written by building bridges radio
at Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Puerto Rico's Economic Crisis:
Analysis, Alternatives and
Solutions
withRafael
Bernabe, candidate for Governor of Puerto
Rico for the Partido del Pueblo Trabajador (PPT) 2012; professor and director of the Federico de Onís Hispanic Studies Center at the
University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras; economist; and who has published
three books including “Puerto Rico: Crisis y Alternativas”
The
fiscal situation in Puerto Rico is dismal. Public debt (including that of
the central government and public corporations) stands around $73 billion
and is roughly equal to Puerto Rico’s GNP. The government’s credit rating
has been degraded to junk bond level. Any new credits seem to be available
only at truly usurious rates (above 10 percent). Wall Street commentators
admit that “It’s been clear for a while that Puerto Rico is going to have to
default on its debt” (Bloomberg, 4/9/14). The other side of this coin is the
fact that two dozen U.S. corporations extract around $35 billion a year in
profits from or through their operations in Puerto Rico. Bear in mind that
the total income of the government of Puerto Rico is around $9 billion. U.S.
corporations benefit from the tax-exemption measures that have been the centerpiece of the government’s development policy since 1947.
We’ll speak with Prof. Bernabe who further details the
current economic crisis affecting the island of Puerto Rico, a United States colony. He’ll speak about the history of Puerto Rico’s economy, the federal and local laws that impact its economy, the current status of its bonds, and the proposed bankruptcy relief and austerity measures. Prof. Bernabe explains why it’s in the interest of U.S. working people (including, needless to say, the more than four million Puerto Ricans that reside in the United States) to see that Puerto Rico acquires a
healthy economy that no longer requires major subsidies to dampen
the
poverty from which a handful of U.S. corporations profit. Prof.
Bernabe says
“the struggles for radical reversal of the dominant
economic and social
policies and structures in Puerto Rico and in
the US must advance together.
Building alliances and common
proposals with like-minded currents and
movements in the US is
indispensable … For those of us who are
independentistas and
socialists, and thus, internationalists, such
collaboration is essential
now and will remain so after independence. The
fact that these
movements are still minority forces in both the US and
Puerto Rico
makes it all the more urgent that those seeking to build them
join
forces and collaborate.”
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Posted in
Puerto Rico austerity,
Puerto Rico debt crisis,
Puerto Rico economic crisis,
Puerto Rico history,
Puerto Rico Workers’ Party,
Rafael Bernabe,
vulture hedge funds
»
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written by building bridges radio
at Wednesday, September 23, 2015
The Super-Exploitation of African-Americans Workers -
What Needs to Be
Done?
with
William Spriggs, chief economist of the
AFL-CIO and Professor in, and former Chair of the Department of Economics at Howard
University. Bill was appointed by President Obama in 2009 to serve as
Assistant Secretary for the Office of Policy
at the United States Dept. of Labor. He was vice chair of the Congressional Black Caucus’
Political Education and Leadership Institute; and, staff director for the
independent, federal National Commission for Employment Policy.
While
there has been a great deal of desparately needed attention to
stagnant wages, demands for a decent minimum wage and
stronger
unions in the so called economic recovery, one of the
areas receiving little attention is the plight of the African- American
workers whose unemployment rate has been twice that of the national rate
for well over 50 years. Black workers are also disproportionally
relegated to part time employment and frequently receive less pay than
their white counterparts even when they have the same qualifications.
Prof. Spriggs examines this persistance of employment
discrimination years after the March on Washington and calls for stronger enforcement of the civil rights legislation which were won
in the 1960's. And he is especially critical of the Federal Reserve
Board's gearing up to increase interest rates to slow
the economy which would perpertuate unemployment and underdemployment at unacceptable levels.
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Posted in
Black Workers,
Black workers discrimination,
EEOC African-American workers,
underemployment,
unemployment,
unemployment African-American workers,
wages black workers,
William Spriggs,
workplace discrimination
»
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written by building bridges radio
at Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Trump, The Politics Of Resentment:
Xenophobia In U.S. Electoral Races &
Government Policy
Journalist and Political Prisoner Mumia
Abu-Jamal’s radio essay, Trump, the Politics of Resentment are followed by Oscar Chacon
Ex. Dir. of the National Alliance of Latin American & Caribbean
Communities, and Angelo Falcon, president and founder of
the National Institute for Latino Policy commenting on it and the role xenophobia and racism
have played historically in American electoral politics and now in the
Trump candidacy. The discussion delves further into the positioning of both
the Democrats as well as the Republican candidates on issues of
immigration and the current U.S. policies on deportations, as well as the
civil and economic rights of immigrant labor. The discussants then tackle
what progressive immigration reform should look like.
