Lines of Descent:
W. E. B. Du Bois and the Emergence of Identity
with
Kwame Anthony Appiah 

Kwame Anthony Appiah, is a British-born Ghanaian-American
philosopher, cultural theorist, and novelist whose interests
include political and moral theory, the philosophy of language
and mind, and African intellectual history.  Professor Appiah
discusses his latest book,  Lines of Descent: W.E.B. Du Bois
and the Emergence of Identity.  

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Protestors Arrested Declaring NYC an Ice-Free Zone, in Push-Back Against Obama’s  Resolution To Deport Central American Refugees
with
The ICE-FREE NYC campaign, comprised of New Yorkers of all Backgrounds Who Want Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Completely Out of Our City

In response to the ongoing raids of noncitizens and the recent announcement of raids against Central American refugees immigrant rights advocates, labor unions, faith-based groups, and community members gathered to say NO to raids, demand and end to deportations and announce the creation of ICE-FREE Zones throughout New York City.  First, Obama, already known in
immigrant communities as the Deporter-in-Chief, announced the deportation priority program called Priority Enforcement Program (PEP).  Shortly after the announcement of PEP, home raids in NYC increased at an alarming rate. Then, on Dec. 26, 2015, Obama’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced nationwide raids aimed at deporting the primarily women and children, many of whom are refugees who fled some of the most violent regions in the world, in particular Central America.  But, the ICE-FREE NYC campaign  demands that the Department of Corrections and NY Police Department must end all collaboration with ICE, prohibit the sharing of information about New Yorkers between ICE and all City agencies that may reveal an individuals’ immigration status.  The ICE-FREE NYC campaign stands in solidarity and will put their bodies on the line to protect immigrant/refugee families and create ICE-FREE Zones within NYC's five boroughs and Long Island.

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Paul Robeson, the Artist as Revolutionary
with
Dr. Gerald Horne,  Horne has written more than 30 books on the struggles of those marginalized throughout world history and is chair of History and African Studies at University of Houston. He is one of the most gifted and insightful historians on racial matters of his generation. 

Gerald Horne discusses the Paul Robeson we've been waiting for: the flesh and blood revolutionary, artistic genius, and fearless opponent of capitalism, racism and colonialism. He recovers in meticulous detail one of the 20th century's greatest freedom fighters. Horne also brings Robeson to life for our own times. Gerald Horne returns Paul Robeson to his rightful place in history, squarely at the center of the Black freedom movement and the global struggle for human rights. As Horne demonstrates, Robeson knew no boundaries or borders-either in art, culture, nations, or in matters of politics. Struggle was his life; the world his terrain. 

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The Flint Water Crisis from the Ground Up
with
.  Sean Crawford, a Flint resident and auto worker whose
great grandfather was Vice Chair of the Flint sit-down strike  
.  Claire McClinton, Member of Flint Democracy Defense League 

It's like living in "some sort of a dystopian novel," Sean Crawford writes, "to find National Guard troops going door to door delivering drinking water on his street. To skimp on water costs, the governor and dictatorial emergency manager exposed the whole city to lead poisoning.  My hometown of Flint has been known for many things through its history. First as the birthplace of General Motors, and subsequently as the battleground of the Flint Sit-Down Strike that formed the United Auto Workers.  That gave rise to a wave of union organizing across the country, and to the middle class.

The quality of life that Flint residents struggled for and enjoyed was once the envy of the world.  More recently, Flint became famous as ground zero for the disastrous consequences of corporate globalization―chronic unemployment and underemployment, increasing wealth inequality, and the violence and destabilization that can happen in a community when companies are allowed
to destroy people’s livelihoods. Whether it was out of fear of political or financial reprisal, anyone who knowingly allowed the violation of Flint citizens’ health and safety 

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Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Text Unveiled:
It’s Worse Than We Thought
with  
Melinda St. Louis | International Campaigns Director
Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch

The long-awaited release of the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) revealed that the pact replicates many of the most controversial terms of past pacts that promote job offshoring and push down U.S wages while further expanding the scope of the controversial investor-state system and rolling back improvements on access to affordable medicines and environmental standards. Melinda St. Louis highlights the most onerous features of TPP and discusses the rigorous efforts to stop this quintessential capitalist juggernaut.  

