09/06/22 096/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> to cut taxes and grow our economy. i will deliver on the energy crisis, dealing with peepers and -- peoples energy bills that also the long-term issues we have on energy supply. amy: the conservative party has voted for liz truss to become britain's next prime minister,

replacing boris johnson. we will speak to british journalist george monbiot. then to chile, where voters have overwhelmingly rejected a proposed new constitution that would have given chile one of the most progressive charters in the world. despite the defeat, chilean president gabriel boric has vowed to continue efforts to rewrite chile's pinochet-era constitution. >> the fourth of september, chile's emerged stronger. the world has seen it and recognized it. the country overcoming fractures and pain. and of this, we should be deeply proud. amy: we will speak to the chilean-american writer ariel dorfman and the chilean activist -- feminist javiera manzi. and we will remember barbara ehrenreich, author of "nickel

and dimed: on not getting by in america." she has died at the of 81. >> not necessarily a cure for poverty. jobs that don't pay enough to live on do not cure property -- poverty. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the united nations is warning of a looming famine in somalia, where a searing drought fueled by the climate crisis has withered crops, killed livestock, and left nearly 8 million people -- or half of somalia's population -- in need of humanitarian assistance. the u.'s hunitarianhief martin gffiths spo to rerters moay in thcapital

mogadishu after touring camps for internally displaced people and visiting hospitals treating malnourished children. griffiths said afterwards hundreds of thousands of people are at imminent risk of death. >> i have been shocked to my core these past few days by the level of pain and suffering we see so many somalis and during. famine is at the door. today we a receiving final warning. amy: the u.n. warns millions more are at risk of hunger and famine across east africa, including in kenya and ethiopia. in ukraine, the russian-occupied zaporizhzhia nuclear power station began using one of its own reactors to power critical cooling systems monday after heavy fighting between russian and ukrainian forces destroyed electrical lines leading to the plant. it's the second time in the last two weeks europe's largest

nuclear power plant has been forced to turn to emergency backup power to prevent a nuclear catastrophe. ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy accused russia of using the power plant as a nuclear weapon. today the head of the international atomic energy agency rafael grossi will brief the u.n. security council on his agency's findings after a team of iaea inspectors reached zaporizhzhia last week. elsewhere, ukrainian officials say a russian rocket attacks killed three civilians in kharkiv, while in the south, officials in the russian-occupied city of kherson have postponed a voter referendum on whether to join russia as ukraine presses a counter-offeive to retake the regi. the russian energy giant gas prom has cut off the flow of gas to the nord stream 1 pipeline, compounding energy shortages across europe which is heavily reliant on russian fsil fuel.

a spokesperson for russian president vladimir putin said monday western sanctions have made it impossible for russian engineers to maintain components of the pipeline, including a turbine critical to its operation. >> problems arose because of sanctions imposed against our country and against a number of companies by western states, including germany and the united kingdom. there is no other reasons that would lead to problems. amy: gas prices across europe jumped by over 30% upon news nord stream 1 pipeline would be close indefinitely. the euro site below the value of the dollar for the first time in nearly two decades. germany's government moved to delay the planned closure of two aging nuclear power plants. meanwhile, sweden's prime minister is warning of the prospect of a war winter ahead of -- due to the shut off of gas. here in the united states, a

vast high pressure dome brought record heat to california and other western states over the labor day weekend. in southern california, burbank reached 110 degrees fahrenheit on monday, while in the north, livermore hit a high of 116 degrees -- 8 degrees higher than the previous record. fresno's forecast today calls for 114 degree heat, which would be an all-time temperature record for september. the intense heat has helped fuel wildfires, including the mill fire, which killed two people sunday as it tore through the northern california town of weed. in south korea, two people wer killed and 10 others remain missing after super typhoon hinnamnor crashed ashore earlier today as one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the korean peninsula. the typhoon dumped more than three feet of water in some regions and forced a nuclear power plant offline. at its peak, the typhoon packed winds equivalent to a category 5

