Arts and Education are Central to Building the Culture of Nonviolent Resistance

We spoke with two cultural activists who use arts and culture to educate and empower people to take action in their communities. This follows our conversation last week in which author Rivera Sun described how her novels tell the story of social transformation and educate her readers about nonviolent resistance. Bill Moyer of the Backbone Campaign teaches “Artful Activism” in his community and facilitates direct action training camps throughout the nation. He lectures in nonviolent strategy and tactics. Moyers says, “Our role, as change makers, social movement activists, organizers, and cultural workers is to change the social/political/economic variables and expand the scope of what is politically possible in tune with our principles and aspirations. Simultaneously, we must make politically toxic the world view that we oppose, lessening its appeal, reducing its claim in the territory of the politically possible.” His area of expertise is “Spectacle Actions.” Mic Crenshaw uses Hip Hop to expand the public dialogue about race and class issues in both the United States and Africa. Crenshaw says, “The music is an expression of my creativity but ultimately serves as a tool for a critique on dominant culture that limits and defines the kind of choices folks even imagine under capitalism.” He teaches social justice in Portland, OR, is Executive Director of Education Without Borders, is Political Director of Hip Hop Congress and organizes primarily around housing. He also founded Globalfam to help youth in Africa and organizes the Afrikan Hip Hop Caravan.

Listen Here:

Arts and Culture in the Nonviolent Resistance Movement with Mic Crenshaw and Bill Moyer by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant Websites and Videos:

 Mic Crenshaw

Afrikan Hip Hop Caravan

Hip Hop Congress

Globalfam

Backbone Campaign

 

Guests:

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

 

Mic Crenshaw was born on the Southside of Chicago, and raised both there and in Minneapolis, Michael Crenshaw is a world class MC and poet who has emerged on the national – and international stage. As a teen in the late 80’s, Mic was embroiled in the violent streets of Minneapolis, leading groups to physically confront white supremacist gangs that were enforcing their will at local parks and social scenes.

After beating back the neo-nazis, and violence remained, Crenshaw escaped all of it, moving to Portland, OR.  Crenshaw says, “I wanted something new. [At the time] my ties with the streets were still pretty strong, and my social life involved drinking and fighting. I was ready for a change.” In Portland, he quickly became one of the most respected artists in the Northwest.

Beginning in ’94, Crenshaw was front man for the Portland beloved live Hip Hop band, Hungry Mob.  In 2001, Crenshaw won The Portland Poetry Slam Championship and went on to finish as a national finalist. The Portland Mercury writes ‘Mic Crenshaw is a pretty mythic character… (with the Lifesavas) two of the very best hip-hop acts in PDX”.

In 2009, Mic released his debut solo CD, “Thinking Out Loud”, which spent 10 weeks in the top 10 on College Music Journal’s (CMJ) National Radio Hip Hop Charts, peaking at number 4.

Crenshaw’s 2nd solo release, ‘Under The Sun,’ was released in the winter of 2010.  Single ‘Yeah’ peaked at #2 on CMJ’s Hip Hop Charts.

In Portland, Mic’s community efforts have expanded locally – and internationally. After attending a Human Rights conference in Rwanda, he started his own non-profit project called Globalfam.  MC used Globalfam to help setup and maintain a computer center for disadvantaged youth in Burundi, Central Africa.  Over 400 people have received free training and it is now expanding, generating revenue and creating jobs.

Crenshaw is also the Executive Director of the non-profit Education Without Borders (EWOB). EWOB helps education, music and art initiatives in Portland and beyond, as well serving as an umbrella for the local Books For Prisoners chapter and Globalfam itself.  Globalfam has now blossomed into a Lifestyle Company that serves as a Music Label, Production, Promotion, Artist Management, and Education Company providing mainstream entertain that supports Social Justice Activism.

Crenshaw is currently recording music for his 3rd solo album, releasing the first single ‘Superheroes’ ft. Dead Prez. ‘Superheroes’ peaked at #2 on Rapattacklives.com singles chart.

Crenshaw is Political Director of the Hip Hop Congress and serves in the People’s Culture Bureau, Work Progress Administration of the Green Shadow Cabinet.

 

Building a Culture of Nonviolent Resistance for Democracy

We live in a time of transition. There is a greater understanding of the interconnections between living beings and the planet. And there is a greater understanding that the current way of life and political system do not function for the majority of people. A nonviolent culture of resistance is growing and alternative systems that are more peaceful, just and sustainable are being created. We explore this transition with Rivera Sun, author of the newly-released book The Dandelion Insurrection. Sun tells the story of building a nonviolent movement to overcome a plutocracy within a highly militarized state. Her novel is both inspiring and instructive. We then spoke with Stephanie Van Hook and Michael Nagler of the Metta Center for Nonviolence. They provide tools and training for nonviolent skills and coordinate the Shanti Sena Network of Peace Teams.

Listen here:

Building a Culture of Nonviolent Resistance with Rivera Sun, Stephanie Van Hook and Michael Nagler by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant articles, books and websites:

Militarism and Violence are So Yesterday: It’s Time to Make Peace the Reality by Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese

The Dandelion Insurrection by Rivera Sun

Essays of the “Man From the North” by Rivera Sun

Rising Sun Dance Theater

DandelionSalad.Wordpress.com

Can unarmed peacekeeping work in Syria? It has in South Sudan by Stephanie Van Hook

The Metta Center for Nonviolence

Metta Center for Nonviolence Roadmap Compass

Peace Draft

Guests:

Rivera Sun lives in an earthship in the high desert of New Mexico. She gets up before dawn (and the lizards) and starts her day by drinking pu’erh tea and baking bread in her outdoor adobe clay oven. Rivera has written eight theatrical plays, published two books of inspirational poetry, two breathtaking novels, and written/performed many dance theater productions. Her work has received standing ovations from coast to coast and touched the hearts and souls of many.

Rivera believes in being an embodiment of love-in-action in all that she does. A passionate participant in creating a just, sustainable, and peaceful world, she takes the responsibility of life seriously . . . and with a good dose of humor. Her novels focus on the social issues of our times, positing creative solutions as well as muckraking through the causes of suffering.

“Life is the ultimate adventure!” Rivera says.

Indeed, for Rivera Sun, it has been a non-stop wild ride from birth onward. She is a twin, grew up on an organic farm on the Canadian border of Maine, attended Bennington College in Vermont, headed to the west coast to pursue dance and theater, toured nationally with solo performance works, and now lives and writes in the desert of New Mexico.

Rivera is easy to connect with on Facebook and Twitter, or through the Rising Sun Dance Theater website. She encourages her readers to reach out, write reviews, and share their favorite quotes with others

 

Stephanie Van Hook is passionate about the power of deep nonviolence and constructive conflict resolution almost as much as the actual, concrete alternatives that nonviolence offers when it comes to reconstructing a society that works for everyone. She believes that people, when given the opportunity, can cooperate, work harmoniously with trust and integrity and build what they need without waiting for power structures to give them watered down versions of their highest ideals about human possibility. She serves as Director of Conflict Resolution Service on the Green Shadow Cabinet.

Contact: Stephanie@mettacenter.org

 

Michael Nagler is Professor emeritus of Classics and Comparative Literature at UC, Berkeley, where he co-founded the Peace and Conflict Studies Program in which he taught the immensely popular nonviolence course that was webcast in its entirety as well as PACS 90, “Meditation” and a sophomore seminar called “Why Are We Here? Great Writing on the Meaning of Life” for fifteen years.

Among other awards, he received the Jamnalal Bajaj International Award for “Promoting Gandhian Values Outside India” in 2007, joining other distinguished contributors to nonviolence as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and peace scholar and activist Johan Galtung in receiving this honor.

He is the author of The Search for a Nonviolent Future, which received a 2002 American Book Award and has been translated into Korean, Arabic, Italian and other languages; Our Spiritual Crisis: Recovering Human Wisdom in a Time of Violence (2005); The Upanishads (with Sri Eknath Easwaran, 1987), and other books as well as many articles on peace and spirituality.

He has spoken for campus, religious, and other groups on peace and nonviolence for many years, especially since September 11, 2001. He has consulted for the U.S. Institute of Peace and many other organizations and is the founder and President of the board of the Metta Center for Nonviolence Education. Michael has worked on nonviolent intervention since the 1970’s and served on the Interim Steering Committee of the Nonviolent Peaceforce.

Michael is a student of Sri Eknath Easwaran, Founder of the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation, and has lived at the Center’s ashram in Marin County since 1970.

contact: Michael@mettacenter.org

Should Drone Warfare be Banned? with Medea Benjamin, Naureen Shah and David Swanson

We spoke with Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK and author of Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control. Medea has been a relentless activist to stop the use of drones to terrorize communities and kill civilians. She traveled to Pakistan and Yemen to speak with the families of drone victims and recently attended the briefing in Congress in which family members told their stories. Medea exposed that funds for victims of drones are actually going to US-based NGOs. She is organizing the upcoming drone conference. We also spoke with Naureen Shah of Amnesty International about a new study on drone attacks in Pakistan and David Swanson of War Is a Crime about the legality of drone warfare and whether it should be banned.

Listen here:

Should Drone Warfare be Banned? with guests Medea Benjamin, Naureen Shah and David Swanson by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

 

Relevant articles, books and websites:

Armed Drones Becoming the Norm? At the Crossroads of Robotic Warfare by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers

Where Do the Dollars For Drone Victims End Up? In the Hands of American NGOs by Medea Benjamin

Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control by Medea Benjamin

REPORT: PAKISTAN: “WILL I BE NEXT?” US DRONE STRIKES IN PAKISTAN

Time for the Truth about ‘Targeted’ Killings and US Drones’ Civilian Victims by Naureen Shah

Obama has not Delivered on May’s Promise of Transparency on Drones by Naureen Shah

Amnesty USA Drone Petition

A New Kind of War is Being Legalized by David Swanson

Finally a Drone Report done Right by David Swanson

Drone Conference Nov. 16 and 17 in Washington, DC

CODEPINK

Amnesty International

WarIsACrime.org

BanWeaponizedDrones.org

 

Guests:

Medea Benjamin is a cofounder of both CODEPINK and the international human rights organization Global Exchange.  Benjamin is the author of eight books. Her latest book is  Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control, and she has been campaigning to stop the use of killer drones. Her direct questioning of President Obama during his 2013 foreign policy address, as well as her recent trips to Pakistan and Yemen, helped shine a light on the innocent people killed by US drone strikes.

Benjamin has been an advocate for social justice for more than 30 years. Described as “one of America’s most committed — and most effective — fighters for human rights” by New York Newsday, and “one of the high profile leaders of the peace movement” by the Los Angeles Times, she was one of 1,000 exemplary women from 140 countries nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the millions of women who do the essential work of peace worldwide. In 2010 she received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace Prize from the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the 2012 Peace Prize by the US Peace Memorial.

Since the September 11, 2001 tragedy,  Medea has been working to promote a U.S. foreign policy that would respect human rights and gain us allies instead of contributing to violence and undermining our international reputation.  In 2000, she was a Green Party candidate for the California Senate.  During the 1990s, Medea focused her efforts on tackling the problem of unfair trade as promoted by the World Trade Organization. Widely credited as the woman who brought Nike to its knees and helped place the issue of sweatshops on the national agenda, Medea was a key player in the campaign that won a $20 million settlement from 27 US clothing retailers for the use of sweatshop labor in Saipan. She also pushed Starbucks and other companies to start carrying fair trade coffee.

Her work for justice in Israel/Palestine includes taking numerous delegations to Gaza after the 2008 Israeli invasion, organizing the Gaza Freedom March in 2010, participating in the Freedom Flotillas and opposing the policies of the Israel lobby group AIPAC. In 2011 she was in Tahrir Square during the Egyptian uprising and In 2012 she was part of a human rights delegation to Bahrain in support of democracy activists; she was tear-gassed, arrested and deported by the Bahraini government.

A former economist and nutritionist with the United Nations and World Health Organization, her articles appear regularly in outlets such as The Huffington Post, CommonDreams, Alternet and OpEd News.

Medea can be reached at: medea[@]codepink.org or @medeabenjamin. – See more at: http://www.codepink.org/article.php?id=51#sthash.Tgxj7FrY.dpuf

 

Naureen Shah  (@naureenshah) develops research and advocacy on human rights abuses arising from counterterrorism practices, including covert drone strikes and “homegrown terrorism” prosecutions impacting American Muslim communities.

She is a frequent commentator on U.S. counterterrorism policy, especially drone strikes. She has recently been quoted in coverage by the New York Times, LA Times, ProPublica, Rolling Stone and PRI’s The World. She has recently been a guest on programs such as KCRW Los Angeles’ To The Point, WHYY Philadelphia’s Radio Times, and HuffPost Live. In the past she has appeared on CNN International and the BBC.

Her recent articles include President Obama Has Not Delivered On May’s Promise of Transparency on Drones (The Guardian, Aug. 17, 2013); The FBI’s Surveillance Power in the aftermath of Boston (The Hill, May 17, 2013); End Covert Drone War (USA Today, Feb. 7, 2013); New director John Brennan must kill the CIA’s drone assasination policy (Guardian, Jan. 8, 2013); President Obama’s Dangerous Drone Legacy (USA Today, Oct. 1, 2012); The CIA’s Unchecked Quasi-Military Role (Politico, May 10, 2012); Drone Attacks and the Brennan Doctrine (Guardian, May 2, 2012); They Can’t Go Home Again (Jurist, Feb. 15, 2011); Don’t Deliver Afghans to Torture on a Promise Alone (The Age/Sydney Morning Herald, Jan. 7, 2011); and Growing Up Before Ground Zero (Fort Worth Weekly, Sept. 8, 2011).

She is also the co-author of several major reports on drone strikes: The Civilian Impact of Drones, Counting Drone Strike Deaths and Targeting With Drone Technology: Humanitarian Law Implications.

Naureen holds a B.S. from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, cum laude. She holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she was a James Kent Scholar and Harlan Fiske Stone scholar, and received the Lowenstein Fellowship awarded to outstanding graduates pursuing public interest law.

www.twitter.com/naureenshah

David Swanson is an author who’s books include: War No More: The Case for Abolition (2013), War Is A Lie (2010), When the World Outlawed War (2011), and The Military Industrial Complex at 50 (2012). He is the host of  Talk Nation Radio. He has been a journalist, activist, organizer, educator, and agitator. Swanson helped plan the nonviolent occupation of Freedom Plaza in Washington DC in 2011. Swanson holds a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including press secretary for Dennis Kucinich’s 2004 presidential campaign, media coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as communications coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. He blogs at http://davidswanson.org and http://warisacrime.org and works as Campaign Coordinator for the online activist organization http://rootsaction.org  Swanson also works on the communications committee of Veterans For Peace, of which he is an associate (non-veteran) member. Swanson is Secretary of Peace in the Green Shadow Cabinet.

