Coalition of Immokalee Workers

The war in Iraq is far from over despite Obama's best speeches; and journalist David Finkel notes, "This war is leaving Iraq and moving into America." It is our duty, he says, to understand what the soldiers went through at the very worst of their experience there. Finkel was embedded with U.S. soldiers in Iraq and wrote a book about his experience, called The Good Soldiers. Regularly a journalist with the Washington Post, he joins us in studio in New York to discuss the ongoing war in Iraq, the shift to Afghanistan, and why he's still waiting for the book about the war that will be written by an Iraqi. Trader Joe's is one of a batch of new corporations wrapping their push for profits in feel-good green slogans and promises of fair labor practices. But at least a few of their products aren't coming from fair labor at all. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a community organization of farmworkers in Florida, have gotten other corporations like Whole Foods and Subway to sign a pledge to buy tomatoes from growers that have good labor practices--after workers in Florida have been rescued from conditions that have been legally deemed slavery. Trader Joe's still refuses to sign, and there's an action coming up here in New York. We spoke to Kate Caldwell, Human Right to Work with Dignity Director at the National Economic & Social Rights Initiative, and Nancy Romer, General Coordinator with the Brooklyn Food Coalition, about the reasons behind the protest. If you want to help bring food justice to Trader Joe's, there's an art-making party at the Rebel Diaz Arts Collective this Friday evening, August 13, and the protest is at 6pm on August 19, outside the Trader Joe's at 6th Avenue and W. 21st St. in New York City. Finally, the flooding in Pakistan has affected millions and agencies are calling for more in aid.