tv Democracy Now PBS March 15, 2018 12:00pm-1:01pm PDT
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03/15/18 03/15/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! dissolved the students from over 3000 schools walked out of classes to protest gun violence. many students walked out for 17 minutes -- one minute for each person murdered in parkland, florida. plus, we will remember the life of 17-year-old courtlin arrington, who was shot dead last week inside her high school
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in birmingham, alabama. her death has received little national attention. then the coalition of immokalee workers intensify their campaign against wendy's by holding a five-day hunger strike. >> wendy's refusal thus far to join the fair food program gives us the strength to be here as women as mothers with families, as young people. the entire community of immokalee who is here to fight for respect in the fields or wendy's buys its tomatoes and a show that we have a powerful commitment to the struggle. amy: we speak also with rebecca man spallaining and #metoo. >> how to change the system? how do we undermine the patriarchy and misogyny, the lack of empathy, the culture that makes men feel powerful and awesome when they do the stuff?
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all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in a historic day of action, more than a million students from over 3000 schools walked out of classes to protest gun violence on wednesday. walkouts occurred in all 50 states, as well as some overseas. in littleton, colorado, hundreds walked out of columbine high school, site of the 1999 massacre that left 15 people dead. in madison, wisconsin, thousands of students walked out and marched on the state capitol building, where they flooded the rotunda and chanted "we want walker!" outside the office of republican governor scott walker, who has resisted calls for gun control. in washington, d.c., protesters placed shoes on the lawn of the 14,000 capitol building -- one for each of the estimated 7000 children who've died of gunshot
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wounds since the sandy hook school massacre of 2012. across the mall, hundreds of d.c.-area students protested outside the white house, turning their backs on the building and sitting silently for 17 minutes -- one minute for each person killed at marjory stoneman douglas high school in florida a month ago. this is 16-year-old reem arajai and 17-year-old simone hicks speaking at the protest. >> i hope the president will step up, stop funding money to the nra. havel of the deaths that occurred are not enough to convince them, i guess it just has to be as protesting right now. >> if you can protect guns of this much and don't have the same regard for the people were going to create your country in the future, then we are in trouble. amy: the protests came as the house of representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill
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authorizing $50 million in grants to schools for safety protocols and training. the bill does not contain any gun control measures, and republican congressional leaders have signaled they don't intend to bring any new gun bills to the floor. meanwhile, in florida's broward county, a judge entered a not guilty plea wednesday for 19-year-old nikolas cruz, who's charged with murdering 17 people last month at marjory stoneman douglas high school in parkland. the judge entered the plea as cruz bowed his head and remained silent throughout his arraignment. prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the case. in northern california, three students were injured tuesday when a teacher trained in the use of firearms accidentally fired a bullet from his gun in a classroom at seaside high school near monterey. dennis alexander, who also serves as a city council member and a reserve police officer, was teaching a lesson on gun safety when his pistol discharged. the bullet struck the classroom's ceiling, ejecting shrapnel that lodged in a 17-year-old's neck.
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two other students were injured by falling debris. the incident came as president trump and the nra are pushing to arm teachers and school staff nationwide in the wake of the parkland high school massacre. back on capitol hill, senators voted 67-to-31 in favor of a sweeping, bipartisan bill rolling back many of the reforms of the dodd-frank act passed in 2010 in the wake of the financial collapse and great recession. the bill would exempt 25 of the nation's 40 largest banks from being subject to heightened scrutiny by the federal reserve. the bill would also end the so-called focal rule, which prohibits banks from making risky bets with taxpayer insured money. the bill would also loosen a requirement on some mortgage lenders that tracks whether they are discriminating against minorities. 13 democrats voted in favor of the bill, sending it to the republican-controlled house of representatives. among the bill's opponents was massachusetts senator elizabeth warren, who proposed an
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alternative measure. deduce the tot to be to jail act, which would help make sure big bank executives are hauled out of their corner offices in handcuffs the next time they break the law. that would do more for america's working families than anything in this bill. and i'm going to fight to help make it law. amy: president trump has named larry kudlow to replace gary cohn as head of the national economic council, a week after cohn resigned in protest of trump's tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. larry kudlow is a syndicated columnist and radio host who once served as chief economist at bear stearns before he was fired in 1995 when he entered rehab to treat a $100,000-a-month cocaine habit. kudlow has repeatedly failed to forecast macroeconomic trends. in december of 2007, as the
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subprime mortgage market began to unravel, leading to the deepest recession since the 1930's, kudlow wrote -- "there's no recession coming. the pessimists were wrong. it's not going to happen. the bush boom is alive and well. it's finishing up its sixth consecutive year wit in syria, human rights groups say as many as 50 civilians were killed wednesday as a rootless assault by russian and syrian forces continued to pound the rebel held damascus suburb of eastern ghouta. one local medic board 5000 people are at risk of annihilation. as united nations, kate gilmore warned 125,000 children are trapped in eastern ghouta. >> responsible for these war crimes and crimes against humanity are being identified. the chain of evidence has been preserved. dossiers are being built up for the prosecution and julie ofvene tribunals will hold
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legally accountable for these crimes that in malice they continue to wage with scant regard to syria's children. but by allowing their cruelty to convict -- continue to violate the rights of syria's children, the international committee, too, must confront the blood on its hands. amy: meanwhile, turkey's military has encircled the northern syrian city of afrin, where the united nations is warning of a growing humanitarian disaster. residents of afrin have had no access to clean drinking water for a week after turkish troops and their allies cut water supplies to the area. turkish president recep erdogan has vowed to crush the kurdish ypg militia, known as the people's protection units, who control afrin. turkey's offensive has sparked protests by kurds around the world. on tuesday, police in paris used tear gas to drive back hundreds of kurdish protesters and their
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allies as they demonstrated outside the u.s. embassy, where they accused the trump administration of failing to prevent turkish atrocities in syria. in pakistan, a bomb detonated a local police checkpoint wednesday, killed nine people and wounded at least 27 others. the pakistani taliban took credit for the blast, which came during a police shift change outside a religious festival attended by nearly 80,000 people. at the united nations, britain and its allies condemned russia wednesday over its alleged poisoning of russian spy sergei skripal and his daughter in salisbury last week. britain's ambassador to the united nations, julian braithwaite, told the u.n.'s human rights council that a russian military-grade nerve agent was to blame. and that the russian state was a must certainly behind the attack. u.s. ambassador to the united nations nikki haley blasted russia, telling the security council that one member may have used chemical weapons on the
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sovereign soil of another member. her comments came as president trump has been reluctant to blame russia for the alleged poisoning. russia has denied it was behind the attack, calling the charges a fairy tale. in mexico, the attorney general says police have arrested the fourth of seven suspects in the disappearance of 43 students at the ayotzinapa teacher training college in 2014. authorities say 35-year-old erick uriel sandoval rodriguez was a hit man for a criminal cartel involved in the disappearances. the students went missing on september 26, 2014, after being attacked by local police. international experts say the mexican military and federal police also played a role in the students' disappearance. in brazil, prominent human rights activist and city councilmember marielle franco and her driver were shot dead in as they drove through downtown rio de janeiro wednesday. police say two unknown assailants remain at large in the double murder, which also left franco's press officer injured.
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franco was a black, lgbt woman from one of rio's poorest neighborhoods. in 2016, she was elected to the rio city council under the socialism and liberty party. franco was a long-time critic of brazil's police, who've been linked to hundreds of killings and thousands of incidents of brutality in rio's impoverished favela neighborhoods. in china, government censors have ordered the internet scrubbed of all references to an incident that unfolded on live national television tuesday at the national people's congress. during the meeting, communist party officials took pre-approved, softball questions from reporters. as one journalist asked a long-winded question about state asset supervision, a neighboring journalist rolled her eyes before turning away in disgust. the video was seen by millions and quickly went viral on chinese social media, spawning memes and animated gif's, before government censors ordered all references to the incident removed from online search results.
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back in the united states, oklahoma's attorney general said the state will seek to put people to death by using acid student gas. it comes as oklahoma has struggled to procure lethal injection drugs following a string of botched executions. in a statement, an attorney for oklahoma's death row prisoners said -- "this method has never been used before and is experimental. how can we trust oklahoma to get this right when the state's recent history reveals a culture of carelessness and mistakes in executions?" in albany, new york, a former senior aide to governor andrew cuomo has been found guilty on three counts of corruption. joseph percoco was convicted of soliciting and accepting over $300,000 in bribes on behalf of executives from a pair of companies with state business. governor cuomo has said he wasn't in charge of the contracts involved and that he had no idea about the alleged bribery and contract rigging laid out by prosecutors.
