Voice of the People: Radio By and For the 99%

Soundman Jim, Linda Gillison and Mark explore our word of the week: ICE, as in the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. We will look closely at the recent events in Los Angeles surrounding ICE, as well as the event in Spokane, Washington. We will also hear from several of the participants of the Spokane ICE protest. And then we hear from Robbie Liben who reads his opinion piece on “The L...

Our word of the week is “General Strike,” which we describe and pull up stories on some general strikes from this year. We then hear from Rose, a leader of Missoula Resists, who are organizing to oppose some of the Trump agenda. We then discuss an opinion piece I wrote on how to organize a general strike here in Montana. We finish with discussing a horrifying practice by the nation’s largest healt...

Our word of the week is “Missoula Unions,” in reference to the panel discussion of union members held on May Day, sponsored by the Western Montana chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, that we will play in its entirety. We will follow up the panel discussion recording with the thoughts and analysis of our Voice of the People hosts, Linda Gillison, Soundman Jim and Mark.

Sue Kirchmyer, Soundman Jim and Mark host this week's show. Our word of the week is “Oligarchy,” in reference to the recent speaking tour of Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, and Sara Nelson called “Fighting the Oligarchy.” We will listen to all three speeches given In Missoula at the end of that tour for most of our show today. We will follow up those speeches with thoughts and analys...

Soundman Jim and Mark host this show where our word of the week is “Hands Off,” in regard to the massive nationwide protests on April 5th. We will hear from speakers and participants of the Missoula event held at the Missoula County Courthouse. We will also hear from the Montanans for Palestine rally that immediately followed the rally at the Courthouse.

Our word of the week is “Medicaid,” the publicly funded heathcare insurance. We will hear from a rally in Missoula on March 18th in front of US Senator Steve Daine’s office called “No Medicaid Cuts.” Then we hear from our intrepid Soundman Jim who will share some of what he learned in Japan. Then we continue our series of roundtable discussions about the prospects of revolution in this time of the...

The word of the Week is Affordable Housing. And so we listen in on the Maple Street Flats Tenants Association as they outline their struggles in their affordable housing. Then we hear from the Executive Director of the Missoula Housing Authority, the landlord of the Maple Street Flats, who responds to the tenants concerns. The last half of the show is a new feature of Voice of the People. Featurin...

Linda Gillison and Mark host today's show. Our word of the week is “Missoula City Council.” After providing some introduction about Missoula, for the rest of the show we will listen to a panel presentation from January 30th by Missoula City Councillors Kristen Jordan and Daniel Carlino, entitled “Socialism in Missoula,” sponsored by the Western Montana Democratic Socialists of America.

Our word of the week is “Empire” and in the last half of the show we will hear University of Montana history professor Richard Drake share his views on the current state of the US Empire. Before that, we will look at organized workers taking strike action at Starbucks, Amazon, and the healthcare workers at the Providence hospitals in Oregon. Plus, we look at the actions of the Swedish Dockworkers...

Linda Gillison, Soundman Jim and Mark host the show this week. Our word of the week is “H-1B Visa” and how they are affecting workers in the computer and software industries. We will then take a look at the war of words in the Trump camp over these same H-1B visas. Then we turn to H-2B visas, what the outgoing Biden Administration is doing with them and how it affects US truckers. Next, we hear DS...

Linda Gillison, Soundman Jim and Mark explore our word of the week: “Libertarianism.” We will also take a look at what the so-called libertarian President of Argentina is doing to his nation in his first year in office. Then we discuss why the Democrats lost big time and what they could do about it. We then read the actual manifesto of Luigi Mangione and what his action may portend. Following that...

Soundman Jim and Mark are joined by Sandy Burch and Chris Austin to discuss our word of the week: “Democratic Socialism.” We will discuss what it is and answer what critics say about democratic socialism. We then discuss with Sandy and Chris about their work in Montana with the Democratic Socialists of America. Finally we begin to look at the Russian missile, Oreshnik, which many commentators rega...

