they want to show you where man richard reid was. that they want to stop the africans are. caught in the middle in the battle for blair mountain corporations versus miners miners versus environmentalists and even miners against each other so who will come out victorious in appalachia and what does it represent about the struggle between labor and corporations in this country . and those corporations well they're obama's pick for america's jobs problem yes the same companies that ship u.s. jobs overseas so where does the answer to u.s.

unemployment really lie. was. an early release for the cops seen here shooting and killing oscar grant back in two thousand and nine so after serving less than a year of the sentence are police getting away with murder we hear from oscar grant's uncle. good evening it's monday june thirteenth eight pm here in washington d.c. i'm lauren lyster you're watching our t.v. now ninety years ago coal miners rose up in the largest armed insurrection since the civil war it became known as the battle of blair mountain some credit it with launching the labor movement and creating a middle class america that exists today but the battle is not over some of those coal miners descendants along with activists and environmentalists marched this

past week at what's being called the second blair mountain arches killing board was there and she has the story. in the mountain west virginia a battle is raging. for the feet of amount in its core. and a sort of resistance in appalachians the same cause. it's not easy. that a hundred miners activists and environmentalists marched at blair mountain to demand an end and mountaintop removal. technique that blasts right to get a call seems within which environmentalist say send debris rating down i think flooding in contaminating rivers water going to water the retrace the steps of more than ten thousand coal miners who in one thousand twenty one took up arms for the right to unionize and survive to fifteen thousand coal miners forming an army and marching up the mountain that's right behind me you know and fighting you know

against an army paid for by coal operators chaplain his great grandfather led to charges the president of the west virginia miners union but it's a history he didn't learn from textbooks this is a history that has been concealed from west virginians the only time you see the word union in the book is really used union carbide the chemical company my great grandfather micro my grandfather i thought it bob schulz worked in the mines for thirty seven years. that's what we need his house in the city. i got it from the very same call that gave him black lung making breathing and working difficult every doctor. needs something to agree and i think we're having the right for me to want to. control it is not i want to work. and. say it's not because his wife betty says he's paid with his

health and. you can't do what he wants. to get where he wants to go like a prisoner and his own home bob family fun along side checks in the minors war but bob won't be marching they want to say blair mountain which i agree with. but i want to stop me and my friends and my family from mining and that's how we make our living. close virtually the only living to be made in logan county ninety years later. but you have some of the worst prescription drug abuse in america that's all there is call if you're not in a call your inch of the drugs it's one or the other for. nearly a century later the coal companies still wield incredible influence and political power. marchers on public roads blocked the boulders and camp sites shut down the coal companies call them up and said if you let these marchers stay

in your campsite and everybody in your family is going to lose their jobs. are you lol. you all. are you well at least you all know more than one hundred forty protestors trespass i'm cool company land like the miners apapa coal company before them ninety years ago these activists say they intentionally with the rest by trespassing on the mine property to draw attention to the second battle of blair mountain and if they did resist it in ending any time soon and that appellation will rise again more so angry that. my people you know the people of appalachia the hillbillies have been beaten down for so long and been you know you know they've been held under the boot hill of the coal industry for so long blair mountain for both sides it's everything it's resources it's coal it's history and it's symbol it's part of appalachian the battle that neither side willing to surrender killing for r.t. blair west virginia. now that second battle of blair about ten pits protesters

against corporate interests protestors bringing attention to claims of horrific working conditions and the mountaintop removal mining techniques in the area which has a lot of allegedly polluted water cause health problems even death earlier i spoke with journalist the labor journalist mike and he helped me put this struggle which is a local struggle into a broader context darting with unions and mining in general here's what he said in the study that came out last week that showed that union mines are we safer. but fifty percent safer than non mountains and these situations constantly it's about safety it's also about providing for somebody's situation and unions really provide of ways for people to express themselves on the job and this is what's really at stake what about me it's a symbol but for what i understand there are union mines in blair mountain where the show union mines and blue mountain i mean there are throughout west virginia all the mountaintop mining you know there's very few you know actually part of the

reason why coal companies shifted to mountaintop mining was so that they didn't have to deal with you know i'm just curious you know bigger picture because you have covered a number one of these a number of these labor struggles if you see this you know because i think people could see this story and say ok this is you know this affects just these people that are struggling against this one company is that the case is it's just you know these miners struggling against one corporation or do you see this as symbolic of labor struggles that are going on against corporations all over this country and i think what is happening in appalachia is really the canary in the coal mine of what is happening with corporate power across the united states corporations can come to just about any community use it up often as they do in all communities want to call runs out they've been in the town the congress or if it's not already poor and then just abandon it and i think this is really symbolism and clear mountain being a site with the united states government the union protesters behind them with airplanes is a symbol it's a secret symbol for the lieberman and the fact that we're going to. straw it is

