Between The Lines - Pablo Benson-Silva: Occupy Wall Street Movement Mobilizes to Aid Hurricane Sandy Victims (Week Ending Nov. 30, 2012)

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.

Thank you for donating

If you've made a donation and wish to receive thank you gifts for your donation, be sure to send us your mailing address via our Contact form.

See our thank you gifts for your donation.

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.

Subscribe to our Weekly Summary & receive our FREE Resist Trump window cling

(Car window cling)

Email us with your mailing address at contact@btlonline.org to receive our "Resist Trump/Resist Hate" car window cling!

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.)

Counterpoint in its entirety is archived after midnight ET Monday nights, and is available for at least a year following broadcast in WPKN Radio's Archives.

You can also listen to full unedited interview segments from Counterpoint, which are generally available some time the day following broadcast.

Subscribe to Counterpoint bulletins via our subscriptions page.

BTL Blog

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Special Programming

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Progressive Resources

A compilation of activist and news sites with a progressive point of view

Share this content:

|

Subscribe to BTL

Podcasts: direct or via iTunes

Subscribe to Program Summaries, Interview Transcripts or Counterpoint via email or RSS feed

If you have other questions regarding subscriptions, feeds or podcasts/mp3s go to our Audio Help page.

Between The Lines Blog

Stay connected to BTL

Learn how to support our efforts!

Tweets by @BTLRadioNews

Occupy Sandy Relief Effort Connects Dots Between Wall Street Greed and Nation's Climate Change Paralysis

RealAudio MP3

Posted Nov. 21, 2012

Interview with Pablo Benson-Silva, site manager of one of two Occupy Wall Street relief hub sites in Brooklyn, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

Occupy Wall Street and related groups through InterOccupy have taken on a major relief effort called Occupy Sandy in the wake of the superstorm that hit the East Coast in late October. Volunteers in the New York City area coordinated their efforts from two central hub sites in Brooklyn and fanned out all over the city. They assisted people in neighborhoods that were without power and heat, some more than two weeks after the storm hit, as the November days grew colder and darker.

Another dimension of Occupy’s Hurricane Sandy relief work was the building of bridges between the movement and diverse communities, where discussions turned to politics and economics. Many people in the communities impacted by the storm and Occupy organizers reached common ground in thinking about the urgent need to address climate change that produces dangerous storms like Sandy, as well as concern that developers will soon move to convert storm-damaged affordable housing on the shoreline into expensive luxury homes and expensive condominiums.

Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Pablo Benson-Silva, the coordinator of one of two Occupy hub sites in Brooklyn. He talks about how the relief effort was organized, the role of social media, the massive scale of the all-volunteer organization and the connection between standing up to the one percent and standing up to storms made more devastating by climate change.

PABLO BENSON-SILVA: Our job here is to make sure we match drivers with volunteers and supplies and take it out to different sites that we've opened in the most affected areas. Right now, we're talking about Far Rockaway, Coney Island, Staten Island, Sheepshead Bay. These areas...I just went out yesterday to Far Rockaway and they're just devastated, the scale is pretty overwhelming. So as the week has progressed, we've been opening up sites closer to underserved communities. Right now, the big story coming out is that FEMA, Office for Emergency Management, Red Cross – all these institutional relief players – they've dropped the ball, and we as a kind of makeshift network of non-paid volunteers, have actually outrolled the network that has rivaled their response. We've been able to get aid, volunteers, clean up crews, out into these most devastated areas very quickly. I think it has a lot to do with social media savvy the Occupy movement brings to the equation; and just kind of the enthusiasm, the capacity to do multi-tasking and being at the same time compassionate, right? The kind of community-building experience that Occupy brings to the equation. So far it's been amazing – the response in terms of volunteers, who aren't necessarily affiliated with Occupy; people have just been very anxious to help in any way possible. The good thing about Occupy is that we've been able to figure out how volunteers, through quick orientations and self-motivation and initiative, can do very meaningful work in this relief effort.

Occupy manages two distribution sites. Needs assessments we do with our branches on the ground. We send out volunteers, supplies and drivers on a daily basis. I'd say during the weekends is when we get most of our volunteers. This weekend we probably processed through this site alone close to 5,000 volunteers, and I can't even count the cars. We're finally taking track of all this so we have a better idea of how we're scaling gradually because this has just been kind of an ad hoc operation so far.

BETWEEN THE LINES: I know Occupy is a famously non-hierarchical organization, but is there anybody in charge, or is it a pyramid, or is it just totally horizontal?

PABLO BENSON-SILVA: So, I think the way it's worked actually has been a kind of organic structure that's emerged, based on need. I think one of the amazing things about this group and this operation is it's a real meritocracy. Anyone who can bring a broad skill base and who has time to commit to this operation – extended period of time – immediately gets plucked for organizing and coordination. So yes, obviously, we have organizers and coordinators, but it's a kind of step-up, step-down approach, where people don't get too comfortable in organizing positions, and they're moved around frequently, and plus there's a lot of turnover. I mean, people have other responsibilities besides this hurricane relief, right? So we're constantly switching out coordinators. That's one of the amazing things; you can say Occupy is leaderless, but you can also say it's a "leader-full movement," and we kind of encourage people to take initiative and people with leadership skills immediately find a space for themselves here.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Let me just say, I'm staying with some friends, and my friend has a friend who has a brother who's a trader on Wall Street. He's setting up his own thing, with his own money, and getting volunteers, coordinating it all, somewhere in the Rockaways, and he specifically wants to show – he's a libertarian – that we don't need government. So what do you think this incredible effort by Occupy...what will that show?

PABLO BENSON-SILVA: Occupation's a symbolic act. We're not going to end the financial hegemony of Wall Street by occupying a park, right? It's a space of convergence, of bringing new people in, etc. So I think ... people ask me how is it that Occupy is now doing Sandy relief. And I think Occupy from the beginning has been doing disaster relief. It was doing disaster relief of the financial crisis and getting people involved again in politics beyond electoral politics, in terms of direct action on the streets, and organizing in their communities. I think there is room for people to do autonomous action, right? And this aid relief effort is an autonomous action. Not to say that government has no role in aid relief, in regulating Wall Street, in all these big issues we have to contend with, but at times its structure is extremely inefficient, right? What Occupy represents, perhaps, is a new paradigm shift that shows you don't necessarily always need this top-down approach to relief and just community organizing more generally, right? I think, if anything, governments should learn and institutional charity organizations and NGOs should learn from this approach, right? If they want to be more effective: What can we learn from this new paradigm in mutual aid and solidarity?

For more information on Occupy Sandy, visit OccupySandy.org or Interoccupy.net/occupysandy.