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.
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.
Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement
Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris
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
Email us with your mailing address at contact@btlonline.org to receive our "Resist Trump/Resist Hate" car window cling!
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.
"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.
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.
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.
A compilation of activist and news sites with a progressive point of view
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.
Learn how to support our efforts!
Tweets by @BTLRadioNewsPosted Sept. 28, 2016
Interview with John Harrity, president of the Connecticut State Council of Machinists, conducted by Melinda Tuhus
The AFL-CIO recently announced its support of the controversial Dakota Access pipeline, which is opposed by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, through whose ancestral land it passes. The labor federation says the pipeline will create jobs for their members, while ignoring the fact that moving half a million barrels of crude oil a day will have a devastating impact on the climate.
Meanwhile, 1,200 delegates of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, who gathered in Chicago for their convention in early September, voted in favor of a resolution to make the fight against climate change a priority for the foreseeable future. John Harrity, president of the Connecticut State Council of Machinists since 2011, initiated the resolution. Harrity, who has been a member of the union for 37 years and works at Pratt & Whitney, first won support for his resolution from members of his Connecticut local.
Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with John Harrity, who says he was inspired to become active on climate change issues after reading a 2012 article in Rolling Stone magazine written by environmentalist Bill McKibben. The article titled, "Global Warming's Terrifying New Math" explained that we must leave 80 percent of fossil fuels in the ground if humans hope to keep global warming below two degrees Celsius, which was until recently considered the tipping point for runaway climate chaos. However, more up-to-date research shows that the tipping point is more likely 1.5 degrees. Here, Harrity tells the story of how delegates were moved to support his resolution, and how the Machinists' union adoption of an activist position on global warming could influence the U.S. labor movement.
JOHN HARRITY: The issue was that we have thousands of members who work in fossil fuel-related industries, and in particular on the railroads, hauling coal that goes from Appalachia to the West Coast in order to be put on ships and sent to China. And those workers are understandably concerned about their future and about their jobs, and they are more likely to be against anything that talks about climate change than they are to be supportive of it. And I can totally appreciate their dilemma, but climate change is a crisis for the world, and certainly for working people. I tell every group that I address that climate change is the most critical issue facing all of us for the rest of our lives, and I think people are slowly beginning to realize that.
When the resolution came up, the committee that reviews resolutions recommended that the convention not pass the resolution because of the fears from the fossil fuel folks, and under discussion delegates get up and speak pro or con on what’s before them, and there were six mics and people at all six said that they were opposed to the resolution and hoped it would be voted down. But before debate is closed, the president of the union, who is chairing the meeting, always asks if anyone was speaking in opposition. And so, I was. My opposition was that they should pass the resolution. So I spoke to the delegates and I basically told them that our kids and our grandkids were counting on us to deal with this issue, and that it was coming regardless of whether we did a resolution or not, but it needed our leadership, it needed our involvement, and especially if things involve our members. As I said to the delegates, if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu, and so we need to be involved in this struggle going forward.
I spoke for about six minutes. I actually had to get permission from the chair because I had exceeded my time, and the delegates approved that. And then I finished up and there was a voice vote. And the chair was uncertain which way the voice vote went, so there was a standing vote of the delegates – the only standing vote that happened at this year’s convention.
I asked them if they would, before they voted, to take out their cell phones and look at a picture of their kids or their grandkids, because those were the people they were affecting by their vote on the resolution. I think that that’s what people need to think about, and what I’m told is that that was effective in getting people to think about it. And the vote was 503 against the resolution and 607 for the resolution, so the resolution passed. It was a great moment, I think, for the union, because it put us in the position of moving forward and being in the leadership of this issue, which is where we need to be. There’s a lot that has to be done; we cannot begin doing it without having the approval of the body, and this certainly clarified that, and it was absolutely clear that the majority of people there – not an overwhelming majority but a majority in our democratic organization – wanted to take a position that our union should be involved in the fight against climate change. So I think it was a great step for our union and hopefully will get a number of U.S. unions following suit and we can address this more aggressively than we have.
BETWEEN THE LINES: John Harrity, is there a labor group working nationally on this issue?
JOHN HARRITY: The group I’m most aware of, which is also an excellent organization, is the Labor Network for Sustainability. And that brings together people that are interested in this issue across unions and gets people together. They put out different studies that assess…as much as climate change is a crisis we think it’s also an opportunity to rebuild the U.S. economy on the basis of a renewable energy economy, which is a huge undertaking and should provide literally millions of jobs in taking that on, and it’s a necessary task. So, anyway, the Labor Network for Sustainability has been great in getting the data together, which indicates the effect of these policies and also of encouraging folks like me to try and bring their unions around to understanding that climate change is something that the labor movement needs to be involved in.
Learn more about Connecticut State Council of Machinists by visiting ctstatecouncil.goiam.org/.
Related Links: