Those who kill and can't forget

Guest: Ann Jones, journalist, photographer, and the author of ten books of nonfiction, talks about her recent work in documenting the affect of the US wars in the Middle East on soldiers coming home and attempting to reintegrate into civilian society.

I talked to Ann Jones in Norway on our Skype connection. As I listened to the interview again today, I was struck by her history of war reporting. From the combat side to the often incomplete homecoming, Ann knows and cares about soldiers. She doesn't excuse what they have done in occupied countries. She doesn't spare us accounts of the mayhem that vets sometimes create when they attempt to reenter society. But there is a love in the understanding she brings to her readers.  

Ann Jones has no love for the American empire that creates such suffering. Our wars are started by lies, and run on propaganda. All the destruction is hidden from our view, and that includes the devastated lives of those who survive the combat. 

Ann Jones' untold story of our returning veterans should move us all, since we are the heart of what the empire has wrought. Without our acquiescence,  there would be no carnage abroad, and no endless torment for the young men and young women who kill and can't forget. 

We need revolutionary thought to save the planet.

Guest: Brian Jones, long time educator, activist and parent in New York City, talks about seeking the Green Party's nomination for the office of Lieutenant Governor of the State of New York.

We have had Green Party candidates before, but I have to say that each one has brought something new to the debate about restoring our democracy. Brian, an elementary teacher in NYC, directed our attention to charter schools, the pet project of the nation's billionaires. Why do people like the Walton heirs, the richest family in the world, want to destroy public education? 

I suggested that much of the energy behind the charter school movement comes from the very richest of Americans trying to get rid of the nation's last unions. Our twenty first century robber barons want all workers on Walmart wages.

Brian thought that it was more complex than that. The austerity craze that has been sweeping the country has our government cutting services to the poor and middle classes to the bone, in order to fight wars of aggression abroad and to make the richest of Americans even richer. The public doesn't want more austerity, but since there is no real democracy left, it doesn't matter. 

Polls do show that over 90% of Americans favor higher taxes on the very rich, but it as long as the 1% control both parties, it just isn't going to happen. Obama has done his best to cut Social Security and Medicare too. And to pass the worst trade treaty in US history, the TPP, that would send tens of thousands of jobs to Asia. In fact, the country would have been better off with Dick Nixon than Barack Obama. There is nothing like a phony progressive to really gut the interests of working people.  

We closed with a discussion of what it means to be a socialist (Brian makes no apologies for being one). I asked him how his ideology fit with the Green Party, and he replied that big changes have to come if the planet is to survive. The Green Party's agenda is in the right direction, even though he doubts whether our current political system is capable of the changes needed. We need revolutionary thought to save the planet.

Would a matriarchal society have brought our species to the brink?

Guest: Temra Costa, nationally recognized sustainable food and farming advocate, and author of "Farmer Jane: Women Changing the Way We Eat," talks about the battle to keep our food safe from corporate weedkillers and GMO threats.

Temra brought out several points relevant to the battle against genetically modified foods. Most developed countries require GMO labeling, which reduces the number of these products in stores. Over 65 countries in the world let food buyers know what they are getting.

Temra reminded us that this is a battle first for women's hearts, since over 95% of food purchasing decisions in the US are made by them. But Farmer Jane, Temra's website, is about more than that. She highlights women farmers and women sustainable food activists to encourage more people to get involved. 

Are we talking about female values here? Less aggression, less greed, and more emphasis on community building? Would a matriarchal society have brought our species to the brink of annihilation by global warming or by nuclear war? 

They lived on bread donated by the state

Guest: Pat Lamanna and various adjunct teachers from Marist College discuss May Day and workers’ rights here in the US and all over the world. 

Pat discussed "fair trade," based on the concept that people in the Third World should be paid fairly for what they make. An alternative to the capitalist way, this is a model for a world based on mutual respect.

Gary and the Marist College adjuncts talked about respect too. Have colleges become just like corporations, paying those at the top outrageous salaries while their adjunct teachers earn less than minimum wage? That is similar to the exploitation of workers in the Third World, most of whom make a tiny fraction of what corporations charge for their products.

