Two events: Freedom (free) movie and Solidarity Action at Gallery Hop on Saturday, October 1, 2011

12noon – “Freedom,” a documentary on the Deepwater Horizon Guld oil spill, at the Studio 35 Cinema and Drafthouse and it’s completely FREE. Please don’t miss this chance to support FREEDOM and help sustain the world’s future!

“Occupy Columbus” solidarity protest at Gallery Hop today – time changed
The time for the march today has been changed. Marchers will assemble at 5:30 on Wexner Plaza (15th & High) & step off no later than 6pm. JOIN US! In New York the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters will be marching at 3PM. It’s anticipated to be the largest march yet. The aim here is to have a march this Saturday for the Gallery Hop to show our solidarity with the OWS protests and to spread the word. The plan is to meet up at NEW TIME: 5PM at 15th and High Street near the Wexner Center to make signs and then march to the Short North.
See https://www.facebook.com/OccupyColumbus#!/event.php?eid=208282725904563 for details.

Bob Fitrakis on “Fight Back” this week:
Guest Medea Benjamin, cofounder of the peace group CODEPINK and the human rights organization Global Exchange
Bob and Medea will discuss her recent experience in the Middle East and 10 years of U.S. wars.
Listen and call in this Wednesday September 28 – talktainmentradio.com
7 – 8 PM
Call 877-932-9766

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Here’s how to call in to the LIVE INTERNET radio show:
(on your computer – not on your broadcast radio dial)
On Wednesday nights at 7:00 pm
Go to: http://talktainmentradio.com
Click on “Listen Live”
Call 877-932-9766

*************************

Here’s how to call in to the LIVE INTERNET radio show:
(on your computer – not on your broadcast radio dial)
On Wednesday nights at 7:00 pm
Go to: http://talktainmentradio.com
Click on “Listen Live”
Call 877-932-9766

Bob Fitrakis
September 6, 2011

Labor Day has come and gone, but the real battle over whether workers are actually honored and valued in Ohio will be decided on Election Day in November. To understand what’s at stake, one must begin with the concept of American exceptionalism — the notion that America has its own unique political ideology embracing individualism and entrepreneurship.

The reality is that what makes America different from other western European democracies is simply its lack of a mass Labor Party or a Democratic Socialist Party. The Democratic Party is arguably the second most pro-corporate party in the western world, and President Barack Obama reminds us of this daily. Obama’s numbers have hit record lows with only 26% of the population having any faith in his economic policies.

In a time that cried out for infrastructure development and large scale jobs programs, Obama instead spent his political capital and three quarters of a trillion dollars in taxpayers’ capital bailing out the financial corporations that had wrecked the system and the large corporations known for investing in machines and people overseas, not American workers.

Only the Republican Party, captured by an unnatural coalition of Christian zealots and corporatists are more anti-labor. Thus, it is no surprise in the Buckeye State, when one of Rupert Murdoch’s right-wing populist mouthpieces John Kasich, seized control of the governor’s office and immediately followed the corporatist policies championed by Mussolini in Italy.

Kasich’s agenda of destroying the public sector unions embodied in Senate Bill 5, hides a deeper philosophical contempt for ordinary working people. Kasich has spent his whole life serving wealthy and powerful men at the expense of those who labor.

First, as a young college student in the 70s, Kasich came to prominence in Ohio by becoming one of Nixon’s squeaky-clean campaign-prop youth. After his stint in Nixon’s youth corp, he managed to get himself elected to Congress in 1992 after tying his campaign to the so-called Messiah, Rev. Moon, who had been linked at the time to the Korean CIA.

After leaving Congress, Kasich threw in with the hate-monger and illegal hacker extraordinaire Murdoch and his News Corp. The agenda of his three mentors — Nixon, Moon and Murdoch — has always been to destroy labor in the United States. All three have been masters of promoting so-called wedge issues to divide American working people along race, ethnic, and religious lines in order to deliver more power to a small group of their wealthy backers and friends.

In the fantasy world of America, still taught by mainstream political scientists, we live in a “pluralist” society where people make their political voices heard by joining groups. This concept developed in the 1950s by noted political scientist Robert Dahl. Like economist Charles Lindbloom, Dahl initially argued that the 50s corporations were counterbalanced by organized labor. This “countervailing power” created a certain equilibrium in American power.

As the U.S.-based transnational corporations grew larger and more global in the 1970s and union membership declined dramatically, Dahl began to rethink his political theory in a series of books. At the beginning of the 21st century, Dahl published “How democratic is the American Constitution?” arguing that the Constitution is far less democratic than we openly debate. His realization that two corporate political parties is simply one more than a fascist dictatorship, by that time, was dawning on the current remaining political science theorists.

So, as the major theorists of pluralism bemoan the rise of transnational corporate power and the decline of labor, Kasich’s attempt to squash in the former industrial state of Ohio is arguably the most important issue on the ballot this November in the United States.

If Kasich succeeds in destroying the public unions in Ohio, he will effectively destroy the last vestiges of organizations that allowed people who work for a wage or salary to actively participate in Ohio politics. With the destruction of the unions comes the new 21st century power slogan and sound bite fascism, where the population will be pitted against each other – new immigrant against old, Christians against Muslims, public workers with pensions against private workers whose pensions were looted or denied by corporations – while Kasich’s friends will get richer.

To honor labor in the aftermath of Labor Day, workers who value democracy must campaign and say no on Issue 2, the repeal of SB 5. But, beyond that, they need to develop new political organizations to express their discontent with the right-wing corporate Republican Party and their junior partners, the Democrats.

