Building Bridges A Labor Day Special produced by Mimi Rosenberg & Ken Nash

Airing Monday, Sept. 7, 2015, 6 – 10 pm

The income of the top 1% has increased almost 300% in the last 40 years and 1% of the population now rakes in almost a quarter of the national income each year, while working class wages have been stagnant. Wealth inequality gaps are widening and deepening.  For corporate America, the recession meant the opportunity to mold the economy into something approximating the Third World model - vast wealth, power and privilege for those at the top and chronic unemployment, falling wages, deepening and expanding poverty, and inadequate or nonexistent benefits for most of society.

The mantra of the “haves and have mores” has been to slash benefits and entitlements at a time of heightened need, while calling for more tax cuts and advantages for themselves. The Republacrats have both raised cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, life-sustaining programs, as sacrifices on the altar of a balanced budget.  Public assistance continues to be carved away and even life-sustaining food stamp programs are under attack.  The poor are sinking further into destitution and despair.  And, talk of jobs is little more than an opportunistic sound bite for seeking office.   

The merchants of austerity across the country slander immigrants and the unemployed and push back against those fighting for economic opportunity, for a living wage, pensions, benefits - they’re portrayed as selfish and organized labor is characterized as a social pariah undermining the economy.  In fact the Supreme Court’s even gotten into the mix ruling repeatedly against workers’ rights, while holding that corporations have rights that were previously the exclusive reserve of flesh and blood people.            

While the hope that a mass movement for economic and racial justice has yet to coalesce, there are community and worker groups across the country that are fanning the flames for collective activism against the plutocracy, especially with the nationwide fight for a $15 minimum wage and the  protests against police violence against people of color.  While these are inspirational and important they are the first steps towards building a widening group, peoples institutions for sustained action, and deeper confrontation of and efforts for systemic transformation.  So, this Labor Day we’ll build bridges, bringing you a diverse array of voices.  The voices of we the people of the working class, and leading social analysts, major movers and shakers and cultural workers from across the globe will ring loud and clear this Labor Day over WBAI resisting going backwards and providing  inspiration and insights to reverse the war on the workers. This Labor Day we’ll Build Bridges to you.