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.

Still Fighting for a Healthcare System

We are now 5 years into the national healthcare law, the Affordable Care Act. The deadline for purchasing insurance this year is Feb. 15. Although more people have health insurance, we have not changed the healthcare system in the United States. The same problems of lack of access to care because of cost, medical debt and bankruptcy  and poor health outcomes continue. Dr. Robert Zarr, the new president of Physicians for a National Health Program, joins us to talk about the current healthcare system and the newly introduced HR 676 Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act in Congress that would create a single payer health system. We also speak with Ellen Schwartz of the Vermont Workers Center about their work to push for a universal healthcare system at the state level.

Listen live at 11 am:

Still Fighting for Health Care as a Human Right with Ellen Schwartz and Dr. Robert Zarr by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant articles and websites:

Doctors’ Group Hails Reintroduction of Medicare for All Bill

Dr. Robert Zarr on “The Big Picture”

Building a Grassroots Movement for the Human Right to Health Care

Physicians for a National Health Program

Vermont Workers Center – Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign

Guests:

Dr. Robert Zarr is a board-certified pediatrician at Unity Health Care in Washington, DC, where he cares for a low-income and immigrant population. He is president of Physicians for a National Health Program.

Dr. Zarr is a past president of the DC Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and he holds adjunct professorships at Children’s National Medical Center, George Washington University and Georgetown University. He also co-directs the Washington, DC chapter of PNHP. He is “physician champion” of DC Park Rx, a community health initiative to prescribe nature to patients and families and encourage time in one of 350 parks and green spaces in Washington, DC.

Dr. Zarr is fluent and literate in Spanish and has worked in the U.S. and abroad with Spanish-speaking populations. He is active in Washington, DC, in a variety of quality improvement initiatives including asthma management, injury prevention, literacy promotion, breastfeeding awareness, youth advocacy, tuberculosis prevention, and compliance with early and periodic screening, diagnostic and treatment standards.

Dr. Zarr received his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine and completed his pediatric residency at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. He also has a master’s degree in public health, specializing in international health, from the University of Texas School of Public Health.

Ellen Schwartz  is a recently retired teacher, who worked for 30 years in the public schools of Vermont and Massachusetts. She is co-editor of a book called Making Space for Active Learning: The Art and Practice of Teaching (Teachers College Press, 2014). She does occasional consulting with teachers and works as a mentor to Practitioner Fellows working with the Prospect School and Center Archives, housed at the University of Vermont.

Reclaiming the Radical Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Coast to coast communities are celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day this year by rejecting the watered-down version of Dr. King and lifting up the Dr. King who questioned capitalism, who saw the connections between racism, militarism and economic injustice and who promoted independent politics. We will speak about Dr. King’s politics and how they relate to the current economic and political environment. We will also talk about the current protests. Kymone Freeman who is co-founder of We Act Radio and also a leading organizer of DC Ferguson and other local groups demanding police reform will be our guest. He will also speak about his new play, “Whites Only.” We will also be joined by Jasiri X and Cat Brooks.

Listen here:

Reclaiming the Radical Dr. King with Kymone Freeman, Jasiri X and Cat Brooks by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant articles, videos and websites:

A New Generation Reclaims MLK Day by Ms. Bullhorn

#ReclaimMLK Protests Begin on Rev. King’s Real Birthday by Popular Resistance

Obama’s Police Task Force: A police love fest by Kymone Freeman

KymoneFreeman.com

Guest:

Papi 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.

Jasiri X: Emcee and community activist Jasiri X is the creative force and artist behind the ground breaking internet news series, This Week with Jasiri X, which has garnered critical acclaim, thousands of subscribers, and millions of internet views. From the controversial viral video What if the Tea Party was Black?, to the hard hitting hilarity of Republican Woman…stay away from me, Jasiri X cleverly uses Hip-Hop to provide social commentary on a variety of issues. His videos have been featured on websites as diverse as Allhiphop.com and The Huffington Post and Jasiri has been a guest on BET Rap City, The Michael Baisden Show, Free Speech TV, Left of Black, and Russia Today.

