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Empathy Media Lab’s is a multi-brand podcast exploring labor, political economy, art, and culture. Producer and host Evan Papp seeks to build solidarity by universalizing the struggles of our human condition while outlining policy solutions that address the most intractable challenges of today. Union Solidarity Forever.
Episodes
Thursday Jun 16, 2022
Thursday Jun 16, 2022
Empathy Media Lab has partnered with the LRPN to capture the voices of the global trade union movement. On today’s show Patrick Dixon talks with WILL EMPOWER's Sherri Davis-Faulkner and Lane Windham about the AFL-CIO convention’s diversity, as well as how it has addressed many women's issues.
Longtime labor talk show host Rick Smith dropped by the Labor Radio Podcast Network studio yesterday and we prevailed on him to interview the president of the AFL-CIO's Metal Trades Department, who talked about change and his views on President Biden.
Next, Chris Garlock talks with Erica Stewart about her courageous struggle and triumph as a young Black woman in the Boilermakers union who was the first female African American international rep in the union's history.
Chris also talks with American Income Life's Susan Fuldauer about AIL's pro-labor policies and the history of the company's working class consciousness.
We wrap up today’s show with an audio postcard from Tuesday afternoon’s rally by hundreds of AFL-CIO convention delegates supporting the fight for a contract by the Philadelphia Museum of Art Union, led by AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler, Secretary Treasurer Fred Redmond and AFSCME president Lee Saunders.
#LaborRadioPod @AFLCIO #AFLCIOConv @PMA_Union @PHLafscmeDC47 #FairContractNow @philamuseum @LizShuler
Editing by Mel Smith, Patrick Dixon and Evan Papp; produced by Chris Garlock; social media guru Mr. Harold Phillips.
Saturday Jun 18, 2022
Saturday Jun 18, 2022
Patrick, Chris and Evan hit the road for Chicago and the Labor Notes conference. On the way, they share impressions of the just-concluded AFL-CIO convention and break some exciting news about next steps for the Labor Radio Podcast Network!
#LaborRadioPod @AFLCIO #AFLCIOConv @labornotes
Recording/editing by Evan Papp; produced by Chris Garlock; social media guru Mr. Harold Phillips.
Monday Jun 20, 2022
Monday Jun 20, 2022
There are over 4,000 folks at the 2022 Labor Notes conference in Chicago and the Labor Radio Podcast Network team talked to almost all of them today…Liz Medina, Will Westlake, Michael Brennan, Robert Ovetz, Jeff Eagan, Noah Strang, John Courtney, Jordan Fisher, Mitchell Jones, Howard Stewart, Sam Sprole, Lynn Fields, Lakeisha Lloyd, Dan Kask and Bobby Lynn Negron. OK, maybe not all 4,000, but a terrific cross-section of the activists and self-proclaimed “troublemakers” gathered here in Chicago. The music you’ll hear is from the Great Labor Arts Exchange.
Empathy Media Lab has partnered with the LRPN to capture the voices of the global trade union movement from the AFL-CIO Convention in Philadelphia to the Labor Notes conference in Chicago.
Follow the Labor Radio Podcast Network (https://www.laborradionetwork.org/) and listen to the podcast (https://laborradiopodcastweekly.podbean.com/).
#LaborRadioPod #Chicago @LaborNotes #LaborNotes2022 #LaborNotes #canlab #1u
Editing by Patrick Dixon and Evan Papp; produced by Chris Garlock; social media guru Mr. Harold Phillips and Mel Smith.
Tuesday Jun 21, 2022
Tuesday Jun 21, 2022
“When you come to the fight with organized labor, if you are corporate America, and you want to take us on, or you are a crooked corruptible politician, put your helmets on, buckle your chin strap. It's a full contact sport!”
Teamster President Sean O’Brien
Friday night’s all-star program at the 2022 Labor Notes conference in Chicago featured Chris Smalls from the Amazon Labor Union, Bernie Sanders and Teamsters president Sean O’Brien, who fired up an already-fired-up crowd. We’ve got highlights from the program on today’s show, including music from Dilson Hernandez, along with more voices from the folks who stopped by the Labor Radio Podcast Network booth here at the conference: Carmen Velasquez, Naomi Martinez, Arsal Asif, Anecia Ventura, Eris Derrickson, Jackie Serrato, Martin Unzueta, Jose Carlos, Janette Corcelius, Robert Hughes, Michael Harrington, Jamie Simpson, Zach Young, Jessica Buttermore, Jessica Thornton, Nate Wendt, Nicole McCormick, Joe Jencks, Ben Grosscup and Maggie Hansford.
NOTE: Here's a video of the complete Friday night Labor Notes program.
