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

http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesWorkersArrestedAndSuspendedInTropicanaPensionFight/tropicanantl.mp3  download

Workers At Atlantic City’s Tropicana Tells Casino

You Can’t Gamble With Our Pensions!
With
Shari Shugar, Cocktail Waitress at the Tropicana,
Member UNITE HERE Local 54
and
Ben Begleiter, Research Analyst, UNITE HERE Local 54


The Tropicana Casino and Resort in Atlantic City indefinitely suspended 21 workers who protested by blocking traffic near the casino's entrance resulting in the arrest of 49 protesters. Local 54 of UNITE HERE was protesting the failure to negotiate a new contract and the casino's termination of its employee pension plan. The union says its members were exercising their free speech rights on their off hours, and should not have been suspended. Francine Stevenson marked her 17th anniversary with the Tropicana by getting a suspension notice. "I feel very angry and upset about what has happened. My father is 81 years old, and he had to go back to work driving a truck because he has no pension. It is just not right what companies are doing to their workers.” Stevenson vowed to continue the fight for the
workers pension. Bob McDevitt, President of Local 54, said the Tropicana broke the law first by refusing to bargain in good faith, and terminating its pension plan.
***************
The Heist: Who Stole the American Dream?

Excerpts from this new feature documentary talking about the implementation of the now generations old plan which was started in the 1970’s by the US ruling class transferring wealth from the working class and the poor to the rich. The excerpts deal with attacks on workers’ pension plans, social security and unions.

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http://archive.org/stream/WalmartGuestWorkersFightForcedLabor play stream
http://archive.org/download/WalmartGuestWorkersFightForcedLabor/GuestSeafoodntl2.mp3 download


Louisiana Guest Workers Expose Forced Labor Coverup At Walmart Supply Chain and Take Protest To Walmart Board Member’s Home


Mexican guest workers, who peel crawfish for C.J.’s Seafood in Louisiana confronted their bosses after being forced to work shifts of up to 24 hours, weren’t allowed to take breaks, were cheated out of their overtime pay and were threatened with physical violence. Ana Diaz, one of the workers said that, “when we wanted to take breaks the supervisor threatened to hit us. When one of our co-workers called the police because she couldn’t take the treatment, then our boss threatened to hurt our families.” Despite the threats,workers walked off their shift and demanded payment of their unpaid wages. The workers have extended their protest to Sam’s Club, a Walmart subsidiary that buys 85 percent of C.J.’s crawfish and marched on the New York offices and penthouse of Walmart board members.

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Thousands in N.Y.C. Say STOP Frisking Our Communities:

Community and Labor Say No To Racial & Ethnic Profiling and the New Jim Crow


Thousands upon thousands marched in NYC's Father's Day stop Stop and Frisk march organized by civil rights and labor unions in protest of the policies of NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and implemented by NYPD Police Commisioner Kelly. Under Mayor Bloomberg, in 2011, 685,000 New Yorkers were stopped by the Police. Of those that were stopped 605,328 were completely innocent of any wrong- doing. African-American youth constituted 350,743, or 53% of those stopped and Latinos comprised 223,740 or 43% of those stopped. In response to the profiling and efforts to criminalize Black and Latino youth, and following yet another fatal police shooting thousands came together to demand: End Stop and Frisk; End The “Drug War” Against Our Youth; End Mass Incarceration;End the New Jim Crow;  & Stop the Implementation of ICE’S Secure Communities Program in New York and Mass Deportations. Building Bridges presents the march highlights.

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http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesWorkersOfTheFoodChainUnite/foodchainntl.mp3  download http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesWorkersOfTheFoodChainUnite  play stream

The Hands That Feed Us:
Workers of the Food Chain Unite, Demonstrate and March


Workers and supporters of The Coalition of Immokalee Workers‘ Campaign Fair Food at Chipotle and the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United's Dignity at Darden Campaign met at the Capital Grille restaurant on E. 42nd St. in NYC and then marched to a nearby Chipotle Restaurant for a boisterous joint demonstration against worker exploitation by these two large chain restaurants. Joining the protest were members of Local 1500, UFCW, the Brandworkers’ Flaum Appetizing campaign and Hot and Crusty Bakery workers, all celebrating organizing victories. The demonstration was the kick off to a daylong conference by 14 unions and workers centers throughout the country which constitute the Food Chain Workers Alliance which is organizing the close to 20 million workers throughout the U.S. in the food system – on farms and in food processing and meatpacking plants, warehouses, grocery stores, restaurants and food service establishments.
*********************
Excluded Workers Fight and Win
with
Ai-jen Poo, Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance


At a time of decline for traditional labor organizations, Ai-jen Poo from the National Domestic Workers Alliance describes the growth and successes of domestic workers organizing in NYS and around the country. They have recently joined in an alliance, the Excluded Workers Congress, with other immigrant based worker movements, many taking the form of workers centers, representing national alliances of workers in restaurants, day labor, taxi, formerly incarcerated workers, guest workers & farmworkers. This is a rare hopeful moment for workers too long excluded from labor law protections who need more support from the union movement that in turn needs their vitality and innovative approaches to organizing.

