and london ontario as well as a lot of other places the workers in london ontario were making about thirty dollars an hour and the company one of them cut their wages in half i mean you know magic somebody comes in ash ask you to cut your income in half that's a life changing experience. they ask them to cut their wages in half they walk the workers out and then they decided they were going to move the. to right to work indiana for half the wages and you know they put out advertisements for managers that were experienced in university and union three cultures so lose this this experience where you know i've taught a lot of canadian workers where american workers you know are now becoming the new mexico for canada new mexico for a lot of europe which is quickly becoming the labor laws are so weak you on the flip side of this though mike i mean for anyone who watched daniel speak after the state of the union and said this very thing but set it in a very positive term for people who are out of work and watching us right now saying you know what i wouldn't mind making fifteen dollars an hour because i've

been making nothing for the last year you know what's sort of the insight that you lend to those people who have been out of work who are very excited about the prospect of working out a manufacturing plant in indiana or other places that maybe right to work. you know because it is a job yeah i mean sure that's that's the big problem is that there's so many people that are willing to do that or willing to go in and scab on other people like that that are so desperate that they're willing to go in and do that kind of work you know what was really interesting is last month they announced that you know jobs had grown and you know one employment it got down to seven point eight percent or so was two hundred forty three whose job it was eight only to a point three down yeah a point that unemployment was going down dramatically but the more telling statistic was that real wages have gone down by two percent in the last year so while jobs are increasing it's having an effect on wages and that's the rate front so when it's at our destination fast food. and lower even more for less reduced

yeah and i think the lesson of one is you know the only way you're going to will stop that reach to the bottom is have everybody been sitting in a kind of solidarity and i think that's the real lesson of the sit down strike and that's the guy that i interviewed that you saw in that report sean crawford really interesting because he has so many ties to the flint sit down strike and he today is a number of the united auto workers union works you know long days on the assembly line and he said that. one of the problems that he sees is he doesn't see that kind of solidarity happening today because of what you call you know the desperation that we see and you know what's it going to take for that kind of same cohesiveness to happen again with the large numbers that we saw seventy five years ago why he gets already starting to happen i think that's the great thing about occupy is that you know it's it's sort of like a training camp and people sort of come together and they've learned that you know people collectively can take action and you can really start changing the dialogue

but in the last couple weeks there's been a number of organizing victories a cablevision in new york jean kansas city and the big common to nomination seems that folks are just at a point where they've had enough where they can't cut their budgets and where they can't cut their wages anymore they can't do that and folks i think are starting to fight back because of that but what about i mean what we're seeing right now twenty twelve is going to be a big year especially as you know i was asleep i guess today a lot of talk about the different ideas that republicans and democrats have about unions and you know this is going to be on the forefront of discussion for the next few months right to work versus non right to work states. you know what what needs to happen just now. well i think what needs to happen now for the labor movement is to clearly articulate its positions on these issues and right to work sounds like a nice term you know you get a rate greater job but it's you know you basically have a union representing you and you asked to pay a tax you know we have republicans in congress i stuff to pay my taxes i mean this

is a basic concept so it sounds like a nice phrase and it's going to be batted around but you know what i found really interesting was that mitch daniels and a sponsor the stated you know didn't mention the right to work legislation even though there were protesters outside of the building where he was speaking he didn't mention it at all and so the were the attack on workers even if you look at the coverage in the end i got compared to wisconsin and other things is slowly diminishing as everybody gets into this horse reeks of politics and it's really it's really quite scary when you look around in your coverage and the work that you've done what are the states that you see that are the most promising in terms of making headway on this. god it's pretty bad all over again i mean i think you know there's a lot of interesting organizing going on in a lot of different places. and there's also a lot of organizing that's not being done properly and no organizing at all i mean there's going to be a lot of big fights i mean right to work probably going to be on the ballot in minnesota this this fall and you know this could be a lot of big battles biggest take away from the flint sit down strike i think the

biggest is that. you know occupy is great in a lot of ways it makes a political message but in order to really hurt companies you have to hurt their profits and that's what the flint sit down straight was able to do when i was talking to an occupy a member who couple guys got inspired to go into a call center and they decided to get hired there just to unionize it and then to you know you move beyond just political messaging and it's actually hurting somebody bottom line through organizing and going on strike you're not really going to make much headway in terms of changing things yeah i thought it was really interesting they targeted two factories that made you know a certain part that was not made anywhere else and that part's not made everything stop so interesting stuff a little historic history for this friday labor journalist michaela always good to have you thanks so much well it's talk about an increasing problem in this country related to tough economic times and unemployment rate above eight percent and the decision having to be made by so many americans about where to cut back now in many

