Laura Flanders Show: The Incomplete and Wonderful History of May Day

Author and professor Peter Linebaugh discusses his new book, "The Incomplete, True, Authentic, and Wonderful History of May Day." Then filmmaker Avi Lewis discusses worker-owned factories in Argentina, and Laura focuses on the intersectional feminism of 19th Century anarchist Lucy Parsons. Peter Linebaugh is professor emeritus at the University of Toledo, and the author of many books, including the Magna Carta Manifesto; Stop Thief, The Commons, Enclosures and Resistance, and his newest, The Incomplete, True, Authentic, and Wonderful History of May Day. Avi Lewis is a filmmaker known for The Take, co-directed by Naomi Klein, and This Changes Everything, a documentary on climate change and resistance, released in 2015. http://multimedia.telesurtv.net/v/lau...

Documentary: TTIP: Might is Right (VPRO Backlight)

The proposed free trade agreement between the US and Europe (TTIP) causes concern about the European right to self-determination. The most controversial part of TTIP is ISDS: investor-state dispute settlement. ISDS will make it possible for companies to sue governments that damage their investments. But is this arbitrage system where a few investment lawyers decide over billions of taxpayers money a protection of our business interests, or a threat to our democracy?

On Saturday, October 10, tens of thousands of European citizens took to the streets, and more than 2.5 million signatures were offered to the European Commission. The source of this concern and protest is the free trade agreement TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) between the United States and the EU, which would create the world’s largest free-trade zone. According to the Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade Lilianne Ploumen, TTIP could be realized as soon as 2016; the negotiations are well under way. If the EU ratifies the trade agreement, critics fear that the scales will tilt toward North-American standards and values with regard to (food) safety, workers’ and consumer rights. And that when it comes to important collective achievements and protection of its citizens, Europe will give up its right to self-determination.

The part of the trade agreement that’s questioned the most is ISDS, or investor-state dispute settlement, which can be used by companies to dispute a country’s laws and rules, if a company feels unfairly treated. This will enable multinationals to circumvent democratic decisions and existing national jurisdiction. In order to understand the potential consequences of this, VPRO Backlight traveled to Canada, which became one of the most sued countries in the world after it entered into a trade agreement with the US. American companies now summon the Canadian government to appear before an arbitration tribunal if they feel that Canadian rules aren't in compliance with the free trade agreement Nafta. Despite democratic decisions against fracking under Canada's most important river, the Saint Lawrence, the Canadian government was sued for millions of dollars by the oil and shale gas company Lone Pine.

Could this happen in the Netherlands as well? In spite of resistance, the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs Henk Kamp (VVD) doesn’t rule out the possibility of future fracking in the Netherlands. VPRO Backlight probed the opinions at an information meeting organized by the Dutch Oil and Gas Company in Saaksum, Groningen. The locals there seem more and more convinced that fossil fuels should stay where they are: underground. But then no profit would be made from them anymore. The question is if this could result in ISDS claims in the future. Or should we welcome ISDS? Because it’s also crucial for the position of the Netherlands as a world leader in legal and financial services. It will protect the tens of billions of Dutch foreign investments.

British Korean economist Ha-Joon Chang wonders what free trade really means in this day and age. Because there has long been a largely free movement of goods between the US and EU, with few tariff walls. So whose interest will the controversial TTIP and ISDS serve then? And in the service of whom or what is the law, when it comes to international investment arbitration? Isn't in the end, might right?

With: Steve Verheul (Canadian negotiator for the trade agreement between Canada and the EU), Gus van Harten (Canadian lawyer and ISDS expert), Nikos Lavranos (former negotiator for the Netherlands, currently ISDS investment consultant) and Ha-Joon

Director: Roland Duong
Research: William de Bruijn
Producers: Jolanda Segers, Bircan Unlu
Commissioning editors: Marije Meerman, Doke Romeijn

How the World Runs on Looting the Congo // Empire_File024

Every drone flown by the U.S. military has inside a piece of the Democratic Republic of the Congo--a valuable mineral, of which the DRC has trillions of dollars worth buried underground.

For five centuries, the continent of Africa has been ravaged by the world's Empires for its vast untapped treasure. Today, the U.S. Empire is increasing it's military role through their massive command network, AFRICOM, carrying out several missions a day.