Read More...

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesNycRallyOpposesRaciallyBasedMarijuanaArrests play stream
http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesNycRallyOpposesRaciallyBasedMarijuanaArrests/nycarrestsntl.mp3  download

New Yorkers Rally To Oppose Racially Biased, Illegal And Costly Marijuana Arrests And Stop-And-Frisk Practices Of Mayor Bloomberg's NYPD!


Mayor Bloomberg, now presides over the largest initiative in the country to arrest young men of color on false marijuana possession charges - an outcome of the controversial stop-and-frisk practices conducted by NYPD. Evoking Charles Dickens’ famous novel, protestors declared that biased policing practices under Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly were creating "A Tale of Two Cities". One is for white residents where marijuana possession was decriminalized in 1977, where they are seldom stopped and frisked, and mothers do not fear that their children
will be unlawfully rounded up by the police. The other New York City is for the hundreds of thousands of people of color who are stopped even though the overwhelming majority of them are innocent of any wrongdoing; tens of thousands are illegally searched, falsely charged, arrested and incarcerated for
marijuana possession (even though it’s not a crime in New York); and mothers live in fear of the police unlawfully snatching their children off the streets. Underscoring the two city theme at the end of the rally, about a dozen young white people blocked the entrance to NYPD headquarters exposing themselves to arrest
by police as they denounced the racially biased police practices – the police refused to arrest them!

Read More...

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesSupremeCourtArizoniaAnti-immigrantLaw  play stream

http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesSupremeCourtArizoniaAnti-immigrantLaw/sb1070ntl.mp3  download


High Court Signals Receptivity To Arizona's Anti-Immigration Legislation Which Could Result In Mass Incarceration Of Latinos
With
Isabel Garcia, Director of Derechos Humanos, in Tucson, Arizona
Foster Maer, Senior Litigation Counsel of Latino Justice, PRLDEF


The lawyer arguing against provisions in Arizona’s anti-immigration law said that if the U.S. Supreme Court upholds SB 1070 there could be “mass incarceration” of Latinos. And, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer who had signed the proposed legislation into law in 2010 agreed as she stood on the court house steps after its argument that incarceration of Arizona’s estimated 400,000 undocumented immigrants was up for consideration, if the highest court lifted the block on SB1070’s enforcement. During oral argument on SB 1070 by the high court Justice Scalia cynically suggested mass incarceration could be avoided by “simply deporting these people,” and in the one-hour argument both conservative and liberal justices expressed skepticism to the challenges to the Arizona law, filling immigrants, and immigration advocates with apprehension. Meanwhile, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Indiana and Utah have proposed or enacted similar legislation and await the court’s ruling expected in June. We’ll parse out the arguments and discuss what’s at stake for the country's immigrant populations, and the fabric of democracy.

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http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesWhatIsToBeDoneWithStanleyAronowitzAndMannyNess  
play stream
http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesWhatIsToBeDoneWithStanleyAronowitzAndMannyNess/aronowitznessntl.mp3 download


What Is To Be Done?

A Conversation about Organizing and Strategies to Win
With
Stanley Aronowitz, studies labor, and social movements, and is director of the Center for the Study of Culture, Technology and Work at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He’s authored or edited twenty-five books including: "Left Turn: Forging a New Political Future", "How Class Works", "The Jobless Future", and;"False Promises: The Shaping of American Working Class Consciousness".
and
Professor Manny Ness’ research focuses on working class
protest and revolutionary movements. His numerous books
include "Immigrants, Unions, and the New U.S. Labor Market", "The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest". He is editor of the "Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration", and his newest book is "Guest Workers And Resistance To U.S. Corporate Despotism".

