On the Ground w Esther Iverem

https://onthegroundshow.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/OTG-APRIL8-2016.mp3 A new generation of civil rights advocates question whether the Black Congressional Caucus is working for Black people or for corporations. And while leaders of 50 nations gathered here last week to talk about the threat of nuclear terrorism, anti-nuclear forces said to U.S. leaders, well, WHY NOT start with the getting rid...

https://onthegroundshow.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/OTG-MAR31-2016.mp3 Michele Roberts, national co-chair of the Environmental Justice Health Alliance, kicks off this show’s renewed commitment to cover issues of the environment and sustainability. We speak to her and Pam Nixon about one Black West Virginia community a fighting David-versus-Goliath battles against corporate pollution, about a re...

https://onthegroundshow.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/OTG-MAR24-2016.mp3 Voices of protest and civil disobedience at the large DUMP TRUMP AND DISARM AIPAC RALLY outside the Washington, DC gathering of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobby, as presidential Donald Trump was scheduled to speak. MUCH OF THE NEWS CYCLE this week was consumed with the bombings in Brussels a...

https://onthegroundshow.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/OTG-MAR17-2016.mp3 The U.S. presidential race continues to be the big story—with violence at Donald Trump rallies, the continued corporate media snub of Bernie Sanders, and a very superficial discussion about what is political freedom of speech and what is proto-fascism. We speak to prolific author and activist Gerald Horne and we honor Women’...

https://onthegroundshow.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/OTG-MARCH10-2016SMALLERFILE.mp3 This show’s focus is on the wide-ranging keynote address by the activist and award-winning author Chris Hedges at the Summit on Saudi Arabia organized by Code Pink, March 5th and 6th 2016 in Washington, DC. Spanning from what Hedges referred to as the atrocity of the House of Saud, to the U.S. presidential...

https://onthegroundshow.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/OTG-MAR3-2016F.mp3 More voices from the Maryland Coalition for Justice and Accountability speak out on police brutality and murders in the state. And, has the U.S. presidential race emboldened White supremacists? A discussion with Jon Jeter, journalist and author of “Flat Broke in the Free Market” and Andrew Batcher, an activist an...

https://onthegroundshow.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/OTG-FEB25-2016.mp3 Why are Black voters in South Carolina a firewall for Hillary Clinton? We get perspectives from James Early and hear from Danny Glover and Spike Lee. Also, activists for police reform in Maryland come out in full force in Annapolis. And ‘The Black Love Experience’ is a big hit in DC. Guests and voices: James Earl...

https://onthegroundshow.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/OTG-FEB18-2016.mp3 MAKING THE LINKS FROM LIBYA, TO FLINT, TO DC, TO HAITI WITH AUTHOR AND ACTIVIST GERALD HORNE —PLUS SIDE-EYE AT THE 2016 Presidential ELECTION and an remarks by DC-based attorney Nkechi Taifa. Guests and voices: Gerald Horne, Nkechi Taifa, Alan Banks, Brianne Nadeau, Peggy Case, Beyonce supporters in NYC Headlines: -A 14-hour...

https://onthegroundshow.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/OTG-FEB11-2016.mp3 We unpack this political moment—the presidential election, a democratic socialist winning a presidential primary, this collision between neoliberal and neoconservative politics of the last 40 years and a call for a political revolution by Bernie Sanders. We speak to Lester K. Spence, associate professor of political science...

https://onthegroundshow.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/FINAL-OTG-FEB4-2016.mp3 Launching Black History Month , what the U.N. Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent reported at the end of their recent visit to the United States, conversations with Gullah people of Hilton Head, S.C. and what Angela Davis had to say about the Black Lives Matter Movement during a recent visit to D.C. Pl...

The United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent end their U.S. visit by hearing testimony from residents in the DMV on issues of criminal justice, economic justice and cultural rights. Also, Side-Eye on Election 2016 with Amy Alexander and Jamila Bey. Then in the second half, it’s our week for arts and activism and we are in conversation with Mark Anthony Neal, professor a...

Thousands of activists around the country reclaimed the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend with rallies, protests and acts of civil disobedience. Black Lives Matter activists shut down the San Francisco Bay Bridge for an hour and airport workers in several cities, including New York, Boston and here in DC, marched and blocked traffic in the fight for fifteen dollars an hour. On this show, we g...