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U.S. Supreme Court Heard Challenge to Bread and Butter Survival of Public Sector Unions
with
Caroline Fredrickson, President American Constitution Society for Law and Policy
and
Joe Burns, Labor Lawyer and Author, Strike Back: Using the Militant Tactics of Labor's Past to Reignite Public Sector Unionism Today

On Jan.11th, the U.S. Supreme Court considered a conservative legal challenge targeting public sector unions when the justices took up a case brought by non-union teachers who object to having to pay for collective bargaining rights. The dispute pits 10 public school teachers and the Christian Educators Association International against the California Teachers Association, a union with 325,000 members and a history of backing liberal political causes.  Unions that are certified to represent a group of employees are legally compelled to represent all employees in that unit, which means bargaining on behalf of all the workers for health care and other benefits, higher wages and representing them in grievances to adjudicate their rights against their employers.  The “dues” pay for unions to be able to  advocate for services to its members and to administratively function as an organization.  This court challenge seeks a decision that would economically starve the public workers organizations affecting their ability to advocate for their members individual economic benefits and their political rights as workers.   

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Inside Chicago's Legacy of Police Abuse:

Violence 'as routine as traffic lights'
with
Professor Craig Futterman, professor of law

On November 24, the Chicago Police Department released the long-awaited dashcam video from the shooting death of Laquan McDonald in Chicago. Craig Futterman, Clinical Professor of Law and director of the Civil Rights and Police Accountability Project, was instrumental in that release through his successful FOIA request. Professor Futterman and the Invisible Institute also recently released the Citizens Police Data Project, which provides a powerful tool to research several years of complaints against Chicago police officers. Now Building Bridges speaks with Prof. Futterman about The Alarming Numbers on Race and Police Misconduct in Chicago" and the context for the most recent police killings of 55-year-old, mother of 5, Bettie Jones and her young upstairs neighbor, 19 year old Quintonio LeGrier.  

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Immigrants Decry President Obama’s New Year Resolution to Begin Massive Roundups and Deportations of Central Americans
with
Oscar Charcon, Executive Director Alianza Americas

To stanch the flow of undocumented refugees to the U.S., President Obama, who some now refer to as the Deporter-In-Chief’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been preparing a national operation to deport Central American families, many of whom have been showing up at the southwest border, driven to leave El Salvador and Honduras which is gripped by terrifying violence, in a region that has also been plagued by a devastating drought.  Starting this month, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a DHS unit, plans to start rounding up hundreds of families that entered the U.S. without documents and deport them. Building Bridges speaks with Oscar Chacon, Executive Director of Alianza Americas, an immigrant from El Salvador, Chacon is a frequent lecturer on Latino immigrant issues in the U.S. and the impacts of the Latino diaspora in Latin America and decries this betrayal of the U.S.’s touted principles of human rights 

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Massive Demonstrations in Puerto Rico
as Teachers Union Fights Austerity
with
Mercedes Martinez, Pres., Teachers Federation of Puerto Rico
(“FMPR”)

With the rejection by Congress of any meaningful measure for debt relief despite the current deadline for almost $1 billion in debt payment due on January 1st, and amidst wealthy investors squeezing the cash-starved Island, unions in Puerto Rican are bracing for any eventuality, from massive layoffs to and including the possibly of a government shutdown.  A general strike is one of the responses being discussed by the FMPR, one of the most militant unions in Puerto Rico.  On November 17, 2015 the FMPR led a highly successful one day strike against the colonial government's brutal austerity program, and escalating attacks on hard earned workers’ rights, including pensions and retiree medical benefits and efforts to privatize the school system. The FMPR’s most recent action, just thus this past week was a civil disobedience activity at the Department of Treasury, against a pay cut in the form of denial of a Christmas bonus due to all public workers. While the colonial government says Cut Back the FMPR says Fight Back!

