Latest / The People's News / Texas Runoff Election Surprises; Six Years Since George Flloyd Murdered; Special Guest w/Cuban Interview - TPN 5/31/26

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Texas Runoff Election Surprises; Six Years Since George Flloyd Murdered; Special Guest w/Cuban Interview - TPN 5/31/26 · The People's News

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Speaker 1: It's the week of May thirty first, twenty twenty six,
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Speaker 1: and this is what's on the People's News. The end
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Speaker 1: of an era. After a runoff election day drama, George
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Speaker 1: Floyd's death is remembered. What has been learned? Report from
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Speaker 1: a Cuban living in Havana about what he has seeing
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Speaker 1: celebrating Black History Month at the Eldorado Ballroom with the
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Speaker 1: Fiery string systems. All that and more on the People's News.
0:36
Speaker 1: I'm Steve Gallington. This is the People's News, and the
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Speaker 1: People's News starts now. This past Tuesday, in the runoffs,
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Speaker 1: Representative Christian Menafie defeated eleven term Senior Congressman Al Green
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Speaker 1: for a seat in the eighteenth. Districts of the corrupt
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Speaker 1: Republican Party were all over this election. This is one
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Speaker 1: of the districts that was redrawn at the bidding of
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Speaker 1: the convicted felon in the White House by Texas Republican
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Speaker 1: Governor Greg Abbott. They absorbed Green's ninth district into the
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Speaker 1: eighteenth Congressional district, taking two minority represented districts and turning
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Speaker 1: them into one. Christian Menefee had only been holding the
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Speaker 1: seat for the old eighteenth district that was held by
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Speaker 1: Sheila Jackson Lee and Sylvester Turner after the same Republican
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Speaker 1: governor Greg Abbott drug his feet and delayed the election
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Speaker 1: to fill the empty seat for months. Thirty eight year
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Speaker 1: old Menefee won in a landslide with sixty nine percent
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Speaker 1: of the vote to Greens thirty Representative Menefee was gracious
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Speaker 1: in his victory and says he is looking for or
2:00
Speaker 1: to challenge the corruption in the White House.
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Speaker 2: Man, it says a lot, you know, to win by
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Speaker 2: this bigo with margin, I did not expect it.
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Speaker 3: I'm sorry, yeah, I mean, look, these elections are turnout elections,
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Speaker 3: and we have a very excited base that want to
2:15
Speaker 3: make sure that we keep this fight continuing in Congress.
2:17
Speaker 3: So I think tonight was a testament that the eighteenth
2:20
Speaker 3: is ready to move forward into the future. And I'm
2:21
Speaker 3: so grateful to have folks support.
2:23
Speaker 4: How do you go.
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Speaker 2: Ahead and tell those people, get those people that voted
2:26
Speaker 2: for all greed.
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Speaker 3: I tell them I'm not focused on yesterday at all. Look,
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Speaker 3: my job is to serve everybody in the eighteen congressional district.
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Speaker 3: I don't care who you support in November and January,
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Speaker 3: in March or in May. I'm here for you. If
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Speaker 3: you live in my district, I'm gonna do all I
2:39
Speaker 3: can to best serve you. We put all that in
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Speaker 3: the past, and I look forward to earning your trust
2:42
Speaker 3: and support.
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Speaker 2: What's your first what's the major thing that you want
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Speaker 2: to handle going to Congress.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, my goal is to do two things. One is
2:49
Speaker 3: to make America less expensive for folks. If you look
2:52
Speaker 3: across our communities, people are having to work more and
2:54
Speaker 3: they're being able to spend less because everything is so expensive.
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Speaker 3: Trump's taxes through tariffs and Trump's warren to Ron have
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Speaker 3: put more costs on the average family. So we got
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Speaker 3: to work to increase the minimum wage, to get money
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Speaker 3: to our small businesses, to do all we can to
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Speaker 3: bring those costs down. And the second thing is we
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Speaker 3: got to go up there and throw punches to Donald Trump.
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Speaker 3: I mean, look, this is a guy who has no
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Speaker 3: problem sending ice agents into our communities to terrorize folks,
3:16
Speaker 3: who has no problem allowing the Supreme Court the strip
3:19
Speaker 3: us of our voting rights. Congressman Green, one of the
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Speaker 3: things he did well was to fight fiercely against Donald Trump.
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Speaker 3: And I'm gonna continue that legacy.
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Speaker 2: What are you gonna do with FIFA's coming here with
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Speaker 2: the World Cup? And one thing they said it was
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Speaker 2: Ice was not gonna be involved with anything dealing with
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Speaker 2: the World Cup here to Houston. But now they're saying, yes,
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Speaker 2: Ice will be a part of security and some other
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Speaker 2: types of things.
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Speaker 5: With the World Cup.
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Speaker 6: What do you say about that.
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Speaker 3: I plan to work with local officials at the county level,
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Speaker 3: at the city level and make sure that we are
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Speaker 3: not putting people in our community in a position to
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Speaker 3: have interactions with Ice. I am tear Ice down to
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Speaker 3: the studs full stop, and we have to do all
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Speaker 3: we can to make sure our communities are protected against them.
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Speaker 3: So I'll be heavy and to mix on that.
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Speaker 1: Over fifty years as a political leader in the Houston area,
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Speaker 1: Congressman Al Green went down fighting. As he stated in
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Speaker 1: his speech to his supporters.
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Speaker 7: I am so honored to have served for these many years,
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Speaker 7: more than twenty, and I'm honored to have done some
4:21
Speaker 7: things that I'm very proud of.
4:23
Speaker 8: I'll say a bit about.
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Speaker 7: Those things in just a moment, but first let me
4:27
Speaker 7: thank the staff that has worked with me and that
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Speaker 7: will still continue to work with me.
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Speaker 8: So if the staff members who are here would just
4:34
Speaker 8: sort of come over and line up along the side here. Please,
4:37
Speaker 8: Crystal come.
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Speaker 7: Over, Crystal, if you'll come over, please.
4:41
Speaker 8: And Rachel, Rachel, if you'll come over. Please. Let's have
4:47
Speaker 8: Lehanna come over as well.
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Speaker 4: Please.
4:50
Speaker 8: Where's Carl is here? There's Doc okay, and Robert Teine.
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Speaker 7: All right, let's give all of these great public service
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Speaker 7: a bigger expressional appreciation.
5:06
Speaker 8: I'm very grateful to.
5:07
Speaker 7: You, and there are so many others that I would
5:11
Speaker 7: like to think, but if I did, we would be
5:14
Speaker 7: here for quite a while. But I do want to
5:16
Speaker 7: think the clergy of the clergy was very much instrumental
5:20
Speaker 7: in helping me throughout my career.
5:23
Speaker 8: They have been there.
5:24
Speaker 7: To counsel with me, and they've also been there to
5:28
Speaker 7: stand and fight with me.
5:30
Speaker 8: So let's give the clergy a big expression of appreciation.
5:32
Speaker 7: Plans and I have friends in labor who have stood
5:40
Speaker 7: with me, and those persons I greatly appreciate. Claude Cummings
5:45
Speaker 7: of course is here as a president of CWA, but
5:48
Speaker 7: the SCIU and their are other unions as well. I
5:52
Speaker 7: think that the men and women of labor are to
5:55
Speaker 7: be appreciated, so Let's give labor a big hand please,
5:58
Speaker 7: for what they've done to stay with me.
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Speaker 8: Through the years.
