Tristan Anderson is a long time peace activist and justice activist from Berkley, California. Last year. while attending a peaceful protest in Palestine, Tristan was shot in the head with a tear-gas canister fired by Israeli troops. On December 4th, he returned home to Berkley where he was welcomed by his activist family.

From Berkley, Jenna Sodeberg brings us the story.

Happy New Year from KBOO's queer culture radio show!

Today on Pathways we are visiting with Carol Marleigh Kline, author of Streetwise Spirituality: 28 days to inner fitness and everyday enlightenment. Carol is an author, workshop facilitator, radio host, and editor of JACA Online, the American Chiropractic Association’s journal. Formerly a TV anchor and producer, she began attending New Age lectures at the age of 13. She developed programming for the Smithsonian Institute’s Resident Associates, earned a Master’s in Japanese philosophy at Columbia University, and is listed in Who’s Who of American Women.

Denise Morris hosts today show and we hear:

 Larry Bowlden reviews and reads from Irish author Maggie O'Farrell's "The Hand That First Held Mine".

If you want to talk about wasteful Federal spending, you're have to look at where the money actually goes. Tom Becker reads Paul Craig-Roberts' essay, "The Enemy is Washington: the economy destroyed".

Joe Clement hosts this labor day special and we hear:

Joe briefly remarks on the biases we have for paid work and against unpaid work. He suggests we overlook the possibility for useful and needed contributions when our solutions to unemployment assume wage-labor as the only legitimate form of work we can do while still making demands for a decent livelihood.

Daniel Randall, a supporter of the Workers Climate Action Network and a writer for the journal "Solidarity" in England, talks with Bill Resnick about how the environment (and not just jobs or wages) is a working-class issue. Daniel starts out by offering a few examples of working-class solutions to environmental problems and the need for sustainable technology production processes, such as the Lucas plan.

Speaking with Denise Morris, Mark Brenner of Director of Labor Notes talks a bit about what Labor Notes is and how it involves itself in the labor movement. They spend most of the interview talking about the relevance of 45,000 verizon workers going on strike. Mark explains how this strike and what it was about underscores what is so wrong with our economy today: when corporate profits break records and shareholders receive big bonus dividends, workers are told "there isn't enough". Mark points out why unions can't remain islands in seas of union-hostility and competition from non-union companies.

Mike Snedeker, who has written a book on the recurrance of "satanic ritual abuse" cases, talks with Jan Haaken and about the West Memphis Three was and the ways it exemplifies so much of what's broken in our judicial system: plea-bargins, hasty police invetigations and false confessions. They also spend some time talking about the phenomenon of popular hysteria around satanic ritual abuse of children and the  circumstances surrounding it.

Bill Resnick and John Farrell talk about the importance of decentralization to realizing the potential and sustainability of alternative energy sources like wind and solar.

 Bill Resnick hosts this Old Mole and we hear:

 Bill Resnick and Harvey Wasserman talk about the need, the possibility and the way for developing wind and solar energy systems that emphasize distributed, democratic production. Recently, Harvey spoke at Occupy Wall Street. They agree that this should be part of the Wall Street occupiers' demands and Harvey explains why. Since this was during our membership drive, there was a break in the middle for a pitch-break, which we decided to omit.

Jan Haaken and Frann Michel discuss "We Were Here - voices from the AIDS years in San Francisco" directed by David Weismann and Bill Weber. The film profiles five people living in San Francisco during the AIDS crisis in the late '70s and 1980s. Frann and Jan note the power of the story-telling on the level of individual and collective suffering, the celebration of sexual liberation before the crisis struck, and the role of community and family in supporting those affected by the crisis. They also note the lack of selfish reactions within the gay community to AIDS, class differences in infection and questions of public healthcare.

