Iran and Cuba – Is Diplomacy Working?

Two major diplomatic changes occurred recently between the US and Iran and Cuba. Iran and the P5+1 (China, France, Russia, UK, US + Germany) completed an agreement regarding Iran’s nuclear program. It is historic that the US and Iran engaged in diplomatic relations and that the sanctions against Iran will end. The agreement opens Iran up for more foreign investment and trade. Will war be averted? We speak with Professor Muhammad Sahimi, a chemical engineer who frequently writes about Iranian politics and the nuclear program to hear an Iranian perspective on this agreement. And diplomatic relations were restored with Cuba after 54 years of economic and political isolation. The Cuban embassy was reopened in Washington, DC. We speak with Miguel Fraga, the First Secretary of the Cuban Embassy about the restoration of diplomacy, what Cuba is asking of the US and how the US is responding.

 

Listen here:

Iran and Cuba – Is Diplomacy Working? with Dr. Muhammad Sahimi and Miguel Fraga by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

 

Relevant articles and websites:

Demonizing Iran to Prevent the Nuclear Agreement by Muhammad Sahimi

Iranian’s View of the Nuclear Deal: Optimistic, with Significant Caveats by Glenn Greenwald and Murtaza Hussain

Iran News and Middle East Reports

Cuban Embassy Opens in Washington but Important Issues remain Unresolved by Paul Lewis

 

Guests:

Dr. Muhammad Sahimi  is a Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, and holds the NIOC Chair in petroleum engineering at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. He is also active in journalism, writing frequently on Iranian politics. Sahimi received his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tehran in 1977. After briefly working for the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), he received a scholarship from the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and traveled to the USA in 1978 (where he has since remained), completing his PhD at the University of Minnesota in 1984. He then moved to the University of Southern California, becoming Chairman of his department from 1999–2005. Since then he has held the NIOC Chair, which was formerly known as the “Shah Chair”, having been endowed by Shah Reza Pahlavi. He has also been a visiting professor in Australia and Europe, and a consultant to many industrial corporations.

Since 2003, Sahimi has written many articles on the subject of Iranian politics (particularly the Iranian nuclear programme) for websites such as Payvand, Antiwar.com and the Huffington Post. He has been a regular columnist for Tehran Bureau since 2008, and has written occasional pieces for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal the Harvard International Review and The Progressive. Sahimi is co-founder and editor of the website, Iran News and Middle East Reports.

Miguel Fraga is the First Secretary of the Embassy of Cuba in the US. For the past 4 years, he worked in the office of the United States Division of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Havana, Cuba. Prior to that, he served as Third Secretary in the Cuban Embassy in Canada. Fraga received a Bachelor of Science in Law at the University of Havana and a Master of Science in Foreign Relations from the Higher Institute of Foreign Relations “Raul Roa Garcia” in Havana.

US Colonization at Home and Abroad

This week there are two groups in Washington, DC protesting colonialist policies being imposed on them by the US government. Apache Stronghold traveled across the country from Oak Flat in Arizona because there was a provision in the most recent version of the National Defense Authorization Act to give land including the sacred site of Oak Flat to Resolution Copper Company – Rio Tinto – BHP for a billion dollar mining operation. The land was protected since 1955, but the mining companies have been trying to get a license to mine it since 2005. We speak with San Carlos Apache Tribal Councilman Wendsler Nosie and Naelyn Pike, a leader in the Apache Stronghold movement. The International People’s Tribunal held events over the past week in New York and Washington, DC to bring attention to the collaboration between the US and Philippines in the “war on terror” which is resulting in the disappearances, torture and murder of hundreds of people and the displacement of tens of thousands. We speak with Ka Paeng (Rafael Mariano) who is a former member of Congress and is current co-chair of the Peasant Movement of the Philippines, KMP.

 

Listen here:

US Colonization at Home and Abroad with Wendsler Nosie, Naelyn Pike and Rafael Mariano (Ka Paeng) by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

 

Relevant articles and websites:

Apache Stronghold’s Spiritual Journey to Nation’s Capitol

Apache Stronghold Caravan Saving Sacred Site From Mining Giant by Albert Bender

Apache Stronghold

Save Oak Flat Act

Tribunal Demonstrates US War Crimes in Philippines by Bernadette Ellorin

International Peoples Tribunal 2015

 

Guests:

Wendsler Nosie was born on July 10, 1959 on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, in Gila County, in San Carlos, Arizona and was raised in a traditional Apache way of life. He graduated from the Globe High School in May 1978 and attended Merritt College in Oakland, California, attended Phoenix College in Phoenix, Arizona, and graduated from the State of Arizona Banking Academy.

Following college, Councilman Nosie returned to the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation and began his employment with the San Carlos Apache Tribe as the Tribal Work Experience Program Director in 1982 and in 1988, he was elected to a four-year term to serve through 1992 as the Tribal Council Representative of the Peridot District for the San Carlos Apache Tribal Council, which governs the San Carlos Apache Tribe through its Amended Constitution and By-Laws, being federally recognized in 1934 through the U.S. Indian Reorganization Act.

Councilman Nosie then founded the Rural Opportunity of Arizona (ROA) in 1990, an individually owned business owned and operated by a tribal member, which provided opportunities for tribal members to become skilled in trade and trained for jobs throughout Arizona.

Councilman Nosie was re-elected as the Tribal Council Representative for the Peridot District in 2004 to serve a four-year term through 2008, was then inspired to run for the Tribal Chairman Seat and was elected by the San Carlos Apache People as their Tribal Chairman in 2006 to serve a four-year term ending in 2010, shortly after being elected to office, he resigned as the Director of ROA in 2006.

Wendsler Nosie, Sr., served as the Tribal Chairman for the San Carlos Apache Tribe, which is comprised of nearly 15,000 tribal members on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, in San Carlos, Arizona, ranging within the Gila, Graham and Pinal Counties, totaling 1.8 million acres, situated in the southeastern portion of the State of Arizona.

Councilman Nosie was recognized in 2006 and given an Honorable Mention by the Wake Forest University of Winston-Salem, North Carolina for his coordination of bringing students from Wake Forest University to the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation for a cultural integration program and was also recognized and honored in 2007 by the National Council of Churches from New York City for his accomplishments in Indian Country as a leader of spirituality among youth and organizing many events for over twenty-five years, which includes having worldwide participation of sacred runs in protection of the Native American Indian culture, tradition and heritage. The National Council of Churches comprises of over 30 million membership throughout the nation.

The people of Peridot District formed a movement to place Wendsler Nosie Sr. on the 2010 Peridot District Council election ballot as a write-in candidate and were successful. Wendsler Nosie Sr. is the current Peridot District Councilman, proudly serving his third term representing the largest San Carlos District.

“I contribute these accomplishments first to the creator who is known throughout the world by many names, to my mother and all my siblings, who have had a part of my up-bringing, and to my wonderful family who has stood by me through this roller coaster of life, to bring change to our Peoples’ lives.
Not to forget all my relatives, friends, and all those who have joined by path, and especially those who are no longer with us, who have played a very important part in sharing their history and visions for a better life for our people.

Our work is not done. We are now called on to work harder at understanding, believing, and committing to holding on to our spiritual beliefs, whether it is ancient Apache, or Christianity, for the world is changing quick and fast. Land, air, water and the environment we live in, is at risk, so for our unborn children to enjoy what God has created and instructed us on caring for, we must now dig deep to secure the future. “

Naelyn Pike is the granddaughter of Wendsler Nosie. She was raised as a traditional Apache in the San Carlos Tribe and she is a leader in the Apache Stronghold movement.

 

 

 

 

 

Ka Paeng (Rafael Mariano) is a Filipino politician and peasant leader. He is a former representative of Anakpawis party-list in the House of Representatives. He is known as Ka Paeng among activists.