Plus
Puerto Rico's Economic Crisis:
Analysis, Alternatives and Solutions
with
Rafael 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” 

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Runaway Inequality: An Activist’s Guide To Economic Justice
withLes Leopold, award-winning author; cofounded and directs the
Labor Institute in NYC; conducts and shares economic educational programs to help fight runaway inequality

“There is nothing in the economic universe that will automatically rescue us from runaway inequality.  There is no pendulum, no invisible political force that “naturally” will swing back towards economic fairness…Either we wage a large-scale battle for economic, social and environmental justice or we will witness the continued deterioration of the world we inhabit.  The arc of
capitalism does not bend towards justice .  We must bend it.”  Leopold’s Runaway Inequality puts the facts in our hands so we can grasp what is really going on in our economy – and what we can do about it.
***************************
Election that bodes ill for the Haitian people!
withKim Ives, An Editor of Haïti Liberté

To prevent the Haitian people from celebrating the Bicentennial of the country’s 1804 independence, the International Community unleashed a vast media campaign of propaganda against the then government.  The end result was not only the landing of a group of mercenaries from the neighboring Dominican Republic, under the control of the CIA, but also a brutal, and bloody coup.  Since then, France, the United States and Canada have occupied Haiti under the flag of the United Nations and one current manifestation of imperialist domination was these governments without consulting the Haitian people deciding that there would be an election. Huge sums of money have been freed up for this event, while the victims of the earthquake are still housed under makeshift tents and tarps with little or no protection against heavy rains, not to mention hurricanes. Kim Ives an editor of  Haiti Liberte the largest Haitian weekly newspaper, distributed throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Haiti talks about the political situation on the ground in Haiti and the upcoming elections, as the campaign season for the final round of Haiti's elections is concluding and as of yet the second-place finisher in the presidential vote still hasn't decided whether he will participate in a runoff or continue to press for a

recount in an election that has already been shown to have been patently fraudulent

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It Takes Roots to Weather the Storm: the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance Challenges COP21 Climate Conference in Paris

with
Kali Akuno, is a founder and co-director of Cooperation Jackson, an emerging network of worker cooperatives and supporting institutions in Jackson, Mississippi and the South. Kali also served as the Co-Director of the US Human Rights Network, and as the Executive Director of the Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund based in New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina. Some of Kali s most noted works include, most recently Casting Shadows: Chokwe Lumumba and the Struggle for Racial Justice and Economic Democracy in Jackson, Mississippi ; Revolutionary Nationalism

for the 21st Century , and Until We Win: Black Labor and Liberation in the Disposable Era . Kali has authored many articles and pamphlets on international and working class politics, with a focus on how government counterinsurgency, state violence, the drug war, mass incarceration and neoliberalism impact Black communities, and issues of zero waste, food sovereignty, solidarity economies, and worker cooperatives. 

Kali, discusses "an agenda for power for working and poor people and communities of color," for climate justice advocated by the "It Takes Roots to Weather the Storm delegation of over 100 frontline leaders from climate-impacted communities across the U.S. and Canada, including the Arctic, united under the slogan: 'No War, No Warming -- Build an Economy for People and Planet.' ... Climate justice seeks to address much more than greenhouse gas emissions, but the root systemic causes of climate change itself. Climate justice is about social and economic justice, and how democratic, peaceful and equitable solutions, not military violence, best serve the interests of humanity. The fossil fuel economy is a driver of these multi-faceted crises facing the world: causing resource wars; polluting our air, water and land; creating illness and death to people and of ecosystems; privatization of nature ..."

***************************
Walmart Engages FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and Lockheed Martin To Surveil Workers Calling for $15 an Hour and Full-Time Work

with
Dan Schlademan, Co-Director, Our Walmart

OUR Walmart has uncovered testimony revealing Walmart’s surveillance of their workers fighting for $15 an hour and full-time work in the wake of Black Friday strikes in 2012 and the “Ride for Respect” in 2013. In addition to  closely monitoring the lawful labor rights activism of its associates on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, as the company faced a wave of bad publicity and negative same store sales, Walmart enlisted military industrial giant Lockheed Martin to spy on its workers and the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force to gather intelligence on protests.  “We are fighting for
all workers to be paid a fair wage and enough hours to put food on the table and provide for our families," said Mary Pat Tifft, a Walmart worker of 27 years in Wisconsin. "To think that Walmart found us such a threat that they had to hire a defense contractor and engage the FBI is a mind-blowing abuse of power. 

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Multiple Arrests As NY Protesters Rally
Over Deadly Chicago, Minneapolis Police Shootings

Millions March NYC and NYC Shut It Down – both of which are part of the Black Lives Matter movement held a rally in Washington Square Park decrying police violence against African-Americans.  Protesters rallied and marched over recent deadly police shootings in Chicago of Laquan McDonald in October 2014, and Minneapolis.  Protesters were also marching in solidarity with five activists who were shot while protesting the Minneapolis incident.  The five activists were shot by white supremacists who targeted those demonstrating near the 4th Precinct police station in Minneapolis, in the aftermath of the death of Jamar Clark – who was shot in the head and killed, while handcuffed by a local police officer.  At one point, a group went into Macy’s at Herald Square, and at another point, a group tried blocking the Lincoln Tunnel.   

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As Jan. 31st Deadline for Open Enrollment Under ObamaCare Looms, Doctor Finds Better Presciption Medicare for All
with

Dr. Donald E. Moore, MD, MPH,  Past President, Medical Society of the County of Kings and Board Member of Physicians for a National Health Program, NY Metro Chapter

While millions of Americans now scrambling to re-enroll in health insurance programs under the Affordable Care Act  are frustrated by the limitations of the private insurance marketplace, Dr. Moore, while noting the gains made under OmamaCare sees it's defects play out in his efforts to  provide good medical care to  patients.  In addition to often increasing out of pocket expenses,the insurance companies dictate which specialists he can refer patients to and he is pressured to shorten patient visits and bill them more. In response he has in effect gone “single payer,” or advocates Medicare for

all, refusing to work with private insurers and now mainly accepting patients under Medicare and Medicaid. He is urging all doctors to join the movement for Medicare for All (Single Payer) to reform the health care system based on inefficent private health care insurance with its high administrative overhead and profit margins. He has joined with other doctors in the Physicians for a National Health Program in lobbying the NYS Legislature to institute a Single Payer System in NYS, or Medicare for all, and the NYS Assembly recently overwhelming passed such a bill.    

*****
The Presidential Candidates On Immigration:
Exploiting the Politics of ResentmentwithOscar Chacon, Executive Director, Alianza Americas 

When New York billionaire and GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump launched into his anti-immigrant tirade against Mexicans crossing the border, he was using a long known political technique of plugging into the live wire of American resentment of the other – most recently Latinos; more precisely, those from the Southern borders: Mexicans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans,Hondurans, and the like.  And, no doubt the recent tragedies in France will be exploited to promote a new wave of fear and antagonism towards
immigrants and migrants of Arab descent. But, since the 19th century, politicians have used currents of fear, often fueled by economic downturns for the working class to crank up movements
against those who came from abroad.  Oscar Chacon discusses how US immigration policy is rooted in a narrative that paints immigrants as a criminal threat to order and progress and that the  political dilemma extends across party lines and is threaded through the positions of all the Presidential candidates to some degree.  Given that underlying assumption Chacon discusses how US immigration policy can truly be fixed, which he contends depends on how quickly and effectively organized immigrant communities—
and those who wish to make common cause with them—can build the political muscle necessary to ensure that their needs and demands can be neither co-opted nor ignored.