Empathy Media Lab partnered with the LRPN to capture the voices of the global trade union movement from the AFL-CIO Convention in Philadelphia to the Labor Notes conference in Chicago.
Follow the Labor Radio Podcast Network (https://www.laborradionetwork.org/) and listen to the podcast (https://laborradiopodcastweekly.podbean.com/).
Editing by Patrick Dixon and Evan Papp; produced by Chris Garlock; social media guru Mr. Harold Phillips and Mel Smith.
#LaborRadioPod #Chicago @LaborNotes #LaborNotes2022 #LaborNotes #canlab #1u @amazonlabor @SBWorkersUnited @Shut_downAmazon #Troublemakers #LosDeliveristasUnidos #starbucksunion @Teamsters
Wednesday Jun 22, 2022
Wednesday Jun 22, 2022
“If you're thinking about trying to start a podcast or a radio show, don't think about doing it all yourself, This is a collective thing.”
Judy Ancel - Heartland Labor Forum
The Labor On The Airwaves panel attracted an overflow audience at this year's Labor Notes conference. A show of hands revealed that about a third of those in attendance already had shows while another third was interested in finding out how to start their own shows, many of whom stopped by the Network's booth after the panel. Working People's Maximillian Alvarez hosted a panel that included BeLabored hosts Sarah Jaffe and Michelle Chen, Heartland Labor Forum's Judy Ancel (thanks for the Network shoutout!) and Jamie Partridge from Labor Radio on KBOO FM. Here are highlights from their discussion.
photo (l-r): Jamie, Max, Judy, Sarah and Michelle.
Produced/edited by Chris Garlock; social media guru Mr. Harold Phillips and Mel Smith, audio gram edited by Evan Papp.
Empathy Media Lab partnered with the LRPN to capture the voices of the global trade union movement from the AFL-CIO Convention in Philadelphia to the Labor Notes conference in Chicago.
Follow the Labor Radio Podcast Network (https://www.laborradionetwork.org/) and listen to the podcast (https://laborradiopodcastweekly.podbean.com/). NOTE: For those interested in joining the Labor Radio Podcast Network (or finding out more about us), please contact us here.
#LaborRadioPod #Chicago @LaborNotes #LaborNotes2022 #LaborNotes #canlab #1u @amazonlabor @SBWorkersUnited @Shut_downAmazon #Troublemakers #LosDeliveristasUnidos #starbucksunion @Teamsters @DissentMag @WorkingPod @Heartland_Labor @kboo
Friday Jun 24, 2022
Friday Jun 24, 2022
This is Elise Bryant, president of the coalition of labor union women.
The coalition of labor union women was founded in 1974, the year after Roe V. Wade confirmed a woman's constitutional right to an abortion. The CLUW founding mothers believe in a woman's right to a safe termination of her pregnancy. And we still believe everyone has that right.
The U.S. Supreme court today overturned Roe V. Wade and Planned Parenthood versus Casey and declared that the U.S. constitution no longer protects the right to abortion. This decision marks the end of a constitutional right to abortion for people across the country.
And now today, the court sets the stage for increased criminalization and policing of people for basic healthcare decisions.
We have to use our power to fix this.
It won't be quick or easy, but those of us, the majority in this country who support freedoms to control our body’s lives and futures will succeed in reversing this.
We will march. We will protest. And most importantly, we will vote.
We will mobilize millions of women across the country to exercise their right to vote out any elected official who stands in the way of our freedom to choose what happens in our bodies.
There was an old saying that goes, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
We say, hell hath no fury like pro-choice women at the ballot box.
Get ready because we are coming for every anti-choice candidate and we will vote you out. So consider yourself warned.
No justice, no peace, no justice, no peace.
Learn more at http://www.cluw.org/.
Saturday Jun 25, 2022
Saturday Jun 25, 2022
“At Amazon, the CEO got $213 million last year, and that was 6,474 times as much as median worker pay at the company, which was about $32,800.”
Sarah Anderson Director of the Global Economy Project at IPS and Co-Editor of Inequality.org
Executive Excess 2022
The CEOs at America’s largest low-wage employers are grabbing huge raises while workers and consumers struggle with rising costs.
Sarah Anderson and her co-authors at the Institute for Policy Studies found that more than half of our nation’s 100 largest low-wage employers changed their own rules to ensure huge payouts for CEOs in 2020 — while workers lost wages, jobs, and even their lives. On average, the CEOs at these rule-rigging firms pocketed 29 percent raises while their median worker pay fell by 2 percent. Learn more at: https://ips-dc.org/report-executive-excess-2022
About Sarah Anderson
Sarah Anderson directs the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies and is a co-editor of the IPS web site Inequality.org. Sarah’s research covers a wide range of international and domestic economic issues, including inequality, Wall Street reform, CEO pay, taxes, labor, and international trade and investment. Sarah is a well-known expert on executive compensation, as the lead author of more than 20 annual “Executive Excess” reports that have received extensive media coverage.