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http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesAi-jenPooNationalDomesticWorkersAllianceNationalJobs   
play stream

http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesAi-jenPooNationalDomesticWorkersAllianceNationalJobs/aijenntl.mp3 
download


One of The 100 Most Influential People in the World

With
Ai-jen Poo, Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance


TIME Magazine named Ai-jen Poo one of The 100 Most
Influential People in the World - a creative organizer
who knows how to create social change from the
bottom up. Ai-jen Poo, has been growing into that role
since she was a student outraged by the stories of
domestic workers, often immigrants or women of
color, who labored long hours for low pay as nannies,
maids, housekeepers, cooks, elder caregivers, and
other household workers – women who had been
treated as unskilled and expendable, yet who were
responsible for raising children, caring for the ill and
elderly and facilitating the daily lives of millions of
families.


Ai-jen Poo's gift for creating worker-led groups and empathetic tactics has made the National Domestic Workers Alliance into an umbrella organization with 35 satellites around the country, with more than 10,000 members. Ai-jen Poo has done this by creating a new paradigm for how we value work and with that how workers can built their power collectively. Ai-jen goes beyond organizing to transforming. .
******************
Getting Back to Basics – Jobs for All
With
Trudy Goldberg, Chair, National Jobs for All Coalition


While the issue uppermost in the voters’ minds this election year is jobs, jobs and good jobs, you’d hardly know it by following the campaigns or even the protests for the 99%. But the National Jobs for All Coalition is always on target about the tragedy of unemployment, underemployment and deteriorating working conditions and has a program to move forward on this crucial issue. Trudy Goldberg spoke to us leading a contingent of the National Jobs for All Coalition from the NYC Union Square protest on
May Day 2012

Read More...

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesMayDayInNewYorkCityPart2 play stream
http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesMayDayInNewYorkCityPart2/MayDayNyntl2.mp3 
download


Building Bridges Occupies Air Waves

with a May Day Special!
May Day in New York City Part 2
With
Lucas Sanchez, Organizer, N.Y. Communities for Change, grocery workers organizing campaign
John Samuelsen, President, Transport Workers Union Local 100
Barbara Bowen, Pres., Professional Staff Congress,
City University of New York
Mario Rodriquez, Organizing Dir.,District Council 37, AFSCME and Occupy Wall Street activist


May Day began in the U.S. in 1886 as a nationwide general strike, led by immigrant workers, fighting for the 8 hour work day. While celebrated across the globe, it has been largely ignored in the U.S., until recently, when immigrant workers revived it.


Now, a new chapter in the history of May Day was written with the involvement of Occupy Wall Street, the organization making history with its public encampments and protests against the global financial community. And, Building Bridges presente! We were there for this new chapter in the
movement, reporting from May Day events throughout the day.


We spiced those events with commentary and analysis on the struggles of the working class in the midst of capitalist crisis and prospects for change, from leading champions of the working class, who build organization and class consciousness.

Occupy with Building Bridges as we acknowledge the blood, sweat and tears of workers, the workers who really create all the wealth and want it back. So, lock arms, unite and fight for the working class, for the 99%.

Read More...

http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesMayDay2012InNyc/mayday2012ntl1.mp3
download
http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesMayDay2012InNyc 
stream

Building Bridges Occupies Air Waves

with a May Day Special!
May Day in New York City Part 1
With
Professor Jeff Goodwin, Sociology Dept, NYU at an NYU
demonstration against student debt and NYU’s capital
expansion plan 2031
and
Arun Gupta, a founding editor, Indypendent newspaper-
reporting from Union Square
plus
Tens of Thousands of May Day Protesters in NYC


May Day began in the U.S. in 1886 as a nationwide general strike, led by immigrant workers, fighting for the 8 hour work day. While celebrated across the globe, it has been largely ignored in the U.S., until recently, when immigrant workers revived it.


Now, a new chapter in the history of May Day was written with the involvement of Occupy Wall Street, the organization making history with its public encampments and protests against the global financial community. And, Building Bridges presente! We’ll were there for this new chapter in the movement, reporting from May Day events throughout the day, here and from rallies across the country.


We spiced those events with commentary and analysis on the struggles of the working class in the midst of capitalist crisis and prospects for change, from leading champions of the working class, who build organization and class consciousness.


Occupy with Building Bridges as we acknowledge the blood, sweat and tears of workers, the workers who really create all the wealth and want it back. So, lock arms, unite and fight for the working class, for the 99%

Read More...