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Walmart Workers Fast for “$15 and Full-Time”
Part of 50 State Protests
with
•  Denise Barlage, former Walmart worker of 9 years laid off in
Pico Rivera, CA after speaking out for better working conditions
•  Tyfani Faulkner, former Walmart customer service manager.
Sacramento, CA
•  Emily Dehart works for Walmart in Merritt Island, Florida


Workers to Organize Dozens of Events Nationwide and Outside Walton Family Estates to Demonstrate that Walmart Workers and their Families are Going Hungry

Walmart workers and their allies announced plans to fast for “$15 and full-time” in the 15 days leading up to Black Friday, with fasting and actions planned in all 50 states. OUR Walmart, the worker-led organization which has already won significant victories – including a wage increase for 500,000 Walmart workers – will organize outside Walton family estates to draw attention to the income inequality that has become the trademark of the nation’s largest and most profitable corporate employer. Their message is clear: while Walmart employees can barely put food on the table this Thanksgiving, Walmart continues to thrive as the largest supplier of groceries in the nation and line the pockets of the Walton family with corporate greed. Anything less than $15
and full-time is not enough for Walmart workers

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DOZENS OF CUNY FACULTY IN PROTEST
HEAD TO JAIL v. SCHOOL
with
Barbara Bowen, President, Professional Staff Congress/CUNY
and protesting workersing New Yorkers, for the immigrants and people of color of this city.

         “CUNY Needs A Raise,”  “Stop the War on CUNY,” 
             “No More Excuses Chancellor Milliken"

Several dozen City University of New York faculty members were arrested in the latest of a series of escalating protests as part of a demand for salary increases. CUNY’s roughly 25,000 faculty and professional staff members have been without a contract since 2010 and have had no salary increases in that time.  Just before the civil disobedience occurred and after an announcement of a strike authorization vote the CUNY Administration finally put an offer on the table, but the Professional Staff Congress, which represents the workers vows to keep the pressure on as the proposal falls far short of what is needed to pay staff decently for the important work they do. Chancellor Milliken's offer represents a failure on CUNY management's part to secure sufficient investment by New York's Gov. Cuomo in the people who make college education possible
for half a million working New Yorkers, for the immigrants and people of color of NYC..

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NO! THESE MURDERS BY POLICE MUST STOP – NOW!!

Eric Garner...  Michael Brown…Freddie Gray…

Rekia Boyd… Andy Lopez…Tamir Rice

One after another — and so many others, precious Black and Brown lives — victims of police murder. We think of their faces, and furiously ache for justice. Over 1000 people a year killed by police – yet since 2005, less than 60 indictments, less than 25 convictions! Millions languish in prison, generation after generation, Black and Latino brothers and sisters. The spearpoint of a whole matrix of oppression. But, people have struggled, resisted, risen up 
and Building Bridges, straight from the line of march with them lifts up the voices of the family members, from across the country who have lost their beloved, at the hands of the police, along with a growing number of their supporters, who tell us that we must go further - in the months that come, in many different ways, we must intensify our resistance.   

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African Independence: How Africa Shapes the World
with Tukufu Zuberi, Lasry Family Professor of Race Relations and

professor of sociology and Africana studies at the University of

Pennsylvania. He writes and speaks widely about race, both in

the U.S. and internationally. He is a host on the hit PBS series

History Detectives.
 