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and in pennsylvania, democrat conor lamb has won an upset victory in tuesday's special election for the state's 18th congressional district. lamb is a former prosecutor and marine corps captain who narrowly won a district trump carried by 20 points during the 2016 election. this is the democratic candidate conor lamb speaking wednesday evening. >> we followed what i learned in the marines, leave no one behind. [applause] we went everywhere. we talked to everyone. we invited everyone in. there wasnd that public support for programs like social security and medicare that is duly universal because these programs are universal. [applause] they are america's way of saying , we are all in this together.
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amy: republican groups poured nearly $11 million into the race to try to avoid losing a district that trump won easily in 2016. the race was widely seen as a bellwether on the 2018 midterm elections. because of her districting, the district will not exist after next election. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. nermeen: and i'm nermeen shaikh. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. in a historic day of action, more than a million students from over 3000 schools walked out of classes to protest gun violence on wednesday. walkouts occurred in all 50 states, as well as some schools overseas. this was the scene outside one school here in new york. >> no guns, no violence! no guns, no violence! no guns, no violence! >> my name is chelsea.
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i go to the high school. today we are here to protest against what happened at parkland. we're here to stop gun violence in schools and everywhere. >> i'm a student, not a target! i'm a student, not a target! >> i go to high school and we're here protesting gun violence. guns don't solve problems, they create problems. obviously, as you can see, we all feel strongly about this. this is something that has been going on for far too long. if adults are not going to take action, we need to take action. >> no guns, no violence! >> i go to high school. we are protesting the nra and the math school shootings that are happening across the country. it has to end now. it starts with every school protesting. --re here today to stop
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every student should walkout right now. nra!fund the nationwide student walkouts occurred one month after 17 students and faculty were shot dead at marjory stoneman douglas high school in parkland, florida. at many schools, students walked out for 17 minutes -- one minute for each person murdered in parkland. the students at majory stoneman douglas high school are now organizing a massive march for our life on march 24 in washington. democracy now! will be there broadcasting live the entire march. solidarity marches are planned for across the country. in brooklyn, new york, a walkout occurred at edward r. murrow high school. >> we're standing here today halting her education to show we will not be living in fear of a school shooter.
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we will not be next. we will not sit in our classrooms wondering why congress is not working as hard as we are. we will not overlook the fact that it is the students responsibility to speak out against the dangers of guns. and i'm not just talking about mass shootings. i am talking about the militarization of our law enforcement and the normalization of these weapons in our communities. we will not let our future be dictated by the millions of dollars from the national rifle association that prevents stronger gun laws. amy: we begin today's show in denver, colorado, where we're joined by two students. linda, thed by daughter of undocumented activist jeanette vizguerra, who is one of the founders of the metro denver sanctuary coalition. jeanette vizguerra took sanctuary in denver, but now is
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out because there's a private .ill that protects her post u we welcome you to democracy now! luna, talk about what happened yesterday at your middle school. >> what happened yesterday at our middle school was we walked out in support of better gun felland for the 17 that during the parkland school shooting. nermeen: you talk about what kind of response you and luna received when you started to organize this protest. what did teachers and students at your school say to you? some of our teachers were very hesitant about the walkout. a lot of them supported us, but we knew that there were some that were not going to be held a wep us to the maximum
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needed. in the students felt it was important for them to walk out with us because they knew it affected them in a very big way. nermeen: what about your school administrators? do not hear much about our principle. our vice principal was out there while we were walking out. it was good to have that kind of support when we were there. and you go luna, can you talk about why you chose to be one of the organizers of this protest and what greater you in? i am in eighth grade and the reason i chose to be one of the organizers was because what i know, and me and molly had a bit more experience than the other children. amy: and organizing? that experience comes from organizing around your mom jeanette vizguerra? >> yes.