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Speaker 7: And I'd like to indicate to you that this effort
6:10
Speaker 7: has been one that was sincere. It's something that I
6:14
Speaker 7: have done as a labor of love. I have enjoyed
6:18
Speaker 7: all of my time as a member of the Congress
6:20
Speaker 7: of the United States of America. And I want to
6:23
Speaker 7: assure you that when I go back to Congress next week,
6:27
Speaker 7: I still plan to take up the calls of women
6:30
Speaker 7: in this country. I still will fight to make sure
6:37
Speaker 7: a woman has a right to choose. This is something
6:41
Speaker 7: that we cannot allow men to deprive women of. No
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Speaker 7: man has a right to tell a woman what to
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Speaker 7: do with her body. When I go back to Congress,
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Speaker 7: I'm still going to be concerned about my Latino brothers
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Speaker 7: and sisters, many of whom.
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Speaker 8: All suspect because of the way they look.
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Speaker 7: We live in a country now where if you happen
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Speaker 7: to speak a language that is related to that persons
7:09
Speaker 7: who are from Mexico or from Latin American countries, then
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Speaker 7: you can become suspect. And I do this because I
7:17
Speaker 7: remember when I was suspect for just being the color
7:21
Speaker 7: I am, so I'm going to stand up and fight
7:25
Speaker 7: to make sure that we no longer have our Latino
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Speaker 7: brothers and sisters suspect for being just who they are.
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Speaker 7: Let's fight to protect them in this great country. I
7:39
Speaker 7: want to acknowledge and let you know that I still
7:42
Speaker 7: will support the LGBTQIA plus community. People ought to be
7:49
Speaker 7: able to be themselves and not be demean for being themselves.
7:54
Speaker 7: So I stand with them, I have stood with them,
7:57
Speaker 7: and I will continue to stand with them. I think
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Speaker 7: that it's important for me to know that there are
8:03
Speaker 7: some people who live in the streets of life. These
8:07
Speaker 7: are not the people who have been born into plenty.
8:12
Speaker 7: They were born into poverty. And I think we have
8:15
Speaker 7: to continue to fight poverty in the richest country in
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Speaker 7: the world, and as such, I will continue to push
8:21
Speaker 7: for legislation that will allow us to help people to
8:25
Speaker 7: move from the streets of life into a place to
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Speaker 7: call home. This should not be the case as we
8:32
Speaker 7: drive and traverse the area around our city such that
8:35
Speaker 7: we see people who are sleeping along the sides of
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Speaker 7: roads under bridges. This is unacceptable to the richest country
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Speaker 7: in the world. I will continue to fight to end
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Speaker 7: poverty and hunger in the United States of America. My
8:54
Speaker 7: Asian brothers and sisters, I want you to know that
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Speaker 7: you have been so important to this campaign as well
9:01
Speaker 7: as to my EFIC in Congress, and I promise to
9:04
Speaker 7: fight to make sure that people are not denied the
9:08
Speaker 7: opportunity to buy property because they just happen to be
9:13
Speaker 7: from a certain place. They're not here to cause any harm.
9:17
Speaker 7: They are people who walk through enjoy the American dream
9:19
Speaker 7: like everyone else. So I will be fighting for you
9:22
Speaker 7: to protect your rights. But I also am going to
9:26
Speaker 7: continue to fight to protect the rights of people from Palestine.
9:31
Speaker 7: Doctor King reminds us that in justice anywhere is a
9:34
Speaker 7: threat to justice everywhere, and the Palestinian people, the Palestinian.
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Speaker 8: People are still suffering.
9:41
Speaker 7: We have to do something about the suffering of the
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Speaker 7: people in Palestine, but we also have.
9:46
Speaker 8: To concern ourselves with the lives of.
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Speaker 7: All children, all children, it doesn't matter Palestinian children is
9:53
Speaker 7: rarely children children in this country. We cannot allow our
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Speaker 7: children to he slaughtered.
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Speaker 8: Ever, in any place on the planet Earth.
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Speaker 7: I promise I'm going to fight to protect the lives
10:06
Speaker 7: of children wherever they happen to be, and with all
10:14
Speaker 7: of that said, I want you to know that I
10:17
Speaker 7: appreciate the press for being here, and I appreciate your patience.
10:21
Speaker 8: Mister Minifie has claimed.
10:23
Speaker 7: Victory, and I am not going to challenge his claim.
10:27
Speaker 7: Mister Minifie will be moving on with his career. I
10:31
Speaker 7: assume that in so doing he will do well in Congress.
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Speaker 7: That will be the assumption that I would give to him,
10:39
Speaker 7: and I will look forward to moving forward with the
10:42
Speaker 7: agenda that we have had, especially the agenda that we
10:45
Speaker 7: call the conscious agenda, which deals with helping people to
10:50
Speaker 7: understand that the people who came here change.
10:56
Speaker 8: Whose lives will sacrifice.
10:57
Speaker 7: For more than two hundred and forty years, they have
11:00
Speaker 7: not been properly recognized.
11:03
Speaker 8: They have been treated as thrawaways. In fact, they've been
11:07
Speaker 8: blamed for the enslavement that they endured.
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Speaker 7: So one of the things that I will keep hot
11:13
Speaker 7: on my gender would be this notion of making sure
11:18
Speaker 7: that the enslaved are honored to the same extent that
11:22
Speaker 7: we honor as others.
11:24
Speaker 8: We have honored people for.
11:26
Speaker 7: Who are victims of ninety eleven, the victims of Pearl Harbor,
11:30
Speaker 7: the victims of the Holocaust. We have to honor the
11:33
Speaker 7: enslaved to I, Alma said, I'm going to continue.
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Speaker 1: To say, you also spoke to the people's News.
11:46
Speaker 7: Well, I have hope for the country, and of course
11:48
Speaker 7: I have hoped for District eighteen. My belief is that
11:52
Speaker 7: there's great work still left to be done. I have
11:56
Speaker 7: done great things in this district. I don't mean to
11:59
Speaker 7: sound like a being braggadocious, but i just have a
12:02
Speaker 7: record to be proud of, and I'm not going to
12:05
Speaker 7: in any way of creating a concern as it relates
12:09
Speaker 7: to mister menifi'es.
12:10
Speaker 6: Moving forwards, well.
12:13
Speaker 7: I say to my supporters, thank you for the support,
12:15
Speaker 7: thank you for being with me for all of these years,
12:19
Speaker 7: and I assure you that there are still great things
12:21
Speaker 7: for us to do as we move forward with the
12:24
Speaker 7: next chapter.
12:24
Speaker 3: I think Congress since two thousand and five, and Christian
12:27
Speaker 3: Menifee is a freshman congressman, what is your biggest advice
12:29
Speaker 3: to him?
12:32
Speaker 7: I think that all congress people coming in will have
12:37
Speaker 7: time to acquire intelligence so that they can perform efficaciously.
12:42
Speaker 7: So I can only say to him, just do as
12:46
Speaker 7: best as you can. He's bring your talents to the
12:49
Speaker 7: Congress and do as best as you can.
12:51
Speaker 6: With the talents that you have reaterate the fight. Did
12:53
Speaker 6: you still have to do You still have work to do.
12:56
Speaker 7: Yes, we have work to do because there are people
13:00
Speaker 7: who are still suffering. The people in the Latino community
13:04
Speaker 7: are suffering greatly. I'm talking about innocent people who are
13:07
Speaker 7: being picked up and detained, children being picked.
13:11
Speaker 8: Up and detained.
13:12
Speaker 7: These things have to be addressed, and I plan to
13:14
Speaker 7: continue to address them.
13:16
Speaker 8: The fight for women.
13:17
Speaker 7: Women still have the right to choose, notwithstanding anything the
13:22
Speaker 7: Supreme Court has said, and we have to fight to
13:25
Speaker 7: bring back some semblance of righteousness to a cause that
13:30
Speaker 7: has been treated unjustly by the Supreme Court. Women have
13:33
Speaker 7: to be given the right to choose their bodies.