Soundman Jim and Mark explore our word of the week: “Sitdown Strike.” And Jim will read an excerpt from Jeremy Brecher’s book Strike! about the first sitdown strikes by rubber workers in Akron, Ohio in 1936. And we check in on the progress made on the United Autoworkers plan to prepare unions for a 2028 general strike. We also take a look at the end of the Boeing strike. Finally, we discuss some r...

Linda Gillison and Mark explore our word of the week: “Fascism.” We look to the scholarship of Robert O. Paxton about what that slippery term fascism is and is not, and under what conditions it thrives. And its applicability to Donald Trump. Following that, we end our show with a featured interview of Professor Nancy MacLean who will speak to us about the current Christian nationalist movement in...

Our word of the week is “Liberal Democracy.” To explore our word of the week, we first hear from Maria Bustos as she explains why the Trump-like self-described “anarcho-capitalist” Javier Millei was elected Argentina’s President late last year. Then we look at why the US Democratic Party’s pro-union electoral strategy is failing, and some reasons why many workers support Donald Trump for US Presid...

Soundman Jim and Mark explore our word of the week: “Iran”, its history, political economy and culture. Then we cover the escalating war in the Middle East, its connection to Iran, and the escalating war against free speech in the US. We feature an interview by Dialogue Work with Col (ret.) Larry Wilkerson, and an editorial by DSA organizer Brian Myers.

Linda Gillison, Soundman Jim and Mark explore our word of the week “Money;" we look at what money is and isn’t, where it comes from, and why it can address the crises we face as a society. We then look at the Machinists strike against Boeing. Next we look at the deepening housing crisis in Montana. Then we discuss what the implications are with Israel’s exploding pagers.

Joining Soundman Jim and Mark is Linda Gillison. Our word of the week is “The American Worker”, as we look at how working people and their organizations are faring in the US and specifically Montana. We then listen to a video produced last year of interviews of working class Trump supporters at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania that may surprise some of our listeners. Finally, we look at the worker si...

Our word of the week is another one of our latest series: the Rojava Social Revolution. This is the second part of our look at what Noam Chomsky said is a revolution that offers “a compelling alternative vision for reviving politics as a collective force for worthy and necessary social transformation.” Soundman Jim and Mark then take a look at the unsuccessful attempts by Montana’s Republican Secr...

Soundman Jim, Sue Kirchmyer and Mark learn about our word of the week which is another one of our latest series: the Rojava Social Revolution. This is the first part of our look at what Noam Chomsky said is a revolution that offers “a compelling alternative vision for reviving politics as a collective force for worthy and necessary social transformation.” We then take a careful look at the Israeli...

Our word of the week is another one in our latest series: the 2011 Tunisian Nonviolent Revolution. We then hear an interview of Jeremy Rathbun, a Vice President of the Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, on its troubles with the national AFL-CIO. We then have an obituary of an inspiring leader of the revived organizing labor movement, Jane McAlevey. We then take a quick peek at possible labor st...

Our word of the week is another one of our latest series: the Swedish Social Revolution. We take a look at the sorry state of labor rights in the world, including the US. Then we look at the “most intense US naval combat since World War 2 in the Red Sea in direct opposition to the genocide in Gaza. We then hear Missoula Councilor Kristin Jordan read her published opinion piece on the way forward f...

Our word of the week is a big one, Nonviolent Social Revolution. We rebroadcast the Evolutionary Activist podcast of February 26, 2020 by Patricia Pearce called Nonviolence and Possibilities in Times of Polarization – an interview with George Lakey. We then deconstruct the myth of the so-called massacre in Beijing’s Tienanmen Square on June 4th, 1989. Following that we look at President Biden’s au...

We hear from tenants of the Eagle Watch Estates apartment complex in Missoula who have organized to get their issues resolved by an unresponsive landlord. That follows our Word of the Week, the “CIO Organizng Method,” and how the method may also explain why the United Autoworkers Unions lost the election at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama. On today’s show we also feature Robbie Liben and his op...

Our word of the week is a novel one, “3 1/2%” and what that means (% of a population persistently engaged in nonviolent resistance to succeed). We will hear speeches from the April 14th Palestine solidarity rally held in Bozeman, Montana. Then we will hear from Bozemanite Rylee Dunn on the Montana “Vote No Preference” campaign. We will look closer at the protests on the University campuses all acr...