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amy: and do you see these issues as linked? can you talk about your mom? i visited her in denver at the unitarian church where she had taken sanctry before she was able to come out because she is protected by a bill that was passed in congress. >> so i would say it would be linked because my experience with media and all things related to that are from my mom's process. amy: lolly, why did you help choose to organize the student walkout and what a man's are you making a president trump, of congress, of the nra? i chose to organize or to
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help organize the walkout because i knew this would not just affect us, it would affect everyone in the united states and out of the united states because this is something that is bigger. and with a bigger group of students, it can allow us to create a bigger impact. presidentst want the to pass something that says we have better laws about guns, not necessarily taking away the guns, but nobody needs that type of weapon in their house where somebody who does not need that has it in their hands and something like parkland can happen. nermeen: how many students participated from your school in the walkout? we surprised by how many did or did not? maybe 20, expected 25, 30. we did not expect that big of a group. we thought it would just be
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eighth-graders walking out with us. as luna and i were walking the halls, we noticed high school's were joining some of the sixth-graders and seventh graders. i would say about 70, 80. it was not a big size, but it a firste for us as walkout. amy: and 2000 denver area students also walked out all over many marching to the state capital. i want to thank luna baez denvery joining us from as we go back to more voices from the nationwide student walkout on wednesday. guns!more no more silence1 they can express how they feel about gun violence and all of these things and how kids don't feel safe in their schools, which is the one place we should feel safe because that is where we spend most of our time. folks i hope the president will step up, stop accepting money from the nra. if all of the deaths are not
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enough to convince them, i guess it has to be as protesting right now. >> if you can protect runs this muchnd don't have the same rega f the peoplwho e ing to cree your country in the future, then we are in trouble. the kids are the future. if not protecting the kids, then what is left? >> i call bs!~ and president of the youth coalition for black lives matter new york. i'm out here also because i lost my father to gun violence. i lost many family members and friends to gun violence. gun violence is not a new issue. it affects our communities every single day and it affects like and latino communities disproportionately. i came here to give honor to those 17 lives that were lost because those people we heroes. but we do not need any more martyrs. we need justice. and that starts here and now. -- gay,about people
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straight, black, white, religious, nonreligious -- coming together so that kids do not have to be afraid to go to school. >> i am 12 years old. i'm here today because i am sick and tired of hearing that someone has died at school innocently. i am sick and tired of hearing that someone has been killed as school while learning how to read or write. forare we fighting something that the adult should be fighting for? why are we here marching and walking out of school and the people of congress should be protecting us? >> it makes sense to me that the only problem is the guns. get rid of the guns, get rid of the violence. we have the most guns than any country on the face of this world. where the richest country that has ever existed on the planet, and we can't deal with these issues? it doesn't make sense.
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clubs are uniting our voices to advocate for more stricter gun .aws and safer >> in order to get our stronger message across, we needed to hold it here where everyone gets to hear that we are together, we are one, we are with florida. at the end of the day, we just want our schools to be safe and never shut up again. that is why we say never again. >> enough is enough. >> we place them in the hands of americans and say, "go play." the inevitable senseless violence that follows is succeeded by silence. amy: voices from the nationwide walk out. it is estimated about one million people walked out not only in the united states, but calling for gun control all over the world in solidarity with the
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students at parkland. this is democracy now! we will be an washington, d.c., march 24, covering the march for our lives, organizing the student survivors of parkland organizing around the valentine's day massacre, calling for comprehensive gun control. when we come back, we go to alabama to hear about another school shooting just a few weeks after parkland that has not gotten anything like the attention of what happened in florida. stay with us all. ♪ [music break]
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amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. wednesday's nationwide student walkout occurred one month after 17 students and staff were shot dead at marjory stoneman douglas high school in parkland, florida. for students left classes 17 minutes -- one minute for each person murdered in parkland. but in alabama, some students walked out for 18 minutes to remember another student who was recently killed by gun violence
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at school. courtlin arrington, a 17-year-old african-american student who was shot dead last ink at huffman high school birmingham, alabama, by a fellow student. she was a high school senior who is planning to attend college next year. she had dreams of becoming a nurse. amy: while the parkland shooting has dominated national headlines for a month, far less coverage was paid to the death of courtlin arrington. we go to birmingham where we are joined by her aunt shenise abercrombie. tell us what happened to your niece and was it, marched seven? >> yes. class. in school was dismissing. the young man that was in the class with her pulled out a gun and she is a mother students asked what was he doing. he pulled the gun and he shot her.
