We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Labor Pains

Click here to access audio link to 55 minute program from KPFA (Berkeley, California).

If your life is time constrained, you might want to listen to this as you perform some mindless chore. 
Occupy Wall Street has brought the issue of class inequality to the forefront of American politics in a way that unions have not. Hence, organized labor and the Occupy movement would appear to be natural allies, but their relationship is not seamless.  Radical Occupy participants and union organizers Angela MacWhinnie and Adrian Maldonado talk about successful collaborations between trade unions and Occupy, the places where friction has emerged, and the challenges that the Occupy movement faces in reaching out to most working class people.
I found the comments of the San Francisco Bay labor activist to be particularly interesting.