Labor Day with Robert Reich and Pramila Jayapal | Town Hall Seattle

What steps can we take in order to better our country by protecting the common interest of our workers? Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich arrives at Town Hall along with Washington’s 7th District Representative Pramila Jayapal for a Labor Day exploration of Reich’s latest book The Common Good. They offer their perspective on the state of American politics and the labor movement, and unpack Reich’s powerful case for the expansion of America’s moral imagination. Rooting his argument in common sense and everyday reality, Reich demonstrates that a common good constitutes the very essence of any society or nation. Societies, he says, undergo virtuous cycles that reinforce the common good as well as vicious cycles that undermine it—one of which America has been experiencing for the past five decades. This process, Reich asserts, can and must be reversed. Join Reich and Jayapal for a chance to weigh the moral obligations of citizenship and carefully consider how we relate to labor, honor, shame, patriotism, truth, and the meaning of leadership.

Robert B. Reich is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written fifteen books, including the bestsellers Aftershock, The Work of Nations, and Beyond Outrage.

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal represents Washington’s 7th District, which encompasses most of Seattle and surrounding areas including Shoreline, Vashon Island, Lake Forest Park, Edmonds and parts of Burien and Normandy Park. Congresswoman Jayapal is committed to ensuring that every resident of the district has economic opportunity; fairness and equity; and safe and healthy communities.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle as part of the 2019 Homecoming Festival.

[BrianMorrisPhoto]

use the justice system to hold them accountable!

[thechaplainisin]

Katherine Stewart's book, (guest at Town Hall Seattle earlier this year) The Power Worshippers: The Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism explains how all of the inequities you are discussing are expressions of a global movement, Religious Nationalism. It sounds like this movement is behind the changes in income distribution that Dr. Reich described as happening in the 80"s. I think it also powers up Individual supremacy - Religious Nationalism leaders are expert at stirring up Individual Supremacy among the folks that Dr. Reich described as "fighting over the crumbs." We need to start talking about this movement out in the open so folks can realize how we are being manipulated, especially by "religious" ideas, to fight one another over the crumbs and leave the leaders of Religious Nationalism free to take the best of everything else.

[smeyer]

This is a Revolution, and a long time overdue. You can call me names, but I don't care. I know who I am, (and what my daddy did. May he rest in peace.)...and I still love him.

[wantAvote]

first referendum question:
it is a felony crime to make changes in voting processes that inhibit any individual's ability to VOTE.

[wantAvote]

Write referendums - gather signatures - change laws and create new laws with a "POPULAR VOTE!"

[mahirrahman]

As a Bangladeshi American college voter and Bernie donor from NYC, Pramila should be the next speaker of the House !!

[joaovianeidasilva]

I am sorry to say, but invite someone to talk and keep talking more then the interviewee seems rude to me.

[idcltd]

Reich makes the point that it is better to have the freedom to support individuals policy rather than tow blindly the 'party line';.

[idcltd]

Reich asks how to fight gerrymandering that suppresses voting when 'the people' cannot determine the outcome

[Steve-jewx]

Jayapal is a C unning. U nderacheiving. N eglegent. T ramp !!!!

[stonehillady]

MS Jayapal you are not going to change anything unless you have DIALOG, Protests are too vile, too many unruly young people.

[abrambadal]

Monetary system & institutions of banking and social hierarchical powers, including republics, are the barbarian social sides, left out by structured hierarchy, and Human Rights, or basic laws and rights, in order to shape or miss--shape the american realities ! Better than republics will be scientific realities structured, e.g. Open Social Political University with a universal social--status attributed to each member of community, in proportion to hourly social activities and contributions, including consumption since birth-day , made non--alienable and by nature non-bankable , to make a vibrant democracy practical and scientifically possible !

[thenate]

I wish everyone would stop beating this woman with the ugly stick, my eyes are burning.

[lindamull]

As a woman of color, I was fortunate to never been dealt a racist card. However, as a woman of 62, 16 years ago when I met my man, both his ex-wife & his sister saw to making my life hard. Joe's ex-wife told his 12 year old son that Mexicans were good with knives. LOL! Really? Our landlord lady friend was disgusted and told us that she grew up being good with a knife because she grew up on a pig farm! If I had wasted my time being depressed over what was said about me, no doubt, I would be suffering a severe case of cancer! LOL! :)