07/18/23 07/18/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york. this is democracy now! >> the invitation -- demolishing schools. they don't want the people to see the truth. for that, we are being targeted.

amy: as israeli president isaac herzog meets president biden at the white house and prepares to address a joint session of congress, we will go to the occupied west bank to talk to the palestinian journalist basel adra. on saturday, he was handcuffed and blindfolded and forced to sit in the blazing sun for hours after he refused to hand over footage of an israeli settler attack. we will also speak to the palestinian human rights attorney noura erakat. then to "labor power and strategy." >> what happens here is important because what is happening to us is happening across all fields of labor. by means of when employers make wall street and greed their priority and they forget about the essential contributors that

make the machine run. amy: 160,000 actors enter their for day on strike. this comes as ups workers are preparing for what could be the second-largest strike the single-employer in u.s. history. we will speak with the legendary historian of the mexican revolution, labor organizer and professor john womack about how to seize and build labor power and solidarity. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the united nations has warned russia's decision to terminate the black sea grain deal, which allowed for the safe export of food and fertilizer from ukrainian ports, will lead to soaring food prices and worsening hunger across the globe. the u.n. secretary-general antónio guterres spoke monday

after the kremlin said it would refuse to extend the agreement. >> ultimately, participation in this agreement is a choice. people everywhere in developing countries don't have a choice. hundreds of minds of people face hunger and consumers are facing a cost-of-living crisis, and they will pay the price. amy: this comes just a week after russia vetoed the extension of a key u.n. humanitarian aid delivery route from turkey into syria. on monday, the u.n. rejected restrictions placed by the syrian government on the life-saving deliveries through the bab al hawa border crossing. syrian officials conditioned the shipments on the u.n.'s full cooperation and coordination with syria's government, among other rules denounced by u.n. officials as unacceptable. russia's military launched an early-morning drone and missile attack on the ukrainian port city of odesa a day after the

kremlin walked away from the black sea agreement. ukraine's military says one person was injured by debris after it shot down all six missiles and 25 drones fired at odesa. the attack came just hours after russian president putin accused ukraine of launching what he called a cruel and senseless attack monday on a key bridge connecting the russian mainland to the russian annexed crimean peninsula. >> what has happened is yet another terrorist act by the regime in kyiv. the crimean bridge has not been used for military justice for a long time. it is cruelty because innocent civilians have been killed. of course there will be a response from the russian side. amy: in belarus, a large convoy of wagner mercenary forces arrived at a military field camp on monday, the first redeployment of the mercenary group's fighters since their failed mutiny in late june. on friday, the belarus ministry of defense said wagner troops

are training some of its security forces. tens of thousands of people in vietnam and southern china evacuated their homes as typhoon talim made landfall in china's guangdong province. the storm brought heavy winds and rain, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of trains and flights. its arrival came as china, like much of the northern hemisphere, saw temperature records shattered by unrelenting summer heat. here in the united states, more than 88 million people are under excessive heat warnings and advisories again today. smoke from hundreds of canadian wildfires is triggering unhealthy air quality alerts across new england and as far south as atlanta, georgia, and birmingham, alabama. today phoenix, arizona, is forecast to record its 18th consecutive day over 110 degrees fahrenheit with no respite in sight. a recent study found that a loss of the power grid in phoenix during a heat wave would cause at least 12,000 deaths, with hundreds of thousands more needing treatment for heat-related illnesses.