Mariano is a native of Quezon, Nueva Ecija and is the eldest among the five children of peasant couple Narciso Mariano and Herminigilda Vitriolo. At an early age, he helped his parents and family tend their two-hectare farmland owned by a landlord in their area.

Mariano studied agriculture and agri-cooperatives in Wesleyan University and Liwag Colleges in Cabanatuan City. However, he failed in finishing his college degree to become a full-time farmer due to his father’s illness and increasing family debt.

At the age of 20, Mariano experienced activism first-hand by joining the local youth organization Bisig ng Kabataan (Youth Arm), which advocated the rights and welfare of local farmers. In 1981, the young Mariano was elected as councilor in his hometown.

His leadership in the peasant movement blossomed in the 1980s and in 1984, Mariano became a part in the formation of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid ng Gitnang Luzon (Central Luzon Peasant Alliance) where he served as second regional vice-chairperson in 1984.

In 1985, Mariano was elected as the founding general secretary of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Peasant Movement of the Philippines or KMP), a major peasant center in the Philippines. He was then elected as national vice chair of the organization in 1990 and as national chair in 1993.

During his stint with KMP, Mariano also served in the international left movement with the International League of People’s Struggle, International Alliance Against Agro-chemical Transnational Corporations, Pesticide Action Network-Asia and the Pacific Task Force on Food Sovereignty, and Philippines-Korea Committee for Peace and Reunification in the Korean Peninsula.

From 1998 to 2004, Mariano served as national chair of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance or BAYAN), the political center of the mainstream national democratic movement.

In 2004, Mariano, together with the late labor leader Crispin Beltran, was elected as representative of the Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) party-list in the House of Representatives. In 21 May 2008, he replaced Beltran in the 14th Congress after the latter’s death.

Anakpawis was re-elected in 2010 with Mariano as its number one nominee.

During his term in congress, Mariano has been part of the national democratic minority bloc in Congress together with representatives from Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Kabataan Party-list, and the Alliance of Concerned Teachers party-list. He has been an active oppositionist against the Arroyo administration and an advocate of pro-labor bills, such as the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill and the P125 Wage Increase Bill. To date, he has authored and co-authored 111 House measures.

In May 2006, Mariano, together with four congressmen from the national democratic bloc were detained inside the Batasang Pambansa on charges of rebellion filed by the Department of Justice. They were famously called the “Batasan 5.”

Mariano has openly rejected the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER), a law that seeks to amend and extend the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program by five years, saying that it still has pro-landlord provisions.

This is What the Next Revolution Could Look Like

We speak with Debbie Bookchin and Blair Taylor, editors of “The Next Revolution: Popular Assemblies and the Promise of Direct Democracy,” which is a compilation of essays by the late Murray Bookchin. Bookchin ran the Institute for Social Ecology in Vermont which describes itself as “a pioneer in the exploration of ecological approaches to food production, alternative technologies, and urban design, and has played an essential, catalytic role in movements to challenge nuclear power, global injustices and unsustainable biotechnologies, while building participatory, community-based alternatives. The Institute strives to be an agent of social transformation, demonstrating the skills, ideas and relationships that can nurture vibrant, self-governed, healthy communities.” Bookchin was one  of the most influential thought leaders in the later twentieth century about anarchism who developed the concepts of “social ecology” and “libertarian municipalism.”

 

Listen here:

 

This is What the Next Revolution could look Like with Debbie Bookchin and Blair Taylor by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

 

Relevant articles, websites and video:

Bookchin: Living Legacy of an American Revolutionary by Federico Venturini

Listen Anarchist by David Harvey

Murray Bookchin’s Blog

The Next Revolution: Popular Assemblies and the Promise of Direct Democracy available from Verso Books

Institute for Social Ecology

VIDEO: Debbie Bookchin and Blair Taylor at Red Emmas in Baltimore

 

Guests:

Blair Taylor has been involved with the Institute for Social Ecology since 2000. Co-editor of the recent bookThe Next Revolution: Popular Assemblies and the Promise of Direct Democracy, featuring essays by Murray Bookchin, Blair is presently completing a doctorate in politics at the New School for Social Research examining the historical evolution of the US left from the New Left to Occupy Wall Street. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, he currently works in Germany as a fellow at the Einstein Crisis Research Group at The Free University of Berlin. Active in the global justice movement, today he works with a variety of political and educational projects.

 

 

Debbie Bookchin is the daughter of Murray Bookchin. She is an author and journalist who wrote “The Virus and the Vaccine: Contaminated Vaccines, Deadly Cancers and Government Neglect” with Jim Schumacher.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Racism: From South Carolina to the Dominican Republic and Beyond

The recent massacre of nine people in a black church in Charleston, South Carolina by a white supremacist highlights the racist culture that is particularly prevalent in the South and has amplified the call for removal of symbols such as the Confederate flag. The attack demonstrates that institutionalized racism is not isolated to the police and judicial system, it is pervasive in the educational system, government and in our neighborhoods. And it is not limited to the United States but extends around the world, particularly where the US Empire and other colonists have interfered. Kymone Freeman, an activist and artist, and Reverend Graylan Hagler of the Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington, DC join us to discuss the state of racism in the US and around the world today.

 

Listen here:

Racism: From South Carolina to the Dominicana and Beyond with Kymone Freeman and Rev. Graylan Hagler by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

 

Relevant articles, books and websites:

South Carolina and Its Confederate Flag by Kevin Alexander Gray

Kymone Freeman

Plymouth Congregational UCC

 

Guests:

Kymone Freeman (guerrilla artist) is the director of the National Black LUV Festival recognized as a Washington, D.C. Mayor’s Art Award Finalist for Excellence in Service to the Arts in 2006 and received a Mayoral Proclamation in 2007. est. 1997 NBLF has since become the largest annual AIDS mobilization in WDC. Freeman has appeared along side Mark Twain and Harriet Tubman in newspapers and subway cars throughout WDC metro area as a Clinical AIDS Vaccine Trial Participant and NIH “Everyday Heroes” Ad Campaign Model to bring attention to this pandemic. Freeman is a founding board member for Words Beats & Life, a Hip Hop Non-Profit and co-founder of Bum Rush the Boards the largest annual youth chess competition in WDC. He is the subject of one chapter of the book Beat of A Different Drum: The Untold Stories of African Americans Forging Their Own Paths in Work and Life (Hyperion). He has authored a collection of poetry entitled Blood.Sweat.Tears.

His dedication to art and activism lead him to accept the position of NYC spokesperson and official poet of the anti-war independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader during his campaign in ’04. A scholarship received from American Friends Service Committee to spend the summer in Nairobi, Kenya for an international leadership conference resulted in him returning to the states as a playwright. He received the 22nd Annual Larry Neal Award for Drama for the successful play Prison Poetry that has appeared at the Historic Lincoln Theatre and Source Theatre during the Hip Hop Theatre Festival, THEARC Theatre, Oak Hill Juvenile Detention Facility and several college campuses where his work has been included in the Black History curriculum of Maryland’s Easternshore. He has conducted production workshops at the National Black Theatre Festival and Institute of Policy Studies.

His second stageplay was commissioned by Jive Recording Artist Raheem DeVaughn entitled the Love Experience. He has studied under the legendary independent filmmakers Haile Gerima, Raoul Peck and Sam Greenlee. Freeman’s second screenplay Nineveh: a conflict over water a futuristic drama that paints a post-oil depleted world has been produced as a short film and is pursuing a feature length release.

He is currently Program Director of We ACT Radio 1480 AM DC’s new progressive radio station.