hurricane. experts say south korea narrowly avoided a much worse disaster. in britain, the conservative party has elected foreign secretary liz truss to become the united kingdom's next prime minister, replacing boris johnson who stepped down following a number of scandals. trust defeated the finance minister rishi sunak in a party vote on monday. truss comes to power as britain -- the u.k. is facing an economic crisis with inflation and energy prices soaring. on monday, she vowed to slash taxes. >> i will deliver a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy. i will deliver on the energy crisis dealing with people's energy bills but also dealing with the long-term issue we have on energy supply. amy: we will have more on the rise of british prime minister liz truss after headlines.

we will speak with journalist george monbiot. in chile, results show about 62% of chileans voted no on the new charter while 38% voted in favor. the proposed constitution was the first in the world to be written by an equal number of male and female delegates and included new rights for agenus people who legalized abortion, mandated universal health care, and new commitments to address the climate crisis. we will have more on chile's constitution later in the broadcast. burkina faso's government says at least 35 civilians were killed and more than three dozen injured monday after a military vehicle struck a roadside bomb north of the capital. fighting between the government and rebels linked to the islamic state and the government has increased since january, when

burkina faso's army deposed president roch kaboré and installed lieutenant colonel paul-henri damiba as leader. in afghanistan, a suicicide bomr struck the russian embassy in kabul on monday, killing six people. a russian diplomat and a security guard were among the dead. the attack was claimed by the islamic state affiliate known as isis-k, which is also behind a series of attacks on the taliban and on afghanistan's minority communities. in canada, police are searching for one of two murder suspects who remains at large after 10 people were stabbed to death and 18 others injured in a remote region of saskatchewan. it was among the worst acts of mass violence in canada's modern history. on sunday, a pair of men began their violent rampage in the james smith cree nation community, ultimately stabbing 28 victims in 13 different locations. many of the victims are indigenous. after police launched a manhunt across saskatchewan and neighboring provinces, they discovered the body of 31-year-old damien sanderson.

the second suspect, his younger brother myles sanderson, remains at large. police say they still haven't identified a motive for the killings. a federal judge in the united states has agreed to appoint an independent arbiter to review whether the fbi properly seized documents from trump's mar-a-lago home. the u.s. district court judge eileen can agreed with trump's lawyers at the justice department must halt its review of about 150 classified document recovered by agents executing a search warrant on trump's resort and home on august 8. many of the documents were marked top secret. it will delayhe deparent of juice vestigatn into whetr trump olated t espionag act aresideial ws and wther he structed juste to cer up ose crimes the dge was minated the u.s. district court in florida in 2020 by then president donald trump. in immigration news, at least nine asylum seekers drowned over the weekend as they attempted to

cross the rio grande along the texas-mexico border. 37 others were rescued. the river is several feet higher an normal as the region has been hit by torrential rain in recent days. the tragedy has intensified calls for congress and the biden administration to enact policies that ensure a safe passage for asylum seekers, including an end to the trump-era title 42 -- which has blocked about 2 million asylum seekers from entering the united states to find refuge, forcing them to take dangerous routes into the country. in related news, about 125 asylum seekers have arrived in chicago on buses sent from texas. on sunday alone, the city welcomed some 50 asylum seekers, most of them families. local officials are demanding texas republican governor greg abbott collaborate on a more humane treatment of asylum seekers as chicago calls on more volunteers to assist the arriving asylum seekers. for months, abbott has forcibly relocated hundreds of asylum seekers to so-called liberal

cities, including new york and washington, d.c. in the occupied west bank, israeli troops killed a palestinian man during a large military raid in jenin city early this morning. 29-year-old mohammad sabaaneh was killed during the assault. 16 others were injured by live fire or shrapnel. the israeli troops surrounded the family home of a palestinian blamed for a deadly attack in tel aviv, cleared the area, and blew it up. such home demolitions illegal under international law. meanwhile, israel has for the first time admitted its army may have been responsible for the death of palestinian-american journalist shireen abu akleh, who was shot in the head in may while covering an israeli raid on jenin. on monday, israeli authorities said she may have been accidentally hit by troops gunfire after they came under fire from palestinian fighters. in ramallah, al jazeera's west

