Mark Weisbrot – Honduran Opposition Leaders Being Murdered While US Pours in Money to Repressive Government and Military

Since a 2009 military coup against the democratic government of President Mel Zelaya, Honduras has become the most dangerous country in the world for environmental and human rights activists. On Oct. 17, two more prominent rural organizers, José Ángel Flores and Silmer Dionisio George, were assassinated in Colón. Flores was the president of the Unified Campesinos Movement of the Aguán Valley …

Project Censored – 06.14.16

This week’s program looks at recent events in Honduras, including the 2009 coup, the 2012 killing of four villagers by a joint US-Honduran patrol at Ahuas,
and the March 2016 assassination of indigenous environmental campaigner Berta Caceres. The guests examine some of the underlying institutions and circumstances there,
including the heavily militarized Honduran police, the US “drug war,” and US willingness to use drug trafficking accusations to bring down critics of the country’s ruling party.

Co-host Maria Robinson is with the Honduran Solidary Network in California.
Karen Spring is also with the Honduran Solidarity Network, and is based in Honduras.
Judy Ancel is president of the Cross-Border Network for Justice and Solidarity, based in Kansas City.

Smart Show (goharrison) with Cary Harrison – 05.09.16

1) CA Overturn Citizens United Act and Let The People Vote Act

Michele Sutter, MOVI (Money Out Voters In) co-founder, is a writer, teacher, producer, and activist. She is a former Story Editor at HBO and a former co-chair of The 29th StreetProject, a New York City based theater artists’ cooperative. She also produced the 2009 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award winning musical adaptation of Aristophanes’ The Wasps.

2) “Hillary Clinton Killed Berta!

Silvio Carrillo is an Oakland, California-based freelance journalist and nephew of Berta Caceres. You can follow the latest updates on her case at BertaCaceres.org or Facebook and Twitter: @JusticeforBerta.

This Can’t Be Happening – 03.23.16

John Grant, a member of the ThisCantBeHappening.net journalists’ collective, discusses his latest article on the assassination of Honduran human rights and environmental activist Berta Caceres and the role of Hillary Clinton, as Obama’s secretary of state, in the 2009 coup in that country which ousted a popular left-leaning president and launched an era of violent repression. Grant and host Dave Lindorff talk about the dreadful prospect of a Clinton presidency, given her history of supporting wars and government overthrows, not just in Latin America but around the globe.

Black Agenda Radio – 03.14.16

Welcome, to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective with Glen Ford and his co-host, Nellie Bailey.

– A national poll commissioned by In The Public Interest has found broad support for reining in the spread of charter schools and for making them conform to the same standards as traditional public schools. The poll also shows majorities oppose an over-emphasis on standardized testing in the classroom. David Cohen, executive director of the In the Public Interest, said the survey shows Americans continues to have a high regard for public schools and teachers, despite the propaganda put out by school privatizers.

– Parents, teachers and activists gathered recently, in Philadelphia, for a national conference of the Opt Out movement, which seeks to end excessive standardized testing in the public schools. We spoke with Dr. Denisha Jones, a board member of United Opt Out, and an assistant professor of Early Childhood Education at Washington DC’s Howard University. The organization demands ““an equitably-funded, democratically based, anti-racist, desegregated public school system for all Americans – one that prepares students to exercise compassionate and critical decision making.” Dr. Jones says none of this can happen if kids are spending all their time taking tests.

– Robert Gangi, executive director of the Police Reform Organizing Project, in New York, has been monitoring courtroom activity around the city. Gangi reports that the courts are busy prosecuting Black and brown men on minor offenses, an indication that the “broken windows” philosophy of policing is alive and well in New York.

– Earlier this month, a death squad assassinated Honduran indigenous people’s leader Berta Caceres. Caceres was at the top of the hit list for the Honduran regime that was installed in a U.S.-backed coup, in 2009. She fought countless battles against land grabs by multinational corporations. Her friend, Beverly Bell, a co-founder of the group Other Worlds, says the regime and its backers in Washington, killed Berta Caceres.

– President Obama will visit Cuba later this month. The President claims his trip is designed to further normalization of relations and peace in the region. But political analyst Eric Draitser, founder of StopImperialism.org, says Obama has scaled back tensions with Cuba while escalating Washington’s war against Venezuela.