Building Bridges Radio: A POW with John McCain, US largest immigration raid in IBEW facility

Radio broadcast above embedded from the Internet Archive -click link to download

From Building Bridges Radio:

Dr. Phillip Butler knew McCain as a fellow POW
by Robert Greenwald and Brave New PAC team

John McCain has been exploiting his prisoner of war experience every chance he gets. He has used this story to justify everything from not knowing how many homes he has to his healthcare plan to his marital infidelities to his taste in music. The McCain campaign is even using his POW story in paid ads. But now a veteran who was a prisoner with McCain in Vietnam is explaining loud and clear that being a POW does not qualify McCain to lead our country.

ICEd in the Biggest Immigration Raid Yet (starts around 6 minutes)
With Bill Chandler, Executive Dir., Mississippi Immigrant
Rights Alliance (MIRA)

In another large-scale workplace immigration crackdown, federal officials raided a factory in Laurel Mississippi detaining almost 600 workers they claimed were in the country illegally. Numerous agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement descended on a factory belonging to Howard Industries Inc., which manufactures electrical transformers, among other products.

Please email Building Bridges if you are broadcasting our National Edition. We'd like to have an accurate list of which stations are airing Building Bridges., so please let us know! Email knash@igc.org
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For archived Building Bridges National Programs go to
http://www.archive.org/details/building_bridges
For archived Building Bridges program go to our new website:
http://www.buildingbridgesradio.blogspot.com

For more information about IBEW and Howard Industries, check out this Google link

Blog power for Building Bridges: Radio's labor and community report

Been working on a site for Ken Nash at Building Bridges, he has been adding his audio broadcasts to Union Review for quite some time and I along with Richard had the pleasure to meet him in person. I explained that a blog here at Google can be a web page.

It can also help to embed the broadcasts which are archived at the Internet Archive.

So I took a little time and created a test site for him to look at. Take a look, vote on the poll there and let us know what you think.

Stop Big Media: Huge Senate win!

second good news, E-Activism works, even if it takes a while, when the FCC on December 17th. 2007, went against 99% of American peoples wishes and overturned a rule that 1 company can not own more than one of either print, tv or radio in any one region, FreePress went to work, getting people like you and I involved in stressing to our Senators that we the people can not take this blatant disregard of our wishes. I wrote "Now Big Media can hurt workers better" at the FreePress Blog on Dec. 19th., the CWA and AFTRA joined in the fight

From the E-Mailbox

Dear Joseph, Just moments ago, by a near-unanimous vote, the Senate stood up to Big Media. They voted to throw out the FCC decision to let the largest media companies swallow up even more local media. This is simply an astounding victory, and it would not have happened without the massive grassroots effort by you and thousands of others who called their senators, sent more than a quarter million letters, posted thousands of pictures and stories on StopBigMedia.com, and testified at public hearings held by the FCC. It was your dedication that made today's Senate win possible. Today was a huge step forward, but there is still much to do. The fight against the FCC now moves to the House, where our elected representatives need to hear from us. President Bush has promised that he will try to veto this bill. But tonight the Senate and the American people have spoken with one voice. This historic vote sends a clear message that the only people who support more media consolidation are Big Media lobbyists and the White House. We are in this struggle to bring more minority ownership, diverse perspectives and independent voices to the media. We need to make media consolidation an election-year issue. And we need to start talking about how to break up the giant conglomerates. Corporate news today -- with its propaganda pundits, horse-race election coverage, and celebrity gossip -- undermines our democracy. We must continue to speak out and demand that the public airwaves be used to actually serve the public. In just three weeks, thousands of people will be gathering together in Minnesota to build the movement for better media. You can join them at the National Conference for Media Reform, just visit www.freepress.net/conference. For today, know that you played a key role in the fight for better media for all. Thank you, Josh Silver Executive Director Free Press Action Fund

StopBigMedia.com is a project of Free Press and the Free Press Action Fund, on the Web at www.freepress.net.