white house climate envoy john kerry is in beijing to reestablish discussions on the climate crisis between the u.s. and china, the world's two largest emitters of greenhouse gasses. kerry arrived in beijing on sunday as a weather station in western china logged an all-time high temperature record of 126 degrees fahrenheit. kerry's visit came just days after he ruled out reparations to other countries harmed by the climate crisis. kerry made the remark during testimony last thursday at a house foreign affairs subcommittee hearing as he was questioned by republican congressmember brian mast of florida. >> are you planning to commit america to climate reparations? we have to pay some of the country because they had a flood or hurricane or typhoon? >> under no circumstances. >> i am glad to hear you say that. amy: those remarks were condemned by climate action groups, including 350.org, which said in a statement -- "u.s. climate enjoy john kerry's words are just the latest

example of kerry and the u.s. refusing to back up their vague claims for u.s. support in global climate progress with real, substantive action." a ship dispatched by the united nations has arrived off the coast of yemen to begin pumping over 1 million barrels of oil from a decaying supertanker ed -- anchored in the red sea. the ship was abandoned off the coast of yemen in 2015 at the start of the u.s.-backed, saudi-led war against houthi rebels. it contains four times the amount of oil spilled off the coast of alaska during 1989's exxon valdez disaster. on monday, u.n. humanitarian coordinator david gressly said engineers had secured the rusting ship against a potential catastrophic spill or explosion. >> the structure, even though it is a decaying vessel, the hull is still very secure which means the transfer of the oil will be relatively low risk.

amy: in iowa, abortions at up to 22 weeks of pregnancy are once again legal after a district judge put iowa's strict six-week abortion ban on hold. polk county judge joseph seidlin said monday that planned parenthood, the aclu, and other plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their lawsuit, which contends the bill signed by republican governor kim reynolds friday violates iowa's constitution. 14 states currently have abortion bans in effect on most forms after the supreme court struck down roe v. wade last summer. here in new york, pressure is mounting for the federal government to take over the troubled rikers island jail complex. manhattan u.s. attorney damian williams on monday said the crisis at rikers is "a collective failure with deep roots, spanning multiple mayoral administrations." eight years ago, new york city agreed to a multi-million-dollar effort to reform rikers, but conditions have only worsened leading to the deaths of several prisoners and growing reports of brutal violence and inhumane treatment. meanwhile, mayor eric adams has appointed new leadership to the new york police department.

edward caban will be the first latino to serve as nypd commissioner. his rise to power comes after the abrupt departure of former commissioner keechant sewell, who was the first black woman in the role. caban spoke alongside mayor adams at city hall on monday. >> it is not lost on me today's announcement is also a first, given how many great leaders have come before me at the nypd, to be the first hispanic police commissioner is in honor of the highest measure. amy: in medical news, an experimental new drug called donanemab has slowed the progression of alzheimer's disease in patients by about 35% when used in the early stages of the disease. that makes the drug at least as effective as leqembi, another monoclonal antibody treatment against alzheimer's that won fda approval earlier this month. drug maker eli lilly hasn't said how much donanemab would cost if it wins regulatory approval, but a year's treatment of leqembi

has been priced at more than 26 thousand dollars in the united states. democratic presidential candidate robert f kennedy junior has been -- he said, 19 was targeted to certain ethnicities. he was making big comments while speaking at a dinner in manhattan last week. her recording was published by "the new york post." >> to attack [indiscernible] amy: the people who are most -- on monday, his sister kerry kennedy who heads -- said -- "his statements do not represent what i believe or what robert f. kennedy human rights stand for,

with our 50-plus-year track record of protecting rights and standing against racism and all forms of discrimination." rolling stone reports that rfk junior, who is running for the democratic nomination, has been raking in cash from republican donors. west virginia democratic senator joe manchin has fueled speculation he will run as a third-party candidate in the 2024 presidential election. manchin appeared alongside republican former utah governor jon huntsman at an event in new hampshire on monday, arguing u.s. voters are frustrated by the growing divide between the two major political parties. >> i am not here running for president. i am trying to save the nation. amy: senator manchin is the biggest recipient of fossil fuel money in congress. monday's event was organized by the billionaire-backed organization no labels, which is exploring whether to run a

