In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Carl Rosen, General President of the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE), to talk about the wave of wildcat strikes brewing across the country as workers demand adequate PPE and pay commensurate with the hazards they face, why 'shelter in place' policies must ensure workers are compensated for wages lost due to the shutdown to have any hope of containing the spread of the coronavirus, and how workers with a desire to organize their workplaces can get assistance from UE to do so.
In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Denis Rogatyuk, an independent journalist, writer, and researcher, to talk about the news that Ecuadorian courts have convicted former President Rafael Correa on corruption charges in absentia, why the relatively weak evidence against him has led to widespread speculation that the charges are politically motivated, and whether the timing of the conviction is meant to distract from current Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno's catastrophic coronavirus response.
In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Dick Nichols, the correspondent for Spain and Catalonia for Green Left Weekly, to talk about the huge mobilization of the healthcare sector in Spain as hundreds per day are dying of the Coronavirus, whether the move to issue universal basic income amid the pandemic can ensure working people can safely shelter in place, and how an aging population and widespread under-reporting of the number of infected has seemingly led to the world’s highest mortality rate.
Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Dr. Gerald Horne, Moores Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, to talk about Bernie Sander's withdrawal from the Democratic nomination contest, how mainstream media accusations of Chinese duplicity are helping manufacture consent for a new Cold War against China, whether Trump's apparent appetite for a war with Venezuela reflects the need to deflect attention from his failed response to the outbreak, some of the new books Dr. Horne is working on, and other titles and movies that speak to some of the most pressing issues of the new pandemic epoch.
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