The Growing Effort to Stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)

This Monday at 11 am EDT/8 am Pacific on Clearing the FOG, we will discuss the growing effort to stop the rigged corporate trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). This deal affects every issue we care about from food safety to the cost of medicines to jobs and wages, protection of the environment, internet freedom and more. The TPP gives corporations more power to sue governments, even down to the local level, and to challenge court decisions if laws that protect workers, consumers and the environment interfere with profits. David Newby of the Wisconsin Fair Trade Coalition and Ruth Caplan of the Alliance for Democracy will speak about communities that are passing resolutions to declare themselves “TPP Free Zones.” And Arthur Stamoulis of Citizens Trade Campaign will tell us about an international day of action on Dec. 3 and what else is being done to stop the TPP.

Listen here:

Communities Say “No” to Trans-Pacific Partnership with David Newby, Ruth Caplan and Arthur Stamoulis by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant articles and websites:

Wisconsin Fair Trade Coalition

Alliance for Democracy

Citizens Trade Campaign

Flush the TPP

Guests:

David Newby is past President of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO and currently serves as President of the Wisconsin Fair Trade Coalition.

 

 

 

 

 

Ruth Caplan is the National Coordinator for the Alliance for Democracy’s Defending Water for Life Campaign. She worked with town of Barnstead NH to pass the first ordinance in the country to declare water to be a fundamental right, to deny corporations the right to take the water for profit, and to deny corporations constitutional rights in the town. She has organized around the WTO’s General Agreement on Trade in Services to oppose the privatization of water services and wrote “Trading Away Our Water: How Trade Agreements Promote Corporate Water Profiteering.” She appears in the documentary Tapped and wrote the discussion guide for the documentary Thirst.

Other highlights not directly related to water:

• 1990’s coordinated the interdisciplinary Economics Working Group which produced a General Agreement on a New Economy, GANE, not GATT, a community centered system for full employment and local sustainability based on identifying local needs through a visioning process, with functions at the regional and national levels to ensure economic justice and support for the communities.

• 1982-92 lobbied for safe energy/renewables then served as Executive Director of Environmental Action and Environmental Action Foundation created to continue building the national grassroots movement begun by the first Earth Day in 1970.

• 1970’s played a key role in regional organizing and successful legal interventions which prevented the construction of three nuclear units and a nuclear waste incinerator on Lake Ontario.

Arthur Stamoulis is Executive Director of Citizens Trade Campaign which was founded in 1992 as a national coalition of organizations to oppose NAFTA. CTC is one of the organizations leading the fight to expose and oppose the TPP. They recently sent a letter to Congress opposing Fast Track that was signed by 400 organizations. Visit CitizensTrade.org

The Struggle for Health Care Continues with Guests Sergio Espana and Russell Mokhiber

In this program we speak about the newest phase of the health law, the Affordable Care Act. The health insurance exchanges are open and starting in January most people will be required to have health insurance or pay a penalty. There’s one problem: having health insurance in the United States does not mean that people will have access to or be able to afford the health care they need. Under the ACA, billions in public dollars are being spent to set up insurance markets, advertise them and sell their products. But, most people will only be able to afford, even with subsidies, the lowest tier insurances that require high payments up front before they cover care and that have very restricted networks of providers. The struggle for a real health care system, national Medicare for all, continues. Sergio Espana of the Maryland Health Care is a Human Right campaign and Russell Mokhiber of Single Payer Action talk about their work and what it will take to get real health care for everyone.

Listen here:

The Struggle for Health Care Continues in the U.S. with Sergio Espana and Russell Mokhiber by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Watch here:

Video streaming by Ustream

Relevant articles and websites:

Obamacare: The Biggest Insurance Scam in History by Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese

The ACA is the Wrong Direction, Time for Medicare for All by Margaret Flowers

Beyond the Spin, Some Facts about the Affordable Care Act by Margaret Flowers

Single Payer West Virginia, Tommy Douglas and Healthcare, the Movie by Russell Mokhiber

Maryland Health Care is a Human Right campaign

Single Payer Action

 

Guests:

Sergio Espana is the organizer of the Maryland Health Care is a Human Right campaign. He also co-founded the Civilian Soldier Alliance and is involved in the Student Farmworker Alliance.

 

 

 

 

Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter.  He is also founder of singlepayeraction.org, and editor of the website Morgan County USA.

Fukushima – A Global Threat That Requires a Global Response

We discuss the situation at Fukushima nuclear power plant and the urgent crises that it faces after the disaster in 2011. In addition to the ongoing problem with contaminated water that is leaking into the Pacific Ocean, Japan plans to start removing damaged spent fuel rods next month. Nuclear experts warn that this must be done perfectly to avoid another release of massive amounts of radiation. Harvey Wasserman describes the process, what dangers we face and what needs to be done about it.

