You, Me, Us, Now

As a grad student Lisa worked to keep her college from kicking out anti-apartheid activists. Having found her calling, she went to law school instead. While there she worked to bring the rule of law to Guantanamo, where the US was warehousing Haitian refugees with AIDS. As a public defender in Seattle she successfully defended WTO protesters, and fought the police at every turn to end excessive use of force, bias in policing, and the war on drugs. Now she is at the table helping to implement Seattle Consent Decree with the Department of Justice. With cities around the country now going through DOJ investigations, Mike and Lisa talk about their experiences in Seattle, what works and what doesn’t, and what it means for places like Ferguson and Baltimore. It might surprise you.

Saitoti Parmelo is a Masai who went off to University then returned to help protect his people from being pushed off their grazing lands in Tanzania. The Masai are pastoralists who rely on on their cattle, who are now working to hold off government officials and foreign investors who want their land.

Diana McCauley of the Jamaica Environmental Trust brought the first environmental lawsuit in a Caribbean nation, earning the title 'that environmental woman,' which wasn't offered as a compliment. Diana reflects on a career in advocacy for the environment in a poor nation where the political leaders focus was always on the next big project.

Magdaleno Rose Avila is asked to speak in college after the murder of MLK, and then gets involved in the farm worker rights movement, amnesty international, and most recently organizing on behalf of an Oregon ballot measure to ban GMOs. Mike and Leno throw it back and forth on organizing, coalition building, and how the environmental movement can get less white. Leno tells better stories than Mike.

Chuck Ayers was the director of the Cascade Bicycle Club during Mike's term as Mayor. A conversation between friends and allies who found themselves as advocate and politician during the alleged “war on cars” in Seattle. Chuck offers his insights on organizing, electoral politics and pushing politicians to do the right thing once elected, and Mike gives a view from the Mayor’s office.

Bob Santos on growing up in Seattle's International District before WWII, getting swept up in 1960s activism, and helping create Seattle's multicultural coalition for civil rights. Mike and Bob talk about protests, arrests, and trying to collect church meeting room rent from the Black Panthers.

Maru Mora Villalpando, a Latina activist and an undocumented immigrant, decides with others to block buses leaving an immigration detention facility. Their actions reverberate all the way to the White House, helping bring attention to the need for immigration reform.

Tim Harris, homeless advocate and founder of Real Change newspaper, after being kicked out of three high schools and a stint in the air force, discovers activism in college. From there, he works with others to invent homeless activism as a response to Reagan era policies. What works, what doesn't, how he maintains his edge, and working in "the triage tent in the front lines of the war on the poor."