Prison windows. Image via Flickr (cc) user weirdo513.

From illiterate street kid, to world renowned poet, Jimmy Santiago Baca has lived a long and winding path.  It was in prison that Baca connected with his Native American and Chicano heritage, and began learning the lessons of his people’s past. On this edition, Progressive Magazine editor Matthew Rothschild sits down with Jimmy Santiago Baca.

Special thanks to the Progressive Magazine.

Featuring:

Jimmy Santiago Baca, poet and educator; Matthew Rothschild, Progressive Magazine Editor.

For More Information:

Jimmy Santiago Baca
A Place to Stand
Progressive Radio Show
Safe Streets Arts Foundation
Red Lodge Transition Services
Friends of Red Lodge
American Indian Prison Pen Pals
Prison Education.com
The Progressive Magazine

Articles, Blogs, Reports and Videos:

Jimmy Santiago Baca Reads Selections from his Work Before an Audience at La Jolla’s  Sherwood Auditorium
Healing Earthquakes by Jimmy Santiago Baca
19 poems by Jimmy Santiago Baca

Music:

“Spirits Abandoned” by Dark Noontide

Woman at a protest in Union Square, San Francisco. Credit: romainguy/ Flickr

A new generation is telling their stories of overthrowing corrupt regimes.  And in the digital age, their lessons can spread more quickly than ever before.  But how does one organize a nation into revolt?  The answers may not be universal, but there’s lots of wisdom to be passed on. On this edition, revolutions past, present and future.  We’ll hear from Egyptian, Serbian, and Azerbaijani activists, about their work to topple undemocratic rulers.

Featuring:

Namees Arnous, Egyptian journalist; Ivan Marovic, co-founder of OTPOR; Arzu Geybullayeva, Azerbaijani blogger & organizer.

***WEB EXCLUSIVES***

Full-length Interview with Arzu Geybullayeva

Full-audio with the Azerbaijani blogger and organizer, conducted in May 2011.

Egyptian Journalists and the 2011 Egyptian Revolution

Full speech by Egyptian journalist Namees Arnous, about her participation in the 2011 Egyptian Revolution.  Recorded at the Narco News School of Authentic Journalism in May 2011

For More Information:

Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines
Narco News
International Center on Non-Violent Conflict
A Force More Powerful
Journal of Conflict Transformation
Cyber Dissidents
Open Democracy
People Power: The Game of Civil Resistance
Movement.org

Articles, Blogs, Reports and Videos:

Who Really Brought Down Milosevic?
Tahrir Square as it Happened
Barrel of Laughs: A Dilemma Action explained

Music:

‘Habibi Min Zaman’ – Balkan Beat Box

Young organizers leading chants during the UN Climate Negotiations in Cancun, Mexico. Credit: Orin Langelle/GJEP-GFC

From Kyoto to Copenhagen to Cancun, the United Nation’s climate negotiations have become increasingly ineffective. Despite increasing awareness about the perils of climate change, those in power don’t seem willing to budge.

On this edition, we’ll hear voices from the streets of Cancun and look at where the world might turn for answers.

Featuring:

Ananda Lee Tan, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives U.S. and Canada coordinator; Jasmine Thomas, Carrier Nation member; Jaime Henn, 350.org communications director; Michelle Chan, Friends of the Earth Economic Project Policy Director; Daniel T’seleie. K’asho Got’ine First Nation member; Melina Laboucan Massimo, Laboucan Cree First nation member; Nicola Bullard, Focus on the Global South Deputy Director; Pablo Solon, Bolivian Ambassador to the UN; Robert Zoelick, World Bank President; Nnimmo Bassey, Environmental Rights Action Executive Director; Kari Fulton, Youth for Climate Justice activist.

Contributing Producers: Andalusia Knoll and Jeff Conant

—-WEB EXCLUSIVES—-

From a panel discussion on Reigniting The Climate Justice Movement at the Brower Center in Berkeley California, January 18, 2011.

Michelle Chan, Friends of the Earth Economic Project Policy Director, on the UN Climate negotiations.  What’s at stake in this process?

Rose Braz, Center for Biological Diversity Climate Campaign Director, on how the EPA could use the Clean Air Act to legislate carbon reduction, instead of waiting for Congress on the UN to act.

Ananda Lee Tan, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives U.S. and Canada coordinator, on how a DC centric approach to the climate change has failed, and how organizing wasteworkers and other front line groups has led to significant climate justice victories.

Bill Barclay, Rainforest Action Network Policy Director on REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation).

Jamie Henn, East Asia and Communications Director for 350.org, on how the movement for climate justice can be more creative in promoting their cause.

Question and Answer session featuring Jamie Henn, Bill Barclay, Ananda Lee Tan, Rose Braz & Michelle Chan; moderated by Tina Gerhardt, COP 16 correspondent for the Nation and Alternet.