bank bureau chief rejected the israeli claim. >> it is clear there trying to perpetuate ambiguity and deception on the one hand, while at the same time clear themselves of wrongdoing by claiming there was an exchange of fire. these are all lies because all the accounting videos and witnesses disprove their claims. amy: in labor news, amazon has lost its efforts to overturn a historic vote unionizing its fk8 warehouse in staten island, new york. last week, the national labor relations board recommended amazon's demands should be rejected after it failed to prove union organizers had allegedly tampered the election by intimidated workers. -- by intimidating workers. the staten island amazon warehouse workers in april voted decisively in favor of joining the newly formed amazon labor union despite the retail giant's multimillion-dollar union-busting campaign. tennis superstar serena williams lost in the third round of the

u.s. open on friday in a thrilling match against an australian player. liens recently said she would retire after the u.s. open and was celebrated throughout. since becoming a pro at the age of 14, serena williams won 23 grand slam championships and spent 319 weeks ranked as the top female tennis player in the world. she and her older sister venus inspired an all young women to play the game. in other news from u.s. open, francis couto has upset 22 time grand slam champ raffaella doll to reach the quarterfinal in the u.s. open. he is the son of a refugee from sierra leone. his father was a day laborer who

helped build tennis center. and writer and activist barbara ehrenreich has died at the age of 81. she is best known for her book "nickel and dimed: on not getting by in america." to research the book she went undercover as a low income nonskilled worker and later founded project. we will air part of our interview with her later in the broadcast. we will speak with cohost juan gonzalez about her work with young lords and early 1970's as a member of the health policy advisory council. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined by democracy now! co-host juan gonzález in new brunswick, new jersey. hi, juan. juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: we start in britain where

the conservative party has elected liz truss to become britain's next prime minister, replacing boris johnson who stepped down following a number of scandals. just before our broadcast, queen elizabeth formally appointed trust to be prime minister. truss, who served as foreign secretary under johnson, defeated finance minister rishi sunak in a party vote on monday. as a college student, liz truss once called for the abolishment of the british monarchy but has since shifted her views on this and a number of other issues. truss is a former liberal democrat who initially opposed brexit but embraced leaving the european union after the 2016 referendum. on monday, she vowed to govern as a conservative. >> during this leadership campaign, i campaign as a conservative and i will govern as a conservative.

my friends, we nd to show that we will deliver over the next two years. i will deliver a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy. i will deliver on the energy crisis dealing with people's energy bills but also dealing with the long-term issues we have on energy supply. he will deliver a great victory for the conservative party in 2024. thank you. thank you. amy: britain's new prime minister liz truss. we are joined now by george monbiot. he is an author, guardian columnist, and environmental activist. one of his recent pieces is headlined, "britain faces crisis upon crisis, and our leaders are absent. this is how a country falls apart." george, welcome back to democracy now! why don't you start off by

telling us who liz truss is and talk about the country she will now head. >> thank you, amy. that is a good question. i have never seen yone so uncomfortable in her own skin, so apparently ill at ease with herself. every gesture, everything she says seems to be mannered and staged. so the real liz truss, it is very hard to discern that person behind the person who is clearly practiced every move in the mayor -- mirror. that applies to her politics. she seems to adopt whatever policy she thinks is going to find neighbor with the audience she is speaking to. the terrifying thing about the passive britain's democracy, when the conservatives are in power and they lose their prime minister, the new prime minister is chosen only by members of the

nservative party. and we think there are around 170,000 of these members. we can't be sure because it is a closely guarded secret. but they are grossly unrepresentative of the nation as a whole. they are mostly male, almost exclusively white, generally rich, comfortable, complacent, living in just a few exclusive parts of the country. and that is the audience she has been appealing to. so the policies she has been putting forward, which she seems to have some enthusiasm for, are extreme neoliberal politics, cutting taxes for the rich, even more austerity, ev more privatization if she can just at a time when we need the complete opposite policies. juan: george monbiot, in terms

