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On today's program Ralph welcomes Kshama Sawant\u2014teacher, activist, organizer, socialist, and former Seattle City Council Member\u2014 to talk about the labor movement, her organization Workers Strike Back, and how she achieved so many\xa0victories for Seattle's working people. Then, Ralph welcomes the Washington Post's Marc Fisher to discuss his reporting on the "return to office" issue.\xa0

Kshama Sawant is a teacher, activist, organizer, and socialist. Ms. Sawant helped organize demonstrations for marriage equality, participated in the movement to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and was a visible presence in the Occupy Movement. She served in Seattle\u2019s City Council from 2014 to 2023\u2014 defeating a 16-year incumbent Democrat to become the first socialist elected in a major US city in decades. She has taught at Seattle Central Community College, Seattle University, and the University of Washington Tacoma\u2014and she has been an activist in her union, the American Federation of Teachers Local 1789, fighting against budget cuts and tuition hikes. She is co-founder of Workers Strike Back and the host of their news and analysis broadcast On Strike.

It should be extremely energizing for anybody on the Left who wants to aim to provide leadership that we actually have a historic shift going on in American working-class consciousness, where there is a willingness to fight back\u2014 a real hunger for strategy. I would say that what's overwhelmingly clear to me as somebody who's been a socialist, a Marxist, and an activist for well over a decade, is that what working people are parched for is real leadership that can actually garner the kind of victories that ordinary people are looking for.

Kshama Sawant

Business unionism is this idea that the role of the labor leader is to negotiate\u2014to make peace between the bosses and the workers. It's completely wrong. It's exactly the opposite. The role of labor leadership is to organize a fight by mobilizing rank-and-file members against the bosses, with the understanding that the interests of the bosses\u2014the greed of the bosses\u2014is diametrically opposed to the needs of workers.\xa0

Kshama Sawant

If we as working people want to win Medicare for all, we will need mass action\u2014 organized independent of the Democrats and Republicans.\xa0

Kshama Sawant

Marc Fisher is an associate editor of the Washington Post, where he writes a column on Washington\u2014 the city, its suburbs, and the people\u2014 and issues of big-city America. For 37 years, Mr. Fisher worked as a reporter and editor across various news sections at the Post, most recently focusing on Donald Trump and major breaking-news events. He previously created and led the Metro staff's enterprise reporting group, spent a decade as local columnist and blogger, served as the paper's special reports editor, wrote about politics and culture for the Style section, worked as Central Europe bureau chief on the Post\u2019s Foreign staff, and covered D.C. schools and D.C. politics for the Metro section.

Most people who work with their hands are carrying on as they always did. But since COVID, we've seen that offices have emptied out in downtowns across the country. And Washington is particularly hard hit because 15-20% of the workers work for the federal or city governments. So there's been this emptying\u2026 out of downtown Washington, which has had an enormous impact on the economy. So this is a multi-level issue and problem. And yet for many\u2014 if not most\u2014workers, they don't see it as a problem. They see it as a benefit.\xa0

Marc Fisher

In Case You Haven\u2019t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 8/14/24

1. A shocking report from the Libertarian magazine Reason exposes \u201cOperation Rolling Thunder,\u201d an annual \u201cfive-day law enforcement blitz,\u201d in which 11 different agencies \u2013 ranging from local police departments to the federal Department of Homeland Security \u2013 collude to confiscate as much cash as possible on a \u201c20-mile stretch of freeway between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia.\u201d This piece details how officers will fabricate flimsy reasons for pulling drivers over, including \u201cLighting a cigarette\u2026smelling like cologne, avoiding eye contact, being \u2018preoccupied looking for the [car] rental agreement,\u2019 and having a cluttered vehicle that appeared to be \u2018lived in.\u2019\u201d In 2022, these agencies seized \u201c$194,000 per day or more than $8,000 per hour,\u201d through civil asset forfeiture during this operation. Many of these drivers are never charged with so much as a traffic citation, yet are unable to recover any of their property stolen by the cops.

2. Last week, Representative Cori Bush was ousted by an AIPAC-backed primary challenger. An article in Slate details how AIPAC rallied to push the Congresswoman, and fellow Black Lives Matter activist Rep. Jamaal Bowman, out of Congress \u2013 outspending both by a margin of 4-1. This piece paints their losses as the death knell of the \u201cGeorge Floyd Era\u2026in Congress,\u201d noting also that no major reforms were passed \u201cDespite broad popular support for legislation to curtail police violence\u2026[and] Democrats\u2026controlling both the House and Senate in 2021 and 2022.\u201d In her concession speech, the Hill reports Bush vowed in no uncertain terms, \u201cAIPAC, I\u2019m coming to tear your kingdom down!\u201d As for Bowman, rumors are now circulating that he will challenge Rep. Ritchie Torres \u2013 the \u201ctop recipient of AIPAC cash,\u201d according to Track AIPAC \u2013 next cycle. Asked about this idea by journalist Ryan Grim, Minnesota Attorney General and former Congressman Keith Ellison said \u201cThat'd be a very good thing\u2026I"ll put it like this, none of us own these seats.\u201d

3. In related news, a new report in the Intercept exposes the \u201c\u2026 \u2018Zionists for Don Samuels\u2019 WhatsApp Group Raising Big Money to Oust Ilhan Omar.\u201d As this report notes this group contained at least one campaign staffer, Alex Minn \u2013 whom the campaign has since severed ties with \u2013 and major outside donors despite \u201cCampaign finance laws prohibit[ing] coordination between candidates\u2019 campaigns and outside spending groups like super PACs.\u201d One major donor in this group, wealthy entrepreneur Michael Sinensky, wrote \u201cThe bottom line is\u2026we need to be supportive\u2026of the alt right Christian Neo Nazis at the moment (like Ukraine) to fight off the socialist, Marxist, anarchists who are supporting radical Islam\u2026 Nazis are better than Islamic terrorists.\u201d