cases they're forced to cut back on what and when they eat and according to presidential candidate newt gingrich this is a decision they are making in large part because of president obama president obama he's the most effective president in american history the fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by a bronco bamma than any president in american history. as we know though there are many reasons people go on food stamps that we don't have to get into right now but i do want to talk about who is on food stamps and a lot of cases it's people who had good jobs and stable families never imagined they'd be in this place today one of those people is christopher cook a journalist who ran into some tough times and has documented his struggles and his decision to apply for food stamps chris koch is also the author of diet for a dead planet big business and the coming food prep crisis in our last hour he spoke candidly about his experience when he finally realized he had to turn to

government assistance take a listen. i will thanks for having me on. i have known for quite some time given my own personal situation that i was sliding closer and closer toward a very precarious situation financially. and this is again a more structural long term issue both for writers and journalists in america increasingly who are squeezed out of the industry now out of the economy to of course for a growing number of americans we now it's like forty six million plus americans on food stamps today. in my own case which is not unusual at all. you know you for your income doesn't match your costs and costs down they always go up. income has remained fixed. or gone down in real dollars for myself in american and you know you at

a certain point you realize that help. you know what about these attacks that we've seen from the right i mean you know we just saw this thing from newt gingrich also sean hannity on fox news he says you know i'm like people with the quote entitlements nine minds that he'd never want to go on food stamps do you chris have the entitlement mindset. absolutely not but i think that at the same time you know i think that whole word in the whole framing of that is really problematic. you know we don't talk about military spending as an entitlement and the people there's so much both from the political leaders. mainly republican been but many democrats too and many ordinary americans have of ignorance and judgment about the situation that people are in when they go in through the stamps people not just myself people who are who are much less fortunate. who find themselves with absolutely nowhere

else to turn no saving rear no family support network support network and you that i'd like to see some of these politicians and i don't know. what they would do if in this situation you know i ran this income calculus was on the web about mitt romney's income compared to mine and it's both sad and funny i mean it would take a mitt romney somewhere around six hours hours to earn what i earn in a year and at the same time it would take me about fourteen hundred forty four years and some change to make what he meant wow so there is and it's just remarkable i don't i don't want to make i don't need to make what he makes yeah that's interesting when you when you put it in those terms certainly different regions of this country face different issues but i want to focus for one second about what's on what's happening in alabama now under a new immigration law some u.s. born children with parents who are illegal immigrants these children have been

denied food stamps even though the food stamps are for the children who are citizens talk a little bit about that issue that we're seeing right now. it's incredible i mean it's the same it's the same political vein that goes about blaming people who are at the very bottom and create an income you know states across the u.s. where there's some openings the attacks on immigrants children of immigrants welfare recipients food stamp recipients remarkable because you know all these people are at the very economic bottom of society and the actual factual reality is that they work incredibly hard just to survive and in the case of immigrants especially not immigrants who are at the bottom because they do some of the toughest dirtiest jobs that nobody else seems to want to do or is going to do they do them for rock bottom wages which is why many. go on food stamps not just unemployed people and at the same time you know they pay their taxes. you know

their money goes directly into the economy the same way there's this whole judgement about emphasis it's throwing away money you know this is actually in the a direct economics you know i get and others get the food stamp payments and they may go into the food retail sector and so this creates or enables pains jobs in the food retail sector i'm not saying we should all be on food stamps things that there are a vital basics for people just to get by until they can do something you know them and be a little better off financially more stable and they feed the economy in a direct way and you know in the case of them i mean they're constantly there's no other word for it they're just being scapegoated for a much larger economic crisis and is certainly interesting when you look at the alternative which is letting people go hungry interesting discussion that christopher cox author of diet for

a dad planet. well that's going to do it for now but for more on the stories we covered go to our team dot com slash usa or you tube dot com slash r t america you can also follow me on twitter at christine. download the official allocation to your i phone on i pod touch from the.

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below in a welcome to cross talk on people about the fate of and the battle for syria the international community is as divided as the syrians themselves when it comes to resolving a situation that looks like a civil war with every passing day should there be an international intervention to stop the violence or would doing so make the situation even worse. and you can. start. to cross out the future of syria i'm joined by james carafano in washington he is the director of the heritage foundation's allison center for foreign policy studies in amsterdam we have nick autons he is editor of the atlantic sentinel and a special correspondent for the soul times and in. los angeles we have james morris he's a political analyst commentator and editor of america hijacked dot com all right