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Posted in
Angelo Falcón National Institute for Latino Policy,
immigration and Trump,
Mumia Abu Jamal immigration,
Oscar Chacon National Alliance of Latin American & Caribbean Communities
»
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written by building bridges radio
at Wednesday, September 9, 2015
New Orleans After The Flood:
The Anatomy of African-American
Displacement
withGary Rivlin, author
Katrina After the Flood, journalist
Now, there is a commemorative marker at the site where a
floodwall protecting the Lower Ninth Ward collapsed, unleashing a wall of
water 10 years ago during Hurricane Katrina. The resulting flood wiped out
the African-American neighborhood and killed scores of its residents and now what has been left in its wake is little more than a commemorative marker at the site where the floodwall protecting the neighborhood collapsed. Ten years after Hurricane Katrina made landfall in southeast Louisiana Gary Rivlin retraces the storm’s damage, the city of New Orleans’s efforts to rebuild itself, and the storm’s lasting affects not
just on the city’s geography and infrastructure—but on the psychic, racial, and social fabric of that city, highlighting the mass dislocation of the African American residents of the Lower Ninth Ward and why
the neighborhood still hasn’t been thrown a life preserver.
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Katrina African Americans,
Katrina Gary Rivlin,
Katrina New Orleans black lives matter,
Katrina race and class,
New Orleans racism
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written by building bridges radio
at Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Twenty Years of Deepening Poverty Since Pres. Clinton Shredded Welfare
Safety Net
withFelicia
Kornbluh, Professor of History and Gender,
Sexuality,
and Women's Studies at the University of Vermont. Her books
include The Battle for Welfare Rights: Politics and Poverty in
Modern
America and Ensuring Poverty: Welfare Reform After
Twenty Years, (with
Gwendolyn Mink), forthcoming.
August 22 marks the beginning of "welfare
reform's" 20th year, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996.
Kornbluh says: "Playing to a racist imagination and dealing in sexist double
standards, Republicans and Democrats came together 19 years ago to transform
income assistance for the poor into a system of regulation, deprivation and punishment. The legislation that established Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (“TANF”), made limiting women's choices and ending single
motherhood its goals. The nation's chief policy dedicated to impoverished
families with children did not include mitigating poverty, enhancing
opportunity, or attenuating inequality as its goals. As a result, while
welfare rolls have declined, poverty still stalks single mothers and their
children -- and extreme poverty is at crisis high levels. As we approach the
20th year of this disgraceful program, it is time to overhaul TANF
principles and practices to support the family work single mothers do and
open real pathways to economic security.
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Felicia Kornbluh welfare,
national minimum income,
poverty,
Welfare and poverty,
Welfare Clinton,
welfare rights,
Welfare TANF
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written by building bridges radio
at Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Marching with The Coalition For Human Rights
In The Dominican
Republic
“What we are seeing today is not a Haitian crisis,
it’s not a
Dominican crisis,” City Councilman Mathieu Eugene (D-Brooklyn)
said. “It is a human rights crisis. This is injustice. This is not right.
This is discrimination.” Councilman Eugene came together with
an
expansive coalition to condemn the looming expulsions by the
Dominican
Republic (“DR”) of Haitian immigrants, including
those born there as immoral
and racist and a human rights crisis.
The current crisis has its roots in a
2013 court ruling that stripped the citizenship of persons born in the DR
whose parents weren’t Dominican citizens. An estimated 460,000 Haitian
migrants live in the Dominican Republic, which shares the Caribbean island
of Hispaniola with Haiti.
***************************
Why a New Overtime Proposal is a Win for Working
Women
with Kristin
Rowe-Finkbeiner is an Award-Winning Author,
and
Co-Founder and Executive Director/CEO of MomsRising.org, a
National
Online and On-The-Ground Grassroots Organization that Promotes Policies
Aimed at improving Family Economic Security; Helping Families and Children,
and to End Discrimination Against Women and Mothers.
