And he did it with Ukraine he's a serial solicitor the House is expected to vote on the impeachment articles next week that would send them to the Senate for a 2020 trial Green Peace activists scaled one of the European Union's main buildings in Brussels and unfurled a huge banner warning of a climate emergency the action took place hours before leaders from the e.u. Nations gather to discuss a European Union Green New Deal the e.u. Leaders will debate ways for the 28 nation bloc to become carbon neutral by 2050 European Commission vice president funds Timmerman said achieving that goal will require systemic change you can't just change a few things and turn knobs and to make sure that you get where you are we really need to rethink the way economies organize our societies organize we have to look at all elements of our economy our industry our agriculture our transport systems the way we build the way. We organize our agriculture the way we move around Europe and in the world a large majority of European Union members have committed to the goal but Poland the Czech Republic and Hungary have not there are fewer than 72 hours left to reach a deal at the end our national climate talks in Madrid on key measures to address the climate emergency world leaders agreed in Paris 4 years ago to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius and ideally no more than one and a half degrees at $2.00 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century scientists say both of those goals will be missed by a wide margin unless drastic steps are taken to begin cutting greenhouse gas emissions next year Swedish teenage climate activists credit tune Berg laid out the science in a speech to the conference then asked those present what they plan to do about it so please tell me. How do you react to these numbers without feeling at least some level of panic. How do you respond to the fact that basically nothing is being done about this without feeling the slightest bit of anger. And how do you communicate face without sounding and honest I would really like to know . President trying today said it's ridiculous that Time magazine named gratitude Berg as its Person of the year the president tweeted quote Gretta must work on her anger management problem then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend Trump added chill Gretta chill Algeria's pro-democracy movement is boycotting today's presidential elections they call it a sham and say none of the 5 candidates deserves to be elected because they all have ties to the former corrupt government British voters are going to the polls in a rare December a parliamentary election dominated by the issue of Bracks it the contest pits prime minister Boris Johnson he says he'll take Britain out of the European Union by January 31st against opposition leader Jeremy Corbin who promises another referendum on BRICs it Corben is also warning that electing John said could lead to dismantling of the nation's National Health Service Israel's parliament failed to meet a midnight deadline to form a coalition government triggering an unprecedented 3rd election in a 12 month period students and faculty at San Francisco City College are expected to turn out for this afternoon's the board of trustees meeting they oppose the administration's plan to cut $289.00 more classes on top of $455.00 eliminated last year the class cuts are aimed at reducing C.C.'s deficit the administration plan would eliminate 90 percent of course offerings in the older adults program 40. And eventually hearing classes and dozens more are ethnic and social studies classes supervisor Gordon Moore has directed the city attorney to draft a plan to restore and expand his city fun permanently setting aside money for San Francisco city college programs and classes me as shot reports according to the administration these are necessary cuts that will balance the budget following a new $13100000.00 deficit expressing frustration with the administration's spending priorities the Higher Education Action Team is calling for an independent audit of c.c.s. F. Bombs a part time political science instructor at City College we are calling today for a full and independent audit for example just a couple months ago they tried to sneak through them pay increase for the administrators they did it secretly for some of that would've been as much as a $100000.00 per person at a time that they're claiming we have a deficit that's so massive that it requires a cutting of numerous classes and a statement Chancellor justified the races saying it was quote essential for the retention and recruitment of the best people alongside 4 supervisors the f.t. 2121 faculty Union and the Higher Education Action Team are requesting a one time appropriation of $2700000.00 to restore cancel classes giving stakeholders more time to work out budget and political solutions however Chancellor wrote to the Board of Supervisors in opposition to the funding saying the cuts are part of a long term restructuring plan for k p f a news I mean weather forecast for the San Francisco Bay Area chance of rain on and off today breezy with highs in the lower sixty's in Fresno in the central San Joaquin Valley a dense fog advisory until 10 then sunny and warm are 63 to 68 degrees I Only Delfin dairy when used in 94 point one to 10 on letters and politics join us at 6 for the Pacifica evening news a to wait in the morning you're listening to up front count perks out today I'm Brian Edwards Tikker we're going to stay on the k p f a stage this hour and bring you another new talk from last month by historian Paul Ortiz He's a professor. The University of Florida he also directs that