Laurie Mercier talks with Margaret Butler, director and co-founder of the Portland-area labor coalition, Jobs with Justice, which just turned 20 years old. Butler talks a little about what JwJ does in general and recent actions, advocacy and campaigns they've done.

Bill Resnick talks with writer and Portland-area teacher, Bill Bigelow, about how his book "Rethinking Columbus" was removed from Tuscon-area schools because it violates Arizona Law concerning teaching ethnic studies in Public Schools.

Joe Clement hosts this Old Mole, which because of membership drive breaks shows up as being about30% shorter than normal. We hear about the crack-down on ethnic studies in Arizona, about what's going on in Jobs with Justice, and a review of The Intuitionist. In the middle of the show, we heard Pete Seeger's rendition of Ralph Chaplin's "Commonwealth of Toil" from the Wobbly Little Red Songbook.

On October 12th, 2011, Congress passed the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.  The fight against the FTA, by trade unionists, small farmers, Indigenous communities, Afro-Colombians, and human rights activists was lost after 5 years, but the struggle continues. 

On this program, we speak with Carlos Cruz, from Witness for Peace in Colombia.

www.witnessforpeace.org/

Hosted by Lisa Loving

APA Compass 58:58 minutes (26.25 MB)

President Obama today proposed a rule change that will allow immigrants applying for residency to remain in the country while the petition is being considered.

Previously, these immigrants would be forced to leave the country for three to ten years while the petition was processed.

Francisco Lopez with the Oregon Immigrant Rights Coalition spoke with KBOO’s Jenka Soderberg about what this means for Oregon’s immigrant families.