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“Your suffering does not isolate you. That your suffering is your bridge. That many people have suffered before you, many people are suffering around. And always will.” 

James Baldwin

In 1971 James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni taped a two-hour “dialogue” for a public TV show called Soul! At forty-seven years old, Baldwin was a legend speaking with Giovanni, then twenty-eight, who had published the 1968 poetry collection Black Feeling, Black Talk. All rights to Soul! and ShoutFactoryTV.com.

Full interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Jc54RvDUZU&t=5294s 

#ArtistSpotlight

“The experiences of unity among people are more important and crucial than all the concepts, prejudices, ideologies, and faiths that may divide.” 

Howard Thurman

Thurman's theology of radical nonviolence influenced and shaped a generation of civil rights activists, and he was a key mentor to leaders within the civil rights movement, including Martin Luther King Jr.

Full interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvJVxsezAwc

Bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Thurman 

#BeliefStreet

#FaithAndLabor

“Water is an issue that can unite people. Water is life. Their slogans were always very powerfully pro water, less anti mining. And through that and their boldness and reaching out to unlikely allies, they were able to gather quite a force.”

Overview

Water is life. Countless communities across the world, from Flint, Michigan to the Standing Rock Reservation to the Gualcarque River in Honduras, have used this phrase as a rallying cry against powerful corporations that value profits over the environment and the health of local communities. In 2002, a small group of citizens in El Salvador joined this global community of water defenders when representatives from multinational mining company Pac Rim appeared in their home province of Cabañas. This ignited a people’s fight against corporate power that would last for over a decade. In The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved A Country from Corporate Greed, Robin Broad and John Cavanagh tell the harrowing, inspiring saga of El Salvador’s fight – and historic victory – to save their water, and their communities, from Big Gold.   

Based on over a decade of research and their own role as international allies of the community groups in El Salvador, Robin Broad and John Cavanagh unspool this untold story, replete with corporate greed; a transnational lawsuit at a secretive World Bank tribunal in Washington, DC; violent threats; murders; and, surprisingly, victory. The husband-and-wife duo immerses the reader in the lives of the Salvadoran villagers, the journeys of the local activists who sought the truth about the effects of gold mining on the environment, and the behind-the-scenes maneuverings of the corporate mining executives. The Water Defenders demands that we examine our assumptions about progress and prosperity, while providing valuable lessons for other communities and allies fighting against destructive corporations in the United States and across the world.

The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved A Country from Corporate Greed

Reviews

“Broad and Cavanagh offer a practical David-versus-Goliath playbook for those who would mobilize both domestic and international forces to halt corporate abuses and to place the long-term welfare of communities above short-term financial gain.” 

— Foreign Affairs

“The book is an environmentalist playbook, a how-to guide for activists seeking to defeat a power structure that is rigged in favor of their opponents.” 

— The American Prospect

“Challenges conventional wisdom about activism, ‘the poor,’ and where real power really lies.”

—Guernica

“Part history, part environmental organizing case study, the book chronicles the community’s struggle against the mine from the early 2000s to the campaign’s unlikely conclusion in 2017, when El Salvador became the first country in Latin America to completely ban metal mining.”

—National Catholic Reporter

“It is rare, in the world of corporate power, to have a story where David beats Goliath. And rarer still to have one that reads like a fast-paced thriller.”

—Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold’s Ghost and Rebel Cinderella

“Bravo to the courageous Salvadorans—and their likely and unlikely allies—who prove that victories against overwhelming odds are possible. . . . The water defenders of El Salvador and their international partners provide a powerful guidebook, poignantly retold by Broad and Cavanagh, of how the struggles for justice in the United States can link with allies abroad to build power and win.”

—Opal Tometi, cofounder of Black Lives Matter

“Broad and Cavanagh are masterful storytellers. The words, deeds, and stories of people in El Salvador come alive so vividly in these pages to reinforce what we in the Poor People’s Campaign in the United States know well: the most powerful defenders of water, of the environment—of justice across the board—are poor people.”

—Rev. Dr. William Barber II, national co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign author of The Third Reconstruction

About the Authors

Robin Broad is an expert in international development and was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim fellowship for her work surrounding mining in El Salvador, as well as two previous MacArthur fellowships. A professor at American University, she served as an international economist in the US Treasury Department, in the US Congress, and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Broad and her husband, John Cavanagh, have been involved in the Salvadoran gold mining saga since 2009. They helped build the network of international allies that spearheaded the global fight against mining in El Salvador. They have co-authored several previous books together.

John Cavanagh is director of the Washington, DC-based Institute for Policy Studies, an organization that collaborates with the Poor People’s Campaign and other dynamic social movements to turn ideas into action for peace, justice, and the environment. Previously, he worked with the United Nations to research corporate power. Cavanagh and his wife, Robin Broad, have been involved in the Salvadoran gold mining saga since 2009. They helped build the network of international allies that spearheaded the global fight against mining in El Salvador. They have coauthored several previous books together.

