Block Report Radio’s JR Valrey recently sat down with Obi Egbuna Jr., the External Relations officer of the Zimbabwe-Cuba Friendship Association to discuss the US government’s 63-year blockade on Cuba. They also talked about the deportation of US migrants to Guantanamo Bay and El Salvador, the history of US foreign policy towards Colombia, and Trump’s recent attack on USAID.
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The National Endowment for Democracy, the largest funder of the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center, has been shut down under Trump and Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Led by AFL-CIO president Liz Schuler, the center received 96% of its funding from USAID and the State Department, operating in 62 countries with a $73 million budget and over 400 employees—as many or more than the AFL-CIO itself.
Despite its major role in the AFL-CIO, Schuler and other leaders have remained silent on the shutdown, failing to inform affiliates or address the future of their international operations and impacted workers.
For decades, labor activists have demanded transparency on AFL-CIO’s international activities, including its historic collaboration with the CIA in overthrowing Chile’s Allende government and supporting U.S.-backed coups across Latin America.
Pacifica’s Steve Zeltzer spoke with Purdue University Professor Kim Scipes and retired UAW Local 909 President Frank Hammer about the significance of this closure and the urgent need to hold AFL-CIO leaders accountable.
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Next, JR Valrey of Block Report Radio sat down with Jordan McGowin of Community Movement Builders to discuss the Mutual Aid for Veteran Black Panther Party Members campaign that is currently underway in California, where every month different veterans in need are given supplemental income, since being a revolutionary community organizer does not come with a pension in the USA.
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Branton Philipps, an assembly line worker at Tesla’s Fremont, California factory, quit the company last month after years working there. He talked about the real conditions working at Musk’s factory, which employs 20,000 workers, and why he’d had enough. He spoke to Pacifica’s Steve Zeltzer.
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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 JR Valrey and Steve Zeltzer.
Host: Ann Garrison
Editor: Polina Vasiliev
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.
Thanks for listening!
Music:
Locksmith – “America” (Official Video)
Mos Def, “Can U C The Pride in The Panther?”
Kill the Autocrat, “Gimme More”