13:36
Speaker 8: They should control their bodies.
13:38
Speaker 7: So I still plan to deal with that, and I
13:40
Speaker 7: plan to deal with the many other things that I
13:41
Speaker 7: call to your attention, including issues with the Asian community,
13:45
Speaker 7: issues with the lbg QIA plus community.
13:48
Speaker 6: Nothing has changed for me in terms.
13:50
Speaker 8: Of my agenda.
13:51
Speaker 7: I will focus greatly on the notion of slavery remembers
13:55
Speaker 7: because of the two hundred and forty years of enslavement
13:59
Speaker 7: that has not been properly commemorated.
14:01
Speaker 9: What will be your first legislative priority.
14:03
Speaker 7: When you return to the sea, Well, my priorities haven't changed,
14:07
Speaker 7: they're still there. I have HR one sixty six, the
14:10
Speaker 7: Fair Lending for All Bill. We want to make sure
14:13
Speaker 7: that when persons go into banks to borrow money, that
14:16
Speaker 7: they will get loans that they're entitled to have, and
14:18
Speaker 7: they won't be discriminated against because of how they look.
14:23
Speaker 7: People of color, empirical evidence shows that they don't always
14:27
Speaker 7: get the same treatment as others. So I still take
14:30
Speaker 7: up HR one sixty six. I have a bill to
14:33
Speaker 7: increase the minimum ways to twenty five dollars an hour.
14:36
Speaker 7: It's called the Law Act, the Living American Wage Act.
14:39
Speaker 7: I still plan to push that because seven dollars in
14:42
Speaker 7: twenty five cents an hour, it's just an unthinkable wage.
14:45
Speaker 7: Nobody can live off of seven dollars and twenty five
14:48
Speaker 7: cents an hour. So I still plan to push that,
14:51
Speaker 7: and I want people to understand that we have to
14:54
Speaker 7: change the poverty rate as it tends to impact Americans.
14:59
Speaker 7: Generally speaking, the poverty rate for African Americans and also
15:03
Speaker 7: the unemployment rate for African Americans is about twice that
15:06
Speaker 7: of Anglo Americans. That should not happen decade after decade,
15:10
Speaker 7: that should change. So we're going to work to try
15:13
Speaker 7: to change that.
15:14
Speaker 10: That just my agenda hasn't changed. I plan to continue
15:18
Speaker 10: the agenda that I've had, and at the end of
15:22
Speaker 10: my term of office, then I will continue to do
15:24
Speaker 10: things that will, in my opinion, help my community.
15:28
Speaker 7: I enjoy serving and I would say this to anybody,
15:33
Speaker 7: if you want to feel good about yourself, help someone else.
15:37
Speaker 7: That is the greatest thing that you can do for
15:39
Speaker 7: your self esteem is to help another person who is
15:43
Speaker 7: in need. So I've planned to continue to have a
15:46
Speaker 7: career associated with service.
15:49
Speaker 1: State Representative Ron Reynolds stated that this was the end
15:52
Speaker 1: of an era. Yeah.
15:54
Speaker 11: Well, first of all, I want to congratulate Congressman Christian
15:57
Speaker 11: Menifee for a very impressive win, and I certainly commend
16:03
Speaker 11: him for a great heart Fall campaign.
16:07
Speaker 1: I think Congressman Al Green.
16:08
Speaker 11: For his service to the constituents of the ninth Congressional District.
16:13
Speaker 11: He ran hard, and he fought a good fight, but
16:16
Speaker 11: he came up short. But I'm certainly very proud of
16:19
Speaker 11: him and looked forward to working with congress Christian Minifie
16:23
Speaker 11: in the future.
16:24
Speaker 1: The District eighteen outcome was not the only surprise of
16:28
Speaker 1: the night. Former mayor and East Parker lost her bid
16:31
Speaker 1: for Harris County Judge to former Houston City council woman
16:35
Speaker 1: Letitia Plummer. Sharon Burniey lost out to Melanie Miles for
16:40
Speaker 1: Justice of the Peace Precinct seventh place two On the
16:43
Speaker 1: Republican side in a big upset, corrupt Texas Attorney General
16:48
Speaker 1: Ken Paxton, who had an endorsement from the corrupt Donald Trump,
16:53
Speaker 1: beat out Senior Senator John Cornyn in the big surprise
16:57
Speaker 1: of the night. Cornyn has held onto seat since two
17:00
Speaker 1: thousand and two. Hi, this is Steve Gallington, co producer
17:08
Speaker 1: and host of The People's News. The first thing I
17:11
Speaker 1: want to say is thank you. Thank you for your
17:15
Speaker 1: years of support keeping us on the air at KPFT
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Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. I am so grateful to be
18:29
Speaker 1: able to do this for you every week, and I
18:32
Speaker 1: am so grateful for your support. Thanks again. This past
18:43
Speaker 1: Monday was the six year anniversary of George Floyd's death.
18:47
Speaker 1: Floyd was a Houstonian and a black man that was
18:51
Speaker 1: beaten and killed at the hands of the Minneapolis police.
18:55
Speaker 1: The incident sparked worldwide protest and was highlighted with the
18:59
Speaker 1: slogan black Lives Matter. But what has happened since then
19:05
Speaker 1: police have been given more power and less oversight. The
19:09
Speaker 1: corruption in the White House has accelerated the abuses of
19:15
Speaker 1: minorities across the country. There is a memorial for George
19:19
Speaker 1: Floyd here in Houston, but sometimes the movement seems to
19:23
Speaker 1: have stalled. Mothers Against Police Brutality work to end police
19:29
Speaker 1: abuse and its mission is to prevent the police use
19:32
Speaker 1: of deadly force, particularly the killing of black and other
19:36
Speaker 1: people of color. We talked to Ali McCracken about the
19:41
Speaker 1: legacy and what we have learned and where do we
19:44
Speaker 1: go from here?
19:46
Speaker 5: We were going, We're gone over the anniversary of George Floyd,
19:49
Speaker 5: who of course was from Houston but died.
19:51
Speaker 12: And enhances the police up in Minneapolis. What have what
19:56
Speaker 12: have been learned is where are we now.
19:59
Speaker 5: As far as civil rights and stopping police brutality in
20:03
Speaker 5: the United States.
20:05
Speaker 13: Well, what we've seen in the six years since George
20:07
Speaker 13: Floyd was murdered is actually an upstick in police.
20:11
Speaker 9: Violence, and at the same time there's been a decrease
20:15
Speaker 9: in national crime and homicide rate. We've seen the militarization
20:19
Speaker 9: of the police continue, and not only the traditional police,
20:23
Speaker 9: but other forms of law enforcement like immigration law enforcement,
20:28
Speaker 9: like the ice agents we hear about across the country.
20:31
Speaker 9: So Mothers Against Police Brutality is an organization that was
20:35
Speaker 9: started after the murder of Clinton R. Allen, the son
20:40
Speaker 9: of Colette Flanagan, our founder by the Dallas.
20:43
Speaker 13: Police in twenty thirteen, and it's.
20:45
Speaker 9: Our mission to raise awareness about police violence and in
20:48
Speaker 9: power the families of those have been killed to take
20:52
Speaker 9: action in their communities to stop the police violence. And
20:55
Speaker 9: so driven by that mission, we've been working for many
21:00
Speaker 9: years now to to try to reduce police violence and
21:04
Speaker 9: to fight for these structures that maintain uh impunity around
21:10
Speaker 9: police violence and murders, such as policies like qualified community.
21:16
Speaker 5: Yeah, does does it frighten you as far as like
21:19
Speaker 5: what they did?