About Empathy Media Lab

The Harmony of Interest Book Talk series interviews authors about their work while exploring ideas that positively shape our world.

Empathy Media Lab is produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, artists, historians, and journalists, who are fighting to improve the prosperity of the working class.

All Links: https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab

“...one of the characters in my book is grappling with the issue of revenge and the question of how far he should go is what I wanted to leave the readers thinking about.” ~Bill Fletcher Jr.

Overview

​In 1970, a sniper’s bullet shocks the sleepy Cape Cod village of Osterville. David Gomes, a young reporter for the Cape & Islands Gazette covers the story, thinking his reporting might lead to a job with a major metropolitan newspaper. With protests against the Viet Nam war and the rise of the Black Panthers roiling the public, the murder investigation becomes deeply personal when Gomes, a Cape Verdean American, encounters the smoldering racial antagonism between the descendants of Cape Verde and African-Americans, as well as the deep-seated hatred toward all people of color among some members of the white community.

BUY THE MAN WHO FELL FROM THE SKY

http://www.hardballpress.com/fiction--poetry.html 

Reviews

“Bill Fletcher pulls together history and mystery to create an exciting and compelling story of race and revenge. It is truly an unexpected page turner.” ~Danny Glover

 "Set amidst the rich cultural mix of Cape Verdean and Portuguese fishermen who came to the country as free men and consequentially fought being seen as the descendants of slaves, Fletcher lets a son of those men tell the story, a journalist. Bent on relieving the suffering of one family, he ends up finding the truth is more complicated, the villain a victim too of a bigger cruelty and devastation that stretched through the generations.” ~Walter Mosley

About Bill Fletcher Jr.

Bill Fletcher Jr has been an activist since his teen years. Upon graduating from college he went to work as a welder in a shipyard, thereby entering the labor movement. Over the years he has been active in workplace and community struggles as well as electoral campaigns. He has worked for several labor unions in addition to serving as a senior staff person in the national AFL-CIO.

Fletcher is the former president of TransAfrica Forum; a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies; and in the leadership of several other projects. Fletcher is the co-author (with Peter Agard) of “The Indispensable Ally: Black Workers and the Formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, 1934-1941”; the co-author (with Dr. Fernando Gapasin) of “Solidarity Divided: The crisis in organized labor and a new path toward social justice“; and the author of “‘They’re Bankrupting Us’ – And Twenty other myths about unions.” Fletcher is a syndicated columnist and a regular media commentator on television, radio and the Web.

Follow his work:

• Website: https://billfletcherjr.com/

BUY THE MAN WHO FELL FROM THE SKY

http://www.hardballpress.com/fiction--poetry.html 

About Empathy Media Lab

The Harmony of Interest Book Talk series interviews authors about their work while exploring ideas that positively shape our world. 

Empathy Media Lab is produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, artists, historians, and journalists, who are fighting to improve the prosperity of the working class. 

All Links: https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab 

“Quarantine with Rilke was my attempt to claim the universal part of being human.”

Asnia Asim is a poet and writer and her new book of poems, Quarantine with Rilke, shares with the reader an intimacy with the Self, a quiet relationship between the divine and the everyday. 

Asnia is the recipient of the University of Chicago’s Humanities Fellowship and Brandeis University’s Allan Slifka Award. Her poems have received multiple nominations for the Pushcart prize and Best of the Net Anthology and have appeared (are forthcoming) in Typehouse, Michigan Quarterly, Cream City, The Rupture, Salamander, River Styx, Nimrod, Image, Juked, and BOOTH, among others.

You can follow Asnia’s work at:

https://asniaasim.com/

https://twitter.com/AsniaAsim 

And you can get your copy of Quarantine with Rilke at Finishing Line Press or anywhere you get your books. https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/quarantine-with-rilke-by-asnia-asim/

About Empathy Media Lab

The Harmony of Interest Book Talk series interviews authors about their work while exploring ideas that positively shape our world. 

Empathy Media Lab is produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, artists, historians, and journalists, who are fighting to improve the prosperity of the working class. 

All Links: https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab 

The Emergency Banking Act (EBA), was an act passed by the United States Congress in March 1933 in an attempt to stabilize the banking system.

On March 12, the evening before banks began to reopen, FDR gave his first fireside chat, a national radio address explaining the alterations made by the federal government on the banking industry. Due to confidence in FDR and the proposed alterations, Americans returned $1 billion to bank vaults in the following week.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Banking_Act

Christian Smalls, Amazon Labor Union President, delivers his opening statement before the Senate Budget Committee, hearing on “Taxpayer Money to Companies Violating Labor Laws.”

 The Senate Budget Committee held a hearing to examine taxpayer dollars to companies that violate labor laws. Amazon’s labor practices was a focus. Christian Smalls, Amazon’s labor union president testified and said “it’s not a left or right thing. It’s not a Democrat or Republican thing. It’s a worker’s thing. It’s a worker’s issue.” Others testifying included labor leaders, organizers, and policy professionals. Topics discussed included the right to unionize, labor law violations, and worker protections.

