The Montana DSA Podcast

Stop The US Efforts to Extradite Incarcerated Journalist Julian Assange: A Dialogue with Marjorie Cohn About the Urgency of Defending Assange, Exposer of US War Crimes and Co-Founder of WikiLeaks

Montana DSA Podcast Episode 31 (Sept 1, 2023), features eminent legal scholar and analyst/activist Marjorie Cohn (articles and commentaries and bio at https://marjoriecohn.com/ [https://marjoriecohn.com/]) discussing the U.S, government's efforts to force the United Kingdom to extradite imprisoned WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange to the United States. Cohn describes these U.S. actions as ones that illegally threaten the First Amendment and Press Freedom. Cohn, a member of the Assange Defense advisory board (https://assangedefense.org/ [https://assangedefense.org/]), explains the importance of the Julian Assange case by saying: "This is the first time a publisher has been charged under the Espionage Act for disclosing government secrets...  For nearly five years, publisher and journalist Julian Assange has fought extradition to the United States where he faces 175 years in prison for revealing evidence of U.S. war crimes... Assange and WikiLeaks. In 2010-2011revealed evidence of U.S. war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay... Instead of protecting freedom of the press, to which he pledged allegiance at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April, Joe Biden is continuing Donald Trump’s prosecution of Assange under the infamous Espionage Act." Marjorie Cohn is a legal scholar, political analyst and activist *as a fierce defender of human rights and civil liberties and justice). A former criminal defense attorney, Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law where she taught for 25 years and is former president of the National Law former president of the National Lawyers Guild. A veteran of the anti-Vietnam War movement, Cohn is a member of the bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, and sits on the boards of directors of the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign, Lawyers Rights Watch Canada, the national advisory boards of Veterans for Peace, Assange Defense, and Progressive Democrats of America. Cohn writes books and articles, and lectures throughout the world about human rights, US foreign policy, and the contradiction between the two, and is cohost of the podcast Law and Disorder (https://lawanddisorder.org/ [https://lawanddisorder.org/]) on WBAI radio in New York and heard on 150 stations nationwide and online. Cohn's columns regularly appear on Truthout in her column, “Human Rights and Global Wrongs,” https://truthout.org/series/human-rights-and-global-wrongs/ [https://truthout.org/series/human-rights-and-global-wrongs/], where  she provides a critique of U.S. militarism, racist police violence, immigration policy, torture, the death penalty, surveillance, attacks on whistleblowers, executive branch lawbreaking, the Supreme Court, and violations of U.S. and international law. Cohn also publishes in HuffPost, Salon, Jurist, Truthdig, Portside, CommonDreams and Consortium News, and she has provided commentary for CBS News, BBC, MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, NPR and  and Pacifica Radio. See more of Cohn's work and writings at her blog and website https://marjoriecohn.com/ [https://marjoriecohn.com/] and >>  "Youth Are Suing Montana for Failing to Protect Their Future From Climate Chaos," https://marjoriecohn.com/youth-are-suing-montana-for-failing-to-protect-their-future-from-climate-chaos/ [https://marjoriecohn.com/youth-are-suing-montana-for-failing-to-protect-their-future-from-climate-chaos/], June 12, 2023 >> "Julian Assange Is “Dangerously Close” to Extradition for Revealing US War Crimes"   https://marjoriecohn.com/julian-assange-is-dangerously-close-to-ex [https://marjoriecohn.com/julian-assange-is-dangerously-close-to-extradition-for-revealing-us-war-crimes/]tradition-for-revealing-us-war-crimes/ [https://marjoriecohn.com/julian-assange-is-dangerously-close-to-extradition-for-revealing-us-war-crimes/],  July 17, 2023

Anne Hedges of the Montana Environmental Information Center: The Held v State of Montana Youth Climate Trial and A Planet on Fire That We Can Save

