mining
GRITtv: Rev. Billy & Savitri D Spread The Anti-Corporate Gospel: Earth-a-lujah!
Reverend Billy, Savitri D and the Church of Life After Shopping Choir are continuing to spread their gospel across the country. Their Earth-a-lujah! Tour is heading to California but first Rev. Billy and Savitri D stop by GRITtv to talk about the recently rescued Chilean miners, as well as their recent work, including protesting mountain-top removal and facing down against bigotry and discrimination by government officials.
Email this pageGRITtv: Oct. 13 2010
If Republicans succeed in taking over the Congress, many suggest cutting or eliminating minimum wage, slashing employee benefits, staving off union organizing. So what's a nation to do in the current political climate? We check in with GRITtv Economics correspondent, Dean Baker. Then, Reverend Billy, Savitri D and the Church of Life After Shopping Choir are continuing to spread their gospel across the country. Their Earth-a-lujah! Tour is heading to California but first Rev. Billy and Savitri D stop by GRITtv to talk about the recently rescued Chilean miners, as well as their recent work, including protesting mountain-top removal and facing down against bigotry and discrimination by government officials. Rethink Afghanistan has been a stalwart force in raising awareness of and opposing the US war in Afghanistan which just entered its tenth year. We'll check in with them. And finally, the recent spate of hate crimes and bullying against LGBT youth has finally got the media talking but what can you do? Laura's F Word suggests you check out a project by Dan Savage entitles 'It Gets Better.'
GRITtv: Got Docs: Way Down In The Hole
Trinidad, Colorado saw one of the country's bloodiest labor battles in 1913-1914, during the legendary coal miner's strike there. Now a new documentary, Way Down In The Hole, looks at the conflicts that led to the violence, between laborers and bosses, organizers, immigrants, agents for hire, and more. Filmmaker Alex Johnston is a graduate of the Social Documentation (Soc Doc) program at UC Santa Cruz.
GRITtv: Changing Police Violence and "Way Down in the Hole"
Sean Bell was shot by New York City police officers four years ago on the night before his wedding day. This summer, the city settled the case against it, agreeing to pay $7 million to Bell's family and friends, including his two children. But settlement dollars aren't enough to fundamentally change police departments around the country, from Oakland to New Orleans to right here in New York. Zaire Baptiste was a friend of Bell's, and is working on a documentary about the life the media likes to ignore, and Sunita Patel is an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights. They both join us in studio to discuss Bell's death, and what's really needed to change a policing strategy that relies on racial profiling and fundamental disregard for life--for certain lives, anyway. Trinidad, Colorado saw one of the country's bloodiest labor battles in 1913-1914, during the legendary coal miner's strike there. Now a new documentary, Way Down In The Hole, looks at the conflicts that led to the violence, between laborers and bosses, organizers, immigrants, agents for hire, and more.
GRITtv: Greg Grandin: Beck, BP, and Latin America's Leadership
Latin America is ahead of the curve when it comes to fighting resource-extracting corporations, says NYU professor Greg Grandin. While Obama makes nice with BP CEO Tony Hayward (and Glenn Beck claims that Obama is unfair to Hayward because he's white), Grandin notes, social movements across South and Central America have been fighting the companies that are after their resources for a while now--and dealing with the repercussions; often violent death squads, as well. Grandin joins us to keep us up to date on the coup in Honduras, the ongoing resource struggles in Latin America, and give us some insight on just why Glenn Beck has a "Tourettes-like" obsession with race. We also bring you footage from a new film that goes inside the Honduran coup; from director Katia Lara, check out "Who Is Afraid: Fathoming the Coup in Honduras."
GRITtv: The F Word: Learning from Roosevelt(s)
The President has a Rooseveltian opportunity, columnist Frank Rich wrote this weekend. Teddy Roosevelt was on his mind: stand off against the Titans of Oil, Wall Street, and mining, suggested Rich. The field is empty. But the fact is, Obama could don the mantle of two Roosevelts at once.
