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Renowned author Chris Hedges paints a bleak picture of our world today, in rapid economic, environmental, and religious decline.  He says we have a chance to turn things around—but only if we stand up for our rights, and stop holding out hope that political parties, or other global leaders will act in our interests.  On this edition, Chris Hedges speaks about his new book, The World as it is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress. 

Special thanks to KPFA Radio in Berkeley.

Featuring:  

For More Information:

Chris Hedges:

http://www.truthdig.com/chris_hedges#bio

Truthdig

http://www.truthdig.com/

The Nation Institute

http://www.nationinstitute.org/

New York Times articles by Chris Hedges

http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch?query=chris+hedges&more=date_all

Daniel Berrigan

http://www.webster.edu/~barrettb/berrigan.htm

Chris Hedges on War is a Force that Gives us Meaning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2SaM8RJ30c

Chris Hedges on the death of Osama bin Laden:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/chris_hedges_speaks_on_osama_bin_ladens_death_20110502/

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In May 2010, New York prosecutors issued an extradition request for Jamaican Kingpin Christopher Coke – gangster to some, local hero to others. The search for Coke triggered a government crackdown on the neighborhood of Tivoli Gardensin Kingston, leaving 73 civilians dead in a span of just a few days. The majority of those victims were innocent and their loved ones continue to fight for justice andaccountability, despite Jamaica’s long record of police violence and government corruption. Today we bring you a documentary on police violence in Jamaica.

Featuring:

Paulette Wellington, Mother of Sheldon Wellington

Earl Witter, Jamaican Public Defender, Carolyn Gomes, Jamaicans for Justice, Susan Goffe, Jamaicans for Justice, Monica Williams, mother of Jason Smith and Activist, and Dr. Ademola Odunfa, Kingston Hospital

For More Information:

Jamaicans for Justice

http://www.jamaicansforjustice.org/

Jamaica Human Rights

http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/countries/americas/jamaica

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Jamaica

http://www.cidh.oas.org/Comunicados/English/2010/55-10eng.htm

A Case Built in New York Against a Jamaican Kingpin

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/world/americas/27coke.html?ref=americas

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Jamaica Report:
http://www.cidh.oas.org/Comunicados/English/2008/59.08eng.htm

Amnesty International Report 2003 – Jamaica

http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,AMNESTY,ANNUALREPORT,JAM,,3edb47d810,0.html

Amnesty International May 27, 2010, calling for an investigation:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/jamaica-violence-investigation-must-be-thorough-2010-05-27

Jamaican Forces Accused of Killing Unarmed Men, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/world/americas/03jamaica.html

January Jamaica Gleaner article on Witter’s investigations:
http://go-jamaica.com/news/read_article.php?id=25797

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COINTELPRO, the secret FBI project to infiltrate and disrupt domestic organizations thought to be “subversive.”, targeted many African American, Native American, and other movements for self-determination by people of color in the U.S.  Between 1956 and 1971, the FBI conducted more than 2,000 COINTELPRO operations.  Over the next two weeks, we’ll broadcast the documentary film “COINTELPRO 101.” Today we hear the second half of the film, produced by the Freedom Archives.

Special thanks to The Freedom Archives.

Featuring:  

Muhammad Ahmad/Max Stanford, Revolutionary Action Movement founder and national field chairman; Akinyele Umoja, Georgia State University African-American Studies Professor; Geronimo Pratt, Black Panther Party member and former political prisoner; Stokely Charmichael/Kwame Ture, former Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee chairman; Bob Doyle, attorney; Laura Whitehorn, Activist and former political prisoner; Kathleen Cleaver, Black Panther Party member and attorney; Wesley Swearingen, former FBI special agent; Ward Churchill, Native American activist and author; Joan Bird, Black Panther Party; Jeanne Hamilton, Juror in Geronimo Pratt’s case; Senator Frank Church; Jose Lopez, Puerto Rican Cultural Center Executive Director; Ricardo Romero, Al Frente de Lucha co-founder; Priscilla Falcon, University of Northern Colorado Professor of Hispanic Studies; Francisco Martinez, Chicano/Mejicano activist and attorney

For More Information:

Freedom Archives-COINTELPRO 101

http://www.freedomarchives.org/Cointelpro.html

Black Panther Party for Self Defense

http://www.blackpanther.org/

Mumia Abu-Jamal/Prison Radio

http://www.prisonradio.org/mumia.htm

USA PATRIOT Act

http://www.aclu.org/national-security/usa-patriot-act

Revolutionary Action Movement

http://www.monroefordham.org/organizations/Black_RAM.html

Puerto Rican Cultural Center

http://prcc-chgo.org/

Al Frente de Luche Cultural Center

http://www.alfrente.org/

School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL)

http://www.schoolofunityandliberation.org/

Ward Churchill Solidarity Network

http://wardchurchill.net/

American Indian Movement (AIM)

http://www.aimovement.org/

Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee

http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

http://www.reddirtsite.com/

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Almost 4,500 American soldiers and more than 100,000 Iraqis have died since the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003. Although President Obama officially declared the end of U.S. combat in August 2010, 50,000 U.S. troops still occupy Iraqi soil and financially it’s estimated to cost $750 billion dollars thus far.

