Scholar-activist Bob Ross, who has previously engaged WFC with his work on sweatshop labor, turns his attention to the pandemic inspired policies that reduced poverty and temporarily stopped the increase in inequality. The author of two books on global capitalism (Global Capitalism: The New Leviathan and Slaves to Fashion: Poverty and Abuse in the New Sweatshops), Ross taught urban affairs and social policy at Clark University for forty years. Much earlier he was among the founders of Students for a…

As the climate crisis continues, rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 is essential to minimize human suffering and to avoid the worst impacts of the crisis. The pathways to climate action require rapid deployment of renewable energy, reductions in animal agriculture and changes in land management to protect forests and promote reforestation, all of which take place in rural communities. Here, I discuss ongoing research (focused in upstate NY) on US rural community perceptions of climate…

Judy Clark was a red diaper baby who jumped into activism in her early teens, supporting the struggle for quality education and community control in NYC, led by the Black community in Brooklyn. By 1970, she joined Weatherman SDS, and for over a decade immersed herself in small, self-enclosed. anti-imperialist cadre organizations that championed armed struggle, even after becoming a mother. Ultimately, she spent 38 years in prison for her part in the 1981 BLA Brinks robbery, in which three…

Andru Volinsky was the lead lawyer in a series of cases (the Clarement cases) that established a constitutional right to public education and challenged the constitutionality of NH public school funding. He will share highlights and lessons from his book in process, Litigation and Public Policy for Change, which connects the dots between a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that shut down the prospects for a federal constitutional right to education and the struggles over 30 years of litigation around…

Former Vice President Al Gore once remarked that "all we lack is the political will" to act on climate. In 2007 a retired real estate agent from southern California decided to do something about this. He founded Citizens’ Climate Lobby with a mission of building the political will for a livable world by awakening individuals to their power as citizens. In this interactive session, participants will be introduced to the concept of transformational advocacy with examples drawn from the speaker’s…

Kim Landaverde is a young organizer with City Life | Vida Urbana (CLVU) who helped her immigrant parents stay in their home during the pandemic, when the landlord was going to “evict” them for lack of payment. It is from this organization, City Life | Vida Urbana, that we first heard the chant, “When We Fight, We Win!" Kim shares more about CLVU's work and her experiences organizing in Boston's Salvadoran American community. Listen to her story here!

In Spring 2023, Bob Nolan completed a thru paddle of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail. The NFCT is a 740 mile waterway trail connecting New York, Vermont, Quebec, New Hampshire and Maine by canoe via flatwater, whitewater and overland through deep wilderness and rural communities, starting in Old Forge, NY and ending at Fort Kent, ME. Bob will share stories, pictures and advice for anyone who might want to embark on such an adventure -- or a part of such…