Making Contact

September marks the 5 year anniversary of Occupy. We go to Zuccotti Park, and Oakland to talk to individuals that were part of Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Oakland to gain insight and reflection on the movement that swept the nation.

• Samara Ward, Occupy Oakland participant
• Joyous DeAsis, Young Oakland organizer, Occupy Oakland participant
• Marisa Holmes, Filmmaker, Occupy Wall Street facilitator
• Needa Bee, Occupy Oakland participant
• Krystof Lapour, Occupy Oakland participant
• Samsarah Morgan, doula and birth worker, Founder of Occupy Oakland Children's Village and Parents and Allies Caucus of Occupy Oakland, Occupy Decolonize Birth Parenting and Pregnancy Caucus
• Rebecca Ruiz Sunwoo, Organizer Idriss Stelley Foundation, Occupy Oakland participant
• Ashoka Finley, Black radical, Occupy the Farm participant

The US military didn't shrink much under President Obama, and our perpetual state of war has barely waned since 9-11. Author Rosa Brooks says the consequences of this 'new normal' reach deep into our society; far beyond the body count of those killed overseas.

On this edition, Rosa Brooks speaks about her new book, How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything.

Special thanks to Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington DC

Featuring

Rosa Brooks, author of How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything.

Host: Andrew Stelzer

September 11, 2001 ushered in an era marked by the unending War on Terror, dragnet government surveillance programs, and escalating attacks on people perceived to be Muslim. Just last month, Khalid Jabara, a 37-year old Lebanese American man was shot and killed on his front porch in Tulsa Oklahoma by a neighbor who had harassed his family for years, calling them 'dirty Arabs' and 'Mooslems'.

This is just one of the many reported attacks on people perceived as Muslims in the United States. Last year, there were 174 incidents of anti-Muslim violence, and that's only if you count the attacks that made headlines.

This backlash is just tip of the iceberg. Below the surface is a growing Islamophobia with deep roots in history and empire. Where does the idea of the 'Muslim enemy' come from? And how has it evolved into what we see today?

Fifteen years after 9/11, Deepa Kumar, author of Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, takes us back nearly 15 centuries to find out.

Millions of people around the world work in jobs that aren't formally recognized or afforded legal protections typical of wage earning jobs. They're often not even thought of as legitimate work.

On this edition of Making Contact, we're going to meet people making work where there is no work for them. From recyclers, to border couriers, to waste pickers, we're exploring the informal labor sector and what some are doing to gain greater recognition, protections, and rights.

• Landon Goodwin, recycler and pastor and also featured in documentary Dogtown Redemption
• Aicha al Azzouzi border courier
• Salma al Azzouzi, Aicha's oldest daughter
• Charles Gachanga Gichonge, creator of the Mustard Seed Courtyard clean-up campaign
• Antony Makau, Dandora resident
• Richard Munene, Dandora restaurant owner
• Sally Roever, Urban Policy Director for Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO)
• Malati Gadgil, KKPKP

It's the second most-traded commodity in the world after oil but how much do you think about your cup of coffee?

From coffee farmers in Colombia to the trash produced by your single-cup coffee machine, Making Contact andGreen Grid Radio team up to count the costs of your morning cup o'joe.

• Jairo Martinez, Mariana Cruz, Suzana Angarita,coffee farmers
• Jeff Goldman, former executive director FairtradeResource Network
• Jeff Chean, Principal and Chief Coffee GuyGroundworks Roasters
• John Hazen, single-cup coffee machine owner
• Rebecca Jewell, recycling program manager for Davis Street Transfer Station

The alternatives to prison are few and far between. And after serving time, the options for getting back on your feet are even worse. Finding food, a job and a place to live with a criminal record can become an almost impossible task. On this edition, Women building their own support network after being released from prison. We'll hear "A New Way of Life and the New Underground Railroad" a documentary by Chris-Moore Backman.

Featuring: Susan Burton, A New Way of Life Re-Entry Project executive director and founder; Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness author; Alika Savage, Yolanda Brown, Renee Levi, Maisha Bailey, Sabrayiah DeMoss, Samantha Jenkins, A New Way of Life residents.

For More Information:A New Way of Life Re-Entry ProjectThe Sentencing Project Formerly Incarcerated & Convicted Peoples MovementCritical ResistanceMichelle Alexander-The New Jim CrowBringing Down the New Jim Crow

Women Rising radio profiles food sovereignty activists from India, Mexico, and Native American communities.

If you are interested in GMOs, TTP, seed saving, herbal medicine, food, trade & activism –then tune in!

Featuring:

• Vandana Shiva, founder of Navdanya
• Adelita San Vicente Tello, founder of Semillas de Vida
• Sage La Pena, Native American, ethno- botanist and food sovereignty activist
• Kanyon Sayers-Roods, Native American youth educator

In the midst of police shooting community members and gunmen shooting police, and as the republican and democratic conventions wrap up, we look back at the history of secret surveillance and disruption of organizations dissenting and struggling against all odds.

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 (Counter Intelligence Program) operations. This week we broadcast the second half of the documentary film "COINTELPRO 101," produced by The Freedom Archives.

Special thanks to The Freedom Archives.

In the midst of police shooting community members and gunmen shooting police, and as the republican and democratic conventions wrap up, we look back at the history of secret surveillance and disruption of organizations dissenting and struggling against all odds.

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 (Counter Intelligence Program) operations. Over the next two weeks, we'll be broadcasting the documentary film "COINTELPRO 101." Today we hear the first half of the film, produced by the Freedom Archives.

Special thanks to The Freedom Archives.

• Liz Derias, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
• Bob Boyle, attorney
• Jose Lopez, Puerto Rican Cultural Center executive director
• Lucy Rodriguez, Puerto Rico Independence movement leader and former political prisoner
• Ward Churchill, Native American activist and author
• Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Native American activist and author
• Leonard Peltier, political prisoner
• Ricardo Romero, Al Frente de Lucha co-founder
• Priscilla Falcon, University of Northern Colorado Hispanic Studies professor
• Francisco Martinez, Chicano/Mejicano activist and attorney.

Ross McKenzie was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but after 15 years on Lithium, he wasn't getting any better. He decided to take matters into his own hands, get off the drug, and find out why so many people are being told they have mental illnesses.

This week on Making Contact, we bring you an abridged version of the film Bipolarized; Rethinking Mental Illness, chronicling McKenzie's journey.

Featuring:

• Ross McKenzie, diagnosed with Bipolar disorder
• Ross McKenzie's mother and sister
• Gwen Olsen, former pharmaceutical rep
• Laura Delano, psychiatry survivor
• Robert Whitaker, author of Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America
• Dr. Charles Whitfield, trauma recovery specialist
• Dr. Peter Levine, founder of Somatic Experiencing