On the Frontlines
On the Frontlines is a weekly community program features stories of social justice, climate justice, and economic justice. On the Frontlines is hosted by Jill Mangaliman and Edgar Franks and supported by Front and Centered.
Jill Mangaliman is a community organizer and writer born and raised in Seattle. They serve on the national secretariat of BAYAN USA, an alliance of anti-imperialist Filipino grassroots organizations, and serve as chairperson of GABRIELA Seattle. Jill is also a founding board member of Front and Centered and Bush Garden karaoke host.
Edgar Franks is the Policy Director of Familias Unidas por la Justicia, an independent farmworker union with over 500 members across Washington State. The son of farmworkers, Edgar grew up in the fields of Mount Vernon and spends most of his time in Skagit Valley, organizing and reading comic books.
Front and Centered is a statewide coalition of over seventy community organizations that represent and are staffed by frontline communities in Washington State. Front and Centered resists climate justice with a grassroots approach and under the framework of a Just Transition.
On the Frontlines
Crash #COP27: Surveillance of Activists at the Conference of Profiteers
For this episode of Crash #COP27, Edgar reports back on what he's seen so far in the COP27 Green Zone. Notable is the dominating presence of organizations peddling false solutions, particularly nuclear power. Jill and Edgar discuss how Washington State, once a leader in the green movement, has now become an innovation hub for false solutions, including geoengineering technology as well as nuclear.
Our hosts also talk about the recent news that activists and movement leaders at COP27 are possibly being surveilled by the Egyptian government, begging the questions: Who is the COP for? Is this sort of surveillance actually part of the rationale behind why certain countries are chosen as hosts for the COP? and If the COP isn't a space for the grassroots or for movement building, then where is our alternative to the COP?
Recorded on November 8, 2022. Crash #COP27 is a special season of On the Frontlines.
Check out:
- COP27 Wifi in Egypt Blocks Human Rights and Key News Websites (November 7, 2022, The Guardian)
- From Blah, Blah, Blah to Blood, Blood, Blood: Holding the COP27 Summit in Egypt’s Police State Creates a Moral Crisis for the Climate Movement (November 7, 2022, The Intercept)
- Billionaires Responsible for Million Times More Emissions Than Average Person, Oxfam Report Finds (November 8, 2022, Euronews)
Music:
Maximalism by Punch Deck | https://soundcloud.com/punch-deck
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US
Find On the Frontlines at frontandcentered.org/podcast
