Democracy Now! broadcasts from just outside a Freeport, Illinois, factory owned by Bain Capital, the private equity firm founded by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Workers at Sensata Technologies have set up an encampment called “Bainport” across the street from the facility to protest the company’s plan to close the plant and move it to China, taking 170 jobs with it. The workers have been trying to get Romney to save their jobs. We’re joined by two Sensata workers, Mark Schreck and Tom Gaulrapp; and Freeport Mayor George Gaulrapp, who has supported the encampment and fended off calls for it to be shut down.
“Welcome to Bainport, a taste of the Romney economy” — that’s the message on one of the banners that greets you at the tent city where we broadcast from in Freeport, Illinois. “Bainport” is an encampment set up by workers who face losing their livelihoods when their workplace closes its doors in November and moves to China, taking 170 jobs with it. The workers’ plant, Sensata Technologies, is owned by Bain Capital, the firm co-founded by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Democracy Now! first spoke to the Sensata workers when we met them at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, where they unsuccessfully tried to meet with Romney. Now, they have returned to Freeport and set up a protest camp in a bid to save their jobs. We speak to “Bainport” workers Dot Turner and Cheryl Randecker.
Bill Fletcher, Jr., AFGE/activist, joins Thom Hartmann. Ronald Reagan may be a Republican hero – but he’s played the role of the villain to American workers for over three decades. How has the American worker suffered over the last 30 plus years – and how can we stop the war on unions that’s been plaguing America?
One year ago on September 17, a few activists began a peaceful protest just outside Wall Street in New York’s financial district. That action sparked a sweeping movement of public space “Occupations,” in which citizens could air their grievances against corporate greed, protected interests and much more. Encampments sprang up across the world, from Oakland City Hall to St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Police cleared out the tents months ago, but the networks of activists, young and old, remain intact, as evidenced by this weekend’s packed schedule of Occupy actions. Watch this video to see what activists, union workers and students in debt are planning for the second year of Occupy.
The Occupy Wall Street movement is largely credited for reframing the national dialogue on economic inequality and popularizing the phrase: “We are the 99 percent.” We host a roundtable with Frances Fox Piven, an author and professor at City University of New York who has studied social movements for decades; Nathan Schneider, editor of the blog Waging Nonviolence, which has extensively covered the Occupy movement; and Suzanne Collado, an organizer with Occupy Wall Street since its inception and member of the group “Strike Debt,” an effort to organize a mass upsurge of debt resistance.
Filmmaker Dennis Trainer Jr. on his new film and the challenges facing the Occupy Movement.
http://www.Occudoc.org
written, produced & directed by Dennis Trainor, Jr
contact dennistrainorjr (at) gmail (dot) com
http://www.twitter.com/dennistrainorjr
http://www.facebook.com/dennistrainorjr
Associate producer/ co-editor/ graphics/ color & titles: AJ Russo
https://vimeo.com/ajrsuper8
Gerald Epstein (Political Economy Research Institute, and Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst): The basic policies must change or recession and high unemployment will continue