Listen here:

Fukushima: A Global Threat that Needs a Global Solution with Harvey Wasserman by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Watch here:

Video streaming by Ustream

Relevant articles, videos and websites:

Fukushima – A Global Threat that Requires a Global Response by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers

Worldwide Demand for UN Takeover at Fukushima by Harvey Wasserman

Nuclear expert letter to the United Nations

NukeFree.org

Petition to the United Nations

Video: World Action Now on Fukushima with Harvey Wasserman

Video: Tour of Fukushima Daiichi with Arnie Gunderson

Guest:

Harvey Wasserman is author or co-author of a dozen books and edits the www.nukefree.org website. His Green Power & Wellness Show is at www.progressiveradionetwork.com.

SOLARTOPIA! introduced by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.; HARVEY WASSERMAN’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, introduced by Howard Zinn; and GLIMPSE OF THE BIG LIGHT: Losing Parents, Finding Spirit, introduced by Marianne Williamson, all appear at www.harveywasserman.ning.com. So does PASSIONS OF THE POTSMOKING PATRIOTS by “Thomas Paine.”

With Bob Fitrakis, Harvey has co-authored four books on corporate vote fraud, including HOW THE GOP STOLE AMERICA’S 2004 ELECTION….

In 1973-4, he helped found America’s grassroots “No Nukes” movement, a phrase he helped coin. He is senior advisor to Greenpeace USA and the Nuclear Information & Resource Service and Senior Editor of www.freepress.org. He speaks regularly to citizen and campus groups around the US. In 1994 he addressed 350,000 semi-conscious rock fans at Woodstock 2.

Harvey teaches history at two colleges in central Ohio. He has 5 daughters, 4 grandchildren & 3 grand nieces/nephews. All in all, he’s a happy guy.

Indigenous Nations Around the World Proclaim Sovereignty

Indigenous Nations all over the world have been occupied for centuries by settlers who push them off of their land and take resources without permission or respect for the land, water and air. After trying to use domestic and international approaches, including the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to regain legal sovereignty and failing, Indigenous Nations are rising up. We speak with Clayton Thomas Muller, Sylvia Mcadam and SuZanne MoniQue Patels of Idle No More about the movement, steps they are taking to protect the Earth and the October 7 Day to Proclaim Sovereignty. Today is the 250th anniversary of the Royal Proclamation, also known as the Indians Magna Carta.

Listen here:

Proclamation of Indigenous Sovereignty with Sylvia Mcadam, Clayton Thomas-Muller and SuZanne Patels by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Watch here:

Video streaming by Ustream

Relevant articles, books and websites:

Indigenous Nations Are at the Forefront of the Conflict With Transnational Corporate Power by Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese

UN Rapporteur: Canada Faces Crisis In Situation Of Indigenous People by James Anaya

Idle No More Calls For Mass Action On October 7, 2013 by Krystalline Kraus

Idle No More: National Sovereignty Day Of Actions

VIDEO: October 7: International Day To Proclaim Indigenous Sovereignty

Anti-frack Letter Of Opposition Hand Delivered To SWN’s Houston Office by Miles Howe

VIDEO: Mi’kmaq Call For Oct 18th Solidarity Actions by SuZanne Patles

Idle No More

Defenders of the Land

Reclaim Turtle Island

Guests:

Clayton Thomas Muller is a member of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation also known as Pukatawagan in Northern Manitoba, Canada. Based out of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Clayton is the co-director of the Indigenous Tar Sands (ITS) Campaign of the Polaris Institute as well as a volunteer organizer with the Defenders of the Land-Idle No More national campaign known as Sovereignty Summer.

Clayton is involved in many initiatives to support the building of an inclusive movement globally for energy and climate justice. He serves on the board of the Global Justice Ecology Project, Canadian based Raven Trust and Navajo Nation based, Black Mesa Water Coalition.

Clayton has traveled extensively domestically and internationally leading Indigenous delegations to lobby United Nations bodies including the UN framework Convention on Climate Change, UN Earth Summit (Johannesburg, South Africa 2002 and Rio +20, Brazil 2012) and the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Clayton has coordinated and lead delegations of First Nations, Native American and Alaska Native elected and grassroots leadership to lobby government in Washington DC, USA, Ottawa, Canada, and European Union (Strasbourg and Brussels)

He has been recognized by Utne Magazine as one of the top 30 under 30 activists in the United States and as a “Climate Hero 2009” by Yes Magazine. For the last eleven years he has campaigned across Canada, Alaska and the lower 48 states organizing in hundreds of First Nations, Alaska Native and Native American communities in support of grassroots Indigenous Peoples to defend against the encroachment of the fossil fuel industry. This has included a special focus on the sprawling infrastructure of pipelines, refineries and extraction associated with the Canadian tar sands.

Clayton is an organizer, facilitator, public speaker and writer on environmental and economic justice. He has been published in multiple books, news papers and magazines and appeared countless times on local, regional, national and international television and radio as an expert advocate on Indigenous rights, environmental and economic justice . He has been a guest lecturer at universities, conferences and seminars around the world.

