“They frankly own the place,” Dick Durbin said back in April referring to the power that banks hold over policy decisions in Washington. If they own the place, presumably they can make the rules. But as Goldman Sachs brings in record profits and prepares to dole out handsome bonuses to employees and executives, many are lauding the company’s willingness to take risks. So is Goldman Sachs, dubbed by many ‘Government Sachs,’ a risk taker or a coup maker? And what will it take to confront what may be the most powerful lobby in American history?
In the United States, the gap between rich and poor has grown exponentially in recent years. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the number of Americans who do not earn enough to feed themselves and their families. It is likely that some 50 to 60 million Americans, or one in five, are hungry. How is it possible in the land of plenty? And what does the recession reveal about America’s social safety net?
The US media have reported on the withdrawal of American troops from Iraqi cities. But 130,000 troops remain in Iraq and many argue that the occupation will continue only under a different guise. Have things really changed? Or has the occupation simply been rebranded?
What can the progressive movement learn from the LGBT community? On the 40th anniversary of Stonewall there has been a good deal of reflection and soul searching on the role of the struggle for gay rights within the larger civil rights movement. Yesterday when Barack Obama met with gay couples in the White House he said, “It’s not for me to tell you to be patient any more than it was for others to counsel patience to African-Americans who were petitioning for equal rights a half-century ago. We’ve been in office six months now. I suspect that by the time this administration is over, I think you guys will have pretty good feelings about the Obama administration.” That could be applied to a number of issues, not only those affecting the LGBT community.
What difference might the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) make? Well, Rite Aid warehouse workers organizing in California say that it would dramatically change their ability to organize. Angel Warner who works in the Inventory Control Department in Lancaster, CA says that as soon as they started to organize in 2006, the company hired a union busting firm, intimidated workers, and stonewalled the process. If EFCA had been in place, says Warner, it wouldn’t have taken two years for them to form a union.
Opposition to union organizing within the workplace has become more intense and punitive in recent years making it incredibly difficult and risky for workers to unionize. As unemployment continues to rise and workers struggle for a bit of parity, will the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) pass? Kate Bronfenbrenner of Cornell’s Labor Education Research in a new report, No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employer Opposition to Organizing, details the hurdles that workers face in trying to form unions and why EFCA would help. Bronfenbrenner, Mark Winston Griffith, Director of the Drum Major Institute, Pat Purcell, Director of Special Projects at the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1500, and Bob Master, Political Director of Communications Workers of America on whether the recession will strengthen unions.
Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould have traveled to and from Afghanistan for the past 30 years. They were the first American journalists to acquire permission to enter Afghanistan behind Soviet lines in 1981 for CBS News and produced a documentary, “Afghanistan Between Three World,” for PBS. For twenty years they have continued to follow events in Afghanistan and write about it’s history and US involvement. They are out with a new book, Invisible History: Afghanistan’s Untold Story.
The city of Baltimore is suing Wells Fargo for racial profiling while workers in Chicago took to the streets to protest its recent refusal to extend credit for Quad City Die Casting Company. As a reminder, Wells Fargo is the country’s 2nd largest mortgage lender, 5th largest bank and recipient of $25 billion in TARP money –taxpayer money that they will now likely be spent fighting the discrimination cases filed against them in court.
Joining us in studio are Sarah Ludwig, Co-Director of Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, Kai Wright, who wrote about the ‘Subprime Swindle’ for The Nation Magazine, Leah Fried, Organizer with the United Electrical Union, and Beth Jacobson, formerly one of the most successful subprime mortgage loan officers for Wells Fargo who became a whistle blower in the Baltimore case and is now offering advice to homeowners facing foreclosure through her agency, Paralegal Services and Consulting.
, and Kristele Younes, an Advocate at 
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