Bob Fitrakis is the author of The Idea of Democratic Socialism in America and the Decline of the Socialist Party a book of political theory on American exceptionalism.

Dr. Bob talks to the candidates Anita Rios (ran as Green lieutenant governor with Dr. Bob 2006) and Sean Nester both running for City Council there.

Come to the
Stand Up for Ohio Festival:
Rebuild the American Dream of Good Jobs and Strong Communities
Saturday, August 20 from 12noon-8pm

Political groups, speakers, children’s activities, refreshments
It’s all free!
Nikki Giovanni
Music: Grand Funk Railroad, Ohio Players, Happy Chichester and more!

Ohio State Fairgrounds (near the giant slide)
If driving come into the 17th Avenue gate and you’ll be directed to a lot ($8)
If biking, you can bike near the festival
standupforohio.org/
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Free Press Free Movie
Tuesday, August 23
“The Battle of Chernobyl”
7:30PM followed by discussion

This poignant film shows the human side of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. It showcases video clips of the original explosion, original clips of the immediate and ongoing mitigation attempts, interviews with Gorbechev and workers at the plant, both at the time and recently, and interviews with the “liquidators”—those people who experienced deadly risk to prevent much greater contamination. The World Health Organization estimates that 800,000 (yes, that figure is correct) people were commandeered for cleanup. Many felt they needed to risk their lives and act to save humanity.
Dr. Bernhard Debatin, Ohio University professor of journalism, was living in Berlin at the time of the accident and was exposed. He screened this 92-minute film at Ohio University on April 26, 2011, the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl explosion. The well-informed and articulate professor has agreed to lead a discussion about Chernobyl, Fukushima and other nuclear matters following the screening. The film is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the Sierra Club, the Columbus International Film and Video Festival, the Drexel Theater and the Free Press.

Drexel Theater 2254 E. Main Street, Bexley
253-2571, truth@freepress.org


See podcast at the bottom.
Bob and Connie interview Kris Harsh from Stand up for Ohio Progressive coalition in response to the last election right wing swing about the Aug. 20 festival.

Saturday, Aug 20 Free Parking for Bike Riders
Expo Center Fairgrounds 17th ave. Parking Pedestrians, 11th ave.
Free MUsic, Grand Funk Railroad. Ohio Players, Cincinnati’s Over the Rhine

Come to the
Stand Up for Ohio Festival:
Rebuild the American Dream of Good Jobs and Strong Communities
Saturday, August 20 from 12noon-8pm
Political groups, speakers, children’s activities, refreshments
It’s all free!
Nikki Giovanni
Music: Grand Funk Railroad, Ohio Players, Happy Chichester and more!

Ohio State Fairgrounds (near the giant slide)
If driving come into the 17th Avenue gate and you’ll be directed to a lot ($8)
If biking, you can bike near the festival
standupforohio.org/
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Audio/Podcast Info
29:48 minutes (38.72 MB)

Bob talks to former Ohio Secretary of State Brunner Heading Campaign To Repeal Voter Suppression Bill HB 194

Podcast of
Bob Fitrakis on “Fight Back” this week:
Bob and guest Cliff Arnebeck
Discussing the new court filing revealing how the 2004 election was stolen and the apparatus is still in place
http://www.talktainmentradio.com/pages/9504490.php right column, look for 07/27 date
Based on
“New court filing reveals how the 2004 Ohio presidential election was hacked” article on freepress.org
https://freepress.org/departments/display/19/2011/4239

CITIZENS GRASSROOTS CONGRESS (CGC) GREEN EMPOWERMENT
& BICYCLE COMMUNITY GATHERING AND POTLUCK
WHEN: Saturday August 6, 2011 from 11:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.

WHERE: Whetstone Park Shelter House (Outside The Park of Roses near the West Parking Lot)
The Whetstone Shelter House is located right outside the Park of Roses near the Olentangy River and the Olentangy Bicycle Trail toward the West end of the park – east of the soccer fields, but at the bottom of the hill. This area of Whetstone Park has open green playing fields and the bicycle trail nearby in addition to the Park of Roses. There is even a Prairie meadow nearby.

WHY: Bringing together progressive environmentalists and activists for a day of fun, networking and activity. Bring your bikes, Frisbees and / or other sport and fun equipment and meet with friends and family for a full afternoon of eating, activity and meeting others with important shared concerns and perspectives.

SCHEDULE

11:00 a.m. – Event begins: Tables will be available to place the literature from your group and read and share literature and ideas of others. You can also go on a bike ride, play Frisbee or engage in other recreation.

12:15 – 1:30 p.m. – Sharing, potluck and brief presentations. At 12:15 people will introduce themselves and their organizations. Before dining begins there will be a short commemoration and remembrance of the Bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. During the meal a few brief (5 minutes or less) presentations will be made by several organizations about important issues, events and activities.

The Central Ohio Green Education Fund will provide Pizza and some drinks. Please bring other entrees, salad items, dessert, additional drinks and anything else you would like to share. (IMPORTANT NOTE: No alcoholic drinks are allowed in Columbus Public Parks).

1:30 – 5:30 p.m. Casual activity, recreation, conversation and networking. There may be an educational tour of the Prairie meadow.

5:30 – 6:00 p.m. Closing and cleanup.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Bob-Fitrakis-on-New-Eviden-by-Joan-Brunwasser-110728-924.html