Sylvia Mcadam was born and raised on the Big River Reserve inTreaty Six Territory. She holds two degrees, in law and human justice; and currently teaches at the First Nations University. She is also the author of the 2009 book, “Cultural Teachings: First Nations Protocols & Methodologies” which provides a guide to appropriate traditional etiquette for individuals attending ceremonial activities of Indigenous peoples in Saskatchewan.

 

 

SuZanne MoniQue Patles is a Mi’qmac warrior from Eskasoni First Nation.

The Struggle for Recognition of the Rights of Indigenous Nations

We began a two-part series on the sovereignty of Indigenous Nations. This week we spoke with Charmaine White Face, Zumila Wobaga, who participated in the process to develop the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Charmaine recently published a book titled “Indigenous Nations’ Rights in the Balance” in which she describes the difficult process of achieving recognition of rights agreed upon by the majority of indigenous peoples and how the process of creating the declaration was full of obstacles. She analyzes the text of the final declaration and what it means for indigenous nations.

Listen here:

The Struggle for Recognition of the Rights of Indigenous Nations with Charmaine White Face by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Watch here:

Video streaming by Ustream

 

Relevant articles, books and websites:

It is Time to Recognize the National Sovereignty and Human Rights of Native Indians by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers

Individual Rights Only for Indigenous Peoples at the UN by Charmaine White Face

Indigenous Nations’ Rights in the Balance: An analysis of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by Charmaine White Face Zumila Wobaga

Living Justice Press

Defenders of the Black Hills

 

Guest:

Charmaine White Face, Zumila Wobaga (A Little Wise One Who Makes a Mark), is an Oglala Tetuwan (Lakota dialect) from the Oceti Sakowin (Great Sioux Nation) in North America.

From her early childhood, her paternal grandmother taught Charmaine White Face about the treaties that the United States and the Great Sioux Nation entered into. Her grandmother also taught her about the cultural differences between these two nations. This influence has permeated her writing and continues to affect her philosophy, thought, work, and life.

One of the few members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe to pursue a degree in the sciences, Ms. White Face completed a double major in Biology and Physical Science in 1973. She has used this education to teach environmental science at the college level.

A long-term community organizer, Ms. White Face began her organizing work thirty years ago as a volunteer on the Board of Directors for the South Dakota Indian Education Association, of which she was a member for five years. Over the years, she not only continued to volunteer her organizing skills but also worked as a professional organizer for a national environmental organization.

She also worked as an administrator for the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. She took an active role in developing tribal laws, managing departments, and administering federal programs.

Woven throughout, she has been a political columnist. Her writings have appeared in magazines and essay collections in the United States and Great Britain. She authored a book entitled Testimony for the Innocent, which is a biographical account of her experiences as the Treasurer for the Oglala Sioux Tribe. For the past twenty years, her editorials and essays have urged political reform, social justice, and environmental protection and restoration.

Through her published work, the Sioux Nation Treaty Council, established in 1894 by He Dog, a Headman, came to recognize her understanding of the sovereignty of the Great Sioux Nation. In 1994, unknown to her, the Council appointed her to be the Spokesperson’s successor—Spokesperson being a lifelong appointment. She assumed the duties as Spokesperson in 2004. Her work for the Treaty Council is to uphold the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868.

Since 2002, she has been participating at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, and New York City, New York, to advocate for the Great Sioux Nation and other Indigenous Peoples. At a critical juncture in the development of the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, she participated in the prayer fast/hunger strike held in December 2004 at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

In 2002, she founded a volunteer environmental and social justice organization called Defenders of the Black Hills. The organization advocates for the protection, preservation, and restoration of the environment of the 1851 and 1868 Treaty Territories. The organization is composed of members from many different Indigenous Nations as well as non-Indigenous people from the United States, Canada, and Europe.

She is currently working on cleaning up thousands of abandoned open-pit uranium mines and prospects. The radioactive dust, waste, and leaching from these sites are polluting the environment in western South Dakota and the Northern Great Plains—1868 Treaty Territory.

Ms. White Face is a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Her hobbies include sewing, reading, gardening, and old movies. She resides in Rapid City, South Dakota.

 

Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese on Democracy, Syria and the Trans-Pacific Partnership

We broadcast from Colorado where we spoke at the “What Does Democracy Look Like? Conference.” The conference was sponsored by the It’s Our Economy chapter in Denver and included a number of groups who are working on issues of food security, housing and alternative currencies. We spoke about the widespread opposition to an attack on Syria by the US including a broad spectrum of the public, members of Congress, the military and intelligence analysts. And we closed with an update on the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the campaign to demand democracy and transparency in trade negotiation.

Listen here:

On Democracy, Syria and the Trans-Pacific Partnership – Discussion with the co-hosts by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Watch here:

Video streaming by Ustream

Relevant articles and websites:

Is Broad Opposition to Syria a Chance to End American Empire Responsibly? by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers

Americans Don’t Want a War In Syria and They’re Working Hard to Prevent One by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers

People Across the Spectrum are Working to Stop War on Syria and It’s Having an Effect by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers

 

Taking Back the Commons with David Bollier

David Bollier, co-author of The Wealth of the Commons: A World Beyond Market and State, talks about the Commons, which can be almost anything as long as there is public action and governance around it. Bollier explains the myth of the ‘tragedy of the commons’ which is widely taught as truth . We talk about the benefits of reclaiming public space and institutions and the growing sharing economy.