university Samuel Proctor oral history program he's got several books out but his latest is really important and was one of I felt the best books I read this year in order to prepare for in interview it's entitled An African-American and Latin next history of the United States an incredible counter narrative about the history of our country that centers the struggles of oppressed people and looks at how they worked across borders not just with in the boundaries of the u.s. This talk is from November 12th 2019 here's Paul or tease. Wow thank you so much for being here this evening see so many friends always feel at home in Berkeley living my wife and I some of you actually know in Florida. Florida as we call it down there since 2008 and just being back in Berkeley I had to remind myself hey in Berkeley crosswalks means something cars have to stop for pedestrians here in Florence the other way around in Florida the driver always has the right of way so that's I may have to learn different cultural code code switching Xah stuff you know. But really thank you so much k.p. Have a. Rather wonderful church a wonderful friends and colleagues for having me back in Berkeley now I feel like this is quickly becoming my 2nd home or I home away from home. I gave a talk u.c. Berkeley not too long ago and actually really are this morning I was at San Jose City College talking to ethnic studies a Mexican American Studies students and it was such a treat it was so cool to be at San Jose City College what was really cool too was that to my former students from u.c. Santa Cruz. Those are actually now Chicano studies professors there and the students are doing incredible work in trying to change the curriculum not only of their community college but of their high schools where they came from to make those curriculums not not to you know to create fantasies or stories that are true but to try to us history back to where it should have been all along where nations like Haiti. May he co were always at the center of u.s. History and it's kind of a truth we lost and I'm not the only person doing it a lot of people are really a part of this historical reclamation project. To be good historian and this is something I've learned from the people of Tommy how to be a historian to be a good historian you have to have imagination to be a good u.s. Historian you have to either be able to leave this country physically and be able to look at it from the vantage point of other people or you if you can't leave it physically you have to do it imaginatively you have to use your imagination what does the u.s. Look like to people in boy livea or in Caracas right now or in Mexico City where my wife and I were there for a month last year and a lot of people joked with those you get your president may not let you come back to your country what would you do to say I would love to live in Mexico City. But in all seriousness and this is going you know this is going to be hard for us to hear because it is just but I'm just going to say it. Involves this for the magination. You could sit Donald Trump down at it at a table. With Thomas Jefferson with John Adams with Andrew Jackson with even a younger John Quincy Adams and they would be best buds. They would congealed they would come together over issues of race and class domination they would have a common discourse a common rhetoric and I found this I'm making this argument because I've read the papers of a lot of these so-called founding fathers they had no love for anyone in this room by the way they really did not if you read what Alexander Hamilton said when the British evacuated the port of ports of New York and Savannah and hundreds even thousands of former slaves evacuated with them. Alexander Hamilton is apoplectic they've stolen our property our property. When poor farmers in western Pennsylvania rise up against the 1st excise taxes who's the one who leads the charge to crush the farmers revolt even George Washington doesn't have the stomach to do it but Alexander Hamilton does he calls Native American savages that have to be eliminated. For our economy to grow that's why I say down are the founding fathers had no love for us this is why Donald Trump talked about making America great again k. Made historical pitch in 2016 to May have been a coded pitch some people argue but to me it was just kind of a why don't you know in your face kind of pitch if you read what John Adams said about the Mexican War of Independence what Thomas Jefferson said about the Haitian revolution. It's almost exactly the same kind of thing Trump says today here's another example a couple of folks came up to me and they said you know you're a historian tell us what this time period now looks like to you what other time period in American history is most like this time period I think it's kind of a trick question. But I said you know to me it is very much like 1930 again the world is in a global crisis certain people are coming to power not just in the United States but throughout the entire world certain it's the term strong men authoritarian masculine hyper masculine characters it's not a mistake it's connected to a global crisis in capitalism. When Herbert Hoover was elected a president by the way when I asked my students a question well who is the president presided over the the initial part of the Great Depression you know 9 times out of 10 they say j. Edgar Hoover I find it to be very interesting now Hoover was very powerful right but what I tell them as I say I want to think about the Great Depression. And how Herbert Hoover believe or not up to that point is probably the smartest man who's ever present a united states he was