Rev. Graylan Hagler is a pastor and activist. Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Hagler received a Bachelor’s Degree in Religion from Oberlin College, Ohio, in 1976. Three years later, he received his Masters of Divinity degree from the Chicago Theological Seminary. On 3 February 1980, Hagler was ordained in the United Church of Christ and was recognized with full standing in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) the following year. The Rev. Mr. Hagler is the Senior Minister of Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ, Washington, D.C., and the Immediate Past National President of Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic Justice(MRSEJ).

In 1980, he founded a congregation in Roxbury, Massachusetts and in 1991 ran for mayor of that city and lost. During his 12 years as a pastor in Boston Reverend Hagler’s work was one of empowerment and opposition to the forms of racism that gripped the city in the 1980s. He campaigned to protect citizens from unconstitutional and illegal police practices and to safeguard democratic participation in the selection and election of black political leadership. He also led the Free South Africa Movement to force divestiture of dollars from the support of the Apartheid system.

In 1992, Reverend Hagler moved to Washington, D.C., where today he is the Senior Minister of Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ and continues to preach and organize. He has fought the proliferation of liquor stores in the black community and has insisted on community participation in development issues. In 1993 he opposed theExxon Corporation’s plans to build a ‘super gas station’ in the neighborhood where his church is located. In 2003, Reverend Hagler broke ground on that same Exxon site after acquiring the property. Instead of a ‘super station,’ 69 units of subsidized apartments for senior citizens opened in February 2005. Reverend Hagler worked to preserve the only publicly funded hospital in the District of Columbia, organized a successful effort to oppose the death penalty from being instituted by the United States Congress on the district, and continues the fight against public school vouchers, which he sees as a plan to divert funds from public education to private schools.

Reverend Hagler served on the Steering and Administrative Committee of United for Peace and Justice, a national coalition working to oppose aspects of U.S. foreign policy that the group believes contribute to war and aggression. Reverend Hagler is the former Development Director of the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA) which helps people become homeowners. Reverend Hagler has also served as chaplain to UNITE HERE Local 25, the labor union representing hotel workers in the Washington Metropolitan Area.

He is the Executive Director of Faith Strategies, an organization of clergy he founded in 2012. Faith Strategies organizes efforts to better the lot of working people, protects human and civil rights and develop strategies for movements to embrace the faith community.

Rev. Hagler has advocated to change the name of the Washington Redskins, arguing that the current name is racist. He believes in the dignity and worth of all people, the worth of workers, empower movements and people so that liberation is realized.

Baltimore’s Struggle for Economic, Racial and Social Justice

In the wake of Freddie Gray’s murder by police, national attention has been focused on Baltimore. Residents of Baltimore have come together in unprecedented ways to protest police brutality and organize for longer term change. Police brutality and unjustified arrests have been problems in Baltimore for a long time stemming back to Mayor Martin O’Malley’s program of mass arrests without probable cause. One sixth of the population of Baltimore was arrested in one year, tens of thousands of which were youth who were held overnight and released in the morning without charges. But the injustice in Baltimore runs deeper. Wealth inequality has been rising in Baltimore, MD so that some neighborhoods look like war zones with rows of abandoned houses and dilapidated structures while others are dotted with large mansions and their sophisticated gardens. There is a twenty year difference in life expectancy between neighborhoods within the city. Delegate Jill Carter, a practicing attorney in Baltimore, and Dayvon Love of Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle will speak about the history of police violence and poverty in Baltimore and what is being done to bring justice to the people.

 

Listen here:

Baltimore’s Struggle for Economic, Racial and Social Justice with Jill P. Carter and Dayvon Love by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

 

Relevant articles and websites:

Maryland Delegate: Martin O’Malley ‘Savagely Wrong’ on Crime by Fault Lines

The Brutality of Police Culture in Baltimore by Conor Friedersdorf

Only We Can Save Ourselves – In Response to the Death of Freddie Gray by Dayvon Love

New Jail, Same Old Story: Selling Out Baltimore’s Grassroots by Dayvon Love

Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle

 

Guests:

Jill P. Carter is the daughter of the late Walter P. Carter, who was a civil rights activist and leader in the desegregation movement in Maryland in the 1950s and 1960s. Her mother, Zerita Joy Carter, is a retired public school educator. Carter attended Western High School in Baltimore. Carter received her B.A. in English from Loyola College in Maryland in 1988, and her J.D. from the University of Baltimore School of Law in 1992.

Prior to law school, Carter was a journalist for Afro American Newspapers. She was admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1993. She has worked as a staff attorney for The Legal Aid Bureau, the Office of the Public Defender, and the Office of the City Solicitor. She is a member of Monumental City Bar Association, the Maryland Trial Lawyers’ Association and a founding member of the Black Lawyers Group and founder and president of the Walter P. Carter Foundation. She was the Executive Director of the Maryland Minority Business Association in 2002, chair of the Baltimore Branch NAACP Legal Redress Committee, and was listed in Maryland’s Top 100 Women in the Daily Record in 2006. In 2009,she was the honored as an “Exceptional Woman in Business and Government”, at the first annual “Pretty in Pinstripes” Women’s History Month celebration.

Carter was elected to the Maryland legislature after defeating four incumbents in the Democratic primary that September. She was the third African-American female attorney elected to the Maryland Legislature. The first was Lena K. Lee who served from 1967–1982; the second, Lisa Gladden, served from 1998–2002; and, finally, Jill Carter (2003–present).

During her first term from 2003–2006, she was the only African-American female attorney serving in the Maryland House of Delegates. She is currently a member of the House Judiciary Committee and chair of the Estates and Trusts Subcommittee, the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland, and the Women Legislators of Maryland. Carter voted against legalizing slot machines in Maryland in 2005. Prior to her re-election in 2006, she became a vocal critic of then mayor (now Governor Martin O’Malley‘s “failed policing policies”. She posited that the so-labeled, zero tolerance, arrest strategy failed to cause significant reduction in a soaring crime rate in Baltimore City, but, rather, pressured police officers to make tens of thousands of arrests that did not produce criminal charges. She has oft been referred to as a lone voice in the wilderness for her challenges to established politicians on matters of adequate housing for the poor, lead poisoning of children, to adequately fund public education, both in the legislature, and in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City., and, in 2007, calling for a special session of the legislature to deal with the BGE utility rate increase.

In 2008, Carter was the only member of Baltimore City’s state delegation to receive a grade of “Outstanding” from the local NAACP.

 

Dayvon Love is the Research Director of Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle. Dayvon was a policy debater for the Towson University debate team. In 2008, he Deven Cooper won the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) National Championship – the first time in history that an all black team won the tournament. He has been an active participant in the Baltimore Algebra Project and Baltimore CAN. He has given numerous speeches and led workshops around Baltimore to give insight into the plight of the masses of Baltimore citizens.

Time for US to Get Out of Okinawa

Recently we met with a delegation of mayors from Okinawa who came to the United States because the US is building a very large military base in Henoko that will destroy ecologically sensitive areas and that is not wanted by the people of Okinawa. Through opinion polls, the election of politicians who are opposed to the base and persistent nonviolent direct action, Okinawans are making it clear that they are not supportive of a continued US military presence there. With less than 1% of Japan’s land mass, Okinawa is home to 74% of the US military in Japan. We air a recorded interview with Mayor Susumu Inamine of Nago City in Okinawa where the Henoko Base is being built. Then we speak with Professor Steve Rabson who studies and writes about the situation in Okinawa.

 

Listen here:

Time for the US Military to Leave Okinawa with Mayor Susumu Inamine and Professor Steve Rabson by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

 

Relevant books, articles and websites:

Nago Mayor Says US Bases “A Legacy of Misery” in Okinawa by Susan Miyagi Hamaker

Nago Mayor Remains Defiant Over Futenma Plan by Reiji Yoshida

Henoko and the US Military: A History of Dependence and Resistance by Steve Rabson

Nago Mayor Inamine’s Concise Guide to What’s Wrong with the Planned Marine Air Base

 

Guests:

Susumu Inamine is the mayor of Nago City in the Okinawa Prefecture. He has been a staunch opponent of the US’ plans to expand its military presence in Okinawa by building a new and large base in Henoko.