During the Obama administration, she served on the Investment Subcommittee of the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy (ACIEP). In 2009, this subcommittee carried out a review of the U.S. model bilateral investment treaty. In 2000, she served on the staff of the bipartisan International Financial Institutions Advisory Commission (“Meltzer Commission”), commissioned by the U.S. Congress to evaluate the World Bank and IMF. Sarah is a co-author of the books Field Guide to the Global Economy (New Press, 2nd edition, 2005) and Alternatives to Economic Globalization (Berrett-Koehler, 2nd edition, 2004).
Prior to coming to IPS in 1992, Sarah was a consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development and an editor for the Deutsche Presse-Agentur. She holds a Masters in International Affairs from The American University and a BA in Journalism from Northwestern University.
Overview on Executive Excess Reports
Over two decades, Institute for Policy Studies researchers have examined how extremely high levels of compensation affect executive behavior. Such massive jackpots, we’ve found, give executives incentives to behave in ways that may boost short-term profits and expand their own paychecks at the expense of our nation’s long-term economic health. Tax dodging, mass layoffs, reckless financial deals, offshoring jobs, “creative accounting” — all of these appear to boost CEO pay. But they have dealt one body blow after another to the American middle class, leaving a deeply skewed distribution of income and wealth. See past reports at: https://ips-dc.org/global-economy/executive-excess/
About The Political Economy Project
The Political Economy Project is creating a blueprint that will unify our fellow humans to work together and create a new renaissance and a harmony of interests of the human spirit.
The Political Economy Project is an EMLab brand produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, artists, historians, and journalists, who are fighting to improve the prosperity of the working class.
Follow our work on Substack at: https://politicaleconomyproject.substack.com/.
Sunday Jun 26, 2022
Sunday Jun 26, 2022
WHY LOVE?
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.
----------
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
empathymedialab.com/beliefstreet
Monday Jun 27, 2022
Monday Jun 27, 2022
“There's a lot of solidarity, a lot of love and in both Philadelphia and Chicago, and it's been a great road trip with the Labor Radio Podcast Network.”
Empathy Media Lab partnered with the LRPN to capture the voices of the global trade union movement from the AFL-CIO Convention in Philadelphia to the Labor Notes conference in Chicago.
Evan Papp, Chris Garlock, and Patrick Dixon reflect on these conferences on their drive back to Washington, D.C.
Follow the Labor Radio Podcast Network (https://www.laborradionetwork.org/) and listen to the podcast (https://laborradiopodcastweekly.podbean.com/).
#LaborRadioPod #Chicago @LaborNotes #LaborNotes2022 #LaborNotes #1U
Tuesday Jun 28, 2022
Tuesday Jun 28, 2022
“I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.”
The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes was first published n the June 1921 issue of The Crisis, the magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The poem is found in The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Copyright © 1994 the Estate of Langston Hughes.
Poem: The Negro Speaks of Rivers
I’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient
as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
I’ve known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
About The Artist Spotlight Series
The Artist Spotlight Series explores art, artists, and the ideas behind the art illuminating and shaping our world.
The Artist Spotlight Series is an EMLab brand produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, artists, historians, and journalists, who are fighting to improve the prosperity of the working class.
Follow our work at https://www.empathymedialab.com/artistspotlight.
#ArtistSpotlight
Wednesday Jun 29, 2022
Wednesday Jun 29, 2022
“Sometimes I'll be feeling all alone…like, am I the only person that believes it? But I believe in it enough to know that where there's a will, there's a way.”
Chisenga - Hip Hop Artist Extraordinaire
Chisenga is a Grammy-recognised Hip-Hop artist born in Zambia and now based in Perth, Australia. His latest album is Rhythm and Poetry
Born in Lusaka, Zambia, his interest in performing began at the early age of 10. With time spent at home with his mother listening to country music and later, his step-dad grooving to classic soul music, he developed an appreciation and understanding for music that would later inspire the sound he would craft in years to come.
From the time he was recognised for releasing the first locally produced Hip-Hop album in his birth country Zambia, Officer in Charge was and still stands as one of the most successful Hip-Hop albums from that country. He was further introduced to Africa and the rest of the world through MTV Base and Channel-O, the two major African music channels that broadcast across Africa.
His song The Fire Inside once took a No. 1 spot across Africa on both MTV Base and Channel-O charts, which earned him a Channel-O Video Music Award for Best Music Video, Southern Africa.