third-party candidate for president. the progressive change campaign committee wrote on social media -- "no labels is nothing more than a republican front-group. they're staffed by republicans, bankrolled by republicans, and their third party gambit will only help elect maga republicans like trump. joe manchin just gives them the patina of bipartisanship." the shipping giant ups has begun training nonunion employees to fill in for unionized workers after the teamsters voted to authorize a strike over stalled contract talks. unless there's a breakthrough, some 340,000 ups workers could be on picket lines as soon as august 1. your cogs member alexandria ocasio-cortez joined other lawmakers added teamsters rally pledging support for what could become the single largest employer strike in history. >> what we are about to step into requires solidarity from everybody across the city,

across this country come across politics, union, workers because your fight right here is about being the tip of the spear for dignity for every worker in this country. every worker in this country. amy: later in the broadcast, we will speak with the legendary historian of the mexican revolution and labor organizer professor john womack, jr.. and the reverend jesse jackson is stepping down as president of the rainbow/push coalition, the civil rights group he founded in 1996. reverend jackson's legacy of activism was honored at the coalition's annual convention in chicago over the weekend. vice president kamala harris was in attendance. she described jackson as "one of america's greatest patriots, someone who deeply believes in the promise of our country." the rainbow/push coalition will now be headed by the reverend frederick douglass haynes. he spoke sunday.

>> the reverend jesse lewis jackson, sr.. i stand here on his shoulders because no one with sense would try to stand in his shoes. his shoes are too large. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. when we combat, we go to the occupied west bank as israeli president herzog is in washington. back in 30 seconds. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "enough" by maysa daw. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined by democracy now!'s juan gonzález in chicago. hi, juan. juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: president biden is meeting israeli president isaac herzog at the white house today. on wednesday, herzog will address a joint session of congress, though several progressive democrats have announced plans to boycott his speech. the group includes congressmembers rashida tlaib, alexandria ocasio-cortez, cori bush, ilhan omar, and jamal bowman. cori bush wrote -- "the israeli government is responsible for enforcing an apartheid state and rampantly abusing the rights of

palestinians. congress should not be giving a platform to the president of a country that shows no respect for human rights. i will not be attending his joint address." on monday, president biden spoke with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and invited him for a meeting in the united states this year. biden recently criticized the makeup of netanyahu's far-right cabinet, describing it as "one of the most extremist" he has seen in israel. israeli president isaac herzog's visit to the white house comes just weeks after the israel military attacked the jenin refugee camp, killing at least 12 palestinians in israel's largest military operation in the occupied west bank in 20 years. we begin today's show with noura erakat. she is a palestinian human rights attorney and an associate professor at rutgers university. she is the author of "justice for some: law and the question of palestine." let's begin with herzog's visit, the israeli president, and then

yesterday president biden speaking personally on the phone with prime minister netanyahu, inviting him to the united states. your response, noura erakat? >> let's begin by setting up the context that this is 2023 in the aftermath of israeli human rights decisions, u.n. agencies, as well as multiple scholars had independent investigations have all concluded that israel overseas an apartheid regime. this is also in the context where since the collapse of the peace process in 2000, israel has made clear that will be no palestinian state, there will be no such thing as by nationalism, that they will enhance the takeover of palestinian lands and the removal. they have shifted from occupation to warfare. this is a completely different

universe than the one that existed in 2000 and yet the rhetoric and the feedback surrounding isaac herzog's invitation is speech completely ignores that. it is important to emphasize this effort within congress, specifically a mainstream democratic elements, is meant to normalize apartheid. it is not just say no want to defend israel, they are saying if this is in effect apartheid and these experts have concluded that in this case is ok, it should be an exception and it should be exemplary for others to follow. i applaud the progressive members of congress. i encourage other members of congress to do the save and continue to build the momentum of the progressive base that sees palestine squarely within social justice agenda. this is already manifested

social justice movement such as [indiscernible] that this is a joint struggle that has endorsed bds and catapulted many of these progressive democrats into office. this is also evident amongst the democrats themselves. not only is israel a bipartisan issue, but for the first time ever, more palestinians, more democrats sympathize with palestinians and they do israel is according to a 2023 gallup all. continue to build up momentum, resist this movement to normalize apartheid. what the members of congress are doing with the invitation, what they did in response to representative jayapal's accurate statement that israel is a racist state is akin gas line but really is normalization that is responding to the fact they have lost the battle from the grassroots level and are trying to stem from the top down what they could not defeat from