Steve Rabson is Professor Emeritus of East Asian Studies, Brown University. His books are Okinawa: Two Postwar Novellas (Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 1989, reprinted 1996), Righteous Cause or Tragic Folly: Changing Views of War in Modern Japanese Poetry(Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 1998), Southern Exposure: Modern Japanese Literature from Okinawa, co-edited with Michael Molasky (University of Hawaii Press, 2000), The Okinawan Diaspora in Japan: Crossing the Borders Within (University of Hawaii Press, 2012) and Islands of Resistance: Japanese Literature from Okinawa, co-edited with Davinder Bhowmik (forthcoming from University of Hawaii Press, 2015). He was stationed in Okinawa as a U.S. Army draftee in 1967-68. He is an Asia-Pacific Journal Associate.

The Future of Global Governance – Is this the end of the nation-state?

Clearing the FOG speaks with two guests from the Center for Governance and Sustainability at the University of Massachusetts – Boston about the current direction that global governance is taking. Senior fellow Harris Gleckman authored a response to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Redesign Initiative which was released in 2010. In brief, the direction proposed by the WEF would give a stronger role to multinational corporations and reduce the role of the nation-state. Maria Ivanova, co-director of the Center for Governance and Sustainability, will discuss governance systems with respect to environmental issues around the world that function well and those that do not. The future of global governance is the major question of the century.

 

Listen here:

The Future of Global Governance with Harris Gleckman and Maria Ivanova by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

 

Relevant articles and websites:

Stop the Fast Track to a Future of Global Corporate Rule by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers

WEF Proposes a Public-Private United “Nations” by Harris Gleckman

Reader’s Guide to the WEF’s Global Redesign Initiative

EnvironmentalGovernance.org

 

Guests:

Harris Gleckman is a sociologist by training and his professional experience crosses the disciplines of international policy, economics, trade and environment. As Chief, Environment, at the UN Centre on Transnational Corporations, Gleckman worked on multinational corporations and the environment and the 1992 Rio Conference on Environment and Development. At UNCTAD, he worked in the Geneva office of the UN secretary-general and as an economic advisor to the G77 in New York during the run up to the 2005 Heads of State Summit and as Chief of the UNCTAD NY Office. His responsibilities in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs crossed between building linkages between the UN and the WTO, coordinating three days of high-level informal dialogues at the 2002 “Financing for Development Conference,” and directing outreach program to economic and trade ministries. Outside the United Nations, Gleckman has worked with the Institute for Environmental Security (The Hague, 2005-2008) on global policy coherence as it impacts on the climate change process; with the Commission on Environmental Cooperation (Montreal, 1995-97); and with the UNFCCC (Bonn and Copenhagen, 2009) on the relationship between macro-economic developments and climate change.  He is the director of Benchmark Environmental Consulting, based in Chappaqua, NY and Portland, ME.

Maria Ivanova is an international relations and environmental policy scholar specializing in governance and sustainability. Her research and policy work focus on global environmental governance and the performance of international environmental institutions. She has worked on issues such as financing for the environment, US foreign environmental policy, and sustainability on campuses and in organizations. Her career, marked by teaching excellence and policy leadership, has bridged academia and policy. Her academic work has been recognized for bringing analytical rigor and innovative input to the international negotiations on reforming the UN system for environment. She has worked closely with national governments and UN agencies in providing an academic perspective into their political positions about international environmental governance.

Ivanova served as a coordinating lead author of the Global Environmental Outlook (GEO-5), the flagship UN environmental assessment in 2012. She has numerous publications, has produced three short documentaries on global environmental governance, is the editor of the Governance and Sustainability Issue Brief Series, and serves on the editorial board of Global Environmental Politics. She co-leads (with Robyn Hannigan, dean of the School for the Environment) a National Science Foundation project on Coasts and Communities, which trains doctoral students as environmental problem solvers and focuses on the complex interactions of natural and human systems in urban and urbanizing coastal areas across Massachusetts Bay and the Horn of Africa.

Ivanova is a faculty associate in the Governance, Environment and Markets Initiative at Yale University. From 2005 to 2010, she was on the faculty at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. Previously, she worked at the Environment Directorate of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris and at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency in Stockholm. She serves on the Advisory Board of the Ecologic Institute in Berlin, is the recipient of the 2007 Professor of the Year Award, the 2010 Mary Lyon Award from Mount Holyoke College, and the 2010 Goddess Artemis Award from the Euro-American Women’s Council. In 2013, she was appointed to the U.N. Secretary-General’s Scientific Advisory Board.

Ivanova holds a PhD (with distinction) and two master’s degrees, in international relations and environmental management, from Yale University.

For more information on her research and publications, please visit Maria Ivanova’s Scholarworks page.

A Grand Alliance to Save the Postal Service

Clearing the FOG speaks with APWU President Mark Dimondstein about the new alliance of postal unions that are working desperately to stop the dismantling of our public postal service. The postal service has been hit with mandates that are forcing it to reduce hours and staff and to sell off historic post offices that were created with public dollars during the New Deal. We follow that discussion with a second guest, Katherine Isaac from the Campaign for Postal Banking. And we explain why the attack on the US Postal Service is related to racial and economic injustice.

 

Listen here:

A Grand Alliance to Save the Postal Service with Mark Dimondstein and Katherine Isaac by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

 

Relevant articles and websites:

National Day of Action on May 14

US Postal Service Revenue: Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full? by Office of Inspector General USPS

Postal Service Urged to End Deal with Real Estate Broker by Bernie Becker

A Grand Alliance

American Postal Workers Union

A Short History of Postal Banking by Mehrsa Baradaran

 

Guests:

Mark Dimondstein is president of the American Postal Workers Union. As the APWU’s top officer, he is responsible for all of the operations of the national union, as outlined in the Constitution and Bylaws. He oversees all the activities conducted by the officers and staff of every department, division, and committee defined by the APWU Constitution. The president is the editor of the union’s bimonthly magazine, The American Postal Worker, and is the union’s spokesperson on all contractual and legislative matters of concern to the union.Along with the APWU’s other top officers, the president is elected by mail-ballot referendum of the membership every three years.

Prior taking office in November 2013, Dimondstein held a variety of positions in the APWU. He was elected to six consecutive terms as President of the Greater Greensboro Area Local, serving from 1986 to 1998. He also acted as a local shop steward, labor educator, National Arbitration Advocate, EEOC and OWCP representative, and leader of the Workers for One Postal Union movement. Mark Dimondstein is President of the American Postal Workers Union, which represents 200,000 employees in the clerk, maintenance and motor vehicle crafts.

Beginning in 2000, Dimondstein was appointed by APWU President Moe Biller and later by President William Burrus to serve as National Lead Field Organizer, a position he held for 10 years. As Lead Field Organizer, he engaged in a series of ground-breaking union organizing campaigns and contract negotiations for private-sector workers in the mailing industry. In tribute to his efforts, he received the AFL-CIO Southern Organizer of the Year Award in 2001, presented by then-president of the AFL-CIO, John Sweeney.

Dimondstein was appointed by the Greensboro City Council to serve on the Greensboro Human Relations Commission, a position he held for six years. In addition, he served as the coordinator of North Carolina Labor Against the War, co-founded the Greensboro Chapter of Jobs with Justice, and helped initiate a local coalition, Postal Customers and Workers United to Save the Public Postal Service.

Dimondstein began his postal career in 1983, and held bid positions of LSM operator and manual, automation and retail clerk. Prior to entering the Postal Service he worked as a printer.