Jasiri X first burst on the National and International Hip-Hop scene with the powerful hit song Free The Jena 6 which was played on more than 100 radio stations and was named Hip-hop Political Song of the Year. His debut album, American History X, was named Album of the Year at the Pittsburgh Hip-Hop Awards. A six time Pittsburgh Hip-Hop Award winner, Jasiri recently became the first Hip-Hop artist to received the coveted August Wilson Center for African American Culture Fellowship. A founding member of the anti-violence group One Hood, Jasiri started the 1Hood Media Academy to teach young African-American boys how to analyze and create media for themselves.

Jasiri has performed from New York City to Berlin, Germany and various cities in between, including recently in front of 30,000 at the Our Communities Our Jobs Rally in Los Angeles. He has toured colleges and universities across the country presenting his innovative workshop, How to Succeed in Hip-Hop Without Selling Your Soul, and is working on a book of the same name. He also blogs for Jack and Jill Politics, Daveyd.com, and The Black Youth Project. Jasiri X signed a record deal with Wandering Worx Entertainment and has recently released his album, Ascension with acclaimed producer Rel!g!on.

Cat Brooks is an organizer with the ONYX Organizing Committee. With other groups, they are launching “96 hours of action as part of national call to ‘Reclaim King’s Legacy.'” They are based in Oakland and San Francisco.

Similar protests are planned in other cities. See from The Real News: “Baltimore Activists Participate in National Day of Action Against Police Brutality.”
The group states: “We will join thousands around the country responding to a call from Ferguson Action to reclaim Dr. King’s legacy of militant direct action in opposition to economic violence as well as police violence and discrimination. This weekend’s events culminate in a Jobs and Economy March for the People on Monday, Jan. 19, beginning at 11 a.m. at Oscar Grant Plaza.

“Monday, we will connect the dots between police violence and economic violence with a march at 11 a.m. from Fruitvale Station, where Oscar Grant III was murdered by BART police, in solidarity with Ferguson, New York, Cleveland, Sanford, Salt Lake City, and countless others who too have lost young black men to police terror. …

“The upcoming 96 hours of direct action across the Bay Area will highlight the unjust economic and political structures that King fought fiercely to defeat. Thousands will unify, regardless of skin color, religion, or creed, as we reclaim King’s legacy and act, in tandem, against police and economic violence; two primary tools of white supremacy. Actions will take place throughout the city, at BART stations, community meetings and street corners and come in the form of shut downs, guerrilla theater, teach-ins and concerts. Monday, we march through the neighborhoods where systematic and state sanctioned murder of black, brown, and poor people occur most.”

An Hour With Climate Justice Activist Tim DeChristopher

We spend the hour with Tim DeChristopher who is most known for his action as “Bidder 70” to stop the illegal sale of public lands for oil and gas. For that act he served 21 months in prison. DeChristopher continues to work on climate justice with front line groups and youth. He also works to support those who are preparing for nonviolent civil resistance and those who are going to trial or their actions. He is currently studying at Harvard Divinity School. We talk about climate justice, how to shift power, electoral politics and more.

Listen live at 11 am Eastern here:

An Hour with Tim DeChristopher, Climate Justice Activist by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant articles and websites:

Why Tim Dechristopher went to Prison for His Protest by Bill Moyers

Bidder70.org

Guest:

Tim DeChristopher is a climate justice activist and co-founder of the environmental group Peaceful Uprising. Tim was born in West Virginia and grew up in Pittsburgh. He moved to Utah in 2005 where he worked as a wilderness guide for troubled and at-risk youth. His involvement in this program strengthened his already strong respect for the natural world, and led him to question a political and economic system that concentrates wealth and power in the hands of a privileged few, ostracizing the rest of society. This led Tim to pursue obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Utah in 2009.