unheard of i mean this is like destroying the bunker were destroying gettysburg for the way this is an absolute crime against the street well one of the things that stick out to me is that in march of two thousand and blair mountain was placed on a national register of historic places but then reportedly call operator pressure on state agencies caused them to change that and to get rid of the d. list at nine months later making it easier for coal companies to mine there i'm curious if you're surprised that call operators implement the state and why you think there was a change of course and what you think it says about the relationship between industry and government and policy you know cooperators not the latch of often behaves like the role of dictators you know they own the government there's no other industry in town take for instance what happened cool river mountain there's poor of a mountain which virginia is an area where they could put up a lot of windmills a lot of wind farms the coal industry want to allow it even though they're not going to mine that known coal river for coal they're not going to allow that

mountaintop to be used to in front because they don't have anything else and then this is emblematic of the power of the coal companies have come out to say to west virginia why do they have so much power and is this just coal companies or do you see this as a trend of corporate power over politics in this country i think is a trend of corporate power throughout this country because competition which would you know i think with a worse situation i mean for instance it was a big case a few years ago about known to promote mining before the west virginia state supreme court before the case just to make sure that you know the mining company would get its way in the court case the c.e.o. of massey energy don blankenship went on a vacation in the french riviera with the state supreme court chief justice i mean and you know on top of being one of his biggest campaign players this is how they've always done business logic what it may more broadly i know you know you and i have both covered the labor struggle in illinois at the honeywell uranium plant and that's a situation where we know that c.e.o. is a major or at the company is a major donor to politics and. and it has you could argue influence and politics i

just want to know if you see this as. as corporations kind of broadly winning out over the rights of workers in this country i think broadly when they know but i think you know even look at what's happening with the people getting arrested and blair mountain people resisting people who continue to resist and that's something that's very tough to get rid of so live in times of corporations approach workers many times in this country even at the first battle with the lesson of leon is that you can't kill the leader of the people remember fleets of people rise up. that was labor journalist mike uk. now u.s. president barack obama for one is relying on u.s. corporations for solutions to this country's jobs problem now he met with his jobs council today for a plan to discuss it and the council's made up of c.e.o.'s from big corporations and it's headed by general electric's jeffrey immelt here's what here's a little on them these are leaders who have decades of experience running

some of america's best businesses creating jobs understanding what it takes to grow our economy and strengthen our middle class. now meanwhile activists such as the hacker group anonymous see a totally different solution to the country's economic woes they do not see corporations of the solution they see civil disobedience and resistance as the solution they're calling to get rid of the corporate and big banks influence over the economy and politics and fact and yet another solution we're seeing being blazed by the state of idaho they're looking for help from the chinese from chinese companies to invest in their states project now here to help us all break it down it's author and journalist david de graw thanks so much for being with us now i know tomorrow several groups are launching a nonviolent protest movement protesting the economy aimed at ending kind of campaign finance influence ending too big to fail breaking up the fed ordering vendor nanki to step down one of those groups is the hacker group anonymous and

they actually released a video targeting ben bernanke yeah i just want to show a little bit of that and take a look at this excerpt you have for degree of confidence in your ability to control this hundred percent. one percent. ninety. were stupid and counties are monitoring this for the reserve. mr bernanke meters in line with our request. for the reserves called shushi regimes from every country with every time we reach one term for one portion of the population. now david i know you support this larger resistance plan tomorrow i know there are several protests planned around the country i'm curious what exactly is going to happen tomorrow and what are you calling for. what was starting a movement some are as you said an essential nonviolent movement with two primary

objectives and they are objectives that anonymous has touched on previous videos as well they are to end the system of political bribery which is campaign finance law being in the revolving door and the other main objective is to break that of the federal reserve and the too big to fail banks you know if you are one of the ninety nine percent of americans you have a core common sense goal to go but what are we actually going to see tomorrow are we going to see large scale demonstrations are we going to see people there at all i don't already know what's going to happen is anonymous going to have that power reserve what's the plan here well as in the centralized movement i don't know exactly what's going to happen but what i do know is going to happen and there's going to be protests in twenty three different cities there's also going to be people taking individual actions we're going to be removing that money from the big banks you know whatever individual actions can be taken along with

these proposals of protests in twenty three cities tomorrow at eleven am i will be at one chase the we're going to round up some people and then by one o'clock we're going to head to liberty park which is now called the car park down in the financial district and people we occupy in that park indefinitely and still the vans are about as far as campaign finance lobbying and then the federal reserve and it's too big to fail but now so we'll have to see how long that last how long that stakeout last may we can talk you out there campaigning but my question for you this is obviously a very different approach to solving the problems of this country than what we see and washington and then the approach that we see president obama called for he for one night with his. jobs and competitiveness council which he has touted to promote job creation but it's made up of twenty six private sector leaders headed by c.e.o.