gentlemen crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want jim i'd like to go to you first it seems like western powers have an agenda here they want to get rid of assad but they want to stop the killing as well aren't they mutually contradictory well this is a common problem we have seen this over and over again around the world we've seen it in libya just recently but you have to remember we had a similar situation in liberia we've had a longstanding problem in the sudan so in a sense it's not a new problem i'm not really sure of the world is that i think generally people agree that the syrian government has been excessive in its use of force and constructive so i do think in a sense there is yet unanimity and the people think what this government is doing is wrong ok what do you think about that james in los angeles here because we have kind of a new situation right now the u.n. security council didn't vote for the any kind of intervention the removal of assad is a precondition to move forward here so we kind of have a deadlock obviously i mean what what's the next move here because we're going to

get a coalition of the willing that will just go its own way like the west dating led by the united states into iraq. well peter thank you for having me on crosstalk what you have here in the middle east basically is an ongoing situation where we're fighting wars for israel and you have a divide and conquer that gender that goes back to the israeli look could make boated you known he had a paper readied written a strategy for israel in the one nine hundred eighty s. and that's what these neo conservatives are following my good friend dr stephen snow gossipy haddad's has written about this in a book his book titled the transparent kobol and what we have are these neo conservatives which are the vanguard of the pro israel lobby in washington and they've started with iraq and they wanted to basically divide and conquer israel's enemies they base that iraq conflict an invasion on the clean break agenda gins of the jewish institute for national security affairs which colin powell had mentioned was in control of the pentagon if you look at the washington post editor karen de

young biographical book about him you can look up jones in the index people like richard perle who are associated with. douglas feith david wurmser and they all pushed for this invasion to secure the room for israel and it was based on the couldn't it go to you know and divide and conquer when i would say this is james and james are in the well but can you answer my question do you think that now if we look at the the not the libyan president but the iraq president that the united states and its allies in nato may try going it alone having a coalition of the willing and just bypassing the united nations because there won't be a u.n. resolution supporting any kind of intervention. well what i think will happen here peters you're going to have basically joe lieberman who's also part of the proposal lobby a pact american israel public affairs committee and similar and also senator john mccain has been a neo con hawk as well basically a mouthpiece for the neoconservatives i think the next step will be open arming the you know we have we've had arming of the rebels covertly coming in from turkey

a former cia field officer and friend of mine field role is written about that i think you're going to basically see a call now for the rebels to be armed in syria and they going to try to engage the syrian regime or the endgame of this for the neoconservatives in the rest of the pros are a lot b. is a take down that syrian regime before we go to war with iran for israel ok that's in the autumn why ok now and so i let me i don't know for sure you know and i'm going to make an answer damn here i mean it i find it very interesting is that i don't think i'll agree with jim and in washington d.c. i don't think there's any love lost for this regime in damascus here but i think there are some countries important country in the world they're worried about what's going to happen afterward just because assad leaves let's say apparent that equally it doesn't mean it's the violence is going to necessarily stop it actually could get worse yes actually i think everyone worries about what happens next in syria and which is why the russians and the chinese in particular they don't want

to see the regime gone necessarily but to answer your question. i don't think that the united states and western powers nor israel particularly want to intervene in syria exactly because they fear what comes next we have a very unclear understanding of what's happening on the ground. in fathers because the syrian regime limits international media entrance into syria. i don't think we know what they're getting ourselves into. if we were. the libya scenario it's very interesting you mention that jim if i can go back to you in washington it seems to me that we could have the possibility of a partition of syria well because i think a lot of people seem to forget that seventy percent of the country is sunni and the alawite so i'm with in damascus supporting the current regime i mean there is no love lost between them either could you potentially see a partition there like this and they're selling necessarily mean it's good for anybody in the region or israel or any other country in the neighbors syria. well i

think i think those are all very good concerns and questions actually if you go back and look at iraq and say two thousand and five and two thousand and six and the problems that you saw come to the surface what happens when you take away a government which really doesn't provide much governance other than oppressing its own people we have deep sectarian divides we have all kinds of other divides we have a democrat sions when you have access from transnational terrorist groups when you take that away you get iraq and in two thousand and five the two thousand and six syria would essentially be iraq in a very small place it would be a very very difficult and problematic situation and i think that's why. people talk about this but i don't think anybody has a real appetite to go in there i must tell you i think from the u.s. perspective although the u.s. has interests in how things turn out in syria i don't believe you should only use force when it's in your vital national interest and i don't think that the u.s. has a vital national interest that would that would justify u.s. and u.s.

