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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



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



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




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




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






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



SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017



SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017




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



SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017



SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017



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



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




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




SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven



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.


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Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

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"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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Occupy Wall Street Has Potential to be a Transformative Movement for Social Change

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Posted Nov. 23, 2011

Interview with Richard Wolff, economics professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, now visiting professor at the New School University's graduate program in international affairs, conducted by Scott Harris

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The Democratic and Republican chairmen of the congressional super committee's announcement that they had failed to reach agreement on cutting the nation’s deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next decade was greeted by some with disappointment. But many others were relieved that proposed severe austerity measures were off the table, at least for now. President Obama and congressional legislators from both parties have consistently discussed their desire to reach a so-called “grand bargain” that would reach deficit reduction targets largely by invoking draconian cuts in benefits for recipients of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in exchange for some modest tax increases.

The deal that brought about the 12-member Joint House – Senate Super Committee, endowed with extraordinary powers, came out of Tea Party-Republican obstruction of an extension of the national debt ceiling that many saw as a tactic to extort concessions on budget cuts. This manuever brought the federal government uncomfortably close to default and resulted in the downgrading of the U.S. bond rating in August. Now with the super committee's failure, an automatic $1.2 trillion in cuts will be made from the defense and domestic budgets unless Congress arrives at a new agreement.

But while Tea Party politicians’ push for austerity measures, accompanied by their slogan that government is the enemy may have gone virtually unchallenged over the last two years, the exponential growth of the new Occupy Wall Street movement and the popularity of their message decrying economic inequality and political corruption may have changed the political climate in Washington. The Democrats’ uncharacteristic refusal to cave in to GOP demands, may be attributed to the power of the Occupy movement. Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with spoke with Richard Wolff, professor of economics at the New School University’s graduate program in international affairs. He assesses the power of the Occupy Wall Street movement and how the European economic crisis could be a preview of the battles ahead here in the U.S.

RICHARD D. WOLFF: You know, it wasn't that many months ago that all we heard about was the Tea Party. Now we barely read about the Tea Party; we read about "Occupy This, Occupy That" and the next thing. It is extraordinary. They have raised these basic questions about our economic system. The unfairness of it, the 99 v. 1 percent. But they've had the courage we haven't seen in 50 years in the United States. They're questioning our economic system – capitalism, by name. And they're saying it's long overdue. For 50 years, we've debated our educational system, our transportation system. Last year, we had a national debate about our health system. But one thing is off limits. One thing is a taboo. Our economic system. So we don't debate and criticize and see if we can do better the way we ought in a healthy society. We've had a taboo because of the Cold War, and because of the kind of hysterical anti-communism that has suffused our country all these years. And this is a movement that is questioning all that and doing it in a straightforward and honest way, resisting the efforts of the authorities to squelch it, of the police to intimidate it.

It is amazing what has been done in two months and every sign points to this being a movement in the early stages of changing the United States. And I think it's an incredible time to be alive and to be able to watch, and ever better, to participate.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Now, I wonder from the perspective of someone who has seen movements come and go, and protests come and go, do you see what's developed here with the Occupy Wall Street movement as a transformative movement vs. a short-lived series of protests?

RICHARD D. WOLFF: In the years since I've been born and lived my life in the United States, I've seen protest movements, but most of them have been focused on single issues: the concern for civil liberties, the concern for civil rights, for the right to have your own sexual orientation, for the right of immigrants to have a decent chance at the American Dream and all of that. And I noticed each time, that the movements were specific; they were around a single issue; and when they tried to broaden out, they were told even by their friends, "It's too dangerous, don't raise these basic questions about American society. It will only divide you; it will get you in trouble." And that's what contributed to keeping the economic system from being subjected to the normal criticism that we use to subject to others systems to make them better. It was part of a way that even the critics of our society who were trying to make it better shied away from facing the economic realities of our system.

And this is the first movement I've ever seen that doesn't shy away, that puts it front and center, that says, "Look, beyond the particular issues we disagree about, 99 percent of us know in our hearts that this is a system that is making the rich richer and everybody else is having a harder time. And that's basic, and that unites us, and if we focus on that, we can make the biggest, most far-reaching changes that this country needs and we can do it because we'll all be together. That kind of unity, that kind of overcoming of the fragmentation that has afflicted critical social movements in the past, that is an enormous transformative, new start in the United States.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Well, professor Wolff, before you go, maybe you can talk about the battle going on right now in Europe over austerity policies that are being foisted on the people of Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland and other nations and the resistance we see developing in the street. Where is that battle headed and do you think that the result of the conflicts in Europe may usher some new economic structures that will be fair and that will maybe displace the euro as the common currency, but in the end, will spare the people pf Europe from these draconian policies that are coming down on them from a hierarchy that they don't seem to be able to control.

RICHARD D. WOLFF: I think that we ought to pay close attention to Europe, because Europe is shaping up to be our future that we can look at before we arrive at it, and maybe we can navigate our future a little bit better by paying close attention to the pre-war of it in Europe now. Basically, you're seeing in Europe a fundamental civil conflict between the business community, the banks and the politicians that they control trying to maintain the power, trying to respond to this crisis which gets deeper each year by policies that protect their dominance in the society. And on the other hand, the mass of people who don't see their interest being represented, who see the crisis as an assault on their well-being, who see government's handling of it a further assault on their well-being and who have now dug in their heels and said, "This crisis is your fault, the recovery you made served only you. You're not now going to make us pay for your failed economic system and your failed political system on top of it."

But the punchline here is, the exact same battle over the exact same issues (are) what's going on in the United States. The details are different; the basic story is the same.

Richard Wolff's latest book is titled, “Capitalism Hits the Fan.” Find more articles by Richard D. Wolff at RDWolff.com. Visit Between The Lines’ special Occupy Wall Street coverage and resource page for more information at www.btlonline.org/occupy.

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