Episodes
Wednesday Nov 28, 2012
Alternative Visions - Fiscal Cliff—Hold Onto Your Wallet Mr. Middle Class - 11/28/12
Wednesday Nov 28, 2012
Wednesday Nov 28, 2012
Dr. Jack Rasmus goes solo today and talks about the real fiscal cliff. What’s behind the negotiations in Washington today, Nov. 28, as Obama meets again with corporate CEOs. Why a Deal will happen this time and why the House Teapublicans will fall in line with an Obama-Corporate Deal. Why the deal will benefit corporate America at your cost in tax hikes and program cuts. What are the real causes of deficits and debt? And Jack’s 13 proposals how to tax the rich for the crisis they caused so we don’t have to pay a cent.
Wednesday Nov 21, 2012
Alternative Visions - What's Next for American Labor? - 11/21/12
Wednesday Nov 21, 2012
Wednesday Nov 21, 2012
With wages of US workers falling for more than a decade now, chronic long term problems of job creation in the US, attacks on public workers and unions intensifying, and union membership continuing to decline—‘What’s Next for American Labor” is the topic of today’s November 22, 2012 ‘Alternative Visions’ radio show. Dr. Jack Rasmus welcomes special guests—long time union officers and activists, Jerry Gordon (UFCW) and Dennis Serrette (CWA), to discuss what should be the future direction of American labor and unions after having spent $400 million to elect politicians in each of the last two national election cycles, 2008 and 2012, and thus far having little to show for it. Jerry Gordon is a long time activist in the antiwar, labor, and civil rights movements, and has been an International Representative for the United Food and Commercial Workers, UFCW, for 25 years. He is currently the national secretary of the recently formed Emergency Labor Network, ELN, a grass roots organization of union and community leaders and activists dedicated to moving American labor and unions in a more progressive direction. Dennis Serrete is a 49 year veteran of the US union movement, a former National Director, now retired, of the Communications Workers of America, CWA, a past president and vice president of CWA locals 2108 and 1101 in New York, a founder of the Coalition of Black Trade Unions, CBTU, in 1972 and also a member of the Emergency Labor Network, ELN, today.”
Wednesday Nov 14, 2012
Alternative Visions - Activists - 11/14/12
Wednesday Nov 14, 2012
Wednesday Nov 14, 2012
Dr. Jack Rasmus today introduces long time AFL-CIO union activists, Alan Benjamin and Donna Dewitt, to discuss the potential for independent labor political action in 2013 and beyond. Now that the November elections are over, voters will be surprised, Dr. Rasmus predicts, how harshly the new economic program called the ‘fiscal cliff’ will result in deep cuts in programs like Medicare, Social Security, Education and middle class tax hikes—while big corporations will be even more tax cuts and subsidies. Is this the time to begin independent political action, led by union and community activists? Is it the time to consider building a third party? Jack will discuss those questions with Benjamin and Dewitt. Donna Dewitt is the just recently retired, former president of the South Carolina state AFL-CIO federation of labor. Donna has been involved in South Carolina union and labor politics for 45 years. An activist in her union, the CWA local 3719, for thirty years, she then served as a member of the board of the South Carolina AFL-CIO, subsequently thereafter elected as the first woman to head the state’s AFL-CIO in 1996. Alan Benjamin is a member of the Executive Board of the San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO, a member and delegate from OPEIU Local 3. He’s a member of the National Steering Committee of US Labor Against the War, the International Coordinating Committee of the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples, and a past organizer for Labor Party Advocates and the Labor Party in the US, as well as editor of ‘The Organizer’ labor newspaper. Both Ms. Dewitt and Mr. Benjamin are members of the recently organized, ‘Emergency Labor Network’ of grass roots local union leaders in the U.S.