4. Last week, the Mayor of Nagasaki, Japan held a memorial for those killed in the atomic bombing of that city \u2013 and opted not to invite the Israeli ambassador \u201cto avoid possible protests over Israel\u2019s war on Gaza,\u201d per Al Jazeera. In response, US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel announced he would skip the event because this decision had \u201cpoliticized\u201d the event. The British ambassador to Japan also announced that she would boycott this event due to Israel\u2019s exclusion. According to the BBC, \u201cIn June, [Nagasaki Mayor Shiro] Suzuki said Nagasaki had sent a letter to the Israeli embassy calling for an \u2018immediate ceasefire\u2019 in Gaza.\u201d

5. Journalist Jessica Burbank reports Palestinian American Actress Sarah Alami has called on SAG-AFTRA to \u201cbreak their silence on [the] genocide in Gaza.\u201d In a statement, Alami writes \u201cOur union president has helped raise 60 million dollars to fund Israel\u2019s army,\u201d and decries that many actors have \u201cbeen put on Black lists in Hollywood for speaking out against a foreign government.\u201d Alami also linked to SAG-AFTRA Members for Ceasefire, a group agitating for the Guild to take a principled stand against the genocide.

6. On Monday, the leaders of France, Germany, and the U.K. issued a joint statement \u201ccalling for the immediate resumption of [ceasefire] negotiations,\u201d stressing that \u201cthere can be no further delay\u2026the fighting must end now...the people of Gaza need urgent and unfettered delivery and distribution of aid.\u201d In this statement, President Macron, Chancellor Sholz, and Prime Minister Starmer also expressed that they are \u201cdeeply concerned by the heightened tensions in the region\u201d and are \u201cunited in [their] commitment to de-escalation and regional stability,\u201d ending this statement by writing \u201cNo country or nation stands to gain from a further escalation in the Middle East.

7. Yet despite such strong words from our European allies, the Biden administration has instead taken measures sure to escalate tensions in the region. On August 9th, Zeteo reported that \u201cThe State Department\u2026formally notified Congress of a direct sale of 6,500 joint direct action munitions (JDAM) to Israel.\u201d This shipment, valued at $262 million, was \u201creportedly delayed in May, as it was\u2026under review\u2026[while the] U.S. sought to prevent Israeli forces from pursuing a major ground invasion in Rafah.\u201d Sarah Leah Whitson, the executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), said \u201cIt is hard to comprehend how the Biden administration can justify rewarding Israel with new weapons, despite Israel's persistent defiance of every single plea the Biden administration has made urging a modicum of restraint, and despite the very apparent fact that such sales violate black letter U.S. laws prohibiting weapons to gross abusers like Israel.\u201d The very same day, Reuters reported that \u201cThe Biden administration\u2026decided to lift a ban on U.S. sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia\u2026 reversing a three-year-old policy to pressure the kingdom to wind down the Yemen war.\u201d This move is an unsubtle green-light for the Saudis to recommence their war on the Yemeni Houthis, who have had more success than anticipated in their naval campaign of blockading Israeli ports and attacking American naval vessels in the Red Sea.

8. Much like the presidency of Lyndon Johnson, the Biden administration continues to pursue noble goals at home even while participating in human rights atrocities abroad. On Monday, More Perfect Union reported that \u201cBanks, credit card companies, and more will be required to let customers talk to a human by pressing a single button under a new Biden administration proposed rule.\u201d The pro-labor outlet goes on to say that this rule, coming from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau \u201cis part of a campaign to crack down on customer service \u2018doom loops,\u2019\u201d and simultaneously \u201c[the Federal Trade Commission] is\u2026considering similar requirements for phone, broadband, and cable companies,\u201d while \u201c[The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor] are calling on health plan providers to make it easier to talk to a customer service agent.\u201d Consumer advocates like Ralph Nader have long railed against the increasing difficulty of talking to real person when one calls corporate customer service lines.

9. In more positive news, the UAW reports it has \u201cfiled federal labor charges against disgraced billionaires Donald Trump and Elon Musk for their illegal attempts to threaten and intimidate workers who stand up for themselves by engaging in protected concerted activity, such as strikes.\u201d This attempt to threaten and intimidate workers came during a conversation between Trump and Musk on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday. Trump is quoted saying \u201cI mean, I look at what you do\u2026You walk in, you say, You want to quit? They go on strike, I won\u2019t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, That\u2019s OK, you\u2019re all gone. You\u2019re all gone. So, every one of you is gone.\u201d UAW President Shawn Fain commented \u201cWhen we say Donald Trump is a scab, this is what we mean. When we say Trump stands against everything our union stands for, this is what we mean\u2026Donald Trump will always side against workers standing up for themselves, and he will always side with billionaires like Elon Musk, who is contributing $45 million a month to a Super PAC to get him elected. Both Trump and Musk want working class people to sit down and shut up, and they laugh about it openly. It\u2019s disgusting, illegal, and totally predictable from these two clowns.\u201d

10. Finally, in an almost unbelievable story from the Miami Herald, \u201c[Former President Donald] Trump flew to campaign events on Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s plane last weekend.\u201d Apparently, this plane is now owned by a private plane chartering service, Threshold Aviation Group, and the Trump campaign \u201cconfirmed that a decal with the words \u2018Trump 2024\u2019 was placed on Epstein\u2019s old plane for the trip.\u201d As the Herald points out \u201cTrump was in the same social circles as Epstein,\u201d and records show he \u201cflew on Epstein\u2019s planes six times from 1993 to 1997.\u201d

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven\u2019t Heard.