President Trump’s biggest supporter in organized labor is Teamsters President Sean O’Brien. He recently supported Trump and House Leader Mike Johnson’s call for a “clean bill” to get the government working. Retired Teamster Jesse Leigh, and Joe Allen, author of “Teamster Land,” plan to picket the upcoming Teamsters For A Democratic Union convention, where the group plans to endorse O’Brien for president in the union’s 2026 election. Joe and Jesse spoke to Pacifica’s Steve Zeltzer. The group invited Teamsters President Sean O’Brien to speak, but not Philadelphia Teamster Richard Hooker, the first Black candidate for union president.
TDU Inviting Trump Supporter IBT Pres Sean O’Brien To TDU Convention In Chicago For Endorsement
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Becky McClain is a molecular biologist and author of the new book Exposed A Pfizer Scientist Battles Corruption, Lies, and Betrayal, and Becomes a Biohazard Whistleblower, with a foreword by Ralph Nader. It tells her story of working at the Groton, Connecticut Pfizer Corporation facility, which employs 6,000 scientists. She and her colleagues became ill after their exposure to a dangerous substance, and when she raised her concerns to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration she was harassed, bullied and fired. She spoke with Pacifica’s Steve Zeltzer.
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The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela holds the world’s largest oil reserves. President Trump is threatening to attack its military infrastructure, claiming that it’s being used to smuggle drugs to the U.S. Some have responded by noting the US government’s long history of involvement in drug trafficking. In his book, Dark Alliance: the CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion, published in 1998, the late San Jose Mercury News journalist Gary Webb described the CIA’s conscious involvement with members of the Contras, a right-wing rebel group who trafficked in cocaine to fund their war against Nicaragua’s Sandinista government from 1979 to the early 1990s. Gary Webb spoke with a C-SPAN host in 1998 about his book Dark Alliance: the CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.
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We end today’s show with a message from Ahmed Kaballo, Sudanese journalist and editor of the late African Stream and now of Sovereign Media.
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, Polina Vasiliev, and the host, 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.
Thanks for listening.
Music:
Robert Glasper Experiment – I Stand Alone (Lyric Video) ft. Common, Patrick Stump
