What is the working class people's history of California?

What is the working class people's history of California? On the next Your Call, we'll rebroadcast a conversation we had with Lawrence Shoup, author of Rulers & Rebels: A People's History of Early California, 1769-1901. What is the history of California's Indians, the working poor, unions, and immigrants? He tells stories of chilling brutality and tales of solidarity and determination. What are the differences and similarities to what we're facing today? What lessons can we learn from our history? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Lawrence Shoup, historian and author of Rulers & Rebels

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What is the working class people's history of California?

On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation with Laurence H. Shoup, author of Rulers & Rebels: A People's History of Early California, 1769-1901. What is the history of California's Indians, the working poor, unions, and immigrants? He tells stories of chilling brutality and tales of solidarity and determination. What are the differences and similarities to what we're facing today? Join us at 10 or email feedback@yourcallradio.org. What lessons can we learn from our history? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Laurence H. Shoup, a labor historian and author of Rulers & Rebels: A People's History of Early California, 1769-1901.

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What does it take to organize in the workplace?

On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation about how workers try to form or join a union. Recently employees at a Target store in New York voted against joining the country's largest retail union. What does it take to win rights for workers? Join us live at 10 or send us an email at feedback@yourcallradio.org. How are corporations preventing workers from forming unions? Have you tried to organize in your workplace? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Debbie Fontaine, an employee at the Rite Aid Distribution Center in Lancaster

Lila Shairo, a labor reporter with Huffington Post. She has been writing extensively on the Target employees' efforts to form a union.

David Bacon is a writer and photojournalist based in the Bay Area.

Margaret Van Ness, an overnight stocker at a Wal-Mart store in Lancaster

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Are you in the working class?

On the next Your Call, we'll mark International Workers Day and we want to hear from you. Economic discussions mainly focus on the middle class and we spend less time talking about workers. So who is the working class in America today? Join us live at 11 or send us an email at feedback@yourcallaradio.org. Do you think of yourself as working class? In a time of economic upheaval, what do you want the world to know about your experience? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
The listeners

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How will the Walmart case alter class actions and women's rights?

How will the outcome of the Walmart sex discrimination case alter the future of class action lawsuits and women's rights in the workplace? On the next Your Call, we'll talk about the Walmart case in the Supreme Court. Originally filed in 2001, it would represent over a million female Walmart employees on claims of sex discrimination in hiring, promotions, pay raise, and general treatment on the job. If the court rules these women can legally form a "class," how will this case alter the landscape for future class action suits? Join us at 10 or send an email to feedback@yourcallradio.org. How will this case change sex discrimination for women at work? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar.

Guests:
Brad Seligman, a civil rights attorney specializing in class action and founder of the Impact Fund

Noreen Farrell, managing attorney with Equal Rights Advocates

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Who speaks for America's working poor?

On the next Your Call, we'll remember Joe Bageant, a self-described redneck from Virginia who loved storytelling and writing about what he called the permanent white underclass in the Heartland. He passed away on March 26th following a four-month struggle with cancer. We will rebroadcast excerpts of our interview with him about his new book, Rainbow Pie: A Redneck Memoir. The late Howard Zinn said Joe Bageant evokes working class America like no one else. Join us at 10 or send an email to feedback@yourcallradio.org. Who was Joe Bageant and how should he be remembered? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar.

Guests:
Ken Smith, friend and web manager for the late, Joe Bageant, 1946-2011. Joe Bageant was author of Deer Hunting with Jesus and Rainbow Pie: A Redneck's Memoir.

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Do you know America's underclass?

On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation with Joe Bageant, author of Rainbow Pie: A Redneck Memoir. Through personal accounts, he argues that after WWII millions of rural Americans moved into the cities, where they became the foundation of a permanent white underclass. Who are the underclass in today's America? Join us live at 11 or send us an email at feedback@yourcallradio.org. And what role do they play in U.S. political landscape? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you?

Guest:
Joe Bageant, author and political commentator. Bageant spends much of each year in Belize, Central America, and in Jalisco, Mexico, where he writes, and in which he sponsors small health-and-shelter development projects.

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Media Roundtable

On the next Your Call, it's our Friday Media Roundtable. This week, we'll have a conversation with the Washington Independent's Annie Lowrey, and Gary Rivlin, author of Broke, USA: From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc. -- How the Working Poor Became Big Business. According to the Census, 44 million people in the U.S., or one in seven, lived in poverty last year. With so many people struggling to make ends meet and businesses making huge profits off low-income communities, why is there such marginal media coverage of the poor? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Annie Lowrey, economic reporter with Washington Independent

Gary Rivlin, a journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, GQ, Wired and Newsweek

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Your Call 090909 What's the way out of poverty?

With the economy getting worse, how do we build a pathway out of poverty? On the next Your Call we speak with Wade Rathke, founder of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) a nationwide activist network engaged in community organizing and author of the new book Citizen Wealth: Winning the Campaign to Save Working Families.

Send us an email at feedback@yourcallradio.org or join us live at 11 a.m. Is owning a home still the best way out of poverty and into the middle class? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guest:
Wade Rathke, in San Francisco
Founder of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), a nationwide activist network engaged in community organizing, and currently chief organizer of ACORN International. He is also a founding board member of the Tides Foundation, chief organizer of SEIU Local 100 in New Orleans, and chair of the Organizers' Forum. He authored the new book Citizen Wealth: Winning the Campaign to Save Working Families.

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Your Call 050609 What gives your job meaning?

What gives your job meaning? On the next Your Call we'll speak with Paul Buhle and Harvey Pekar about their new graphic novel adaptation of Studs Terkel's Working. 35 years ago Studs published his interviews with parking lot attendants, corporate executives, newsboys, housewives, firemen and sailors about what they did all day and what it meant to them doing it. If Studs wanted to capture working life today, who would he need to talk to? Send us an email at feedback@yourcallradio.org or join us live at 11 am. What do you do all day? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Paul Buhle in Providence, Rhode Island
Senior lecturer at Brown University and an editor of several books of comic art, including Wobblies!, A Dangerous Woman, Students for a Democratic Society, and A People's History of American Empire.

Harvey Pekar in Cleveland, Ohio
Comic-book writer and author of the autobiographical American Splendor series, which was adapted into an Academy Award-nominated film. Pekar is also a prolific jazz and book critic.

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