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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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