The Montana DSA Podcast

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/) 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/), 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/) 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/, 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/ 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/, June 12, 2023
>> "Julian Assange Is “Dangerously Close” to Extradition 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, Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs for the Montana Environmental  Information Center (MEIC,  https://meic.org, 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/, and Our Children's Trust, for additional resources about the trial, at 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.

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/, 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. 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/

Montana DSA  Democratic Socialists of America) Podcast Episode 28 features Nick Engelfried (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/), 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/) of the international climate activist organization 350.org (https://350.org/).  Engelfried was  also, in 2018 , founder of Reconnect Earth (RE, 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/). 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/

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).
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.

This Montana DSA Podcast (episode 26) features a conversation with screenwriter, filmmaker, essayist and long-time social and environmental justice and anti-capitalism, anti-war and anti-US imperialism activist Paul Edwards of Helena. A prolific essayist, writing in critical, alternative on-line journals such as CounterPunch and Information Clearing House, Edwards (with his long-time collaborator Lanny Cotler) has also created ClassWar Films. Edwards’ powerful, provocative 2012 film "Let Your Life Be a Friction to Stop the Machine -- A brief and crucial history of the United States" has had more than 330,000 views. (See http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30620.htm and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2Xh5eN2fXY&t=839s .)
In this podcast Edwards explains his views that powerful, long-inculcated capitalist/money elite myths, fairy tales and propaganda during the recent “debt ceiling” debate have obscured basic economic truths and realities about how US capitalism and its money elites  have miserably failed to meet citizens’ basic needs. (See Edwards’ views more fully articulated in his latest ICH article, “America’s Massive Effort To Distort And Suppress Truth About US Government Financing: Publish the Myths/Legends, Ignore The Realities,” https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/57593.htm . Edwards asks: “What is to be done? ... For two hundred years Americans have been indoctrinated with a mythology created, imposed and sustained by a manipulating cabal: the financial elite that built its absolute control on the muscle and blood, good will, ignorance and credulity, of its citizenry… The sole driving force and purpose of Capitalism is the realization of profit. There is no provision for social good in Capitalist theory. And yet, even with the American Myth now totally and irreparably blown full of holes and exposed demonstrably for the tissue of lies, deceptions and frauds that it has always been, it somehow keeps its phenomenal hold on the great mass of the American people… The great question now is whether we as a nation can awaken from this long historic nightmare and face the terrifying and exhilarating prospect of living in the full light of reality without the false props and dishonest constructs of a hoodwinked, herded and dishonored people…?  In 1846, Henry David Thoreau, offended to his soul by the injustice of the American government’s invasion of Mexico, protested it and went to jail for his convictions. Later, in his essay On Civil Disobedience, he said this: ‘If injustice is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.’ … … [Edwards says]: We are not lost. We are not even defeated because to this moment we have not engaged. We have not honored our responsibility as human beings. We have not risen to defend our humanity. We have let ourselves be ruled… The legitimate anger of humanity is expressing itself against the dead and killing hand of Predatory Capitalism and its agencies of violence. And here, in America, so long trapped and encapsulated, frozen like a fly in amber in a false religion of state idolatry, the anger is deep, widespread, and growing...It is up to those who know and care to lead… We cannot let the Machine of Injustice grind on. We must oppose it with all the moral force we own. We must act with quiet courage to confront a vicious tyrannical system that is destroying the earth, its life, and its people. We must put our lives on the line to oppose it. The Nightmare Machine of rapacious exploitation has overthrown humanity’s decency and reason and its bloody inhuman treason flourishes over us. This must be ended. Let your life be a friction now to stop the Machine.”