With the Congo being arguably the biggest prize for imperialist powers, Abby Martin is joined by Kambale Musavuli, spokesperson for Friends of the Congo, to look at Empire's role in their history and current catastrophe.

Robert McChesney and John Nichols: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy

Humanity is on the verge of its darkest hour or its greatest moment.

The consequences of the technological revolution are about to hit hard: unemployment will spike as new technologies replace labor in the manufacturing, service, and professional sectors of an economy that is already struggling. The end of work as we know it will hit at the worst moment imaginable: as capitalism fosters permanent stagnation, when the labor market is in decrepit shape, with declining wages, expanding poverty, and scorching inequality. Only the dramatic democratization of our economy can address the existential challenges we now face. Yet, the US political process is so dominated by billionaires and corporate special interests, by corruption and monopoly, that it stymies not just democracy but progress.

The great challenge of these times is to ensure that the tremendous benefits of technological progress are employed to serve the whole of humanity, rather than to enrich the wealthy few. Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols, authors of People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy, argue that the United States needs a new economy in which revolutionary technologies are applied to effectively address environmental and social problems and used to rejuvenate and extend democratic institutions. Based on intense reporting, rich historical analysis, and deep understanding of the technological and social changes that are unfolding, they propose a bold strategy for democratizing our digital destiny before it's too late and unleashing the real power of the Internet, and of humanity.

Recorded 3/9/16

Thanks to Seattle Town Hall and Elliott Bay Books

Days of Revolt: Junk Economics and the Future

In this episode of Days of Revolt, Chris Hedges continues his discussion with UMKC economics professor Michael Hudson on his new book Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Bondage Destroy the Global Economy. Hedges and Hudson expose the liberal class’ allegiance to the predatory creditors on Wall Street and their indifference to real economic justice. http://multimedia.telesurtv.net/v/day...

Tragedy and Hope 101 interview with author Joe Plummer

The Deep End episode 006 features an interview with author Joseph Plummer on his recent book "Tragedy and Hope 101: The Illusion of Justice, Freedom and Democracy" which summarizes Carroll Quigley's "The Anglo-American Establishment" and "Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time". You can get Joe's book at: http://joeplummer.com/tragedy-and-hop...
Notes, References, and Links for this interview: https://www.tragedyandhope.com/the-de...
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Days of Revolt - Why the Brutalized Become Brutal

In this episode of Days of Revolt, Chris Hedges interviews two veterans of the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Michael Hanes and Rory Fanning. They lament the brutality of the American military presence, which they say creates the conditions for terrorism and fuels attacks in places like Brussels. They also speak out about the painful struggle of coping with PTSD, and the alienation faced by many soldiers when they come home. http://multimedia.telesurtv.net/v/day...

Keynote Speaker - Mark Blyth

"Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea"

Mark Blyth – Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea

Join us at Roosevelt House for a timely conversation about one of today’s most urgent policy questions – whether government spending is reckless wastefulness, as many argue, or whether the policy of draconian budget cuts has failed. In his acclaimed book Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea, Mark Blyth, professor of international political economy at Brown University, demonstrates how and why the global turn to austerity, the policy of reducing domestic wages and prices to restore competitiveness and balance the budget, hasn’t worked.

In conversation with Andrew J. Polsky, Acting Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of political science at Hunter College, Professor Blyth will discuss recent examples of a policy that he shows has failed for a century. While it makes sense for any one state to try and cut its way to growth, Blyth argues, it simply cannot work when all states try it simultaneously: all we do is shrink the economy. In their discussion, professors Blyth and Polsky will examine why the arguments for austerity are tenuous and why austerity policy has almost always led to low growth and to increases in wealth and income inequality. They will also discuss how to counteract these trends with effective economic policies for the future.

Paul Krugman, in The New York Review of Books, wrote, “One of the especially good things in Mark Blyth’s Austerity is the way he traces the rise and fall of the idea of ‘expansionary austerity’, the proposition that cutting spending would actually lead to higher output. As Blyth documents, this idea ‘spread like wildfire.'”

Mark Blyth Mackenzie Lecture 2015 – Austerity and the Politics of Money

Mark Blyth provides a critical assessment of austerity policies across Europe and their effectiveness and impact.
http://www.gla.ac.uk/stevensontrust/