general electric so implied in this council is that you know telling private sector corporate leaders to solve the job problem is that corporate interests are aligned with the best interests of workers and unemployment in this is the unemployment rather in this country do you agree or disagree with that. well look i completely disagree and you know if you look at it objectively the interests of one cent of one percent of the u.s. population has not bode well for ninety nine percent of the population i mean if you look at the leaders that they've been or who are in jobs or short millions of jobs you know the inequality of wealth in all time high is forty four million people on food stamps a record breaking numbers of people living in poverty i mean the statistics speak for themselves i mean we're at a point now where the democrats and the republicans have been bordeaux campaign on the revolving door and lobbying and unless we lowered it and start doing this

nonviolent civil disobedience politicians are not going to represent as they have been doing i mean we see we're being. in the or ok. so you see action as kind of the antidote to the money that we see flowing into washington from big corporations and that sort of thing that's your solution i want to show g.e.'s immelt solution he wrote a at a tauriel in the wall street journal today i just want to share the data point of what this committee is calling for to create a million jobs quickly one is to train workers for today to open jobs another is to streamline permitting to facilitate small business loans put construction workers back to work citing the two million who don't have jobs in this country so those are some of the solutions that they say oh i think those jobs and travel and tourism so those are those solutions that the jobs commission is calling for that the jobs are is calling for but i want to call attention for a minute to immelt the record as c.e.o. at g.e.

and their record of job creation so let's bring up that chart a graphic that i have so since and out became c.e.o. of g.e. the company has actually shed thousands of u.s. jobs that's according to their annual report and they've become more reliant at the same time on foreign workers think and see right there and i'm sorry david you can't see that but i'll try and care. right at the end of two thousand there were one hundred sixty eight thousand u.s. workers for g.e. and that was about fifty four percent of their workers and then it go to two thousand and ten the beginning of that year one hundred thirty four thousand g.e. workers in the u.s. and it dropped down to forty four percent of their workers so my question to you i have a feeling i know we're going to say but i want your analysis you know should someone like him not he's been touted by the administration to create jobs be walking the walk and does this show that he's not and that corporations don't really have the will to implement maybe some of the policies are calling for. you know these pulses they all sound nice and this sound like they're going to do good things but look at

their track record as you stated it's horrific you know or shortage of jihad zain any taxes i mean that was all about you know staff. well how about do you gain a dollar and i mean this. this is just absurd i mean how long are we going to keep all in for their propaganda and then i just thought and remain well the future is literally going up in flames economically it's a question i want to just point to a little bit more of g.e. track record and the track record of these corporations on obama's council because you mentioned offshoring you mentioned the g.e. has not paid taxes i think they paid zero for their corporate taxes this year a lot of has to do with tax havens with foreign investment we're taking our investments and investing in other countries and in fact if we can bring up this graphic showing g.e.'s foreign investment there reinvestment abroad is jump from forty seven billion dollars in two thousand and six to ninety four billion dollars

in two thousand and ten that is according to their disclosure filings and according to bloomberg study a lot of the corporations that are represented on this job commission represent similar trends their brand best abroad in an increase in us i'm curious with you does this kind of underscore the difference between corporate interests and national interests i think what the american people are really starting to understand is that these are our global corporations they have no loyalty to the american public you know those shortages show their best the money in emerging markets they are concerned globally they are a little concerned with the american middle class they see the american middle class as an obstacle to further profits. record breaking profits record breaking and so my question to you corporations are always going to be beholden to their shareholders to profit that is how. they operate but a popular view in the us is that the economy is spurred by private sector job

growth that the private sector is who need to get this going so my question is is the current economic system adequate to deal with today's challenges in the u.s. not a not for the larger population. or a very small percentage of the book was ok and really quickly could the solution be and having other countries invest in the u.s. we see idaho and their governor kind of blazing the trail asking chinese companies to come and invest in their projects there we see chinese companies being interested in a few different projects the fertilizer plant technology zone they're actually building some solar panels there five hundred people employed to do that traditionally we've seen a lot of resistance in the u.s. to allowing chinese companies to buy american companies do you think that we should be alarmed in the us of this or do you think that this is the solution. is part of the solution i mean i think this is you know you know will be centralised economic

