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(05 Mar) 120301 120301 Jodie Evans - Disturbing Power the CODEPINK Way Rocking the boat is never an easy task but you can accomplish meaningful things and have some fun along the way. Playing ball with the rich and powerful of course has its rewards. You're in the golden rolodex. You get invited to all the right parties. People nod at you when you enter a room. Your name gives you entrée to inner circles. In politics the president or the secretary of state may even smile at you and call you by your given name. But all of that adds up to what exactly? Not much. That kind of fame is fleeting. Better to shake things up and fight for human rights and justice. Even if you don't succeed every time you can look in the mirror and feel good about yourself. Jodie Evans is a veteran activist with 30 years experience in organizing for social change. She co-founded Code Pink with the well-known human rights activist Medea Benjamin. They've also edited the recent book Stop The Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism. (12 Mar) 120302 Arundhati Roy - With the Mayoists in India While China uses Chairman Mao as a figurehead it has embraced a kind of capitalism. But Maoists in India? Yes. Not only there but also in neighboring Nepal where they overthrew the age-old monarchy. But the Maoists main stage is in India. A cascade of grievances has produced various revolts across the country. One of the largest is in central India straddling several states but centered in Chhattisgarh. It is Maoist. That term is used as well as Naxalite. What do they want? They declare their aim is "to build a truly democratic society built on justice, equality, free from the chains of imperialism and semi-feudal bondage." And to achieve that through "guerilla war." Will capitalism in India or anywhere else for that matter, tolerate societies living outside its control? Arundhati Roy is the celebrated author of The God of Small Things and winner of the prestigious Booker Prize. The New York Times calls her, "India's most impassioned critic of globalization and American influence." She is the recipient of the Lannan Award for Cultural Freedom. She's the author of many books including The Checkbook & the Cruise Missile, Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers, and Walking with the Comrades. (19 Mar) 120303 David Korten - Wall Street or the Common Good The Occupy Wall Street movement is growing. Mumia Abu-Jamal from his jail cell writes: "In Lower Manhattan's Zucotti Park, renamed 'Liberty Square' by the demonstrators, the cast of thousands swell in rebellion against the betrayals by the banks, Wall Street's relentless greed, the plague of joblessness and the craven servility of the political class, both Republicans and Democrats, to their moneyed masters. In short, the central focus of their protest is capitalism, greed writ large. Begun mostly by unemployed urban youth, it has drawn the presence and support of public workers, students, teachers and a considerable number of gray hairs. That's because social discontent is so widespread that it is spreading like wildfire. From Wall Street to Denver, Los Angeles, and beyond. Demonstrations are springing up like mushrooms after a storm, in protest to crony capitalism." David Korten was an insider in the development establishment for several decades. He worked for the Ford Foundation and USAID and taught at Harvard University's Graduate School of Business. Having severed his ties to the past, today he is a leading voice for economic and social justice. He is co-founder and board chair of YES! magazine. He is the author of When Corporations Rule the World and The Great Turning. His latest book is Agenda for a New Economy. (26 Mar) 120304 Richard Wolff - Capitalism Hits the Fan Like that well known substance, Capitalism has hit the fan. The statistics are numbing and do not convey the suffering and trauma citizens are enduring. Gone up in smoke are their savings, pensions, homes and jobs. Poverty is at record levels. For too many, dreams and hopes are shattered. And like the Howard Beale character in the movie "Network," people are yelling, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore." Occupy Wall Street has gone global. People are in the streets pushing back and saying, Enough. "We are the 99%." There is widespread recognition that the economic crash is not just the result of greed and arrogance and lax regulation. There are deeper structural problems with a system that always prioritizes profits over people. The question is what should replace it? Richard Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and currently a visiting professor at the New School in New York. He is the author of numerous books on economics including Capitalism Hits the Fan.