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8:00-8:01 Billboard:
North Korea Threatens to Conduct its First Underground Nuclear
Test as Veterans Mark the 50th Anniversary of the Korean War
Armistice
INTRO: Veterans from 16 nations attended a ceremony in Panmunjom,
in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea to
mark the 50th anniversary of the armistice. We hear from activist
Seung Hye Suh and author Martin Hart-Landsberg.
Castro Criticizes EU in Speech Marking 50th Anniversary of
the Launch of the Cuban Revolution
INTRO: The nationally broadcast speech was billed as the
highlight of three days celebration of his bold attack on
the Moncada army barracks on July 26, 1953. We speak with
professor Lillian Guerra and go to Cuba to hear from exiled
activist Nehanda Abiodun.
Mother Jones’ March of the Mill Children 100 Years
Later
INTRO: Actress Betsy Means retraces the steps of Mother
Jones’ historic 1903 march from Philadelphia to the
Long Island home of President Teddy Roosevelt. The 70-year-old
labor organizer was protesting the plight of child laborers.
Means performs as Mother Jones in the Democracy Now! studios.
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:20 North Korea Threatens to Conduct its First Underground
Nuclear Test as Veterans Mark the 50th Anniversary of the
Korean War Armistice
INTRO: Veterans from 16 nations attended a ceremony in Panmunjom,
in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea to
mark the 50th anniversary of the armistice. We hear from activist
Seung Hye Suh and author Martin Hart-Landsberg.
Veterans from 16 nations stood on Cold War's last frontier
on Sunday to mark the 50th anniversary of the Korean War armistice
agreement.
The ceremony took place at Panmunjom, in the demilitarized
zone between North and South Korea, set up under the 1953
armistice.
Some 37,000 US and 700,000 South Korean troops face off against
North Korea's 1.1 million strong army over a border that remains
a dangerous flashpoint.
The armistice was essentially a ceasefire between rival armies
and was never replaced by a peace treaty. North Korea has
described the ceremony as "a very dangerous act"
at a time when the risk of a far more destructive war is rising.
More than 5 million people were killed or wounded or disappeared
during the three year-war.
President Bush stopped by the Korean War Memorial in Washington
DC for just seven minutes Friday to remember the over 33,000
US soldiers killed.
Meanwhile, North Korea has raised the stakes dramatically
in its confrontation with the US by privately threatening
to conduct its first underground nuclear test.
This comes after President Bush named North Korea as one
of the three members of the axis of evil alongside Iraq and
Iran.
The Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported on Saturday
that the warning had been conveyed to U.S. envoy Jack Pritchard
by a North Korean official in a meeting in New York earlier
this month.
Diplomatic sources in Tokyo told Reuters earlier this week
that the North is set to announce that it has become the world’s
ninth nuclear power. This would open the way for tests and
increased production of weapons, unless the nuclear crisis
is resolved by Sept. 9, the anniversary of North Korea's founding.
- Martin Hart-Landsberg, author of Korea: Division, Reunification
and U.S. Foreign Policy. He teaches economics at Lewis and
Clark College.
Link: www.lclark.edu
- Seung Hye Suh, an organizer with Nodutdol for Korean Community
Development. They recently organized Commemoration for Change:
a weekend of action to stop war on the Korean Peninsula
Link: www.nodutdol.com
and www.july27.org
8:20-8:21 One Minute Music Break
8:21-8:40 Castro Criticizes EU in Speech Marking 50th Anniversary
of the Launch of the Cuban Revolution
INTRO: The nationally broadcast speech was billed as the
highlight of three days celebration of his bold attack on
the Moncada army barracks on July 26, 1953. We speak with
professor Lillian Guerra and go to Cuba to hear from exiled
activist Nehanda Abiodun.
Cuban President Fidel Castro delivered a 70-minute speech
on Saturday on the spot where he launched the Cuban Revolution
50 years ago.