For More Information:

350.org

Amazon Watch

Background on the Ilisu dam in Turkey

Bolivia on Climate Change

Center for Biological Diversity

Environmental Rights Action

Friends of the Earth

Focus on the Global South

Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternative (GAIA)

La Vía Campesina

The No Dirty Energy Campaign

Rainforest Action Network

Articles on the Environment by Tina Gerhardt

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

UN REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation)

World Bank

Women next to an oil wellhead that has been spilling crude oil near the community of Ikot Ada Udo, the Niger Delta, since 2004 © Kadir van Lohuizen/NOOR

The oil industry is dirty business. From the Niger Delta to California, to the recent gulf coast oil spill, the legacy of contamination and human rights abuse goes back decades. But some folks are standing up to big oil.

On this edition, we take a look at how citizen groups around the world are holding oil businesses accountable, from courtroom battles to government regulation.

—

Challenging Chevron in Nigeria

In recent years, communities worldwide have protested the presence of big oil. One of the longest-running and bloody oil conflicts in the world is with the Chevron Corporation in Nigeria. Freelance Producer Lynn Feinerman has more about the Niger Delta and how grassroots groups and non-profits are taking the oil business to the courtroom.

—

Chevron in Richmond

The Chevron oil refinery in Richmond, California is one of the oldest and largest in the United States. Locals have welcomed the company’s boost to employment – some three thousand jobs – and sizable tax contributions. But Chevron is also the number one greenhouse gas emitter in California; and has contributed to the degradation of water, soil and air quality in the San Francisco Bay Area. Over the past decade, the city and residents of Richmond, have forced the company to curb its impact.  Making Contact producer Kyung Jin Lee has more about the ongoing efforts to make the company serve the community.

—WEB EXCLUSIVES—

Nigerian women’s rights advocate Emem Okon, speaking at the 2010 United States Social Forum in Detroit, Michigan.

Featuring:

Mundey Omoshaye, activist and member of Ilaje tribe in Nigeria; Suwanu Bere, Ogoni villager, Nigeria; Scott Gilmore, law student and journalist; Patti Goldman, Vice President of Litigation, Earthjustice; Sandy Saeturn, organizer, Asian Pacific Environmental Network; Jessica Tovar, organizer, Communities for a Better Environment; Gayle McLaughlin, Mayor of Richmond, California; Greg Karras, senior scientist, Communities for a Better Environment; Reverend Ken Davis, resident of Richmond, California

For More Information

Asian-Pacific Environmental Network
Oakland, CA

Chevwrong.org

Clean the Niger Delta Campaign

Communities for a Better Environment
Oakland, CA

Earthjustice
Oakland, CA

Justice In Nigeria Now

Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People
Niger Delta, Nigeria

The True Cost of Chevron

Articles, Blogs, Film Reports and Other:

Bowoto vs. Chevron Blog

‘Chevron in Richmond’ in the Race, Poverty and the Environment Journal
By Ellen Choy and Ana Orozco

Independent Journalist Dahr Jamail’s Dispatches from the Gulf Coast

Mother Jones’ BP Oil Spill Coverage:

‘The True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report’

Related Programs:

Oil and Outrage Flare: An Audio Journey Through the Niger Delta

Delta on Fire: Nigerian Women’s Resistance

Fuel to the Fire: Oil and Indigenous People in Colombia

Beyond BP: A Future Without Oil

Exxon’s Oil to Tennessee’s Coal

Transcript: Whose Wealth: Indigenous Resources and Corporate Greed

Transcript: Global Warming and Corporate Interests

Oil and Outrage Flare: An Audio Journey Through the Niger Delta

Inside Capital

Oil Slick: Bechtel, Halliburton, and the White House

Deadly Extractions: Oil and Mining interests in Africa

No ‘Fracking’ Way: The Perils of Natural Gas Drilling

Music:

‘Rain in the Dust’ – Robert Tree Cody and Will Clipman

‘Suffering’ – Hossam Ramzy

‘Abudeo’ – Calinambe

‘Yoky’ – Fatala

‘Sorry Sorry’ – Femi Kuti

The perils of oil drilling may have hit the headlines when BP’s rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico.  But the environmental impacts of the exploration, extraction and trade of petroleum have long disrupted everyday life in both the global south and industrialized nations.

In recent years, communities worldwide have protested the presence of big oil. One of the longest-running and bloody oil conflicts in the world is in the niger delta, where companies such as shell and chevron have worked closely with the Nigerian government to exploit the oil resources there. Freelance Producer Lynn Feinerman has more about the oil business in Nigeria, and about citizen efforts to hold companies accountable in the courtroom.

Coal plant in Czech Republic (Credit: Red, Green & Blue)

In late November, the 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held in Cancun, Mexico. Most of the solutions being offered will center on carbon trading or cap and trade schemes – in other words, market-based solutions to the problem.  But is there a way to approach the climate crisis other than through the language of economics?