The F Word: Catastrophes Every Day for Profit
"It's premature to say this is catastrophic." The words of Gulf Coast Coast Guard Commander Mary Landry about the BP oil spill Tuesday were spoken as the families of eleven rig workers were still waiting for word of their loved ones, now presumed dead. While Landry may have reviewed her assessment, the word still makes one think. How do we define catastrophe? By Iraq's uncounted dead? By the uncounted casualties of greed on Wall Street? By the 40,000 dead a year due to lack of health insurance? How about by the 5,000 workers who die every year on the job? April 28 marked Workers Memorial Day, when workers and their unions pause to remember those who die or are injured at work. This year’s toll already includes 29 men killed in a dangerous but money-making mine, 195 coalition forces in a couple of imperial wars. And how about the thousands in Haiti impoverished so we can have cheap shirts? Those eleven oil rig workers might have been saved by a safe-guard switch that other oil producing countries require but US regulators don't. And as I speak, two more miners are trapped beneath the rubble of a Kentucky coal mine's collapsed roof. Maybe at the end of Confederate History Month, it's time to admit that's it not just good ol' boy Southern governors who like to hush about slavery and loss. In an economic climate that prizes wealth over life, the erasure of pain in pursuit of profit is as American as mining or drilling. As American as making a killing. The F Word is a regular commentary by Laura Flanders, the host of GRITtv which broadcasts weekdays on satellite TV (Dish Network Ch. 9415 Free Speech TV) on cable, and online at GRITtv.org and TheNation.com. Support us by signing up for our podcast, and follow GRITtv or GRITlaura on Twitter.com. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: The F Word: Coal Company Shopping Spree
Last week, I noted that rating agency Standard and Poors had upgraded Massey Energy from “hold” to a “buy.” Massey's the company that owns the mine where 29 miners were killed in an explosion recently. Now we find out that Standard and Poors were right: Massey's prospects are only going up -- in fact, they're on a shopping spree! Perhaps they're just taking George W. Bush's advice from 2001 to heart: the best way to deal with a tragedy is to go shopping. Anyway, the Wall Street Journal reports that Massey completed a purchase of U.S. coal producer Cumberland Resources Corp. for $640 million in cash and 6.5 million of its shares. Now, we should be fair. Jeff Biggers pointed out on this show that while Massey might be a particularly egregious union-buster and regular safety violator, they're hardly that far outside the norm for their industry. They're serving their investors and the politicians who benefit from their largesse, and they're taking advantage of opportunity -- the purchase of Cumberland was said to be part of a focus on underground mining for Massey in the face of expected federal regulations on surface mining. One can't help feeling that while Massey's CEO may be on the outs -- there are mounting calls for his resignation -- the bigger problem's the coal industry itself. No fine's enough. And until we see some serious structural changes, the industry is going to continue doing what it has been doing: trading death for profit. The F Word is a regular commentary by Laura Flanders, the host of GRITtv which broadcasts weekdays on satellite TV (Dish Network Ch. 9415 Free Speech TV) on cable, and online at GRITtv.org and TheNation.com. Support us by signing up for our podcast, and follow GRITtv or GRITlaura on Twitter.com. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Apr. 13 2010
As the community around the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia mourns its dead and papers report that miners are not being allowed to attend their friends' funerals, S&P Equity Research upgraded the company's stock from a "hold" to a "buy." Just another example of profits before people, notes Jeff Biggers, author of Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland. Biggers joins us via Skype to talk about the tragedy at the Massey Energy mine and the legacy of coal, and warns that while it might be easy to point fingers at Massey's egregious violations of safety rules and its grandstanding CEO Don Blankenship, the entire mining culture is fraught with the same problems. Dawn Johnsen was one of Barack Obama's most progressive nominees; a strong voice for the rule of law, her nomination to the Office of Legal Counsel would have been clear message to the world that the days of torture memos and overreaching executive power were behind the U.S. So when she withdrew her nomination after over a year without a Senate vote, progressives and civil libertarians were distressed--not least because of the administration's apparent lack of willingness to fight for its stellar nominee.
GRITtv: Jeff Biggers: Beyond Blankenship
As the community around the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia mourns its dead and papers report that miners are not being allowed to attend their friends' funerals, S&P Equity Research upgraded the company's stock from a "hold" to a "buy." Just another example of profits before people, notes Jeff Biggers, author of "Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland." Biggers joins us via Skype to talk about the tragedy at the Massey Energy mine and the legacy of coal, and warns that while it might be easy to point fingers at Massey's egregious violations of safety rules and its grandstanding CEO Don Blankenship, the entire mining culture is fraught with the same problems. GRITtv with Laura Flanders brings participatory democracy onto your computer screen and into your living room, bridging the gap between audience and advocates. Watch any show, at any time: http://grittv.org Distributed by Tubemogul.
