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GUEST: Deborah Burton, Fabiola Sandoval, Community Organizers with the Downtown Women’s Action Coalition

Since 2001, the Downtown Women’s Action Coalition has organized annual community-based research projects aimed at assessing the needs of homeless and low-income women in downtown LA. “Growing Needs and Shrinking Opportunities,” is the latest annual report surveying nearly 200 women. The DWAC has found through its research, dire housing problems, domestic and sexual assault, and failing health statistics for women living in the Skid Row/Central City East community in 2007. Of those surveyed, 62% had been homeless for at least one year while over half reported physical health problems last year. A clear majority of women reported a need for community resources. But because of the lack of such resources, nearly …

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GUESTS: Raphael Leib, organizer with SEIU, Rebecca Vasquez, works at Century Plaza Towers in Century City

California janitors are back on the streets organizing as part of a state-wide effort to win new contracts with higher wages, access to health care and more. More than 1000 janitors with SEIU’s Justice for Janitors campaign will march and rally in Westwood today. They are part of a movement of 20,000 union janitors across California whose contracts are set to expire this April. According to the Economic Policy Institute, currently California janitors would have to work for 112 hours a week to earn enough hourly wages to support a family of four. Many janitors spend about 90% of their income on rent alone, while others have no access to health care …

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GUEST: Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report

This week’s commentary is about race in America. Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

Listen to This Radical Day in History

… about The Battle of Guareca

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 world has never yet seen a truly great and virtuous nation, because in the degradation of women, the very fountains of life are poisoned at their source.” — Lucretia Mott

* Bittersweet victory for Mumia Abu Jamal: No Death Penalty, No New Trial
* Janitors Rally in Westwood for Higher Wages and Healthcare
* New Survey of Homeless Women in Los Angeles
* Black Agenda Report Returns to the Airwaves!

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GUESTS: Sinclair Roberts, political asylee from Zimbabwe, Gerald Lemelle, Executive Director of Africa Action

Zimbabweans will head to the polls this Saturday in an historic election where President Robert Mugabe will seek to extend his 28-year rule. Capping a politically contentious year coupled with an economy wracked by the world’s highest inflation rates, Zimbabwe’s upcoming elections may be the most pivotal since 1980, when Mugabe first came to power. The Zimbabwean government claims it is in full compliance with electoral guidelines set forth by the Southern African Development Community. Observer teams with the SADC recently concluded that Saturday’s elections will be free and fair. But numerous international organizations such as Human Rights Watch have filed detailed reports questioning this. Independent presidential candidate Simba Makoni, has claimed that despite …

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GUEST: Larry Adelman, Series Creator and Executive Producer of Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making us Sick?

Earlier this week, a new government report revealed a growing gap in life expectancy in the U.S. between wealthy and impoverished classes. Researchers found that life expectancy overall has increased, but affluent sectors of society have made greater gains causing an increase in disparities between the rich and the poor. Paralleling the income stratification taking place over the last two decades, health statistics show larger gaps in infant mortality rates as well as deaths from heart disease and cancer. The report’s researchers offered no concrete answers as to why the inequalities continue to widen but suggested that personal lifestyle factors such as diet and smoking play a significant role. Meanwhile, a …

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GUEST: Stephen Zunes, Middle East editor for Foreign Policy in Focus, professor of politics at the University of San Francisco and the author of “Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism.”

Iraq’s oil-rich southern city, Basra, has been the focus of bloody clashes this week between the Iraqi army and Shite militias affiliated with Moqtada Al Sadr. At least 55 people have been killed so far with the fight spreading to Sadr City in Baghdad. About 16,000 Iraqi police officers and 9,000 Iraqi Army troops have been deployed. Sadr’s spokesmen have called for a negotiated solution but the fighters appear to be from breakaway factions of the Mahdi army. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has given the fighters 72 hours to surrender, while Mr. Sadr …

Listen to This Radical Day in History

… about the first National Chicano Youth Liberation Conference

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