Beatrice Codianni and Brett Davidson: The International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers Calls for Decriminalization

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.

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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.

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The International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers Calls for Decriminalization

Posted Dec. 20, 2017

Excerpts of talks by Sex Workers and Allies Network cofounder Beatrice Codianni and Connecticut Bail Fund Executive Director Brett Davidson at The International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers rally in New Haven, CT, recorded and produced by Melinda Tuhus

The International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers was observed this year on Dec. 17 in cities here in the U.S. and around the world. A group in New Haven, Connecticut – calling themselves Sex Workers and Allies Network, or SWAN, held a rally and march in solidarity with sex workers – and to mourn the many women – and some men – who have died or were murdered on the street. Those attending the rally also remembered two local women who disappeared and are now presumed dead.

Beatrice Codianni co-founded SWAN and spends time almost every day walking New Haven’s streets to offer help and comfort to sex workers. SWAN members engage in daily outreach and harm reduction in the city, handing out winter clothes, clean needles, condoms and naloxone, a medication that treats opioid overdoses. She works together with Brett Davidson, executive director of the Connecticut Bail Fund.

Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus attended the Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers rally in New Haven and recorded the speakers who addressed the gathering. We first hear from Beatrice Codianni, co-founder of SWAN, followed by Brett Davidson of the Connecticut Bail Fund.

Learn more about the growing sex workers rights movement by visiting International Day To End Violence against Sex Workers at december17.org; and december17.org/about.

BEATRICE CODIANNI: At the end of October last year, I happened to pick up my phone and on one of my news apps I saw the faces of 14 women, and it said, “14 women arrested in prostitution sting” and it made me go batshit crazy because years ago I was strung out on heroin and I was out there on the street – and I was in the closet about that for 50 years because I was so ashamed and so stigmatized. And here they were doing it to these women. But what really, really made me go batshit crazy was it said, “This sting was a massive undercover operation.” So I got in touch with the chief of police, who claimed he didn’t know anything about it, that it was done below him and he doesn’t hear about these things. So I told him, “A massive undercover operation? All that money, all those resources, could have gone to help the women on the street instead of arresting them and stigmatizing not only them, but their children.”

So, he agreed to meet with Brett and I. The end result was the chief called the stings off, which was really amazing because usually they don’t do that. So then after that Brett and I and other activists in the community got together and said we have to do more. So we – not knowing what we were doing – got little goodie bags with things that people in the organization donated – hats, gloves, scarves, hand-warmers, a little personal item, coffee cards to Dunkin' Donuts so people can get off the street for a minute and keep warm. And we just walked down the street and we saw women and we told them about the rally we had and we invited them to it. They didn’t come, but we just kept coming back and talking to the women – if you know someone who’s a sex worker, we had a card and we had information about it, and gradually the women started talking to us and pouring their hearts out. We asked, What do you need? And every one of them said “housing.” We couldn’t supply that because we are broke.

But we pass out condoms, we do needle exchange. We’re a part now of the Greater Hartford Coalition for Harm Reduction. They supply us with Narcan kits and they came in handy for one of our members who overdosed, but the person she was with knew she had a Narcan kit, and he saved her life. We also partner with Phil Costello, who works with Cornell Scott Hill Health Center. He’s an APRN (advanced practice RN). He comes out with us in the street and does street medicine. He will write a prescription if somebody needs an antibiotic for cellulitis. He’ll help clean out abscesses. He sat on the ground and bandaged feet of women whose feet were a mess because they walk so much their feet were blistered.

So, we’re building up a reputation on the street of being a very useful organization among our members. I’m very proud to say that SWAN was invited to the George Soros Open Foundation for Sex Workers Summit. We’re getting recognition. We spoke in Albany. Jackie and I spoke in California and next month Yale Global Health Justice Partnership is partnering with SWAN. What we’d like is for the city to do something. We are just a grassrootS organization making huge changes, building a coalition, getting trust and respect. This could have been done years ago, and it hasn’t. I don’t want to talk too much; I know it’s cold. So I’m going to turn it over to Brett. Do you want to say about the bail fund? [Applause]

BRETT DAVIDSON: It’s not easy work coming out here every day because there’s constant crises. People are out here dying, undergoing a lot of violence. All kinds of political violence, violence from people on the street. And Beatrice, often by herself, is there as the only witness and the only source of protection for a lot of people out here. So our whole community owes a huge debt of gratitude to Beatrice.

CROWD VOICES: I know. Thank you, Beatrice.

BRETT DAVIDSON: And then a quick word about the way the Connecticut Bail Fund has been able to work with SWAN. One of the issues that sex workers in our community face is criminalization, and a lot of time sex workers are profiled by the police, targeted, arrested, if not for prostitution, for other charges because the police are profiling them as sex workers just for standing on the street. And so we’ve had a handful of people in our community taken out of our community and incarcerated in Niantic over the course of just the past year we’ve been doing this work, and so, we’ve been really honored to partner with SWAN as the Bail Fund in order to bail people out so we can make sure no one in our community is being incarcerated for doing sex work. We believe sex work should be completely decriminalized. Our next move on this front is that this Tuesday the CT Bail Fund, in partnership with SWAN and a few other organizations, is going out to Niantic to bail a number of women out who are incarcerated at York Correctional. [Applause]

[My colleague] Ana Maria and I were looking at the data this morning about who’s incarcerated right now in the state of Connecticut. And we know there’s lots of sex workers incarcerated and there’s at least seven people who are there explicitly on prostitution charges. So, the criminalization is real, and there are people there whose bonds are as high as $50,000 for being arrested for prostitution, who are incarcerated right now, so we’re marching in solidarity with them, too. Yeah, I just want to close by saying I’m grateful for being here and committed to the future of SWAN.