Building Bridges Radio: Colombian May Day brutality and West Coast dock shutdown

Colombian May Day Brutality and West Coast Docker workers shut down the ports

*Click above to listen to story

West Coast Ports

Tens of thousands of docks, members of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union shut down the west coast ports in a protest against the war. While an arbitrators decision prevented the ILWU from officially sponsoring the strike, its members turned out en masse. The stand-down at ports including Los Angeles and Long Beach, which handle 40% of the imported goods arriving in the United States each year idled ships and halted movement of about 10,000 containers during the eight-hour stoppage.

Colombian Workers Brutalized at May Day Protests

The Bush Administration continues to push through a new free trade agreement with Colombia despite its history of assassinations and repression of trade unionists. The Colombian government claims its fighting that violence, which it says is perpetuated by paramilitary organizations. However, when Building Bridges reporters called Colombia on May 1, 2008 to speak with Javier Correa, Pres. of the Sinaltrainal union we learned that more than one hundred workers at their May Day demonstrations had been arrested, many were beaten and some had been disappeared .

See the full description of the stories and learn more about Building Bridges Radio at UnionReview or at the Building Bridges website

Building Bridges is regularly broadcast live over WBAI, 99.5 FM in the N.Y.C Metropolitan area on Mondays from 7-8pm EST and is streamed, archived and pod cast at www.wbai.org, it is also broadcast nationally in many locations. For more information contact Ken Nash - knash@igc.org

Audio file of the week: Forty years since Memphis, struggling to keep King's legacy alive

Forty Years Since King: Struggling to End Racism, Sexism, Poverty, and War with Dr. Clayborne Carson,author & editor of several books about the civil rights struggle in the US, including "The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr."

*Click above to listen to story

Dr. Carson joins us to take stock of the legacy of Dr. King and how we, standing at the crossroads of change or regression in 2008 much as we were in 1968, can be informed by his prophetic understanding & activism.

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., speech at the 30th Anniversary Rally of District 65 at Madison Square Garden in NYC in October 1963. A speech in which he addresses the issues of race and class.

for more information contact Ken Nash - knash@igc.org

Building Bridges is regularly broadcast live over WBAI, 99.5 FM in the N.Y.C Metropolitan area on Mondays from 7-8pm EST and is streamed, archived and pod cast at www.wbai.org, as well as many other stations across the country, check links below for more info

Find out more about Building Bridges at Internet Archive and BBR's archive of past shows.

Stop Big Media action alert, help Senate negate FCC ruling

E-Activism can make a difference, nothing shows that more than the campaign by FreePress Action Network to overturn the recent FCC ruling to allow more media consolidation.

For a recap of the ruling, here's an excerpt of an article I wrote on Dec.18th. 2007, entitled Stop Big Media NOW!

The FCC's Republican Chairman Kevin Martin has effectively handed a sweetheart deal to Big Media, by overturning a 32-year-old rule that prevents a newspaper owner from also owning a radio or television station in the same city. Democratic commissioner Johnathan S. Adelstein called the new rule

"a monumental mistake" and, with Copps, called it a gift to media companies that will enable consolidation and restrict the diversity of voices on the airwaves."

When the idea of more media consolidation was put before Americans - during a series of public hearings and requests for public comment - more than 99 percent said bigger media were bad for them, bad for their communities and bad for our democracy.

Can you remember the last time 99 percent of Americans agreed on anything?


The CWA and AFTRA had called for a 90-day comment period after publication of the proposal in the Federal Register and also ask for an "open process" to address localism and diversity, that was not done and both unions have released statements expressing their disappointment.(continued)

How bad is it to labor, my opinion is below, in the first article I wrote at FreepressActionNetwork on Dec.19th. 2007

Now Big Media can hurt workers better

Hello, my name is Joe, I am a rank and file union member and on staff at the independent labor movement website UnionReview.