of the policies you expect of her, given the fact britain has had resurgence of labor activism in recent months, what do you expect will be the main thing she attends to accomplish and in the early days of being prime minister? >> though she is adamantly opposed to organize labor, hate trade unions, wants to shut down the capacity to strike and other forms of collective action, she also has strongly hinted she wants to tear down the regulation to protect the workers, protecting them from being forced to be overworked, protecting their terms and conditions, wages. so that is a great threat to people, especially at a time we are facing a serious economic recession, we are facing a

massive cost-of-living crisis as people find these enormous energy bills coming on top of very high rent in this country, and many other ways in which their ability to survive is being severely squeezed. she wants to destroy workers bargaining power, destroy their ability to set reasonable wages, and that will make the life for peop in this country even harder than it is already. and it is getting very hard, indeed. juan: i would like to ask about the situation with a national health service in the united kingdom, especially after, as we have been through now 2.5 years of covid pandemic, what do you see specifically happening with the national health services -- which is already in crisis under liz truss? >> our national health service

is the pride of britain. in fact, it is seen around the world as an exemplar of how a health service should be run, free at the point of use with a great deal of goodwill holding it together with very dedicated staff, doctors, nurses, all the rest of the staff within the nhs are famous for putting in 110%. but again, liz truss seems to hate nhs. conservatives hate it because that small number of people in this country, the 170,000 or so, they generally have private health care. they pay for their health care though they don't see why they should be paying taxes for the rest of the 67 million people in this country who use public health care. for a long time, the conservatives have been trying to rip down the nhs and privatizour wonderful public health system.

and as a result of that, the gross underfunding even as people's needs arising severely because of the aging population but also because of covid and the backlog that has caused and we have a massive recruitment crisis -- there are far too few doctors and nurses at the moment -- already they are struggling and truss seems destined only to make things worse. she wants to cut, cut, cut so she can deliver tax cuts to the wealthiest people in the country. when she was challenged on that, asked, isn't it unfair to give those who already have so much money even more money while strangling the public services on which the great majority of people and it is country rely? she said, no, i don't think that is unfair at all. amy: what about climate, george, which is certainly an issue you

extensively follow, where she stands? >> well, in this case, we have direct evidence because she was once environment secretary in a conservative government. it is a tough competition because environment secretary as a punishment posting and it is country, so you generally get extremely poor quality environment secretary specially could well have been the worst we have ever had. she tore down regution. she cut funding for the regulators so they could not do their job. i turned vegan because of liz truss. the reason for that was i discovered a horrendous case of agricultural pollution of a dairy farm which had wiped out a long stretch of river, completely destroyed it, apparently, deliberately. tilt a pipeline going out to the slurry pits straight into the river. could that have been a more clear-cut case. the regulator here, the environment agency simply

refused to enforce against the dairy farm. when i wrote about this, two whistleblowers came forward from the environment agency and said, we have been told from the top by liz truss not to enforce against dairy farms. so that was the point at which for me was the final straw there's no regulation of this industry, i am not eating its products anymore. that is a measure of the sort of person we have as prime minister. already she has signaled she wants to reopen new oil and gas drilling and fracking in this country just as we are in the midst of a climate emergency which we have felt to a very great degree december with an unprecedented and deadly heat wave and massive drought. and she wants to make things worse. amy: i want to turn to bernie sanders who joined the rally of striking british rail workers in london saying workers need to stand together to fight against corporate greed and billionaires

amassing more wealth. it is the latest in a sers of strikes impacting britain's transport network over the summer with rkers dend better pay and wking additions in response to high inflation. this is senator sanders. >> what we have seen is a massive distribution of wealth going in exactly the wrong way. the middle class is shrinking and the people are -- at the top are getting wealthy. our job is to take on these oligarchs and our job is to imagine a world of justice. it is not radical. it is not radical. it is not radical to say every worker in u.k. and the united states is entitled to a descent standard of living. that is not a radical idea. amy: that is bernie sanders, standing with the rail workers. someone else who stood with them was sam terry who was a shadow minister with the labour party.

