VFTFL Archive, All Years

The President of the California Federation of Teachers speaks about the statewide March 4 mobilization for public education, the ongoing attack on funding for public education in the state government, and how to unlock California's budget juggernaut to win real reform.

Recently returned from a devastated Port-au-Prince, the South LA Congresswoman talks about the challenges to democratic self-determination, from Haitian business elite and foreign powers blocking the returned of exiled President Jean Bertrand Aristide to renewed demands, promoted by Waters in Congress, to cancel Haiti's international debt.

The former Georgia Congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate breaks down the militarized US response to the disaster in Haiti, the parallels to Katrina, and interventions progresives can make to support recovery and self-determination fot the Haitian people.

Political Director for one of California's largest public sector unions, AFSCME, raps with Eric Mann about Schwarzenegger's latest proposal to slash the social welfare state and undermine unions and to challenge bloated prison and highway spending.

A former field organizer with Obama for America and a journalist who recently profiled 30 young veterans of the Obama campaign discuss where is Obama's army now and what do they think of Obama the President after one year?

The veteran social movement organizer and editor of The Black Commentator discusses with host Eric Mann President Obama's record after one year office and how social movements should engage moving forward.

Two leaders in the immigrant justice movement talk about the national mobilization to challenge Maricopa County (Arizona) Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the fight to defend immigrant rights and win real reform.

Co-authors of Venezuela Speaks! Voices from the Grassroots, discuss grassroots indigenous, Afro-Venezuelan, and other social movements and their role, alongside President Huga Chavez, in advancing Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution.

The journalist and former State Senator reports on the bail hearing and the prospects for a fair trial for Alex Sanchez, the gang member turned gang intervention leader now facing trumped up federal conspiracy charges.

An expert on Right wing movement breaks down the Tea Party and the new grassroots Right wing in the era of Obama.

A longtime grassroots Palestinian organizer reports on the Gaza Freedom March in Cairo, the arrest of West Bank grassroots leader Jamal Juma' and conditions in Gaza one year after the siege.

The Director of the San Diego-based Just Transition Alliance, just returned from a US grassroots environmental and climate justice delegation to Copenhagen, breaks down why the deal brokered by President Obama in the 11th hour is really no deal at all. What opportunities lie ahead for social movements and government fighting for climate justice?

The co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program and a progressive blogger from Democrats.com break down the dangers of the current health care reform bill, from a $476 billion subsidy to private industry to a mandate that people buy private insurance, and debate strategies for getting the health care reform process back to its original goals.

The Director of Veterans for Peace and a national leader in United for Peace and Justice respond to Obama's decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan and discuss grassroots and inside-the-beltway strategies for stopping the US war machine.

The Director of Veterans for Peace and a national leader in United for Peace and Justice respond to Obama's decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan and discuss grassroots and inside-the-beltway strategies for stopping the US war machine.

An attorney and youth organizer from the Dignity in Schools Coalition discusses the National Resolution to End School Pushout being launched this week, and the discipline policies and class conditions that creating crisis of drop out/pushout for low income students of color in urban high schools.

A monumental figure on the US Left reflects with his old friend, host Eric Mann, on a long life in the movement, from Fanny Lou Hamer and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, teaching a Spelman College student named Alice Walker, and the writing and publication of his ground-breaking work A People's History of the United States.

The Indian writer-activist breaks down the grwoing Maoist movement in India, the state of the Indian Left, repression by state security forces, and the controversial multi-national mining project in Orissa

In the wake of the deadly shooting by a military psychiatrist at Fort Hood, Texas, the award-winning independent war reporter discusses the conditions facing GI's in the face of another escalation of the war in Aghanistan and the small but growing GI resistance movement.

One year after the Wall Street meltdown and the biggest corporate bailout in US history, the Director of Americans for Financial Reform and an expert on international finance discuss the causes of the financial crisis and the strategies and proposals for meaningful reform.

The investigative journalist and author of The Chavez Code assesses the US-brokered agreement between President Manuel Zelaya and the coup government in Honduras. Victory for popular forces in Honduras and the Latin American Left or scucessful US imperial manipulation?

The Los Angeles Sentinel columnist and the director of South Asian Network reflect on the appointment of Charlie Beck to replace William Bratton as chief of LAPD. What should communities of color and civil rights activists expect and demand from the new leadership at LAPD?

The LA County Supervisor from South Los Angeles discusses MTA's recently passed Long Range Transportation Plan, what he's done and will do to protect funding for the bus system, and what transit equity in LA looks like over the next 30 years.

Two organizers on the ground in the fight for civil rights in transportatinon break down the challenges and opportunities for transit-dependent low income people and people of color in LA and the Bay Area.

Leading commentators from the Institute for Policy Studies and the
Black Commentator discuss the specific impacts of the economic and
housing crises in the Black community. As unemployment and poverty
rates sore, the foreclosure crisis is being called the largest transfer
wealth out of the hands of Black people in modern US history.