Listen to This Radical Day in History

… about LAPD and the Nation of Islam .

Produced by Radio Rootz.

Radio Rootz works in public schools to train teens in media literacy and radio production. Rootz Youth analyze and critique the media, and learn how to create news that reflects their voices, issues, and communities. For more information, visit www.radiorootz.org.

“Come on, America: I’m your piñata… I welcome any and all questions. Shake me enough, and I’ll give you the goods on my glorious race. But be careful: this piñata hits back.” — Gustavo Arellano, from his introduction to ¡Ask a Mexican!

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GUESTS: Harold Feld, Senior Vice President of Media Access Project, Craig Aaron, Communications Director of Free Press

We begin the show today with a round up of recent media news. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), recently announced an auction involving 60 MHz of spectrum at the 700 MHz band that broadcasters are to return as part of the digital TV transition. A public-interest law firm Media Access Project, found that a similar auction last year resulted in large U.S. cable and phone companies and others, successfully blocking potential key new competitors from winning wireless-broadband-spectrum auctions. This year they’re calling on the FCC to adopt anonymous bidding and other regulations to ensure fairness. Meanwhile, in other media access news, a panel created by Congress to …

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GUEST: Tom Morello, former member of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, now “The Nightwatchman”

Musician and political activist Tom Morello has just released his first solo album, “One Man Revolution,” as his alter ego, “The Nightwatchman.” Perhaps best known for his innovative guitar solos and heavy rock riffs, Tom Morello turns to his acoustic guitar on “One Man Revolution.” Released this past Tuesday, the album features thirteen politically charged folk songs including “No One Left,” which first appeared on the soundtrack, “Songs and Artists That Inspired Fahrenheit 9/11.” The songs are a departure from Morello’s previous rock heavy music. This new album features subtle rhythms and melodies coupled with dark politically lyrical themes. The Nightwatchman has long been a staple at political rallies …

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GUEST: Max Mariscal, former Assi Market worker, and organizer with KIWA

On Tuesday, Koreatown’s Assi Supermarket agreed to settle a class action lawsuit with former employees for just under a million and a half dollars. Former workers of Assi Supermarket, one of Koreatown’s largest community-owned businesses, cited management’s racial discrimination and unpaid overtime work as the reasons for the lawsuit. This is the latest news in a campaign for immigrant workers’ rights that has been ongoing since 2001 when employees first began talks of unionization. A workers’ vote to unionize in March 2002 resulted in a disputed tie thus delaying unionization. But workers were still able to organize. With the help of the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA), former employees coordinated a four-year …

Listen to This Radical Day in History

… about the Battle of Sand Butte – Modoc War .

Produced by Radio Rootz.

Radio Rootz works in public schools to train teens in media literacy and radio production. Rootz Youth analyze and critique the media, and learn how to create news that reflects their voices, issues, and communities. For more information, visit www.radiorootz.org.

“The strongest bond of human sympathy outside the family relation should be one uniting working people of all nations and tongues and kindreds.” –- Abraham Lincoln

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GUEST: David Kotz, Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, co-author with Fred Weir of “Russia’s Path From Gorbachev to Putin”

Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s funeral was held today as the Kremlin declared a national day of mourning. Yeltsin died of heart failure at the age of 76 last Monday. The former leader is being remembered outside Russia by Western leaders and mainstream press as a defender of democracy for his role in dismantling the Soviet Union. British Prime Minister Tony Blair lauded Boris Yeltsin as a “remarkable man who saw the need for democratic and economic reform.” Many commentators point to the historical moment when Boris Yeltsin stood atop an armored tuck in August 1991 to denounce an attempted coup against then …

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GUESTS: Yusef Omowale, Director, and Michelle Welsing, Communications Director of the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research

Housing a veritable “people’s history of Los Angeles,” the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research is a hidden treasure in LA. Founded by Emil Freed more than 40 years ago, the library houses important print, visual, and audio collections from the 1930s to today on labor, women’s rights, civil rights, and other social movements. The archives are in the form of books, pamphlets, posters, photos, films, videos, audiotapes, subject files, organizational records, and even personal papers. The library also has a large repository of materials on Charlotta Bass, one of the most influential African Americans of the twentieth century. Access is a key value at …

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GUESTS: David Bacon, US-based labor photojournalist and author, Juan Manual Sandoval, a leading social activist and academic in Mexico City

After more than a year of debate and discussion, Congress is offering the bi-partisan STRIVE act as their best compromise on immigration reform. The “Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy” Act of 2007 aims to remedy undocumented immigration by using a two-pronged approach: establishing new programs for undocumented immigrants currently living in the US to achieve legal citizenship, and imposing harsher penalties and stricter enforcement on incoming immigrants. Though the bill is garnering much praise as a “balanced compromise,” critics believe the proposal’s programs on legalization has such a difficult path towards citizenship that it amounts to defacto deportation. Others claim that …