A People’s Century, Praying for a Bailout, and US Policy in the Muslim World

By: GRITtv Tuesday December 9, 2008 8:00 pm

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December 10 marks the 60^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its Covenant of Economic and Social Rights. As the economy continues to unravel and the United States remains engaged in two foreign wars the questions of economic and social justice have never been more acute. Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of a two-volume biography of Eleanor Roosevlet and Catherine Albisa, Executive Director of the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI) discuss why economic justice is central to any human rights agenda.

What about the rights of autoworkers? As Congress debated whether to bailout the auto industry, the congregation of The Greater Grace Temple, one of the largest churches in Detroit, Michigan prayed. What did they pray for? They prayed for a bailout of the auto industry—not just to save the jobs of workers, their healthcare and pension plans but the Unions as well. Bishop Charles Ellis III says that letting the Big Three go bankrupt would be akin to dismantling organized labor. We are also joined by Carl Johnson, a Manager at Ford Motor Company and Clarence Hayes, a recently retired Ford auto worker. Both are members of the Greater Grace Temple.

Irshad Manji says that rather than a Coalition of the Willing, an Alliance of the Interdependent is necessary to improve human rights in the Muslim world. In a recent article in Newsweek, "A New Policy Towards the Muslim World," Manji advocates engaging the entrepreneurial talents of Muslim women through a microcredit and loan program financed by wealthy Western and Muslim nations. She also argues that the United States should reduce its reliance on counterterrorism as foreign policy tool. Manji directs the Moral Courage Project at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service and is the author of The Trouble With Islam Today.

Thanks to NESRI and Amnesty International for video in tonight's show.