21:20
Speaker 12: As far as ice is training and having a little little,
21:26
Speaker 12: little no training really to become an agent that uh
21:31
Speaker 12: are you organizing for more training for these these officers
21:35
Speaker 12: because the more training, the lists less less time. As
21:39
Speaker 12: far as the incidents happening, well.
21:43
Speaker 13: I think it depends on the kind of training.
21:45
Speaker 9: What we see is a lack of investment in the
21:47
Speaker 9: sorts of training that would be escalate situations and would
21:52
Speaker 9: not resort to the use.
21:53
Speaker 13: Of deadly force.
21:54
Speaker 9: All too often police resort to, you know, discharging their
22:00
Speaker 9: weapon because there is no training for alternative means to
22:04
Speaker 9: deal with situations. And what we also need to do
22:06
Speaker 9: as a country is invest in alternatives to policing so
22:10
Speaker 9: that when we have, for example, a mental health crisis
22:13
Speaker 9: or a domestic violence situation, something that doesn't necessarily require
22:17
Speaker 9: an armed officer to shops, that we have those tools
22:20
Speaker 9: at our disposal. So, yes, it is frightening to see
22:24
Speaker 9: how ICE is committing massive human rights violations across the US,
22:29
Speaker 9: in part due to lack of training. It's also because
22:32
Speaker 9: of the broader systemic issue of militarization of our society
22:35
Speaker 9: in dealing with problems with a gun instead of with
22:38
Speaker 9: compassion and with human rights.
22:40
Speaker 13: Don't what did you see?
22:44
Speaker 5: The trouble administration seems that, you know, kind of a
22:49
Speaker 5: loosening of rules as far as law enforcement goes.
22:55
Speaker 6: You do you see the same thing.
22:58
Speaker 9: Yes, we've definitely seen that the Trump administration in every
23:02
Speaker 9: way has been supporting law enforcement and allowing the culture
23:08
Speaker 9: of lack of accountability and impunity and violence to continue.
23:13
Speaker 9: It's no coincidence that the Fraternal Order the Police regularly
23:16
Speaker 9: endorses Trump and his cronies. So it is a difficult
23:21
Speaker 9: political environment in which mothers against police brutality is operating,
23:26
Speaker 9: is mobilizing. But we're committed to continuing to empowering families
23:31
Speaker 9: who are affected by this crisis, and to educating the
23:36
Speaker 9: public about the realities of police killing. In the United States,
23:40
Speaker 9: we skill on average three people a day, and black
23:44
Speaker 9: people are more than two times more likely to be
23:47
Speaker 9: killed than white people by police. And so work continues
23:50
Speaker 9: despite the difficult circumstances under which we're doing them. And
23:54
Speaker 9: we saw just the other day the Supreme Court actually
23:59
Speaker 9: denied a police officer the right to claim qualified immunity
24:03
Speaker 9: in a case where he was trying to shield himself
24:05
Speaker 9: from accountability.
24:06
Speaker 13: And though it is a.
24:07
Speaker 9: Very difficult Supreme courtable moment, we hope that there will
24:10
Speaker 9: be more cases like this that challenge policies such as
24:14
Speaker 9: qualified immunity that are protecting officers every day and keeping
24:19
Speaker 9: them in the streets. We also are advocating for a
24:22
Speaker 9: national standard of the use of.
24:24
Speaker 13: Deadly force so that this you know, the way that police.
24:28
Speaker 9: There's thousands of police departments across US, and they all
24:31
Speaker 9: have different rules in different states, in different cities, and
24:34
Speaker 9: what we really need is something that's uniform and something
24:37
Speaker 9: that's want policy that that centers like these sorts of
24:43
Speaker 9: things that we're calling for, which is accountability, de escalation,
24:47
Speaker 9: and a standard of the use of legal force.
24:52
Speaker 5: Most world actually is is the deshalation of situations and
24:57
Speaker 5: is mostly like you said, mostly we're dealing with mental.
25:02
Speaker 13: Health and that's right, very go ahead.
25:08
Speaker 5: I was gonna say, trying to train office to deal
25:11
Speaker 5: with those mental health issues because a lot of shootings
25:13
Speaker 5: become an an issue because they're not trained for that.
25:16
Speaker 5: But when they did in Portland, they had programs to
25:19
Speaker 5: try to bring it out. That was fought that they
25:23
Speaker 5: the arforce and fought it, and you don't have it anymore.
25:28
Speaker 5: Is that something you see across the country.
25:31
Speaker 13: Definitely.
25:32
Speaker 9: The issue of police over responding and overreacting and using
25:37
Speaker 9: deadly force in the case of mental health crisis is
25:41
Speaker 9: ubiquitous across the US.
25:43
Speaker 13: It's shocking how many stories start with.
25:46
Speaker 9: I love calling the police because someone they care about
25:50
Speaker 9: is experiencing a crisis, and then that person or another
25:54
Speaker 9: person from their family and then instead it's shocking, is appalling,
25:59
Speaker 9: and it's something that we should prioritize changing. What we
26:04
Speaker 9: really need are alternatives to police violence, to policing, people
26:11
Speaker 9: who are experts and mental health crisis, people who have
26:13
Speaker 9: the escalations training and tactics people who are not carrying
26:18
Speaker 9: are done. That's definitely something that.
26:20
Speaker 13: We should be doing. But what the United States.
26:23
Speaker 9: Is doing now is pouring billions of dollars into militarism,
26:28
Speaker 9: whether it's war or police departments across the nation. Our
26:32
Speaker 9: priorities need to be realigned and need to go into
26:35
Speaker 9: preserving human life instead of taking it.
26:38
Speaker 5: Do you see the same thing happen with Ice with
26:41
Speaker 5: the relationship what we what we had here in Houston,
26:43
Speaker 5: and I know in Dallas, Dallas FOP thehold.
26:47
Speaker 6: Relationship with ICE.
26:48
Speaker 5: But Houston's policy they decided to go ahead and align
26:53
Speaker 5: themselves with ICE, give giving them more time to call
26:56
Speaker 5: ICE for for even trash stops.
27:00
Speaker 6: So people that have immigration issues, they're making cities.
27:05
Speaker 5: Product for immigration issues, which is a federal law. And
27:08
Speaker 5: have you seen that as a.
27:10
Speaker 6: Problem of.
27:12
Speaker 9: Oh absolutely, I mean the United States, there's this cooperation
27:17
Speaker 9: agreement called two to eighty seven g agreements where different departments,
27:22
Speaker 9: like law enforcement departments are being encouraged to sign these
27:26
Speaker 9: agreements with ICE so that they can carry out immigration enforcements.
27:31
Speaker 13: So you see.
27:32
Speaker 9: Highlight police and FIS, police and in some cases even
27:36
Speaker 9: some firefighter departments are being asked to carry out immigration
27:41
Speaker 9: operations and then you know, ask people for their their
27:45
Speaker 9: status during regular routine law enforcement encounters. And this has
27:51
Speaker 9: been devastating for communities across the US. I mean, I
27:55
Speaker 9: heard the story of a family that got into a
27:58
Speaker 9: car accident a highway in Florida and when the police
28:02
Speaker 9: showed up, they demanded everyone's papers and then they arrested
28:06
Speaker 9: the father because he was not a citizen, and they
28:09
Speaker 9: detained him and immediately handed him over to Ice. Now,
28:13
Speaker 9: people should never be in a position where they are
28:15
Speaker 9: afraid to call.
28:16
Speaker 13: The people who are supposed to protect them, no matter
28:19
Speaker 13: what their immigration status is.