Throughout his many years of activism, Dimondstein has held a fervent belief that the union belongs to the members, the American people deserve a vibrant public Postal Service, and workers everywhere deserve dignity and respect.

He has been married to his union-activist wife, Melissa, for 40 years. They have three adult daughters and one grandchild.

Katherine Isaac is a consultant for the American Postal Workers Union, working to organize A Grand Alliance to Save Our Public Postal Service and the Campaign for Postal Banking. Isaac’s prior work in the labor movement includes the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union and the Labor Party where she served as secretary-treasurer. Isaac is also the author of Civics for Democracy: A Journey for Teachers and Students with Ralph Nader.

Taking Bold Action For Justice

Clearing the FOG speaks with two guests who are part of bold actions to demand justice for families and accountability for police who get away with murder. Maria Hamilton’s 31 year old son Dontre was killed in April, 2014. He was unarmed and sleeping in a public park when he was shot 14 times and killed by Officer Christopher Manney. Maria started Mothers For Justice United and is organizing the Million Moms March in Washington, DC on May 9. Carmen Perez of the Justice League NYC is currently leading a 250 mile walk from New York City to Washington, DC called the March 2 Justice to demand three new laws to address police accountability and militarization.

 

Listen here:

Taking Bold Action for Justice with Maria Hamilton and Carmen Perez by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

 

Relevant articles and websites:

Video: Million Moms March – Maria Hamilton

Million Moms March Facebook Page

Mothers for Justice United

Justice League NYC

In Their Shoes: A Profile of the Justice Champions Marching for Change by the Justice League

March2Justice

 

Guests:

Maria Hamilton‘s son Dontre was murdered on April 30, 2014 by Officer Christopher Manney. Dontre, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia two years before, had been resting in a downtown park on that mild spring afternoon.  Employees of a nearby Starbucks called the police repeatedly with concerns about Dontre, who was not bothering anyone.  After a team of officers responded on two separate occasions and found no issue with Dontre, Officer Manney apparently re-classified the complaint and responded alone.  Manney conducted an out-of-policy pat down (for which he was subsequently fired from the police force), and went on to beat Dontre severely with his baton.  Dontre struggled for the baton which was being used to subdue him.  Officer Manney then shot Dontre fourteen times, which resulted in Dontre’s death.

Maria and her family tried to make sense of the tragic circumstances which took Dontre from them at the age of 31, and waited and worked to obtain justice for their son and brother.  Maria came to know the suffering which has been visited on all too many black mothers whose children have been victims of police or vigilante violence.  Unarmed young black men in particular have been effectively executed for minor crimes, such as jaywalking, suspected theft of cigars, selling loose cigarettes, shoplifting, or, as in the cases of Trayvon Martin and Dontre Hamilton, the noncriminal acts of making white people uncomfortable or fearful in public.

Maria determined to reach out to other bereaved mothers, in an effort to support each other and to advocate together for justice, and for a humane response and recognition from their fellow citizens.  Thus began Mothers for Justice United.

Maria’s dream is to travel with the other mothers to Washington, D. C. on Mother’s Day weekend–May 9 -10, 2015–to make their voices heard in the halls of government, to demand justice for their murdered children, and to put an end to the race-based policies of police and vigilante violence in minority communities.

Carmen Perez has been an activist nearly her entire life.  After the death of her 19 year-old sister when she was just 17, Carmen began to restore herself by dedicating her life to transforming the lives of young people.

After graduating from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in Psychology in 2001, Carmen was dedicated to the pursuit of advocating for young men and women, and providing comprehensive leadership training and opportunities for individuals in and out of the criminal justice system.  In 2006, Carmen went to work for the Santa Cruz County Probation Department as a bilingual Probation Officer. With an all-female intensive caseload, Carmen worked tirelessly to provide appropriate programs and re-entry services for young women in the juvenile justice system. She looked critically within the system to reduce racial disparities and advocated for monolingual Spanish speaking families. She helped implement gender-specific services that incorporated sexual trauma counseling through art therapy, teen-parent mediation, and eventually co-founded an evening program for girls called Girlzpace.

Her work in Santa Cruz was well-known in the community and across the country.  Carmen is the founder of the youth leadership group R.E.A.L. (Reforming Education, Advocating for Leadership) and Co-Founder of The Girls Task Force, which is dedicated to improving gender-specific services to better support all girls in our communities.  Carmen was also responsible for developing the idea of supporting youth speaking out on their own vital issues. She created and supported the “Youth Summit” concept where young people came together to discuss solutions on serious topics such as drug and alcohol reform, detention alternatives, gangs, and violence. Recommendations that came out of the group discussion were often presented and adopted by community and state-wide policy makers throughout California

In 2002, Carmen went to work for Barrios Unidos in Santa Cruz – an organization dedicated to providing non-violence training and re-entry services for the incarcerated, and establishing an Institute for peace and community development in Santa Cruz and across the country.  She flourished in her work with Barrios Unidos and traveled the country providing services and programs on behalf of the organization.

In 2005, while working for Barrios Unidos, Carmen met the man who would influence the next decade of her life – Harry Belafonte.  Mr. Belafonte had just founded The Gathering for Justice, and was organizing huge masses of marginalized communities in non-violent settings across the country – and he invited Carmen to be a part of it.  Through her work at Barrios Unidos, and a member of The Gathering, Carmen served both organizations while continuing to build her own programs focused on young girls and youth justice.

In 2008 Carmen became the National Organizer of The Gathering for Justice and in 2010 she was promoted to Executive Director of the organizer. Carmen’ s work with The Gathering allows her the opportunity to provide additional capacity and coalition building to the organization’s targeted US cities where she bridges the gap between government institutions, emerging & non- traditional leaders, and inner-city youth.

As Executive Director of The Gathering, Carmen has crossed the globe promoting peace, interconnectedness, and alternatives to incarceration and violence while collaborating in national policy presentations. She has organized cultural, spiritual and educational events and provided support to individuals incarcerated in juvenile detention centers and inside California’s and New York’s prisons.

In 2011, after moving her base of operations to New York, Carmen was tapped to help develop Purple Gold, a young worker’ s program that engages and cultivates the membership of 1199SEIU’s 35-and-under members, while setting the future for the Labor Movement. For two years she directed Purple Gold’s operations and program development across the boroughs of New York City.

Carmen has been featured on several TV programs and in numerous articles, and is the 2008 recipient of United Way’s “Community Hero Award,” and Santa Cruz County Women’s Commission “Trailblazer’s Award in Criminal Justice.”  She was presented a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition for Outstanding and Invaluable Service to the Community, and received the “Zaragoza Award” from the Committee for the Mexican Culture at D.V.I. Prison in Tracy, for her contribution and dedication to bringing hope to incarcerated men.  In May of 2014, she had the opportunity to share her life’s work and delivered her 1st TEDx Talk inside Ironwood State Prison hosted by Richard Branson and produced by Scott Budnick. She has recently been accepted into the Women’s Media Center Progressive Women’s Voices Class of 2014.

Carmen recently left the position of Chair for the Santa Cruz County Latino Affairs Commission after serving seven years. She is currently on the Board of Directors of Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos, Scholar League in Brooklyn, New York, and sits on the Advisory Board of The Baltimore City Youth Resiliency Institute.  She is co-founder of The Brain Trust, and recently founded Justice League NYC.

Beyond Extreme Energy: Uniting to Retire Fossil Fuels

Clearing the FOG speaks with activists from Washington State to Washington, DC who are taking on Big Energy to say “no” to more fossil fuel infrastructure. We begin with four organizers who walked across the United States last year to raise awareness about the climate crisis. They visited front line communities along the way. When they arrived in Washington, DC, they spent a week protesting the little known Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as part of the Beyond Extreme Energy coalition. Now they are planning more resistance. In Washington State, the “SHell No” campaign is organizing a Flotilla to keep Shell Oil out of the Port of Seattle. We’ll discuss why direct action is the necessary tactic to end fossil fuels and move to renewable energy sources.