On December 19, 2008, Tim disrupted a highly disputed oil and gas lease auction of 116 parcels of public land in Southern Utah’s red rock country. Invited to register as a bidder up on his entry, Tim became Bidder 70, pushing prices from $2/acre up to $240/acre and ultimately winning over $1.8 million in land parcels. Upon review of the parcels in question, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar dismissed the auction, declaring that the BLM had cut corners and broken many of its own rules. But DeChristopher was still indicted on two charges of felony, and after 3 years of delayed trial dates, was found guilty on both counts and sentenced to serve two years in Federal Prison. Tim’s action garnered a great deal of media and public attention, and catalyzed an overwhelming influx of support and applause for his creative, effective, and nonviolent act of civil disobedience, which ultimately safeguarded thousands of acres of Utah public lands.

Tim’s bold act, coupled with his personal charisma and the gravity of his motivation, brought enthusiastic activists out of the Utah woodwork who began the climate justice organization Peaceful Uprising; a group dedicated to defending a livable future through non-violent, direct action. While Tim awaited trial, he ran a candidate for Utah’s 2nd Congressional district by posting a Craigslist ad that garnered national attention and challenged Utah’s “blue-dog” incumbent, Jim Matheson. As a keynote at Powershift 2011, Tim called on 10,000 students to take action, and led the march on the occupation of the Washington DC’s Department of the Interior the following day. Released on April 21, 2013 after serving 21 months in Federal Prison, Tim does not regret his action, and is currently attending Harvard Divinity School to pursue a degree in Unitarian ministry.

Building the Culture of Resistance in 2015

We bring together several activists to speak about the new year in resistance. We’ll discuss the top issues of 2015 and what we can expect as the movement of movements for social, economic and environmental justice continues to grow. Joining us are Kathy Kelly of Voices for Creative Nonviolence who has been focused on building peace and stopping US drone attacks and Evan Greer of Fight for the Future who has been focused on issues of Internet privacy and net neutrality. Bill Ragen of Rising Tide North America, a coalition of groups and people fighting for climate justice will also be a guest.

Listen here on Monday, January 5 at 11 am Eastern:

A Look Ahead to 2015: The Year We Build Power Together by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant articles and websites:

Peace Activists Sentenced on Human Rights Day by Buddy Bell

Voices for Creative Nonviolence

Fight for the Future

Rising Tide North America

Guests:

Kathy Kelly, co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence, (www.vcnv.org) a campaign to end U.S. military and economic warfare.

During each of nine recent trips to Afghanistan, Kathy Kelly, as an invited guest of the Afghan Peace Volunteers, has lived alongside ordinary Afghan people in a working class neighborhood in Kabul. She and her companions in Voices for Creative Nonviolence believe that “where you stand determines what you see.”

They are resolved not to let war sever the bonds of friendship between them and Afghan people whom they’ve grown to know through successive delegations. Kelly and her companions insist that the U.S. is not waging a “humanitarian war” in Afghanistan.

Kelly has also joined with activists in various regions of the country to protest drone warfare by holding demonstrations outside of U.S. military bases in Nevada, upstate New York, and, most recently, at Whiteman Air Force base in Missouri.

During late June and early July of 2011, Kelly, was a passenger on the “Audacity to Hope” as part of the US Boat to Gaza project. She also attempted to reach Gaza by flying from Athens to Tel Aviv, as part of the Welcome to Palestine effort, but the Israeli government deported her back to Greece.

In 2009, she lived in Gaza during the final days of the Operation Cast Lead bombing; later that year, Voices formed another small delegation to visit Pakistan, aiming to learn more about the effects of U.S. drone warfare on the civilian population and to better understand consequences of U.S. foreign policy in Pakistan.

From 1996 – 2003, Voices activists formed 70 delegations that openly defied economic sanctions by bringing medicines to children and families in Iraq. Kathy and her companions lived in Baghdad throughout the 2003 “Shock and Awe” bombing.