28:21
Speaker 9: People should be able to count on their community for
28:25
Speaker 9: that support. And so these agreements and cooperation agreements we're
28:29
Speaker 9: seeing between law enforcement and I are very frightening and
28:32
Speaker 9: should definitely be a program that's ended. And unfortunately, what
28:37
Speaker 9: we're saying under Trump is the expansion on the statewide
28:40
Speaker 9: level of these programs and in many cities across the US.
28:44
Speaker 13: But it's going.
28:46
Speaker 9: It's a trend going in a bad direction, and I
28:49
Speaker 9: think the more that people are aware of it, the
28:51
Speaker 9: more they.
28:51
Speaker 13: Can do to stop it.
28:53
Speaker 5: What have we learned since George Floyd, we have we've
28:57
Speaker 5: made any progress at all the anniversary of his of
29:01
Speaker 5: his death. Uh and then now now they're talking about
29:05
Speaker 5: releasing the officer that that that killed it, and so
29:10
Speaker 5: we're going backwards after the George Floyas did or there's
29:14
Speaker 5: something something positive.
29:15
Speaker 13: That we can look for.
29:18
Speaker 9: Well, you know, what I think we've learned is that
29:21
Speaker 9: we keep us face. I was lucky enough to spend
29:25
Speaker 9: his time in Minneapolis over the last few months and
29:28
Speaker 9: talk to folks who have been on the ground resisting
29:32
Speaker 9: the ICE occupation.
29:33
Speaker 13: And the thing that I heard over and over from people.
29:35
Speaker 9: There is that the resistance that built after George Floyd's
29:39
Speaker 9: murder set the stage and and made it possible for
29:43
Speaker 9: them to push back against the ICE urge, which potentially
29:47
Speaker 9: saved prevented thousands of people from being deported. And so
29:50
Speaker 9: what we've really seen in Minneapolis and other cities across
29:53
Speaker 9: the US is a colessence of resistance, of people from
29:58
Speaker 9: different movements coming together to say black lives matter, immigrants
30:02
Speaker 9: lives matter, and to really create alternative structures of safety
30:08
Speaker 9: that do not involve the police. The community bond in
30:13
Speaker 9: Minneapolis is extraordinary. I was also in New Orleans talking
30:17
Speaker 9: to folks about the Ice resistance, and a lot of that,
30:21
Speaker 9: a lot of that community tightness comes from from twenty
30:28
Speaker 9: twenty when George Flood was murdered and the whole country
30:30
Speaker 9: rose up, and it.
30:31
Speaker 13: Wasn't just the United States, it was the whole world.
30:34
Speaker 9: His murder and the subsequent uprising shine a light on
30:38
Speaker 9: what actually is going on in the US, and it's
30:41
Speaker 9: something that the US cannot hide from and it cannot
30:43
Speaker 9: deny now, and it has tarnished the international reputation of
30:47
Speaker 9: the United States.
30:49
Speaker 13: People know what the police here are doing.
30:52
Speaker 9: So I don't think I think like we have a
30:55
Speaker 9: huge struggle ahead of US. Mothers against police brutality is
30:58
Speaker 9: on the front line as a as one of the
31:01
Speaker 9: few national organizations struggling for a police accountability. We have
31:05
Speaker 9: extraordinary women at the forefront. We are led by by survivors,
31:10
Speaker 9: by women who have lost their loved ones at the
31:12
Speaker 9: hands of the police, and NEI are some of the
31:14
Speaker 9: most brilliant women I've ever met in my life. And
31:17
Speaker 9: they are the ones leaving the community work, they're the
31:19
Speaker 9: ones keeping their communities together, and they're the ones fighting
31:22
Speaker 9: on the front line.
31:23
Speaker 13: And I have full faith, and I think.
31:25
Speaker 9: That since George Floyd's murder, they those women and people
31:30
Speaker 9: who have been directly affected should be at the center
31:34
Speaker 9: of the resistance and moving forward.
31:36
Speaker 13: And I do believe that that we will persist.
31:39
Speaker 9: And that we will when even even in these tough times,
31:42
Speaker 9: UH behind the leadership of women like Colette Flanagan, who
31:46
Speaker 9: is the founder and CEO of Mothers Against Police Brutality,
31:49
Speaker 9: we can we can fight and win a world that
31:52
Speaker 9: is Just tell people how.
31:54
Speaker 6: To get into the g in your organization.
31:58
Speaker 13: Say that again one more time.
31:59
Speaker 6: I'm ted hear you.
32:00
Speaker 5: Just tell us how people can get involved with your
32:03
Speaker 5: organization and how then get in touch with you.
32:06
Speaker 13: Oh okay, that was terrific.
32:08
Speaker 9: Well, you can go to Mothers Against Police Brutality dot
32:11
Speaker 9: org that our website has all of our work up there.
32:14
Speaker 9: You can follow us on Instagram at at Fighting Mothers.
32:18
Speaker 13: You can get involved.
32:19
Speaker 9: If you are yourself a survivor of police violence or
32:23
Speaker 9: you've lost a loved one, you can reach out to
32:25
Speaker 9: us on Instagram or through our website and get involved
32:28
Speaker 9: with the work we're doing. We are doing advocacy on
32:31
Speaker 9: state level, federal level. We are mobilizing women and we
32:35
Speaker 9: are collecting stories. We are always always archiving stories of
32:40
Speaker 9: what the police have done because we believe it's extremely
32:43
Speaker 9: important to preserve this in order to demand accountability.
32:46
Speaker 13: So please check out our website.
32:49
Speaker 1: That was Ali McCracken of Mothers Against Police Brutality. They
32:53
Speaker 1: can be contacted at Mothers Against Police Brutality All put
32:58
Speaker 1: Together dot org. Hi, this is Steve Gallington, producer and
33:04
Speaker 1: host of the People's News. If you have a story
33:08
Speaker 1: that needs to be told, come to us. We accept
33:11
Speaker 1: fully produced audio, written material, or just give us the
33:15
Speaker 1: idea and we will run with it. Shiny new one
33:18
Speaker 1: hour episodes of The People's News drop each Sunday on
33:22
Speaker 1: The People's News podcast hosted by spreaker dot com and
33:27
Speaker 1: linked to my website Gallington dot com. All of June
33:32
Speaker 1: is Black History Month and the middle of June is
33:35
Speaker 1: also the Celebration of Juneteenth. Sunday, June seventh, at the
33:40
Speaker 1: Old Eldorado Ballroom, the Community Music Center of Houston brought
33:45
Speaker 1: the Fiery String Sistas of New York City for their
33:48
Speaker 1: eleventh annual Legacy Project. We talked to doctor Ann Lundy,
33:53
Speaker 1: director of the Community Music Center of Houston, about the
33:57
Speaker 1: performance and the ongoing program that gets young kids to
34:01
Speaker 1: learn how to play instruments.
34:04
Speaker 6: Well, I'm An Lundy. I'm the music director for the
34:08
Speaker 6: Community Music Center of Houston. We are music organizations and
34:13
Speaker 6: specializes in performing and preserving Black music tradition, so spiritual,
34:20
Speaker 6: hip hop, classical, like we were playing violin, Yeah, you
34:24
Speaker 6: name it. We love Black music traditions.
34:26
Speaker 5: And you've got a new project coming up, the eleventh
34:29
Speaker 5: Annuel Legacy Project featuring the Fiery Streams Systems of New York.
34:35
Speaker 6: Ye, Fiery stream Sisters out of New York.
34:38
Speaker 5: All right, crate as we celebrate June team after you know,
34:44
Speaker 5: June and June teen. So you're bringing them in on Sunday,
34:48
Speaker 5: June seventh at the Eldorado Ballroom. Tell me about that
34:51
Speaker 5: and tell me what to expect.
