KPFK - Beneath The Surface

Suzi Weissman

Guest: Blase Bonpane, Harold Meyerson

Remembering Blase Bonpane whose '''World Focus''' broadcast for fifty years on KPFK, much of it in this Sunday morning time slot. It is fitting that we remember him today on this program, in his time, for his audience. Mitch Jeserich interviewed Blase in 2013 on '''Letters to Washington,''' about Liberation Theology -- the credo by which Blase lived. We play Mitch Jeserich'''s interview.

Harold Meyerson on '''The Democrats play dirty, ' his LA Times piece exposing the DCCC'''s rule change that would blacklist consultants who aid democratic insurgents 'primarying' sitting centrist Dems, the way AOC did with the '''speaker-in-waiting''' Joe Crowley. Cheri Bustos, chair of the DCCC is responsible for the blacklist rule, attempting to stifle new voices and protect the centrist status quo in the Party and Congress. But can a rule stave off the new generation of left democratic activists entering the political arena? We'''ll get Harold'''s take on how not to deal with divisions in the party ''' in history and today ''' and how he thinks this will play out. Harold also remembers Gary Stewart, who died Friday night.

Guest: Micah Uetricht, Yoav Peled

Micah Uetricht on the election of 5-6 socialists to the Chicago City Council -- a Very Big Deal -- because they will have outsize influence in determining the political issues, as we have seen nationally with democratic socialists in Congress. Micah argues that the socialist victories in Chicago were not a fluke, that people are miserable with the status quo of austerity ''' and if Chicago'''s elections are any indication, it just may be that people are ready to try socialism.

Yoav Peled on the April 9 Israeli election: Benjamin Netanyahu, or Bibi, is under indictment for one case of bribery and two cases of fraud ''' and Yoav says Bibi is the only issue in the election. He is likely to win even though his party and their bloc ''' with far right, racist and religious parties -- is more or less tied with the anti-Bibi '''Blue and White''' coalition or bloc. Yoav also discusses his new book, "The Religionization of Israeli Society," which sheds light on how the country has moved from secular Zionism to an increasingly far right expansionist religious Zionism, and how that helps us understand the election, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the relation between culture, politics, nationalism, secularization and new social movements.

Guest: Sarah Mason, Barry Eidlin

Sarah Mason returns -- because Lyft went public this week, just as both Lyft and Uber drivers, the people who power this app-based service, went on strike in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego. The strike was to protest low wages and their unsatisfactory working conditions: they are classified as independent contractors, meaning they lack benefits, paid time off, and the ability to collectively bargain. Sarah Mason, a former Lyft driver and now a grad student at UCSC, wrote "High score, low pay: why the gig economy loves gamification," about being a Lyft driver. She reveals the stark new precarious world of work and explains how workers are motivated, essentially in game mode, to do insane amounts of driving, ever in search of more and better bonuses.

Barry Eidlin joined me for a live broadcast event about Labor, Socialism and the Struggle for Power. Barry compares labor'''s divergent fates in the US and Canada -- his book is "Labor and the Class Idea in the United States and Canada" -- in order to shed light on the urgent problems facing workers today. We discuss the new wave of strikes that has captured the public imagination and what it means for politics today.

Guest: Pedro Paulo Zahluth Bastos, Randy Shaw

Political economist Pedro Paulo Zahluth Bastos on the Trump-Bolsonaro love fest in DC last week, the new Brazilian-US relationship, (will Brazil lead the invasion of Venezuela for the US?) -- and Brazilian politics and economics under their new tweeter in chief -- who campaigned as a murderous, homophobic, anti-feminist, declaring open season on the left and on the Amazon rainforest.

Randy Shaw on his new book "Generation Priced Out," a call to action that addresses the national crisis of housing -- literally the face of the grotesque inequality of capitalism in the 21st Century. Shaw looks at how policy and neglect -- as well as economic crisis -- has led to skyrocketing rents and home values that have priced out the working and middle class of urban America, and makes the argument that cities can and must address the entire population'''s housing needs -- and he challenges them to reverse rising economic and racial inequality, offering specific strategies to do it.

Guest: Jeremy Gong, Magally Miranda Alcazar

DSAers Jeremy Gong and Magally Miranda on the challenges they face in a more favorable national context for Democratic Socialists, thanks to Bernie, AOC, #Red4Ed striking teachers, and the retrograde policies of the Trump administration. Can the left take over the Democratic Party and should that be their aim? Or should the social movement work of DSA, independent of the Dems be their focus, and how do they define socialism, and what should socialists should do given the structures of our politics and economy?

Guest: Robert Brenner

Robert Brenner on politics and the state of the economy ''' matters of great confusion if you read the Business pages and hear the politicians, all touting how robust the economy is with record low unemployment, rising wages, the recovery of the stock market. But -- the Fed stopped raising interest rates, wages are stagnant, precarity and insecurity are the norm, homelessness has exploded, student debt is staggering and suffocating -- and teachers are striking to force states to reinvest (stop underinvesting) to save public education. So what is the real story, and if the economists and pundits are getting it wrong ''' why is that the case? Is it cheerleading for the status quo? We get Robert Brenner'''s analysis.

Guest: Alex Caputo-Pearl; Jeffery Webber

Alex Caputo Pearl, President of UTLA (United Teachers of Los Angeles) on what was won in the strike, what funding and charter school expansion challenges they face, and what is the next chapter in this struggle for quality public schools.

Jeffery Webber of Goldsmiths at the University of London goes beneath the surface on the nature of the political and economic crisis in Venezuela. Once the richest country on the continent, sitting on the world's largest oil reserve, Venezuela is in economic free-fall. On January 23rd, Juan Guaid�, leader of the national assembly, declared himself the interim president in a move against President Nicol�s Maduro, just two weeks into his second term. The Trump administration jumped to recognize Guaido as President minutes after his declaration - and now regime change and intervention are on the table.

Guest: Joel Jordan, Mike Parker

Joel Jordan on the LA Teachers strike victory: how they carried out the strike, making the fight for public education one that the larger community overwhelmingly supported, how they wielded the strike weapon, what limitations they faced, and what this means for the labor movement ''' where we are already seeing ripples from the strike. Joel is a former strategist for UTLA and currently a coordinator for nine of the largest urban teacher unions in California, including UTLA, fighting for increased public education and against school privatization.

Mike Parker, whose December 2018 analysis of the auto industry'''s reorganization, and GM'''s decision to close 5 North American plants ''' and the union'''s reaction -- was so clearsighted and compelling that we are running it today. Mike worked for 32 years in auto in Detroit, is a rabble rouser, union activist and author of several books about the auto industry'''s restructuring, and its effects on unions.

Guest: Jackie Goldberg, Eric Blanc

Jackie Goldberg, former teacher, member of the School Board, City Council and State Assembly is now running in the March 5th special election to the LAUSD School Board. If elected, Jackie will be an experienced and effective progressive voice for public education, opposing the charter allies elected with money from the '''bankrollers [who] have stacked the deck against district public schools.''' We talk to Jackie about the strike, the fight to save public education, and how the forces are aligned from Los Angeles to Sacramento to Washington.

Eric Blanc, author of the just published "Red State Revolt: The Teachers Strike Wave and Working Class Politics." has been covering the strike for Jacobin magazine. He looks at the larger issues in the UTLA strike, the billionaires arrayed against the LA schools, the dilemma this strike poses for establishment Democrats, and why this fightback is historic. Eric maintains that at its core, the strike '''is a fight against a hostile takeover of public schools by the superrich.'''