On this edition, a roundtable discussion about alternative ways to both understand, and solve the climate crisis.

Featuring:

Rose Braz, Center for Biological Diversity Climate Campaign Director; Ananda Lee Tan, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives US and Canada campaign coordinator; Iain Boal, social historian & Birkbeck College at the University of London fellow.

For More Information:

Afflicted Powers (book)

Center for Biological Diversity

Climate Justice Now

The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives/The Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance

Lawrence Summers 1991 memo on trade liberalization (Wikipedia)

Mobilization for Climate Justice

Rising Tide North America

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

UN-REDD (UN) Collaborative Program on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries

350.org

Music:

‘Stakes is High’ – by De La Soul

‘Global Warning’ – by Seasunz, J-Bless and Stic.man

Violence against women pervades every culture.  Sources say one of every three women is abused at some point in their lives. In Latin America, sexism and impunity contribute to violence against women. But the region is also home to powerful female voices, and effective movements for the advancement of women.

Pink crosses mark the site where women's bodies were found in the dusty ground of a hill overlooking a shantytown in Juarez. Credit: Kari Lydersen via Carnegie Council

Featuring:

Patricia Branez, Centro de Informacion y Desarollo de la Mujer (CIDEM); Viviana Apaza, mother of a murdered woman in El Alto, Bolivia; Colonel Rosalio Alvarez Claros, Chief of Crimes Division, El Alto, Bolivia; Irma Campos, Gender Department, Bolivia’s Ministry of Justice; ‘Valentina’, survivor of domestic violence in Bolivia; Ana Cordero, resident of Juarez, Mexico;Dolores Dorantes, Coordinator, Documentacion y Estudios de Mujeres (DEMAC); Irma Casas, Director, Casa Amiga Rape Crisis Center in Juarez, Mexico;Jayariyú Farias Montiel, Venezuelan indigenous health organizer and media activist.

Contributing Producers: Ruxandra Guidi, Joe Richey

—

New ‘Femicide Law’  in Bolivia Put Forth to Curb Murder of Women

In the South American country Bolivia, violent crimes against young women have risen dramatically. Between 2008 and 2009, cases of violence by boyfriends, husbands, and fathers, went up by 10% in the capital, La Paz, alone. Though random attacks against women and sex workers do occur, there is no way to know whether they too have been on the rise. Almost none of these cases have — or are likely — to face justice. But a new law that may pass by the end of 2010, would give a sentence of up to 30 years’ prison for the murder of women – the same sentence given for the murder of men. It’s seen as a revolutionary first step in combating the rising rates of violence, and as one way of gathering data and combating misogyny in this traditional South American country. Ruxandra Guidi has more from La Paz.

—

Women for Women in Juarez

In some cities you can get away with murder more easily than in others. Killing women with impunity can be easier still. In Ciudad Juárez, in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, there have been nearly 500 known cases of femicide in under two decades. Untold numbers of women remain missing. In our next story, independent border reporter Joe Richey speaks to several women in Juarez about what it’s like to live in the most violent city in the world – and, what they’re doing about it.

—

Cultural and Legal Advances for Women in Venezuela

Indigenous women are especially vulnerable in Latin America – many don’t have access to education, medical care, police protection, or transportation. But recently, there have been some legal and cultural advances for women in Venezuela. That’s according to indigenous health organizer Jayariyú Farias Montiel. She spoke at the 2010 U.S Social Forum in Detroit. She said President Hugo Chavez has initiated some of these judicial protections, women in Venezuela are the protagonists of change in their own lives.

—

For more information:

DEMAC – Documentación y Estudios de Mujeres, A.C.

Radio Internacional Feminista (FIRE)

Global Fund for Women

The Juarez Project

Madre.org
(Demanding Rights, Resources, and Results for Women Worldwide)

‘One in Three’ Campaign Against Violence Against Women

UNIFEM – Violence Against Women information

Music:

In the Cut – by Calexico
Latcho Drom – by Dorado Schmitt
BSO – by The Platform

Anti-coup protest in Honduras. Photo from TML Daily.

For decades, critics have accused the United States of viewing Latin America solely as a project for economic expansion and exploitation. Even liberals see the global south as an object of unilateral help or charity. But social change activists say the tables have turned.

On this edition, we’ll hear from experts who insist the U.S. has a lot to learn from social movements in Latin America — especially in times of crisis.

Featuring:

Marina Sitrin, author and attorney; Ben Dangl, Burlington College in Vermont professor; Mario Murillo, author & Hofstra University professor; Oscar Estrada, Honduran filmmaker & 2010 NarcoNews School of Authentic Journalism participant.

