RadioActive 5/29/08

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Topic:  An interview with Bruce Gagnon, Founder and Coordinator of Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.

Two leading peace activists in the Czech Republic began an unlimited hunger strike on May 13 in protest of U.S. plans to deploy a so-called “missile defense” radar in their country.  The hunger strike and protests are now spreading throughout Europe and other parts of the world including the U.S.
Here in Maine, Bruce Gagnon who coordinates the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, joined the hunger strike on May 24 and vows to continue on with it until the Czech strikers quit.

FMI: www.nonviolence.cz , www.space4peace.org,

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RadioActive 5/08/08

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Topics:

Segment 1: The Colombia Free Trade Agreement-  A coalition of laid-off workers, environmentalists, human rights activists, members of faith communities and others are criticizing Maine Senator Susan Collins for her refusal to take a stand on a Free Trade Agreement with Colombia.  The rest of Maine’s congressional delegation has already come out in opposition to the Colombia FTA which is currently pending final approval from Congress.

Sarah Bigney, an organizer with Maine Fair Trade Campaign, Wendall Rafford, a worker from Irving Forest Products in Ashland and President of United Steelworkers Local 1310, and Elsie Flemings an environmentalist from Bar Harbor  join us today to talk about the issue.

FMI: www.mainefairtrade.org, www.citizenstrade.org

Segment 2:  The next Appropriations Bill to continue funding the Occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan will be voted on soon.  And as WERU listeners are no doubt aware, 70% of the country is against the occupation of Iraq.  This afternoon Mainers who continue to feel they are not being heard using other means, planned to stage a sit-in at Representive Tom Allen’s office in Portland.  We checked in with them just before air time and talked with Bruce Gagnon,  who gave us an update— including letting us know why the sit-in was relocated to Senator Susan Collin’s Portland offices.

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RadioActive 4/24/08

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Topic: Immigration and it’s Roots in  Free Trade Policy and Inequality in El Salvador
The Peace Accords did not result in the slated economic forum to address inequalities in the country. Instead the government adopted structural adjustment measures, leading to privatization measure and increasing free trade.
The rate of poverty is great in El Salvador.   Free trade policy has increased the crush on small farmers and others. It is difficult for people to migrate to the US, but their impetus is poverty. Ironically, this is perpetuated by neo liberal policies directed and implemented by the United States.

Guests: Lorena Martinez, CRIPDES, the Association for the Development of El Salvador
Pedro Juan Hernandez,  Popular Resistance Movement  of October 12th, (MPR-12)
Katie Sharar, Annunciation  House, El Paso, TX; Casa Marianella, Austin, TX
Lilian- Cabanas, El Salvador

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RadioActive 4/10/08

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Topic: Colin Woodard, author of “The Lobster Coast: The Cultural History of Coastal Maine”, as well as other maritime related books, speaking on “The Triumph of the Commons: How Maine’s Lobstering Community Built a Sustainable Fishery”, at the 2008 Maine Water Symposium: Who Owns Maine’s Water?

The symposium was sponsored by The Alliance for Democracy and The Water for Life Campaign, and co-sponsored by Maine Fair Trade Campaign and Maine’s Chapter of the Women’s League for Peace and Freedom, and was held at Bates College on 3/29/08

FMI: www.defendingwaterinmaine.org, www.colinwoodard.com

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