Finding Home: Displacement and Homelessness from Cape Town to California
On this edition of Making Contact we go from Cape Town, South Africa to Los Angeles and Oakland, California— three cities grappling with evictions, displacement, and homelessness. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring: Needa Bee, Oakland-Based Housing Advocate Messiah Ali, Oakland Resident Tom Waldman, Director of Communications, Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Flora Harris, C-3 Program Director, St. Joseph Center Chyheeb Joseph, Outreach Worker, Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Riyaadh Najaar, Pigeon Racer Delia Adrian and Shahied Mizenheimer, District 6 Residents Jane Roberts, Blikkiesdorp Resident Credits: Host: Monica Lopez Producers: Anita Johnson, Marie Choi, Monica Lopez, R.J. Lozada Contributing Producers: Tony Andrews, Kimon de Greef Executive Director: Lisa Rudman Audience Engagement Director/Web Editor: Sabine Blaizin Development Associate: Vera Tykulsker More Information: St. Joseph Center Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority “City of Oakland Clears Out The Village Homeless Encampment”, Sam Lefebvre Wikipedia Page on Blikkiesdorp Carson Watch NYC Mayor De Blasio’s Homeless Plan...
A Look at Labor Organizing, and Worker and Immigrant Rights
Our latest radio release looks at workers organizing, inside and outside of labor unions. You’ll meet members of the Restaurant Opportunities Center of LA and hear from Day Laborers in Pasadena who are creating their own phone app and collective bargaining system by sharing info about employers. Plus an interview with Jane McAlevey, union member and union critic. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here to support our non-profit journalism and be sure to join our newsletter. Thanks! Featuring: Cal Soto, National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) NDLON worker members – Marta, Jesús, Angel Kathy Hoang, Director of Restaurant Opportunities Center – Los Angeles Jane McAlevey, union organizer and author of No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age Credits: Host: Monica Lopez Contributing Producers: Paulina Velasco, Doug Henwood Producers: Anita Johnson, Marie Choi, Monica Lopez, R.J. Lozada, Andrew Stelzer Executive Director: Lisa Rudman Audience Engagement Director/Web Editor: Sabine Blaizin Development Associate: Vera Tykulsker Special thanks this week to the Degel-Berwick Family Foundation More Information: National Day Laborer Organizing Network Pasadena Community Jobs Center Restaurant Opportunities Center, Los Angeles Jane McAlevey Sanctuary Restaurants...
Occupy, 5 years later
September marks the 5 year anniversary of Occupy. We go to Zuccotti Park, and Oakland to talk to individuals that were part of Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Oakland to gain insight and reflection on the movement that swept the nation. Featuring: Samara Ward, Occupy Oakland participant Joyous DeAsis, Young Oakland organizer, Occupy Oakland participant Marisa Holmes, Filmmaker, Occupy Wall Street facilitator Needa Bee, Occupy Oakland participant Krystof Lapour, Occupy Oakland participant Samsarah Morgan, doula and birth worker, Founder of Occupy Oakland Children’s Village and Parents and Allies Caucus of Occupy Oakland, Occupy Decolonize Birth Parenting and Pregnancy Caucus Rebecca Ruiz Sunwoo, Organizer Idriss Stelley Foundation, Occupy Oakland participant Ashoka Finley, Black radical, Occupy the Farm participant Credits Host: R.J. Lozada Contributing Producer: Marie Choi Music: Alex Fitch, “Seeking Clarity” and “We Call This Home III”, Blue Dot Sessions, “Union Hall Melody” and “Insatiable Toad”, Cory Gray, “Build a View”, The Losers, “Gotta Keep Moving” For More Information: Occupy Wall Street New York City General Assembly West Coast Port Shutdown Announcement VIDEO Rebecca Ruiz Sunwoo, Open Letter to the Occupy Movement: The Decolonization Proposal VIDEO Occupy the Farm Film Naomi Wolf, “Revealed: How the FBI Coordinated the Crackdown on Occupy”, The Guardian Apex Express, Occupy Retrospective Davey D, “General Strike #OccupyOakland”, OLM News “Arun Gupta and Marina Sitrin on Occupy’s Anniversary”, Moyers and Company Dario Azzellini and Marina Sitrin, They Can’t Represent Us! Reinventing Democracy from Greece to Occupy Arun Gupta, “What Became of Occupy Wall Street?”,...
