Indy Audio

We speak indy reporter Ariana Orozco about her stories in the newly-released April issue of The Indypendent. Orozco has been covering the State of New York’s attempt to close SUNY Downstate Hospital in central Brooklyn. She also spoke with med school students at Albert Einstein College of Medicine about the recent announcement that a $1 billion donation to the school would ensure students at the school would have to pay tuition again.

We speak with Amba Guerguerian about her article in the newly-released April issue of The Indypendent. Guerguerian’s cover story looks at how younger workers are leading the charge in a resurgent labor movement as they strive to turn low-wage retail and service sector jobs into stable, good-paying union jobs. And how they're winning.

We speak with a barista at a unionized store in Williiamsburg about the positive impacts that are already being felt by workers at her/their store. And we speak with a labor historian who says the breakthrough at Starbucks could turn out to be the biggest victory for the labor movement in the United States since the great industrial strikes of the 1930s led to the creation of the modern labor movement.

—Over 100+ cities around the world took to the streets to denounce Israel’s threats to intensify the genocide in Gaza by ground invading Rafah, the tightly-packed “safe” zone on March 10, the first day of Ramadan. —We know of protests that occurred in many US cities, including but not limited to DC, Philly, Baltimore, Cambridge, Providence, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Denver, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, LA, Tampa, Raleigh, Asheville, NC, and in cities in counties such as Cuba, Argentina, Venezuela, Jamaica, South Africa, El Salvador, Lebanon, Hawaii, Morocco, Spain, Puerto Rico, Malaysia, South Korea, Indonesia, Canada, Sweden and Japan. —Meanwhile, Gazans are mourning loved ones killed in massacres and starving to death due to Israel’s siege. —A growing number of children in Gaza have been dying of starvation and dehydration, over recent days according to the World Health Organization and Palestinian officials, amid desperate conditions due to Israel’s throttling of aid and destruction of t

In our first segment, we speak with workers at Trader Joe’s Essex Crossing in Lower Manhattan about the recent firing of a union worker and the ongoing struggle there to unionize the workforce. We are also be joined by Seth Goldstein, a union lawyer who represents the workers, about threats that labor law is facing: Amazon, SpaceX and Trader Joe's are alleging in a legal filing published Friday morning that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is unconstitutional. Then, we hear an interview by Indypendent Editor-in-Chief John Tarleton with Bennett Fischer of the United Federation of Teachers. At the United Federation of Teachers, one of the city’s largest municipal unions, UFT Retiree Advocate, a group of retiree activists, announced on Friday that they will contest an internal union election this spring for leadership of the retiree chapter which has more than 60,000 members. And in our final segment, we speak with Tami Gold, Professor of Film and Media Studies at CUNY’s Hunter College about an ongoi

We hear an interview by Indypendent Editor-in-Chief John Tarleton with Bennett Fischer of the United Federation of Teachers. At the United Federation of Teachers, one of the city’s largest municipal unions, UFT Retiree Advocate, a group of retiree activists, announced on Friday that they will contest an internal union election this spring for leadership of the retiree chapter which has more than 60,000 members.

We speak with Tami Gold, Professor of Film and Media Studies at CUNY’s Hunter College about an ongoing film series showing movies about Palestine. She’ll also update us about an upcoming Jewish Voice for Peace protest for Palestine.

We speak with Don Mark Roxas and Diego Ramirez, workers at Trader Joe’s Essex Crossing in Lower Manhattan, about the recent firing of a union worker and the ongoing struggle there to unionize the workforce. We are also joined by Seth Goldstein, a union lawyer who represents the workers, about threats that labor law is facing: Amazon, SpaceX and Trader Joe's are alleging in a legal filing published Friday morning that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is unconstitutional.

We speak with Within Our Lifetime Palestine organizer Abdullah Akl. WOL has led over 100 protests across the city since Oct. 7. The pro-Palestinian group has been dealing this month with an intensifying crackdown by the NYPD and recently had its Instagram account suspended by Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp.