Music Featured during Interview:
- Play On - By Crisis Mr. Swagger (aka Chisenga)
- PK Chishala - Na Musonda
- CHISENGA - Energy (Official Music Video) ft. Kuda Mic and Qzee
- Album Rhythm and Poetry
You can follow Chisenga’s work at:
About EMLab’s Artist Works
Artist Works is an EMLab brand that explores the labor, concepts, and inspiration behind the artists illuminating and shaping our world.
EMLab is produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, artists, historians, and journalists, and laborers who are fighting for a brighter day for everyone, everywhere. Union solidarity forever.
All Links: https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab
Thursday Jun 30, 2022
Thursday Jun 30, 2022
I heard this song over a decade ago on some b-side of a forgotten bootleg. The melancholy soul expressed in the singing and lyrics will forever resonate and I can’t help but sing along.
Since I couldn’t find this song to stream or find the lyrics to sing after many searches, I decided to make a video with lyrics to pay homage to this beautiful soul blues folk tune.
This was the last known recording of the artist in 1973–No Time. Rest in peace Ronald Charles McKernan, September 8, 1945 – March 8, 1973, Founding member of the Grateful Dead.
Video: https://youtu.be/E7Sq-dnFP6o
About EMLab’s Artist Works
Artist Works is an EMLab brand that explores the labor, concepts, and inspiration behind the artists illuminating and shaping our world.
EMLab is produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, artists, historians, and journalists, and laborers who are fighting for a brighter day for everyone, everywhere. Union solidarity forever.
All Links: https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab
#ArtistWorks
#EMLab
#EMLStudio
Wednesday Jul 06, 2022
Wednesday Jul 06, 2022
“In my legislative district, between the Northern tip of [Maryland] to the Southern tip, I represent 135,000 people…there's a 20 year life expectancy gap, 20 years. 20 minutes apart. It's insane.”
Jazz Lewis is running for re-election for District 24 Maryland House of Delegates representing parts of Prince George’s County. The Maryland primary election is on July 19, 2022. Jazz began his career as a community and labor organizer in Baltimore. Through organizing, he learned the power of collective action. Jazz Lewis represents Maryland's 24th district and currently serves on the House Appropriations Committee and is the chair of the Maryland House Democratic Caucus.
To learn more about his campaign visit www.jazzlewis.com.
About Maryland Subsidiarity
Maryland Subsidiarity discusses local and state ideas that will improve our communities and shape our world. Subsidiarity is the principle that the smaller social or political entity or institution ought to be given priority to make decisions on issues that affect them, rather than leaving those decisions to be made by the whole group. In other words, whenever possible, the individual should come before the community, the community before the state, the state before the federation, and so on. In this context, the responsibility of the bigger institution is to enable the smaller one to perform its tasks and to provide it with any necessary support.
About Empathy Media Lab
Empathy Media Lab is a multi-brand publishing house led by Evan Matthew Papp. We are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support politicians, media, authors, artists, historians, and journalists who are fighting to improve the prosperity of the working class.
All Links: https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab
#MarylandSubsidiarity
Thursday Jul 07, 2022
Thursday Jul 07, 2022
“Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back..”
Poem’s Meaning according to Ben Kageyama:
“Robert Frost spent some time in Great Britain during the early 20th century. In his time there, he made friends with a fellow poet named Edward Thomas. For inspiration and leisure, the duo would often go for walks around the English countryside.
“Thomas had an odd habit of regretting whichever path he took during his strolls with Frost. He’d often state that if they had gone another way, then Frost would’ve been able to see some other interesting part of England.
“Frost found this amusing because any path they decided on would certainly have the same result. Any choice would have to give up one for the other. Fussing over this inevitability, at least for Frost, was silly.
“When Frost went back to America around the beginning of World War I, he wrote an early version of “The Road Not Taken” as a way to make fun of his frantic friend.
“Frost wrote the poem to demonstrate the folly of regretting what could have been. A closer reading of the text in its entirety shows that the persona actually thinks both roads weren’t so different from each other.”
Read Ben’s full essay here.
#ArtistSpotlight
Poem: The Road Not Taken
BY ROBERT FROST
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Saturday Jul 09, 2022
Saturday Jul 09, 2022
Rarely seen footage of Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking to students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia on October 26, 1967, where he delivered his speech "What Is Your Life's Blueprint?" Full speech - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmtOGXreTOU
MLK’s Edited Speech
What is in your life's blueprint?
And I want to suggest number one in your life's blueprint should be a deep belief in your own dignity, your own worth, and your somebodiness. Don't allow anybody to make you feel that you are nobody.
Always feel that you count, always feel that you have worth and always feel that your life has ultimate significance.
In your life's blueprint, you must have as a basic principle, the determination to achieve excellence in your various fields of endeavor, What you will do in life, what your life's work will be.
And when you discover what you are going to be in life, set out to do it as if God almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it.
