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Plunder: The Crime Of Our Time

Last week Senate Republicans killed a version of the jobs bill that had been significantly trimmed by Democrats in an effort to win bi-partisan support. The legislative package would have extended tax breaks for individuals and businesses, and allocated 24 billion dollars in aid to states struggling to close budget gaps. On Friday the Senate did pass a 6.5 billion dollar bill that would have forestalled deep cuts in fees from Medicare to doctors until December. This week, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said the House would not vote on the Senate’s Medicare legislation until the Senate moved to pass an adequate version of the jobs bill, which included money for Medicare. In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, Congress has failed to rally together to offer Americans real solutions. In the lead-up to November’s mid-term elections incumbents may be drawn to obstinate grandstanding rather than serving the public. But citizens can push the national agenda in the right direction if they understand what exactly happened to cause this present economic crisis, and what can be done to fix it.

Helping to cast light on who caused the crisis is Danny Schechter, television producer, independent film maker, media critic, blogger, and author. His book “The Crime of our Time” and its companion film Plunder, dissects Wall Street fraud, who it has affected, the media’s complicity, and what needs to be done.

In and Out of Crisis

Over the last quarter of a century, the North American Left has been marginalized as a social force. Now, we are two years into this Great Recession, and two months into British Petroleum’s Spill– the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. North Americans are looking beyond the neoliberal ideology which sees unregulated free markets as a solution to everything. A new book, In and Out of Crisis The Global Financial Meltdown and Left Alternatives, Explores the Left in its current diminished state, and maps out a blueprint for a Left resurgence in the wake of the neoliberal collapse. The authors Greg Albo, Sam Gindin, and Leo Panitch show how North Americans can re-democratize our economy, take financial and ecological control out of the hands of a tiny fraction of our population, and begin “to build a saner, egalitarian, sustainable, democratic, and richer life for all.”

GUEST: Leo Panitch, is a Distinguished Research Professor at York University, renowned political economist, Marxist theorist and editor of the Socialist Register.

Thank You Gifts:

Plunder: The Crime of our Time – DVD – $100
The Crime of Our Time – Book – $100
Plunder DVD and book – $175
In and Out of Crisis – book – $70
Economy Fixer-Upper Pack (all of the above) – $240

Call 818-985-5735 or visit www.kpfk.org to pledge your support.