For months
we’ve heard that the economy is finally moving in the right direction,
except for one hitch: working people’s wages, particularly those of women,
are not going up. One big reason: for years, millions of workers have
clocked in more and more hours without ever seeing overtime pay. That’s
wrong. Too many
workers, most of whom are women, are watching their finances
be stretched to the limit because even though they work overtime, they are
not compensated for the work they do. Working women deserve better. By
increasing the salary threshold to $50,444 – meaning if you make less than
that, you’re guaranteed protection - 3.2 million more women will be automatically eligible for overtime. This would be a major win for
working women.
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Haiti Dominican Republic human rights,
Haiti Dominican Republic immigration,
Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner,
living wage overtime,
Mom’s Rising,
overtime rules
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written by building bridges radio
at Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Washington Helped Create Puerto Rico’s Staggering Debt Crisis
with
Nelson Denis, writer, film director, and former N.Y.S. Assemblyman. His award-winning films premiered at the Tribeca
Film Festival and screened throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico. His
editorials for the NY Daily News and El Diario
(over 300 of them) won awards from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. He
is the writer of eight feature-length screenplays, writer/director of the
feature film Vote For Me!, & author of the book
War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America's Colony.
While Puerto Rico is oftentimes described as an
unincorporated territory of the United States, a more accurate political and
legal description is that it is a colony of the United States. A colony
that has 3.5 million US citizen residents, who do not have the right to vote
for president or representation in Congress and is making headlines these
days because of its inability to pay a 72 billion dollar debt owed to
holders of its devalued bonds. While there have been comparisons between
Greece and Puerto Rico the reality is that they are totally distinct
situations. Greece has sovereignty, Puerto Rico does not. Puerto Rico is
unable to declare bankruptcy, cannot devalue its currency and cannot go to
international financial institutions under the present colonial system. In
fact one of the solutions offered in the United States to solve the chaotic
economic crisis is to place the entire island in receivership. In other
words to go back to an even more rigid colonial system so that the bonds
market can protect its investment.
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Posted in
Nelson Denis Puerto Rico colony,
Nelson Denis Puerto Rico debt,
Nelson Denis Puerto Rico history,
War Against All Puerto Ricans Nelson Denis
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written by building bridges radio
at Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Reads from His Block-Buster
Memoir to His Son “Between the
World and Me”
Readers of his work in The Atlantic
(including his June 2014 feature The Case for Reparations) and
elsewhere know Ta-Nehisi Coates for his thoughtful and influential writing
on race in America. Written as a series of letters to his teenaged son, his
new memoir, Between the World and Me, walks us through the course
of his life, from his neighborhood in Baltimore in his youth, to Howard University—which Coates dubs “The
Mecca” for its revelatory community of black students and teachers
—to the broader Meccas of New York and Paris. Coates describes his
observations and the evolution of his thinking on race, from Malcolm X to
his conclusion that race itself is a fabrication, elemental to the
concept of American (white) exceptionalism. Ferguson, Trayvon Martin, and
South Carolina are not bumps on the road of progress and harmony, but the
results of a systemized, ubiquitous threat to “black bodies” in the
form of slavery, police brutality, and mass incarceration.
Read More...
Posted in
Ta-Nehisi Coates Between the World and Me,
Ta-Nehisi Coates black life matters,
Ta-Nehisi Coates racism
»
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written by building bridges radio
at Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Strange Fruit: Extra-Legal & Legal Lynching on the 62nd Anniversary of
the Execution of Julius & Ethel Rosenberg
with
. Robert Meeropol, son of Julius & Ethel
Rosenberg
. Soffiyah Elijah, Ex. Dir. of the Correctional Association
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were
executed for crimes neither of them committed 62 years ago and the impact of
the government’s conduct in the Rosenberg trial still affects us today.
Virtually all the criticism of the lack of respect for defendant’s rights in
our present conduct of loyalty and national security trials can be traced to
the forced absence of the Constitution at the 1951 trial. Continued
research into the Rosenberg trial and dissemination of the documented
perjuries and prosecutorial and judicial deceptions contributes to today’s
efforts to reintroduce Constitutional trials into every courtroom,
regardless of the politics or religion or color of the defendants. That is
why on what is now the centennial of Ethel Rosenberg’s birth date that
Building Bridges continues to raise these issues and believe that we must win an official review of the Rosenbergs’ case and subsequently their exoneration. Although nothing can change the finality of the death penalty, an acknowledgment of government wrongdoing in this historic cause would be a first step in halting the perversions of due process and human
rights that continue to undermine the legal system and this country’s
proclamation of democracy. Robbie Rosenberg begins his presentation by
discussing the song Strange Fruit, which is about the writing of the
anti-lynching song written by his adopted parent Abel Meeropool, after the
execution of his parents, writing under the name Lewis Allen and its
popularization by the great singer Billie Holiday, who along with Ethel
Rosenberg was born 100 years earlier. Robbie draws some creative and
fascinating parallels between his birth mother and the life and death of
Billie Holiday.