Montana DSA Podcast episode 25 (May 30) features a conversation with Paul Lachapelle of MSU in Bozeman, founder of Climate Smart Montana  (⁠https://www.montana.edu/communitydevelopment/csm/⁠).  scholar and climate activist, working for the last 16 years as a Professor in ⁠the ⁠Department of Political Science at Montana State University-Bozeman (⁠https://www.montana.edu/plachapelle/⁠). His teaching and research span many disciplines and practices including community climate change resiliency, diversity and inclusion, and social justice topics. He served as President (2016-2019) of the International Association for Community Development (⁠https://www.iacdglobal.org/⁠). In the podcast Lachapelle focuses on what he sees as the extremely urgent, life-threatening climate change threats faced by Montana communities and all of the earth as a result of the irresponsible actions of the fossil fuel industry with its billions in profits and its propaganda efforts to downplay the planetary climate crisis. Lachapelle called attention to the consensus in the scientific community, as documented by the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, ⁠https://www.ipcc.ch/⁠), that the climate crisis is rooted in the irresponsible use of and reliance on non-renewable fossil fuels, which continue to emit billions of tons of carbon dioxide contributing to extreme warming, shrinking snowpacks, unprecedented floods, devastating wildfires and disruption of earth’s ecosystems and food resources.  Lachapelle invites all of us to get connected to ⁠Climate Smart Montana⁠, a non-partisan, non-profit network with the goal of sharing information and resources to better coordinate community-based climate solutions and resiliency efforts in Montana. He discusses and stresses the need for all of us -- scholars, students and all Montana citizens -- to get engaged to end the Climate Crisis and work together to organize and coordinate community-based climate crisis solutions and resiliency efforts in Montana.” Lachapelle and his MSU collaborators write: “We can choose to mitigate, adapt, and build more-resilient communities now or be forced to adapt later under harsher and more costly conditions. The hard work of our own university scientists has revealed unequivocal and irrefutable evidence of climate change—and its potentially devastating effects on our beautiful state. We need immediate, sustained, and rapid reductions in carbon emissions, and now is the time to mobilize Montana know-how.” ⁠https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/opinions/guest_columnists/guest-column-montana-state-university-must-lead-the-way-⁠⁠on-addressing-climate-crisis/article_acd31484-294c-11ed-b37c-e316ebd190a2.html⁠

In Episode 24 of Montana DSA's 2023 Podcast Series on May 25, Rose Bender, Director of Research at  the Montana Budget & Policy Center (MBPC, https://montanabudget.org/), analyzes the 2023 Legislature's actions in the areas of social and economic justice in tax policy/structure, the Montana affordable housing crisis, policies affecting Montana's Native American children and families and State-Tribal policies, health care provider rates, and childcare programs for low income families.  

Bender says MBPC will publish new reports on these issues very soon (see https://montanabudget.org/all-reports). Bender focused much of her commentary on the many majority party 2023 legislative actions that increased Montana's deep-rooted patterns and practices of economic injustice and racial and class inequalities and oppression. Building on her historical analysis in her article "Racist Roots of Montana’s Tax System"  (on-line at https://montanabudget.org/report/racistroots_mttax).

Bender emphasized that Montana's tax policy is not fair and race-neutral. Bender wrote: "Decades of lawmaking by majority white decision-makers has resulted in a  tax code that disproportionately benefits white, wealthy Montanans. This tax code, which asks more from Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) in Montana, contributes to the persistent racial wealth gap. Montana’s tax code exacerbates the impacts of historical patterns of racism in Montana and the country by requiring people living on the lowest incomes, who are disproportionately Black, Indigenous, and people of color, to pay 22 percent more of every dollar in state and local taxes than the wealthiest. This pattern is getting worse...."   Bender explains how this tax injustice pattern has been worsened by the 2023 Montana Legislature's actions. She says that now that this legislative session is over, we will have to continue and up our efforts in partnership with MBPC and MBPC's activist partners such as Montana Women Vote (https://www.facebook.com/montanawomenvote), making sure that we "include  and elevate the voices of those sometimes left out of conversations about economic policies, including women, seniors, people with disabilities, American Indians, and families living on low incomes."

Bender invited us to join with  MBPC (https://montanabudget.org/about-us) as it "strives to advance public policy that will result in: 1) Smart budgets that prioritize investments in public education, health care and other public services that create opportunity for all; 2) Fair taxes that produce sufficient revenue to pay for needed public investments, such as protecting clean water and educating our kids; and 3)Economic policies that ensure all families, not just a wealthy few, enjoy the benefits of a growing economy."