Joe Clement hosts this show and we hear:

1. The Left and the Law talk about Right of Assembly and the Occupy movement.
2. Bill Resnick interviews John Miller about intervening in debt-crises.
3. Joe and Frann Michel review John Carpenter's 1988 sci-fi cult-class "They Live"
4. Clayton Morgareidge reflects on the homeless in the Occupy movement.

Jan Haaken and Mike Snedecker talk about the right of assembly and how it comes into play for the Occupy movement. They consider the role of elected leaders to make discretionary calls in managing assemblies and the importance of protecting First Amendment rights, but also the potential limits on the place, time and manner of people's assemblies. 

Bill Resnick talks with John Miller about how the US and other countries have been handling the debt-crisis. They cover the congressional super-committee  formed in the US and the austerity measures they are considering. John describes the People's Budget , which calls for relatively high taxes on the rich, with tax-loopholes closed, medicare for all, massive public investment and reducing military expenditure. 

Joe Clement and Frann Michel turn to this film because of its obviously critical message about late capitalism, and the way some of its complaints, seemingly new and unprescedented at the time, resonate with the Occupy Wall Street movement today. But they have mixed feelings about how far John Carpenter's portrayal of society hijacked by otherwise unseen aliens through psychological manipulation can go as a social analysis of the real actors and sources of inequality, injustice, and social and environmental destruction.

Watch the movie online for free through google video.

Clayton Morgareidge reads various responses to the concern some have expressed about the involvement of homeless people in the Occupy Wall Street movement. He offers a positive assessment that sees the movement benefiting from the homeless involvement. He suggests that learning how to get along with and work with each other is exactly what the movement is about and what it will take to integrate the homeless who aren't and shouldn't go away.

Check out his blog-post for a written version with links.

On October 18th, 2011, health care workers from Washington and Oregon left for a medical delegation to Gaza, hosted by the Gaza Community Mental Health Program. The purpose of the trip is to learn more about the effects of ongoing war and occupation on the health of the citizens of Gaza. Maxine Fookson, a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner from Portland, is the Oregon PSR representative of this group.

Maxine Fookson will join KBOO host Jenka Soderberg at 11 am on Monday December 5th to report back on her trip to Gaza.

Maxine's blog post from October 22nd, begins:

Denise Morris hosts and we hear: 

Bill Resnick talks with Angela McWhinney, an organizer with We Are Oregon, and Terran Connolly, with Unsettle Portland. Earlier this month Angela and Terran's organizations helped stand up to foreclosures with homeowners. They articulate a vision of community control over housing and land, and an economy not dominated by financial prorities.

Clayton Morgareidge reads an essay from Yes Magazine by world-systems theorist, Immanuel Wallerstein, about "what's next for the new people power?" Wallerstein stresses the over-all success, from re-occupation to other direct actions, and for an understanding that this is a long revolution.

 Clayton Morgareidge talks with our radical musicologist, Brad Duncan, about the music and future of Occupy. As the cold months drive people indoors, the music helps keep the movement alive, but also as Brad points out by the end the re-surgence in small-scale printing and pamphlet-making.

The songs you heard during this segment can be found by going to the following links:

Rebel Diaz - 99%

Garfunkel and Oates - Save the Rich

Ry Cooder - Wall Street Part of Town

 Iven Hale reviews Rachel Schteir's "The Steal: a cultural history of shop-lifting". Schteir considers theivery across the ages, but especially in the modern era and in terms of sureptitiously lifting goods from stores and vendors. Iven remarks on the social forces that compel people to shop-lift, and which also shield some but not others from punishment, but also how criminologists explain shop-lifting in terms of pathology.

 Joe Clement and Frann Michel review the apocalyptic psycho-thriller Take Shelter, staring Michael Shannon as a blue-collared man in rural Ohio who becomes deeply disturbed by terrifying dreams involving mega-storms, attacks by dogs and neighbors, and even faceless intruders kidnapping his deaf daughter. When he begins building-out a storm-shelter in his backyard without consulting his wife, played by Jessica Chastain, he alienates her and ultimately his community. All the while he struggles with the possibility that he has his mother's schizophrenia and yet is certain that "a storm is coming".