forces that have grown way too large that what we need to do you centralize for going back to the local level and you know use the banks in the. local level do you centralize economic solutions that's the way to go so don't there china bring them in have them buy companies that was author and journalist david de graw with that analysis thanks so much. remember the case of oscar grant a twenty two year old unarmed man shot and killed by a cop back in two thousand and nine while laying facedown in an oakland train station well it's a dying protest now take a look at this. through. you're . right oh those protests going on yesterday and today and here is why the cop found guilty on the charge of involuntary manslaughter in grant's death was released he was released after serving just eleven months of his two year sentence now the officer to take you back he admitted to shooting grant he said

though that he thought it was his taser gun and as a result he was convicted of a lesser offense than the second degree murder charge the prosecutors were seeking now activists say they see this as a much bigger message a message to people of color that their lives don't mean anything and in this case the cop was white and oscar grant was black and also these activists are reportedly protesting because they think the criminal justice system gives lenient treatment to police officers who shoot and kill young black men now see because johnson is oscar grant's uncle and he joined us to talk about it i asked him person if he feels like justice has been served here's what he said. no justice have not been served. pay. you know what is important here that a mother has lost a son that she loved dearly daughter has lost the father she loved dearly and the author has lost the hug. and yet we have had our family destroyed.

because of johannes and the claim that he meant to pull his taser instead of his weapon it is obvious for us and people of color that that was not an accident that was intentional and that he has not been held accountable for that and now i want to ask you kind of touched on this a little bit but i know a lot of activists see that's not as just about the case of oscar grant but as a testament to the state of race relations and also criminal justice and justice in the case of police violence in this country i'm just curious how you being a family member see that it's about broader injustice then then gesture you're not you and what is that broader injustice. it is much broader than just you know he's brought light and has woken up the consciousness of the people in the community to

begin to really speak to this issue says nineteen seventy six to two thousand over two thousand five hundred seventy nine black and brown brahmin has been killed by police officers prior to mostly only six that actually been brought to trial trial one found guilty. upon murder and that was. the office that they killed mel is green in detroit that officer didn't receive any time now with leslie he was found guilty on the gun charge as well as involuntary manslaughter we don't accept the most a lot of charge reverted go they're going to housman we knew would bring our prison term so there was some accountability and some form of justice that we've felt when the jury came back what that verdict would judge robert perry the same judge that was going to wrap our case again did and showed just how races this criminal

criminal justice system is he took ben burtt it that the jury came back with it and decided that he was troubled by it and overturned it thereby reduce an r. word it's just involuntary manslaughter granted here on the phone call right to give you know two years send good time serve to serve less than eleven months that was as john said uncle of oscar grant and still ahead right here on our team three months after the earthquake and tsunami that brought japan through its needs radiation is still seething coming up r t is on the ground in fukushima city. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so. you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else here's some of the part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry this is the.

so. it would be low in. the retail that is where many people are still being told there are no she says she's a star. in

the wake of the fukushima nuclear disaster we've seen a lot of changes germany has announced it will shut down its nuclear plants by two thousand and twenty two only to realize this now means electricity costs will rise it looks like a referendum in italy may pass as well that would dash italy's plans for a big nuclear construction program and the debate over nuclear energy has been reignited in the united states as well where a new plant reportedly hasn't been built remember since the three mile island disaster back in seventy nine now as the discussion continues about nuclear energy three months after the explosion at a japanese plant artie's very own sean thomas traveled to fukushima city for the very latest on the ground even getting into the exclusion zone take a look. eighty kilometers away the radiation levels in this area in many many places in many instances. really close

because if you look at a map. a city is in relation to the actual nuclear facility plant number one where a lot of the radiation. from the winds are bringing that radiation into a city and the rain and wind is blowing in this direction so we were at a spot where the radiation levels were one thousand times what is considered to be a safe dosage. very very dangerous levels and so scientists so that we are working with. different universities are working together on projects to try to figure out ways to use a simple methods to actually clean that radiation up and these guys actually. our working could be the king family the soil right now. then as you can see the two gentlemen are wearing any clothing but the scientists are so one of the

concerns is that you can actually have one spot which is only thirty times with the exception of normal levels and then you go to another spot which is just a metre away and it can jump to five hundred to a thousand times depending on where rain water and mud have collected one of the concerns of course is that grass is could. filter for nuclear ready to be material and are drawn to grassy places when they go to those areas they could actually be absorbing more radiation from the grasses well so what's interesting is this area that we're in right now is considered a safe area it is not considered a mandatory evacuation area but authorities are looking into to see whether it should be considered evacuation or at least hotspots within the city should be evacuated because of these. if you will where the radiation is just off the charts and that was the very latest from our key correspondent sean thomas and that is thank you for now i want to start the coverage at our.