 

Listen here:

Beyond Extreme Energy: Uniting to Retire Fossil Fuels by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

 

Relevant articles and websites:

Extreme Energy Extraction: The Frightening Ways We are Destroying our Country for Fossil Fuels by Tara Lohan

Beyond Extreme Energy: Staying in FERC’s Face by Anne Meador

Can a Flotilla of Kayaks Block Shell’s Arctic Drilling Rigs in Seattle? by Sydney Brownstone

SHellNo.org

BeyondExtremeEnergy.org

WeAreCovePoint.org

ClimateMarch.org

 

Guests:

Jimmy Betts

Sean Glenn from Simsbury, CT joined the Great March for Climate Action from LA to DC.  During the March was arrested at #FloodWallStreet and is now organizing with various Climate Justice groups including Beyond Extreme Energy getting ready to stop the #FERCus.

 

 

 

 

Bill Moyer co-founded the Backbone Campaign in 2003 with friends from an artist affinity group. He has dual and intersecting paths as both an activist and artist. His involvement with social change work stretches back to the 80’s, when as a student he was deeply involved in the anti-nuclear movement and the anti-interventionist movement. After a few years of studying political science and American philosophy at Seattle University, Bill went to Big Mountain to assist Dineh elders refusing to relocate off their traditional land, attended the Institute for Social Ecology, and briefly lived on an organic vegetable farm in Vermont.

On returning to the Pacific NW to live on Vashon Island, activism was replaced with performance and study of music as a percussionist and sound designer. The G.W. Bush administration inspired him to apply lessons of the arts to social change. Backbone Campaign has been a vehicle for much growth and Bill has emerged as a leader in the theory and practice of “artful activism.” He designs and produces creative political actions and provides trainings in grand strategy and creative tactics around the country.

Bill (AT) BackboneCampaign.org

Lee Stewart is an organizer with Beyond Extreme Energy and a member of We Are Cove Point, a group mobilizing to stop the construction of a fracked gas refinery and export terminal on the Chesapeake Bay. He grew up in Northern Virginia, studied Religious Studies at Kenyon College, and spent three years teaching English in China before dedicating himself to climate justice. His activism around the climate crisis grew after his new baby nephew catalyzed an urgent sense of responsibility to act.

 

 

 

Mackenzie McDonald Wilkins is an organizer with Popular Resistance and Beyond Extreme Energy based out of Baltimore, MD. He has worked on various social and environmental justice struggles and is currently working to stop Fast Track for rigged corporate “trade” agreements and is the action Coordinator for the May Actions at FERC.

The 21st Century Socialism of Kshama Sawant

ClearingThe FOG interviews Kshama Sawant for a full hour. Sawant was elected to the Seattle City Council in 2013 running with the Socialist Alternative Party. She previously was an adjunct economics professor and involved in social movements like Occupy Seattle and efforts to prevent home foreclosures. In her time in office she has galvanized the politics of Seattle, successfully spearheading a campaign to raise the minimum wage to $15. She is also an advocate for tenant rights, affordable housing, universal taxpayer funded healthcare and other progressive issues. When Boeing threatened to move from Seattle because of worker demands, she urged workers to take over Boeing’s facilities. She seeks to break the power of big business and the two big business parties, the Democrats and Republicans.

 

Listen here:

The 21st Century Socialism of Kshama Sawant by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

 

Relevant articles and websites:

The Most Dangerous Woman in America by Chris Hedges

Seattle City Council Votes 9-0 to Oppose Fast Track by Stan Sorscher

PNHP Western Washington Annual Public Meeting

15Now.org

Socialist Alternative.org

KshamaSawant.org

Guest:

Kshama Sawant is an elected Councilmember in the city of Seattle. Kshama is not a career politician. She is an activist who brings a passion for social justice to her work. As a member of the Seattle City Council, she has been a voice for workers, youth, and the oppressed. She only accepts the average workers’ wage and donates the rest of her $117,000 City Council salary to building social justice movements.

Kshama is a member of Socialist Alternative, a national organization in solidarity with the Committee for a Workers’ International, which is fighting for working-class interests on every continent.

Kshama was radicalized at an early age by the extreme poverty and inequality surrounding her in India, where she was raised. She was convinced that poverty is not inevitable, but a product of the system we live in. After working as a computer engineer, she came to the US to study economics in order to better understand the root causes of oppression and poverty. Upon arriving in the US, Kshama was struck by the inequality and poverty in the richest country in the world, which strengthened her conviction about the need for systemic solutions.

After earning her PhD in economics, Kshama moved to Seattle and began teaching at Seattle Central Community College, Seattle University, and the University of Washington Tacoma. She joined Socialist Alternative in 2009, and since then has helped organize demonstrations for marriage equality, participated in the movement to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and was a leading presence in the Occupy Movement. Kshama has also been an activist in her union, the American Federation of Teachers Local 1789, fighting against budget cuts and tuition hikes.

In 2012, Kshama ran as a Socialist Alternative candidate for the Washington State Legislature and surprised everyone by winning 29% of the vote. The momentum continued in her campaign for Seattle City Council where she boldly ran an anti-corporate campaign on a platform of a $15/hour minimum wage, rent control and taxing the super-wealthy to fund mass transit and education. In November 2013, she defeated a 16-year incumbent Democrat to become the first socialist elected in a major US city in decades and the only Councilmember in Seattle outside the Democratic party establishment.

Kshama has consistently used her position to expose the ties between powerful corporate interests and a majority of the city’s politicians – all Democrats. After being at the forefront of the movement that won a $15/hour minimum wage, Kshama helped win critical funding for homeless people in the City budget last year. Along with housing activists and tenants, she spearheaded a campaign that successfully pushed back against a move by the political establishment that would have resulted in potentially devastating loss of affordable housing units. This year, her focus is on addressing the spiraling crisis in affordable housing in Seattle.

Kshama is up for re-election this year. Not surprisingly, big business and the city’s political establishment are expected to go to great lengths to try to defeat her.

Detroit Resistance to Neo-liberal Assault

In March, 2013, Detroit was placed under the control of an appointed emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, despite protests from local residents. Facing a severe financial crisis, the city later filed Chapter 9 Bankruptcy. Several years prior to the emergency manager for the city, the Governor replaced the school board with an appointed manager, Robert Bob, who made cuts to the budget and closed schools. The Detroit public school board members continue to meet ‘in exile’ and protest these school cuts. We’ll speak with Lamar Lemmons, a past president and current member of the school board in exile. We’ll also speak with Miss Beulah Walker, an amazing volunteer who works with the Detroit Water Brigade bringing water to those who have had their water turned off and helping to pay their bills. Miss Beulah also volunteers helping homeless people in Detroit.

 

Listen here:

Detroit Resistance to Neo-Liberal Assault with LaMar Lemmons and Beulah Walker by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

 

Relevant articles and websites:

Timeline of Detroit’s Emergency Manager by mlive.com

The Education Crisis in Detroit by Detoiters Resisting Emergency Management

Detroit Water Brigade

Detroit Part I: Extinguishing the Homeless and Shutting Off Human Rights by Abby Martin on Breaking the Set

Guests:

LaMar Lemmons is past President of the Detroit Board of Education, and now serves as a member of the Detroit Public School Board ‘in exile’. He is a former state legislator in the Michigan state legislature, who served from 1999 until 2007; and after serving that term came to run for the Detroit Board of Education, receiving a majority of the citywide at large vote, and was later elected by his colleagues to serve as the president of that body. When Mr. Lamar Lemmons was state legislator, he served as the representative of the second district.