 Bill Resnick talks with Malik Miah about the Occupy movement, how race figures into the economic crisis,  mobilizing in the black community and what the Occupy movement could learn from their history of organizing against the 1%.

Well-read Red, Clayton Morgareidge, reads an excerpt from Gary Weiss' article from Salon on Mitt Romney and vulture-capitalism. The article reviews how Romney's former investment firm bought out companies and destroyed rather than created jobs, while turning a tidy profit, and how Romney's Republican opponents have even cricized him for it (drawing their own criticism for questioning capitalism).

Movie Moles, Joe Clement and Jan Haaken, talk about the new drama-documentary "The Iron Lady", which looks at the life and political career of Margaret Thatcher (played by Meryl Streep) through her own nostalgic memories. They talk about her status as a powerful women against the backdrop of the women's movement, about her conservative politics and the way the film at best avoids them and at worst normalizes them.

  Tom Becker hosts this Old Mole and we hear:

1. Bill Resnick Talk with Malik Miah, a black working-class intellectual.
2. Clayton Morgareidge reads an essay about Mitt Romney and vulture capitalism
3. Joe Clement and Jan Haaken review "The Iron Lady", the drama-documentary about Margarat Thatcher
4. Tom Becker reads about the "State of the Dream - 2012" report put out by United for a Fair Economy

 Bill Resnick talks with local activist Michael Moore (not the documentary film-maker) about Governor Kitzhaber's new healthcare plan, community care organizations (CCOs) and the on-going struggle for single-payer or something like it.

Michael Moore works with Sisters of the Road Cafe

Tom Becker reads Valerie Tarico's Alter-Net article "15 Ways the Bible is Used by Christians and the GOP to Control and Malign Women". Tarico examines over a dozen ways that the Bible subtends a misogynistic and patriarchical rationale that conservatives are using to fuel a war against women at every political level.

 Larry Bowlden, our Book Mole, reviews Penelope Lively's new book, "How It All Began.". Larry focuses on the web of causation triggered by a chance mugging of one of the characters and the way these developments eschew any independent force or directive guiding our lives, but finishes with a word about her representation of teaching.

 Denise Morris interviews fellow Mole, Jan Haaken. In addition to working with the Old Mole, Jan is a clinical psychologist and documentary film-maker. Her most recent film, "Mind Zone: therapists behind the front lines", has received national attention and she's appeared recently on CNN (transcript) and Democracy Now (audio). They talk about Robert Bales and the questions about PTSD in the massacre he recently committed in Afganistan.

Tom Becker hosts this Old Mole Variety Hour and we hear:

Bill Resnick talks with Kristian Williams, Portland-resident and renknown scholar of policing and police history, about the murder of Treyvon Martin. Kristian re-caps the case and those like it, but also comments on the nature of the "stand your ground" laws that have been invoked to shield George Zimmerman. He contends that simply attacking those laws misses deeper problems, namely how these laws arise out of already racialized understandings of crime, law and order. They end on a note about this culture of fear, which Kristian thinks we can overcome if we see that people's needs are met, so they don't feel there are "others" out there trying to take them.

Joe Clement talks with fellow Mole Jan Haaken about the significance of Adrienne Rich's prose writing about motherhood for the feminist movement in the 1970s.

 Laurie Mercier and Denise Morris talk about the 1970 documentary "Finally Got The News" (re-released and available to view for free online HERE), produced in association with the League for Revolutionary Black Workers. The League was wary of the film at first, worried it would compromise their organizing efforts in Detroit, but the film-makers promised to make it education and not journalistic. It directs its marxist message to black workers and not white college kids, and to that end focuses on the role and power of the black worker in the American economy.

