#1400 Fighting Neoliberalism from the Fields of India to the Fight for 15
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 21 February 2021
⏱️ 72 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Air Date 2/20/2021
Today we take a look at the fight to create and maintain workable and humane economic and social floors, beneath which people are not allowed to fall. The fetishization of market forces embraced by decades of neoliberals and weaponized by authoritarians have left millions desperate for basic standards. To draw the connection, we look at the protests by Indian farmers against proposed deregulation and the fight for $15 in the US.
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: Your four talking points for $15-an-Hour minimum wage - Working Life Podcast - Air Date 2-17-21
Right before our eyes, in these very days and at this time of crisis, you can see so clearly this bankrupt system, defended and promoted by greedy CEOs and spineless politicians, but a system people are trying to rebel against and take down.
Rebecca sits down with the Economic Policy Institute's David Cooper for a deep dive into Democrats' Raise the Wage Act, which would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025.
The big news in the minimum wage world this week is the new CBO report—which, among many benefits, also found that a $15 federal minimum wage would cost jobs, increase the deficit, and raise prices. Goldy and Paul explain how CBO arrived at their numbers.
Rebecca sits down with the Economic Policy Institute's David Cooper for a deep dive into Democrats' Raise the Wage Act, which would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025.
This week, journalist and Washington Post columnist, Rana Ayyub, joins to discuss the protest movement and how Modi·s reaction to it fits his pattern of illiberalism and nationalism that marches India away from democracy.
P. Sainath, an Indian journalist and the founder of People’s Archive of Rural India, or PARI, who describes why working-class Indians are standing up against “absolutely vicious” new rules that were rammed through Parliament, and show no sign of stopping.
Ch. 7: All walls must fall w/Harsha Walia - The Red Nation Podcast - Air Date 2-15-21
Harsha Walia discusses her new book, Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism, the Indian farmers' movement, and how she became an organizer.
Professor Richard Wolff joins RJ Eskow to discuss the historic strike taking place in India and possible influence on other countries.
MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S)
The big news in the minimum wage world this week is the new CBO report—which, among many benefits, also found that a $15 federal minimum wage would cost jobs, increase the deficit, and raise prices. Goldy and Paul explain how CBO arrived at their numbers.
Ch. 10: Amazon Workers Organize! - Working Life Podcast - Air Date 2-10-21
Thousands of workers are trying to get a union at Amazon's huge warehouse in Bessemer Alabama. The ballots have just been mailed and we get an update on the organizing campaign from a good friend of the show Dave Mertz
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 11: Final comments on the results of our disinformation headline contest
TAKE ACTION!
Call Your Senators to Pass a $15 Federal Minimum Wage: 888-639-5155
Stay engaged with @fightfor15 & #fightfor15 on Twitter
Tell Sen. Joe Manchin how you feel, too!
EDUCATE YOURSELF & SHARE
The Fight for a $15 Minimum Wage Is Our Selma (Time, Op-Ed)
Sanders confident of raising minimum wage as part of $1.9tn Covid package (The Guardian)
Written by BOTL Communications Director Amanda Hoffman
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions):
- Opening Theme: Loving Acoustic Instrumental by John Douglas Orr
- Voicemail Music: Low Key Lost Feeling Electro by Alex Stinnent
- Activism Music: This Fickle World by Theo Bard
- Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent
SHOW IMAGE:
Image Description: Image of a young Black woman holding sign that says "Fighting for $15" next to an image of a young Indian man holding a sign that says "If you ate today, thank a farmer".
Composite Design by Amanda Hoffman. Images include: “FightFor15-1330695 - #Fightfor15 Protest in Pittsburgh, PA - April 2015” by Mark Dixon, Flickr | License | Changes: Cropped and rotated *and* “052 Indian Farmers Protest” by Felton Davis, Flickr | License | Changes: Cropped, enhanced brightness and contrast
Produced by Jay! Tomlinson
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of the Left podcast in which we shall |
| 0:07.0 | learn about the fight against the forces of neoliberalism from the protests by Indian |
| 0:11.9 | farmers against proposed deregulation to the fight for 15 in the U.S. Clips today are |
| 0:18.7 | from the Working Life Podcast, Off-Kilter, Pitchfork Economics. |
| 0:24.1 | Why is this happening, democracy now, the red nation and the zero hour? |
| 0:35.8 | I thought I'd arm everyone in the audience with the four, just four. |
| 0:41.6 | Most important things to say to people, to encourage them to make this fight a priority |
| 0:48.1 | or to take on the uninformed with actual information. |
| 0:51.3 | Number one, keep this thing in mind. |
| 0:54.6 | If you made $15 an hour and you worked 52 weeks a year, 40 hours a week, meaning you |
| 1:03.6 | had not a single day off to spend with your family or just chill, you would make $31,200. |
| 1:11.0 | That my friends just puts a family of four, a tiny bit over the official federal poverty |
| 1:16.7 | line and those poverty lines don't really tell us what it costs in real life to survive. |
| 1:24.5 | Number two, if the federal minimum wage really kept pace with our productivity over the |
| 1:30.0 | past four decades, the minimum wage should be actually $22 an hour. |
| 1:38.4 | The ruling class and owner class basically robbed millions of people of their hard work |
| 1:44.9 | over many decades. |
| 1:47.1 | That's a feature of capitalism, not a bug. |
| 1:51.0 | Number three, hiking the minimum wage to $15 an hour would save the federal government |
| 1:58.2 | money. |
| 1:59.2 | Did you hear that? |
| 2:00.2 | All you deficit mongers, all the fools who run around screaming about government spending |
... |
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