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Abel Meeropool Strange Fruit,
Julius & Ethel Rosenberg,
Robert Meeropol,
Soffiyah Elijah,
Strange Fruit Billie Holiday,
Strange Fruit Black Lives Matter,
the Correctional Association
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written by building bridges radio
at Tuesday, July 28, 2015
The Long and Victorious Fight to Integrate the N.Y.C. Fire Department
with Ginger Adams Otis , Staff Writer
for the N.Y. Daily News and author of Firefight: The Century-Long Battle to
Integrate New York's Bravest
In 1919,
when Wesley Williams became a NYC firefighter, he stepped into a
world that was 100% white and predominantly Irish. Nearly a century later,
many things in the FDNY had changed--but not the scarcity of blacks. N.Y.C.
had about 300 black firefighters--roughly 3 percent of the 11,000
firefighters in a city of 2 million African Americans.. Decades earlier,
women and Blacks had sued over its hiring practices and won. But the FDNY
never took permanent steps to eradicate the inequities, which led to a
courtroom show-down between N.Y.C.'s billionaire Mayor, Mike Bloomberg, and
a determined group of black activist firefighters members of the Vulcan
Society. They also faced an insular culture made up of relatives who never
saw their own inclusion as favoritism. It was not until 2014 that the city
settled the $98 million lawsuit. At the center of this book are stories of
courage--about firefighters risking their lives in the line of duty but also
risking their livelihood by battling an unjust system. Among them: FDNY
Capt. Paul Washington, a second generation black firefighter, who spent
his multi-decade career fighting to get equality on the job.
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Center for Constitutional Rights Vulcan,
Ginger Otis,
Mayor Bloomberg Fire lawsuit,
NYC Fire Department discrimination,
Paul Washington Vulcan,
Vulcan Society,
Wesley Williams nyc fire department Stream
»
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written by building bridges radio
at Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Puerto Rico’s Debt Crisis: Who’s To Blame And What Can Be Done?
with
. David Galarza, co-founder of SiemPReste, an
organization committed
to working in the diaspora around the
political/civil/economic crisis of Puerto Rico
. Michael Kink, Exec.
Dir., Strong Economy for All Coalition
and Member Hedge
Clippers
Puerto Rico, an unincorporated
territory of the United States with 3.5 million U.S. citizen residents who
do not have the right to vote for President or representation in Congress-is
making headlines these days because of its inability to pay a $72 billion
debt owed to holders of its devalued bonds. While there have been
comparisons between Greece and Puerto Rico the reality is that they are
totally distinct situations. Greece has sovereignty, Puerto Rico does not.
Puerto Rico is unable to declare bankruptcy, cannot devalue its currency and
cannot go to international financial institutions under
the present colonial
system. In fact one of the solutions offered in the United States to solve
the chaotic economic crisis is to place the entire island in receivership.
In other words to go back to an even more rigid colonial system so that the
bonds market can protect their investment. Building Bridges discusses how
Washington helped create Puerto Rico’s staggering debt crisis and its effect
on millions of what are effectively second-class U.S. citizens and what is
to be done!
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David Galarza SiemPReste,
hedge clippers Puerto Rico,
hedge funds Puerto Rico,
Michael Kink Strong Economy for All Coalition,
Puerto Rico’s Debt Crisis
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written by building bridges radio
at Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Mexican Farm Workers’ Struggle in Historic Strike
with
. Al Rojas, a Founding Member of the United Farm
Workers; current Pres. , Sacramento Labor Council for Latin American
Advancement (AFL-CIO)
. Eduardo Rosario, Executive Board Member, NYC
Chapter, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement
Mexican farm workers in the San Quintin Valley of the state
of Baja California are calling for international action to support their
demands for decent wages and an end to labor abuses by international produce
companies that operate throughout Mexico primarily for export to the US
under the label of Driscoll’s. More than 33,000 farm workers declared a
historic strike in late March which stopped work at peak harvest and have
continued their protests ever since waging intermittent strikes and road
blocks and mass mobilizations which have extended to workers in Washington
State. They compare their working conditions to those that existed during
the colonial period with workdays of more than 15 hours . The San Quintin
Valley is a major producer of fruits and vegetables that are exported
primarily to the United States. The workers here pick as many as 160 kilos a day
that sell for more than $2,000, while the workers make on average US$7 a
day. The workers are demanding a base salary of at least $13 for every
8-hour workday as well as recognition by companies and union officials.