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he shot her in the chest and the bullet went straight through and killed her. nermeen: wendy to learn what happened to her? how were you told? >> school normally let out around 3:30. my dad called me a little after 4:00, i want to say may be about 15 minutes after 4:00. my dad called me a comment that her mom had called her -- called him and her brother called him and told him that she had been shot. i left work immediately and i got to the hospital and when i got there, i was asking about her and the young man behind the desk told me to sit down and he would get some information for me. at that time, i saw the police officer and i saw a well-dressed man -- i did not know he was the chaplain. the police officer came over to i the he asked me was
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mother. i told him i wasn't, that i was her aunt and that i am her dad's sister. i told him that her dad is incarcerated, but my dad and i helped take care of her. so he said, well, just a recommendable the right back justsome information -- stay right there in a will be back with some information. the emt came out in the set next to me and had orange sticker and an ink pen. he asked me what was her name and i gave him her name. he asked me her birthdate. at that time, i asked him, what -- could you tell me what was going on with her? he, he could not tell me anything. i could tell that his response, because he had his head down, i knew it was not good. because heraunt number was the only one i could remember. i asked her to call the family
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until the family what happened and to tell the family to pray because i know it is not good if courtlin can't identify herself, if she can't be. shortly after that, her mother showed up at the hospital. i told her mom to go to the desk and let them know she is here so they can give her some information because we did not know anything. later, my dad arrived and my husband arrived. we waited for a while. the young man's family was there as well. they were very loud and acting very unruly. they asked our family to move from the door so that people could come in. so we stepped to the side. shortly after that, her mom went back and her mom's boyfriend. her mome back out -- did not come back out, but her boyfriend did. , under thetion as
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neck type of motion, and as to say that it was over. that is when we knew that courtlin -- i'm sorry. that is when we knew that courtlin did not make it. amy: how did her dad find out that courtlin had been killed in school? >> i called the prison that night and i explained to them what happened. -- that took my number and to give a few minutes and they would go and get him and bring him to the phone. they were very nice. the officers that we spoke to. they brought my brother to the phone. my grandmother is 92, so he thought it was my grandmother. i told him, no, i told him that
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courtlin had been shot at school and she didn't make it, that she died. that is my brother's only child. my brother did not take it well at all. my brother said that was all he had been wanting. we have been working with the maxwell law from to get him out of prison, and that is all he talked about was when he got out was he was going to be with her and everything. my brother and i had a conversation just the exact week before to the day, and we were talking about his attorney's payment. my brother said, courtlin is all set. anytime anybody would give him or try to send him money, he would always diverted to her to
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help take care of her. i said, she didn't even know ordered her prom dress. i ordered her cap and down. proud of hero because she did it, she has made it. he said and she is going to be so excited when that dress comes because she doesn't know that i have done that. amy: she wanted to be a nurse? >> yes, she wanted to be a nurse. i spoke with her instructor and her instructor said she was two months after ending a nursing assistant and she was going to do that until she finished her rn program. my brother said that, i ordered all of her scrubs. he said, i took care of that for her. aboutd not have tori that. amy: the center for disease control looked at gun deaths over 12 year event since 2002 and found that black young
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people, black children are 10 times more likely to be killed by gunmen like kids. what are you calling for right now? problem that adult has to be solved by the adults. our future, the children of our future, our dying. and we won't have a future if we don't do anything about it. something has to be done. there needs to be stricter laws as far as security goes in the school. something has to be done to intervene in how easy it is for a child to get a gun. adults have to go through so many checks. how is it that these guns are making it on the streets and they can get them so easily? and then, you know, the law states that if your child is of school age, they have to go to
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school most of if the parents don't center children to school, they are -- they are put in jail. why can't they protect our children while they're at school? your child may not come home. that is very horrifying for a parent to know i have dropped my child off at school or they rode the bus to school, but when 3:00 or 3:30 comes, i'm being called to identify my child. amy: young people marched out of the high school where courtlin was killed, huffman high school, and they said that 18 minutes should be recognized for the 17 parkland and for the death of courtlin as well. will you be participating in the march in washington or in birmingham, in any of the protests across the country on march 24? is marchin's funeral
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24, so we will be laying her to rest on march 24. we will not be able to participate in any of those activities. my dad did go to the walkout yesterday. my children participated in the walkout on yesterday. i did not go. i could not there it -- bear it. my dad went to represent our family. amy: shenise abercrombie, our condolences to you and your family. shenise abercrombie's niece courtlin was shot dead at huffman high school in birmingham, alabama. courtlin arrington was 17 years old. , as we democracy now! turn back to new york to talk about a massive protest that is planned for today. nermeen: dozens of farm workers
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with the coalition of immokalee workers have entered their last day of a five-day fast outside the manhattan office of nelson peltz, the board chair and largest shareholder of wendy's. they are demanding wendy's sign onto the fair food program, which would require the fast-food giant to purchase tomatoes from growers that follow a worker-designed code of conduct that includes a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment and abuse in the fields. wendy's is the only major fast food chain that has refused to sign onto the fair food program. mcdonald's, burger king, subway, chipotle, and taco bell have already signed on following protests by the coalition of immokalee workers. nely rodriguez is one of the farm workers taking part in the five day-fast. .> it does not discourage us on the contrary, wendy's refusal to join the fair food program gives us the strength to be here as women, as mothers with families, as young people.