We look back at an earlier era in New York City history — a very different world in many ways, but not so different in others. In 1741, New York City had a population of 11,000 people, about one-sixth of whom were enslaved. We learn about a terrible court case that was prosecuted by Judges Chambers and Murray. We are joined by longtime defense attorney, death-penalty abolitionist Russel Neufeld and amateur historian, who is working to overturn it now.

We speak with Columbia student and Indy reporter Claudia Villalona about the larger context and outcomes of a Jan. 19 chemical weapon attack on pro-Palestine student protesters on Columbia's campus.

We spoke with Columbia student and Indy reporter Claudia Villalona about the larger context and outcomes of a Jan. 19 chemical weapon attack on pro-Palestine student protesters on Columbia's campus. Then, we hear from Abdullah el-Akl from Within Our Lifetime Palestine talking about the repression that the organization and its leaders are facing including their widely-followed Instagram account being deleted by META. Lastly, we learn about a terrible court case from 1741, when New York City had a mere population of 11,000 and one-sixth of that was slaves. The prosecutors in the case were Chambers and Murray.

The Earth Church is a radical theater space housed in a former bank building in the East Village. It is home to Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Choir. But now it’s also a welcoming center for hundreds of migrants who have been denied essential city services and part of a broader community mobilization in the East Village to aid desperate migrants. We speak with Savitri D., one of the leaders of the Earth Church.

CUNY has been under increasing financial strain in recent years. The surprise firings and the course rollbacks at Queens College have stoked fears across CUNY that more such measures could take place across the CUNY system. We speak with Ash Marinaccio, one of the 26 fired professors, and Karen Weingarten, Professor of English at Queens College. Karen is also the chapter chair at her campus for the Professional Staff Congress-CUNY, the union that represents 30,000 faculty and staff at CUNY.

A round of Gaza updates from The Indy's Amba Guerguerian: ICJ decision, UNRWA defunding, updates from on the ground in southern Gaza, perspectives on various attacks in the Middle East & the arresting of Nerdeen Kiswani and other pro-Palestine protest leaders on Friday, Jan. 26.

First segment: A recent spate of budget cuts and faculty firings at Queens College have stoked concerns that a devastating new wave of austerity could sweep across CUNY, the largest urban higher education system in the country. Second Segment: The Earth Church is a radical theater space housed in a former bank building in the East Village. It is home to Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Choir. But now it’s also a welcoming center for hundreds of migrants who have been denied essential city services and part of a broader community mobilization in the East Village to aid desperate migrants. Plus, we also get a Gaza Update from co-host Amba Guerguerian.

Indy editor Amba Guerguerian spent the entirety of the hour with Desiree Joy Frias of South Bronx Mutual Aid about how the financial aspects of the migrant "crisis" in New York City have been manufactured and how it is a crisis not for the inhabitants of the city, but for the migrants themselves. We speak about updates in conditions and rules for the recently arrived migrants, the vast majority of whom are asylum seekers. South Bronx Mutual Aid is part of a large network of mutual aid groups that have been working to support large groups of migrants arriving since June 2022.

John Tarleton and Nicholas Powers of The Indypendent talk about the New Hampshire primary and what it means that Joe Biden and Donald Trump are both on the verge of locking up their party’s nominations and pivoting to a general election contest that most Americans say they do not want to see.

Much of NYC's fate is decided in Albany where a new session of the state legislation has begun. We speak with State Sen. Jabari Brisport and Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes, both Democratic Socialists, about their top priorities and how to make state government work for working people. In the second half of the show, we speak with Jonathan Soto, a public-education advocate and NYC DSA-endorsed candidate for the NY State Assembly. If he wins, Soto will be the first Socialist legislator elected from the Bronx in more than a century.

We speak with Jonathan Soto, a public-education advocate and NYC DSA-endorsed candidate for the NY State Assembly. If he wins, Soto will be the first Socialist legislator elected from the Bronx in more than a century.