Listen here:

Taking Back the Commons with David Bollier by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Watch here:

Video streaming by Ustream

 

Relevant articles, books and websites:

Building the Commons as an Antidote to the Predatory Market Economy by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers

The Commons, Short and Sweet by David Bollier

Welcome, the Commons Atlas! by David Bollier

The Wealth of the Commons: Beyond Market and State, edited by David Bollier and Silke Helfrich

Green Governance: Ecological Survival, Human Rights, and the Law of the Commons by Burns Weston and David Bollier

David Bollier’s Blog (check the Blog Roll for more websites)

On The Commons

 

Our guest:

David Bollier is an author, activist, blogger and consultant who spends a lot of time exploring the commons as a new paradigm of economics, politics and culture. I’ve been on this trail for more than ten years, working with a variety of international and domestic partners. In 2010, I co-founded the Commons Strategies Group, a consulting project that works to promote the commons internationally.

My work on the commons takes many forms — as an author, conference organizer and frequent international speaker; as the host of an educational film, This Land Is Our Land: The Fight to Reclaim the Commons; as the Croxton Lecturer at Amherst College where I taught “The Rise of the Commons” in 2010; and as an expert witness for the “design commons” in a trademark lawsuit; among other initiatives.

I was Founding Editor of Onthecommons.org and a Fellow of On the Commons from 2004 to 2010. I have written, co-authored or co-edited twelve books.  My first book on the commons was Silent Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Commons Wealth (2002), a far-ranging survey of market enclosures of shared resources, from public lands and the airwaves to creativity and knowledge. Then I extended this analysis in my 2005 book,Brand Name Bullies: The Quest to Own and Control Culture, which documents the vast expansion of copyright and trademark law over the past generation that has enclosed our cultural commons. In 2009, I published Viral Spiral: How the Commoners Built a Digital Republic of Their Own, which describes the rise of free software, free culture, and the movements behind open business models, open science, open educational resources and new modes of Internet-enabled citizenship.

I recently published two books on the commons: The Wealth of the Commons:  A World Beyond Market and State (September 2012, Levellers Press), co-edited with Silke Helfrich; and Green Governance:  Ecological Survival, Human Rights and the Commons(early 2013, Cambridge University Press), co-authored with Professor Burns H. Weston.

While on the trail of the commons, I have worked with American television writer/producer Norman Lear, since 1984, on a variety of non-television, public affairs projects. I am also Senior Fellow at the Norman Lear Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, and co-founder and board member (2001-2011) of Public Knowledge, a Washington policy advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the information commons. In 2012, I won the Bosch Berlin Prize in Public Policy for my commons work from the American Academy in Berlin.  This entailed a residential fellowship and travel in Europe.

I live in Amherst, Massachusetts, a place that knows a lot about commoning and so inspires a passionate hometown loyalty.

Making the Carbon-Free, Nuclear-Free Energy Economy Real

The devastating environmental and climate consequences of extraction energy sources such as nuclear and fossil fuels require that we change to renewable and sustainable sources. Arjun Makhijani, author of “Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for US Energy Policy” explains how we can achieve this goal. Then Alison Burchell, founder of Clean Energy Action in Boulder, CO, will explain their campaign to move off of fossil fuels towards renewable sources and create a municipally-owned energy utility at the same time.

Listen here:

Achieving a Carbon-Free Nuclear-Free Energy Future with Guests Arjun Makhijani and Alison Burchell by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant Articles, Books and Websites:

Carbon-Free, Nuclear-Free Energy Economy is Inevitable by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers

Dirty Energy’s Dirty Tactics: Boulder On The Front Lines Of The Renewable Energy Future by Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese

*Support Boulder’s Efforts here: IndieGoGo Project

Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy by Arjun Makhijani

Fukushima Reflections on the Second Anniversary of the Accident by Arjun Makhijani

Colorado at the Forefront of Renewables by Lauren Stanford

Institute for Energy and Environmental Research

Empower Our Future

Video: From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima featuring Arjun Makhijani

Guests:

Arjun Makhijani is the President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, holds a Ph.D. in engineering (specialization: nuclear fusion) from the University of California at Berkeley. He has produced many studies and articles on nuclear fuel cycle related issues, including weapons production, testing, and nuclear waste, over the past twenty years. He is the principal author of the first study ever done (completed in 1971) on energy conservation potential in the U.S. economy. Most recently, Dr, Makhijani has authored Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy (IEER Press), the first analysis of a transition to a U.S. economy based completely on renewable energy, without any use of fossil fuels or nuclear power. He is the principal editor of Nuclear Wastelands and the principal author of Mending the Ozone Hole, both published by MIT Press.