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the entire community of immokalee who is here to fight for respect in the fields where wendy's eyes it's tomatoes and a show that we have the powerful commitment to this struggle. we're left behind our homes to show wendy's what this means to us, to show that we are committed to creating change for all women. competitors all have joined the fair food program but which the coalition of immokalee workers say has virtually ended sexual harassment and assault for tens of thousands of workers on participating farms in seven states. the fast today will end in a time's up wendy's march in new york. the fast will end today. for more, we're joined by gerardo reyes chavez, a farm worker and an organizer with the coalition of immokalee workers. usually in florida, but right now here in new york. you are wrapping up your fast today with a major march here in new york on wendy's? >> today is the last day of the
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five days that 81 people fasting in front of the headquarters of were nelson peltz, one of the main investors in the president wendy's in the present who is really holding the keys for wendy's to come to dialogue and reach an agreement with us is located. there are several people that are fasting with us in solidarity in different parts of the country. we have been asking wendy's to ton the fair food program make all of the rights that we have expanded to other areas. but overall, to bring wendy's to the table so that they don't int go and exploit people mexico, which is what they did when we as workers were able to land all of these changes for
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the lives of tens of thousands of workers, eliminating sexual harassment and all of that. they basically punished their own growers, the people they were doing business for years, for doing that. and they went to buy from mexico , a mega-farm that 270 workers and modern-day slavery in 2013. then they moved tobuy there two years later. amy: what you mean by modern-day slavery? living conditions where they did not have housing, for example, had no floors, no beds, no stones, in some cases. freed byrs had to be the intervention of the government in mexico. when you imagine all of these things, children working in the women beinghe promised 100 pesos per day, and
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not receiving but 50 to 60, you can see the conditions were really, really desperate for workers. that is when wendy's went to support. and that is without even mentioning the situations that happens a lot, which is sexual harassment in the fields. amy: democracy now! reached out to wendy's for their response to the ciw's demands. a wendy's spokesperson replied with a lengthy statement, which read in part -- "the coalition of immokalee workers is spreading false and misleading information about the wendy's brand and our business practices in their continuing effort to extract a financial commitment from us. we will not join their program and pay fees directly to them and we will certainly not compromise our commitment to our customers to deliver only the highest quality, ethically sourced products from wendy's every day. all of our suppliers are bound to a strict code of conduct that requires ethical practices, and certain fresh produce suppliers, including all tomato suppliers, undergo third-party certified human rights assessments."
