What's Going On

Wed, Oct 13, 2021 07:00 AM

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Hosts: WBAI Radio

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Synopsis:

On the show this morning, we explore the history of the United States Postal Office - and the fight over its future - and whether it will stay a government agency or corporate lobbying will succeed in turning it into a private business. What will be the losses and gains? What lessons can we take from what happened to the postal services in other countries such as the UK, Sweden, and from market consolidation in the US in commercial airliners and national bus services?

Joining me on the show is historian and policy analyst, Christopher W. Shaw whose new book First Class: The US Postal Service, Democracy and the Corporate Threat (City Lights) - illuminates the history of the US postal service by exposing the various campaigns against it, and how the current attacks have implications that go beyond the future of mail service, and will have consequences for American democracy if they are not stopped.

Christopher W. Shaw is an author, historian, and policy analyst. He has a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and is the author of Money, Power, and the People: The American Struggle to Make Banking Democratic (University of Chicago Press, 2019).

Also on the show, Linda Firpo, Postmistress, Davis Park Post Office, Fire Island, New York. Opened for two months of the year. The mail is ferried across the Great South Bay.

Guests:

Christopher W. Shaw, author, First Class: The US Postal Service, Democracy & the Corporate Threat. -
https://chriswshaw.com/ -
Linda Firpo, Postmistress, David Park Post Office, Fire Island, New York. -
https://www.postallocations.com/ny/davis - park/davis

Playlist:

R. B. Greaves - Take a Letter Maria
Stevie Wonder - Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours
Dead Kennedys - Stealing People's Mail

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