Wednesday, May 27, 2009

MAY 27: LaborTeamstersHistory

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LABOR ISSUES and THE TEAMSTERS STRIKE 1934
Seventy-five years after the big Teamsters blow-out, labor is back struggling for its survival. Will the times allow a resurgence of unified collective bargaining and worker protections, wages and benefits? Meanwhile, even in the best of times, labor's internal conflicts reflect the all-too-human temptation to forget our parents' and grandparents' struggles to secure middle class status for workers of all skills. Many rank and file union members have changed their political stripes as they settled into suburban isolation from the unity once required to maintain power.

TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with historians and activists to assess the labor landscape even as many are planning a July celebration of the trucker's strike of 1934 in this recessionary period. We recall the nasty events of July, 1934, when deputized thugs ambushed union pickets, killing two and seriously wounding dozens of others and we assess the political climate that allowed it to happen.

GUESTS: • JIM MCGUIRE – Chair, One Day in July: A Street Festival for the Working Class – The 1934 Teamsters Strike Remembrance 75 Years Later; Steward, OPEIU Local 12 • TOM O'CONNELL – Metro State Political Science Professor/Labor Historian. Author, TOWARD THE COOPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH: AN INTRODUCTORY HISTORY OF THE FARMER-LABOR MOVEMENT IN MINNESOTA (1917-1948) • DAVID RIEHLE – Minnesota Labor Historian, 1934 Strike chronicler; Chair, Local 650, UTU for Union Pacific trainmen; "One Day in July" organizing committee member. • ERIC FORMAN – IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) with a STARBUCKS ORGANIZING UPDATE

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Wednesday, May 20, 2009

MAY 20: COMMUNITY GARDENS: Cultivating Health and Confidence

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COMMUNITY GARDENS: Cultivating Health and Confidence Something in the soil*, in the turning of it, the planting and in watching seeds sprout and bloom with food and flowers for family and friends and neighbors. It brings together young and old, low-wealth and affluent - racially and economically diverse urban dwellers seeking better nutrition and self-confidence. Community gardens throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul are feeding gardeners and young people the fundamentals of raising, marketing and consuming the better health and biology that comes from unprocessed and organic, homegrown foods. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with community gardeners, urban farmers and their charges from across the Twin Cities weeding out the corporate consumption machine from neighbors' nutrition toward pride and self-sufficiency as they feed themselves and their neighbors the healthier results of their toils in the soils. GUESTS: • DIANE DODGE- Growing Food and Justice • MELVIN GILES - Minnesota Food and Justice Alliance • XE SUSANE MOUA - St. Paul urban farmer and advocate

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Wednesday, May 13, 2009

TTT May 13: SubterraneanTwinCities

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Down, down, down. Jules Verne and 20,000 Leagues Under the City he's not, but geologist, caver and author GREG BRICK reveals in his book, Subterranean Twin Cities, a multi-level world never seen by most, some of it naturally formed, some of it carved and created by humans to service our consumption and our waste...most of it dark, wet, and dangerous. Some, especially youngsters have died in collapses and closings. We rarely or never meet up with our neighbors, the insects and rodents residing below in numbers that would blow our minds, feeding on human detritus, might even be seen as part of the human ecology. We walk and drive above it all every day.

TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN explore with Greg Brick the underworld of our cities and state and talk about why public access to those inner sanctums has been cut short by security and safety concerns even as the caves and tunnels contain some important geology and serious history of the area. Don’t try this at home—read the book instead! (it smells better) we are admonished by publishers University of Minnesota Press.

GUESTS: • GREG BRICK - Author, Geologist and sometimes cave explorer.

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Wednesday, May 06, 2009

TTT MAY 6: CENTRAL CORRIDOR UPDATE [Simulcast truncated]

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[PLEASE NOTE: This is a truncated program simulcast on television live from St. Paul Neighborhood Network where our audio connection was unreliable a fair share of the time. Please bear with us.]

After a half-dozen years or more of public scrutiny and controversy over community demands for constituent services along the light rail corridor soon to break asphalt in St. Paul and Minneapolis, many of those communities' continue to voice frustrations with decision-makers treating transit-dependent populations as second in line for the resources necessary to make the revamping of this umbilical cord between the two downtowns actually serve them. Coalitions of groups have seen themselves marginalized in a billion-dollar process that promises much but guarantees far less as the state and Metropolitan Council vie for federal transit funds, argue over local and state matches required for completion and, especially the important issues of sufficient station stops, business loss mitigation along University Avenue during construction, and the loss of parking to accommodate small retailers, among other.

TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with several community leaders deeply engaged in advisory committees and other efforts trying to affect ivory tower decisions that separate political leaders from neighborhood representatives. GUESTS: • ANNE WHITE - Chair, District Councils Collaborative of St. Paul & Minneapolis (DCC); member, Central Corridor Advisory Committee (CCAC); • VERONICA BURT - Community Organizer, Aurora-St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corp; • VIC ROSENTHAL - Executive Director, Jewish Community Action; member, Campaign to Add Transit Stops Along Central Corridor; • LARRY PETERSON - Attorney; Executive Committee, University Avenue Business Assn • MILFORD JOHNSON - Community Stabilization Project (CSP), St. Paul

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