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Al Rojas Labor Council for Latin American Advancement,
Driscoll.boycott,
Eduardo Rosario LCLAA,
Mexican farm workers strike,
Mexican labor,
San Quintin strike,
Washington state farm workers strike
»
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written by building bridges radio
at Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Out In The Union: A Labor History Of Queer America
with
Mariam Frank,
author
Against the backdrop of the
historic ruling of the Supreme Court that gay marriage is legal in all the
states of this union and in furtherance of addressing the numerous other
inequities faced by LGBTQ and gender nonconforming people Miriam Frank,
Prof. of Humanities at New York University and author of Out In The Union: A
Labor History of Queer America, based upon 20 years of original research
brings us the stories spanning half a century of U.S. labor history and the
contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender unionists. She
expands our horizons both in
exposing the complex challenges queer workers
face in ‘coming out’ on the job and inside their unions and gives greater
dimension to and continues to fill out the profile of queer life and the
activism of the working class.
***************
NYC Council Passes ‘Ban The Box’ Bill
Restricting Use Of
Criminal Records In Hiring
with
Brandon Holmes, Community Civil Rights
Organizer, VOCAL-New York, a grassroots advocacy group
Carl
Stubbs, 63, stood outside New York City Council chambers in anticipation of
the council’s vote on the Fair Chance Act — a bill that would delay when many of the city’s private sector employers can ask job applicants about
their criminal history. He said, “I feel [that] being Black, having a
felony, you don’t get hired”. “I have had a felony for over 30 years.”
Stubbs, who’s also an activist with
the group Voices of Community Activists
Leaders (VOCAL-NY), wanted the bill to pass because it could improve his
chances getting a job. Now, the Bill arrives on the desk of the Mayor June
29th and we’ll find out if he signs it into law, precisely what it purports
to do and just how beneficial it could prove to be for the employment
opportunities of the formerly incarcerated, who have carried that
scarlet
letter around with them and suffered the Jim Crow consequences into the jobs
market.
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Ban the Box NYC. Criminal Records In Hiring,
Brandon Holmes VOCAL,
hiring discrimination,
Labor History of Queer America,
LGBTQ and unions,
Miriam Frank,
VOCAL NY
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written by building bridges radio
at Tuesday, June 30, 2015
The Fire Next Time: Response to The Taking of Black Life at Charleston's Emanuel African Methodist Church
with
Ed Whitfield long-term social
justice organizer, co-managing Director of the Fund for Democratic Communities, who speaks
and writes on issues of cooperatives and economic development,
on issues of education and social responses to racism and is
active in the call by the Southern Grassroots Economies Project to
develop a Southern Reparations Loan Fund
As
Professor Charles Lawrence precisely puts it:
"Racism in
America is much more complex than either the conscious conspiracy
of a power elite or the simple delusion
of a few ignorant
bigots. It is a part of our common historical
experience and,
therefore, a part of our culture. It arises from the assumptions
we have learned to make about the world, ourselves, and others as
well as from the patterns of our fundamental social activities. "
Ed Whitfield, long-term social justice organizer, co-managing Director
of the Fund for Democratic
Communities, who speaks and writes on issues of cooperatives and economic development, on issues of
education and social responses to racism and is active in the call by the
Southern Grassroots Economies Project to develop a Southern Reparations Loan
Fund plows deep into the bowels of America, to ferret out and grapple
with its policies and practices of white supremacy, rooted deep within its
public and private structures. He'll examine how then institutional racism
filters down to the individual citizenry and becomes a material force to
subjugate Black Life. Ed Whitfield asks whether we will wait for The Fire Next
Time or will we and how we can endeavor to tear out the roots of the poisons
weeds of white supremacy that can subsume the very nurturance of life.
