The Montana DSA Podcast

Montana DSA Podcast Episode 31 (Sept 1, 2023), features eminent legal scholar and analyst/activist Marjorie Cohn (articles and commentaries and bio at https://marjoriecohn.com/) discussing the U.S, government's efforts to force the United Kingdom to extradite imprisoned WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange to the United States.
Cohn describes these U.S. actions as ones that illegally threaten the First Amendment and Press Freedom. Cohn, a member of the Assange Defense advisory board (https://assangedefense.org/),

Assange and WikiLeaks. In 2010-2011revealed evidence of U.S. war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay... Instead of protecting freedom of the press, to which he pledged allegiance at

See more of Cohn's work and writings at her blog and website https://marjoriecohn.com/ and >>

Anne Hedges, Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs for the Montana Environmental  Information Center (MEIC,  https://meic.org, https://www.facebook.com/MTEIC)  is the  featured guest in Montana DSA’s 30th podcast July 26, 2023.  MEIC, founded in 1973, is Montana's premier environmental organization and is celebrating 50 years of work protecting Montana's environment).  Hedges directs MEIC’s program work, including its legislative, policy, and legal activities. Anne received her B.S. in environmental policy analysis and planning from the University of California at Davis and a Masters of Environmental Law from Vermont Law School and began work at MEIC in 1993, where she has worked on a wide range of pollution related issues during that span of time. Most recently Hedges' primary focus has been climate change, fossil fuels, clean air, and energy.

Hedges provided expert testimony supporting the 16

Hedges shows what is at stake for Montana's future and for the future of our planet in the Held v Montana youth's well-documented claims that the state of Montana, by supporting a fossil fuel-driven energy system that worsens the climate crisis, is violating their Montana constitutional right as citizens and youth to a “clean and healthful environment” and to seek safety, health, and happiness; and to individual dignity and equal protection of the law. 

These 16 youth claim in their lawsuit, on our behalf as well as theirs, that the State of Montana's promotion and support of a fossil fuel energy system is degrading and depleting Montana’s constitutionally protected public trust resources, including the atmosphere, public land, rivers

Hedges highlights the urgency of actions to oppose the dangerous environmental actions taken by the Republican supermajority  in the 2023 Montana Legislature and by Governor Gianforte (apparently based on their ignorance of the climate change/crisis evidence and supported only by their subservience to big business and right-wing culture wars ideology). 

Hedges cites the hopeful, encouraging fact that research polls show that -- unlike those in charge of the Legislature  and the Governor's Office -- the majority of Montanans do know and understand the climate change evidence and the need to  go beyond fossils fuels to renewable, clean energy and that the majority of Montanans are supportive of the positions advocated by the youth and their expert witnesses in the Held

This 29th episode of the Montana DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) Podcast series features a conversation with Darrell Ehrlick of Billings, the editor-in-chief of The Daily Montanan (TDM), https://dailymontanan.com/, founded in January 2021 as a nonprofit, independent, nonpartisan source for news, commentary and insight into statewide policy and politics beneath the Big Sky. TDM's guiding motto/maxim is "Truth. Transparency. Trust."

Montana DSA  Democratic Socialists of America) Podcast Episode 28 features Nick Engelfried (https://nickengelfried.com/about-nick/) -- environmental educator and climate activist since the early 2000s and author of Movement Makers: How Young Activists Upended the Politics of Climate Change (https://nickengelfried.com/movementmakers/), the first major book to comprehensively examine more than two decades of youth-led climate activism and organizing. In this podcast, Nick Engelfried and Helena DSA's Frank Kromkowski have a conversation about the two decade history of youth-led climate activism in the United States and about needed next steps of a youth-led movement strengthened by two decades of transformative action.

In 2011, Nick moved to Missoula, Montana, where he earned a Master’s in Environmental Studies at the University of Montana and founded the student-led Blue Skies Campaign  (https://nickengelfried.com/blue-skies-campaign/). Blue Skies helped grow and escalate the grassroots resistance to coal mine-for-export projects by organizing large rallies, creative protests, and nonviolent direct action in Western Montana.