She was sentenced to one year in federal prison for planting corn on nuclear missile silo sites (1988-89) and spent three months in prison, in 2004, for crossing the line at Fort Benning’s military training school. As a war tax refuser, she has refused payment of all forms of federal income tax since 1980.

She and her companions at the Voices home/office in Chicago believe that non-violence necessarily involves simplicity, service, sharing of resources and non-violent direct action in resistance to war and oppression.

Other Lands Have Dreams: from Baghdad to Pekin Prison (2005) by Kathy Kelly is available through Counterpunch (www.counterpunch.org) or Voices for Creative Nonviolence, 1249 West Argyle, Chicago, IL 60640 773-878-3815

“In a Time of Siege,” a Peace Productions DVD about Voices in the Wilderness, narrated by Studs Terkel, is available from the Voices for Creative Nonviolence office, 1249 West Argyle, Chicago, IL 60640 773-878-3815.

Evan Greer has been organizing hard-hitting campaigns for over a decade, online and in the streets. She’s currently the campaign manager at Fight for the Future, the viral digital rights organization that was one of the main forces behind the infamous SOPA blackout. Her day job is using the web to get millions to take action and dismantle the NSA’s blanket spying programs. Previously, Evan relentlessly toured the U.S. and Europe for years as a professional musician and workshop facilitator. She’s is now the parent of a 3 year old who has been to more than a dozen countries and countless activist events, protests, and punk shows. Renowned historian Howard Zinn called Greer “an eloquent and energetic writer,” and Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello calls her “a heck of a guitarist.” She works to educate and inspire groups to use cutting edge technology, creative tactics, and radical ideas, to effectively agitate for lofty things like justice and liberation.

 Bill Ragen “I’ve been a union organizer for 30 years, mostly with SEIU.  When the KXL blockade was happening in TX two years ago, I thought it was time to get more involved in climate change organizing and got involved in Rising Tide. “

2014, Year of Resistance in Review

Above photo by Robert van Waarden of Survival Media Agency.

At the beginning of the year, 2014 was called “the year that everything changed,” and indeed it has been a turning point for a number of resistance movements in the United States. We look back over the past 12 months and discuss some of the highlights and ways that movements made connections and worked together towards building the necessary ‘movement of movements’. We use a roundtable format for the hour. Our guests are Sandy Nurse, an activist in New York City who runs the composting business called BK ROT; Cassidy Regan, an activist in Baltimore who works on a number of fronts including militarism and trade agreements; and Tarak Kauff, an activist from Woodstock, NY who is on the board of Veterans for Peace and is active on environmental issues, militarism, racial justice and incarceration.

Listen live at 11 am Eastern here:

2014: Year of Resistance in Review with Sandy Nurse, Cassidy Regan and Tarak Kauff by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant articles and websites:

Popular Resistance Newsletter – 2014 in Review by Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese

A World Where Many Fit: Reflecting on Zapatista Resistance and the TPP by Cassidy Regan

Civilian Soldier Alliance

FlushtheTPP.org

MayDaySpace

StopTheseWars.org

Veterans for Peace

PopularResistance.org

BK Rot

Guests:

Sandy Nurse is a community organizer focused primarily on improving community ecological practices in Bushwick, Brooklyn, but also in movement direct action organizing. She currently runs a youth composting project called BK ROT and is part of the Mayday Space, a new social justice organizing space in Brooklyn.  She was very active in the Occupy Wall Street movement, was a core organizer for Flood Wall Street, helped coordinate the Millions March NYC along with other smaller actions here and there.

Cassidy Regan is a Baltimore-based organizer with PopularResistance.org who focuses on international trade and its connections to militarization and immigrant rights. She also serves on the steering committee of the Civilian Soldier Alliance and is active with the Student Farmworker Alliance.