34:53
Speaker 6: Alrighty good. Julie's also Black Music Month, and I like
34:57
Speaker 6: to remind people of that too, So it's part of
34:59
Speaker 6: the Black Music Month traditions. So as we say, it's
35:03
Speaker 6: on Sunday, June seventh at four pm, four pm at
35:07
Speaker 6: the Great Eldorado Ballroom. I think a lot of people
35:09
Speaker 6: know where that is in third ward right across from
35:11
Speaker 6: emancipation part. I think that address is thirty twenty three
35:16
Speaker 6: ten Elgin, twenty three ten Elgin. And what we're asking
35:20
Speaker 6: for is our generous donations accepted. There is no admission,
35:25
Speaker 6: but where's the generous donations? As we continue highlighting music
35:32
Speaker 6: traditions based on our black experience, we're celebrating June teenth,
35:36
Speaker 6: getting ready for Juneteenth and Black Music Month, so we
35:39
Speaker 6: are really looking forward to these systems.
35:43
Speaker 5: Tell me something about this, the Firay Sisters that people
35:45
Speaker 5: that don't.
35:46
Speaker 6: Know, Okay, this is our first time working with them.
35:51
Speaker 6: I was attracted to the fact that they see I
35:54
Speaker 6: grew up playing the violin and violin as cousin called viola.
35:57
Speaker 6: And I'm always curious when I see black folks like
36:00
Speaker 6: women that have also are involved in starting in classical
36:05
Speaker 6: but then kind of expand into other kinds of you know,
36:10
Speaker 6: music traditions. So it's got it has different kinds of
36:15
Speaker 6: music of you know, like I said, jazzy type of
36:18
Speaker 6: sounds and those kinds of things. Instead of just sticking
36:22
Speaker 6: to what's on the page, they've gotta expand on it.
36:25
Speaker 6: There's gonna be a keyboard too, and they've got some
36:27
Speaker 6: other instrumental instrumentals that will be involved in it too,
36:31
Speaker 6: So it'll be a mixture of different kinds of music.
36:33
Speaker 6: That's what I like about it because sometimes we don't,
36:37
Speaker 6: we don't always get out of our little box of
36:41
Speaker 6: my gas by box of sort of music on the page.
36:45
Speaker 6: And when you've got sisters that do uh, different kinds
36:48
Speaker 6: of music and just sort of expand on it and
36:50
Speaker 6: jazz it up and you know, include other kinds of traditions,
36:53
Speaker 6: it's a lot of fun to listen to. So come
36:55
Speaker 6: on out.
36:57
Speaker 5: Right and again, you know what will people expect to
37:02
Speaker 5: be won a certain sounds.
37:05
Speaker 6: Well, since this is our first time bringing them, I
37:10
Speaker 6: am looking forward to something new. That's the only way
37:13
Speaker 6: I can explain it. I don't have right now. This
37:16
Speaker 6: is our first time working with them, so I don't
37:18
Speaker 6: have a set thing in mind, but I am looking
37:22
Speaker 6: forward to just, you know, just hearing different kinds of music.
37:27
Speaker 6: So to be honest with you, I'm gonna go to
37:29
Speaker 6: the show and explore and get into different kinds of
37:33
Speaker 6: music too. But it will be something new coming out
37:36
Speaker 6: of New York. So we're looking forward to it.
37:39
Speaker 5: Well, it include some of your some of your musicians.
37:43
Speaker 6: In this case, not at this particular show. Not at
37:47
Speaker 6: this particular show. Okay, there will be other things we
37:50
Speaker 6: may be doing, like many times as musicians, some of
37:54
Speaker 6: our musicians may be playing background at the beginning. I
37:56
Speaker 6: believe we're playing background at the beginning and playing some
38:00
Speaker 6: jazzy kind of music. So that'll be fun to listen to.
38:04
Speaker 6: But they're really the artist. They're they're our featured guests,
38:08
Speaker 6: so they're they're bringing in the show.
38:12
Speaker 5: All right, And it's all ages, of course.
38:14
Speaker 6: All ages. Absolutely. We really encourage people to bring kids
38:18
Speaker 6: and so forth. You know, school's getting out and you know,
38:21
Speaker 6: just looking for something different, something something unique, something that
38:25
Speaker 6: doesn't happen every.
38:26
Speaker 5: Day, and of course looking for something to do for
38:31
Speaker 5: the kids this summer. They always you have something going on,
38:34
Speaker 5: it going on too, correct.
38:37
Speaker 6: That's right. We have our annual summer music camp. And
38:41
Speaker 6: we've been doing this for many years decades at this point,
38:46
Speaker 6: so it's coming up here. We always have it on.
38:49
Speaker 6: It's a two week summer camp. It's Monday June eighth
38:52
Speaker 6: through Friday June nineteenth. On juneteenth and it's going to
38:57
Speaker 6: be at Boyton Chapel Methodist Church And if you know
39:02
Speaker 6: where University of Houston is. On the music side, there's
39:06
Speaker 6: I like to explain to people that there's a little
39:09
Speaker 6: black community right between your of age and the freeway.
39:13
Speaker 6: I forty five then until recently, I didn't even know
39:17
Speaker 6: it was then, But it's a lovely little black enclave.
39:20
Speaker 6: So the church is, like I said, Boyton Chapel Methodist Church,
39:23
Speaker 6: twenty eight to twelve Milby Street, twenty eight twelve Milby Street.
39:28
Speaker 6: And the kids ranging from our little ones, I suppose
39:32
Speaker 6: our youngest ones might be around five or six, take
39:35
Speaker 6: the pre ks all the way up to the high
39:37
Speaker 6: schoolers once again.
39:39
Speaker 1: The performance will be Sunday, June seventh at the Eldorado
39:43
Speaker 1: Ballroom and it starts at four pm. It's free, but
39:47
Speaker 1: donations are encouraged. If you want to find out more
39:51
Speaker 1: about the Community Music Center of Houston, you can go
39:54
Speaker 1: to their web page at CMC Houston put together dot org,
39:59
Speaker 1: or you can all them at seven to one, three, five, two,
40:03
Speaker 1: three nine seven one zero. It's fun drive time at KPFT.
40:10
Speaker 1: Call us and donate what you can seven one three,
40:13
Speaker 1: five two six five seven three eight seven one three
40:17
Speaker 1: five two six, five seven three eight.
40:19
Speaker 6: We love the People's News.
40:22
Speaker 1: Unions continue to fight and win in Houston. Just like
40:26
Speaker 1: the hotel workers, stadium workers are suffering the same difficulties
40:31
Speaker 1: in cost of living on the pay they make. While
40:35
Speaker 1: the city prepares for a global event like the Men's
40:37
Speaker 1: Football World Cup. Houston stadium workers are facing the ever
40:41
Speaker 1: increasing cost of living, including necessities like food, rent and
40:46
Speaker 1: transportation costs as we prepare for the eyes of the
40:49
Speaker 1: world to be on Houston. The food service workers are
40:53
Speaker 1: at the backbone of these events are poised very much
40:56
Speaker 1: to be in the spotlight. Hospitality workers along with food
41:00
Speaker 1: and beverage workers employed by Shell Stadium and members of
41:04
Speaker 1: Unite Here Local twenty three rallied in front of the
41:07
Speaker 1: stadium to talk about the difficulties they are facing. We
41:11
Speaker 1: talked to Willi Gonzalez of Unite Here twenty three.