brilliant. Right brilliant engineer brilliant planner he had one of the smartest cabinets does ever been assembled in Washington d.c. But when the Great Depression broke out and it was clear that it wasn't just a one time one off thing that it was a national and it was an international crisis who did Hoover's cabinet blame for the onset of the Great Depression who were the 1st people to be blamed Mexicans. Poor people of the United States government seized and went into communities and terrorized and kidnapped abducted and deported over a 1000000 Mexican Americans and sent them to Mexico some of them had never stepped foot inside Mexico matts family my family were impacted by this but this is something we didn't talk about growing up it was my great you know grandparents' generation it was considered to be a shameful thing to be terrorized like that and no one ever told me this growing up I had to ask questions and so to me my students have to deal with the fact that they may have federal agents in their backyards right now spying on them abducting their parents in Florida. Parents who lacks state issued I.D.'s cannot even step foot and their children schools so how can they be part of the education education is supposed to be to take it out right and so that's why I think I those 2 time periods and on the negative side resonate but also on the other and on the more positive side these incipient movements you know the me too movement the black lives matter. The Dreamer's movement right now we're looking at the Supreme Court and I can tell you whatever decision the Supreme Court makes immigrant rights activists and labor activists are not going to quit they're going to keep struggling they're going to keep fighting there's a reason this nation didn't go fascist in the 1930 s. I mean as bad as it was right as bad as Jim Crow was in lynching there's a reason it didn't get worse the reason is is that people organize together we had members of my family involved in the little still strike in 1937 this is a sacred moment if you're if you're a labor union or labor activist member. When they organize the little still strike in Chicago and when steel and some of the other smaller still corporations the Chicago Police came out and shot and murdered 10 workers and the headlines read the Chicago police were interviewed about this oh we only killed Mexicans and Bolsheviks and that was supposed to make it Ok but you know what those workers didn't stop organizing and they unionized all those plants and we just have to be as persistent as our ancestors and struggle. The voice of historian Paul Ortiz presenting his new book African American and Latin next history of the United States will make a p.f.a. State and we're going to return to him very quickly. I just want to let you know what our gifts are this hour his book I think is incredibly important it is also incredibly readable I have to say of all the books I read to prepare for an interview this year this is probably the one I enjoyed the most and learned the most from. It is also one of our most affordable thank you gifts today it's yours for a pledge of just $80.00 or more at 180-439-5732 if you'd like to combine it with the full length recording of Paul or teases k.p.a. Event he was on stage with our colleagues who printed Jacobs if you get both together for a pledge of just $120.00 or more at 180-439-2573 extension 2 or you can get that recording as part of keep your face 2019 event pack normally for a recording of a single k.p. 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Dot org Let's go back to Paul or tease presenting an African American in Latin next history of the United States I grew up in a shipyard town primarily called Bremerton Washington every adult that I grew up with or around had been either you know in the military and fought in World War 2 had been in Korea been a Vietnam I grew up towards I was born in 1064 all the male members of my family had been in the military and my father you know when it's a Marine boot camp in 1056 he remembers the hits that your buddy Holly in both deadly You know that's how he kind of my dad remembers history just turned 81 but even you know his his aunt goals my great uncles and my grandparents' generation all fought the Mexican revolution that's how we ended up in the United States in 1914 we moved to the united the family moved to the United States the same time that the u.s. Invaded Mexico to supposedly secure the oil fields around Tampico and so growing up. The earliest photographs that we have of me as a young boy are photographs of me with guns you know 1st plastic guns and then later you know when I learned how to shoot really goes so growing up war was all we knew and I remember as a young boy a you know hearing about. You know a friend's father who'd been killed in Vietnam or a friend's own goal and so that was really visceral for us thouse forward I'm going to go to the classroom because so much of what I know comes I've learned from my students some of them are here. The 1st song that we play when I when I teach this course is Bob Marley's Buffalo Soldiers to me that's one of the most meaningful songs I've ever heard in the. Then we spent a lot of time thinking and talking about Buffalo Soldiers and what that song means because as people of color as working class people as a present people were often the 1st recruits who then turn around and then become the soldiers of the Empire and I remember against me I wish I could tell you that I you know became woke about us imperialism when I was in the military but that would not be true where I grew up there was no talk about nonviolence there was no talk about being against the why I didn't even know you could be against the war. I'm serious I mean I remember the 1st time I had an inkling that you could be opposed to a war in this country when I was on my way home from deployment from Central America back to the United States I read in a newspaper that this minister called Jesse Jackson was in Mexico City trying to broker a peace accord. Between the u.s. And nations of Latin America Central America I didn't know you could broker a peace accord because again growing up in a militarist environment and you know I told a story I was talking a message really or about this and this is going to sound very odd to people but I remember the last day I was in the u.s. Army I was in Panama City. And that last day somehow I ended up in a small post I was filling out paperwork trying to get out of the military and anyone who's been in the military knows you spend a lot of time we have a phrase we call Hurry up in a wait right hurry up in a wait and so you follow the paperwork then you wait for someone to process it and I remember walking across the street to the post library a very small library and I've always enjoyed reading and I picked up this very thin volume out of the stacks at a very interesting very intriguing title and I started reading it and this rider was talking about how his people have been oppressed for centuries and it was time to stop being oppressed it was time to take action and it was a moral imperative to take action but he was using this language he was saying we need to take nonviolent direct action nonviolent civil disobedience and I never heard of that mine's higher life because I grew up in a country as Dr King said which is the most violent nation on earth we're so violent We don't even understand that for youth of the town I grew up in Bremerton and there are many towns like Bremerton were raised to be fighters were raised to be soldiers like I said the 1st photographs of me are with toy guns toys pistols the book I'm working on now I'm trying to figure out how did we get to be that way and so I'm writing a book on subtler colonialism because my belief is that settler colonialism has so profound lead. Impacted our culture we were not even aware of it and so again that's kind of you know going back to thinking about my trajectory coming back to the United States the 1st time I ever had a picket sign in my hand was to protest the u.s. Invasion of Panama in 1989 some of you remember that and the promise that the u.s. Government gave for that war was a complete lie and I would Here's up on the radio or on t.v. I hear my friends say well this is why we're invading Panama and I'd say you know that's a complete lie the other thing that kind of woke me up if you will was that when I came back home and I 987. Friends that I grown up with some of whom were veterans to ask me Paul Why what are all these Hondurans doing in Los Angeles what are all these El Salvadorans doing in Seattle what are all these refugees doing and so one of the 1st things in fact I met my wife doing this work in part was getting involved in the sanctuary movement. Because I would tell my friends I would say you don't know why all these people are leaving Central America you don't know what I was doing there you don't know what u.s. Foreign policy is actually. Giving you know military training and weaponize ing It's the Central American conflicts and this is why people have to leave but when I would say these things to friends and again remember these are people I grew up with that I played sports with they look at mean they would say Paul I just cannot accept what you're telling me I was told that you went to Central America I was told that we were in Central America to stop communism and that's why we were there and I would say I'm sorry but that's that's a lie that's not true that's not what we were doing and then the next thing the luckiest thing one of the like is things in my life is at an older veteran who was in Vietnam Veterans Against the War put a book in my hand he says you have to read this book it's written by another combat veteran by the name of Howard Zinn. People's History the United States. And because of the way Howard wrote the book and I had the incredible honor of meeting him years later through a dinner frankly who many of you know was an incredible historian at u.c. Santa Cruz that book really helped me quite a bit as as I think it's helped many of us the voice of historian Paul Ortiz on the cape if a stage last month presenting his book An African American in Latin next history of the United States were to return to that in less than 2 minutes. Very quick fund raising update we are counting down a $1250.00 challenge we have exactly 12 minutes left to make it most of the 12 minutes will be occupied with more of this k. P.f.a. Talk. As if this 2nd we have raised $720.00 we are just under half way there. 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Than you're actually digging out of your own wallet 180-439-5732 extension 1800 Hey Kate b.f.a. Or on line a k p.f.a. Dot org Back to Paul or tease the decade I grew up in was a decade of backlash. As it even a decade or 2 later as a younger labor organizer the eighty's to try to organize unions we frankly we didn't organize many new unions in the late 1980 s. All we were doing is trying to protect and hold onto what we had our civil rights organizations were under sea we were very much on the defensive There's a reason a mass incarceration as an enormous take off in the 1970 s. There's a reason that the society militarize us there's a reason that ideas of masculinity get hyped up in the eighty's and in the ninety's where I think we're now in you know there's a thing called neo liberalism. You know I talk about this in that chapter but these are all attacks against gains that we made that our elders fought and bled for in states like Mississippi the Central Valley of California the United Farm Workers the women's movement. Movements this very much that period of time was very much a part of backlash and I think right now based upon what I'm seeing and places in the deep south in Florida we've had fight for 15 rallies and marches and civil disobedience that has has involved hundreds of people in towns that you're not you don't normally associate a movement with like Orlando or the Epcot Center where we had hundreds of people engage in civil disobedience. Under the chant fight for 15 and a union this is happening in the Deep South and we're seeing this all across the country just a few days ago the Seattle admissable elections Seattle said no to Jeff Bezos and Amazon and you know lost a couple races but then won you know the majority of those things so this kind of grassroots energy I was speaking at Bronx community college 2 days after Senator Sanders rally and you want to see some excited people the Dominican community was was so excited the Puerto Rican communities around the the South Bronx are so excited they're like something new is happening we're part of a new kind of movement so there's a lot of movement energy my argument about the 2006 general strike is that we still don't understand how formative an experience that strike was we make a mistake if we think of that strike as just one of that I know this because a lot of the organizers of that strike are now in the labor movement in fact one of . Some of you from u.c. Santa Cruz may remember a student. Was Who did I think graduated from Santa Cruz in 2006 and I just got a call from her the other day. She's been elected vice president to one of the largest health care unions in the state of New York. And this student close one of the organizers in the 2006 general strike. Young lawyers social justice lawyers now teachers. People who are in all different types of occupations are really shaking things up but that 2006 general strike was a really important experience for them and so that's why I see that strike as being is being really formative and again reminding us where change comes from we all know that we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the sacrifices of people who came before us that shouldn't just be a slogan has should be something we just say in m.l.k. Day right it should be something that we remind ourselves constantly it's something that our government would actually like us to forget by the way I've had generations of students who say why do I have to wait to coddle hits it to get to college to learn the real story of the grass right civil rights movement why do I have to wait to college to learn the sacrifices of women suffragettes and they really why do I have to wait in my responses look. No smart government is going to teach you how to shake things up right that's why you're not learning in high school but again I've seen the changes in curriculum in high school to suggest that hate. And here's here's a last will say about that is. Psychologists of race are telling us now that racial attitudes are formed as early as age 2 k. So what that means is we can't put off discussions the top discussions about the bad parts and the good parts of us Sr We can't put them off like years ago I Can Never people say well you know maybe young people or I shouldn't have to we should try to teach about slavery or racism until you know they're in high school too late by then too late they've already learned Ok I was in 4th grade the 1st time someone called me a weapon addict and my father grew up in a generation where the signs were right there in front of them no negroes no Mexicans no dogs. And so you're telling me in a society like this where again many of my students have to worry about when they come home. Are their parents going to be there or did the federal government kidnap them and put them in a detention center and we're in a society where we have some school administrators who say that high school students in East Los Angeles are not mature enough to read James Baldwin. So we have to we really have to kind of look at ourselves and say what are we doing as a society to to educate each other but what are we doing to prevent education from happening and so I think right now we're in this incredibly you know fraught moment of possibility. Of a potential danger or things could go either way it is kind of like the early 1930 s. And you know in a certain sense the voice of historian Paul Ortiz on the Cape you have a stage last month presenting his book an African-American and Latin next history of the United States and here's our final update on a $1250.00 speed challenge that was put up by 3 of our listeners with 2 minutes left on that challenge we are $280.00 away from making it. This is our last chance the phone number is 180-439-5732 ask you to link up with the people who pledge to get us this far to make sure that we go over the top 180-439-5732 any amount will help if you can pick up one of the gifts we're offering Paul or to use his new book in paperback one of our most affordable thank you gifts an African-American and Latin x. History of the United States it is yours for a pledge of $80.00 or you can get it by becoming a kid p.f.a. Sustainer for $8.00 a month 180-439-5732 combine the book with the recording of his talk will give you both for 120 or combine the book with our collection of every cape you have a event like this one in $21927.00 vents in total including with Robert right to mail on Climate Change Johnson as Shiva. 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Mind at w w w dot k p f a dot org All right I am out of time we're going to take a leap of faith we're going to put our fate in your hands we're going to hope you keep calling 180-439-5732 as we go back to polar tease a lot of us are familiar with what's been happening in Libya the right wing coup I what's been happening in chalet what's happening in Iraq what's happening in Morocco What's even happening in many u.s. Cities right now and part of it is to educate each other and our friends about the role that the u.s. Plays and has always played in Latin America and in Central America and to try to get people to understand the role that capitalism has played in the under development and the profoundly an equal economic systems throughout the entire Americas not just Bolivia if you think about this ever more Alice was the 1st indigenous president I mean that's an incredible thing to even contemplate given the fact that this is an indigenous majority society what was it that kept back indigenous people for centuries and countries like will live in. What is it now that allows the United States government to continue to tyrannizes native in addition is people in this country trying to take their water rights trying to take their mineral rights is remarkable what's happening I direct the oral history program to University of Florida and we've had students who've done oral histories with Western Shoni people in Nevada we've had students who do oral histories with the porch creek and southeastern Alabama and other parts of the country and I can tell you all of those Native American nations are really under siege right now the federal government private capital private interests are trying to take the resources away from them all the way from Latin America to to North America so that to me is one of the exciting things about what's happening now in the indigenous rights movement was that indigenous groups are looking hemispheric wide now and saying Our problems are not rooted just in one country they're there they're rooted across the entire hemisphere so I think that and then calling out American imperialism you know and one of the things in my book that I talked of and again I learned this from my movement and intellectual elders is the concept of racial capitalism and we have to think about these things working together you know in tandem and the slavery that Indigenous people were faced with both in this country but also in Latin America continues to really mark. The the entire hemisphere but I think you know movement organizing you know teach ends are really important in Florida this issue is particularly acute I don't have to tell you Florida is not like California you know don't get me wrong we've done amazing things in Florida we just finished an incredible 34 years long. Struggle which culminated in the Memmott for which overturned felony disenfranchisement we got over a 1000000 signatures. We had candor serves who were cameras in a Haitian Creole and French and Spanish and English we had to go you know to get a 1000000 signatures to lift felony disenfranchisement you can't just go to the County Fair to get a 1000000 signatures. Part of what we have to do when we educate people about imperialism and talk about imperialism and talk about racism is we have to go outside of our comfort zone this is one of the reasons I love oral history is that you know in the classroom when I teach at the University of Florida and in a workshop Yes we're trying to create a respectful you know nurturing inclusive space but as soon as we began getting outside of that space to be effective politically and to change things we have to be very you know we're going to unsafe territory we're going and so for example. The last oral history interview that I did in Florida just a few weeks ago I actually interviewed a retired Cuban American former CIA operative. Who was involved in the Watergate break in who was involved in a lot of bad things worse than Watergate believe or not Daniel Ellsberg will be talking about that right. You know this guy was involved in torture and other things and c.f. Remember in the Florida culture or it's very common to hear people say things like well if the military calls for the coup then I guess we should support it. Now think about that for a minute the military calls for a coup we should support it in Bolivia What about the u.s. What if what if the u.s. Military called for a coup in this country should we support or so so these are the types of things that we need to like you know talk to our neighbors about. Families about families are divided over this issue I'm actually the faculty advisor for a lot of Hispanic student organizations that you have one of them was the Venezuelan Student Association and we go back and forth and I'm like well you know we have to support President Trump in Venezuela I'm like no you don't. They actually said that oh yes and some of them he set them right and while we talk we dialogue I try not to browbeat them that's not an effective teaching technique right be gentle be kind this is where I can use my own background because I say look I'm not here to judge you because again I'm a soldier of empire right that's on my c.v. I will never get rid of that and so. Far be it for me to tell you you can have your believes if even if I think they're wrong are right. But actually brings me to to the next question American exceptionalism very sizzix and Mansa potoroo International was. Talk to us about that described that so does everyone know what American exceptionalism is. Kind of Ok so is the belief broadly shared by our 2 major political parties that the Us is the greatest country on earth that we really can't do much wrong that when we do wrong it's not because we set out to do bad things it's because something went wrong along the way Ok if you think of a book like Graham Greene's The Quiet American Green is trying to gently coaxes out of this idea of American exceptionalism but what American exceptionalism does by saying that the Us is the greatest country on earth us is a middle class society is it denies the reality of people or towns and neighborhoods that I grew up in I didn't grow up in middle class culture or society most people in the United States do not most of us grow up in a working class communities and American exceptionalism denies our very existence we don't become successful my father and all of his generation of young Mexican American teenagers had to drop out of school in the 7th grade or to help support their their families so the whole thing about education true for some people not true for other people so. Trying to situate us in a reality where the United States is as good or as bad as its actions as our actions and when we do wrong let's come to grips with why we do wrong especially if we do wrong over and over and over again Ok I'm as mature internationalism is as grass roots movements that people like Frederick Douglass people like Harriet Tubman and people like Henry Howland Barnett and Tony must say oh hosts a moderate. She kept her pose to the idea of American exceptionalism and this is an idea of building solidarity across borders instead of building walls build bridges I started the book with the Haitian revolution because this is the most important revolution from the vantage point of a present people in this country all throughout the Americas it's more important than the French Revolution it's more important than the American Revolution it's more important than those revolutions because it ends with the abolition of slavery is the 1st successful slave slave revolution in human history. Chapter 2 is about the Mexican War of Independence and again here is a revolution that reaches across borders to fire the imagination of the radical abolitionist movement in the United States to where people are saying wow the Mexicans from the very outset an 810 start their revolution against Spanish imperialism by striking a blow against slavery and the oppression of indigenous people wow. Why could we do that what do we have to learn from that I guess the big thing is learning what this country has to learn from nations around us when I talk to audiences I'm a long time member of Veterans for Peace and when I talk to audiences about war and they say war Constitution doesn't give us much of a way out I say then we need to study other constitutions let's start with the Mexican Constitution which has a very long and venerable history of interventionism how often is it in modern history that Mexico gathers an air force or an army and invades another nation and carpet bombs another nation how often does that as that happen. There's a reason for that it's not accidental there's a there's political traditions that we can learn from the voice of historian Paul Ortiz on the k.p. Of a stage just last month presenting his new book An African American and Latin x. History of the United States you heard him walking through kind of the chapter structure of the book it is I believe our most affordable book gift at this fund drive it's yours for a pledge of $80.00 or more at 180-439-5732 the money of course goes to supporting k p f a so that we can keep bringing you people like Paul Ortiz if your ears perked up if you feel like you learned something from this hour of radio I want you to think about everything that went into getting him out here putting him on stage bringing an audience to that event and then getting him to the airwaves that is what it means to be a community institution and if you learn something imagine that impact multiplied by the 10s of thousands of people who are listening during morning commute hours when you play adage you are it Van sing that calm and good you are giving to something bigger than any of us and we're asking you to do it right now because we're behind this fund drive we're behind because we took on the Civic educational project of broadcasting impeachment hearings gavel to gavel and we need to make up some ground because that meant effectively suspending our fundraising 184395732. Now here's a reason to make that pledge right now with exactly 7 minutes left in the hour a collection of our listeners Julie in Berkeley Jonathan also in Berkeley Jenny and in Clovis California and Ed in San Francisco have collectively offered to double $1000.00. I faced a challenge earlier this hour is a little bit bigger than a $1000.00 but it took us almost a full 20 minutes to make it now we're at 6 minutes and 40 seconds that is a lot of money for a radio station that operates on a shoestring we are starting with 0 callers on the line if we can get probably a take about 12 of you to make a pledge in the time that we have remaining that is enormous for k. P.f.a. And so now the ball is in your court the phone number is 180-439-5732 extension 1800 hate p.f.a. Or online at k. P.f.a. Dot org Here's what you can get when you pledge polities his book an African-American to lead next history of the United States is this incredible counter narrative about the history of this country at that centers the struggles of oppressed people in this country trying to better their circumstances and I think most distinctively looks at how internationalist their analysis was movements are not generally contained within national boundaries but that's how historians tend to characterize them and this is a corrective to that he has a chapter that Haitian Revolution which he. Identifies as the dawn of what he calls a manse of a Tory internationalism he looks at the Mexican War of Independence you just heard him talking about the Mexican Constitution Mexican War of Independence you know just a few decades after the u.s. War of independence it's pretty hostile treatment from political elites in the United States why. Well the Mexican War of Independence set a goal that never occurred to elites in the u.s. Or at least in the curtain unfavorably and that was ending slavery. He has a chapter on the internationalization of the Civil War how people involved in the project of reconstruction were looking outside the boundaries of the United States to the rest of the hemisphere chapter on the late 19th century Cuban Solidarity Movement chapter on the congealing of the modern racial categories we are familiar with today in the early years of industrialization what he calls the formation of racial capitalism in the United States is incredibly good writer I learned a lot from reading this book I think of all the author interviews I did 21000 this is probably the one I got the most from preparing for it's also one of our most affordable thank you gift at $80.00 for the book an African American in Latin next history of the United States and if you pledge right now that pledge is doing triple duty it's supporting k.p. F.a. It's going further because of this challenge and it is getting that book into your mailbox we've got 2 callers on the line but. I bring so much time talking we're down to 4 minutes 180-439-5732 extension 1800 hake a p.s.a. Or on line at w w w dot p.f.a. Dot org. You can combine the book with the recording of this talk it's available to download It's available as a cd you post the other for a pledge of $120.00 or more at 180-439-2573 extension 2 or if you would like a collection of every k. P.f.a. Event we have done in 2019 this is something we only offer at the end of the year normally during fund drives for the recording of a single event we asked for a pledge of 75 dollars this year we pulled off $26.00 events in total with an all star lineup Robert Wright Richard Wolfe Amitav Goetia Aaron Glantz you heard last our boss Carson Carr Adar Jamail Vandana Shiva Michael Eric Dyson Daniel Ellsberg you heard Paul Ortiz getting excited about that event. Instead of asking you $75.00 a talk which would sum to over $2000.00 for all $27.00 events in 2019 you can get all of them together on a thumb drive the size of well your thumb a little u.s.b. Drive for a pledge of $200.00 you can even do that by becoming a kitty of a sustainer at $20.00 a month and a full $200.00 will still count towards our challenge 180-439-5732 extension 1800 Hey Kate p.f.a. Or on line a w w w dot k.p. F.a. Dot org Oh now we're down to our final 2 minutes and 15 seconds on that $1000.00 challenge and we're up to 4 callers on the line if you want to combine all $27.00 events with the book by Paul Ortiz we will discount the combined play trade still further that would be just 250 dollars 180-439-5732 the final thing we're offering will be offering through the end of the fund drive unless we give all the seats away is dinner and to tour this is something special really do it about once a year we organize a tour of k.p. Phase beautiful light filled studios in downtown Berkeley purpose built home to the world's 1st listener supported radio station I'll take you on the tour take a journey into k p f A's history and it's present and then we will go out to dinner and drinks around the corner Our guest of honor is going to be amidst the rich who will take us on a tour of what we expect will be a van impending Senate impeachment trial count Burks is coming out to dinner and if we can get 2 more people to pledge for dinner and a tour will be taken out Eileen Berry as well pair of tickets that's for you and her friend the tours at $530.00 dinners at $630.00 right around the corner. And this is Thursday January 16th a pair of tickets a pledge of $500.00 and if you make that $500.00 pledge right now it will count towards our $1000.00 challenge we could desperately use 818-0439 of 57321800 hake a p.f.a. Or odd line at k.p. Have a dot org just got our 1st count we're at $340.00 towards the challenge to people on the phones who haven't been tallied but less to both pledging for dinner and a tour there probably not enough 180-439-5732 The 27 speech collection is yours for 200 the book just 80 dinner and a tour 500 you've got 20 seconds left to start that call in time to make it count towards this challenge 180-439-5732 extension 1800 Hey b.f.a. Or w.w.w. Dot. Org we're pushing into overtime here a k.p.n. a 94 point one f.m. In Berkeley k. P.f.b. 89.3 f.m. In Berkeley K.F.C.'s 88 point one f.m. In Fresno k 248 be our 97.5 f.m. In Santa Cruz on line around the world at w w w dot k. P.f.a. Dot org Thank you for those 2 calls and please keep calling pledges will count they come in during the opening minutes of democracy now 180-439-2573 extension 2. Trace this. 3 week. Take a. Vacation it was a fine all. Right we are set for any sign of. This is Democracy Now Democracy Now dot org The War and Peace Report I mean the good men we're broadcasting from the u.n. Climate summit in Madrid Spain the European Commission has proposed a sweeping new plan to address the climate crisis the European Green Deal would be the biggest overhaul of European policy since the foundation of the modern European Union system this is commission president Ursula Vanderlei and we do not.