military intervention we have. there are four countries that border this country which are very important. iraq israel and turkey we have very good relations with those countries turkey iraq and israel they have very vested interests in a solution that doesn't make that part of the world worse i think primarily what u.s. policy be doing is working with those three countries working on getting them on a common agenda and doing what is best possible for the region and for the people of syria but i think this discussion about a direct military intervention by a coalition of the willing is premature and and again very likely to lead to a really really difficult situation that make things look like somalia and other countries are just bad and i just remind people you know the closest we've had to this is bosnia and if you remember about the one thing about the european intervention in bosnia the europeans went in basically after the killing stop. i

mean after the worst genocide was over after the sides had had split off and after everybody was exhausted then they went in and going in on the front ends a very difficult and very different scenario very interesting james if i go to you in los angeles it already appears that the the united states and its allies in one degree or another in some of these countries are more directly involved have chosen the what's called the opposition there are a mixed group of people here whose agenda is not particularly clear and if i may have said that assad has to go it's ratcheting things up you can't turn around and say now all he can stay ok i mean do you think this is one of the fundamental mistakes had been made in dealing with syria because they they start from the wish the most important thing they want and then they work down instead of the other way around and jim pointed out and in washington very good point you know this is the bosnian situation in reverse yeah but you also have to look at peter what's happening with all this we had we have a genuine situation in syria we do have ethnic strife i mean you've got the alawite

it's in control of scholl assad and you've got the sunni with the muslim brotherhood and then you've obviously got christians and whatnot and there are sectarian groups there that actually you know nobody believes in dictatorship i certainly don't i'd like to see democracy there as well but there are many sects there are at least several six there that are comfortable with the status quo and there they feel very strengthened if that regime is overthrown but let me draw you to a website the passionate attachment dot com and there's a post there at the top and it's titled this role lobbies role in pushing for regime change in syria i think it's very important and you can also go to the web site that many of my c.-span and similar calls appear neo-cons honest right dot com it's very important to de-stress who's pushing this who's encouraging i'm not saying who started it from the beginning what not or per se but who's encouraging this and again it's the pro israel lobby in america through its components such as you know the ned the national endowment for democracy you've got a former a.d.l.

researcher there karl. gershman huisentruit roll that again go to that post israel lobby's role in pushing for regime change in syria let's look at the target it's not about dot com let's talk about israel nick do you do you see that the israelis have a huge interest in seeing the assad regime go down because i find that a bit dubious i mean they preferred that to deal with the devils that they know ok they liked working with the they like you language i mean let me finish a question they liked working with a mubarak in egypt because he was he was the devil that they knew go ahead nick what do you think absolutely and look at the situation in egypt now the israelis absolutely not very happy about this they don't know what's going to happen they don't know if israel if egypt below its base to to hit israel and afraid and for good reason that if assad goes and syria and there is a sunni dominated government there's really more aggressive toward israel and will probably continue to support hamas in the palestinian territories so so i don't buy

this argument that the israeli lobby in the united states is pushing for regime change in damascus what do you think about the actual nic nic you've got. you've got to look at nic you've got to look and you've got to look in the james bamford's a pretext for war book then and what he talks about with the clean break agenda that was our co-author eyes by three leading sponsor of the of the of the iraq intervention richard perle douglas feith and david wurmser i'm not saying everybody bill in israel believes this i'm talking about le could next that are following this you know and strategy like i said it was it was time of the strategy for is wrong the one nine hundred eighty s. and that's what these neoconservative warmongers are pushing now i agree with peter it's not necessarily a favorable situation if you thought if you topple assad because you could get the muslim brothers or the gentle hand here we're going to we're all going to a short break and after that short break we'll continue our discussion on the unrest in syria state with our.

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see. can you. come across a computer about remind you we're talking about the unrest in syria. but

go back to jim in a while in washington d.c. with the failed u.n. security council resolution jim what do you think the possibility is now on am very hypothetical again that we can we will see some kind of settlement on the ground instead of outside elements playing a role i mean does this give an impetus now i know the violence is horrific there but does it give it a new impetus to have the parties sit down somehow the russians are trying to mediate and we can see where that will go you know if there isn't hopefully i don't like to see an international solution with the use of force but is it telling the syrians that you have to start drawing lines and you have to start talking because every conflict is resolved with negotiations eventually. well i will make a prediction and i do take in this situation what's going to drive advances the internal events within syria as opposed to the extra pressure syria is in libya. is kind of the end of the world nobody really cared about his regime he was very

isolated syria's very different syria's very good ties with syria they have good ties with iran they have access to the rest of the world so they're not completely isolated regime they can hang on and they and they have proven determination hang on last time an uprising like this of ten thousand people were killed and we i think estimates are about half that now so you know the regime may just hang on and crush everything else the regime may collapse and they devolve into civil war but my guess is it's internal events inside the country that are going to drive the future and the decision that the regime makes and the opposition makes and of course that's very complicated because that's a dynamic relationship neither one of them is and an actor but they're going to determine the future of this country much more than the rest of us are standing on the sidelines that's why i really think with what the rest of us are standing on the sidelines with the united states and other countries should be doing is.