Labor Express Radio

This is the full 2-16-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. On tonight's Labor Express, we continue to remember the life and legacy of James Thindwa. First, James colleague from struggles at both Jobs with Justice and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and friend of 16 years, Carlos Fernandez offers his reflections on his years of working with James. In the second half of the program, another archive interview with James. This one from November of 2008 focusing on James' analysis of the meaning for organized labor of Obama's first presidential election victory. James' warnings about the limitations of electoral politics are especially relevant in this election year. Labor Express Radio is Chicago's only English language labor news and current affairs radio program. News for working people, by working people. Labor Express Radio airs every Sunday at 8:00 PM on WLPN in Chicago, 105.5 FM. For more information, see our Facebook page...   laborexpress.org and our homepage on Archive.org at: http://www.archive.org/details/LaborExpressRadio

This is the full 2-2-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. On January 19th the Chicago labor and social justice movements lost a dedicated organizer, spokesperson and fighter. James Thindwa touched many lives in a host of vital social movements in Chicago and beyond. Whether as an African solidarity activist, the staff director of Citizen Action Coalition of Indiana and Ohio, the lead organizer in Chicago for Metro Seniors in Action, the ED of Chicago Jobs with Justice or his last major organizing role as the Civic Engagement Coordinator at AFT, James was a powerful voice with a unique ability to speak with great moral clarity and vision on a host of topics important to working people and people of color. Over the next month or more I will endeavor to remember James contributions to the Chicago labor movement through his interviews conducted with either Labor Express Radio or Labor Beat TV as well as reminiscences with those closest to him. I start that tonight with two pieces from the archives. The first is audio from a Labor Beat TV video, originally released in December 2014, entitled “The Wage Slave and the Jackboot”, that connects the Fight for 15 with the fight against police brutality. The second is from even further back in the Labor Express radio archive. In the Summer of 2008, James birth nation of Zimbabwe where several of his family continues to reside, was going through one of its most difficult periods with a stolen election, inflation over 100,000 percent, drought, and serious food insecurity. I asked James to explain the situation facing the people of Zimbabwe and once again, James took a complex situation and explained it thoroughly, but also made it concise and accessible. Labor Express Radio is Chicago's only English language labor news and current affairs radio program. News for working people, by working people. Labor Express Radio airs every Sunday at 8:00 PM on WLPN in Chicago, 105.5 FM. For more information, see our Facebook page...   laborexpress.org and our homepage on Archive.org at: http://www.archive.org/details/LaborExpressRadio

This is the full 1-19-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. John Ocampo, union organizer with UE (United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America) and member of the board of directors of the Alliance for Global Justice (AfGJ) and US Labor Against the War (USLAW) reports back from a recent labor delegation to Colombia.  Colombia is currently experiencing the most significant wave of street protests the nation has seen in decades with Colombians fed up with the right wing government of Iván Duque.  Ocampo provides a brief but comprehensive overview of recent Colombian history that has set the stage for the recent protests. Labor Express Radio is Chicago's only English language labor news and current affairs radio program. News for working people, by working people. Labor Express Radio airs every Sunday at 8:00 PM on WLPN in Chicago, 105.5 FM. For more information, see our Facebook page...   laborexpress.org and our homepage on Archive.org at: http://www.archive.org/details/LaborExpressRadio

This is the full 1-5-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. Oscar Chacón, Executive Director of Alianza Americas, discusses the current state of struggles for a just society across Latin America. It is a wide-ranging conversation about the current situation in Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and the rest of the hemisphere and the history of how we have come to this point. Labor Express Radio is Chicago's only English language labor news and current affairs radio program. News for working people, by working people. Labor Express Radio airs every Sunday at 8:00 PM on WLPN in Chicago, 105.5 FM. For more information, see our Facebook page...   laborexpress.org and our homepage on Archive.org at: http://www.archive.org/details/LaborExpressRadio

This is the full 12-22-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. Chilean human rights activist Mario Venegas, a victim of the Pinochet regime who has made Chicago his home for the last 30 years, talks about his recent visit to Chile and the ongoing uprising there challenging the very foundations of the neoliberal state. Plus, Angela Davis speaks at the refounding convention of the National Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression. Labor Express Radio is Chicago's only English language labor news and current affairs radio program. News for working people, by working people. Labor Express Radio airs every Sunday at 8:00 PM on WLPN in Chicago, 105.5 FM. For more information, see our Facebook page...   laborexpress.org and our homepage on Archive.org at: http://www.archive.org/details/LaborExpressRadio

