In this edition of The Indypendent News Hour, we speak with a member of the Flatbush African Burial Ground Coalition about a current struggle to preserve an African burial ground located on the corners of Bedford and Church Avenues in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Then, we turn to some breaking news. This week, the city announced that two safe injection sites in Harlem and Washington Heights that will be run by non-profit harm reduction groups. This much needed addition to our public infrastructure comes ...
Dec 01, 2021•57 min
Voters across the country head to the polls today on the first election day since Donald Trump’s defeat last November. Governorships are up for grabs in New Jersey and Virginia. Boston, Buffalo, Atlanta, Seattle and Minneapolis are choosing their next mayors. The future of policing has been a flashpoint in each of those races. In Minneapolis, where George Floyd was murdered, voters will also vote on whether to abolish their current police department and replace it with a new Department of Public...
Nov 03, 2021•2 hr
In 2021, the Republicans have used racial dog whistles around critical race theory, “parents rights” and other manufactured culture war controversies to energize their base, especially in Virginia where their candidate won the governor’s race. In our election night special, we speak with Linda Martín Alcoff, author of T'he Future of Whiteness,' about this and how the Left should respond. We also speak with Alex Han, executive director of Organizing Upgrade, about the impact of national Democrats...
Nov 03, 2021•16 min
In our election night special, we get an on-the-ground report from Buffalo where India Walton, 39-year-old nurse and housing activist, is vying to become the first socialist mayor of a major U.S. city in 60 years. Walton won the Democratic nomination in June in a shocking upset. She is now facing a well-financed write-in challenge from the city’s incumbent mayor who she defeated in the primary. We discuss the India Walton campaign and its impact on Buffalo with Michael Niman, a professor of jour...
Nov 03, 2021•9 min
Imani Oakley, a progressive running for Congress in New Jersey's 10th congressional district, joins us for our election night special. She talks about key local races in New Jersey, the lack of enthusiasm for sitting Democratic governor Phil Murphy and the party machine’s latest attempts to derail her primary challenge to a corporate Democrat incumbent in NJ’s congressional district which encompasses Newark.
Nov 03, 2021•7 min
For our election night special, Ben Max, host of “Max Politics,” which airs on WBAI Wednesdays 5-6 pm, fills us in on some of the more competitive races in New York City and gives us his thoughts on where New York’s new leaders will try to take the city.
Nov 03, 2021•17 min
Eric Adams' mayoral victory in the Democratic primary was fueled by his emphasis on policing and public security and his biography as a former cop. The future of policing has also been a flashpoint in a number of other big city mayor’s races that are on the ballot today. We speak with Alex Vitale, a professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and author of 'The End of Policing.' In the book, Vitale argues that the police as an institution are ill-suited for almost all the work they do and that th...
Nov 03, 2021•11 min
No mayor is an island unto themself. They have to work with City Council. They also have to work with the governor and state legislators in Albany which wields tremendous power over the city. In our election night special, City Councilmember-elect Alexa Aviles and State Senator Jabari Brisport join us to talk about how they see things going with the new city government under a Mayor Adams. Alexa Aviles won the Democratic primary in June in District 38 in South Brooklyn and had no opponent on tod...
Nov 03, 2021•17 min
For this election night special, Tom Robbins talk about what might come next after the NY general elections. Tom was a legendary investigative journalist at the Village Voice for many years best known for his award-winning coverage of political corruption and urban issues. He currently hosts Deadline NYC Mondays 5-6 pm on WBAI Radio.
Nov 03, 2021•20 min
Nancy Romer of the NYC People’s Climate Movement speaks about what we might expect from the COP26 climate summit as environmental activists head to Glasgow, Scotland for the conference.
Nov 03, 2021•10 min
Lee Ziesche of Sane Energy Project, a group committed to replacing fracked gas infrastructure with community-led, sustainable energy. Ziesche talks about a recent win against fracked gas in Queens and other environmental fights in NYC and beyond.
Nov 03, 2021•14 min
Braxton Brewington, spokesperson for the Debt Collective. Consumer Debt. Medical debt. Student loan debt. Carceral debt. And so on. Tens of millions of Americans are debt-burdened. Brewington is later joined by William Ritziu of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. Ritziu and many other drivers and in tens of thousands of dollars of medallion debt are currently on hunger strike to demand the City rectify the predatory lending they previously allowed.
Nov 03, 2021•15 min
This week we speak with: —Braxton Brewington, spokesperson for the Debt Collective. Consumer Debt. Medical debt. Student loan debt. Carceral debt. And so on. Tens of millions of Americans are debt-burdened. —Brewington is later joined by William Ritziu of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. Ritziu and many other drivers and in tens of thousands of dollars of medallion debt are currently on hunger strike to demand the City rectify the predatory lending they previously allowed. —Lee Ziesche of San...
Nov 03, 2021•55 min
We speak with Felicia Singh, D32 Candidate: On Nov. 3rd NYers return to the polls for city elections. The District 32 race in Queens is the last Republican-held district in Queens. The Republican candidate, Joann Ariola, is facing a strong challenge from Felicia Singh, a teacher, educator, daughter of working-class immigrants who ran as a proud progressive in June, presenting a dichotomy in a part of Queens that was solidly conservative in the past.
Oct 28, 2021•14 min
We speak with writer and researcher Matt Thomas, the author of the Vulgar Marxist Substack and a keen observer of the workings of the judicial machinery here in New York. After steadily trending downward for many years, the population of incarcerated persons at Rikers Island is once again rising even though the majority of detainees have not had a trial. This is due in part to the role of law-and-order judges and the politicians who help them rise through the judicial ranks.
Oct 28, 2021•13 min
We speak with Madeline Feliciano, Nicholas Feliciano's grandmother Joshua Carmoega, Nicholas’s uncle, and David Rankin, who is representing them in a lawsuit against the city. In December 2019, Nicholas Feliciano attempted to kill himself and was visibly hanging in his cell for 7-odd minutes before anyone did anything to help him get down. The Board of Corrections just released a report on the incident stating, “the circumstances of this incident are disturbing and starkly illustrate persistent ...
Oct 28, 2021•17 min
On this week's show we spoke with: —Madeline Feliciano, Nicholas Feliciano's grandmother Joshua Carmoega, Nicholas’s uncle, and David Rankin, who is representing them in a lawsuit against the city. In December 2019, Nicholas Feliciano attempted to kill himself and was visibly hanging in his cell for 7-odd minutes before anyone did anything to help him get down. The Board of Corrections just released a report on the incident stating, “the circumstances of this incident are disturbing and starkly ...
Oct 28, 2021•54 min
Alane Hartley and Russell Braen, co-owners of Park Hill Orchard in Easthampton, Massachusetts, talk about the people who grow and harvest food, the challenges they face and the community-centered solutions that some farmers have developed that stand in stark contrast to Big Ag and its corporate monoculture.
Oct 13, 2021•12 min
Joe DeManuelle-Hall, an NYC-based organizer with Labor Notes, a media and organizing project that has been the voice of union activists who want to put the movement back in the labor movement since 1979, talks about the historical context around the upswing in the labor movement and some of the current strikes happening now.
Oct 13, 2021•18 min