the bottom up and we see this not only in the normalization but we also see it in the passage of the integrity as revolutions -- anti-bds revolutions. amy: i want to play the clip you are just referring to for the progressive caucus chair congressmember pramila jayapal made headlines this weekend after she called israel a racist state while speaking at the netroots nation conference in chicago on saturday. >> i want you to know that we have been fighting to make it clear that israel is a racist state, that the palestinian people deserve self-determination and autonomy, that the dream of a two state solution is what they -- is slipping away from us. amy: she later clarified her comments, writing -- "i do not believe the idea of israel as a nation is racist.

i do, however, believe that netanyahu's extreme right-wing government has engaged in discriminatory and outright racist policies and that there are extreme racists driving that policy within the leadership of the current government. we know that the status quo is unacceptable, untenable, and unjust." your response to that, noura erakat? >> want to point out nothing she said was controversial. she has -- [indiscernible] the attack on her is a harassment attack that is meant to scare everyone else from even having a conversation and acknowledging this reality on the ground and most importantly, taking responsibility for it. the u.s. is not just a bystander. the u.s. is complicit in a pillar of israeli apartheid. its support [indiscernible]

which is not surprising. the u.s. was the last domino to fall insistent apartheid in south africa where it has to fall in line with everyone else. during apartheid south africa, the u.s. issued the most vetoes within the security council to protect apartheid there [indiscernible] here we are seeing a similar pattern. as for the way senator jayapal responded, she wanted to make a distinction between israeli people and the government. what we need to understand, she used the term " israeli nation" and there is no such thing as an israeli national. this is the >> of the matter.

[indiscernible] under any situation, we would to cry the system as in discriminatory but in the situation, the international community, specifically the u.s. and western governments, want to insist this exception is acceptable and exemplary. what i want to emphasize, it is not just harmful to palestinians as evidenced by the systematic killing of palestinians, but

that these ideas are not contained just to israel-palestine but are exported, these ideas of what sovereignty should look like or exported across the world. we see it in india and embodied even in the united states by european supremacist such as richard spencer who says he envisions the future of the european sovereignty should be modeled upon israel's model of sovereignty. these ideas are dangerous. it is not that we want to make an exception here, we want to make it clear there should be no situation where states are not states that belong to everybody who are there rather than to a nationality that exists extra toward turley. juan: i wanted to ask you, that announcement by president biden he has invited the prime minister netanyahu to also visit the united states after months

of saying he had no plans to do so, especially in light of the settlement expansion that the netanyahu government has been involved in. i think peace now has said 12,800 settlements across the west bank have been established since january by the netanyahu government. your response to the biden presidency just think, well, we are inviting netanyahu to come to the u.s. again? >> the 13,000 settlements are just the tip of the iceberg also israel has transferred authority of the west bank from military supervision to civilian oversight. they have basically taken the figley goff, that this is not a tempora situation but this is a permanent situation and they're planning for annexation. this contravenes the two state solution which -- even more than

that, even the u.s., specifically the biden administration, they did not want to invite netanyahu not just because his violations against palestinians -- i think that would be quite ambitious on our part -- but in fact it was netanyahu who undermined a sitting president in trying to establish iranian nuclear rapprochement. it was netanyahu who addressed the joint session to actually torpedo president obama's attempt to establish an iran nuclear agreement. the fact not only has this been overturned but now they're going to invite netanyahu nevertheless without stepping back and of those missteps, any of that betrayal, is an about-face. where israel sits, as far as the u.s. is concerned, they have thrown at their hands that they will continue to provide

