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Early this morning two environmental activists dressed as Walt Disney’s iconic Mickey and Minnie Mouse began a protest at the gates of Disney company Headquarters in Burbank. The pair scaled the two-story high archway leading into the property and unfurled a 35-foot banner reading, “Disney: Destroying Indonesia’s Rainforests.” The Rain Forest Action Network, a San Francisco based environmental advocacy organization, is behind the action. The group says Disney publishing has failed to stop using paper sourced from endangered Indonesian rain forests.

GUEST: Laurel Sutherlin; Communications Manager for the Forests program at the Rain Forest Action Network Find out more at www.ran.org.

The LA County Registrar’s office is reporting the results of yesterday’s Special election in California’s 36th Congressional District to replace Jane Harman’s seat. Democrat Janice Hahn and Republican Craig Huey garnered the top votes with 24.66% and 21.87% respectively. State Secretary Debra Bowen was just a few votes shy of Huey with 21.48% of the vote. Progressive favorite Marcy Winograd, won 9.51% of the vote. The runoff election has been scheduled for July 12th. Whether progressives choose to use the ballot box or strikes and street protest as a pathway toward progressive change, one question that has arisen more and more often during the Great Recession and the Age of Obama, is how the left can build itself up and take power. Social movements in Arab and North African countries helped to inspire the rage stoked by the right-wing’s anti-union attacks in Wisconsin. Teachers and students nationwide are starting to fight back militantly against cuts to essential programs. Here in Los Angeles last weekend, hundreds gathered in Pershing Square in downtown LA to preserve education. Kaiser Nurses in Southern California started a 24 hour walkout of their jobs this morning at 6 am over contract negotiations. But while progressive struggles and victories are being waged everyday, there is little overall coordination or overarching set of demands underscoring them. Earlier this year, KPFK’s interim Program Director Alan Minsky, set out to pick the best progressive brains in the U.S. to ask them how they envision constructing a powerful movement. The resulting 16 hour broadcast series, called Building a Powerful Left, features interviews with and talks by luminaries like Noam Chomsky, Francis Fox Piven, Ralph Nader, Cornel West. Benjamin Barber, Dolores Huerta, Richard Wolff, Dean Baker, Isabel Garcia, Vijay Prashad, , Tom Hayden, James Lawson, Glen Ford, John Nichols, and many others.

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