 

 

 

Beulah Walker, named after her Grandmother, was born and raised on the Eastside of  The Great City of Detroit, Michigan.  Proven product of The Late Mayor Coleman A. Young Administration. Superior proven product of  Detroit Public Schools System, Graduate of Jared W. Finney High School. Graduate of Detroit College of Business ABA., concentration Accounting/Management. Holding 3 Seminary Certifications from Michigan Theological Bible Institute (2006-2010) Basic Bible Study, Advanced Bible Study II, and Advanced Bible Study III. She is a proud dues paying Member of UAW Local 7777 Gaming Division the first organized Casino Workers in Labor History. A Community Activist for The Homeless for over 16 years plus  where she advocates in all areas with NO BUDGET only donations from family and friends.   Beulah is the Volunteer Captain of The Detroit Water Brigade, where she delivers emergency water to City of Detroit Residents whose water has been shut off or is facing shut off  and provides financial assistance to restore running water.  Detroit Tent City is a proud project out of Detroit Water Brigade. Beulah is free spirited, loves people for they are and can meet everyone on their level. Everyday she ask GOD to “Break her Heart for what breaks HIS Heart”, Water is Human Right, Housing is a Human Right. #detroittentcity, #detroitwater, #right2housing.

Venezuela, The Small Country that Frightens the US

President Obama recently declared the small South American country of Venezuela to be a security threat to the largest empire in the history of the world. And the US commercial media fails to question this declaration. On this show, we discuss in depth why Venezuela frightens elites in the US. We talk about the Venezuelan economy, her struggle for radical democracy, the recent coup attempt, the upcoming elections and why Obama’s administration is working so hard to weaken Venezuela. Our guests are Alex Main of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and Professor George Ciccariello-Maher of Drexel University.

 

Listen here:

Venezuela, The Small Country that Frightens the US with Alex Main and George Ciccariello-Maher by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

 

Relevant articles and websites:

Invisible No More by George Ciccariello-Maher

Center for Economic and Policy Research

George Ciccariello

 

Guests:

Alex Main is Senior Associate for International Policy at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. In his work at CEPR, Alexander focuses on U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America and the Caribbean and regularly engages with U.S. policy makers and civil society groups. His areas of expertise include Latin American integration and regionalism, U.S. security and counternarcotics policy in Central America, U.S. development assistance to Haiti, and U.S. relations with Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras and Venezuela. His analyses on U.S. policy in the Americas have been published in a variety of media outlets such as Foreign Policy, Los Angeles Times, NACLA, Dissent and the Monde diplomatique. He is regularly interviewed by international media such as CNN en español, Telemundo, Al Jazeera English and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.  Prior to CEPR, Alexander spent more than six years in Latin America working as an international relations analyst. He holds degrees in history and political science from the Sorbonne University in Paris, France.

Dr. George Ciccariello-Maher joined the Drexel community after having taught political theory at U.C. Berkeley, San Quentin State Prison, and the Venezuelan School of Planning in Caracas. Everywhere that he has lived, from Caracas to Oakland, has impacted his approach to teaching, research, and how he understands the world more generally.

His research and teaching center on what could be called the “decolonial turn” in political thought, the moment of epistemic and political interrogation that emerges in response to colonialism and global social inequality. His first book, We Created Chávez, is a theoretically rich “people’s history” of contemporary Venezuela which locates the origins of current political dynamics in the long-term history of Venezuelan social movements, demonstrating that Hugo Chávez was not the cause, but rather the result, of a broader and more fundamental transformative process.

His second book project, Decolonizing Dialectics, seeks to contribute in a theoretical register to what his first book analyzes practically. In it, he plumb s the history of political thought for a radicalized understanding of the relationship between conflict and group identity (in the work of Georges Sorel), further charting the decolonization of this very conception and its projection onto a global framework (in the work of Frantz Fanon and Enrique Dussel).

He teaches a range of courses from the history of political thought to what is called “comparative political theory,” which poses a direct conversation and even conflict between standard, canonical, and largely European texts and those texts emerging from colonized spaces as direct critique of both traditional views and even the very existence of the canon itself. Further, in an innovative course entitled “Political Theory from Below,” he brings together Latin American political theory and political theory of the African Diaspora (including within the United States) with the practical activity of organic intellectuals and social movements. This approach is one that encourages students to leave behind the realm of pure theory and enter instead into rich conversation with the empirical and everyday world.

This dedication to real-world politics means that he frequently contributes journalistic writing to such publications as Counterpunch, MRZine, and Venezuela Analysis, ZNet, and Alternet among others, and he has written op-eds for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Fox News Latino. He appears regularly in media outlets ranging from community radio to NPR, from Al-Jazeera, CNN, Time Magazine, the Christian Science Monitor, and Fox News. His dedication to taking non-Western theory seriously leads him to take seriously his task as a translator, and he has translated dozens of texts by Enrique Dussel and others.

New Fronts of US Militarism & The Spring Rising

Clearing The FOG will examine the new fronts of US militarism: the encirclement of China with the Asian Pivot, NATO surrounding Russia and the Ukraine trap for Russian President Putin; as well as the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. In addition, we’ll be discussing the Spring Rising organized by peace activist Cindy Sheehan. “Spring Rising” is four days of creative resistance; theater, teach-ins; rallies and marches marking the anniversary of the United States’ “shock and awe” attack on Iraq. Spring Rising will bring people together to oppose the plans and calls for growing military intervention. Our guests are Bruce Gagnon, the Coordinator and co-founder of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. Currently living in Maine, Gagnon got his start as a state coordinator of the Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice and has worked on antiwar and space issues for more than 20 years. And Cindy Sheehan, a peace and justice advocate, author, and host of her own podcast Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox. Cindy has just published her 8th book: The Obama Files: Chronicles of an Award-Winning War Criminal.

 

Listen to the archived program here:

New Fronts of US Militarism and the Spring Rising Action for Peace: Bruce Gagnon and Cindy Sheehan by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

 

Relevant articles and websites:

This Is A Declaration Of War by Bruce Gagnon

Berlin Alarmed by Aggressive NATO Stance on Ukraine by Spiegel Staff

World Bank and IMF Deals Open Ukraine to GMOs by Joyce Nelson

Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space

Spring Rising

Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox

 

Guests:

Bruce Gagnon is the Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.  He was a co-founder of the Global Network when it was created in 1992. Between 1983–1998 Bruce was the State Coordinator of the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice and has worked on space issues for 29 years.  In 1987 he organized the largest peace protest in Florida history when over 5,000 people marched on Cape Canaveral in opposition to the first flight test of the Trident II nuclear missile. He was the organizer of the Cancel Cassini Campaign (launched 72 pounds of plutonium into space in 1997) that drew enormous support and media coverage around the world and was featured on the TV program 60 Minutes.

Bruce has traveled to and spoken in England, Germany, Mexico, Canada, France, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Japan, Australia, Scotland, Wales, Greece, India, Brazil, Portugal, Czech Republic, South Korea, and throughout the U.S. He has also spoken on many college campuses including: Loyola University, Drake University, Syracuse University, Cornell University, University of Michigan, Cal Poly State University, University of Pittsburgh, California Institute of Technology, University of Oregon, University of Alaska Anchorage, Marquette University, Brown University, Hunter College, University of Arkansas, University of Florida, Dalhousie University (Nova Scotia), University of Maine, and the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (India).

Project Censored (from Sonoma State University, CA) named a story on space weaponization by Bruce as the 8th Most Censored story in 1999.  Again in 2005, Project Censored picked an article on space issues by Bruce as the 16th most censored story of the year.