Tom Becker talks with our radical musicologist, Brad Duncan, about Alix Dobkin. They reflect on her "red-diaper" up-bringing, her recent autobiography "My Red Blood: A Memoir of Growing Up Communist, Coming Onto the Greenwich Village Folk Scene, and Coming Out in the Feminist Movement", and her impact on feminism and women's music through her politically infused folk-music.

The following links are to music of hers we heard on the show:

 Larry Bowlden review Edith Wharton's "The Mother's Recompense". He makes the case for Edith Wharton's pioneering feminist literary contributions. For this particular review argues that the female characters rejection of male dependence and refusal to be bought by rich men seen as progressive for their time. 

Denise Morris continues her former conversation with Andrew Sernatinger about the special election in Wisconsin to recall Governor Scott Walker. They talk about "what went wrong", the different campaign angles, and how activists are stratigizing for the future. Andrew is a radical baker and labor journalist for LaborNotes. He's also written recently for Solidarity on the stakes of the recall election before it happened and what to learn from the fallout

 Bill Resnick talks with radical economists, Robin Hahnel, about the European debt-crisis, the world economy and the significance of the Greek elections. Robin also considers the Greek Left's electoral program and what it means for us in Portland, Oregon.      

 Bill Resnick hosts this week's Old Mole and we hear:

• Bill talks with Robin Hahnel about the Greek elections and their context.
• Denise Morris talks with Andrew Sernatinger about the Wisconsin Recall election
• Larry Bowlden review Edith Wharton's "The Mother's Recompense"
• Bill returns again to speak with Dave King about green jobs

 Bill Resnick talks with Dave King, a local activist and organizer of the upcoming mini-conference on Jobs and the Climate, being held at the Musicians Union Hall. They talk about the various ways that creating an ecologically sustainable world, addressing climate and other environmental crises, reconstructing and decentralizing the energy-grid, would generate millions of jobs. It's at Wednesday the 20th at 5:45pm at the Musician's Union Hall, just south of Sandy and 28th.

New Mole, Iven Hale, hosts today's show. We hear about the Arab Spring, the politics of work and basic income, and a movie review of "Heist".

• Bill Resnick talks with Chris Toensing about the the Arab Spring.
• Joe Clement reads a blog-post by sociologist Peter Frase about basic income and the politics of work.
• Frann Michel and Hyung Nam review the film, Heist.

 Bill Resnick talks with Chris Toensing about the Arab Spring over a year later, looking back at how it happened, what has happened since and emerging directions. They consider economic factors, demographics, the outcomes of elections and the ripple-effect felt in other parts of the world. This is part one of two parts. The next part will air on August 13th.

Joe Clement reads Peter Frase's case against the assumption of wage-labor in both capitalism and market-socialist visions of a fucture economy.

 Frann Michel and Hyung Name review "Heist: who stole the American Dream." Directed Frances Causey and Donald Goldmacher, narrated by Tom Hartman, based in part on the book "The Global Class-War: how Amerian's bi-partisan elite lost our future and what it'll take to win." Heist foregrounds the question of who are the villans in the current crisis and points to both Democrats and Republicans. The film touches on the Powell Memo of 1971, the rise of right-wing think-tanks and ends with a section what we need to fight-back --- publically funded elections, tax and energy policy changes, support for unions and expansion of worker-owned cooperatives.

 On Today's Old Mole, Frann Michel hosts, and we hear about how German social democrats built a parallel society for working people, a movie review of a Bob Marley biopic, and from a worker at the Red and Black cafe about their cooperatively owned and collectively managed model.

Bill Resnick and Bill Smaldone start a two-part conversion about the German Social Democratic party in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Smaldone lays out the historical context of the consolidating and industrializing German state, then explains how the Social Democrats emerged as a parliamentary movement and became a civic movement. Most exciting is how the Social Democrats was organizing the working-class of Germany in the late 19th Century by creating alternative cultural and social institutions that until then only middle-class really had. The vision they had was akin to 20th century socialist schemes of dual-power. Part two will be aired next week.