Eight years after the U.S.’ began its “Shock and Awe” campaign, we look back and assess the consequences of the war. On this edition, we hear an audio documentary, “The Cost of War: A Reflection on Eight Years in Iraq” produced by KALW News in San Francisco.

Special thanks to KALW News in San Francisco.

Featuring:  

George W. Bush, former U.S. President; Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense; Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State; Yara Badday, Iraqi-American; Paul Bremer, former U.S. Administrator to Iraq; Richard Becker, West Coast Coordinator for ANSWER Coalition; Paul Wolfowitz, former Deputy Secretary of Defense; Ghazwan Al-sharif, Iraqi translator; Ryan Berg, U.S. Marine; Starlyn Lara, U.S. Army; Jordan Towers, U.S. Marine; Barack Obama, U.S. President; Aaron Glantz, journalist.

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We are witnessing a pivotal time in history. People are unifying in ways never before seen – from the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia to Madison, Wisconsin – solidarity is evident. But solidarity is shifting both in our understanding and the mediums of which it is expressed. On this edition, we go to Left Forum, one of the largest annual gatherings of progressive thinkers. This year’s theme, ‘Towards a Political Struggle,’ explores solidarity amidst a vast political changing climate and new technology.

Featuring: 

Laura Flanders, author, host, and founder of Grit TV, Paul Mason, Economics Editor for BBC’s Newsnight and author of “Live Working, Die Fighting,” Cornel West, author of numerous books and Professor at the Center for African American Studies and Department of Religion at Princeton University.

For More Information:

Left Forum

 Cornel West

 Laura Flanders

 Paul Mason

 Barbara Ehrenreich

 World Social Forum 2011

 Brecht Forum

You Tube Videos of Related Talks:

Paul Mason, Left Forum: 2011 Opening Plenary, Pace University, New York, NY, March 18, 2011

Cornel West, Left Forum: 2011 Opening Plenary, Pace University, New York, NY, March 18, 2011

Laura Flanders, Left Forum: 2011 Opening Plenary, Pace University, New York, NY, March 18, 2011

Articles and Books:

What’s left of the American left? There’s no denying its historic decline, but the left does not lack for issues. It needs only organisation by Richard Wolff

The new solidarity Series, The Guardian  

BBC NEWS –Idyl Scrawl , Paul Mason’s Blog

 Where Liberals Go To Feel Good,Truthdig, Chris Hedges

 Reclaiming the Politics of Freedom, The Nation

 Plutocracy Now: What Wisconsin Is Really About, Mother Jones

Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice, by Bill Fletcher Jr. & Fernando Gapasin, University of California Press, 2009

The post Making Contact – April 22, 2011 appeared first on KPFA.

2011 marks the year for redistricting – the once-in-a-decade process to draw boundaries that determine your elected officials from local school boards and city councils to state and congressional representatives.

As all 50 states begin drawing lines, battles will ensue among political parties, racial and other interest groups. On this edition, we examine the U.S. redistricting system and some of its pitfalls. What is gerrymandering and how does it affect us? How does the rise in prison population change power dynamics? What does the rise in Latino population mean for redistricting? And how can the redistricting process be fairer?

Featuring:  

Barack Obama, U.S. president; Bernie Grofman, UC Irvine political science professor; Justin Levitt, New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice counsel; Ed Rollins, former RNC chairman; Susan Lerner, Common Cause New York; Nancy Cordes, CBS News; Christina Hartman, Newsy.org; Alex Kellogg, NPR; EJ Dionne, NPR; Peter Wagner, Prison Policy Institute executive director; Neil Breslin, New York state senator; Mark Hugo Lopez, Pew Hispanic Center associate director; Nina Perales, Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund litigation director; Lydia Camarillo, Southwest Voters Registration Education Project vice president. 

For More Information:

Gerrymandering movie:

http://www.gerrymanderingmovie.com/

Prison Policy Institute

http://www.prisonpolicy.org/

Northampton, MA

Pew Hispanic Center

http://pewhispanic.org/

Washington, DC

Southwest Voters Registration Education Project

http://www.svrep.org/

San Antonio, TX

Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund

http://www.maldef.org/

NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice:

http://www.brennancenter.org/content/pages/redistricting_for_advocates

New York, NY

California Statewide Database:

http://swdb.berkeley.edu/resources/

Berkeley, CA

The Redistricting Game:

http://www.redistrictinggame.org/

U.S. Census Bureau:

http://www.census.gov/

Purdue University’s links to redistricting resources for each state:

http://www.lib.purdue.edu/govdocs/redistricting.html

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