Listen: Trump 2.0 Fallout; MLK’s Ties to TWU Trade Unionists
By Bob Hennelly
On this Inauguration/MLK edition of Pacifica Radio’s We Decide: America at the Crossroads with Jenna Flanagan—our panel of commentators, including “Attitude with Arne Arnesen” host Arne Arnesen and Washington-based investigative reporter and editor Dave Levinthal take a look at what having Trump back in the White House means for the country.
Joe Biden used the waning hours of his presidency to issue a series of pardons to preemptively protect some of the people Donald Trump had previously threatened.
Biden pardoned former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and members and staff on the committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, as well as the U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who testified before that committee.
The Trump transition team, meanwhile, prepared a slew of executive orders aimed at the federal workforce which would strip workers of their collective bargaining rights. Similar efforts during Trump’s first term suffered setbacks in the courts with rulings that the president had exceeded his powers as the nation’s chief executive in areas unilaterally without Congressional support.
It’s unclear, in light of the Supreme Court’s recent decisions in multiple matters involving Trump, where the federal judiciary will come down on the question of President Trump’s ability to eliminate unions in the federal workplace.
John Samuelsen, head of the Transport Workers Union of America, also joins the show to further discuss the status of the labor movement now that Donald Trump is once again POTUS.
Samuelsen says the American labor movement must pushback against any attempts by the Trump administration to weaken federal workers' collective bargaining rights. Samuelsen also talks about the deep historic ties between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the TWU, and how the Irish experience being oppressed by the British helped to inform that relationship.
And while local elected officials announced plans to pass legislation to speed up the rebuilding effort in fire-ravaged Los Angeles, L.A.-based environmental activist and journalist Harvey Wasserman tells us about the ecological lessons the city needs to learn before rushing to replicate what it lost.
We Decide’s Lisa Loving also has an essential conversation with Paul Susi of PD ID Assistance in Portland, Oregon. Susi helps unhoused people who've been swept up by local law enforcement and lost their crucial personal documents in the process. Susi’s insights on what it takes to reestablish your legal identity will be relevant to thousands of L.A. residents who were lucky to have escaped with their lives and just the clothes on their backs.
Listen to the whole show below: