Last week there were major storms on the East Coast. In East Palestine, Ohio there was massive flooding and the toxins released in the Norfolk Southern train derailment, such as vinyl chloride, were coming to the surface. The residents are still getting sick and are unable to move out because of President Biden’s refusal to institute the Stafford Act, which would provide healthcare and compensation to residents who want to sell their devalued homes and leave town. They say that Norfolk Southern is being allowed to run the town, while the Environmental Protection Agency is missing in action. Pacifica’s Steve Zeltzer interviewed residents Jamie Ray Wallace of the Unity Council, and Chris Albright of the Laborers International Union of North America, Local 1039.
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Last week, Nicaragua’s attorneys argued their International Court of Justice case against Germany for supplying Israel with arms used to commit genocide. Pacifica’s Don DeBar spoke to Carlos Argüello Gomez, Nicaragua’s ambassador to the Netherlands and lead counsel for Nicaragua at the ICJ.
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Mexico cut all diplomatic ties with Ecuador after Ecuadorian police officers forcibly raided the Mexican Embassy in Quito and detained former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas. Glas had been granted political asylum by Mexico earlier that day amid intensified political persecution against him. Andrés Arauz, former Ecuadorian presidential candidate and a research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, spoke to Breakthrough News hosts Eugene Puryear and Rania Khalek about the brazen violation of Mexican sovereignty and the ongoing political persecution that Latin America’s leftist governments and the former officials of those governments face.
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Erik Slater is a bus driver and executive board member of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241 in Chicago. He was running for president of the local when management had him arrested for criminal trespassing. Pacifica’s Steve Zeltzer spoke to Slater, as well as his co-worker Robert Thomas and his lawyer Brad Thomson about the collusion between union and management to thwart workers’ democracy.
And that concludes today’s edition of Capitalism, Race & Democracy. We thank all of Pacifica’s sister stations and affiliates who contribute to the production of this show. Today’s program was produced by the Capitalism, Race & Democracy collective, with contributions from Steve Zeltzer, Akua Holt, and Ann Garrison.
You can find this and all previous episodes at our website “capitalism race and democracy dot ORG”. Make sure you click the subscribe button. Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, @PacificaCRD. I’ve been your host, Polina Vasiliev. Thanks for listening.
Music:
Mike Stout, “We are the Working Class”
Los Rústicos del Norte – Soberanía ft. María Alfonsina