Veteran feminist social justice activist Tootie Welker of Hot Springs, Montana is featured in this June 7th conversation with DSA's Frank Kromkowski of Helena in Episode 27 of the 2023 Montana DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) Podcast Series.
Welker describes herself as a "Radical socialist fighting for justice for all, dog, cat mom. Small business owner @mayarisingshop" -- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/twelker).
Welker describes what she has learned in her more than 40 years of working in Montana as a feminist socialist grassroots activist and community organizer working for citizen empowerment aimed at fundamental social justice transformation and healing overcome widespread  injustices, violence against women,

This Montana DSA Podcast (episode 26) features a conversation with screenwriter, filmmaker, essayist and long-time social and environmental justice and anti-capitalism, anti-war and anti-US imperialism activist Paul Edwards of Helena. A prolific essayist, writing in critical, alternative on-line journals such as CounterPunch and Information Clearing House, Edwards (with his long-time collaborator Lanny Cotler) has also created ClassWar Films. Edwards’ powerful, provocative 2012 film "Let Your Life Be a Friction to Stop the Machine -- A brief and crucial history of the United States" has had more than 330,000 views. (See http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30620.htm and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2Xh5eN2fXY&t=839s .)
In this podcast Edwards explains his views that powerful, long-inculcated capitalist/money elite myths, fairy tales and propaganda during the recent “debt ceiling” debate have obscured basic economic truths and realities about how US capitalism and its money elites  have miserably failed to meet citizens’ basic needs. (See Edwards’ views more fully articulated in his latest ICH article, “America’s Massive Effort To Distort And Suppress Truth About US Government Financing: Publish the Myths/Legends, Ignore The Realities,” https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/57593.htm .

Montana DSA Podcast episode 25 (May 30) features a conversation with Paul Lachapelle of MSU in Bozeman, founder of Climate Smart Montana  (⁠https://www.montana.edu/communitydevelopment/csm/⁠).  scholar and climate activist, working for the last 16 years as a Professor in ⁠the ⁠Department of Political Science at Montana State University-Bozeman (⁠https://www.montana.edu/plachapelle/⁠). His teaching and research span many disciplines and practices including community climate change resiliency, diversity and inclusion, and social justice topics. He served as President (2016-2019) of the International Association for Community Development (⁠https://www.iacdglobal.org/⁠). In the podcast Lachapelle focuses on what he sees as the extremely urgent, life-threatening climate change threats faced by Montana communities and all of the earth as a result of the irresponsible actions of the fossil fuel industry with its billions in profits and its propaganda efforts to downplay the planetary climate crisis. Lachapelle called attention to the consensus in the scientific community, as documented by the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, ⁠https://www.ipcc.ch/⁠), that the climate crisis is rooted in the irresponsible use of and reliance on non-renewable fossil fuels, which continue

In Episode 24 of Montana DSA's 2023 Podcast Series on May 25, Rose Bender, Director of Research at  the Montana Budget & Policy Center (MBPC, https://montanabudget.org/), analyzes the 2023 Legislature's actions in the areas of social and economic justice in tax policy/structure, the Montana affordable housing crisis, policies affecting Montana's Native American children and families and State-Tribal policies, health care provider rates, and childcare programs for low income families.  

Bender says MBPC will publish new reports on these issues very soon (see https://montanabudget.org/all-reports). Bender focused much of her commentary on the many majority party 2023 legislative actions that increased Montana's deep-rooted patterns and practices of economic injustice and racial and class inequalities and oppression. Building on her historical analysis in her article "Racist Roots of Montana’s Tax System"  (on-line at https://montanabudget.org/report/racistroots_mttax).

Bender emphasized that Montana's tax policy is not fair and race-neutral. Bender wrote: "Decades of lawmaking by majority white decision-makers has resulted in a  tax code that disproportionately benefits white, wealthy Montanans. This tax code, which asks more from Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) in Montana, contributes to the persistent racial wealth gap. Montana’s tax code exacerbates the impacts of historical patterns of racism in Montana and the country by requiring people living on the lowest incomes, who are disproportionately Black, Indigenous, and people of color, to pay 22 percent more of every dollar in state and local taxes than the wealthiest. This pattern is getting worse...."   Bender explains how this tax injustice pattern has been worsened by the 2023 Montana Legislature's actions. She says that now that this legislative session is over, we will have to continue and up our efforts in partnership with MBPC and MBPC's activist partners such as Montana Women Vote (https://www.facebook.com/montanawomenvote), making sure that we "include  and elevate the voices of those sometimes left out of conversations about economic policies, including women, seniors, people with disabilities, American Indians, and families living on low incomes."

