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This week on Uprising:

* Reports from Copenhagen
* Black Agenda Report on Climate Reparations
* The Tyranny of Oil – A Conversation with Antonia Juhasz
* Empire Notes on Healthcare: A Legislative Travesty
* Senators Battle Over Healthcare Even as Liberals Give Up

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Reports From Copenhagen

As this program is being recorded, the UN climate talks in Copenhagen are entering their final crucial round of negotiations and by the time you hear this, either an agreement may have been signed, or the talks may end without any agreement whatsoever. On Friday December 18th President Barack Obama addressed the gathering that left many frustrated and disappointed despite an earlier commitment by the US to help gather $100 billion in funds for poor countries to finance green technologies and adaptation to already-occurring climate change. Several major points of contention remains between the US, the largest per capita contributor of greenhouse gas emissions, and China, the largest absolute emitter. Uprising has been monitoring the trajectory of the talks as well as the activism on the streets. I spoke with Gopal Dayaneni on Monday December 14th, around the mid-point of the conference and asked him to lay out the status of negotiations at that time.

GUEST: Gopal Dayaneni, coordinator of Movement Generation. Special thanks to tcktcktck.org for use of their audio.

Black Agenda Report on Climate Reparations

Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report. This week’s commentary is on Climate Reparations.

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

The Tyranny of Oil – A Conversation with Antonia Juhasz

Iraq recently held an international auction to run its oil fields, awarding contracts to companies like Royal Dutch Shell, and Russia’s Lukoil. As representatives of nearly two hundred nations, and over a hundred thousand climate justice activists wrap up the final day of a 2 week meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark on global warming, the auction winners in Iraq have promised to more than quadruple Iraq’s oil output. There are currently 80 known oil fields in Iraq, but the promise of oil exploration and its potential yields have oil companies salivating. In her book The Tyranny of Oil, author Antonia Juhasz says that these companies “talk big about alternative energy, but their money does not follow their message… the companies are using their massive profits to scour the globe in search of every available drop of oil.”

GUEST: Antonia Juhasz is is leading expert on the oil industry, international trade and finance policy. She is also the director of Global Exchange’s Chevron Program in San Fransisco, and lead author and editor of “The True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report.” Her earlier book includes The Bush Agenda.

For more information, visit www.tyrannyofoil.org and www.globalexchange.org/chevron

Empire Notes on Healthcare: A Legislative Travesty

Empire Notes are weekly commentaries filed by author and analyst Rahul Mahajan. Today’s commentary is called Healthcare: A Legislative Travesty

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

Visit www.empirenotes.org for more information.

Senators Battle Over Healthcare Even as Liberals Give Up

A battle between liberals has broken out in the Senate over healthcare. Howard Dean, former head of the Democratic National Committee has come out in recent days urging a no vote on the bill being considered in the Senate saying that it is too geared in favor of insurance companies in its current incarnation. He is being joined in his protest of the bill by the Service Employees International Union, one of the most powerful unions in Washington who strongly supported Obama’s Presidential campaign. At heart is the dropping of a so-called publicly funded insurance option, meant as a consolation prize for advocates of single-payer healthcare. With the public option dropped, there seems little left resembling a reform of the current healthcare system. But former President Bill Clinton claims that there is enough good in the bill to warrant passage. A recent attempt by Republican Senators to postpone the healthcare vote until after Christmas, by snubbing a defense spending bill, failed. Democratic Senators are working hard to appease Bill Nelson, a fellow Democratic senator from Florida, who has insisted that he wants strong restrictions on insurance coverage of abortion procedures.

GUEST: Ellen R. Shaffer, Co-Director at the Center for Policy Analysis here in California

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:

“If you want to accomplish something in the world, idealism is not enough – you need to choose a method that works to achieve the goal.” — Richard Stallman