Full hearing:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?520005-1/budget-committee-examines-companies-violating-labor-laws 

#amazonunion

#laborradiopod

#1U

#ALU  

“Apartheid used racial discrimination as an instrument to maintain the cheap labor system. So the core of apartheid was a cheap labor system, based on black exploitation.”

Jay Naidoo is a South African anti-apartheid activist, trade unionist, and author. Jay served as the first general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions from 1985 to 1993. Following South Africa's transition to democracy in the early 1990s, Jay served as a cabinet minister under the late President Nelson Mandela, from 1994 to 1999. Following his tenure in public office, Jay also served as chairperson of the Development Bank of Southern Africa. Jay is a respected elder who continues to mentor young leaders in South Africa and the rest of the African continent.

Since leaving government, Jay has worked in various capacities for the United Nations and other international organizations. He currently is a member of the board of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which works to improve good governance and leadership in Africa. He also serves as a trustee of the Earthrise Trust, dedicated to rural development Naidoo’s autobiography, Fighting for Justice: A Lifetime of Political and Social Activism, was published in 2010.

You can learn more about Jay’s thinking by reading his book, Change: Organising Tomorrow, Today

About the Labor Solidarity Podcast

The Labor Solidarity Podcast highlights the work of labor leaders while discussing historic struggles and the importance of organizing with the goal of building international labor solidarity. The Labor Podcast is hosted by Elise Bryant and Evan Papp. 

Learn more at: https://www.empathymedialab.com/laborsolidarity

The Labor Solidarity Podcast is an Empathy Media Lab production and we are a proud member of The Labor Radio Podcast Network. Learn more:  https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab 

#LaborRadioPod

#1U

#UnionStrong

Excerpt from Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

You're all pretty much fucked.

They got all these fancy names for trillions of dollars of credit: CMO, CDOs, 

SIVs, ABS…

So Mr. Banker starts leveraging his interest 50 to 1, with your money because he could. 

40% of all American corporate profits came from financial services, not production, not anything remotely to do with the needs of the American public.

The mother of all evil is speculation, leveraged debt, borrowing to the hilt, it’s a bankrupt business model, won’t work.

It’s systemic, malignant and is global like cancer.

It's a disease and we got to fight back.

How are we going to do that?

How are we gonna leverage that disease back in our favor? 

#PolEconProject

#Labor

#Capital

#Oligarchy

#1U

#UnionStrong

#LaborRadioPod

“A distillation of my 30 years mentoring and editing authors of all kinds, this little book will show you how to tell your story in tight, addictive prose.”

Veteran nurse Timothy Sheard is a writer, publisher, mentor to writers and union organizer with the National Writers Union, UAW Local 1-9-8-1. 

Timothy has written 9 mystery novels featuring hospital custodian-shop steward Lenny Moss, 2 stand alone crime novels, and he is the founder of Hard Ball Press to help working class people write and publish their stories, publishing over 200 authors. 

We discuss his new book, How to Write Forceful Prose.

Excerpts

When you are thinking about how you are going to craft a scene, hold your hands up and make a square with your thumb and fingers, as if you are framing a shot for a film you are directing.

What do you see in the scene?

More importantly, what do you hear? Taste? Smell? Feel? Sense? The writer is directing a film that we, the reader run in our minds: give the reader lots of things to see and hear and sense, they anchor the scene…

I wrote a short crime story set in a New York City subway. As the main character stands on the cement platform, he feels a vibration in his feet as the approaching train shakes the surface, then he sees the lights and hears the wheels on the tracks.

Check out the catalogue at HARD BALL & LITTLE HEROES PRESS - Stories To Change the World (https://hardballpress.com/index.html) and support writers creating working class stories.

Resources for Writers

National Writers Union (www.NWU.org) represents all freelance writers in all genres and all platforms (including those who write computer code, advertising copy ─ all writing. They advocate for and defend the rights of writers to negotiate and enforce a fair contract, provide free contract advice to members and demand payments from recalcitrant publishers, at times taking them to court.

The Authors Guild (www.AUTHORSGUILD.org) provides a rich trove of workshops, forums and panels related to all aspects of writing, from the creative elements to marketing and promotion. The Authors Guild supports free speech, fair contracts, and copyright. They create community and fight for a living wage.

The Independent Book Publishers Association (www.IBPA.org) provides a treasure of resources for small, independent publishers and self-published authors. Book design, marketing advice, discounts for various publishing and distributing resources ─ joining the IBPA is one of the best investments a writer can make, whether you self-publish or sign with a traditional publisher.

About Empathy Media Lab

The Harmony of Interest Book Talk series interviews authors about their work while exploring ideas that positively shape our world. 

Empathy Media Lab is produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, artists, historians, and journalists, who are fighting to improve the prosperity of the working class. 

All Links: https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab