Chinese Democracy Activist Wang Dan's UCI Lecture

To kick off our new summer season, on our June 19, 2006 show, we aired the lecture given last month (May 25, 2006) at UC Irvine by Chinese democracy activist Wang Dan.

Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Democracy in the School of Social Sciences at UC Irvine, Wang Dan spoke on "Rethinking the Past and Looking to the Future of China."

Wang Dang was a student leader during the June 4, 1989, Tianmen Square student uprising. Wang is now a Ph.D. candidate in history at Harvard University. To hear the audio of the show with Wang Dan's talk and Q&A, click here: .

Prof. Walden Bello on Globalization in Crisis

On our June 12 show, we aired a lecture given by Walden Bello, a visiting professor in the UCI Sociology Department, on Globalization in Crisis. He's a leading anti-globalization advocate. His talk was part of the UCI Difficult Dialogues project.

To hear the audio of the show with Walden Bello's talk, , click here: .

Labor Struggles at UCI

On the second part of our June 5, 2006 show, we talked with three student activists with the UC Irvine Worker-Student Alliance, who are pressuring the University to hire, in-house, lanscaping and grounds workers. We talked with Fernando Chirino, a 5th year English/Sociology double-major. He is active with MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan), the Worker-Student Alliance, and Students for Peace and Justice. He is also the Grass Roots Organizing Commissioner for ASUCI.

We also chatted with Azael Prendez, a 5th year Sociology major. He is also active with MEChA, Students for Peace and Justice, and the Worker-Student Alliance. He and Chirino co-authored a report (http://www.ocorganizer.com/html/uci_report.html) on the hidden costs of outsourcing of some of the UCI labor force.

In addition we talked with Rachel Vo, a 4th year Sociology major. She is also active with Students for Peace and Justice and the Worker-Student Alliance.

See the press release.

To hear the audio of part 2 of the show, labor struggles at UCI, click here: .

RCP's leader Bob Avakian's book, From Ike to Mao Reviewed

On the first part of our June 5, 2006 show, we talked with three people who were impacted by Revolutionary Communist Party chairman Bob Avakian's memoir, From Ike to Mao.

Wilson Riles is president of Oakland Community Action Network and a former regional director of the AFSC (Quakers), a former Oakland City Councilman and political activist.

Lucia Marano is an actor/writer producer now based in Los Angeles. She has played playing Tina Modotti and Frida Kahlo in "Artists and Revolutionaries," "Anger Mis-Management," "Love & Secrecy Unveiled," and has toured the play "Deseo" with Mexican theater ensemble Mexicali a Secas at theater venues in Mexican cities. She also appeared in a site-specific work commissioned by Los Angeles County's MTA, "Return Engagement," which depicted union organizing efforts in the 30's and 40's. She has appeared on TV, notably in Sidney Lumet's "100 Centre Street" for A&E, and in independent films "Roscoe's Chicken & Waffle House," "Journey to The Sun" (Turkey), "Flushed" and "Manhattan By Numbers."

Heriberto Ocasio is a political activist and a medical doctor. He was part of the Puerto Rican liberation struggles of the 60's and 70's and the protests against the war in Vietnam. In 1982, during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, he traveled to Beirut and did volunteer medical work in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila. He has been the spokesperson for the Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru and in 1992 was part of an international delegation that traveled to Lima to denounce the trial of Peruvian revolutionary leader Abimael Guzman by hooded military judges of the notorious Fujimori regime. He is currently active in the Engage! Committee to Promote and Protect the Voice of Bob Avakian.

See the press release.

To hear the audio of part 1 of the show, the discussion of Bob Avakian's book, click here: .

Audio of Avakian reading from the book, a clip of which on the Free Speech Movement was aired on the show, is available at http://www.bobavakian.net/.

Memorial Day Special: Testimony on Bush War Crimes

For our Memorial Day special aired on May 29, 2006, we air more testimony before the International Commission of Inquiry On Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration, to memorialize the victims, rather than the perpetrators, of U.S. war crimes. We thank the commission organizers for permission to use these segments.

To hear the audio of the show, click here: .

CSU Prof. As'ad AbuKhalil on "The Islam Factor in Western Popular Cultures"

On our May 15 2006 show, we aired the talk given April 19, 2006 at UC Irvine by Cal State Stanislaus Political Scientist As'ad AbuKhalil, "The Islam Factor in Western Popular Cultures: Beyond the Danish Cartoons." This talk was part of the Ford Foundation-funded Difficult Dialogues series.

Co-Sponsors were: The Working Group/Center for Middle East and African Studies, the Department of Political Science, the UCI Difficult Dialogues Project, the Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies, the International Studies Program, the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding, the Program in Women's Studies, and the Middle East Studies Student Initiative.

To hear the audio of the show, click here: .

To hear an interview with AdubKhalil by Subversity's show host Daniel C. Tsang for the UCI's Difficult Dialogues project, click here: .

UCI Prof. Gilbert G. Gonzalez on Mexican Labor Migration and U.S. Capital

On May Day (Monday, 1 May, 2006), when thousands of immigrants, documented and undocumented, and their allies, are expected to boycott classes and their jobs, to show the contribution people from outside U.S. make to the U.S. economy and society, Subversity, a KUCI public affairs program presented a conversation with UCI Prof. Gilbert G. Gonzalez on the historical antecedents of the immigration issue.

Prof. Gonzalez is the author of numerous scholarly tomes including "Guest workers or colonized labor?: Mexican labor migration to the United States (2006)," "Culture of empire : American writers, Mexico, and Mexican immigrants, 1880-1930 (2004)," "A Century of Chicano history: empire, nations, and migration (with Prof. Raul Fernandez, 2003) and "Labor and community: Mexican citrus worker villages in a Southern California county, 1900-1950." He teaches in the Chicano/Latino Studies program at UCI's School of Social Sciences.

See press release for further background information.

To hear the audio of the show, click here: .

To hear the edited version of the audio of the show, without the fund drive references etc.,

click here: .