VFTFL Archive, All Years

The Director of the Korea Policy Institute discusses the Cheonan warship incident, South Korean hawks' drive to provoke a broader conflict, and the backdrop of long-simmer North Korean/South Korean relations.

A longtime advocate for public health and the welfare of children vies to fill big shoes being vacated by Assemblywoman Karen Bass in Sacramento

Bus Riders Union Hunger Fasters for Justice on their 6th day of fasting in their struggle to stop MTA's racist fare hike and the upcoming Thursday vote at MTA's Board Meeting.

LA Community Action Network (LACAN) Co-director on their campaign for a 3-month rent freeze, defeated by landlords at City Council meeting last week, followed by police violence and arrests

Eric Mann in conversation with three veterans of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee -- Judith Richardson, Fay Bellamy Powell and Charles Sherrod -- and Clayborne Carson, civil rights historian and author of In Struggle, the formative history of SNCC.

The co-founder of Moveon.org talks about why he is throwing in his hat, on a platform of economic fairness, climate change, and public education, to the 2010 gubernatorial race.

The CEO of Rock for Equality breaks down the discrimination faced by same-sex couples in social security and other benefits, and what the Rock For Equality campaign is doing to win justice for elderly same sex couples -- including a launch event this weekend in Hollywood.

Two leading advocates for reproductive justice unpack health care reform and its implications for women of color, immigrant women, and working class women. What setps forward and steps back does the bill take for women's reproductive justice? What interventions and organizing breakthroughs did advocates make as the bill took shape?

Reese Erlich, award-winning journalist and author of The Iran Agenda, and Muhammed Sahimi, correspondent with the The Tehran Bureau, break down internal politics and US imperial interventions from Iran to Afghanistan to Iraq and Pakistan.

A senior organizer at ACORN reflects on how blistering, underhanded attacks from the Right combined with internal problems, forcing the largest community organizing network in the US to close its doors.

The director of the Universal Health Care Action Network breaks down the historic health care reform bill passed this week -- the major breakthroughs, the pitfalls, and the opporunities ahead to advance the cause of universal care.

A leading civil rights attorney and scholar argues in her new book The New Jim Crow that the mass imprisonment of Blacks and Latinos in the US - and its impact on former prisoners, their families and communities -- has created a new racial caste system in the US.

Democrats.com blogger and progressive Democratic Party activist assesses the 11th hour negotiations over health care reform, the prospects for reviving the public option and how progressive Democrats can challenge their party's Centrist leadership.

Black Agenda Report Executive Editor Glen Ford was one of the earliest and most outspoken critics of Barack Obama from the Left and inside the Black Community. A year into Obama's turn, how does Ford assess the Black community's relationship to the President?

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.