**************************
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Charleston Emmanuel AME Church,
confederate flag,
Ed Whitfield,
Institutional racism,
white racist terrorism
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written by building bridges radio
at Tuesday, June 23, 2015
NYC Taxi Drivers Caravan to Albany to Protect Full-Time Jobs
with
Bhairavi Desai, Ex. Dir. NY Taxi Workers Alliance
A traffic jam of taxicabs circled the Capitol in Albany to put the brakes on legislation sponsored by ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft, which allow people to pick up passengers in their own cars. NYC would be required to accept drop-offs by Uber and Lyft drivers with lower standards than licensed NYC taxi and for-hire-vehicle drivers and there would be no way to enforce regulations against these drivers from cruising through NYC picking up illegal fares. The Taxi Workers Alliance says the legislation would lead to unsafe unregulated cars acting as taxis and that would lead to a decrease in collectable tax revenue. Desai says that if the legislation passes "riders will lose all kinds of protection - safety, insurance, accessibility, and a fair price. For drivers, this is the biggest threat to fulltime work in this industry because the companies depend on part-time labor and a saturation of vehicles. Already in NYC, we’re seeing incomes drop for drivers from all the segments – yellow, green, livery and black car, including Uber drivers.”
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full time jobs,
precarious jobs,
taxi regulation New York State,
Taxi Workers Alliance,
Transportation Network Companies New York,
Uber
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written by building bridges radio
at Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Getting Serious About the Next Economic System
with
Gar
Alperovitz, author, What Then Must We
Do? and The Next American Revolution: Beyond Corporate Capitalism and State Socialism
In an era when systemic critique of the
economic and political institutions of the United States is poised on the edge
of mainstream consciousness: the realities of a changing climate, an
irrationally destructive financialized economic system, a long and steady
historical trajectory concentrating political power along with wealth, are
becoming impossible to ignore. How can we consciously come together around this
opportunity to offer a coherent vision of what a "next system" might
look like? Gar Alperovitz is a leading proponent and practician of local socialized Alternatives to the current economic
system. He here summarized some of the concrete experiments in social change happening and being proposed across
the country including Worker cooperatives, municipal and state economic
enterprises, state and municipal banks, land trusts, and single payer health
insurance and lays out a new initiative to expand visibility and support for an
alternative economic system: The Next System Project : New Political-Economic
Possibilities for the 21st Century.
***************************************
The Building Blocks for a Just Economic System
with
Ed Whitfield, Co-Managing Director of the Fund for Democratic Communities speaks and writes on issues of cooperatives and economic development while continuing to be interested in issues of war and peace, as well as education and social responses to racism and is active in the call by the Southern Grassroots Economies Project (SGEP) to develop a Southern Reparations Loan Fund
More and more people are
disenfranchised from and disenchanted by our economic system with its
long and steady historical trajectory concentrating political power along
with wealth amongst the few, and a monstrous apparatus of prisons and
policing that are increasingly prevalent. And, Ed Whitfield is one of the
theoreticians/activists who offers us a coherent vision of what building a
"next system" might look like. Whitfield talks about his work in the South and
beginning to build for a far for equal and justice society.
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Fund for Democratic Communities,
Gar Alperovitz,
Next Economic System,
Southern Grassroots Economies Project,
worker cooperatives
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written by building bridges radio
at Tuesday, June 2, 2015
What 75,000 Mondragon
Cooperative Workers Can Teach Us About Controlling the Means of
Production
with
Prof. Frederick Freundlichis,
internationally recognized leader
on building worker cooperative
ecosystems
Mondragon, is a
cooperative owned and operated by 75,000 workers in the Basque region of
Spain. It has become the largest employer in the region and has played a
major role in restoring decent livelihoods after the Spanish civil war.
Frederick Freundlichis, is a professor of cooperative enterprise and
coordinator of a masters program at Mondragon, and is considered one of the
world’s leading researchers, trainers and who offers technical assistance on
broadening enterprise ownership with
businesses, government agencies, unions
and community organizations in the Basque Country and a variety of other
countries. In a rare interview, Prof, Freundlichis provides us with a
glimpse into the Mondragon cooperative model of enterprise and discusses
organizing, mobilizing, and building a worker cooperative ecosystem from the
ground up.