The nationally broadcast speech was billed as the highlight
of three days celebration of his bold attack on the Moncada
army barracks on July 26, 1953.
Moncada was the second most important military base of corrupt
U.S.-backed right-wing dictator Fulgencio Batista.
The band of 130 rebels was defeated, but prison and exile
did not stop Castro. His guerrilla insurgency triumphed five
years later and he has remained in power ever since.
In his speech, Castro did not criticize Washington, his traditional
target, but focused on Europe.
Castro said, "The Cuban government, out of a basic feeling
of dignity, rejects any humanitarian aid, or remaining aid,
that may be offered by the governments of the European Union."
The rejection was in reaction to the EU’s changed tone
toward Cuba following Havana's recent crackdown on dissidents.
With the Bush administration stepping up support for his
opponents, Castro launched a crackdown in March. 75 dissidents
were imprisoned and three men were who tried to hijack a ferry
to the United States were executed.
The unprecedented repression heightened Cuba's international
isolation and the EU condemned the crackdown and reduced political
contacts.
While the United States has maintained an economic embargo
on Cuba for over 40 years, Europe is Cuba's main investor
providing nearly half of the 1.7 million foreign visitors
last year.
- Lillian Guerra, professor of Latin American and Caribbean
History at Bates College. She researches the political development
of nationalism and imperialism in Cuba.
Link: www.bates.edu
- Nehanda Abiodun, U.S. activist living in political exile
in Cuba.
8:40-8:41 One Minute Music Break
8:41-8:58 Mother Jones’ March of the Mill Children
100 Years Later
INTRO: Actress Betsy Means retraces the steps of Mother
Jones’ historic 1903 march from Philadelphia to the
Long Island home of President Teddy Roosevelt. The 70-year-old
labor organizer was protesting the plight of child laborers.
Means performs as Mother Jones in the Democracy Now! studios.
100 years ago this week, labor organizer Mother Jones marched
to the summer home of President Teddy Roosevelt on Long Island.
By her side were three young mill workers. She was protesting
the plight of child laborers.
Mother Jones march had begun three weeks earlier in Philadelphia,
where she had witnessed 10,000 children working in textile
mills for close to no pay.
Well this year, actress Betsy Means choose to commemorate
the march of the mill children by retracing the steps of Mother
Jones. For the past three weeks she has been marching, often
dressed as Mother Jones, from Philadelphia heading towards
Long Island.
Today she arrives at Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay. She will
be performing as Mother Jones in the town but not at Roosevelt’s
former residence. Officials at the home, which is now a museum,
brushed Means off very much like Mother Jones was brushed
off 100 years ago.
When Mother Jones arrived on this day in 1903, the president’s
secretary told her the president was “unavailable.”
100 years later officials at the museum rejected Means offer
to perform. A museum spokesperson recently told Newsday "This
is one of those minor footnotes of history.”
But neither the march nor the life of Mother Jones can be
considered a footnote in American history.
The march brought Mother Jones national attention. Within
three years, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York passed
the nation's first child labor laws.
At the time of the march Mother Jones was about 70 years
old.
Born in Cork Ireland, the first 50 years of her life were
unremarkable except for the fact that she faced tremendous
hardship. Her husband and four children all died of yellow
fever in 1867. Four years later the Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed
her home and store.
It was not until she was about 50 years old when she became
a full-time union organizer. She would continue to organize
and raise hell until her death in 1930 at the age of 100.
- Betsy Means, actress who retraces the steps of Mother
Jones’ historic 1903 march from Philadelphia to the
Long Island home of President Teddy Roosevelt.
8:58-8:59 Outro and Credits
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Kris Abrams, Mike Burke, Sharif
Abdul Kouddous, Lenina Nadal, Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press,
Parves Sharma. Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
[Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Rafael delaUz, Gabriel Weiss, Johnny Sender,
Rich Kim, Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Jenny
Filipazzo and Ionnis Mookas.]
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