Between The Lines - Ann Wright: Occupy Wall Street One-Year Anniversary (Week Ending Sept. 28, 2012)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

Counterpoint in its entirety is archived after midnight ET Monday nights, and is available for at least a year following broadcast in WPKN Radio's Archives.

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On 1st Anniversary of Occupy Wall Street Movement, Activists Block Business as Usual in New York's Financial District

RealAudio MP3

Posted Sept. 19, 2012

Interview with Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army colonel, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

An estimated 1,000 activists gathered Sept. 17 in lower Manhattan to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, which first began with a handful of protesters camping out in Zuccotti Park, not far from the New York Stock Exchange. Within a few months, the New York City protest had blossomed into a global movement against economic inequality and unchecked corporate power, with occupations in more than 600 communities in the U.S. and nearly 100 abroad.

Those involved in Occupy are fighting for a bottom-up, egalitarian society where the goal is not profit but community. Marking the anniversary activists, snaked through the streets of the financial district, engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience to block business as usual. At the end of the day, police had arrested 185. Throughout the evening of Sept. 17, activists rallied in several city parks to discuss next steps for the movement, which many in the corporate media have declared dead.

Just as the actions were getting underway on Sept. 17, Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with peace activist Ann Wright about her views of the Occupy movement. Wright was a retired U.S. Army colonel and an active duty diplomat when she resigned her post in 2003 to protest the war in Iraq. She now works with many activist groups, including Veterans for Peace and CODE Pink Women for Peace. Here, she discusses the dilemma Occupy activists have grappled with holding public space, the relevance of electoral politics and the issues of U.S. foreign policy and war and peace.

ANN WRIGHT: It's great to get all sorts of people back together again, where a year ago a movement was started to challenge the economic system of the U.S. – the graft and corruption of Wall Street. I'm pleased to be back here. Over the course of the year, I visited 35 Occupies all over the country on my speaking tours about U.S. foreign policy. It's a wonderful group of people in virtually every community in the country who want to challenge this system that we have that the rich get richer and the poor drown.

BETWEEN THE LINES: So, when you visited these places...what did you find? I'm from New Haven and we had an occupation that lasted six months on the New Haven Green, and, unfortunately, it really turned into just holding the ground, and people were doing that and they weren't doing much outreach in the community and they really, unfortunately, alienated a lot of people that had started out supporting them. They said, "Well, what are you doing?"

ANN WRIGHT: I think that's one of the challenges of all the Occupies, where holding the ground became the focal point rather than continuing working the issues. The good movements that have been around, they didn't let the fact that the cops threw them out, the city council said, "Tear down these stinky little tents," they just said, "Forget it. The ground is not important. It's what we're doing with all these new people who have come out to be citizen activists. And I think in every city, it was the same way; it became a focus of holding a spot like Zuccotti, and it became also a magnet for people who are really suffering under the system – the homeless, those who aren't getting drug treatment. They knew they could get some food, they could get some protection, because people were protecting the less fortunate. But it then became ... that took up so much time of many of the organizers that getting out into the community to do community education on a variety of topics sometimes didn't get done. But now we're here a year later, we understand that holding ground is not the most important thing, but it's the community outreach. It's going to foreclosure court hearings to try to get the courts to stop these foreclosures. It's to try to hold accountable Bank of America and all these big banks for predatory lending practices; it's to challenge NDAA – the National Defense Authorization Act, where the right-wingers of both the Republican and Democratic parties slipped in this horrific legislation that means essentially that the U.S. military can detain and hold any American citizen on American soil (indefinitely). Those are the things we really need to be focusing on.

BETWEEN THE LINES: One other thing, in terms of the work you've been dedicated to, the anti-war work. It seems you don't hear much about that around Occupy.

ANN WRIGHT: Yeah, the anti-war part of it was not the real focus of the initial part, but as anti-war people were a part of Occupy, they kept talking about how the economic system is protecting the military-industrial complex, and that huge chunks of our money that should be going to social justice issues are being sucked up by military stuff. That I think has been woven more into it now, but by far the overwhelming look from Occupy was, as its name implies, Wall Street, and the horrible abuses it's been able to get away with.

BETWEEN THE LINES: What do you think about the fact that the Tea Party was able to elect 87 freshman members of Congress two years ago and they're looking to get more in now, and except for maybe Elizabeth Warren, there seems to be a real disconnect between Occupy groups and electoral politics, like they don't believe in electoral politics almost. Do you think that's a problem?

ANN WRIGHT: Well, yeah, if you want political change through the current system that we have, then the Tea Party model of getting big bucks – you get a lot of big, rich Republicans to give a lot of money to an organization, in this case called the Tea Party, that's been divvied out to candidates that are running, so they really have a ready-made political organization that they just hop right into. Whereas this is definitely a grassroots movement that – thank God – does not have any big political backers. Very specifically they've told the Democratic Party to take a hike as they've told the Republican Party. It’s not interested in getting involved in [electoral] politics. It’s interested in raising Cain about the issues, and leaving it to whomever else wants to pick up the political side of it. You see the Green Party that I think is stronger this year; you see the Peace and Justice Party that's now formed that Rocky Anderson [former mayor of Salt Lake City] is the presidential candidate. But most people from Occupy Wall Street say, "I don't want to be a part of that." And there are plenty of Americans who can pick that thing up, and we don’t have to do it all. And we see that sometimes motivation and enthusiasm by those who aren't doing anything, it's hard to get them to do something, so that part hasn't moved very far. But it's not up to these people to do it; they shouldn't have to do everything. Anybody who thinks the system ought to change, you need to pick out your part of this thing and start working on it.

Learn more about the Occupy Wall Street Movement by visiting OccupyWallst.org and Occupytogether.org