This is the full 12-8-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. This episode includes a speech given by presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders to the Chicago Teachers Union as they voted to launch their historic 2019 strike.  It also includes an interview with Shaun Richman, an In These Times contributing writer and the Program Director of the Harry Van Arsdale Jr. Center for Labor Studies at SUNY Empire State College analyzing Sanders labor platform conducted by Ken Nash of Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report on WBAI in New York City.  For more on Building Bridges see their website at…  http://buildingbridgesradio.blogspot.com/ Labor Express Radio is Chicago's only English language labor news and current affairs radio program. News for working people, by working people. Labor Express Radio airs every Sunday at 8:00 PM on WLPN in Chicago, 105.5 FM. For more information, see our Facebook page...   laborexpress.org and our homepage on Archive.org at: http://www.archive.org/details/LaborExpressRadio

This is the full 11-24-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. This episode features an interview with veteran Chicago Public Schools (CPS) teacher, Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) bargaining team member and one of CORE’s (Caucus of Rank and File Educators) founders, Kenzo Shibata about the recently concluded CTU/SEIU strike at CPS with an analysis of the strike, the resulting new 5 year contract and its implications for the future. Labor Express Radio is Chicago's only English language labor news and current affairs radio program. News for working people, by working people. Labor Express Radio airs every Sunday at 8:00 PM on WLPN in Chicago, 105.5 FM. For more information, see our Facebook page...   laborexpress.org and our homepage on Archive.org at: http://www.archive.org/details/LaborExpressRadio

This is the full 11-3-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. The Tale of Two Strikes: Labor Express examines the outcome of both the UAW strike at GM and the CTU strike at CPS, two potentially historic strikes with radically different results. Plus, strike victory at yet another Chicago charter school, Passages in the Edgewater Neighborhood.  These strikes may well set the stage for union struggles in the public and private sectors for years to come.  In the case of the CTU, the union has expanded what social justice, community based unionism is all about.  Making demands for improving public education concrete and central to their new contract.  They forced the Mayor and the Board of Education to bargain over issues like hiring more school support staff and reducing class sizes that the City in years past had deemed outside the realm of union contract bargaining.  This bodes well for the future of public sector unions which remain strong despite the Janus decision.  Will this strike like the last in 2012 inspire more teachers around the country to follow Chicago’s lead? At GM it is a different story, where the UAW ended the longest strike in a generation with a contract that largely locks in concessions made in the Great Recession.  What does this mean for private sector unions which are already in decline? Labor Express Radio is Chicago's only English language labor news and current affairs radio program. News for working people, by working people. Labor Express Radio airs every Sunday at 8:00 PM on WLPN in Chicago, 105.5 FM. For more information, see our Facebook page...   laborexpress.org and our homepage on Archive.org at: http://www.archive.org/details/LaborExpressRadio

CTU President Jesse Sharkey and SEIU Local 73 Vice-President Jeffrey  Howard speak to the press on day 6 of the CTU-SEIU 73 Chicago Public  Schools strike.  They discuss the letter from Mayor Lori Lightfoot that  indicated that the City and the Board are not serious about making  progress in contract negotiations.  Jesse and Jeffrey discuss  outstanding issues in negotiations like class sizes and prep time for  teachers and PSRPs.  The impromptu press conference followed the rally  headlined by presidential candidate, Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and SEIU Local 73 on strike!  We have been talking about it for months and now its finally here.  The two unions and the Chicago board of ed could not reach agreement and so as of Thursday, October 17th, teachers, PSRPs and other support staff including everybody from custodians to security personnel, to lunch room attendants, to bus aides, etc. went out on strike - some over 30,000 workers at over 500 schools, the 3rd largest school system in the nation.  We will hear from both union officials and rank-and-file union members out on the picket lines on tonight’s program and get an update on the state of contract negotiations as of Friday. Labor Express Radio is Chicago's only English language labor news and current affairs radio program. News for working people, by working people. Labor Express Radio airs every Sunday at 8:00 PM on WLPN in Chicago, 105.5 FM. For more information, see our Facebook page...   laborexpress.org and our homepage on Archive.org at: http://www.archive.org/details/LaborExpressRadio