Old Mole Variety Hour for February 15, 2021

Denise Morris Hosts this Episode of The Old Mole which includes:

• COVID 19, its Variants and the Future: Bill Resnick talks with evolutionary biologist Mike Friedman who teaches and writes and has studied the COVID pandemic since it appeared. They discuss the recently discovered COVID variants – from South Africa, Brazil, England, and more, and the risks they create as our schools and economy reopen. They also discuss what must be done over the next years to protect society and all us humans from the existing COVID pandemic,  its variants, and new viruses sure to come that could well be more lethal.  Hint: We need a robust amply funded international public health system.   
• Life and Times of a Black Wobbly: Luisa Martinez interviews Peter Cole on the second edition of his book titled Ben Fletcher: Life and Times of a Black Wobbly. A gifted labor organizer, Fletcher helped found and lead Local 8 of the IWW's Marine Transport Workers Industrial Union, unquestionably the most powerful interracial union of its era, taking a principled stand against all forms of xenophobia and exclusion. Luisa and Peter discuss Fletcher’s interracial organizing, the repression he faced by the FBI, and what union organizers have to learn from his legacy. 
• Big Strikes and the Sabotage of Labor, Part 2: Joe Clement continues their conversation with Marianne Garneau, an organizer and educator with the Industrial Workers of the World, about the politics of direct action and organizing for power on the job.