Tarak Kauff – Since the Vietnam War to today’s occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, Tarak has opposed U.S. wars and invasions and the materialist, consumer oriented American way of life which precipitates wars and needs an ever expanding empire to continue.

Tarak served in the U.S. Army as a paratrooper from early 1959 to the middle of 1962. He did not serve in Vietnam or see combat. Having however, experienced the military culture and having many friends who did experience combat, from WW II through Afghanistan, he appreciates and understands the long-lasting trauma those veterans carry.

He currently serves on the Veterans For Peace Board of Directors and is a strong proponent of VFP’s Peace at Home, Peace Abroad orientation and activities. 

He has held a lead role in VFP’s Direct Action Team including actions at the National Archives, the White House on December 16, 2010, and March 19, 2011 and at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, he took part in the 2009-10 Gaza Freedom March in Cairo. He was one of the original crew of organizers of the Freedom Plaza Occupy in 2011.  In 2013 he went on a 58 day, 300 calorie liquid only hunger strike in solidarity with prisoners in Guantanamo, Palestinians in Israeli prisons, and those 80,000 souls here in long=term solitary confinement the US. He was arrested on the 47th day of that hunger strike in the Hart Senate Office building while chained to a 2nd floor railing, speaking out about torture and Guantanamo.

He has been to Ferguson, MO three times since the murder of MIchael Brown to stand as a veteran in solidarity with those demanding justice. He works with as he is able and is in support of the Native American led Clean Up the MInes Campaign.

Tarak believes that creating and nurturing a culture of sustained resistance and sustainable communities is our only hope for stopping the war machine and saving the planet from destruction by the profit-driven system of corporate control now in power.

The United States is Getting Away with Torture

The Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA’s torture program was released last week and it demonstrates both that the US used torture methods during interrogation which led to deaths in some cases and that torture was ineffective in obtaining necessary information. The Obama administration worked to suppress and censor the report; and following its release Obama announced that there will be no investigation of those involved in the program. The United Nations disagrees and UN Rapporteur Ben Emmerson is calling for prosecution up to the highest level of office. In addition, the UN has criticized the use of solitary confinement in the US as a domestic form of torture and suggests that it be banned. To discuss the report and the implications of this lack of accountability, we will speak with Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights and Jeremy Varon of Witness Against Torture.

Listen live at 11 am Eastern here:

The United States is getting away with Torture with Michael Ratner and Jeremy Varon by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant Articles and Websites:

White House Delaying Torture Report, Waiting for Republican Chair by Ali Watkins, Ryan Grim, Sabrina Siddiqui and Michael McAuliff

Obama Urges No Further Investigations or Prosecutions over Torture by Jon Queally

United Nations Condemns US over Torture and Injustice by Ed Pilkington

Torture Turned US Government into a Criminal Enterprise by Rebecca Gordon

Torture Report: UN Official Calls for Prosecution of US Officials by Kevin Zeese

The US has still not admitted the Historic Truth of Torture by Henry Giroux

The Center for Constitutional Rights

Witness Against Torture

Guests:

Michael Ratner was born in Ohio in 1943. He received his law degree from Columbia Law School. He is an attorney and the President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a non-profit human rights litigation organization based in New York. He has represented Guantanamo detainees in front of the United States Supreme Court. Ratner is a past president of the National Lawyers Guild and the author of numerous books and articles including “The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld: A Prosecution by Book,” “Against War with Iraq,” and “Guantanamo: What the World Should Know,” as well as a textbook on international human rights. Ratner is the co-host of the radio show, “Law and Disorder,” and joins three other lawyers on a radio show that reports legal developments related to civil liberties, civil rights, and human rights. He currently lectures on international human rights litigation at Columbia Law School.

