Building Bridges Radio: Your Community & Labor Report

Produced and Hosted by Mimi Rosenberg & Ken Nash over WBAI,99.5FM in the NYC Metro Area

WHO WE ARE

WORKERS OF THE WORLD TUNE IN! Introducing "Building Bridges: Your Community & Labor Report"

Our beat is the labor front, broadly defined, both geographically and conceptually. We examine the world of work and workers on the job as well as where they live. We examine the issues that affect their everyday lives, with a particular sensitivity towards human rights abuses, environmental concerns and the U.S. drive for global domination. We record their global struggles and provide analysis of their efforts to empower themselves and transform society to provide greater democratic, human, social, political and economic rights. Each program consists of feature stories, generally interviews, within a historical context, often accompanied by sound from demonstrations, rallies or conferences, and complemented and enhanced by poetry and instrumental or vocal -- people's culture.

Over the years Building Bridges has produced a weekly one hour program, Mondays from 7-8 PM EST, covering local, national and international labor and community issues over radio WBAI-Pacifica 99.5 FM in New York. We also produce half hour version, Building Bridges National, which is distribtued to over 40 broadcast and internet radio stations.


For more information you can contact us at knash@igc.org
In Struggle Mimi Rosenberg & Ken Nash

The New Jim Crow: Felon Disenfranchisement plus New State Laws Impede Franchise - 27:15  

The New Jim Crow:
Purging the African American Vote by Felon Disenfranchisement
With
Jazz Hayden, Riverside Church Prison Ministry Campaign
To End The New Jim Crow


Today, nearly five million Americans are barred by law from voting at all
because of a felony conviction. (A felony is any crime that carries a
sentence of a year or more in prison.) More than 1 in 50 adults can't vote.
And because of the racial imbalance in the criminal justice system,
1.4 million black men are disenfranchised. That's 13 percent of the African-
American male population, a figure seven times the national average.
The laws vary from state to state. For example, in Maine, a convicted
murderer may vote while still in prison, but in Virginia, someone arrested for
selling drugs when he was 18 may never vote again. An American suffrage
movement-- voting rights for felons -- could make a considerable difference
in upcoming elections.
****************
Another Aspect of the New Jim Crow: Impeding the Franchise
With
Lee Roland, counsel with the Democracy Program's Voting Rights
and Elections Team at the Brennan Center for Justice

Ahead of the 2012 elections, there’s been a wave of state legislation tightening
restrictions on voting that has swept across the country. It's been estimated

that more than 5 million Americans could be affected by the new rules in place
this year – which is a number larger than the margin of victory in two of the last
3 presidential elections. Lee Roland counsel discusses this manifestation of
the new Jim Crow.

http://www.archive.org/download/TheNewJimCrowFelonDisenfranchisementPlusNewStateLawsImpede/votingntl.mp3 download

http://www.archive.org/stream/TheNewJimCrowFelonDisenfranchisementPlusNewStateLawsImpede play stream


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Slavery by Another Name  

http://www.archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesNationalEditionslaveryByAnotherName/BuildingBridgesNationalEditionslaveryByAnotherName_vbr.m3u
play stream

http://www.archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesNationalEditionslaveryByAnotherName/blackmonntl.mp3
download

"Slavery by Another Name:
The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans
from the Civil War to World War II"
with
author Douglas Blackmon


On land owned by U.S. Steel was an unmarked African
American burial ground – and so began a quest to explore
the institutions and complimentary policies that were
responsible for the Post-Reconstruction re-enslavement of
Blacks, to provide the manpower to fuel the growth of
industrialization in the South. As Blackmon probes this
largely unexplored area, he offers us a mirror to reflect
and grapple with the currency of racial disparity.