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can you respond to what wendy said? we are sorry they would not come here in person or speak on the phone. >> i would like to invite them to have an open discussion and debate if they were ready to prove what they're saying is true. createdknow is that we the fair food program and we the fair food council led by a judge from new york working on the bench for 20 years. the pennyitoring per pound from the buyers to the farm workers directly. -- to show you have the bonus is marked. we have all of the data to show
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how the program works from bottom to top. what wendy's is doing basically -- that is without mentioning the corporations that are doing this, that are working with us. what wendy's is doing is basically going from misleading statements to basically accusations without base. what we are saying is we invite them to join the fair food program. informationof the that is needed to prove the lives of the workers are changing. they can come anytime to see how it works in the farms. it is time for them to come to the table. the way i see it, they are kind of like a boxer. we have been trying to bring them to the table for a while and they have never gone too far as to basically just lie like this and insinuate that somehow
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we are asking them to pay something that is not going to the workers. that is something they have been doing. what we are saying is, it is time for them to come to the table. they are kind of swinging, feeling the pressure. we know they're going to join the program, but -- amy: where is the march today? >> we're going to be marching from the dock on the plaza, which is on 2nd avenue step amy: your the united nations. >> yes. we hope to have thousands of people. we're inviting people from everywhere to join us. we know wendy's is desperate. those are the actions of a desperate corporation which is good for us. children, women have come from immokalee -- amy: in florida. and alling in the cold for the purpose of having dialogue with them. nermeen: i just wanted you to
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say, he said 14 corporations are working with you and are these massive fast food chains like mcdonald's, burger king. did your space -- did you face initially the same resistance you are now feeling from wendy's? what finally persuaded them? >> what persuaded them as the power of people. all of the corporations since recognize --, they not publicly, obviously, but they feel he pressure when we take to the streets and they realize that they're not going to be of the getaway with all of the abusive conditions toward workers and their supply chain and they end up signing. we hope that wendy's takes this opportunity to instead of paying the firm or whoever they are paying to write lies about how the program works, the collaboration, to join the program and make sure they use
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their leadership is the only one of the five major fast food corporations to do what is right, to participate and help make all of this stronger and expand it somewhat workers are protected. amy: you will break your fast that the protest? >> we will. amy: gerardo reyes chavez is a farm worker and an organizer with the coalition of immokalee workers. began farm working at the age of 11. when we come back, rebecca solnit joins us. stay with us. ♪ [music break]
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amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: we spend the rest of the hour with one of the nation's most celebrated writers, rebecca solnit. this month marks the 10th anniversary of her groundbreaking essay "men explain things to me." in 2008, solnit wrote -- "men explain things to me, and other women, whether or not they know what they're talking about. every woman knows what i'm talking about. it's the presumption that makes it hard, at times, for any woman in any field that keeps women , from speaking up and from being heard the way they dare that crushes young women into , silence by indicating, the way harassment on the street does, that this is not their world. it trains us in self-doubt and self-limitation just as it exercises men's unsupported overconfidence." solnit wrote those words nearly a decade ago, long before the #metoo and #timesup movements swept across the country.
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amy: the essay has also been credited with launching the term "man-splaining." for more, we're joined now by rebecca solnit, writer,amy: then credited with historian, and activist. she is the author of 20 books, including "hope in the dark" and most recently, "the mother of all questions." rebecca solnit is also a contributing editor to harper's, where she is the first woman to regularly write the "easy chair" column. rebecca, welcome back to democracy now! so the effect of this essay that ago,rote, oh, 10 years "men explain things to me" and the affected is had, your focus now on writing, as it always has been, on movements, how this feeds into your understanding of the power of movements? >> i've always thought of feminism is a subset of human rights movement about sort of inclusion and equality. yes, so this essay was about the way women are surreal impacted by being treated as not credible, as not people who have 'smething to say, as people
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voices should not count whether they are saying this is what is going on camino, in the office work, no, i don't want to have sex with you, or he is trying to kill me. it is funny because i started writing with the famous opening about a man explaining my book to me, writing what i thought was going to be a very funny piece and it got pretty quickly into rape and murder. credibility is a basic survival issue. nermeen: in a recent harper's bees right something that is very striking saying, "it is an old tourism that knowledge is power. the inverse the power is often ignorance is rarely discussed. there's a large category of acts in from people with standing. the more you are, the less you know. could you explain what human by that and how that applies specifically to what you just read, the impunity with which men are able to act in the ways in which women have been silenced? column, and i wrote that
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taking about everybody's servants, children, subordinates, employees, people of color who are treated as people who aren't important, who are not witnesses, whose voices don't count, who often have people do things that they assume are off the record because these people will not be heard. of course, my own experience with that is as a woman where it is like, oh, nobody will believe her that i did this, i can just talk over her and say it did not happen. again, i'm trying to think about the broader spectrum of how inequality of power -- nermeen: could you talk about euro and experience with sexual harassment as you describe it in the harpers piece? >> i've had thousands of incidents on the street when i was a young woman, but i wrote about something that happened to me when i was 18 in a restaurant as a worker. i know like farm workers, restaurant workers have a really high incidence of sexual harassment. i was not an exception.