41:14
Speaker 14: My name is Willi Goanzalees. I'm the sextag treasure and
41:17
Speaker 14: I hear Local twenty three. And what we're doing is
41:21
Speaker 14: we are supporting all stadium workers in Houston at all
41:24
Speaker 14: the sports stadiums, having you know, having Liverpool aavation and
41:29
Speaker 14: being true to a respecting dignity because they're a key
41:32
Speaker 14: part of this tourism industry and they've been left behind
41:35
Speaker 14: and we're demanding that they be hurt. So today we're
41:39
Speaker 14: rallying on outside of the soccer stadium to deliver our
41:43
Speaker 14: message that all stadium workers in Houston deserve respect, indignity.
41:47
Speaker 5: As l at going though so far, because millions of
41:52
Speaker 5: dollars even billions dollars actually coming to Houston, and we
41:57
Speaker 5: know you wanted one rights for the hotel works and
42:01
Speaker 5: the people that's working at Georgia Brown. How is it
42:04
Speaker 5: going to be for the stadium, especially since who's running,
42:09
Speaker 5: because who's running the stadium.
42:11
Speaker 14: Well, it's no different. We want at the hotels, we
42:15
Speaker 14: want to at the feed service units. Who wanted at
42:16
Speaker 14: the airports, and we can win it for all the
42:18
Speaker 14: stadium So no difference. It's about workers standing up and
42:22
Speaker 14: demanding to be respected and the communities with them, and
42:25
Speaker 14: we're going to make sure it happens.
42:27
Speaker 5: How is it going so far?
42:28
Speaker 6: Are we getting.
42:31
Speaker 14: We're really initiating this campaign, so it's not a negotiat.
42:35
Speaker 14: It's a campaign to raise the wages for all workers,
42:39
Speaker 14: not the negotiation with any particular employees, for the entire industry.
42:45
Speaker 5: With the World Cup days away. How is it going
42:49
Speaker 5: to you know, the term is on the essence. As
42:52
Speaker 5: far as getting something going before before the World Cup
42:55
Speaker 5: comes here, well.
42:57
Speaker 14: I think that's the question for the stadiums because they
43:00
Speaker 14: need to think about that. So we're already willing and
43:05
Speaker 14: able to do what we got to do through even
43:07
Speaker 14: the World Cup, So that's a question for the stadium's
43:10
Speaker 14: answer because we just want the worker to be treated
43:12
Speaker 14: with respect and pay the livable wage and treated with respect.
43:16
Speaker 5: And is there any type of any bargain being done
43:21
Speaker 5: right now?
43:22
Speaker 14: There's no bargaining. We are trying to raise the wage
43:25
Speaker 14: across the board for everyone.
43:29
Speaker 5: How can people find out about the route the organization.
43:32
Speaker 14: And they could go to our website on social media
43:36
Speaker 14: and I hear Local twenty three one on all the
43:38
Speaker 14: major social media outlets and they can find out all
43:41
Speaker 14: about this and upcoming actions.
43:44
Speaker 1: That was Willi Gonzalez of Unite here twenty three speaking
43:47
Speaker 1: on organizing efforts of workers at sports stadiums. There's a
43:52
Speaker 1: Steve Gallington of the People's News here on Houston's community
43:56
Speaker 1: station KPFT ninety point one FM. Become a sustaining member
43:59
Speaker 1: today and help keep KPFT and the People's News on
44:02
Speaker 1: the air. Your donation at seven one, three, five, two six, five,
44:07
Speaker 1: seven three eight makes it possible. Or use our website
44:10
Speaker 1: KPFT dot org click on the donate button and remember
44:13
Speaker 1: at the top of the page to select the dragdown
44:15
Speaker 1: list and scroll down to the bottom and select the
44:18
Speaker 1: People's News. And finally, to wrap up the People's News
44:24
Speaker 1: this week, we have a guest, Egberto Willies, radio host, author,
44:31
Speaker 1: blogger and fellow producer at KPFT, conducted an interview with
44:38
Speaker 1: a Cuban to talk about conditions on the ground there.
44:42
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Egberto for your contribution to the show.
44:46
Speaker 4: KPFT People's News co host Richard Hanna arrange an interview
44:50
Speaker 4: with a cubanman, Rudy Cabrera, to get an on the
44:54
Speaker 4: street view of the realities in Cuba. Richard asked me
44:59
Speaker 4: to conduct the interview because mister Cabrettra spoke solely in Spanish.
45:04
Speaker 4: I am a perto Willis host of Politics done right.
45:10
Speaker 4: I must admit that the interview did not go as expected.
45:15
Speaker 4: I will start with a snippet from the middle of
45:19
Speaker 4: the interview.
45:23
Speaker 15: Was appeal the vehicle drowning, but.
45:39
Speaker 4: No okay, that necessit down drowning.
45:46
Speaker 16: Comments at issue in the album It's a discomb.
46:07
Speaker 4: After mister Cavetta expressed the people's frustration with suffering, they
46:11
Speaker 4: endured and made the following statement without context, maybe the
46:18
Speaker 4: country needs a traumatic event. But before I could properly contextualize,
46:24
Speaker 4: Rudy interjected, yes, that's it, because it has been sixty
46:31
Speaker 4: seven years of saying they the government would change. The
46:38
Speaker 4: statement took me aback because one can infer that many
46:43
Speaker 4: would accept a US invasion just to break the status quo.
46:49
Speaker 4: That is what happens when a country's economic situation leaves
46:54
Speaker 4: its citizens in a desperate situation. Mister Cavetta begins the
46:59
Speaker 4: interview by reiterating what many of us have already heard.
47:05
Speaker 4: Electricity is hard to come by, especially in rural areas.
47:10
Speaker 4: He said, it is not as bad in Havana. Nonetheless,
47:14
Speaker 4: one cannot use appliances such as washers, et cetera. After
47:19
Speaker 4: discussing the suffering, I asked if the people understood that
47:23
Speaker 4: it was largely the US government's complete blockade of Cuba
47:28
Speaker 4: that caused the destruction of the Cuban economy. He partially agreed,
47:34
Speaker 4: but inferred that most of the responsibility for Cuba's failed
47:37
Speaker 4: economy lay with the government. He pointed out that if
47:42
Speaker 4: China was able to bring a quasi market economy, the
47:45
Speaker 4: Cuban leaders should have been able to do the same.
47:49
Speaker 4: Mister Kabetta may not have realized that the US did
47:52
Speaker 4: not have a permanent blockade of China. More importantly, the
47:57
Speaker 4: US has outsourced much of its manufacturing based in China,
48:02
Speaker 4: which has left some American workers live in the same
48:05
Speaker 4: fear and distress of Cuba, albeit with amenities nonexistent in Cuba.
48:13
Speaker 4: But remember, you can't pretty much embargo your supplier. He said.
48:20
Speaker 4: Cuba's major problems were exacerbated after the COVID epidemic. Mister
48:26
Speaker 4: Caveneta also said the government did little to invest in society.
48:32
Speaker 4: Mister Caveneta forgot that Cuba needed to find whatever manner
48:39
Speaker 4: it could to get cash to get exchange, and that
48:45
Speaker 4: such investment locally was at a premium. Mister Cavendetta is
48:52
Speaker 4: an unemployed mechanical engineer. He made it clear that he
48:57
Speaker 4: was the only family member with a professional degree and
49:01
Speaker 4: still he is without a job. I reminded mister Cavedra
49:06
Speaker 4: that under Battista Black people were relegated to cleaning dancing.