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Protest NYC Police Kill Again; NYPD Anti-Islam Film Cover-Up  

play stream or download

New York Police Dept. Kills Again - Over 1,000 in the Bronx Protest
With Jose,
Stop and Frisk Campaign, Occupy Wall Street

In 2011, at least 700,000 almost entirely African-American and Latinos
in NYC were subjected to the NYPD’s unwarranted stop and frisks.
Most recently, the Mayor’s and his police department’s policies and
practices further resulted in the killing of unarmed Rahmarley Graham,
18 years old in his own home, and the vicious beating of Jatiek Reed
and arrest on false charges. The discriminatory policies and practices
are the catalyst for the frightening explosion in incarceration. And then
for those dragnetted into the criminal justice system, upon their release
is the stigmatization and systemic disenfranchisement from virtually all
opportunities and benefits of the society – this is the new “Jim Crow”.
***********
COALITION CALLS FOR RESIGNATION OF NYPD COMMISSIONER
OVER ANTI-ISLAM FILM COVER-UP
With
Amna Akbar, An Attorney and a Representative of the Muslim
American Civil Liberties Union
Imam Al Hajj Talib Abdur-Rashid, Pres., The Islamic Leadership
Council of Metropolitan NY
Cyrus McGoldrick, Council on American Islamic Relations
Jumaane D. Williams, N.Y. City Council Member
bdeen Jabara, civil rights attorney

A Coalition of civil liberties groups came to NY City Hall to call for the
resignations of NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly & Deputy Commissioner
Paul Browne due to revelations that they covered up their roles in the
production of an islamophobic propaganda film “The Third Jihad” that
was shown to at least 1,500 NYPD officers and to law enforcement
around the country. "The Third Jihad" was produced by the shadowy
non-profit group the Clarion Fund that had produced an earlier
anti-Muslim propaganda film which was distributed to millions of voters
in swing states just prior to the 2008 election, apparently backed by a
$17 million donation from a "longtime contributor" to neo-conservatives.
The Clarion Fund also has links to theright-wing Israeli group Aish
HaTorah. The Clarion Fund's previous documentary attacking Muslims'
'war on the West' also attracted support from the casino magnate
Sheldon Adelson, a major supporter of Israel, who has helped
reshapethe Republican presidential primary by pouring millions of
dollars into a super PAC that backs Newt Gingrich. Both Kelly’s and
Browne’s participation in and coverup of their role in the film indicates
a total disregard for the civil rights of American Muslims and a complete
lack of respect for one of the city’s largest religious communities. The
NYPD’s Commissioner’s misrepresentations must also be seen in the
context of a recent series of investigative reports by the Associated Press
that revealed that undercover NYPD officers in a so-called "Demographics
Unit" spied on Muslim communities and houses of worship with the
assistance of individuals linked to the CIA.

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Verizon Dodges All Taxes - 26:19  

TAXES, WE DON’T PAY NO STINKIN' TAXES SAYS VERIZON,
AS THE 99% CRIES FOUL!
With
The Tax Dodgers, OWS Occupy the Boardroom, United NY, Make
the Road NY, Strong Economy for All, NY Communities for Change,
Vocal New York, C.W.A., 99% NY, and other members of the 99%


Verizon Communications has been identified as one of the country’s

worst tax dodgers. Between 2008 - 2010, Verizon actually received
$951 million net in federal tax refunds, our public dollars, making their
effective federal tax rate average to 3% or less. So, an outraged
coalition decided to “occupy” Verizon headquarters to call attention
to the fact that corporations like Verizon, GE, Bank of America, and
others are not paying their fair share of taxes, juxtaposed with a time
when the minimum wage is too low to permit people to pay their bills
and feed their families. The occupiers came to say corporate
‘tax dodgers’ like Verizon, that made over $25 billion in pre-tax US
income, and paid $173 million in compensation to their top five
executives, with $56 million going to their CEO alone – and spending
$52 million for lobbying was obscene while at the same time, since
2008 laying off 20,000 employees.

Meanwhile, in the midst of the occupation, a new sports franchise,
the “Tax Dodgers” had the audacity to show up. One of the players,
claiming to be former Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg introduced the
“Tax Dodgers,” who he explained symbolized the lobbyists and other
groups who likely received a portion of the money that Verizon saved
in taxes, while the occupiers cried foul. Tune in to hear the response
of the 99%ers to Verizon and to the Tax Dodgers, who demonstrated
their agility at stealing bases!


http://www.archive.org/stream/VerizonPaysNoTaxes

play stream

http://www.archive.org/download/VerizonPaysNoTaxes/VerizonTaxesntl2.mp3

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