Tavis Smiley & Cornel West join us live in studio to talk about their poverty tour. They have joined forces to highlight what the politicians NEVER mention, but everyone sees: that the economic crisis has been a disaster for America’s middle class, and a catastrophe for minority neighborhoods, where economic depression has been the norm but has now deteriorated to a new low, with hunger as a daily threat. Smiley & West are going on a road trip to highlight the plight of the poor people of all races, colors, and creeds so they will not be forgotten, ignored, or rendered invisible during this difficult and dangerous time of economic deprivation and political cowardice.
Occupy Wall Street has blossomed – the 99% vs. 1% movement has spread to at least 853 Cities and towns and is no longer ignored by the mainstream media. The occupation is in its third week, and it is inspiring more and more Americans to join forces against the assault on their living standard, and to demand the political class pay attention. We’ll talk to activists in San Francisco and Los Angeles. You can follow the protest movement live or get minute by minute updates on various sites, including The Guardian, or here. For more news and a calendar for NY events see these sources: OWS Live and The Occupy Wall Street Press.
Allan Sekula, artist, writer and photography theoretician who teaches at Cal Arts joins us to talk about the film The Forgotten Space that he directed with Noël Burch which won the Special Jury Prize at the Orizzonti Competition in Venice. It premieres tomorrow, October 8,at LACMA's Bing Theatre. The film is about the global maritime economy, the "supply chain," and the economic crisis. “The Forgotten Space,” based on Sekula’s Fish Story, follows container cargo aboard ships, barges, trains and trucks, listening to workers, engineers, planners, politicians, and those marginalized by the global transport system. They call this global supply chain the biggest seagoing disaster, leading the world economy perhaps in a more fundamental way than financial speculation to the abyss. They visit displaced farmers and villagers in Holland and Belgium, underpaid truck drivers in Los Angeles, seafarers aboard mega-ships shuttling between Asia and Europe, and factory workers in China, whose low wages they say are the fragile key to the whole puzzle.