49:12
Speaker 4: The frustration I heard on the other side of that
49:16
Speaker 4: wadsapp was astounding and understandable, but it was distressing that
49:23
Speaker 4: while he had been living in a country at war
49:26
Speaker 4: with the US, a blockade is a war act, and
49:33
Speaker 4: he was unaware of the extent to which the blockade
49:36
Speaker 4: contributed to the despair. It is worth noting that Castro
49:41
Speaker 4: attempted to be a US ally and was rejected by
49:45
Speaker 4: the US, which threw them into the arms of Russia
49:49
Speaker 4: for decade long alliances. Additionally, it is incumbent on anyone
49:55
Speaker 4: discussing Cuba to be aware of the Helms Burton Act,
50:00
Speaker 4: which enforces extra territorial sanctions on foreign commerce with Cuba,
50:06
Speaker 4: primarily by denying US market access to third country companies
50:11
Speaker 4: and banks that do business with the island. This forces
50:15
Speaker 4: global firms to choose between trading with Cuba and access
50:19
Speaker 4: in the US economy. Too often the aggrieved does not
50:24
Speaker 4: realize the source of their angst, pain, economic insecurity, and more.
50:31
Speaker 4: We see this phenomenon throughout the world, including the right
50:35
Speaker 4: wing movement that is amplifying misinformation. Look, there is no
50:42
Speaker 4: excuse for a government not doing right by its people.
50:47
Speaker 4: But it takes two, takes two or more. Cuba's problem
50:53
Speaker 4: isn't solely a problem of a failed government. It's a
50:56
Speaker 4: problem of a government that failed because it was forced
51:02
Speaker 4: to fail by another country, a country who held all
51:09
Speaker 4: of the cards, or rather a country who held most
51:13
Speaker 4: of the cards. That Cuba even survived sixty seven years.
51:19
Speaker 4: Speak of the resilient not of its government, but of
51:24
Speaker 4: its people. A people who yearn for freedom, a people
51:29
Speaker 4: who yearn for an economic system that works. A people,
51:33
Speaker 4: even in a failed economic system, had found a way
51:39
Speaker 4: to survive. Independent journalism must continue to inform and facilitate
51:44
Speaker 4: communities that seem desperate but are united by the same
51:49
Speaker 4: forces causing them economic harm. Mister Kabrena is living through
51:54
Speaker 4: a sixty seven year old war in which many of
51:58
Speaker 4: the causal parameters are clearly unknown or forgotten by too many.
52:07
Speaker 4: On behalf of the People's News, I make bet at
52:10
Speaker 4: the Willies.
52:12
Speaker 1: We end this week of the People's News with the
52:14
Speaker 1: reading from Timothy Snyder's on Tyranny, Twenty Lessons from the
52:19
Speaker 1: Twentieth Century, which was published in twenty seventeen and something
52:23
Speaker 1: I used as a guidebook to get me through the
52:26
Speaker 1: first Donald Trump presidency. Today we're reading number fifteen of
52:31
Speaker 1: the twenty lessons. Contribute to good causes. Be active in
52:36
Speaker 1: organizations political or not, that express your own view of life.
52:40
Speaker 1: Pick a charity or two and set up auto pay.
52:43
Speaker 1: Then you will have made a free choice that supports
52:46
Speaker 1: civil society and helps others to do good. It is
52:51
Speaker 1: gratifying to know that, whatever the course of events, you
52:54
Speaker 1: are helping others to do good. Many of us can
52:57
Speaker 1: afford to support some part of the vast net work
53:00
Speaker 1: of charities that one of our former presidents called a
53:03
Speaker 1: thousand points of light. Those points of light are best
53:07
Speaker 1: seen like stars at dusk against the darkening sky. When
53:12
Speaker 1: Americans think of freedom, we usually imagine a contest between
53:15
Speaker 1: the lone individual and a powerful government. We tend to
53:19
Speaker 1: conclude that the individual should be empowered and the government
53:22
Speaker 1: kept at bay. This is all well and good, but
53:26
Speaker 1: one element of freedom is the choice of associates, and
53:30
Speaker 1: one defense of freedom is the activity of groups to
53:32
Speaker 1: sustain their members. This is why we should engage in
53:36
Speaker 1: activities that are of interest to us, our friends, and
53:39
Speaker 1: our families. These need not be expressly political. Vaclav Hovel
53:45
Speaker 1: the Czech dissident thinker gave the example of brewing good beer.
53:50
Speaker 1: Insofar as we take pride in these activities and come
53:53
Speaker 1: to know others who do so as well, we are
53:56
Speaker 1: creating civil society. Sharing as an undertaking teaches us that
54:01
Speaker 1: we can trust people beyond a narrow circle of friends
54:04
Speaker 1: and families, and helps us to recognize authorities from whom
54:08
Speaker 1: we can learn. The capacity for trust and learning can
54:12
Speaker 1: make life seem less chaotic and mysterious, and democratic politics
54:17
Speaker 1: more plausible and attractive. The anti communist distance of Eastern Europe,
54:23
Speaker 1: facing a situation more extreme than ours, recognized the seemingly
54:27
Speaker 1: non political activity of civil society as an expression and
54:31
Speaker 1: a safeguard of freedom. They were right. In the twentieth century,
54:37
Speaker 1: all the major enemies of freedom were hostile to non
54:39
Speaker 1: governmental organizations, charities and the like. Communists required all such
54:45
Speaker 1: groups to be officially registered and transformed them into institutions
54:50
Speaker 1: of control. Fascists created what they called corporatist systems, in
54:55
Speaker 1: which every human activity had its proper place subordinated to
54:59
Speaker 1: a party state. Today's authoritarians in India, Turkey, and Russia
55:05
Speaker 1: are also highly allergic to the idea of free associations
55:09
Speaker 1: and non governmental organizations. That was an excerpt of the
55:14
Speaker 1: book on Tyranny, Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by
55:18
Speaker 1: Timothy Snyder. Hi, this is Steve Gallington, co producer and
55:26
Speaker 1: host of The People's News. The first thing I want
55:29
Speaker 1: to say is thank you. Thank you for your years
55:33
Speaker 1: of support keeping us on the air at KPFT ninety
55:37
Speaker 1: point one FM. Today I want to talk to you
55:40
Speaker 1: about the catch twenty two, that is ears versus donations.
55:46
Speaker 1: So station management at KPFT picks the winners and picks
55:51
Speaker 1: the losers by putting programs on the air HD one
55:55
Speaker 1: and HD two. The shows that are on HD one
55:59
Speaker 1: and HD two more times during the day and during
56:02
Speaker 1: the week are the ones that get more donations. That
56:06
Speaker 1: makes sense because there are more people who can hear
56:08
Speaker 1: the program. So with The People's News we air for
56:13
Speaker 1: three hours on HD two each week, which I'm very
56:17
Speaker 1: grateful for, but because of that choice by station management,
56:22
Speaker 1: not very many people actually hear the program. I encourage you,
56:26
Speaker 1: when you donate to the show also to reach out
56:29
Speaker 1: to KPFT and ask that The People's News get put
56:32
Speaker 1: on HD one. And I also wanted to announce we
56:36
Speaker 1: are in podcast form. You can go to speaker dot
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Speaker 1: com and there are ways you can support us directly there.
56:44
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. I am so grateful to be
56:47
Speaker 1: able to do this for you every week, and I
56:50
Speaker 1: am so grateful for your support. Thanks again. The People's
57:02
Speaker 1: News is a production of Steve Gallington and Richard Hannah
57:05
Speaker 1: and is protected by copyright laws. All the information broadcast
57:10
Speaker 1: on air and online, as well as published in both
57:12
Speaker 1: print and or online, including articles, audio clips, illustrations, graphics, photographs,
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Speaker 1: our content in any prohibited way, including reproducing, publishing, transmitting, selling, rewriting, broadcasting,
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Speaker 1: of The People's News. Prohibited use also includes publication of
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Speaker 1: as well as all website or email distribution. To obtain
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Speaker 1: permission to use copyrighted material, email Steve Gallington at Steve
57:53
Speaker 1: at gallington dot com. Thank you