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Posted in
Basque region Spain,
cooperatives Spain,
Frederick Freundlichis,
Mondragon cooperatives,
worker cooperatives
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written by building bridges radio
at Wednesday, May 27, 2015
While Batterers Go Free, Their Victims Get Prosecuted
featuring
Marissa Alexander, survivor of and
organizer in defense of legal rights for
victims of
domestic violence and sexual abuse
Sumayya Coleman, lead
organizer for the campaign to Free Marissa Alexander and the African-American/Black Women's
Cultural Alliance .
Marissa Alexander, the Florida mother whose case became a
rallying cry for anti-racism activists and survivors of domestic
violence, was released recently after three years of incarceration. Alexander,
in fear for her life had faced up to 60 years behind bars for firing a single
warning shot to
deter her abusive husband. The public outcry in support
of Marissa was successful in causing the sentence to be reduced, but
nevertheless Marissa was forced to plead guilty to assault in exchange
for credit for time served and received two years of electronic monitoring and
house arrest. Marissa whose case has drawn national attention should be
free and her case continues to raise larger issues of public interest
and social around the state’s criminalization of victims of domestic and
sexual violence. Marissa’s case has long sparked outrage about the unequal
application of the law for both Black Americans and women. Marissa was
prosecuted by Angela Corey, who was also the prosecutor in the trial of
George Zimmerman, who was acquitted in
the February 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin and who evoked “stand your ground” laws in his
defense, while Marissa who was in actual fear for her life was denied the
right to use that defense. Marissa granted us an exclusive interview where
she and her critical supporter Sumayya Coleman speak about the plight of and in defense of legal rights for victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse.
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Posted in
Angela Corey,
battered women,
Domestic violence,
Marissa Alexander,
sexual abuse,
Stand your ground,
Sumayya Coleman
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written by building bridges radio
at Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Insurgent Trade Unionism in South Africa
featuring
Luke Sinwell, senior
researcher at the University of Johannesburg, whose research
includes radical theories and practices of participatory governance, social movements and housing struggles,
ethnographic research methods and action research. In addition to his
book on Marikana, he is co-editor of Contesting
Transformation: Popular Resistance in Twenty-First Century South Africa
The Marikana massacre, which witnessed 34 mineworkers being gunned down by the police August 16, 2012 arguably marked a key turning point in South African history. However, we know very little about the informal
networks that were created by mineworkers in order to challenge management
not only at Lonmin (Marikana), but also at Amplats and Impala South
African. Luke Sinwell works closely with militant workers, especially
miners, and the Left,
particularly the Democratic Left Front, and will talk
about mining, capitalism and the spirit of Marikana. Recently the
Democratic Left Front acting in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter
movement in the U.S. held a march on the U.S. consulate in protest against
the police murders of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, linking police
brutality in the U.S. to what militants face in South
Africa.
************************************
Plus
350,000 Member Strong Union Leader at Forefront of Organizing United Front Against South Africa’s Class Inequalities
with Irvin Jim, Secretary General,
National Union of
Metal Workers South Africa (“NUMSA”) ******************************
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Posted in
ANC and unions,
COSATU,
Irvin Jim,
Luke Sinwell,
Marikana mine massacre,
National Union of Metal Workers South Africa (“NUMSA”),
South African unions
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written by building bridges radio
at Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Rev. Barber calls for a New Reconstruction in America through
Grassroots Activism For Racial and Economic
Justice
with
Rev. Dr. William Barber is the President of the
North Carolina NAACP, and leader of Moral Mondays Movement whose effectiveness
of organization has lifted him into the ranks of national civil rights
leadership. He is helping transform the political landscape of North Carolina and
sparking progressive grassroots activism in other states as well calling this
nation to justice, equality and compassion.
“‘We’ is the most
important word in the social justice vocabulary. The issue is not what we can’t do, but what
we Can do when we stand together. With an upsurge in racism/hate crimes, criminalization of young
Black and Brown males, and insensitivity to the poor, we must Stand
together now like never before,” says the Rev. William Barber, leader of the
nationally-recognized North Carolina Moral Mondays movement. “The problems we
are dealing with are not going to be solved until there is a radical
redistribution of economic and political power.”
The Rev. Barber
called for Grassroots Activism For Racial and Economic Justice and a New Reconstruction in America in this speech
delivered at Union Theological Seminary in NYC.
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Posted in
black lives matter,
Dr. King economic justice,
economic justice,
new reconstruction,
North Carolina NAACP,
Rev Barber Union Theological Seminary,
Rev. William Barber
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