Shannon Jackson: Progressives Ponder Next Move After Ellison Loses to Perez in DNC Chair Election

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.)

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.

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Progressives Ponder Next Move After Ellison Loses to Perez in DNC Chair Election

Posted March 1, 2017

Interview with Shannon Jackson, executive director of Our Revolution, conducted by Scott Harris

As the Democratic Party was adjusting to being iced out of power in Congress and the White House under the Donald Trump presidency, the long-awaited election of a new chairperson of the Democratic National Committee was held in Atlanta, Georgia on Feb. 25. The two main contenders for the post were Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, a supporter of Bernie Sanders' presidential bid and former Obama Labor Secretary Tom Perez. When Perez won the chairmanship by a vote of 235 to 200, there were concerns that many Sanders supporters and other progressives who had supported Ellison may walk away from the party and invest their time and energy in independent political projects.

But Perez, a supporter of Hillary Clinton’s failed bid for the White House, immediately offered an olive branch to his opponent and his many union supporters by offering Ellison the post of deputy chair. Despite serious divisions within the party over issues such as the role of super delegates in the nomination process, a vote that rejected extending the eight-year ban on corporate political action committee donations to the party – and anger at the DNC for tilting toward Hillary Clinton in the primary campaign, Ellison joined Perez in calling for unity in opposing Donald Trump and his right-wing agenda.

Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Shannon Jackson, executive director of Our Revolution, a progressive political action group formed by Bernie Sander’s supporters after the 2016 primary campaign. Here, Jackson reflects on the victory of Tom Perez over Our Revolution’s endorsed candidate Keith Ellison for DNC chair, and the challenges ahead for a party that has seen historic losses in Congress, governors' races and state legislative seats. [Rush transcript]

SHANNON JACKSON: At this point, we really saw an incredible leader in Keith (Ellison). We thought he embodied exactly what we wanted to have the Democratic party become. We thought he had a transformative organizing energy that would have really brought the values that we feel the majority of the electorate that make up the demographic party care about. We felt Keith was, is an incredible leader. He's been an incredible leader while organizing and through his campaign in Minnesota, and on the countless races he's been involved with throughout the U.S., including Sen. Sanders' run for president. It needs to be stated that we are very disappointed that his run was unsuccessful. But we are hopeful that Secretary Perez, now DNC chairman Perez will work with Keith to learn from his skills and supplement his ability to lead the party in that direction. His move to give Rep. Ellison the position of deputy chair was, I hope it could actually become something. It could be said that was a consolation prize. I would hope that Keith does play a very large role in forming a new Democratic party and something that our supporters at OurRevolution want to be a part of.

Regardless of the direction the DNC takes, I'm actually very worried where it goes after the vote it took before the DNC chair was elected. There was a vote accepting large corporation moneys, donations with a ban that had been lifted after eight years of being in place under the Obama administration. It was voted upon by the same members that elected Perez to reinstate it. That does concern me because it does not show me that they are learning from what works and what doesn't work. Our supporters at OurRevolution really are concerned with where money comes from, who we answer to. OurRevolution is proud to have a full disclosure policy and not take any corporate money and we would wish that the DNC followed suit, had the same standards.

But I really do encourage people to get involved locally. I think that we were looking at the DNC race in a two-part strategy. We had the "how are we going to transform the Democratic party?" We were supporting Keith on top; that was our top-down approach. And then we had the bottom-up approach, which we're still actively engaged it, win every state over the next two years as they re-organize their state party for the DNC. There are state party elections and there are precinct races on every level for people to get involved with. I think in total, there's something like 6,800 positions that people can run for locally to be involved at the local level of their Democratic party and make their Democratic party something to be proud of.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Shannon, of the many serious issues that the Democratic party confronts now where they no longer have control of any branch of the federal government, have lost the majority of governors' seats over the past eight years, lost nearly 1,000 legislative seats in state legislatures across the country – what are some of the big issues that you think the party needs to confront internally before they can really tackle the major issues of the all-important message to people around the country as to why Democrats should be trusted with positions of power and decision-making?

SHANNON JACKSON: That's a great question. I think if you look at the country right now, as you said, we've lost over 1,000 seats nationwide at local levels. We do not have – I think the Republicans are just a few governorships away from being able to have a constitutional convention, which they can completely rewrite this country in a direction in which would not to live under. And it's scary, at this point, it's a huge red flag that the Democratic party has been receptive or hearing the people's needs relating to the working class Americans and give them a reason to vote for them. I think they need to take a hard look at their message and see how they can attract the working class Americans back to their party. They have these listening tours that they showcase as they go around and listen to people that are actually living in their communities – I think there should be more than just a show of faith, I think that they should really listen to their constituents. I think that they need to understand that the minimum wage and the progressive platform that we crafted after the election is exactly the direction people need to hit. The Democrats have a very good social platform. They have all the great talking points of bringing people together of rallying around social issues that on a large swathe basis, you could say the Republicans are very divisive. The Democrats are meant for people to come them. They should have everyone racing to them and they should be the ones in power, but they are not, and they have to take a long look at what are the issues that are actually resonating with people. I believe they had issues of economics and the platform that Sen. Sanders ran on. The majority of things the senator spoke about were the issues and the issues that meant the most to people were what they doing in their everyday life – whether it was healthcare, whether it was family leave, whether it was something that affects them today in the workplace, a paycheck. The Democratic party needs to find those values and run on them and talk to the people.

Learn more about Our Revolution at ourrevolution.com.