unequivocal support and take no conditions on israel's behavior or participation. amy: in addition to human rights lawyer noura erakat, we're joined in the occupied west bank by the palestine journalist basel adra, who writes for 972. he wrote the new cover story for the nation magazine headlined "the destruction of this palestinian community was green-lighted by israel's supreme court." on saturday, he was detained while covering an easterly settler attack at masafer yatta. after he refused to hand over his video footage, israeli soldiers handcuffed and blindfolded him and sat him in a chair in the blazing sun for

hours. the union of journalists in israel denounced basel's detention, describing it as a "serious violation of freedom of the press." basel adra joins us now. welcome to democracy now! can you describe exactly what took place on saturday? i don't hear you if you are speaking. >> thank you. on saturday, got the call [indiscernible]

i told him i was a journalist. he said, no, you should open your phone now or there is another way to get videos from you. minutes after that, he called

another group of soldiers who came in another jeep and asked them to take me away. they threw me in the jeep and started driving away. i could not see. kept driving until we arrived in a place, a military base. they started pushing me. i was asking where they were going with me. i couldn't see where was walking. they just keep telling me to shut up. they knew who i am because i tell them all the time when they

come to destroy houses, when they come to invade in the night or day. the scary thing for me, there is hate. there is hate toward me just because i take my phone and camera and film what they're doing. they know they're doing something they don't want to be published outside. they live to me in a chair. i try to ask what is going on with me. the me about my phone. i stay there for hours.

then they take me to the village. [indiscernible] they said i was not detained. which is a lie. they took my phone illegally. i don't know what they did with it. [indiscernible] just because i am a palestinian. they can do whatever they want because they have the power to do it. last may i was beaten up for like 40 minutes.

they beat me up just because i reached neighbor because soldiers were trying to take down his shelter. they started to arrest me. i was saying, this is illegal. i am a journalist just here for documentation. it was masked soldiers who were beating me really hard, putting my body on the ground. they tried to grab me in the military jeep. i was too scared. another example about me personally, december 2021 at night, they invaded my home. [indiscernible]

we don't see the european union, the u.s. condemnations about these acts. a journalist sitting in jail without charge just because they are palestinian. in june, my friend and close colleague of hebron was shot in his leg by an israeli soldier. they were invading his town. the camera was there. he was wearing a vest saying he was a journalist. they shot him. no one talks about this. no one wrote about this.

[indiscernible] we love her, she was an american . then they write about her. all the time i go out in the field and they trying to push me back really hard. [indiscernible] we risk our lives to go and film these crimes. they're making this really hard for us. it doesn't matter for them what price we pay because they know

there is no consequences for the acts of violence toward us. juan: basel adra, obviously, this crackdown of the government on palestinian journalists is as a result of what the israeli government is doing. could you talk about, you report over 1000 people are at risk of immediate banishment and the army has already started demolishing homes and schools to make way for more settlements. could you talk about what you have seen in these demolitions? >> for me personally, i witnessed and document hundreds of demolitions of palestinian houses. it is the most hard thing to witness, especially now. i see families, children

watching as they demolish their homes or schools or water well and they are crying. they are feeling really powerless and hopeless. just a few hundred meters away from my home and community, the israeli outpost and settlement keeps expanding. settlements are expanding. every day they are building and expanding more and more on our land. create more houses with huge cow farms and chicken farms, all kinds of farms around the settlements are expanding toward our land. what i see and witness, those coming toward our communities and demolishing houses and schools, water wells.

to drive us away from here. the agency designated [indiscernible] they want to take the land for military exercises. take this land for the israeli settlement. this document he wrote in the 1980's when he makes the designation was at least a year ago from now. so from the 1980's, trying very hard at putting pressure on the palestinians in order to make them lose this land. they were cutting the water well and preventing access to cities,

demolishing houses, and they want to drive the people away from their homes. it did not work. palestinians did not have anywhere to go. they would go to the caves and set up new tents. until last may, an israeli high court decided to get a green line for the authorities to physically transfer the residence and destroy their home in order to take this land. the one who wrote the political judgment -- [indiscernible]

to drive these people away and make them homeless in order to take this land. from last may until now, the amount of houses wiped out is crazy. early morning will students were having lessons in their classrooms, they arrived with a bulldozer and the soldiers ran directly into the classrooms. they started pushing us back as journalists. one soldier opened a stun grenade and threw it at us. the students from the class were crying, taking their books and running away from the school

crying. i have never been in a scene like that before. it was really horrifying. and then the soldiers -- a group of soldiers went inside the school and the back with the kids and were going out and putting them in israeli military trucks. [indiscernible] the students watched their dream being demolished in front of their eyes. their parents did not have a chance to be educated and none of them are educated and they had this chance for a while to be educated in this school. they wanted to have more classrooms.

it was a primary school. israelisrael but thei -- but the israeli 30's arrived and whitened out. another camp was also demolished. [indiscernible] juan: i just want to bring in noura erakat because we only have a little bit of time left. noura, the role of the palestinian authority, while all of this is going on on the west bank, when so many more palestinians are being displaced in their homes -- and their homes demolished, what has been the role of the palestinian authority? >> unfortunately, actions to

protect palestinians the extent they have been armed, they use that to protect the illegal israeli settlers to demonstrate their the good natives. since the establishment of the oslo peace agreement, professional subjugation, the palestinian authority has begun an extension of the arkham patient in its policing, suppression of freedom of speech, tearing apart the fabric of the political life in order to do what most people in power do, which is preserve that power. they have not even endorsed bds as articulated by the 2005 bds because that would undermine their authority to lead their own state. to the extent they have been -- where are they in the discussion about insisting israel is an

apartheid state? they have also been falling behind and it in self-interested ways in order to advance themselves and yet they are not relevant. the extent we have seen them, we have seen them extra judicially assassinate a palestinian journalist and then come down hard on the palestinian people who protested the assassination at the height of palestinian grassroots and social power internationally come come may 2021 during a protest against the impending takeover of shaikh jarrah. the palestinian authority is part of the problem. it makes the conditions even more hard but even more spectacular that despite all of these obstacles, palestinians are able through grassroots initiatives, through popular

media, film, art, through organizing across the globe to continue to get this story out, to be able to articulate a unified vision for the future, one based on the futile -- freedom, dignity, justice for all people. amy: noura erakat, thank you for being with us, palestinian human rights attorney and an associate professor at rutgers university. author of "justice for some: law and the question of palestine." and basel adra, reporter from masafer yatta for local call and +972 magazine. we will link to your new pieces "i was handcuffed and blindfolded for reporting on settler violence" and your new piece for the nation magazine "the destruction of this palestinian community was green-lighted by israel's supreme court." coming up, professor john womack joins us come the legendary historian of the mexican revolution on to seize power.

♪♪ [music break] amy: "stand up for something" by andra day. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan

gonzalez. as we turn now to the workers flexing power across the united states in what some are calling a hot labor summer, actors in sag-aftra have entered their fifth day on strike after the union join tens of thousands of members of the writers guild of america in a combined strike. meanwhile, the head of the teamsters has asked white house not intervene if some 340,000 unionized ups workers go on strike without a break. this comes as workers at a waffle house restaurant in colombia, south carolina, went on a three-day strike over the weekend to protest low pay and unsafe working conditions they said the company has refused to address. >> i have been with the company 24 years. i only make $16 an hour. i have been through two robberies.

i am honest 47 with a herniated disc in my back. [indiscernible] i think waffle house inc. could do better. amy: for more, we're joined by the legendary historian and labor organizer john womack, one of the foremost historians of the mexican revolution has also written extensively about labor, power and strategy, which is the title of his new book featured in the nation in a piece headlined "what does it take to win?" when he was recognized by the mexico city government for his work in 2009 marking the bicentennial of mexican independence and of the mexican revolution, he passed on his award to the electricians union

