Belabored Podcast #97: Building Black Futures with Janae Bonsu

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. These days, it seems like everyone’s talking about racism and about economic justice—but often, they’re talking about the two as if they’re different subjects or only distantly related. But Black Youth Project 100 aims to shake up that discussion; the group has released an ambitious “Agenda To Build Black Futures,” that lays out a broad range of economic policy goals, from raising the wage to a guaranteed income, from universal child care to reparations, to create an equitable world. Janae Bonsu, BYP 100’s National Public Policy Chair, joins us to talk about the agenda and why we need to think of economic justice and racial justice as intertwined. The big news this week for labor, of course, was the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, which changes the likely result of one very significant case regarding public sector unions. We hear from Richard Kahlenberg of The Century Foundation on what this means, and we also look at the companies trying to dodge responsibility for safety in the workplace, and a new ban on products made by forced labor. For Argh, we dive into the world of the Mechanical Turkers in academia, and remember the politics of welfare reform. News Antonin Scalia, Justice on the Supreme Court, Dead at 79 (New York Times) Friedrichs Reprieve, But We’re Not Out Of The Woods Yet (Labor Notes) Richard Kahlenberg, How Defunding Public Sector Unions Will Diminish Our Democracy (The Century Foundation) Federal Contractors with History of OSHA Violations Battle New Safety Rules (PR Watch) Congress bans import of forced labor products (Associated Press) Conversation Janae Bonsu, National Public Policy Chair, Black Youth Project 100 Black Youth Project 100: Agenda to Build Black Futures Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Premilla Nadasen, How a Democrat Killed Welfare (Jacobin) Michelle: Louise Matsakis, The Unknown, Poorly Paid Labor Force Powering Academic Research (Motherboard) The post Belabored Podcast #97: Building Black Futures with Janae Bonsu appeared first on Dissent Magazine.