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Along a noisy highway in Caracas, Venezuela stand a series of tall buildings that once belonged to Exxon-Mobile. Today, those buildings are home to the Bolivarian University, where poor and working class people can get a free higher education and specialize in careers that are focused on community development and political organization. The Bolivarian University is just one of the many innovative government supported projects underway in Venezuela, and for that reason it was selected to host the Global Grassroots Women’s Conference, which took place this past week.

DECEMBER 17TH SHOW:Portland and Homeland Security: An Interview with Dan Hendelman of Portland Copwatch

PA Prison Report Headlines.
-Historic prisoners' strike in Georgia shuts down six prisons.
-Jailhouse lawyer held in freezing cell; stripped of legal property in solitary confinement.

Interview.
In the wake of the arrest of 18-year-old Somali-born Mohamed Osman Mohamud on charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction in Portland, we speak with Dan Hendelman of Portland Copwatch about --Portland's status as a city that has rejected becoming a partner of the FBI in its National Joint Terrorism Task Force --Recent FBI surveillance of Hendelman and Portland Copwatch --The fear that the arrest of Mohamud might lead to a stronger collusion between the FBI and local Portland police in future law enforcement efforts in the city.

DECEMBER 24TH SHOW: Police Brutality Case 11.27.10: Naimah Jones

PA Prison Report Headlines.
-Prisoner transferred out of state in retaliation for filing grievances
-Continued solitary confinement torture at SCI Coal Township

Interview.
On today's show, we continue our documentation of police brutality incidents occurring in the United States with this post of an interview with Inas Shabazz about the recent acts of police brutality against her sister, Naimah Jones, on November 27th. In the early hours of the second day after Thankisgiving, Naimah Jones was choked, thrown to the concrete, and tasered several times in front of her home in North Philadelphia as her children looked on. Her sister asserts that Naimah did not physically resist arrest and the attacks were unjustified.

The attacks were preceded by a verbal exchange between Naimah and a police officer regarding the children she had left locked in her car as went into her home to retrieve some items.

She is facing felony assault charges. Her sister, Inas Shabazz, tells the story.

Please spread widely.

www.ontheblockradio.org

Author and journalist Benjamin Dangl was recently at the Wooden Shoe to talk about his new book, Dancing With Dynamite: Social Movements and States in Latin America.

In this talk, Dangl discusses the recent rise of Left governments in the region and discuss their relationship to social movement, citing the particular examples of Bolivia, Ecuador, and Paraguay.

Check out the Nov. 4 recording above to hear defenestrator collective member Colin inroduce Democracy Now's Sharif Abdel Kouddous at "The War on Words," a recent event about independent journalism and war sponsored by the Penn Arab Student Association, Penn for Palestine and Philly Against War. The event is introduced by Farah Mokhtareizadeh of Penn for Peace.

From the Medios Caminantes Network

12 hours of live radio broadcasting from 10 different cities in the United States and Mexico with the participation of 15 immigrant groups/organizations fighting against the racist policies of the government of Arizona and the absence of a clear immigration policy at the federal level.


Thursday July 29, 2010
11am - 11pm (Eastern)

Tonight Noel Ignatiev came to Wooden Shoe books here in Philly to present his piece on CLR James, the World View of CLR James, also the forward to a new book recently released on PM Press titled A New Notion.

Ignatiev talks about James' rejection of Soviet Communism, his cricket journalism and his view of the new society showing itself as internal antagonisms emerge in conflicts within and between classes. He illustrates the latter nicely with some fun stories of workplace slagging, sabotage and organizing.

Noel Ignatiev:

On Sunday July 10th, the Team Colors, a millitant research collective, gave a great talk about their recent book, Uses of a Whirlwind: Movement, Movements, and Contemporary Radical Currents in the United States. This edited volume of essays and interviews inquires into the current state of radical movements and social struggles in the United States.