Finally, in your last blueprint must be a commitment to the eternal principles. Of beauty, love and justice.
Don't allow anybody to pull you so low as to make you hate them.
Don't allow anybody to cause you to lose your self respect to the point, that you do not struggle for justice.
However young you are, you have a responsibility to seek to make your nation a better nation in which to live.
You have a responsibility to seek to make life better for everybody. And so you must be involved in the struggle for freedom and justice.
Now in this struggle for freedom and justice, there are many constructive things that we all can do and that we all must do. And we must not give ourselves to those things, which will not solve our problems.
I believe that we can transform dark yesterday's of injustice into bright tomorrows of justice and humanity.
Let us keep going toward the goal of selfhood, toward the realization of the dream of brotherhood and toward the realization of the dream of understanding goodwill, let nobody stop us.
We must keep moving. We must keep going.
If you can't fly, run, if you can't run, walk, if you can't walk, crawl, but by all means, keep moving.
#MLK
#BeliefStreet
Monday Jul 11, 2022
Monday Jul 11, 2022
“People die when you can't get the grid operating.”
Meredith Angwin, Author, Shorting the Grid
Shorting the Grid, The Hidden Fragility of Our Electric Grid is an exposé of the insider-ruled practices of the “deregulated” areas of the United States electric grid. The grid in these areas is managed by a regional transmission organization (RTO). Within these organizations, no group is responsible or accountable for grid reliability. The RTO areas have higher retail electricity prices, no way for ordinary citizens to influence decisions, and a more fragile grid. Using the rules and history of the New England grid as an example, the book shows how RTO areas are moving steadily to a future of “rolling blackouts” where the grid operator deliberately cuts power to one section of the grid after another. To by the book, visit www.meredithangwin.com
Book Reviews
“An eye-opening exposé of our grid’s vulnerabilities. The “deregulated” grid is highly political, secretive, overly complex, and unable to meet public needs like reliability, affordability, and low pollution. If you take for granted that the lights go on when you flip a switch, this book may blow your mind. ”
— Joshua S. Goldstein, author of A Bright Future: How Some Countries Have Solved Climate Change and the Rest Can Follow
“Reading Angwin’s book is like chatting with an expert who helps you understand the underlying engineering, finances, and policies creating the risks. Her narrative moves back and forth between insightful overviews and specific examples. The book covers many grid attributes, suggesting realistic conclusions without ideological advocacy.”
— Dr. Robert Hargraves, Author of Thorium, Energy Cheaper than Coal and co-founder of ThorCon Power
About Meredith Angwin
As a working chemist, Meredith Angwin headed projects that lowered pollution and increased reliability on the electric grid. Her work included pollution control for nitrogen oxides in gas-fired combustion turbines and corrosion control in geothermal and nuclear systems. She was one of the first women to be a project manager at the Electric Power Research Institute where she led projects in renewable and nuclear energy.
In the past ten years, she began to study and take part in grid oversight and governance. For four years, she served on the Coordinating Committee for the Consumer Liaison Group associated with ISO-NE, her local grid operator. She teaches courses and presents workshops on the electric grid.
She is also an advocate for nuclear energy. Her previous major book was Campaigning for Clean Air: Strategies for Pro-Nuclear Advocacy. Meredith has been a featured speaker at several nuclear events, including being keynote for the worldwide Nuclear Science Week in 2018.
Additional Information
During the interview, the following platforms were mentioned that will help better inform the public. Sign up for free information to increase your awareness about energy, power, and the grid.
- Grid Brief - www.gridbrief.com
- Utility Dive - www.utilitydive.com
- DeCouple Media - www.decouplemedia.org
About The Political Economy Project
The Political Economy Project is creating a blueprint that will unify our fellow humans to work together and create a new renaissance and a harmony of interests of the human spirit.
The Political Economy Project is an EMLab brand produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, artists, historians, and journalists, who are fighting to improve the prosperity of the working class.
Follow our work on Substack at: https://politicaleconomyproject.substack.com/.
#powergrid #power #electricalengineering #engineering #energy #electricity #powerlines #renewableenergy #electrical #substation #nuclear #solarenergy #powerdistribution #smartgrid #powerplant #cleanenergy #powergridcorporationofindia #india #powersystems #gogreen #gosolar #simplygosolar #ee #electricgrid #electric #infrastructure #microgrid #transmissionlines #gate #sunset #greenenergy
Tuesday Jul 12, 2022
Tuesday Jul 12, 2022
March 13, 1962
Mr. Vice President, Ambassadors from our sister Republics, members of the OAS, the nine wise men upon whom so much depends, Members of the Congress, whom I am very glad to see here today--on whom we depend so much in guiding and supporting and stimulating and directing our policies in this Hemisphere--Ambassador Moscoso, the Coordinator of the Alliance for Progress, gentlemen:
One year ago, on a similar occasion, I proposed the Alliance for Progress. That was the conception, but the birth did not take place until some months later, at Punta del Este. That was a suggestion for a continent-wide cooperative effort to satisfy the basic needs of the American people for homes, work, land, health and schools, for political liberty and the dignity of the spirit.