Tukufu Zuberi’s frames decolonization and formal sovereignty as both an era and a sensibility, and defines what ‘African independence’ actually means for the continent and the world as a whole. He documents the decisive role played by African soldiers in WWII and argues that the war's savagery exposed 'the myth of civilized Europe and barbaric Africa. Though the Allied victory was 'forged with considerable African sacrifice,' much of the continent remained in European imperial hands. However, African participation in the defeat of the Axis powers rekindled massive anti-colonial aspirations, resulting in a series of uprisings and growing international support for decolonization. Regrettably, the Cold War derailed national independence movements and the continent again became 'locked in a death grip' by brutal military dictatorships supported by either the U.S. or the U.S.S.R. In this engaging and bold analysis of African independence, Zuberi critiques the failure of U.S. humanitarian policies toward Africa and Africa’s current partnerships with countries in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. He reveals the contradictions that continue to obstruct aspirations for African liberation. Indeed, the evidence presented shows that Africa is ‘once again locked n a death grip’ of post-colonial and post-independence manipulations, nevertheless, his story of the making of modern Africa, constitutes an impassioned plea to recognize the continent for more han the trouble it has endured.  

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Mumia Must Live: An Emergency Report On the Medical
Mistreatment Of The World’s Most Renowned Political Prisoner
with
Esperanza Martell, a peace and human-rights activist, who has worked on social justice issues dealing with Puerto Rican independence, political prisoners, education and health care from a class, race and gender perspective.  She teaches
community organizing at Hunter College, School of Social Work.
and.  Johanna Fernandez, with the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home, who teaches 20th-century U.S. history, the history of social movements, the political economy of American cities, and
African-American history

In 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that prisoners were entitled to the same medical and dental treatment as everyone else in their communities, and that prisons withholding treatment may be held liable for violating the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.  However, the reality is that we might never know how many prisoners have suffered or died from medical and health care neglect, or willful mistreatment behind the walls.  But, the case of journalist, world-renowned humanist and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, now in the fight for his life against the outrageous and deadly medical treatment in the prison system is highlighting for the public the necessary fight to ensure that no more members of this vulnerable population suffer and are deprived of adequate health care – that the Supreme Court holding be followed!  

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The Fabrication of a Saint: Native Peoples Horrified
Over Canonization of Junípero Serra, Whom They Say
is Responsible for Genocide
withChristine Grabowski, author of Serra-gate the Fabrication
of a Saint published in Indian Country Today

The decision of Pope Francis to canonize 18th century Spanish
missionary Junípero Serra has provoked the ire of indigenous
peoples, whose ancestors were murdered and  maimed during
Serra’s founding nine of the 21 missions in California that later
were the basis of what is now the modern state. Hundreds of
thousands of native peoples are purported to have died after the missionaries arrived. According to historian Alvin Josephy, what happened in California "was as close to genocide as any tribal people had faced, or would face, on the North American continent." We’ll speak with Christine Grabowski, author of serra-gate the fabrication of a saint about why indigenous people oppose Pope Francis’ decision to canonize Father Junípero Serra.

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OUR Walmart Campaign, with New Partners Readies To Turn
“Black Friday” into a Red-Letter Day in its Fight for $15 and
Full-Time Employment for Employees

Walmart workers, fortified with a growing number of allies in their
reinvigorated OUR Walmart organization are readying to push the world’s largest corporation to pay  $15 an hour minimum and provide full-time employment hours for its workers. OUR Walmart, which has already won a wage increase for some 500,000 Walmart workers is on the move and along with its new allies, Demos, the Restaurant Opportunities Center, Color of Change, Domestic Workers Alliance and Jobs With Justice, among others is launching a mass campaign for a $15 an hour wage for all associates; consistent, full-time hours for its employees; to end unfair coachings and terminations; and for Walmart to address racial justice, women’s rights and to address climate change.  “We are standing up against Walmart because we are fighting for $15 an hour and 40 hours a week,” said Wanda Banks, a Walmart worker from Louisiana. “If I had $15 an hour and 40 hours a week I would be able to pay off a lot of my bills – I could sleep better at night without tossing and turning. I have a granddaughter that I need to get through college. So that would help me in a great and awesome way.” “We’re standing up to Walmart to stop retaliating against workers that speak out,” said Janet Sparks, a Walmart worker from Louisiana.

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