Special thanks to Between the Lines at WPKN Radio in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

For more information:

Between the Lines
A weekly radio news magazine show

Latin America Solidarity Coalition

Latin America Solidarity Network

Left Forum 2010
New York, NY

NarcoNews

Articles, Blogs, Films, Reports, Other:

South of the Border
A new movie by Oliver Stone exploring social movements in Latin America

‘Horizontalidad: Where Everyone Leads’
An article by Marina Sitrin, Yes! Magazine, 2007

‘Horizontalism: Voices of Popular Power in Argentina’
A book edited by Marina Sitrin

‘The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia’
A book by Benjamin Dangl

Upside Down World
A blog covering activism and politics in Latin America

Venezuela Analysis
A blog providing in-depth analysis about developments in Venezuela

Music:

The Platform

Hillery Duran, Taos Tribal Member and college intern at Red Willow Education Center. Photo Credit: Rita Daniels

For centuries, the Taos Pueblo people in New Mexico lived entirely off their land.  Sustainable agriculture was a way of life, but U.S. federal policies helped put an end to that. Food wasn’t grown at the pueblos; it was trucked in. Traditional farming gave way to government subsidies and obesity rates soared. But recently, a surprising agricultural renaissance has taken root across the pueblos. On this edition, Making Contact’s Rita Daniels takes us to the Taos Pueblo in New Mexico to share a story of rebirth and renewal.

This program was partially funded by the Ben and Jerry’s Foundation, the Mitchell Kapor Foundation, and the Seed Fund at the Rudolf Steiner Foundation.

Contributing Producer/Reporter: Rita Daniels

Featuring:

Leonard Archuleta, Taos Pueblo Farmer and Red Willow Co-operative Member; Shirley Trujillo, Red Willow Farmers Market Manager; Joel Glanzberg, Native American Permaculture Teacher; Deryl Lujan, Taos Pueblo Rancher; Shawn Duran, Red Willow Education Center Director; Ezra Bales, Pueblo Day School Wellness Coordinator; Hillary Duran, University of New Mexico at Taos Student and Red Willow Education Center Intern.

For More Information:

California Food and Justice Coalition – Berkeley, CA

Food First (Institute for Food and Development Policy - Oakland, CA

Red Willow Farmers Market
Shirley Trujillo
Farm & Market Manager
salbertru@yahoo.com

Red Willow Education Center

Taos Pueblo Day School – Taos, NM

Music:

Courtship Song by Robert Mirabal
Flute Song by Robert Mirabal
The Dance by Robert Mirabal w/rare tribal Mob
Ee-you-oo by Robert Mirabal

Articles, Blogs, Films, Reports, Other

Added Value & Herban Solutions

Grassroots International – Funding Global Movement for Social Change
“Food for Thought and Action: A Food Sovereignty Curriculum”

http://bit.ly/4xiPhp

Heritage Radio Network
Internet-based radio station about food featuring leading farmers, food mavericks, filmmakers, artists and tastemakers.

Indigenous Permaculture Program
A fiscal-sponsorship project of ‘The Ecology Center’ to gain food security and access to healthy and nutritious foods for local communities

“Native Recipe for Health” by Gabriel Thompson
Yes! Magazine  (September 13, 2009)
The Tohono O’odham Nation tackles diabetes with a return to desert foods.

Yes Magazine Food Issue (February 13, 2009)
Theme Guide: Food for Everyone

Members of the Winnemem Wintu tribe in Northern California. Source: Portland Indymedia

The genocide of Native Americans was one of the largest mass killings in human history. Very few tribes survived and were able to maintain their languages and traditions, and for many, the threat to their culture continues even to this day. On this edition, Making Contact trainee producers Rachel Gelfand and Michael Preston bring us the story of the Winnemem Wintu, a small Indian tribe in Northern California, and tell the story of their struggle to prevent the flooding of the sacred land they have called home for centuries.

Featuring:

Caleen Sisk-Franco, Winnemem Wintu spiritual leader and chief; Mark Franco, Winnemem Wintu tribal headman and spokesperson; Jill Ward, Heleen Sisk and Sarah Haase, Winnemem Wintu tribal members; Debbie Davis, Environmental Justice Coalition water analyst; Jonas Minton, Planning and Conservation League water policy advisor for Sacramento; Sarah Woolf, Westlands Water District spokesperson.

We are commited to training and airing the work of young producers. This program was produced by Data Center interns Rachel Gelfand and Michael Preston. The Data Center received financial support from the Jesse Smith Noyes Foundation for this radio work.

For more information:

Environmental Justice Coalition for Water

Planning and Conservation League & PCL Foundation

Westlands Water District

Winnemem Wintu Tribe: The Long Journey to Justice

For Additional Information:

Bureau of Indian Affairs

California Department of Water Resources

Data Center

Office of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

The Nature Conservancy

U.S. Department of Reclamation

Other Articles and Books:

Shasta Lake Water Resources Investigation