Does an empire that uses its military to exploit foreign workers ultimately bring that abuse of labor back home? We have seen the salaries of US workers slowly sink as the people at the top get richer and richer. Maybe sixty years of empire building has destroyed most worker rights in the belly of the beast. The Roman Empire had done that to its citizens by the end of the republic. They lived on bread donated by the state, while the filthy rich lived in their magnificent villas with hundred of servants. 

That was 2,000 years ago. Maybe the resistance has learned a few tricks since then. May Day reminds us of what we have yet to achieve in terms of social justice.

The creatively maladjusted

Guest: Evan Jenkins, activist and member of the Anti-Oppression Forum, an anarchist collective in New York's Hudson Valley, talks about the fight for an egalitarian and democratic society managed cooperatively by and for all of its participants.

Evan talked about his own awakening to political struggle. "Did you get a hold of a book by Chomsky?" I asked.

He had, and has not stopped reading political writers. We discussed alternative versions of reality, one the exceptionalism that comes with the acceptance of the American Empire. The other, the insistence on human rights and human dignity for all people. As Chomsky teaches us, the media "manufactures" consent for the former by only employing writers and intellectuals who have successfully internalized the contradictions of empire. In Martin Luther King's words, "Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted."

Bringing their message back

Guest: Adam Roufberg, human rights activist and former radio host at WVKR, talks to us from the West Bank where he just completed the Freedom Bus Ride in support of Jenin's Freedom Theatre. (prerecorded)

It was great talking to Adam, who used to be a DJ right here on WVKR in Poughkeepsie, NY. 

He was his old self, full of confidence and good humor. We talked about his recent trip on the Freedom Bus, which made stops all over the occupied West Bank to do nightly performances of Jenin Freedom Theatre improvisations. Adam had witnessed the oppression of the Palestinian people during the day, and then seen it depicted in a theatrical performance every night. The combination of human rights and the arts is an important part of Adam's masters degree in peace studies he is completing in Switzerland. His Freedom Bus experiences will make up part of the research for his thesis.

I was particularly interested in how Adam got there through the checkpoints. He indicated that several people scheduled to take the ride didn't make it and were deported by Israel. That is always a consideration when doing human rights work in Palestine. 

He also described the rubber bullets that are supposedly shot over the heads of Palestinian protesters. The day before, a Palestinian medic had been hit twice. Adam noticed that some Israeli Defense Force snipers were firing from behind their jeeps, no doubt targeting some of the demonstrators. The ride was not without some dangers.

We also discussed people to people exchanges, something I have always seen as attempts to whitewash the occupation. But Adam thought such exchanges were beneficial, when predicated on a common understanding that the occupation is illegal and that Israel's treatment of Palestinians is a violation of internationally established principals of human rights. 

We ended by talking about the role of Jews in ending the occupation. Many Freedom Bus riders were young American Jews, who plan to bring their message back to the United States. 

The conversion of private colleges into corporations

GUEST: Alex Deane, student at Vassar College, talks about her organization, the Vassar Student/Labor Dialogue, and why an adjunct teachers’ union is needed in area colleges to raise poverty level wages.

Adjunct salaries are part of the conversion of private colleges into corporations. The adjuncts are the sweatshop workers that bring in huge corporate profits. Massive student loans are the fraud going on at the other end. Students are told that college results in better full time jobs, and they load up on debt because their parents can't pay college expenses. Once graduated, students can't find jobs and default on their loans, which are then backed up by the federal government.

In the midst of this drive for profit, the administrators pay themselves handsomely. The President of Marist made over 3 million in salary and bonuses last year. The whole enterprise is called a college, but is really run for the benefit of the very few at the top. Welcome to the Twenty First Century's Gilded Age.

Of course, there is fightback. The adjuncts at Marist College are forming a union, and there is broad community support as well. That is where Alex and the Student Labor Dialogue comes in. Students all over the country are coming to understand the corporatization of higher education, as well as their part in it. Each student in a class taught by a Marist adjunct pays $75 to the teacher. Full time tuition is over $15,000, meaning that each three credit class costs $1,500. Sort of like Nike in that the sweatshop worker somewhere making each sneaker earns one percent of what the company eventually charges customers.

Lead the way, Alex and the Student/Labor Dialogue.