in the labour party leader keir starmer fired him as a result, even though it was walking the picket line he was talking about how important starmer's leadership has been. george monbiot, the significance of this and where truss also stands on this? >> is a great weight we all carry on our backs in this country, the billionaire media. i know you're familiar with that in the u.s. withox news and the rest. we have rupert murdoch operating full throttle here, mostly through the newspapers. the great majority of our newspapers are owned by billionaires or corporations run by billionaires. they are lethal to democracy. keir starmer is trying to appeal to them, appease them. our history shows if they don't back you, you are very and ugly to become prime minister and form a new government.

-- you are very unlikely to become prime minister and form a new government. people are ready for massive change. but he is cowardly. his strategy seems to be if i just sit here and not be a conservative, people are going to be so disgusted and horrified by the conservatives that they will have to vote for me. they will have to vote for labour. it is a dangerous strategy because of people see politics don't deliver for them, that if there iso real choice, no it is going to stand up for workers, know what is going to stand up for the living world, no one is going to stand up for hard-pressed families were desperately struggling to pay the rent and pay the bills, then they don't turn to one of two back choices. they look for into politics instead. and that is why neoliberalism and fascism go hand in glo. new lynn liberalism-

neoliberalism shuts down political choice. people then look elsewhere and they find fascism and attractive options. i think starmer is playing dangerous game. he is not seeing the bigger picture. amy: george monbio, thank you for being with us, other, guarding calmness, activist. we will link to your piece "britain faces crisis upon crisis, and our leaders are absent. this is how a country falls apart." next up, we go to chile where voters have overwhelmingly rejected the new closet fusion that would have given chile one of the most progressive charters in the world. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. we turn to chile, where on sunday voters rejected a new constitution that would have replaced the one imposed by military dictator general augusto pinochet after he was installed in a u.s.-backed military coup more than 40 years ago. results show about 62% of chileans voted no, while 38% voted in fav. the proposed constitution grew out of anti-austerity demonstrations in 2019. it was the first in the world to be written by an equal number of male and female delegates and included on new rights for indigenous people, legalized abortion, mandated universal health care, and newommitments to address the climate crisis. it also strengthened regulations on mining, prompting an editorial from "the washington post" editorial board that

opposed the constitution based in part on how it could make it harder for the united states to acquire chilean lithium used for batteries in laptops and cars. chile's president gabriel boric had been a major supporter of the new constitution. he was elected in december and sworn in as the youngest president in the country's history. he spoke sunday in santiago after the results showed the proposed new charter had been rejected and said he wanted to restart the process in order to meet a 2020 mandate. >> i said president of the republic, it is with great humility i take this message and make it my own. we have to listen to the voice of the people, not just today, but the last tense years we have lived through. let us not forget why we have come this far. that malaise is still latent and

we cannot ignore it. those who have historically supported this transformation process must also be self-critical of our actions. chileans have demanded an opportunity and we must live up to this call. amy: sunday's vote came on the anniversary of the september 4, 1970, election of the socialist salvador allende as chile's president, before he was overthwn in th1973 u.s.-bacd milita coup th instald generaaugusto pinochets dictor andeft the couny withhe constituon it stl uses today. r more, 'reoined bywo ests. ariel dorfman is a chilean-american author, human rights defender, playwright, and poet who was cultural and press adviser to president allende's chief of staff during the last months of his presidency in 1973. right before allende died in the palace september 11, 1973.

ariel dorfman is the author of several books, including most recently, "voices from the other side of death." and in santio, chile, javiera manzi is a feminist activist who played a role in drafting the proposed new constitution. welcome both to democracy now! ariel dorfman, if we can start with you, the significance of the charter and the charters defeat? >> this was an extraordinary magna carta, both because of its origins in the popular protest because it was drafted by people who looked like chile itself, not believed expertwho have behind closed walls were constantly deciding what oths would be ruled by. and it was, as you mentioned, incredibly ecological. it extended democracy in

participatory forms at all levels. it legalized -- not only legalized abortion -- when i read the constitution, and i read it several times, the one just rejected, but what calls attention to myself is the extraordinary tenderness of which it is been composed and written. it speaks about the glaciers. it speaks about the air. it speaks about the children over and over again. it speaks about the caretakers at home. it speaks about the animals, dogs. it speaks about everything vulnerable that is to be taken care of. and it includes their for the first time those who have been invisible and exfoliated constantly by the major powers in chile, indigenous populations. feminist constitution. i could go on and on stuff 388 articles, perhaps too many. it's rejection is a very

significant defeat. wever, i am not entirely pessimistic about what the future will bring. i could explain further if you feel i need to do so. some of the reasons why this happened. because we should not forget 62% of the people the largest election, 13 million voters, much more than ever before in the nation's history, did reject this proposal. they did not, however, because 80% of the people decided previously there has to be a new constitution. so we will have a new constitution. the question is if we are now under the veto power at the right wing people in congress who will try to restrict as many of these rights as possible. juan: javiera manzi, you are part of helping to draft this new constitional proposal. what is your reaction to seeing it defeated and why do you think that occurred?

some critics say the writers attempted to go too far ahead of where the chilean people were at this point. your response? >> good morning. i think perhaps the first thing we have to answer is what was at stake in this election, this referendum. what did the people vote to reject? was it the content of the draft or was the something else? the corotion of the social movement committee for the campai for the approval and sterday we made a declaration we said it was a defeat but -- [indiscernible]

how we interpret this. for the far right, this is said to be the defeat of a cycle. for us, it is important to this was a campaign -- and equality. every single -- every person was talking about not only fake news but a content that wasn't there. the idea people could have no housing,or instance, or private property [indiscernible] it was a very widespread idea. we have to make a campaign and context it was very difficult to defeat the common sense idea to

spread out in the context this was the first time with the mandatory vote. there was a whole part of society that went to vote for the first time. it is very important fors to say or interpret and say what is at stake in the future of a possible -- juan: ariel dorfman, i wanted to ask about the issue of the disinformation campaign that was launched within chile and some of the propaganda outside chile, as amy mentioned, "the washington post" editorial site "lithium is a key input new batteries that run millions of laptops and upon which the united states is basing its electrified automotive future. chile sits atop the world's

largest lithium reserves." you remember when american companies were more concerned with chile's copper in the days of allende and how chile has always been seen as a resource for the western imperialist countries. >> first, the disinformation campaign, fake news. the official official people in charge of the election have said that 89% of the funding for the people who rejted was versus 11% of the money spent by the approval people. sohat is for to one. you have to imagine as equal as we just heard our colleague sa so that information was cunningly used, and wassed,

certain extravagance,ut always trying to create a fake sense of what was in the constitution. at that many people did not even read the constitution. what is interesting is just as in the case of allende, this is an anti-extractive constitution. meaning it does not put extraction at the center of chile's development but people at the center of its development. the chness of chile is its people. we have lots of lithium before we had the copper, but the important thing here is that one of the forms of the constitution speaks about the fact we have sovereignty over what is in our minerals. of course, people are worried about that outside, despite the fact the constitution itself does not say it will stop

foreign investments, will simply have control of it as in the case with allende nationalizing copper. of course outside "the washington post, which i found strange, "the wall street journal" the economist, which i did not find so strange, people cap speaking on these and this was reverberated in chile. whereas when someone would tweet about that or the international socialist groups would speak about that or how wonderful, constitutional experts around thworld saying this constitution in fact did not restrict rights, all that was shouted down, shut down, was forgotten. so there is a campaign outside chile. it is t unanimous, either, because there have been relatively good things -- there

was a good op-ed inthe new york times" and i was able to write something and tomorrow i have somhing in "the guardian so it is not as if we are completely muted in that sense, but there is a worry ong the oligarchs of e world , those who control the richest of the world, and are the equivalent of those who control the richest of chile. the amount of money spent by the corporations in chile is shameful. amy: i want -- when you said surprised in of what the washington post" there was an interesting piece were said jeff bezos and other billionaires, including bill gates this year, invested nearly $200 million in kobold metals, which according to mining.com "is on a global search for key battery metals cobalt, lithium and nickel, as well as copper, which is key to

the green energy transition." i went to end with the feminist activist who played a key role in the protest in chile and then working with others in the drafting of chile's proposed new constitution, where you go from here, javiera manzi? >> hard time press in chile. [indiscernible] a majochallenge to overcome. inerms of how the far right has gained a lot of power.

[indiscernible] in this very ment, feminisms at stake. we need to overcome- [indiscernible] the idea we have to ange and transform -- for us it is very important to s social movement

, grassroots organizations, the feminist movement as a whole, we are now taking the moment to think, analyze, to organize ourselves. the economic crisis -- we will have to overcome these and rearrange political alliances. we need not to compete in terms of how give more space [indiscernible] keep on fighting. people fighting against the advance of the far right. amy: we will continue to cover it. i want to ask ariel if you can

close the segment with a poem from your latest book? >> yes. is is about the disappeared because it turns out we are fighting for the disappeared, fighting for all the dead who died so we could have a different chile. it is called "last will and testament." when they tell you i'm not a prisoner, don't believe them i will have to admit it someday when they tell you they release me, don't believe them they will have to admit it is a lie one day don't believe them when ey show you the photo of my body don't believe them whe they l tellou it is my voice on tape, my signature on a confession if they say a tree is a tree, don't believe anything they tell you anything they show you, don't believe them when that take him's, with a ask you to identify the body and you see me and a voice says, we

killed them, the poor bastard died, completely, absolutely definitely dead, don't believe them don't believe them don't believe them don't believe them when they say there will be a new constitution don't believe them when they say that people have chile will stop struggling for justice and social equality. amy: ariel dorfman, chilean-american best-selling author, reading from his most recent collection of poems "voices from the other side of death." javiera manzi, feminist leader in chile who helped delegates in drafting the pposed new constitution. next up, we will remember author barbara ehrenreich. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: one of barbara ehrenreich's

favorite musicians. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. we end today's show remembering the author, activist barbara ehrenreich, who has died at the age of 81. best known for her book "nickel and dimed: on not getting by in america." to research the book, she went undercover as a low income non-skilled worker at walmart. she was a waitress at a restaurant. she worked in a nursing home as a cleaning service. she later founded the economic hardship reporting project. barbara wrote more than 20 books, beginning in 1969, with "long march, short spring, the ." in a moment, we will hear barbara and her own words. at first, juan, i'm wondering if you can talk about how you knew barbara ehrenreich, as someone you worked with along with other members of the young lords,

which you helped found in the early 1970's here in new york? juan: yes, actually met barbara in 1969. she had just come out of graduate school from her phd and had joined a group that really became a sinal group in the radical critique of the american health care system. it was called the health packed, health policy advisory council. she joined it fresh out of graduate school and joined an extraordinary group of radical and revolutionary doctors and nurses that had gathered in new york city at the time, people like ali and charlotte fein. health pact became the nerve center for the providing information to oppressed communities about the health care system. of course she and her former

husband john ehrenreich wrote the book "the american health empire: power, profits, and politics." accredited with shaping this analysis of the health industrial complex of united states and extraordinary focus on profit in the market health care system. she was a pioneer in that. remember often meeting -- i think it was 17 mary street, the health pact offices, the radical involved in some sort of issues around health care would meet on a reveler basis and barbara divided a lot of the research and information that those of us who are organizing our community's did not have the time, a lot of wk weid would not have happened without the enormous reservoir of information she provided. the black panther party, the public of new africa, the young lords, and other groups working in the black and brown communities. so she was really a giant.

