Something to Talk About
Conversations & Interviews
Episodes
May 2022
American Racism
Kenny Adams, Executive Director of the Father's Group, addresses the issue of racism in Bend, Oregon, and the programs provided by the Father's Group. This conversation was recorded May 12, 2022, before a white supremacist murdered 10 Black people in a Buffalo, N.Y. supermarket.
African American Studies Professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor wrote the following article about American Racism and the Buffalo shooting on May 15, 2022.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/american-racism-and-the-buffalo-massacre
Kenny Adams also talked about the Juneteenth celebration the Father's Group is organizing in Bend. More information about the May 21 Juneteenth fundraising event can be found on the "News" page of this website.
Here is Michael Harriot's article "From Jim Crow to Buffalo, replacement theory’s trail of destruction runs across American history."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/16/white-supremacy-replacement-theory-civil-rights
Here is a commentary from Kareen Abdul-Jabbar
https://kareem.substack.com/p/what-lessons-have-we-learned-from?utm_source=email&s=r
Bill Fletcher Jr. on organizing at Amazon and Starbucks
May Day--International Workers Day--is on the horizon and the upsurge in union organizing continues. The May 2022 edition of The Radical Songbook will be chock full of union songs and updates on union organizing. In this conversation, longtime activist Bill Fletcher Jr. discusses the Amazon and Starbucks organzing campaigns and offers his thoughts on how union contracts can be won at these two huge companies. He stresses that organizing, not just mobilizing, is necessary for working people to improve their living standards and working conditions.
This conversation was recorded on April 13, 2022. Bill's website is https://billfletcherjr.com/
Check out the News page on this site for more about Amazon and Starbucks organizing.
Here's an April 14 article from the New York Times (via Portside) that raises some questions for the labor movement:
https://portside.org/2022-04-14/amazon-workers-who-won-union-their-way-open-labor-leaders-eyes
"The Dirty Dozen" unsafe workplaces
Amazon and Starbucks top the list of the “Dirty Dozen,” 12 employers singled out for being notably unsafe places to work. Peter Dooley of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH) says workers are organizing and fighting back. To learn more about COSH go to https://nationalcosh.org
The Long Deep Grudge
Toni Gilpin’s “The Long Deep Grudge” tells the story of a militant union that took on one of the world’s biggest corporations and improved the living standards and working conditions of thousands of workers. It is available in hardcover, paperback and as an e-book from Haymarket Books, a radical, independent, nonprofit book publisher based in Chicago, a project of the Center for Economic Research and Social Change. Go to www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1383-the-long-deep-grudge
Liliana Cabrera on the fight for reproductive rights
I've brought back my January, 2022, conversation with Liliana Cabrera of Planned Parenthood, where she talks about the impact the pending Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade will have in Central Oregon.
Here's an update from the Source Weekly:
https://www.bendsource.com/bend/not-banned-in-bend/Content?oid=16793966
Go to the Songs of Social Significance page to hear "I'm a Friend of the Fetus" by Rebel Voices.
Moira Donegan, a columnist for The Guardian, asks: "As the U.S. Supreme Court moves to end abortion, is America still a free country?
And Jill Lepore tries to explain to Samuel Alito why abortion is not mentioned in the Constitution.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/why-there-are-no-women-in-the-constitution