While we are primarily a labor news site, we also monitors news items that tie directly to the communication of the modern labor movement, such as Network Neutrality, the squelching of free speech and the spin doctoring of main stream media.

This ruling is a tremendous blow to the American working citizen. Information is power, the gathering of ideas based on different points of view is critical. When so very little can brainwash so many, what hope do we have.

Stand up people. Stand up for places such as Workers Independent News and Brain Labor Report, who continuously report on the airwaves about the struggles of the common working man and social injustices that never make it to the main stream.

Labor hardly got any attention in the main stream media before this was passed, and any if broadcast or published almost always portrays union workers as lazy, greedy and enemies of the public. A good case in point is an article I entitled NY Post spin-doctoring and the IATSE Stagehands, in which I retort the Rupert Murdoch News Corp.owned NY Post's so-called editorial about those greedy stagehands that closed down Broadway Thanksgiving week.

Does News Corp., Viacom, Disney, etc. have a stake in portraying unions as bad to the public? Absolutely, they have to negotiate with them at every step of their business, they are the employer, directly and indirectly of writers, screen writers, engineers, truckers, service employees, construction workers, screen actors, communication workers, stagehands, make-up artists and a host of other labor groups. It suits them well that there is a growing majority of ignorant people in this country that believe that unions are bad for them personally. They have the power to repeat in every media form their message and use the theory that if you continuously lie over and over the masses will believe it to be truth.

That suits Big Media and their corporations fine, by leveling the public against workers, by speaking generally without a fact basis, they perpetrate half-truths and outright lies that get embeded into the heart and mind of the public. By instilling hopelessness and fear they divide us into more and more fractions of smaller groups, pitting each against one another, dividing and conquering, making working people feel as if they are lucky to have a job, and that they must accept the final offer by employer.

This is not acceptable for my country, I thank the work of all those who contribute here, I regret that I have found this late, after seeing this at the AFL-CIO WebBlog, I couldn't help but get involved, firstly by writing a story on my new site Joe's Union Review the Anti-Union BlogSpot (theres reasons for the name), porting the story to UnionReview and MySpace, and by posting the links to our site and the AFL-CIO's story globally onto Labourstart, the global newfeed which reaches thousands of labor sites worldwide.

If we do not stop consolidation of the corporate main stream media and we give those same corporations complete control of the internet, our sources for free independent and diversified news and information will dry up.

Sites, such as freepress and UnionReview, that exercise our freedom of speech, that communicate important social matters and move people to take action may no longer be viewable or in the worst case scenario, have nothing to write about.

Thank you for putting this together, please contact me if anything I write at the site is erroneous, or if theres any other way I can help.

I leave you with this

"Such a small percentage try to make the world a better place, leaving the work to a scarce few. If those that did next to nothing did just a tiny bit, the world could be a better place for all." - me 7/7/07"

New Action to take via E-Mail

Dear Joseph, Congress can overturn the FCC's bad rules to further consolidate local media. Take Action Now Now's your best chance to stop media consolidation in New York. The Senate introduced legislation earlier this week that would reverse the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to let the nation's largest media companies swallow up more local and independent news outlets. Congress has just 60 legislative days to pass this bill. By acting now, you can help make it happen: Veto the FCC's Big Media Handout We have Big Media to blame for local news that's steeped in celebrity gossip, corporate hype and sensationalism. If the FCC gets its way, you'll see your local news get even worse. The FCC's decision further consolidates local media markets, taking away the independence and diversity that comes from local ownership. Simply put, this is a sweetheart deal for a handful of companies that have been breaking media ownership rules for years with impunity. In December, 200,000 people called on their senators to take action against the FCC. The Senate has responded with a “resolution of disapproval,” (SJ Res. 28) a type of congressional veto that would throw out the new rules. Now we need to get another 50,000 citizens on the record supporting the Senate’s action. Tell Your Friends: Veto Big Media Companies like News Corp. and Sinclair already have shown their willingness to abuse the public trust for political ends. During this election year, when diverse, quality and unbiased information is essential for voters, we cannot allow Big Media to silence even more independent voices. It’s our turn to use our collective grassroots power to stop Big Media and make sure that our airwaves are used to better serve the public. Onward, Alexandra Russell Program Director Free Press http://www.freepress.net/ http://www.stopbigmedia.com/ P.S. Learn more about this important legislation at: http://www.stopbigmedia.com/blog Take action on this important campaign at: http://free.convio.net/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=243 Tell your friends about this campaign at: http://free.convio.net/site/Ecard?ecard_id=1109