During the week when President Obama delivered his final State of the Union address, we went OUTSIDE the White House, where the cry was SHUT IT DOWN, meaning shut down the U.S.-run Guantanamo Bay Prison, site of indefinite detention and torture. Also, authors and artists of a new book, WHEN WE FIGHT, WE WIN!: Twenty First Century Movements and the Activists that are transforming our World visit th...

Activists gear up for President Obama’s final State of the Union Address. Topics include Witness Against Torture, the Trans Pacific Partnership Treaty, the Black Radical Tradition Conference in Philadelphia and “Y’All Qaeda” in Oregon. Other Headlines: Activists like Moms Demands Action on Sensible Gun Laws enjoy a victory. Services announced for Dr. Frances Cress Welsing....

‘Can’t Stop, Wont Stop’—WPFW Pacifica’s year-end live special on social activism in the nation’s capital, reviewing 2015 and looking forward to 2016 for such urgent issues and movements, including Black Lives Matter, Climate Justice, and economic Justice. With Gerald Horne, Barbara Arnwine, Dr. Margaret Flowers, Kevin Zeese, Makini Owusu of APPEAL,Tawanda Jones, Sister of Tyrone West slain in Balt...

Voices from the 10th Anniversary of the Sunday Kind of Love poetry series held December 20, 2015 at Busboys and Poets in DC. Like WPFW’s Sunday Kind of Love music program, the poetry series takes its name from the popular 1940’s jazz standard. The poetry program is produced by Split this Rock, poems of provocation and witness, which evolved from DC Poets Against the War. BROADCAST INCLUDES THE FIR...

On our final segment of The F-Word this year, Esther Iverem looks back at 2015 and look forward to 2016 with activist Medea Benjamin. And why is the race for the U.S. presidency a scary circus with scary clowns? Jamila Bey offers lumps of coal for GOP contenders for the presidency. Guest: Medea Benjamin. Other voices: attorney Billy Murphy, Palestinian activist Rajaa Natour, Pakistani activist Eru...

Ron Davis, whose son Jordan Davis was shot to death by Michael Dunn after a dispute over loud rap music at a Florida gas station, talks about the award-nominated documentary “3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets” and about the economic boycott to support Black lives. Also, Side-Eye on the creeping fascism of Election 2016 and headlines on Catharsis on the Mall, paid family leave legislation in DC...

As the world continues to reel from terror attacks, activists marched in DC this week against economic violence—the violence that would be wrought by the Trans Pacific Partnership Treaty or TPP, a global corporate takeover that is flying under the radar as Congress must vote in the coming weeks to approve it or not approve it. Also, what’s next for activists opposing the takeover of our utility, P...

An extended conversation with veteran activist and organizer Makani Themba, who is stepping down as executive director of The Praxis Project, which has raised more than $20 million for advocacy organizations working in communities of color nationwide. Now 13 years after she founded Praxis, she is turning over the reins of the organization to the next generation of leadership, and Makani will be ce...

Today, we’re on the ground with activists for the environment and humanity’s survival to talk about a victory. The big news this week is that the company Trans Canada asked the Obama Administration to postpone consideration of its proposal to build the Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring carbon-intensive tar sands oil-sludge from Alberta, Canada to Texas for export. And, as it turns out, that...

OCTOBER 29, 2015 Based on deceptively edited videos showing a Planned Parenthood staffer discussing donated fetal tissue for research, Republicans in Congress have held hearings, attempted to defund Planned Parenthood and have even threatened to shut down the government in order to attempt the defunding. In the crazy circus that is the Republican presidential primary, the leaders—Ben Carson and Do...

OCTOBER 22, 2015 Today, a history of social justice. We speak with prolific author and activist Gerald Horne about his new book, Confronting Black Jacobins: The U.S., the Haitian Revolution, and the Origins of the Dominican Republic. The book chronicles the world and historic impact of the Haitian Revolution, which was the product of the first successful slave revolt. Not only did the leading powe...

OCTOBER 15, 2015 Following up the October 10 “Justice or Else” march and the first Democratic presidential debate, this show focuses on activism and economics. We speak to Black Lives Matter activist Kymone Freeman and activist Ruth Caplan, about new initiatives to create more control over our public dollars. Then in the second half of the show, ‘The F Word,’ our monthly discussion of...

OCTOBER 8, 2015 The run-up to the October 10, 2015 “Justice or Else” rally, the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March. We talk to a march organizer and the DC chapter of the National Black United Front. Also, what Dr. Chu Chu Onwuachi-Saunders is doing to focus on and help girls and another doctor, Dr. Margaret Flowers who got arrested Monday protesting the US bombing of a hospital in Afghanis...