We speak with four organizers who are currently involved in projects around racial, economic and environmental justice about what they are currently working on, what their goals are for the year ahead and how their issues are connected.
Listen here:
2016: Activism in the Year Ahead with Jimmy Betts, James Jones, Jennifer Bryant and John Duda by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud
Relevant articles and websites:
After the Crash by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers
Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment
National Black Workers Center Project
Guests:
Jimmy Betts is a traveling organizer and activist who is working with Beyond Extreme Energy with personal emphasis on racial, indigenous, and environmental justice.
Jennifer Bryant works at One DC. Her work centers on Right to Income and involves the development of a DC Black Workers Center. Jennifer is co-host of Voices with Vision on WPFW 89.3FM and does Cuban solidarity work with the Venceremos Brigade. She holds a B.A. from Howard University and an M.A. from St. John’s University.
John Duda started working for the Democracy Collaborative as Communications Coordinator in 2011. He holds a B.A. in lingustics from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master’s degree in Logic from the Universiteit van Amsterdam, and a PhD in Intellectual History from Johns Hopkins University, where his dissertation examined the genealogy of the idea of “self-organization” in politics and the sciences. He is also a founding collective member at Red Emma’s, a worker-owned cooperative bookstore and coffeehouse in Baltimore, and has worked extensively as a digital media activist supporting a variety of grassroots independent media projects.
James Jones is an Organizer with MORE (Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment). James heads off the MORE’s Decarcerate STL campaign, which is focused on ending mass incarceration in the St. Louis Metro Area. Decarcerate STL covers three focus areas of work; shutting down the St. Louis medium security detention center, consolidating the St. Louis county municipal courts, and putting an end to corporations profiting from the prison industrial complex. James is also dedicated to researching solutions to the problems that limit the social and economic mobility of low-income communities. His previous work experience includes federal policy analysis, community organizing, coalition building, and advocacy for residents of public housing. James attended Jackson State University, where he earned a BA in English and a MA in Urban and Regional Planning from the School of Policy and Planning.