Invisible Workers, Laboring in the Shadows
* This program won the award for Explanatory Journalism in radio/audio from the Society of Professional Journalists, Norther California Chapter in Nov. 2016. Congrats to all ! Please add your congratulations here. Millions of people around the world work in jobs that aren’t formally recognized or afforded legal protections typical of wage earning jobs. They’re often not even thought of as legitimate work. On this edition of Making Contact, we’re going to meet people making work where there is no work for them. From recyclers, to border couriers, to waste pickers, we’re exploring the informal labor sector and what some are doing to gain greater recognition, protections, and rights. Featuring Landon Goodwin, recycler and pastor and also featured in documentary Dogtown Redemption Aicha al Azzouzi border courier Salma al Azzouzi, Aicha’s oldest daughter Charles Gachanga Gichonge, creator of the Mustard Seed Courtyard clean-up campaign Antony Makau, Dandora resident Richard Munene, Dandora restaurant owner Sally Roever, Urban Policy Director for Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) Malati Gadgil, KKPKP Credits Host: Laura Flynn Contributing Producers: Thalia Beaty, Maggy Donaldson, and Beenish Ahmed Featured Music: Blue Dot Sessions: Lesser Gods of Metal, Tyrano Theme, and Pavement Hack, Tours: Enthusiast, Salomé Lego Playset: La Lutte, Comme Experience Intérieure, Janneh: Humajataritee Photo Credits: Thalia Beaty and Maggy Donaldson Show segments An Unusual but Legal Trade: the “Mule Women” of Morocco This slideshow requires JavaScript. We head to the Spanish enclave Ceuta bordering Morocco. The border is a gateway for a brisk trade. Moroccan markets sell goods imported from Spain at a discount for buyers. But that discount comes at a price — for the Moroccan women who bring those goods across the border…on their backs. Co-reported with Maggy Donaldson, Thalia Beaty brings us this story. From dump site to Mustard Seed Courtyards There’s a neighborhood in Nairobi, Kenya that doubles as the city’s main garbage dump. More than 900 tons of trash are piled into Dandora every day. It was declared full more than a decade ago, but the trucks kept coming — dropping everything from household scraps to medical waste. The waste has polluted the water, soil, and air according to the report, Trash and Tragedy by Concern Worldwide. And it has compromised the health of more than 200,000 people. Often the trucks also dump garbage into the surrounding courtyards of residents. While an estimated 10,000 people earn money by mining the trash for recyclables, even those who work at the dump don’t want to live in a dump. Reporter Beenish Ahmed has the story of a community-driven clean-up effort in Dandora. More information: Dogtown Redemption Concern Worldwide: Trash and Tragedy, the impact of garbage on human rights in Nairobi City Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing...
Coffee: Trouble Brewing?
It’s the second most-traded commodity in the world after oil but how much do you think about your cup of coffee? From coffee farmers in Colombia to the trash produced by your single-cup coffee machine, Making Contact and Green Grid Radio team up to count the costs of your morning cup o’joe. Featuring: Jairo Martinez, Mariana Cruz, Suzana Angarita, coffee farmers Jeff Goldman, former executive director Fairtrade Resource Network Jeff Chean, Principal and Chief Coffee Guy Groundworks Roasters John Hazen, single-cup coffee machine owner Rebecca Jewell, recycling program manager for Davis Street Transfer Station Credits Hosts: George Lavender and Mallory Smith Contributing Producers: Laura Flynn, Jennifer Dunn, Mallory Smith Music: Pensacola Twilight: Lee Rosevere Cafetero: Christian Martinez Grand Caravan: Blue Dot Sessions Them Never Love No Bans: Hot Fire La Boite A Sons – Contest Contributions: Various Artists Or listen to separate segments: From Bean To Cup Over 500,000 Colombian families depend on coffee farming to survive. But 5 decades of war between left-wing guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries forced millions of Colombians to flee their land and abandon their crops. In recent years the violence has decreased and many farmers have returned to their land, but getting back to farming hasn’t been easy. Jennifer Dunn reports on how Colombia’s small-scale coffee farmers are struggling to protect their crops and their way of life. Fairtrade v Fairtrade Fairtrade is Fairtrade right? Wrong. As Mallory Smith of Green Grid Radio found out, in 2012 the Fairtrade movement suffered an ugly breakup that resulted in two different organizations, both claiming the Fairtrade label, but with different visions of what it stood for… Kill the K-Cup? Single-cup brewing is wildly popular- partly because it’s marketed as being so easy- you simply pop the pod in the machine and you have a cup of coffee. But it’s what happens to that little pod after you’re done making coffee that’s causing concern. Making Contact producer Laura Flynn decided to find out what happens next.. < p id=”E74″ class=”qowt-stl-BodyText”> More information: Green Grid Radio Fair trade lite: Fair Trade USA moves away from worker co-ops Hijacked Organic, Limited Local, Faulty Fair Trade Groundwork Coffee Roundup on the Fair Trade USA/FLO Split FWP’s Statement on Fair Trade USA s Resignation from Fairtrade International (FLO) A Schism Over Fair Trade A Brewing Problem Your Coffee Pods Dirty Secret How to Become a Citizen Eater: A Trip Behind the Labels of Your Ethical Cup of Coffee Kill the K-Cup...
Women Rising 29: Food Sovereignty in indigenous communities
Women Rising radio profiles food sovereignty activists from India, Mexico, and Native American communities. If you are interested in GMOs, TTP, seed saving, herbal medicine, food, trade & activism –then tune in! Featuring: Vandana Shiva, founder of Navdanya Adelita San Vicente Tello, founder of Semillas de Vida Sage La Pena, Native American, ethno- botanist and food sovereignty activist Kanyon Sayers-Roods, Native American youth educator More information Navdanya fundación semillas de vida The Women’s Herbal Symposium of Northern California I Who are the Teachers Kanyon – Portfolio https://www.organicconsumers.org TPP Fine Print: Biotech Seed Companies Win Again | Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy http://www.march-against-monsanto.com/ What drove a Korean farmer to kill himself in...
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