_________________________________________________________________

~ Frank Kromkowski, Helena DSA member and Montana DSA Podcast host/interviewer

fkromkowski@gmail.com

The 23rd Montana DSA Podcast is a conversation with community development activist Jeff Buscher of Helena, Community Impact Coordinator for the United Way of the Lewis and Clark County Area (UWLCA).  Buscher described the work of the new Helena affordable housing coalition and working teams he has created to address the affordable housing crisis (“Move the Dial on Housing” – United to Solve the Helena Housing Affordability Crisis) — and he invited all of to contact him at United Way Lewis and Clark County (406.442.4360; jeff@unitedwaylca.org, www.unitedwaylca.org to get active in this project.  
Buscher noted that while the pain of the state’s housing crisis was a top issue for most Montana citizens, it appeared to be the case that the 2023 Montana Legislature at best made only modest progress with laws and public spending addressing housing issues. Most of the progressive housing proposals put forth were defeated by the majority party, while it used the more than 2 billion dollar state budget surplus to give tax rebates (mainly) to the wealthy.
Buscher stressed that this once again left the bulk of the urgently-needed work of addressing the housing crisis to local non-profit community development organizations across the state (such as the United Way, HRDCs, Habitat for Humanity, homeless shelters and local social justice coalitions such as Helena’s “Move the Dial on Housing.”)

Buscher described the results of the most recent HUD survey of homelessness in Montana, showing high levels of homelessness all across the state. He also discussed the large number of Helena students (approximately 380) who are part of the homeless population.  
Buscher explained the depth and many interconnected dimension of the housing affordability crisis in the Helena area (such as huge waiting lists for subsidized housing, lack of rentals within the range of low-and-moderate income families, continuing high levels of poverty, less-than-living wages, levels of new housing construction that fall far short of population increases, very high vacancy rates in the apartment rental arena, and inadequate mental health resources). He invited us to become United in Sustained Planning and Action to End the Affordable Housing Crisis.

    The Montana DSA Podcast’s 21st episode is a dialogue with Rep. Zooey Zephyr of Missoula --  a progressive, bisexual trans woman who fought for social and economic and environmental justice in the 2023 Montana Legislature, working tirelessly to defend our health care, our housing, our human rights, the rights of trans people and democracy itself. The GOP supermajority’s undemocratic censure of Rep. Zephyr kept her from her seat in the House for the last week of the session, unconstitutionally barred her from speaking in the House. Her response: “Despite all the cruelties, I believe people saw a glimpse of what our country can be if we stand up for democracy & for one another… There is an awakening happening in this county, where people are seeing how willing certain groups are to throw away democracy in pursuit of their ideological goals… Those who hate trans people are doing everything in their power to silence & harm us. But we will not be deterred. We will stand in defiance of their cruelty, and never stop working until trans people get to live our lives in peace…  Courage is contagious. Whenever we stand up against undemocratic actions, we stand together with everyone through history who has fought for democracy… I'll be meeting with communities & lawmakers across the state & country to discuss how this moment becomes a movement if we stand together.” Zooey Zephyr on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZoAndBehold

Jim Nelson was an Associate Justice on the Montana Supreme Court from 1993 to 2012. Justice Nelson has perhaps most affected the State's privacy jurisprudence in the area of personal autonomy. As a result of cases like Armstrong v. State (on abortion rights) and Gryczan v. State (on marriage rights)—both Nelson-authored opinions—Montana's right to privacy now more fully encompasses personal autonomy and decision-making. Nelson most recently set the white Christian nationalist's hair on fire with his speech defending the Montana Constitution and our co-equal judicial branch, delivered on March 15, 2023, before several hundred people in the state capitol rotunda. The Freedom Caucus Republicans accused him in a press release, rightly ignored by the Montana press, of being a "jihadist." You can watch the speech at https://www.helenacivictv.org/on-demand/4391 (starting at 22:00).