Our mission, I said, was "to complete the revolution of the Americas--to build a Hemisphere where all men can hope for a suitable standard of living--and all can live out their lives in dignity and freedom."
I then requested a meeting of the Inter-American Economic and Social Council to consider the proposal. And, seven months ago, at Punta del Este, that Council met and adopted the Charter which established the Alianza para el Progreso and declared, and I quote, "We, the American Republics, hereby proclaim our decision to unite in a common effort to bring our people accelerated economic progress and broader social justice within the framework of personal dignity and individual liberty."
Together, the free nations of the Hemisphere pledged their resources and their energies to the Alliance for Progress. Together they pledged to accelerate economic and social development and to make the basic reforms that are necessary to ensure that all would participate in the fruits of this development. Together they pledged to modernize tax structures and land tenure-to wipe out illiteracy and ignorance-to promote health and provide decent housing-to solve the problems of commodity stabilization--to maintain sound fiscal and monetary policies--to secure the contributions of private enterprise to development-to speed the economic integration of Latin America. And together they established the basic institutional framework for this immense, decade-long development.
This historic Charter marks a new step forward in the history of our Hemisphere. It is a reaffirmation of the continued vitality of our Inter-American system, a renewed proof of our ability to meet the challenges and perils of our time, as our predecessors met these challenges in their own days.
In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century we struggled to provide political independence in this Hemisphere.
In the early twentieth century we worked to bring about a fundamental equality between all the nations of this Hemisphere one with another--to strengthen the machinery of regional cooperation within a framework of mutual respect, and under the leadership of Franklin Roosevelt and the Good Neighbor Policy that goal was achieved a generation ago.
Today we seek to move beyond the accomplishments of the past--to establish the principle that all the people of this Hemisphere are entitled to a decent way of life-- and to transform that principle into the reality of economic advance and social justice on which political equality must be based.
This is the most demanding goal of all. For we seek not merely the welfare and equality of nations one with another--but the welfare and the equality of the people within our nations. In so doing we are fulfilling the most ancient dreams of the founders of this Hemisphere, Washington, Jefferson, Bolivar, Marti, San Martin, and all the rest.
And I believe that the first seven months of this Alliance have strengthened our confidence that this goal is within our grasp.
Perhaps our most impressive accomplishment in working together has been the dramatic shift in the thinking and the attitudes which has occurred in our Hemisphere in these seven months. The Charter of Punta del Este posed the challenge of development in a manner that could not be ignored. It redefined the historic relationships between the American nations in terms of the fundamental needs and hopes of the twentieth century. It set forth the conditions and the attitudes on which development depends. It initiated the process of education without which development is impossible. It laid down a new principle of our relationship--the principle of collective responsibility for the welfare of the people of the Americas.
Already elections are being fought in terms of the Alliance for Progress. Already governments are pledging themselves to carry out the Charter of Punta del Este. Already people throughout the Hemisphere--in schools and in trade unions, in chambers of commerce, in military establishments, in government, on the farms-have accepted the goals of the Charter as their own personal and political commitments.
For the first time in the history of Inter-American relations our energies are concentrated on the central task of democratic development.
This dramatic change in thought is essential to the realization of our goals. For only by placing the task of development in the arena of daily thought and action among all the people can we hope to summon up the will and the courage which that task demands. This first accomplishment, therefore, is essential to all the others.
Our second achievement has been the establishment of the institutional framework within which our decade of development will take place. We honor here today the OAS Panel of Experts--a new adventure in Inter-American cooperation--drawn from all parts of the continent--charged with the high responsibility--almost unprecedented in any international cooperative effort--of evaluating long-range development plans, reviewing the progress of these plans, and helping to obtain the financing necessary to carry them out. This group has already begun its work. And here, today, I reaffirm our government's commitment to look to this Panel for advice and guidance in the conduct of our joint effort.
In addition, the OAS, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Inter-American Bank have offered planning assistance to Latin American nations--the OAS has begun a series of studies in critical development fields--and a new ECLA Planning Institute is being established to train the young men who will lead the future development of their countries. And we have completely reorganized in our own country our assistance program, with central responsibility now placed in the hands of a single coordinator.
Thus, within seven months, we have built the essential structure of the institutions, thought and policy on which our long-term effort will rest. But we have not waited for this structure to be completed in order to begin our work.