Alison Burchell  

is a geologic consultant whose clients include the business and non-profit sectors, government agencies and stakeholder groups involved in a range of projects including: mapping and geochemical surveys, ecosystem assessment, reclamation, natural hazards, renewable-energy site-assessment, health- and environmental- related legislation.  Her undergraduate work was in Chemistry with a minor in Environmental Sciences and Planning.  She received her graduate degree in Volcanology and Isotope-Geochemistry under a Department of Interior – US Geologic Survey Fellowship at the University of Arizona.  She holds advanced certificates in Multispectral and Radar Remote Sensing Analysis, Database Design, GIS, Scuba and EPA hazardous materials sampling, detection and calibration.

Her current research is focused on understanding and quantifying the mechanisms and kinetics of natural biologic, geologic, chemical and physical processes by which carbon is removed from the atmosphere and stored in terrestrial sinks. This work has led her towards an integrative, bio-geo-mimicry approach to researching and understanding complex terrestrial problems.  This systems-integrated research and her involvement with a variety of stakeholder groups has influenced a Collaborative Impact approach towards helping communities, businesses and boards achieve their sustainablilty goals. Since moving to Boulder, she has served on several state and local working-groups and non-profit boards tasked with promoting public education, developing public policy or modeling and mitigating a range of environmental problems.  She is a member of the City of Boulder – Energy Future Task Force and  co-founder of Clean Energy Action, Renewables Yes and Empower Our Future – a broad coalition of citizens, businesses, elected and former officials and organizations working to promote the Boulder Clean Energy Future project and moving to assist other communities asses their own clean energy options.

 

Rethinking Money with Jacqui Dunne

Jacqui Dunne, co-author of “Rethinking Money : How New Currencies Turn Scarcity into Prosperity,” joins us for the hour to discuss the concept of money, why the current dominant monetary system is failing and new systems that are being created to solve problems such as the need for credit and to support localism. Thousands of complementary currencies and monetary systems are in existence. The WIR system in Switzerland has been around for almost 80 years. Dunne describes how unmet needs and unused resources can be connected through complementary currency systems that reflect the values of a community and encourage positive human interactions. A diverse, flexible and resilient monetary system is developing around the world.

Listen here:

Rethinking Money with Author Jacqui Dunne by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Watch here:

Video streaming by Ustream

Relevant articles and websites:

Sustainable Abundance: Permaculture Principles for Monetary Systems by Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese

Socially Responsible Investing Moving from Upstream to Mainstream by Jacqui Dunne

Rethinking Money

Follow Jacqui Dunne on Twitter @JacquiDunne

 

Guest:

Jacqui Dunne is an award-winning journalist from Ireland, founder and CEO of Danu Resource, and an emerging leader in helping entrepreneurs develop technologies and initiatives that restore the earth’s equilibrium globally.

Danú Resources serves as a fiscal agent for funding, and works as the interface between the donors and the projects. Danu’s unique value is its ability to work from a future reference point that draws out the greatness, and builds upon the strengths, of both the donor and the recipient, thus creating a flourishing paradigm shift for a quadruple bottom line –people, planet, profits and power within.

She serves on the board of and is an advisor to several U.S. and international companies.  These firms are engaged in innovative solutions in the domains of green energy (the Swedish corporation Mimer Energy and Blue Energy in Canada), decentralized local food production (Perpetua in the U.S.), and a natural resolution for nuclear and other waste streams, Amo Terra.  She is a principal strategist with the launching of the business to business currency, the terra, that is designed to create more stability and predictability in the financial and business sectors by providing a mechanism for contractual, payment and planning purposes worldwide

In terms of philanthropy, Jacqui sits on the board of A Human Right, which is dedicated to providing free basic Internet and phone access to developing countries and underserved regions internationally, using spare satellite capacity.

An award-winning journalist, she started her career in her native Ireland.  While still in college, Jacqui reported on Spain’s transition to democracy in the late 1970s on a freelance basis for both the Irish Times and RTE (Irish Radio).  Later she joined the Sunday Independent as a staff reporter and features writer and covered a variety of stories from the political unrest in Northern Ireland to famine Ethiopia. For several years she wrote a monthly column for the Irish Tattler and co-designed special events for the magazine to encourage women’s entrepreneurship.

In New York she wrote for Interview Magazine, Elle and the Daily News, then headed west to San Francisco where she wrote for Grassroots/Dresdner RCM Bank compiling investigative reports on companies and industry sector analysis. She produced radio interviews with thought leaders and was an occasional on-air host for New Dimensions Radio syndicated to NPR and community radio stations nationally and overseas.

In order to gain experience in how business really works, Jacqui conducted market research for multinational biotech and pharmaceutical companies. She was a VP of a former boutique technology public and investor relations company ContentOne, which handled media and investor relations for firms ranging from startups to publically traded companies.

Lately she has worked as a content editor for Money and Sustainability – The Missing Link, A Report to the Club of Rome, which reveals the hidden dynamics among the conventional money system, climate change and ecological sustainability. This report has been given to Finance Watch, an independent European public interest association tasked by the European Union with reporting on the causes of the current banking and financial debacle.

She is currently writes for the Huffington Post’s Business section.

Rethinking Money is her first book. She currently resides in Colorado, USA.