The artificial inflation of the housing market, predatory lending practices and fraudulent behavior by Big Finance which created the collapse of the housing market and epidemic of evictions, calls into question whether housing is a commodity that should be subject to the whims of the market or a human right that is not commodified. We explore ways that people are creating permanently affordable housing in their communities and taking on the Big Banks to hold them accountable, prevent foreclosure and strengthen their local economies. Our guests are Michael Carlson, former director of the Madison Area Community Land Trust and now the maintenance director for the Madison Cooperative Community, and Nancie Koerber of Project REconomy in Oregon. For more information, visit ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

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

We spoke about the current trade agreement, the TransPacific Partnership (TPP), being negotiated by the White House, and its more than 600 corporate advisers, and countries in the Pacific Rim. Rather than a trade agreement, the TPP is a backdoor for corporations to receive laws to their benefit that would not pass in the open. Coalitions of groups from around the Continent and around the world are working together to stop the TPP and offer in its place a trade policy based on justice, fairness and sustainability. We speak with Kristen Beifus, executive director of the Washington Fair Trade Coalition and Richard McIntyre, professor of economics at the University of Rhode Island and US Trade Representative for the Green Shadow Cabinet. For more information, see ClearingtheFOGRadio.org. 

On International Human Rights Day we look at the right to education. Tyler Paige is one of 11 students occupying a building at Cooper Union demanding that the college continue to offer free education. Students, faculty and alumni are united in this effort which is part of the global movement for the right to education. You can follow them onhttp://www.cusos.org/ and http://www.facebook.com/FreeCooperUni.... Lynn Petrovich, CPA and author of "Sticker Shock," exposes the fraudulent practices of Sallie Mae and other corporate student lenders. And Danny Weil, author of over 7 books who also writes on http://truth-out.org/, http://www.dailycensored.com/ and other outlets exposes the financialization of education, the monetization of students, the collusion between government and corporations, Obama's neo-liberal education agenda and what we can do about it. 

We explore restrictions on the rights of people to assemble and express dissent in the United States. The First Amendment gives us the right to peaceably assemble and redress our government for our grievances. Instead of protecting that right, the government, local police and private companies are acting to prevent and stop actions of dissent. The First Amendment also gives the right to freedom of the press, but today’s press are mouthpieces for the corporate state. What is being done to preserve our rights? We speak with Kevin Gosztola who has been covering this issue for FireDogLake as the Dissenter,  and Tarak Kauff, a veteran arrested at the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial last Oct for protesting the war in Afghanistan. For more information, visit ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

We interview John Curl, author of "For All the People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements and Communalism in America." John discusses the efforts to create real democracy in the US pre-dating the Revolution and obstacles to their success as well as the way these efforts have paralleled social transformation. His book results from a lifetime of research and experience in cooperatives. See our follow-up article: Cooperatives and Community Work are Part of American DNA.

We explore the extent of surveillance by the United States. Why is there so much surveillance and is the increasing surveillance of people in the United States justified? We discuss which is more harmful to our society, leaks or the policies that are leaked. Our first guest is Thomas Drake who was prosecuted for allegedly disclosing National Security Agency secrets years before Edward Snowden surfaced. Drake says the U.S. government has an “industrial-scale” surveillance system that “the Stasi in East Germany would have drooled over.” Then Fred Branfman, who recently wrote “America’s Most Anti-Democratic Institution: How the Imperial Presidency Threatens U.S. National Security,” is our guest. He argues,  ”And today’s U.S. executive branch policies pose an even greater long-term threat to U.S. strategic interests, not only abroad but at home. The evidence is overwhelming, including the statements by several dozen U.S. national security experts cited at the end of my recent piece, that U.S. leaders are not protecting national security but rather weakening it as never before.”

Gar Alperovitz, author of “America Beyond Capitalism” and “What Then Must We Do: Straight Talk About the Next American Revolution” speaks about the growing economic democracy movement in the US and how that is bringing evolutionary reconstruction to transition to the new economy.

Don Yellowman of the Forgotten Navajo People and Charmaine White Face of the Great Sioux Nation describe the effects of abandoned uranium mines on tribal land. Uranium mining by private corporations for purchase by the US Atomic Energy Commission started in earnest after WWII. The miners, many of them Indians, and their families were not protected and they were not informed of the hazards of radiation exposure. Thousands of open mines now sit on land in the Navajo and Great Sioux Nations. They continue to poison the water, land and air causing devastating health effects such as respiratory illnesses, cancers and birth defects. Although the Church Rock uranium spill released a much higher amount of radiation in 1979 than the accident  at Three Mile Island, it received little attention and resources. White Face also describes the radiation released in the Great Sioux Nation from the 2,885 uranium mines as four times greater than the radiation released by Fukushima. However, no member of Congress is willing to sponsor legislation to study the ongoing radiation release and clean it up. The radiation released from these pits do not respect borders and affect all of us. It is a secret that we are not supposed to know about. Learn more in this episode of Clearing the FOG. And visit ClearingtheFOGRadio.org for links to articles and websites.

We discussed what the big banks are doing to rip off homeowners in honor of the JusticetoJustice week of actions in DC organized by the Home Defender’s League. Anti-foreclosure activists are in Washington, DC this week to demand that Attorney General Eric Holder hold the big banks accountable for fraudulent foreclosures. The banks use a variety of tools to profit from illegal foreclosures that displace millions of people each year from their homes even when they can make their mortgage payments. Our guests were Steve Bailey, an anti-foreclosure activist in Denver, CO,  David Petrovich of the NJ Society for the Preservation of Continued Homeownership and author of Fighting Foreclosure. We were also joined by Debra Castilo and Kevin Whelan of the Home Defender’s League. For more information, visit ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.