Anne Hedges, Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs for the Montana Environmental  Information Center (MEIC,  https://meic.org [https://meic.org], https://www.facebook.com/MTEIC [https://www.facebook.com/MTEIC])  is the  featured guest in Montana DSA’s 30th podcast July 26, 2023.  MEIC, founded in 1973, is Montana's premier environmental organization and is celebrating 50 years of work protecting Montana's environment).  Hedges directs MEIC’s program work, including its legislative, policy, and legal activities. Anne received her B.S. in environmental policy analysis and planning from the University of California at Davis and a Masters of Environmental Law from Vermont Law School and began work at MEIC in 1993, where she has worked on a wide range of pollution related issues during that span of time. Most recently Hedges' primary focus has been climate change, fossil fuels, clean air, and energy. Hedges provided expert testimony supporting the 16 Montana youth plaintiffs in the Held v State of Montana youth climate trial that was held in Helena in June.  In this podcast Hedges describes that historic youth climate trial and explains the urgency of the issues this trial raises for all of us living on a planet on fire. Hedges shows what is at stake for Montana's future and for the future of our planet in the Held v Montana youth's well-documented claims that the state of Montana, by supporting a fossil fuel-driven energy system that worsens the climate crisis, is violating their Montana constitutional right as citizens and youth to a “clean and healthful environment” and to seek safety, health, and happiness; and to individual dignity and equal protection of the law.  These 16 youth claim in their lawsuit, on our behalf as well as theirs, that the State of Montana's promotion and support of a fossil fuel energy system is degrading and depleting Montana’s constitutionally protected public trust resources, including the atmosphere, public land, rivers and lakes, and fish and wildlife, essential natural resources that must be preserved by government for the benefit of present and future generations.  (See KGVM radio for complete audio testimony of plaintiff’s witnesses at  https://kgvm.org/program/ecotones/ [https://kgvm.org/program/ecotones/], and Our Children's Trust, for additional resources about the trial, at https://www.youthvgov.org/held-v-montana [https://www.youthvgov.org/held-v-montana]). Hedges highlights the urgency of actions to oppose the dangerous environmental actions taken by the Republican supermajority  in the 2023 Montana Legislature and by Governor Gianforte (apparently based on their ignorance of the climate change/crisis evidence and supported only by their subservience to big business and right-wing culture wars ideology).  Hedges cites the hopeful, encouraging fact that research polls show that -- unlike those in charge of the Legislature  and the Governor's Office -- the majority of Montanans do know and understand the climate change evidence and the need to  go beyond fossils fuels to renewable, clean energy and that the majority of Montanans are supportive of the positions advocated by the youth and their expert witnesses in the Held v Montana trial. Hedges then offers several concrete suggestions for practical actions that all of us can take, in conjunction with our neighbors, to successfully address the Montana climate issues, and she provides recommendations for further study (websites, podcasts, Montana organizations) that will help each of us deepen our knowledge of these issues.

A conversation with Darrell Ehrlick editor-in-chief of The Daily Montanan, a non-profit news source that strives to go beyond superficial news coverage.

This 29th episode of the Montana DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) Podcast series features a conversation with Darrell Ehrlick of Billings, the editor-in-chief of The Daily Montanan (TDM), https://dailymontanan.com/ [https://dailymontanan.com/], founded in January 2021 as a nonprofit, independent, nonpartisan source for news, commentary and insight into statewide policy and politics beneath the Big Sky. TDM's guiding motto/maxim is "Truth. Transparency. Trust." Ehrlick is an award-winning journalist, author, historian and teacher whose career has taken him to North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Utah, and Wyoming. Ehrlick is also a frequent writer of hard-hitting op-eds criticizing injustices he sees. For example, see  Ehrlich's June 8th commentary strongly criticizing Governor Gianforte and the State of Montana in his op-ed titled: "Montana … where hungry children are just too much paperwork" -- "Last week, the State of Montana told the media it was not going to take $10 million in funding for summer food programs that would have helped feed hungry children across the state, all because the administrative burdens (read: paperwork) were just too much for the state [https://dailymontanan.com/2023/05/31/dphhs-declines-millions-in-federal-food-assistance-for-children-as-food-banks-see-soaring-need/]. Meanwhile, food bank programs report either record or near-record demand as inflation has waged a multi-fronted attack on the financial resources of Montana families.. "  https://dailymontanan.com/2023/06/08/montana-where-hungry-children-are-just-too-much-paperwork/ [https://dailymontanan.com/2023/06/08/montana-where-hungry-children-are-just-too-much-paperwork/]

Nick Engelfried: How Young Climate Activists Upended the Politics of Climate Change and Built a Mass Movement To Be Reckoned With...

