, Mondays from 7-8 PM EST, covering local, national and international labor and community issues over radio WBAI-Pacifica 99.5 FM in New York. We also produce half hour version, Building Bridges National, which is distribtued to over 40 broadcast and internet radio stations.


For more information you can contact us at knash@igc.org
In Struggle Mimi Rosenberg & Ken Nash

Roosevelt Fights Unemployment - WPA's Federal Theater Project – 27:06  

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)


Play or download

click below for more information or to post to this blog



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.

Read More...
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Jesse Jackson on Rebuilding America – 27:52  

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.”

play or download

Read More...
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Nurses on Health Care Bills; San Francisco Hotel Workers Protest - 27:49  

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

Play or download

click below for more information or to post to this blog



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.

Read More...
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Argentina's Real Labor Movement; Cleveland Worker Cooperatives – 27:11  

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

Play or download

click below for more information or to post to this blog



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.


Read More...
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

New York Cuts Kids – School Aid and Transportation - 27:46  

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

play or download

click below for more information or to post to this blog




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.

Read More...
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

NYC Transit Workers Victory; Bernie Sanders vs. Ben Bernanke - 27:19  

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

play or download

click below for more information or to post to this blog



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.

Read More...
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Exclusive Interview with Honduran Pres. Zelaya – 28’  

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.

play or download

Read More...
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Money for Jobs, Not for War - 27:46  

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

play or download

click below for more information and to post to this blog



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.

Read More...
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Student Power, Plus, Paid Sick Leave Rally - 28 minutes  

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

play or download

click below for more information and to post to this blog



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.

Read More...
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Israel - Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions - 27:31  

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.

play or download

Read More...
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Jobs for All; plus Real Healthcare Reform? - 28'  

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

Play or download

click below for more information or to post to this blog



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.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++


Read More...
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Immigrant Detention plus Rethinking Afghanistan 27:48  

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.


play or download

click below for more information or to post to this blog



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.

Read More...
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Africa Labor Report plus Senator Sanders on Health Care Reform - 27:06  

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

play or download

click below for more information or to post to this blog



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.

Read More...
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Trumka vs. Wall Street plus Wage Theft - 28 minutes  

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
Play or download

click below for more information or to post to this blog



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."

Play or download


Read More...
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Iraqi Labor Leaders Speak Out - 27 minutes  

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
play

http://www.archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesIraqiLaborLeadersSpeakOut/BuildingBridgesIraqiLaborLeadersSpeakOut_vbr_mp3.zip
download

Read More...
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Obama ICE Policies; Hunter College Cafeteria Workers Protest - 28 minutes  

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

play or download

click below for more information or to post to this blog



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.




Read More...
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Report from Honduras; Stella Workers Protest - 27'57"  

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


play or download

click below for more information or to post to this blog



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.


Read More...
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

At the G-20 & the UN with Social Watch – 27:08  

Social Watch Fights To Put Peoples Needs Before Capital
at the G-20 and the UN

with
. Jana Silverman, Coordinator of Campaigns of Social Watch,
an NGO network monitoring poverty eradication & gender
equality

. Roberto Bissio, Coordinator of Social Watch & Exec. Dir.,
Third World Institute, Uruguay
. Amitabh Behar, Co-Convenor Social Watch, India

Play or download

click below for more information or to post to this blog



The G-20 countries are the architects of the global economic crisis.
While they held their elite and exclusionary sessions there were
protests and instructional forums by international representatives
of the people suffering the policies and practices of the G-20. One
such organization in protest is Social Watch who unveiled their 2009
Report, People First. Social Watch is also in the United States to
lobby the attendees of the UN General Assembly meeting to
respond to the economic crisis of developing and the poorest
countries.


Read More...
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Jobless Recovery? Poverty on the Rise! - 27:32  

Economic Recovery Leaves Workers Behind?
with
. Heidi Shierholz, Economic Policy Institute
. Meizhu Lui, Dir., Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative,
Insight Center for Community & Economic Development

. Avis Jones-DeWeever, Dir., National Council of Negro
Women’s Research, Public Policy & Information Center


They say the economy may be bouncing back – but not for the
workers. Unemployment reestablished its relentless upward
climb in August, with the “official rate” rising to 9.7% with
significantly higher levels for people of color & young workers.
Unemployment, much of it long term, will likely pass 10% by the
end of the year and remain elevated for years. Further, for those
that have jobs, wage growth slowed dramatically plus income
and assets inequality is getting worse. Predictably, poverty
is increasing for the unemployed and even workers with jobs.

Play or download

Read More...
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Kucinich on Real Health Care Reform - 27:23  

Real Health Care Reform
With
Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Cleveland, Ohio

Representative Kucinich is a champion HR 676 the single payer
bill which constitutes real reform which is not a placebo but the
real curative for what ails our health care system. He dissects the
current health care debate talking about the ever shrinking public
option, the role of the insurance companies, the prospects for a
debate on single payer in Congress, his amendment for choice
of single payer by the States and the continuing struggle for real
health care reform.


play or download

Read More...
AddThis Social Bookmark Button