Between The Lines - Ralph Nader's impressions of Occupy Wall Street movement and its threat to the political and economic status quo (Week Ending Nov. 18, 2011)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

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Ralph Nader on the Threat Posed by Occupy Wall Street to U.S. Political and Economic Status Quo

RealAudio MP3

Posted Nov. 9, 2011

Interview with Ralph Nader, three-time independent presidential candidate, consumer advocate and author, conducted by Scott Harris

With thousands of new activists participating in hundreds of encampments across the nation each week, the Occupy Wall Street movement is moving forward, even if the eventual goals and list of demands are not yet clear.

The Nov. 2 general strike in Oakland, Calif., called on short notice to respond to police violence, organized thousands of activists to march downtown and close down the city’s busy container port. Many observers were struck by the success of that citywide action and diversity of participants, demonstrating the power of this new movement that wasn’t even in existence just two short months ago.

Now with ongoing police challenges to Occupy encampments in dozens of cities and towns, derogatory media stories focusing on "drug use" and "sex assaults" - and challenges of preparing for the cold winter ahead, many activists are sitting down to contemplate longer term strategies on how to grow the movement and more effectively disseminate their message protesting corporate greed, political corruption and economic inequality.

Many longtime progressive activists and intellectuals from across the U.S. have offered support to the Occupy movement and have visited encampments to conduct teach-ins and provide advice, if asked. Ralph Nader is among them. The three-time independent presidential candidate credits this new movement with changing the national conversation from one focused on austerity to unaccountable corporate crime and abuse. The protesters’ grievances echo Nader’s primary message through his five-decade career as a consumer advocate, citizen activist and candidate. Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Ralph Nader about his impressions of the Occupy Wall Street movement and the threat it poses to the political and economic status quo.

RALPH NADER: Well, I think it's the early stages of repealing a long-repressed demand for justice. You know, you can't live in this country and see all those great reports on corporate crime and control over our government and Big Money buying politicians and Wall Street crash on the backs of workers and investors and taxpayer bailouts without having that start churning your core of decency and what you think fair play is among people in a country like ours. I think this came out of nowhere, in the sense that no one could have predicted this.

I wrote a column and you can see it on Nader.org, a few months ago, right after the Tunisian and Egyptian breakthrough. And, I said, you never know where the spark's going to come from. And when it comes, people are going to say, "Wow, how amazing. Where'd it come from?"

Well, the spark basically, was young people - it usually starts with people in their 20s, who are willing to camp out and march and engage in nonviolent civil disobedience, and be arrested. And they took over public space; they took over the commons. And, in so doing now, they've planted themselves in dozens and dozens of communities, right down to Niles, Mich., which has 12,000 people. And, their signs indicate what they are going for, which is a broad range of justice, the deconcentration of corporate power, the end of the bailouts, a complete shift of public budget priorities to the needs and necessities of tens of millions of Americans, a public works program, getting out of those criminal wars. I mean, this is a very fundamental movement. So much so, that some of the tea partiers who visited the Occupy New York area in Zuccotti Park were ready for a friendly argument. They went away agreeing with the Occupy Wall Street people on about five major issues.

BETWEEN THE LINES: We just saw on Nov. 5th a transfer of about 650,000 accounts from the big banks to smaller community banks and credit unions. In your opinion, are the elite powers that be in the U.S., threatened by the Occupy Wall Street movement and how seriously do they take the threat presented by this movement to the economic and political status quo?

RALPH NADER: Well, I think some of them made fun of the movement at the beginning, and others, I think, felt they had some grievance. You had some surprising statements of approval by some Republicans. But, I think now, Scott, they're beginning to sweat a bit. I think, when they see movements away from big banks to community banks, that's language these big bankers understand. And if it wasn't for the fact that so many people have these bank accounts also have electronic payment connections - where their electric and telephone and other bills are paid electronically – it would be much easier to move. So, it takes awhile for them to disconnect, and that's why it's so impressive that 650,000 people in less than two months, have moved away from these banks to credit unions. And if that starts going, and more people vote with their consumer feet, they won't be laughing any more. These business bosses will start to buy more underarm deodorant.

BETWEEN THE LINES: (Laughs) That's good for them, and good for the cosmetic industry, too, I guess. I wanted to ask a question about the targeting of Congress. You recently wrote a column suggesting that the Occupy Wall Street movement might encircle the offices of members of Congress, especially those ones who are standing in the way of some common sense reforms and structural changes to this very unfair system. What's your view on that?

RALPH NADER: Yeah, I think that's the next stage. They're looking for more Occupy sites for demonstrations and I'm urging them, because they're so decentralized, to surround many of the 535 offices of their senators and representatives back home. And, you know, just look in the phone book under U.S. Congress, and you'll see where they are, the offices. And you surround them, just the way 10,000 people surrounded the White House to try to persuade Obama to block the XL pipeline. And, I think if they do that, the bubble in Congress - I mean, Congress has hardly felt this. I mean, they're still going about their oligarchic, plutocratic, narcissistic and ignorant activities there on Capitol Hill. They haven't yet felt it, but I think that's the next stage they should go through.

These people (the occupiers) are very computer-savvy. They've lived for years in virtual reality, looking at screens. And now they know that the action really is in physical reality. It's in reality, on the ground, here, there, everywhere. If they maintain their discipline and their nonviolent open civil disobedience, they will continue to generate that kind of moral authority.

Ralph Nader's newest book is titled, “Getting Steamed to Overcome Corporatism: Build It Together To Win.” Visit Between The Lines’ special Occupy Wall Street coverage and resource page for more information at www.btlonline.org/occupy.