Bruce has been featured by artist Robert Shetterly in his collection of portraits and quotes entitled Americans Who Tell The Truth.  In 2006 he was the recipient of the Dr. Benjamin Spock Peacemaker Award.

Bruce initiated the Maine Campaign to Bring Our War $$ Home in 2009 that spread to other New England states and beyond.  This campaign makes the important connections between endless war spending and fiscal crisis throughout the U.S.  In 2011 the U.S. Conference of Mayors passed a Bring Our War $$ Home resolution – their first entry into foreign policy since the Vietnam War.

His articles have appeared in publications like: Earth Island Journal, National Catholic Reporter, Asia Times, Le Monde Diplomatique, Albuquerque Journal, Sekai Journal (Japan), CounterPunch, Space News, Z Magazine, and Canadian Dimension.  Bruce put out a new version of his book in 2008 called Come Together Right Now: Organizing Stories from a Fading Empire.

Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Specialist Casey Austin Sheehan who was killed in Iraq on 04 April 2004, in the USA’s illegal and immoral occupation for profit and control of natural resources.

Cindy was a liberal Democrat before Casey was killed, but in her quest for answers as to why her son was killed and why the people who were responsible for his death were not held accountable, Cindy has had a political transformation that eventually led her to Revolutionary Socialism as the solution to the Imperialist/Capitalist two-party stranglehold on not only US politics, but, by extension, the world.

Cindy has traveled all over the world and has seen Socialism in practice and is convinced that a new world is not only possible, but also practical and desirable.

In 2008, Cindy Sheehan, challenged then House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for her Congressional seat, and although a political novice and independent, Sheehan received 2^nd place in a field of seven with almost 50,000 votes. Pelosi had not seen such a fierce challenger before and has not been challenged to such a successful degree, since.

Cindy’s platform called for, among other things: end to all wars and profound reduction of US military bases around the world; nationalization of banks and the Federal Reserve; single-payer health care; heavily subsidized education from Pre-School through University; electoral reform; democratization of the economy and the work place; decriminalization of marijuana and the end to the Federal Government’s drug wars and harassment of California’s growers and medicinal dispensaries; sustainable and renewable energy free from fossil fuel production and usage; freedom of political prisoners held in US prisons; and much more. Sheehan had a labor platform that was hailed by workers all over the world.

Sheehan has published seven books, is the host and director of Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Radio Show. Cindy still travels the world working for peace and justice and her home base is Vacaville, CA where she loves spending time with her three surviving children and four grandchildren.

Cindy is here for the long haul to insure her grandbabies and all the grandbabies of the world have a sustainable and peaceful future.

 

Don’t Let the Internet Die – What comes next after Title II?

In 2003, the Internet was reclassified as an information service instead of a public utility which reduced the Federal Communication Commission’s ability to control the giant telecoms’ behavior. Ever since, defenders of Internet freedom have been fighting to make it a public utility or common carrier again and the telecoms have been fighting to further commodify and profit from the Internet. After a dedicated ten month campaign, net neutrality activists have finally won. The FCC is expected to vote on reclassification on Feb. 26. While this is a victory and we will celebrate, there is more to do. Craig Aaron of Free Press will explain why reclassification is necessary for net neutrality, but not sufficient. And David Isenberg who organizes Freedom to Connect will discuss more steps that can be taken to guarantee that the Internet is a place for free speech in the 21st century and is available to everyone.

 

Listen here:

Don’t Let the Internet Die – What next after we reclassify? with Craig Aaron and David Isenberg by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

 

Relevant articles and websites:

Net Neutrality: What you need to know now

Victory on Net Neutrality – but now the FCC must act

FreePress.net

Freedom To Connect Conference

Isen.com

 

Guests:

Craig Aaron is the president and CEO of Free Press (www.freepress.net), a national, nonpartisan nonprofit group devoted to changing media and technology policy, promoting the public interest, and strengthening democracy. He speaks across the country on media, Internet and journalism issues. Craig is a frequent guest on TV and talk radio and is quoted often in the national press. His commentaries appear regularly in the The Huffington Post, and he has written for The Daily Beast, The Guardian, The Hill, Politico, The Progressive, the Seattle Times, Slate and many others. Before joining Free Press, he was an investigative reporter for Public Citizen’s Congress Watch and the managing editor of In These Times magazine. He is the editor of two books, Appeal to Reason: 25 Years of In These Times and Changing Media: Public Interest Policies for the Digital Age. Follow him on Twitter @notaaroncraig.

 

David Isenberg wrote an essay in 1997 entitled, The Rise of the Stupid Network: Why the Intelligent Network was a Good Idea Once but isn’t Anymore.  In it, Isenberg (then a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at AT&T Laboratories) examined the technological bases of the existing telecom business model, laid out how the communications business would be changed by new technologies, foresaw today’s cataclysms, and imagined tomorrow’s new network.

Tom Evslin, a senior AT&T executive at that time, told The Wall Street Journal that The Rise of the Stupid Network, “was like a glass of cold water in the face” of AT&T’s leaders.  The Wall Street Journal called the essay “scathing . . . startling”, and said, “it may soon assume cult status among the tech mavens that roam the World Wide Web.”  Communications Week International said that the essay “challenged the most sacred assumptions of the telecom world.”  The Gilder Technology Report said it was “a stirring call”.  Inevitably, the essay found wider acceptance outside of AT&T than within it.  So in 1998, Isenberg left AT&T to found isen.com, inc. to help telecommunications companies understand the business implications of the newly emerging communications infrastructure. 

David S. Isenberg’s public delivery of the Stupid Network message is passionate and personal.  He has spoken to over 100 audiences on three continents.  For example, he has spoken numerous times at George Gilder’s Telecosm, at Jeff Pulver’s Voice on the Net, at Kevin Werbach’s SuperNova, at John McQuillan’s Next Generation Networks, at the Canadian Advanced Network Research (CANARIE) annual meeting, at Merrill Lynch and Chase Bank telecom investor meetings, at the International Institute of Communications, at the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference (APRICOT), at the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association (OIDA) annual conference, at the Fiber to the Home Council’sfirst annual meeting, and at numerous private management, customer, investor and technology events. 

Isenberg has been cited and quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, Fortune, Wired, Business 2.0, Communications Week International, Network World, Release 1.0, Gilder Technology Report, TheStreet.com, Nikkei Communications, and numerous other publications.  His story appears in at least half a dozen business books, including Telecosm by George Gilder, The New Pioneers by Tom Petzinger, and The Future of Ideas by Lawrence Lessig. 

Isenberg has written articles for Fortune, USA Today, IEEE Spectrum, MSNBC, Communications Week International, Light Reading, Business 2.0, America’s Network, VON Magazine and ACM Networker.  Isenberg advises a number of new telecommunications companies and their investors.  He serves as a member of TechBrains (the Merrill Lynch technology strategy advisory board).  He sits on advisory boards of CallWave, LaunchCyte, Broadband Physics, Terabeam and YottaYotta. 

Isenberg is a Fellow of Glocom, the Institute for Global Communications of the International University of Japan.  He is a Founding Advisor of the World Technology Network.  He was a judge of the World Communications Awards in 1999 and 2001.

In his 12-year career at AT&T (1985-1998), Isenberg was a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff with AT&T Labs Research, the part of Bell Labs that stayed with AT&T after the 1996 “trivestiture.” Before that, he held AT&T Bell Labs technical positions in Consumer Long Distance, in Network Services, and in the PBX business unit. Before AT&T, Isenberg was employed by Mattel and Verbex, and did consulting work in voice processing for Milton Bradley, National Semiconductor, GTE Labs, and others. Isenberg holds a Ph.D. in biology from the California Institute of Technology (1977) but also learned much science growing up in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. His upbringing centered around two principles: (1) Research is useful, and (2) If you are going to fish, use a big hook.