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there was this scary old chef, bleary a gallic bloodshot eyes that used to grab me when i was trying to wash the dishes in a cafe. this was before anita hill changed the playing field a little bit, before some of the transformations we have had the last few decades. i did not believe that anybody was going to care that my boss was going to care that this guy was grabbing me. so when i actually -- what i did sure that when he grabbed me, i was holding a big tray of glasses right out of the dishwasher and i screamed and dropped them. the noise, did not really matter. i did not really have a voice at that point. but the glasses had a voice. the sound of 40 shuttering glasses brought the owner running. and i just said, he grabbed me. the owner pulled off the chef, not so much because i should
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have the right to have jurisdiction over my own body, but because losing a whole tray full of glasses was expensive. the cook was really annoyed because he knew that i essentially tricked him. but it was, you know, it was how i tried to have a voice when i was voiceless. amy: rebecca, the latest scandal at the white house involves the allegation of president trump was involved with adult film star, stormy daniels. the issue is not so much that, it is that he is trying to silence her. that is the allegation. you know, that she would have to pay $1 million if she speaks about this. what is your take on this? everything from that to overall be #metoo and #timesup movement about sexual harassment and rape? >> one of the things that should be said, probably a lot of people no, nondisclosure agreements are really a common part of corporate settlements,
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but also sexual violence settlements. there are fines imposed on college students by the university. there often and forced in civil lawsuits. for example, the woman who charged domenic stross con with rape, received a settlement. she is a wonderful restaurant in which i've been not and she started that -- amy: a hotel worker who challenge swept the most powerful men, head of the imf, who could have become the president of france. >> that was an amazing case that she was able to be heard and she was, of course, attack. she also successfully sued a mainstream media outlet that claimed she was a prostitute. people attempted to silence her by discrediting her, calling her prostitute, saying why should we listen to her. but a number of other women came forward because of her courage and also talked about sexual
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violence and him and express con and it ended his career and destroyed his reputation, which deserved to be destroyed. but he did sign a nondisclosure agreement which stormy daniels signed is a typical thing that is one of a narrative techniques myriadencing women -- techniques for silencing women. it is not a victory of part of ist you have to settle for being silent. they perpetrate the problem, which is that when you said no, when you said this is not what should happen, you were silenced. nermeen: rebecca, you said your own experience and as the #metoo shows, the experience of a sexual harassment, silencing and even rate is very, very widespread. what do you think accounts for the fact that this movement took off in the way it did with the revelations around harvey weinstein? >> i think this movement was a long time in coming. i think it is like the gun movement we're seeing now that
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there is one specific thing, the shooting of parkland, the revelations -- journalists uncovered about harvey weinstein's decades of horrific assaults and attacks on women. but the ground have been prepared. with a gun movement, we had used up all of the excuses and justifications and all of the thoughts and prayers. with the women's movement, also, i think one factor was that women are really fedjustificati. we have seen that the last five years. this move because way back beyond #metoo. it goes back to campus rape activism in 2012 and a lot of other stuff that is happened in the last five years. but i think it also happened boring some of the slow, , you know, work a feminism that does not get noticed, creating women who are in charge of what the news is, women who are judges, women who are producers, women who have positions of
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power helped change who gets heard and what stories matter and whose rights matter. thisnk we had stories like before that did not resonate, did not lead to a lot of other men being fired, did not lead to recognition of this is a systemic problem. nermeen: were you surprised? >> i am all was surprised -- who that park and would be different than every other school shootings? i was and i wasn't. like things happen earthquakes, long building of tension, kind of laying a groundwork, then a sudden rupture. amy: we're going to go to part two and post it online at democracynow.org, our conversation with rebecca solnit , writer, historian and activist. she will be speaking at cooper union tonight at the 10 anniversary of "the next lane
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laura: today i'll prepare a meal with an italian flair-- my quick lasagna roll-ups, and of course, i'm going to use some beautiful fresh parsley. so let's get cookin' in the kitchen right now. captioning made possible by friends of nci ♪ jazzy, you're gonna be healthy ♪ ♪ with the jazzy vegetarian ♪ jazzy, so snazzy ♪ we're gonna cook something healthy and light ♪ [scatting] ♪ jazzy, so snazzy laura: so join me in the kitchen right now. ♪ we're gonna cook something healthy and light ♪ that's right. on today's show, i'll prepare a delightful vegetarian meal with an italian flair. we'll begin with my surprisingly easy-to-make quick lasagna rolls. then savory side dishes include basil roasted peppers and broccoli rabe with garlic. we'll follow with my jazzy twist on grandma's garlic bread,
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