Frann Michel and Denise Morris review the biopic "Marley", about legendary Jamacian reggae artist Bob Marley. They consider it an fine, but long and very conventional documentary about the man as a spiritua icon, an artist, an imperfect a. They note the relative lack of a political dimension to Marley's depiction in the film, but also commend its thoroughness in other ways, such as the attention it gives to Rita Marley.

Joe Clement interviews John Langly of the Red and Black cafe, an all-vegan cafe that's cooperatively owned by its worker as well as collectively managed. They talk about this radical approach to managing an organization, the intersection between community and workplace organizing they cultivate, the diverse and community-oriented events they host, and their choice to serve low-income and otherwise marginalized communities. John mentions at one point the Red and Black's web-page and the form to request use of the space for an event.

Bill Resnick talks with Samuel Farber about Cuba and assessing its achievements, failures and status as a socialist country. 

Samuel Farber is a native of Cuba and a scholar about Cuba's history and politics. He's teaches at Brooklyn College in New York and is the author of "Cuba Since the Revolution of 1959" and "The Origins of the Cuban Revolution Reconsidered".

 With a brief introduction by Iven Hale, Well-read Red Frann Michel offers an array of analyses about the real stakes of the Chicago Teacher's Strike. She presents arguments that defend the teachers union as fighting a rank-and-file organized campaign against neoliberal education reform. She cites numerous examples of how both the Democrats as well as the Republicans are behind the gutting of public education that Chicago teachers are fighting against, and how in the process these teachers are breathing life into the labor movement as one aimed at a better society and not just a better contract.

A written version of this commentary with linked citations can be found HERE.

 Larry Bowlden reviews Barbara Kingsolver's widely acclaimed "The Lacuna: a novel". Part thought-experiment and part historical fiction, Kingsolver writes a story set in 1930s Mexico City about the struggle of artists during war-time and under the pressure of revolution and its opponents.

 Iven Hale hosts this show and we hear about the Chicago Teachers Strike, Cuban reform and policies, a book review of Barbara King Solver's "Lacuna" and a movie-review of Branded.

  Joe Clement hosts today's Old Mole and we hear about the NFL referee lockout, the Trans Pacific Partnership, and organizing the working-class against imperial war.

Bill Resnick and Peter Rachleff discuss the NFL referee lockout and dispute over pensions vs. 401K. Peter explains the difference between pensions and 401K plans, the missed opportunity to speak out the working-class, connecting workplace with consumer-activism.

Well-read Red, Frann Michel, points out that there are a lot of things that won't get discussed in the presidential debates because both of the major candidates actually agree on them. After a litany of silent pacts, including Iran, campaign contributions, ignoring global warming, the millions of people in prison, she hones in on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Frann surveys the news coverage on the TPP's controversial provisions and the broad resistance to it..

A link to the written version can be found HERE.

Joe Clement reads "Consumer Rage: this is your labor movement under capitalism", an essay from PruningShears.us by MadTownAnnie. They criticize the appeal to lost consumer value made by those critical of the NFL's recent dispute with and lockout of its referees over retirement benefits.

Laurie Mercier talks with Michael Zweig about US Labor Against The War, a reform-coalition of hundreds of unions, central labor councils and state federations who are united in opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are organizing  workers to put pressure on the government to demilitarize US foreign policy and the creation of new domestic priorities for government spending.   

After an amusing reading of Bertolt Brecht's short-story "If Sharks Were Men", Joe Clement comments on the unfortunately enduring message it imparts about class-exploitation and imperial war.

The original video from which the audio has been used can be found here.