in support of their struggle. at the time, they have a locke d out as they demanded that are working conditions. "the washington post" what's called him a marxist historian. welcome to democracy now! why do you lay out your argument in this book and why as a historian of the mexican revolution for which you are world-renowned, you are now focusing on labor, power, and strategy. >> well, thank you for having me on the show. i should -- well, i started out working on mexico, mexican history. i concentrated on the mexican revolution. while doing some research on

mexico city during the revolution, there were three general strikes and the city than of about 350,000. crucial in them was the electrical workers union. i thought, this is interesting. where are they? they were various places in the city but the main ice was the power plant about 60 miles or so north of the city. there were only about 100 workers. but when they shutdown down the power plant, they shut down mexico city. i thought, that is very interesting. there were major railroad strikes in the 1920's, but crucial there was the mechanic

-- machinist workers who were in the railroad shops. there were not on the railroads but in the shops maintaining the trains. and the dispatchers. there were 500 dispatchers across the country could shut down a road that employed 30,000. i thought, this is her interesting. i wonder where else this is happening? from there i looked at other industries and outside mexico. it happens anywhere there is a technical division of labor on a small scale or an industrial scale where a few workers are at bottleneck or chokepoints, where if they act, if they stop work,

lots of other workers have to stop work. it is clearest in transportation where quintessentially, the train operators in san francisco or los angeles, they can tie up the whole supply chain. but it is not on railroads. again, people sending messages are crucial. trains have to run on time and quite on time or they will run into each other, derailments. and so that impressed me. but it goes much further. it is not only highly skilled people like train operators or dispatchers, but the people in the warehouses.

if they don't unload and load the freight, nothing moves and things block up and choke at the warehouse. that is the teamsters -- it wasn't so much the drivers, it was the people in the warehouses. but it goes further. it goes into services like health care or public schools. the big california school strike this last year was -- had a major impact on california's budget. aside from the classrooms and everything, but it had a major impact on the california state system.

a few years ago, west virginia and the oklahoma teachers strike had a major impact on the states and on the family's for which the schools, if nothing else, take care of their kids, quite aside from the education the teachers are giving. but -- all those are skilled but there are other chokepoints in buildings where if -- in a major office building in any big city or small city, for that matter, if the janitors don't clean the

building, it is unbearable after a few days. and bus drivers. that is a skilled work but if bus drivers don't serve the public school system, that throws a lot of disturbance into the cities. juan: john womack, i wanted to ask you, in terms of this analysis of yours, clearly, capitalist are able to adapt and develop strategies to reduce the power of these workers that are in key sectors. for instance, in the transportation industry. clearly, businesses have gone more and more to independent truckers to prevent precisely the kind of situation being faced now with the teamsters and the ups drivers. what areas do you think labor is

missing in being able to have the strategic approach to organizing? first, i think your book talks a lot about the i.t. departments within companies. obviously, the tech workers in any company are critical for that company being able to function, but yet the labor law is weak in the u.s. on this issue. what are the sectors in society today that you see as critical to an organized labor movement becoming stronger? >> well, technical work of course. anything that has to do with computers is crucial. and there are all sorts of levels of guilt and technically organized industries. but there are still old-fashioned parts of the economy. automobile parts throughout the

south. there are a number of plants. that could remake the uaw if they had a plan -- maybe they do . it is unclear. but if they had a plan for organizing those automobile parts, that would double the size of the uaw. in i.t., it is also maintenance. and that is a skill. for instance in robotic factories or robotic -- robotically organized warehouses, those sheens -- those machines have to be maintained. the people in the shops for they

maintain those things are crucial power, a strategic power. that is what strategic is about, these particular chokepoints in any industry or plant. amy: we're going to talk more about chokepoints and part two of our conversation. we are talking to john womack, legendary historian and labor organizer. his new book "labor power and , strategy." he is professor emeritus of latin american history and economics at harvard university. he is the author of "the mexican revolution and supportive -- zapata." 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!]

hello, and welcome to nhk "newsline." i'm dat i'm catherine kobayashi new york. former president trump has been busy campaigning, trying to cement his return to the white house, but he's faced a host of legal troubles, and now he says he's