Jeremy Varon is an Associate Professor of History at the New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College, specializing in modern US history, European and American intellectual history, and German history. He is also an organizer for Witness Against Torture. In 2004 he published Bringing the War Home: The Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction, and Revolutionary Violence in the Sixties and Seventies (University of California Press). He co-edits The Sixties: A Journal of History, Politics and Culture (Routeledge; www.informaworld.com/thesixties), a new academic journal that features interdisciplinary and international research on the “long Sixties” (1954-1975). He has written articles and given numerous talks on the social movements of the 1960s and the politics and ethics of violence. His work in intellectual history concerns the relationships between modernity, knowledge, representation, and power. He is currently working on a book about Holocaust survivors who studied in German universities in the American Zone of occupied Germany just after World War Two. He is involved in various social justice causes and groups, which inform his scholarship and teaching.

Lima to Paris – Will the UN Solve the Climate Crisis?

The COP 20 talks have just concluded in Lima, Peru and now eyes are turning to the next treaty expected to be signed in Paris in December, 2015. So far, the United Nations’ COP process has failed to produce a meaningful agreement to address the climate crisis and to achieve climate justice. The United States has been a great obstacle to progress. And the UN talks have essentially devolved into another tool for commodifying the Earth and pushing a neo-liberal economic agenda. We speak with Brian Tokar, author of the newly-revised “Toward Climate Justice: Perspectives on the Climate Crisis and Social Change” about new organizing and a new framework that are pushing for real solutions to the climate crisis. We also speak with Karen Orenstein of Friends of the Earth about the Lima talks and how the Paris Treaty is shaping up.

Listen here at 11 am Eastern:

Lima to Paris – Will the UN Solve the Climate Crisis? with Brian Tokar and Karen Orenstein by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant articles and websites:

Essential Reading for Clarity on Climate Action by Margaret Flowers

Institute for Social Ecology

350VT.org

Friends of the Earth response to Sec. Kerry’s speech at Lima COP

Friends of the Earth

Guests:

Brian Tokar has been an activist, author and a well-known critical voice for ecological activism since the 1980s. He is currently the director of the Institute for Social Ecology and Lecturer II in Environmental Studies at UVM. Brian’s books include The Green Alternative  (1987, revised 1992), Earth for Sale  (1997), and Toward Climate Justice: Perspectives on the Climate Crisis and Social Change, which was reissued in an expanded and revised edition by the New Compass Press in 2014. He edited two books on the politics of biotechnology, Redesigning Life? and Gene Traders, and co-edited a recent collection, Agriculture and Food in Crisis: Conflict, Resistance and Renewal (with UVM Professor Emeritus, Fred Magdoff). His articles on environmental issues and popular movements appear in Z Magazine and Green Social Thought, and on popular websites such as Counterpunch, ZNet, Alternet, and Toward Freedom.

Brian has lectured throughout the U.S., as well as internationally, received a Project Censored award for his investigative history of Monsanto (originally published in The Ecologist), and was an organizer of the annual “Biojustice” protests focused on the biotechnology industry from 2000 – 2007. He is a board member of 350Vermont, as well as a contributor to the Routledge Handbook of the Climate Change Movement, A Line in the Tar Sands, and other recent books. Brian also represents UVM’s part-time faculty on the Executive Council of our faculty union, United Academics.

Karen Orenstein’s work at Friends of the Earth U.S. focuses on international climate finance. In other words, she campaigns to get the U.S. and other rich countries to provide and effectively deliver — in line with what climate science and justice demand — funds to ordinary people living in developing countries to adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop along ecologically sound pathways. Karen came to Friends of the Earth with more than a decade of grassroots advocacy experience in environmental and international human rights campaigns. This included seven years at the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network, where she led Washington efforts to support genuine self-determination and justice for the people of East Timor and human rights protections for the peoples of Indonesia and West Papua; she continues to serve on ETAN’s board. Karen has done research and volunteer work for the Maasai Environmental Resource Coalition and PETS DC, and lived in Tanzania. Not unimportantly, she has two cute cats.

– See more at: http://www.foe.org/about-us/our-team#sthash.uDdvR3vQ.dpuf