 Bill Resnick talks with Eli Friedman about the Chinese labor movement. He challenges the idea that they are "stealing our jobs" and in conscious comeptition with American workers. They talk about the strike-waves that the Chinese State refer to as "mass incidents". There is no legal right to strike in China, so every strike is a wild-cat. Eli talks about how the State tries to control workers, through the All China Federation of Trade Unions and other measures. Eli argues that the Chinese labor movement is at the epicenter of global worker unrest and marvelously successful without legal or formal union support.

 Alan Wieder comments on connection between the Sandy Hook shootings and drone-warfare. He considers the lamentations Americans and its leaders especially offer when certain American children are murdered in the context of drone-warfare and their otherwise disregard for children's lives around the world.

Tom Becker reads George Monbiot's essay, republished on Alternet, about the insanity of waste hidden in consumerism and the political barriers to questioning it. Monbiot considers how so many trinkets, disposable goods, planned and perceived obsolesence, are forced upon us and the planet through growth-driven economics and a vision of prosperity.

Joe Clement interviews Brandon and Alex, organizers with the Portland Solidarity Network. PDXSol, as it's sometimes referred to, is an all volunteer organization that helps workers and tenants and other people resist abuse, demand what people are owed, and bridge the gap between workplace and community organizing. They discuss what solidarity networks are, what they can do and why they work. They consider a case of success with the new Portland Solidarity Network. They also talk a little about other solidarity networks, like SeaSol.

           Tom Becker hosts today's Christmas Eve episode. We hear about the Chinese labor movement, the hypocrisy of Obama's mourning at Newtown, the Portland Solidarity Network, and the limits of consumer culture.

Bill Resnick talks with Larry Kleinman, Secretary-Tresurer of PCUN, a union for all Oregon's farmworkers. They discuss the potential impact of different kinds of immigration reform. This is the second of a two-part interview. The first can be found here.

  Tom Becker hosts and we hear:

• Bill Resnick complete his conversation with Larry Kleinman about immigration reform.
• Jan Haaken talks with Mary-Liz Thomson, the director of "Who Bombed Judi Bari?"
• Joe Clement talks with Kristian Williams about community alternatives to the police
• Tom reads from Chris Hedges' Truth-Dig article, "The Myth of Progress".

Jan Haaken talks with Mary Liz Thomson, the director of Who Bombed Judi Bari?. Judi Bari was an environmental activist, labor organizer and feminist who helped to bridge crucial gaps between how timber workers and radical environmentalists understood each other. She also helped to feminize either side's understanding of their own interests. Bari worked with the Industrial Workers of the World, a revolutionary union with a famous past among timber workers, and EarthFirst!

Joe Clement talks with local police-scholar, Kristian Williams, about an up-coming panel at PSU about community alternatives to the police. The panel is a response to the Campus Public Safety Office's intention to give its agents more power to arrest as well as arm them. Kristian talks broadly about community alternatives to the police, what they've meant historical to the police abolition movement and what they mean in the context of the panel.

 Tom Becker reads from an article on Truth Dig by Chris Hedges, "The Myth of Human Progress". Hedges predicts massive starvation and misery await us this century if we do not stop climate change, and isolates a certain myth of progress that stymies that action.

Bill Resnick talks with Michael Fox, a freelance journalist and documentary film-maker, about the death of Hugo Chavez and the future of popular movements and socialism in Venezuela. They consider the charges of authoritarianism, on the one hand, and the vibrancy of Venezuelan democratic culture and controls, on the other.

Tom Becker reads excerpts from Alfred W. McCoy's op-ed, "Space Warfare and the Future of US Global Power," which he wrote for the Al-Jazeera. It exposes the Pentagon's project to re-militarize space with advanced drone technology in the name of national security.

Jan Haaken and Mike Snedecker take a break from their usual Left and the Law MO and review a new drug-war action flick, "Snitch". It stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as a John Matthews, a father who goes under cover for the DEA to exonerate his son, who was himself arrested in a drug-deal set up by federal agents. They consider the truth and lies of the drug war represented by Hollywood, and how it's conservative morality may contain some gems of radical provocation.