Public Policy

Talk Nation Radio: Students Hunger Strike for a Living Wage

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Hunter Link of the University of Virginia’s Living Wage Campaign explains why he and other students stopped eating and why workers at UVA can and should be paid a living wage.

Total run time: 29:00

Host: David Swanson.

Producer: David Swanson.

Engineer: Christiane Brown.

Music by Duke Ellington.

Download or get embed code from Archive.org or AudioPort or Radio4All or LetsTryDemocracy.

Syndicated by Pacifica Network.

Please encourage your local radio stations to carry this program every week!

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Why Students Are Hunger Striking in Virginia

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Twelve students at the University of Virginia on Saturday began a hunger strike for a living wage policy for university employees.  They’ve taken this step after having exhausted just about every other possible approach over a period of 14 years.  I was part of the campaign way back when it started.  I can support the assertion made by hunger-striking student A.J. Chandra on Saturday, who said,

“We have not spent 14 years building up the case for a living wage.  read more

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To Whom Do We Now Turn?

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“The Democratic Party is running away from its traditional role of protecting the poor, the elderly, and the working class,” writes Congressman Dennis Kucinich.  “To whom do these groups now turn?”

We turn to ourselves, Congressman.  You know that.  And you know I love you.  But we’ve got to stop turning to people, much less parties.  It’s killing us.  We can work with you and all of our friends, but we’re going to have to read more

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Going Neutral on Obama? Not on a Moving Train!

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How often have we been told that we can’t have a serious nonviolent movement resisting our government’s destructive path as long as the Democrats are better than the Republicans?

How often have we been told that we can’t back third-party candidates as long as the Democrats are better than the Republicans?

This week has seen an inordinate number of realizations that the Democrats are as bad as or worse than the Republicans. And what has the response been?

Activist groups are proposing read more

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The There's Plenty of Money Act of 2012

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112th CONGRESS
1st Session
To highly resolve that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the United States of America.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 12, 2011
A BILL

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the Start Doing Our Damn Jobs Act of 2012.

SEC. 2. STOP KILLING PEOPLE

(a) The combined appropriations of the Department of Defense, read more

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Imagine a MoveOn That Doesn't Answer to Democrats

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On Friday I read in the New York Times that President Obama would be happy to cut $200 billion out of Medicare in order to inflict pain on his Democratic base, part of an imagined tradeoff in which the two parties inflict pain on their imagined bases in order to reduce the deficit without imposing sensible taxes on billionaires or shrinking military spending to sane levels. Also on Friday I got an Email from True Majority asking me to celebrate Obama’s defense of Medicare.

We’ve read more

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Credit Mayor Dave Norris

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Unless Rahm Emanuel talks them out of it over the weekend, come Monday the US Conference of Mayors will vote to pass its first resolution since Vietnam calling for the end of war and the re-allocation of all that money to something useful.

Here’s the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/18/us/18cities.html

The first mayor to sign onto this resolution other than the original sponsor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles was Charlottesville, Va.’s Dave Norris. Norris signed on read more

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Rescind Obama's "Transparency Award" Now

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Scroll down to see list of signers and to add your name or that of your organization.
   
Tell Project on Government Oversight (POGO), OMB Watch, the National Security Archive, Open the Government.Org, and the Reporters Committee to publicly take back their Transparency Award to President Obama.

On March 28, 2011, President Obama was given a “transparency award” from five “open read more

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NY Times Takes on Pentagon Spending With Two Hands Tied Behind Its Back

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The New York Times has posted seven super-short columns on how to cut the U.S. military. All seven seem to support cutting the military in one way or another. That’s excellent, and I don’t mean to complain, but . . . .

The United States has the largest military in the world. We could cut it by 85% and still have the largest military in the world. And that’s without counting all the military spending that we funnel through departments other than the Pentagon, spending that brings read more

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Your Local Military Industrial Complex

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As in any other U.S. city, things are looking up for Charlottesville, Va., job seekers who don’t mind helping to kill tons of people for no good reason. This week’s “community job fair” features some prominent members of the Charlottesville community whom we don’t usually think of as such.

When I travel the country, people often inform me that their town is a military-industrial town as if that were unusual. I always ask them if they can name a U.S. town that isn’t read more

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A Unified Theory of War and Taxes

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If you hate taxes but dutifully cheer for wars, it’s lucky you also oppose school funding sufficient to produce historical literacy. Taxes are a byproduct of wars. Were it not for wars and war propaganda, this country would have never begun paying taxes. If we were to end wars, and only if we were to end wars, we could consider ending taxes too.

But wait! Wasn’t the war for independence a war against taxes? Aren’t taxes created by weakness, while militarism generates wealth? read more

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Lockheed Loved Obama's Speech. Did You?

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On Wednesday, President Obama gave a speech about the greatest danger facing us.  Wars?  Environmental collapse?  Joblessness?  Homelessness?  No, the federal deficit.  With two years left on the job, Obama proposed a 12-year plan to fix the deficit that won’t fix the deficit.  And how did he propose to fail at this misbegotten task?  The President proposed to end no wars, make no serious cuts to the military, tax no estates or investments, raise no read more

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A Twelve Year Plan From a Guy With Two Left

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Obama’s speech on the deficit on Wednesday was a flop. He proposed to end no wars, make no serious cuts to the military, REDUCE corporate taxes, tax no estates or investments, raise no taxes on any billionaires, and give an unelected commission the power to slash Medicare.

Obama began by blaming tax cuts, wars, and healthcare:

“[A]fter Democrats and Republicans committed to fiscal discipline during the 1990s, we lost our way in the decade that followed. We increased spending dramatically read more

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