i recommend people who don't do that part of her history to read an article she wrote about 20 years later and you can find it on the iernet called open giving power to the people: the early days of health pact." she credits her experience with health pact of shaping her entire world view. she went on with many wonderful important things, one of the towering figures. it is a tremendous loss not only turn family, but to all who knew her and benefited from her work that she has passed away. amy: let's turn to barbara ehrenreich in her own words on democracy now! in 2011 she talked about why she went undercover to work as a low income, what is known as nonskilled worker, to write her classic book "nickel and dimed: on not getting by in america." >> well, i took on a challenge that i set myself, which was to see whether i could support

myself on the money i could earn in, well, obviously entry-level jobs, which are the, you know, kind of jobs where you go and apply and they're not going to ask -- you know, they're not going to ask for a résumé. they don't care about athing, except whether you're a convicted felon or whether you have -- you're actually -- you know, it's legal for you to work in this country. all these jobs averaged at the time in around 2000 about $7 an hour, even including the tips with waitressing, which would be equivalent to about $9 an hour now. and basically, what i found, that for me, just as one person -- i wasn't trying to support my family with my earnings or anything like that -- it just wasn't doable because the rents were so out of line with my earnings. and i did try. i mean, i didn't spend any money

except on gas, food and, you know, the bare minimum, which was possible to do because i worked at each city for only a month. you know, so i wasn't depending -- you know, medical care or anything like that was not coming through my jobs. but i found, you know, a very important thing -- well, two very important things. first, at $7 an hour, or $9 an hour in today's dollars, you're not considered poor. you know, you don't show up in the poverty statistics. you're considered to be fine if you're one individual earning that much. and the other big lesson here is -- which is maybe a hard one to remembert a time of high unemployment -- is that jobs are not necessarily a cure for poverty. jobs that don't pay enough to live on do not cure poverty. they condemn you, in fact, to a life of low-wage labor and

extreme insecurity. amy: this figure, barbara, of the number of americans on food stamps, almost one in six, almost 15%. the figures from may, people on food stamps were 12% higher than a year earlier according to the agriculture department. one in almost six americans. and this applies directly to the people that you met, to the jobs that you took -- for example, being a walmart associate. talk about that and the woman you wrote about and where she is today. >> yeah, i mean, one of the surprises to me -- and it's not a surprise anymore because a lot more research has been done -- is how many walmart employees depend on some kind of government program to supplement

their low wages and thetally inadequate health insurance, whicmost people can't afford anyway. in fact, when you -- i noticed that when i went through the orientation for my job at walmart, and there was a whole table full of new hires sitting around, you know, that they, the walmart people asked to see whether anybody here might be eligible for tanf, for example, temporary assistance to needy families, because they're kind of depending on that government -- those government supplements to keep people going. you're not going to do too well on just your walmart pay. and then at another time as a walmart associate, i went to seek food aid. i went to a sort of public/private charitable place that what you could get -- you could come out with a sack of food. and when the interviewer -- the social worker who interviewed me

kept getting me mixed up with somebody. you know, i'd tell her that i had a car and then she'd forget i had a car and so on. and then she said, "you know, it's just -- we have other -- you know, people are always coming from walmart. you work at walmart. i get you mixed up." and that to me was a big clue. amy: that is barbara ehrenreich on democracy now! in 2011 on the 10th anniversary of her classic book "nickel and dimed: on not getting by in america." she died on september 2 at the age of 81. among her other books "the american health empire: power, profit, and politics" and "bait and switch: the futile pursuit of the american dream." barbara ehrenreich's son wrote on twitter about his mother "she was never much for thoughts and prayers, but you can honor her memory by loving one another and by fighting like hell."

to see all of our interviews with barbara ehrenreich, you can go to democracynow.org. [captioning made possible by democracy now!] democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!] wñab

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