Montana DSA  Democratic Socialists of America) Podcast Episode 28 features Nick Engelfried (https://nickengelfried.com/about-nick/ [https://nickengelfried.com/about-nick/]) -- environmental educator and climate activist since the early 2000s and author of Movement Makers: How Young Activists Upended the Politics of Climate Change [https://nickengelfried.com/movementmakers/] (https://nickengelfried.com/movementmakers/ [https://nickengelfried.com/movementmakers/]), the first major book to comprehensively examine more than two decades of youth-led climate activism and organizing. In this podcast, Nick Engelfried and Helena DSA's Frank Kromkowski have a conversation about the two decade history of youth-led climate activism in the United States and about needed next steps of a youth-led movement strengthened by two decades of transformative action. After in finishing his MS in Environmental Studies at UM in Missoula, Nick expanded his involvement in Montana’s climate justice movement, working with UM students to launch a fossil fuel divestment campaign and co-founding a local chapter (350 Montana, https://www.350montana.org/ [https://www.350montana.org/]) of the international climate activist organization 350.org [http://350.org] (https://350.org/ [https://350.org/]).  Engelfried was  also, in 2018 , founder of Reconnect Earth (RE, https://reconnectearth.org/aboutus/ [https://reconnectearth.org/aboutus/]: RE works for a socially and ecologically just future by fostering and growing a network of empowered young leaders to sustain grassroots social movements for years to come.)  As an environmental educator with Reconnect Earth and also as  freelance journalist, Nick has covered the Pacific Northwest fossil fuel resistance, Indigenous-led campaigns to stop oil pipelines, the fossil fuel divestment movement, the rise of the Fridays for Future climate strikes, and more. Nick’s path into activism began in the early 2000s, when the national youth climate movement itself was young. He helped organize students to support campus sustainability efforts and campaigns to stop large fossil fuel projects, first at Portland Community College and then at Oregon’s Pacific University. After graduating from Pacific in 2009, Nick continued recruiting students from colleges and universities throughout the Northwest to oppose coal plants and liquefied natural gas pipelines in the region. He received the Oregon Sierra Club’s Adam Alabarca Young Activist Award in 2010. In 2011, Nick moved to Missoula, Montana, where he earned a Master’s in Environmental Studies at the University of Montana and founded the student-led Blue Skies Campaign  (https://nickengelfried.com/blue-skies-campaign/ [https://nickengelfried.com/blue-skies-campaign/]). Blue Skies helped grow and escalate the grassroots resistance to coal mine-for-export projects by organizing large rallies, creative protests, and nonviolent direct action in Western Montana. Blue Skies was  a new student-led grassroots organization to oppose new coal mining and coal exports in Montana and it evolved into an organization with hundreds of student and non-student members. Blue Skies used traditional grassroots organizing methods as well as tactics like nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience to demonstrate public opposition to Arch Coal’s proposed Otter Creek Coal Mine and other coal industry projects in Montana. Over the course of four years, Blue Skies organized rallies with hundreds of people, held the largest climate-related civil disobedience action in Montana history (a sit-in at the State Capitol building in Helena), peacefully blockaded coal trains, and put pressure on public officials. In 2015, the Otter Creek Coal Mine –- which would have been located in Southeast Montana and would have been one of the largest coal strip mines in North America–- was officially canceled by Arch Coal. More about Nick Engelfried: https://nickengelfried.com/about-nick/ [https://nickengelfried.com/about-nick/]

Tootie Welker: Montana Feminist Socialist Grassroots Empowerment Leader in Montana DSA Activism for Fundamental Social Justice Transformation and Healing

Veteran feminist social justice activist Tootie Welker of Hot Springs, Montana is featured in this June 7th conversation with DSA's Frank Kromkowski of Helena in Episode 27 of the 2023 Montana DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) Podcast Series. Welker describes herself as a "Radical socialist fighting for justice for all, dog, cat mom. Small business owner @mayarisingshop" -- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/twelker [https://www.facebook.com/twelker]). Welker describes what she has learned in her more than 40 years of working in Montana as a feminist socialist grassroots activist and community organizer working for citizen empowerment aimed at fundamental social justice transformation and healing overcome widespread  injustices, violence against women, oppression, racism and wealth inequalities in Montana. In this June 7th podcast, Welker looks back at her work decades ago in the 1980s/1990s as a staff member, grassroots community organizer, empowerment educator/trainer, candidate recruiter and legislative lobbyist for MAPP/MontCel -- The Montana Alliance for Progressive Policy/Montana Citizens for an Effective Legislature, which was a coalition of seven statewide Montana citizen groups including conservation, labor, agriculture, women, education, and low-income groups who worked together to achieve common goals for social and economic justice and environmental quality. Welker describes how that MAPP/MontCEL work was followed by thirty years of empowerment activism work in the  area of domestic and sexual violence as a consultant, trainer, expert witness, providing direct assistance to domestic violence/battering survivors as well as consultation and training to domestic and sexual violence advocacy programs, sharing her deep knowledge and experience in feminist/empowerment model of assisting domestic violence survivors. Tootie played a central role in the creation of the Montana DSA organization and continues her participation in DSA, whose members believe that both the economy and society should be democratically run to meet human needs, not to make profits for a few. Welker explains how her feminist and democratic socialist and grassroots empowerment practices and framework can be applied today -- to help create coalitions and organizations that can help us dig our way out of the continuing injustices, deep antagonisms, legislative debacles and social inequalities of our time and move closer to a more peaceful world, creating a society of sisters and brothers living together with love, respect, healing and justice for all.