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesActUpowsConfrontWallStOnRobinHoodTax  stream

http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesActUpowsConfrontWallStOnRobinHoodTax/actupntl_20120423.mp3 download


ACT UP N.Y. Commemorates 25th Anniversary By Taking To Wall Street with OWS To End Financial Crimes Against People With Aids & The 99%
With
Judit Rius Sanjuan, U.S. Manager of the Access Campaign, Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)
and
Eric Sawyer, founding member ACT UP, Housing Works, Health Gap and senior advisor of UNAIDs




ACT UP (The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) joined by Occupy Wall Street (OWS), the organization making history with its public encampments and protests against the global financial community will discuss plans for a daylong
siege in Lower Manhattan on ACT UP's 25th anniversary, The groups are intent on pumping up the volume on a growing outcry for a "Financial Speculation Tax" (Fi.S.T.) on Wall Street. They’re calling on local, state, & federal legislators to "give Wall Street the FiST," to fill AIDS funding gaps and — once and for all — provide universal healthcare in the US. It’s time for effective healthcare to be made available to everyone — to the 99%, not just the 1%. The AIDS crisis is not over, but it could be! Tax Wall Street to End AIDS

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

http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesObamaJobsActIsAFraudWithWilliamBlack/williamblackntl_20120417.mp3 download


Obama “JOBS Act” Is A Prescription for Fraud & Financial Fraud

Is A Prime Jobs Killer
With
William Black, professor of economics and law at
the University of Missouri, Kansas City, author of
"The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One," and deputy staff director of the national commission
that investigated the cause of the savings and
loan debacle.


The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, (JOBS),
the cynical bill that emerged from Congress and was
signed by President Obama has been described by
its opponents as something only a financial scavenger
could love – claiming it will add to the unprecedented
level of financial fraud by our most elite CEOS that
have devastated the U.S. and European economies
and cost over 20 million people their jobs. William
Black dissects the "JOBS Act" and reveals why it is
a recipe for fraud.

Read More...

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesAnotherPoliceKillingInNewburghN.y
play stream
http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesAnotherPoliceKillingInNewburghN.y/newburghntl2_20120409.mp3 download

Community Seeks Justice For Michael Lembhard, The Latest
African-American Youth To Die By The Hands Of Newburgh Police
With
Lillie Howard, community activist whose grandson was killed by
Newburgh police
and
Juanita King, cousin of Michael Lembhard, killed by Newburgh police

Anger still rages in the latest police killing March 7, in the city of Newburgh,
NY of Michael Lembhard. Governor Cuomo has turned down Newburgh’s
request for a special prosecutor in the case of the fatal shooting. Newburg’s
Mayor, Judy Kennedy meanwhile told a community forum that she and the
City Council will await an Orange County grand jury's verdict before
deciding whether to consider any disciplinary action of their own in the
police shooting death of Lembhard. Meanwhile, the officers involved remain
on administrative leave. The community has been relentless in its pursuit of
justice for Lembhard, vowing never to let it happen again – too many young
people are being lost and Lembhard’s death is the latest in what they claim
is due to police discrimination and brutality towards the African American
community. The community hopes that Lembhard’s death will lead to a
federal probe of the Newburgh police department.

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http://archive.org/stream/NewNationalTaxiUnionFightsHighwayRobberyPlusFurtherNypdRacial play stream
http://archive.org/download/NewNationalTaxiUnionFightsHighwayRobberyPlusFurtherNypdRacial/taxintl.mp3
download

New National Taxi Union Fights Highway Robbery,
Demanding Owners Stop The Greed & Lower The Lease!
With
Bhairavi Desai, Executive Director, New York Taxi Workers Alliance

The NY Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) rallied at SLS Jet Garage
in Long Island City, Queens, who has a practice of not allowing drivers
to pay lease in advance for their shifts, and then charging those same
drivers as much as $25 per day for not paying in advance, adding up
to more than $9,000 a year. NYTWA has been targeting SLS Jet for
its current Stop the Greed, Lower the Lease campaign. We will also
discuss the NTWA’s, as new chartered union with the AFL-CIO, which
will be celebrated at an upcoming reception with AFL-CIO President
Richard Trumka in NYC. The new National Taxi Workers Alliance,
the 57th chartered union of the AFL-CIO, is a watershed moment in
U.S. Labor History. This is the first new charter for non-traditional
workers in over 60 years & the first for independent contractors.
***********************************
NYPD Surveillance of Muslims Extended To Activist
Organizations
With Speakers from:
Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM); Mosque of Islamic
Brotherhood; Peoples’ Justice for Community Control
& Police Accountability; CAAAV Organizing Asian
Communities; & NYC Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez

Representatives from the Muslim community with civil liberties
advocates came to Police Plaza to decry the NYPD Intelligence
Division’s blanket surveillance of a community based on religion
and race, and to condemn new revelations about surveillance of
community-based advocacy groups. Recent documents unearthed
reveal that the NYPD surveilled dozens of community organizations,
over the last decade. One document reveals that an undercover
NYPD officer traveled to New Orleans to attend the People's
Summit, a gathering of groups organized around their shared
opposition to U.S. economic and trade policies. The undercover
effort entailed groups opposed to U.S. immigration policy, labor
laws and racial profiling. The new revelations heighten & broaden
the serious questions that have yet to be answered by the NYPD
and elected officials surrounding it's Muslim surveillance program
accusing Police Commissioner Kelly of overstepping his authority
with surveillance tactics that critics claim violate the U.S.
Constitution.

Read More...

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesJusticeForTrayvonMartin
play stream
http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesJusticeForTrayvonMartin/trayvonntl.mp3
download

As We Demand Justice For Trayvon Martin
His Death Reveals A Long-Frayed Racial Nerve
With
Linn Washington, Professor of Journalism at Temple University
and
Colin Goddard, shot 4 times at the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre and
Assistant Director of Federal Legislation for the Brady Campaign
to Prevent Gun Violence

The murder of 17 year old Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black youth in
Sanford, Florida, who was shot by George Zimmerman, cloaked in the
reactionary “Stand Your Ground” law, is a crime against humanity and
violation of human rights. The refusal of the Sanford police department
to arrest Zimmerman, despite having evidence that he pursued Trayvon,
and aired profanity and alleged racial epithets along with the cover up
actions by the Sanford police department, sends an age old racist
message - that Black people have no rights that a white is bound to
respect. We’ll examine the demands for the arrest of Zimmerman, the
temporary stepping down of the Sanford police chief and analyze the
role of the National Rifle Association whose vision for America is
embodied in this tragic shooting, with its successful push for the
enactment of laws for carrying of concealed weapons, and the Stand
Your Ground law, which has been referred to as the Shoot to Kill law.

Read More...

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesNycRallyToSavePostalJobsServicesFromAManagement
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http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesNycRallyToSavePostalJobsServicesFromAManagement/postalntl2.mp3
download

Saving Postal Jobs & Services From A Management Gone Postal

Community/Labor United for Postal Jobs & Services joined with postal
workers to rally to save postal jobs and the services provided. The
plan is to shut down 4,000 post offices, eliminate 223 which is half of
the mail processing centers nationwide , end Saturday mail delivery
and fire 220,000 postal workers. In N.Y.C. alone, Postmaster General
Donahoe wants to eliminate 34 post offices. There is no fiscal crisis
that warrants these cuts, which will destroy the post office system. But
there is a Congressionally manufactured crisis caused by its imposition
of onerous and unnecessary financial mandates on the Post Office.
Unless we stop Congress, the public postal system will be destroyed
and Wall Street will swoop down and sell it to corporate vultures.

Read More...

http://www.archive.org/stream/HundredsRallyAgainstPrisonIndustrialComplexAndMassIncarcerationAtThe play stream
http://www.archive.org/download/HundredsRallyAgainstPrisonIndustrialComplexAndMassIncarcerationAtThe/harlemprisonntl.mp3 download

Hundreds Rally Against Prison Industrial Complex And Mass
Incarceration at the Lincoln Correctional Facility in West Harlem
THE NEW JIM CROW!

The Occupy Wall Street Prisoner Solidarity Subcommittee along with
hundreds of allies heeded Occupy Oakland's call to action and marched
in solidarity with Pelican Bay prisonerâs hunger strike protest, with
brothers and sisters who are dispossessed by the criminal INJUSTICE
system, with immigrant detainees & with political prisoners everywhere.
They raised their voices against the growth of the privatization of the
prison system and mass incarceration - the New Jim Crow. The
characterization of the system of mass incarceration as the New Jim
Crow raises the racist nature of the prison system, pointing out that
between 1970 and 1995, the jailing of African Americans increased
seven fold. African Americans make up 12% of the U.S. population -
and 53% of the nation's prison population. There are more African
Americans enslaved under correctional control today - in prison or jail;
on probation or parole - than there were in 1850.

Read More...

http://www.archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesDemandNyMtaBringBackLaidOffWorkersAndTheLine
play stream
http://www.archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesDemandNyMtaBringBackLaidOffWorkersAndTheLine/twuunemployedntl.mp3
download

Protest Demand NY's MTA Brings Back Laid Off Workers
With
Transport Workers Local 100
and
OWS Labor Outreach Committee

TWU Local 100, elected officials, and community supporters called on
the MTA to use nearly $500 million dollars in its GASB 45 Fund to
restore services cut in 2010, and to rehire over 120 laid-off Station
Agents, and settle a fair contract for 38,000 TWU Local 100 members.
According to MTA budget documents, the agency holds approximately
$489 million in a reserve fund called the GASB 45 Fund (Government
Accounting Standards Board). Since 2006, the MTA has been
depositing tens of millions of dollars every year in this account. Even
in 2010, when bus and subway services were reduced or eliminated
altogether, the MTA stashed money away instead of drawing from its
reserve fund to avoid service cuts.
*********************
Thousands Joined The Line Saying “NO MORE PINK SLIPS”
With
Arthur Cheliotes, President, Communications Workers , Local 1180

On Super Tuesday March 6, from 8:14 to 8:28 am New Yorkers joined
to form the world's longest unemployment line for 14 minutes - 1 minute
for each of the 1 million currently unemployed Americans. This visually
stunning and politically significant form of protest symbolized the
14 million Americans who lost their jobs during the last five years, and
the 10 -15 million people who have given up hope of finding a job and
are not even counted in current unemployment statistics. More people
were living in poverty last year than in any year since the Census
Bureau began keeping records half a century ago, while the richest
1% has tripled its wealth and corporations are being bailed out without
giving back. The Line, a creative action stretching arms and joining
together to say, No to Pink Slips, Yes to Government and Business
Putting America Back to Work!

Read More...

http://www.archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesRadioRedSeasWithGeraldHorne/RedSeas2.mp3 download

http://www.archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesRadioRedSeasWithGeraldHorne play stream

Red Seas: Ferdinand Smith & Radical Black Sailors in the
United States & Jamaica
with
Gerald Horne, Prof. of History and African-American studies at the
University of Houston

During the heyday of the U.S. & international labor movements in
the 1930s and '40s. Ferdinand Smith, the Jamaican-born co-
founder and second-in-command of the National Maritime Union,
stands out as one of the most "if not the most" powerful black
labor leaders in the United States. Smith's active membership in
the Communist Party, however, coupled with his bold labor
radicalism & shaky immigration status, brought him under
continual surveillance by U.S. authorities, especially during the
red Scare in the '50s. Smith was eventually deported to his
homeland of Jamaica, where he continued his radical labor and
political organizing until his death in 1961. Horne draws on Smith's
life to make insightful connections between labor radicalism & the
Civil Rights Movement "demonstrating that the gains of the latter
were propelled by the former & undermined by anticommunism".
Moreover, Red Seas uncovers the little-known experiences of black
sailors & the contribution to the struggle for labor and civil rights,
the history of the Communist Party & its black members, and the
significant dimension of Jamaican labor & political radicalism.

Read More...

The New Jim Crow:
Purging the African American Vote by Felon Disenfranchisement
With
Jazz Hayden, Riverside Church Prison Ministry Campaign
To End The New Jim Crow

Today, nearly five million Americans are barred by law from voting at all
because of a felony conviction. (A felony is any crime that carries a
sentence of a year or more in prison.) More than 1 in 50 adults can't vote.
And because of the racial imbalance in the criminal justice system,
1.4 million black men are disenfranchised. That's 13 percent of the African-
American male population, a figure seven times the national average.
The laws vary from state to state. For example, in Maine, a convicted
murderer may vote while still in prison, but in Virginia, someone arrested for
selling drugs when he was 18 may never vote again. An American suffrage
movement-- voting rights for felons -- could make a considerable difference
in upcoming elections.
****************
Another Aspect of the New Jim Crow: Impeding the Franchise
With
Lee Roland, counsel with the Democracy Program's Voting Rights
and Elections Team at the Brennan Center for Justice

Ahead of the 2012 elections, there’s been a wave of state legislation tightening
restrictions on voting that has swept across the country. It's been estimated
that more than 5 million Americans could be affected by the new rules in place
this year – which is a number larger than the margin of victory in two of the last
3 presidential elections. Lee Roland counsel discusses this manifestation of
the new Jim Crow.

http://www.archive.org/download/TheNewJimCrowFelonDisenfranchisementPlusNewStateLawsImpede/votingntl.mp3 download

http://www.archive.org/stream/TheNewJimCrowFelonDisenfranchisementPlusNewStateLawsImpede play stream

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