Last year I said that the United States would commit one billion dollars to the first year of that Alliance. That pledge has now been fulfilled. The Alliance for Progress has already meant better food for the children of Puno in Peru, new schools for people in Colombia, new homes for campesinos in Venezuela--which I saw myself during my recent visit. And in the year to come millions more will take new hope from the Alliance for Progress as it touches their daily life--as it must.
In the vital field of commodity stabilization I pledged the efforts of this country to try to work with you to end the frequent, violent price changes which damage the economies of so many Latin American countries. Immediately after that pledge was made, we began work on the task of formulating stabilization agreements. In December 1961 a new coffee agreement, drafted by a committee under a United States chairman, was completed. Today that agreement is in process of negotiation. I can think of no single measure which can make a greater contribution to the cause of development than effective stabilization of the price of coffee. In addition the United States has participated in the drafting of a cocoa agreement; and we have held discussion about the terms of possible accession to the tin agreement.
We have also been working with our. European allies--and I regard this as most important--in a determined effort to ensure that Latin American products will have equal access to the Common Market. Much of the economic future of this Hemisphere depends upon ready availability of the markets of the Atlantic Community, and we will continue these efforts to keep these markets open in the months ahead.
The countries of Latin America have also been working to fulfill the commitments of the Charter. The report of the Inter-American Bank contains an impressive list of measures being taken in each of the eighteen countries--measures ranging from the mobilization of domestic resources to new education and housing programs--measures within the context of the Act of Bogota, passed under the administration of my predecessor, President Eisenhower, and the Alliance for Progress Charter.
Nearly all the governments of the Hemisphere have begun to organize national development programs--and in some cases completed plans have been presented for review. Tax and land reform laws are on the books, and the national legislature of nearly every country is considering new measures in these critical fields. New programs of development, of housing, of agriculture and power are underway.
These are all heartening accomplishments-the fruits of the first seven months of work in a program which is designed to span a decade. But all who know the magnitude and urgency of the problems realize that we have just begun--that we must act much more rapidly and on a much larger scale if we are to meet our development goals in the months and years to come.
I pledge this country's effort to such an intensified effort. And I am confident that having emerged from the shaping period of our Alliance, all the nations of this Hemisphere will accelerate their own work.
For we all know that no matter what contribution the United States may make, the ultimate responsibility for success lies within the developing nation itself. For only you can mobilize the resources, make the reforms, set the goals and provide the energies which will transform our external assistance into an effective contribution to the progress of our continent. Only you can create the economic confidence which will encourage the free flow of capital, both domestic and foreign--the capital which, under conditions of responsible investment and together with public funds, will produce permanent economic advance. Only you can eliminate the evils of destructive inflation, chronic trade imbalances and widespread unemployment. Without determined efforts on your part to establish these conditions for reform and development, no amount of outside help can do the job.
I know the difficulties of such a task. It is unprecedented. Our own history shows how fierce the resistance can be to changes which later generations regard as part of the normal framework of life. And the course of rational social change is even more hazardous for those progressive governments who often face entrenched privilege of the right and subversive conspiracies on the left.
For too long my country, the wealthiest nation in a continent which is not wealthy, failed to carry out its full responsibilities to its sister Republics. We have now accepted that responsibility. In the same way those who possess wealth and power in poor nations must accept their own responsibilities. They must lead the fight for those basic reforms which alone can preserve the fabric of their societies. Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
These social reforms are at the heart of the Alliance for Progress. They are the precondition to economic modernization. And they are the instrument by which we assure the poor and hungry--the worker and the campesino--his full participation in the benefits of our development and in the human dignity which is the purpose of all free societies. At the same time we sympathize with the difficulties of remaking deeply rooted and traditional social structures. We ask that substantial and steady progress toward reform accompany the effort to develop the economies of the American nations.
A year ago I also expressed our special friendship to the people of Cuba and the Dominican Republic and the hope that they would soon rejoin the society of free men, uniting with us in this common effort. Today I am glad to welcome among us the representatives of a free Dominican Republic; and to reaffirm the hope that, in the not too distant future, our society of free nations will once again be complete.
But we must not forget that our Alliance for Progress is more than a doctrine of development--a blueprint of economic advance. Rather it is an expression of the noblest goals of our society. It says that want and despair need not be the lot of free men. And those who may occasionally get discouraged with the magnitude of the task, have only to look to Europe fifteen years ago, and today, and realize the great potential which is in every free society when the people join and work together. It says in our Hemisphere that no society is free until all its people have an equal opportunity to share the fruits of their own land and their own labor. And it says that material progress is meaningless without individual freedom and political liberty. It is a doctrine of the freedom of man in the most spacious sense of that freedom.
