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This week on Uprising:

* Afghan MP Warns of Return of US-Backed Fundamentalism
* Empire Notes on the 4th Anniversary of Iraq’s Regime Change
* Immokalee Workers Win Unexpected Victory with McDonalds
* Black Agenda Report on Kucinich and the Mainstream Media
* Never Forget: Cornel West’s Newest Album

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Afghan MP Warns of Return of US-Backed Fundamentalism

GUEST: Malalai Joya, the youngest member of the Afghan Parliament, representing Farah Province

Roadside bombs in southern Afghanistan killed seven NATO soldiers recently. The act was likely a retaliation for NATO’s biggest anti-Taliban offensive to date. Meanwhile an Afghan freelance journalist and his translator, who had been kidnapped along with Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, were beheaded yesterday. Mastrogiacomo had been released in exchange for 5 Taliban prisoners in March. Several Afghan de-mining workers employed by an American firm were also killed over the weekend. Afghanistan is becoming more dangerous each day, as US and NATO forces continue their campaign against the Taliban resurgence in the South. Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s parliament, dominated by pro-US warlords, recently forgave themselves for past crimes and are aggressively squelching democratic efforts in the North. Today we speak with the youngest and most outspoken member of the Afghan parliament, Malalai Joya. I had interviewed Malalai in 2005 in Farah Province in Afghanistan before she was elected, and last year she joined us in studio. Now Malalai is back in the US for a brief tour.

For more information about Malalai Joya visit www.malalaijoya.com.

Empire Notes on the 4th Anniversary of Iraq’s Regime Change

GUEST: Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade

Empire Notes are weekly commentaries filed by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is on the 4th Anniversary of Iraq’s Regime Change

Empire Notes is online at www.empirenotes.org.

Immokalee Workers Win Unexpected Victory with McDonalds

GUEST: Gerardo Reyes, staff member with Coalition of Immokalee Workers

A few weeks ago we informed you about how tomato pickers in Florida were targeting McDonald’s corporation for better working conditions, five years after their victory with Taco Bell. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers in South West Florida had planned a Truth Tour in Chicago this weekend where they planned to demonstrate in front of McDonald’s Corporate Headquarters, when they reached an agreement with McDonald’s USA, and its suppliers for better working conditions and improved wages. The parties negotiated and announced the agreement this past Monday at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Effective at the start of the 2007 growing season, McDonalds will pay an additional penny per pound to workers who pick tomatoes for McDonald’s. The wage increase will more than double the current pay rate for farm workers. The accord will also establish a new code of conduct for tomato growers based on worker participation and a third party verification system of compliance. The terms agreed upon mark the end of a successful two year campaign against McDonalds which followed a previous and victorious four year boycott against Taco Bell. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has now launched a new campaign against Burger King Corporation.

For more information visit www.ciw-online.org.

Black Agenda Report on Kucinich and the Mainstream Media

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

This week’s commentary is on Kucinich and the Mainstream Media. Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

Never Forget: Cornel West’s Newest Album

GUEST: Cornel West, author of Race Matters, and Democracy Matters, professor of Religion and African American Studies at Princeton University

Cornel West is one of the US’s most gifted, provocative, and important public intellectuals. He is a professor of Religion and African American Studies at Princeton University and formerly taught at Harvard University. He is best known for his two books, Race Matters, and more recently Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism which we featured on Uprising a few years ago. Cornel West has won numerous awards, including the American Book Award, and has received more than 20 honorary degrees. Now he unveils his newest project, an album of hip hop music collaborating with such musical greats like Prince, KRS1, M1, Talib Kweli and others. The album is called “Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations and it is the brainchild of Black Men Who Mean Business, a group effort by Cornel West, his brother Clifton West, and Mike Dailey. I spoke recently with Cornet West during his CD tour. We’ll hear several snippets of music from the CD, Never Forget during this interview.

Never Forget is put out by Hidden Beach Media and will be officially released in June 2007. Snippets of the songs can be heard at: http://www.hiddenbeachmedia.com/
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Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“The negro spiritual is the first great American art form. Jim Crow gave us the Blues. Hip-hop is in that tradition — the tradition of bearing witness.” — Cornel West