Audio File of the Week - Building Bridges Radio on Labor's agenda fighting corporate greed

Labor's Agenda Fighting Corporate Greed
interview with Richard Trumpka, Secretary Treasurer of the AFL-CIO and William Scheuerman, Pres. National Labor College


*Click to listen to 27:54 minute program

In a free wheeling discussion on the agenda for the labor movement, Trumpka and Scheuerman analyze the challenges workers face in an economy controlled by corporate interests who have rigged the system to their benefit at the expense of the living standards of workers. They point to the need for education & political mobilization of the working class to change the system, pointing to some hopeful signs such as new attitudes of workers towards unions, political mobilization of workers outside of unions, the increase in membership in unions and an expanded role of the National Labor College in education of workers and developing clarity on key issues of crucial concern to the movement.

You can view the original story with more information about Building Bridges Radio at UnionReview.com

Audio File of the Week - Building Bridges Radio interview with author of Unregulated Work in the Global City

This was originally posted in part at UnionReview.com

This is Building Bridges Radio interview with Annette Bernhardt, Deputy Dir. of the Brennan Center for Justice Program at NYU and one of the author's of Unregulated Work in the Global City, a comprehensive study of the underground labor force in New York City.

This report covers the labor violations, the profiteers, the victims and the enablers that let it happen. Unfortunately most people will just bitch about undocumented workers, this report explains in great detail who we as tax paying Americans should focus our anger towards, the unscrupulous employers and those that allow it to happen.

Some quick facts learned via the report:

The policy makers allow what equates to slavery and sweatshop conditions right here in New York. With workers that do not benefit from the labor laws of the state, who are often misclassified and paid off the books, often below minimum wage and are without any means for a safe work environment.

These workers are often forced to work over 10 hours a day, sometimes 7 days a week, without breaks and usually without overtime pay. They face blatant discrimination and are in constant fear of the bosses reprisal if they step out of line. Sometimes they don't wind up getting paid at all.

Undermanned and under financed investigatory units such as OSHA, with it's 128 inspectors in the entire state, cannot police the jobs (an estimate is that it would take OSHA 96 years to investigate every NYS workplace just once).

Many agencies and politicians which should be regulating these infractions turn a blind eye.

From: The open source Archive-Where you can download this in many formats

Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report National Edition

Produced by Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg

A recent study by the Brennan Center's Economic Justice Project, details the systemic violation of federal, state & local labor law which is increasingly the way of doing business in N.Y.C. Over a wide range of industries, employers pay less than the minimum wage, and sometimes nothing at all; deny overtime for 60-hour weeks, routinely ignore vital health and safety regulations even after injuries occur; and workers are subject to blatant discrimination, and retaliated against for speaking up or trying to organize.

For more information contact Ken Nash - knash@igc.org

Building Bridges is nationally broadcast throughout the country,in the N.Y.C Metropolitan area it is regularly broadcast live over WBAI, 99.5 FM on Mondays from 7-8pm EST and is streamed, archived and pod cast at www.wbai.org

In the words of Ed Ott, the Executive Director of NYC Central Labor Council "Every union official should have a copy" when speaking about Unregulated Work in the Global City

Download Links for Report (PDF Format):

Unregulated Work In The Global City - Full PDF

also recommended

Building Up New York, Tearing Down Job Quality: Taxpayer Impact of Worsening Employment Practices in the New York City Construction Industry - Full PDF