Nearly a century ago Jose Hernandez, the Argentine poet, wrote, "America has a great destiny to achieve in the fate of mankind ... One day . . . the American Alliance will undoubtedly be achieved, and the American Alliance will bring world peace... America must be the cradle of the great principles which are to bring a complete change in the political and social organization of other nations."
We have made a good start on our journey; but we have still a long way to go. The conquest of poverty is as difficult if not more difficult than the conquest of outer space. And we can expect moments of frustration and disappointment in the months and years to come. But we have no doubt about the outcome. For all history shows that the effort to win progress within freedom represents the most determined and steadfast aspiration of man.
We are joined together in this Alliance as nations united by a common history and common values. And I look forward--as do all the people of this country--to the day when the people of Latin America will take their rightful place beside the United States and Western Europe as citizens of industrialized and growing and increasingly abundant societies. The United States-Europe--and Latin America--almost a billion people--a bulwark of freedom and the values of Western civilization--invulnerable to the forces of despotism--lighting the path to liberty for all the peoples of the world. This is our vision--and, with faith and courage, we will realize that vision in our own time.
Thank you.
—--
Note: The President spoke in the State Dining Room at the White House at a reception for the diplomatic corps of the Latin American Republics. In his opening remarks he referred to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson; to the "nine wise men" (the original members of the Committee of Nine of the Alliance for Progress): Hernando Agudelo Villa, Colombia, Ernesto Malaccorto, Argentina, Manuel Noriega Morales, Guatemala, Phillipe Pasos, Cuba, Harvey Perloft, United States, Paul Rosenstein-Rodan, United Kingdom, Paul Saez, Chile, Ary Torres, Brazil, Gonzalo Robles, Mexico; and to Ambassador Teodoro Moscoso, Coordinator of the Alliance for Progress.
John F. Kennedy, Address on the first Anniversary of the Alliance for Progress. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/236988
JFK Archives (link)
Copyright Notice:
Documents in this collection that were prepared by officials of the United States as part of their official duties are in the public domain.
Tuesday Jul 12, 2022
Tuesday Jul 12, 2022
For too long, my country, the wealthiest nation, failed to carry out its full responsibilities to its sister republics.
Those who possess wealth and power must accept their own responsibilities.
They must lead the fight for those basic reforms, which alone can preserve the fabric of their societies.
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
President John F. Kennedy at the First Anniversary of the Alliance for Progress - March 13, 1962
Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/Warner Bros
Full speech: https://EmpathyMediaLab.podbean.com/e/jfk-alliance-for-progress-first-anniversary-speech-march-13-1962/
Wednesday Jul 13, 2022
Wednesday Jul 13, 2022
“I born 13 children and seen almost all sold off into slavery.”
Addie L. Wyatt (March 8, 1924 – March 28, 2012) was a leader in the United States Labor movement, and a civil rights activist. Wyatt is known for being the first African-American woman elected international vice president of a major labor union, the Amalgamated Meat Cutters Union. Learn more about Addie here.
This speech was given at Harvard’s Divinity School on November 2, 2002. Watch the full speech here.
Sojourner Truth (1797 – November 26, 1883) was an American abolitionist and women's rights activist. Learn more about Sojourner here.
Excerpt of Speech Text:
Look at my arms.
I have plowed.
I have planted and I have gathered into barn and no man could head me.
And ain't I a woman?
I could work as much and eat as much as any man, when I get it.
And bear the lash as well, and ain't I a woman?
I born 13 children and seen almost all sold off into slavery.
And when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me.
And ain't I a woman?
I want to dedicate that famous, powerful poem from that great woman preacher Sojourner Truth.
God knows she has inspired my little life and have given me much courage in the time of distress, in the time, often, of great pain.
When I expect so much to happen, but I have to say to myself, ain't I a woman?
About Belief Street Faith and Labor
Belief Street Faith and Labor is an EMLab brand produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, artists, historians, and journalists, who are fighting to improve the prosperity of the working class.
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Monday Jul 18, 2022
Monday Jul 18, 2022
“In spite of all of the horrible things that are happening in the world today, I think that on the labor front, both in the United States and Mexico, these are really exciting times.”
Robin Alexander, Retired UE Director of International Affairs
This new e-book by retired UE Director of International Affairs Robin Alexander tells the story of the partnership between the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) and the Mexican Frente Auténtico del Trabajo (FAT), a story that is a testimony to the power of rank-and-file solidarity.
Download the book at: https://www.internationalsolidarityinaction.org/
About the Labor Solidarity Podcast
The Labor Solidarity Podcast highlights the work of labor leaders while discussing historic struggles and the importance of organizing with the goal of building international labor solidarity. Learn more at: https://www.empathymedialab.com/laborsolidarity
The Labor Solidarity Podcast is an Empathy Media Lab production and we are a proud member of The Labor Radio Podcast Network. All links: https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab
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