Bender invited us to join with  MBPC (https://montanabudget.org/about-us) as it "strives to advance public policy that will result in: 1) Smart budgets that prioritize investments in public education, health care and other public services that create opportunity for all; 2) Fair taxes that produce sufficient revenue to pay for needed public investments, such as protecting clean water and educating our kids; and 3)Economic policies that ensure all families, not just a wealthy few, enjoy the benefits of a growing economy."

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~ Frank Kromkowski, Helena DSA member and Montana DSA

fkromkowski@gmail.com

The 23rd Montana DSA Podcast is a conversation with community development activist Jeff Buscher of Helena, Community Impact Coordinator for the United Way of the Lewis and Clark County Area (UWLCA).  Buscher described the work of the new Helena affordable housing coalition and working teams he has created to address the affordable housing crisis (“Move the Dial on Housing” – United to Solve the Helena Housing Affordability Crisis) — and he invited all of to contact him at United Way Lewis and Clark County (406.442.4360; [email protected], www.unitedwaylca.org to get active in this project.  
Buscher noted that while the pain of the state’s housing crisis was a top issue for most Montana citizens, it appeared to be the case that the 2023 Montana Legislature at best made only modest progress with laws and public spending addressing housing issues. Most of the progressive housing proposals put forth were defeated by the majority party, while it used the more than 2 billion dollar state budget surplus to give tax rebates (mainly) to the wealthy.
Buscher stressed that this once again left the bulk of the urgently-needed work of addressing the housing crisis to local non-profit community development organizations across the state (such as the United Way, HRDCs, Habitat for Humanity, homeless shelters and local social justice coalitions such as Helena’s “Move the Dial on Housing.”)

Buscher described the results of the most recent HUD survey of homelessness in Montana, showing high levels of homelessness all across the state. He also discussed the large number of Helena students (approximately 380) who are part of the homeless population.  
Buscher explained the depth and many interconnected dimension of the housing affordability crisis in the Helena area (such as huge waiting lists for subsidized housing, lack of rentals within the range of low-and-moderate income families, continuing high levels of poverty, less-than-living wages, levels of new housing construction that fall far short of population increases, very high vacancy rates in the apartment rental arena, and inadequate mental health resources). He invited us to become United in Sustained Planning and Action to End the Affordable Housing Crisis.

Our dialogue partner in episode 22 of the Montana DSA 2023 Podcast Series is Shani Henry of Helena, a statewide leader of two Montana groups working to prevent gun violence -- Montana Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense and the Montana Chapter of Giffords Gun Owners for Safety (MT-GOS), founded by former member of Congress Gabby Giffords of Arizona, a gun violence attack victim now committed to ending the gun violence epidemic.  Convinced that gun deaths are preventable, these two Montana groups are committed to tackling the gun violence epidemic through advocacy, public education, and policy change – and they invite us to join in their work of helping each other and our Montana neighbors across the state find the courage to speak out for change to say and show that the NRA and gun lobby don’t speak for them.

Shani Henry describes how members of these two grassroots Montana action networks have been deeply troubled by the fact that Montana has more firearms per capita than any other state, by the fact that Montana in 2021 had the seventh highest gun death rate among the states, by the fact that Montana has the 2nd highest per capita suicide rate in the nation and the 9th highest overall gun death date.

The increasing number of gun-related injuries and deaths (including suicides), in Montana and throughout the country leads  MT-GOS and Moms Demand Action to assert  that “Montana’s lack of even the most basic gun safety laws puts its residents at enormous risk, and the failure of state lawmakers to save lives from gun violence is unconscionable” and that Montana’s dangerous “stand your ground” law and weak public carry laws make it far too easy for daily arguments to turn into deadly shootouts.  They are responding by working to foster a culture where Montanans are informed about what makes them safer, hoping to inspire us to fight for a better future by promoting firearm safety and responsibility and by holding accountable those who seek to profit at the