We Decide: America at the Crossroads 2024 -from WBAI and the Pacifica Radio Network with Jenna Flanagan. It’s Oct. 21st, just two weeks until the Nov. 5th general election. Early voting is underway in 18 states with Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Maryland, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wisconsin coming on line this week. This weekend, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey and New York get early voting underway.
Last week In Georgia, a record 300,000 voters turned out on the first day of early voting, a record number. The previous first day record was set in 2020 when just 136,000 voters turned out. We will get the latest from Marian Gaines Jones, with the Southwest Georgia Project and Larry Hamm, founder of the People's Organization for Progress, a New Jersey based civil rights group deeply involved with voter registration in Newark.
In the B Block, we will visit with Manny Pastreich, president of 32 BJ SEIU, the nation’s largest building services union representing 185,000 workers in 12 states and Washington D.C. This past weekend, the union fielded 1,000 rank and file union members to knock on doors in Allentown, Pennsylvania on behalf of the Harris/Wailz ticket.
Historically, southern states like Georgia have been right to work states where it’s been really hard for unions to get traction. We will visit with John Samuelsen, international president of the Transport Workers of America, his union's recent success in Georgia and Texas. We’ll ask him what issues matter most to his 155,000 members with just two weeks to go before the election.
In the D block we will go back down to the Carolinas and get a post-Helene update from Davyne Dial, the general manager for WPVM-FM, our sister Pacifica station located in Asheville, North Carolina and Martha Mims, the manager at Listen and Be Heard, our internet sister station in Greenville, South Carolina.
