Political Activism

Journalist and media critic Todd Gitlin whose new book, The Sixties - Years of Hope, Days of Rage, is a social history of the culture and politics of that time from a writer who participated in the freedom and turmoil of the era.

Daniel Berrigan, a Jesuit priest who for the past 20 years has been at the forefront of the peace movement. He has been arrested and spent time in prison many times for his acts of civil disobedience. Berrigan was one the Catonsville 9, who protested the Vietnam war in 1968 by destroying draft records, and a member of the Plowshares 8, who damaged nuclear warheads in 1980. He now works at an AIDS hospice in New York City. Daniel Berrigan recently completed his autobiography; it's titled To Dwell in Peace.

Mitford grew up in a wealthy English family. She cultivated her leftist politics early in life, and became an anti-fascist activist. She joins Fresh Air to talk about her relationship with the Communist Party during the McCarthy era, her early book about the death industry, and growing older.

Aldyn McKean and Tracy Morgan join Fresh Air to talk about their organization's recent efforts to advocate for better and more accessible health care for individuals with the diseases.

We examine the state of human rights in post-war Kuwait with Ken Roth, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch. He just returned from a nine day visit to Kuwait.

Doctor Jonathan Mann, the director of the 1992 International Conference on AIDS. That conference has already become controversial, because the site of the conference was moved from Boston to Amsterdam. That decision was made because of the U.S. government did not give assurance that people with AIDS would be able to enter the U.S. to attend the conference. Mann is a professor of epidemiology and international health at the Harvard School of Public Health, and the former head of the World Health Organization's Global Program on AIDS.

Grace Paley was New Yorks's first official woman state writer. Known for writing about neighborhoods including the Bronx and Greenwich Village, Paley now lives in Vermont. Paley is known for her collections of short stories, but is also a poet. Her new book is "New and Collected Poems."

James McCloskey, founder of Centurion Ministries, Inc., which was organized to free innocent men and women from prison. Since McCloskey began his work in 1980 at least ten innocent prisoners have been freed. Just this week Clarence Chance, 42, and Benjamin Powell, 44 were freed after serving 17 and 1/2 years of life sentences. They were wrongly accused of murdering a sheriff's deputy. Witnesses who initially implicated them later told officials that they were pressured to lie.

Producer Gil Cates. He produced the Academy Awards last night. Terry will talk with him about what it takes to put together such an endeavor.

From the AME church in south L.A., where a rally was held after the announcement of the verdict, Mark Whitlock. He headed a security force organized by the church to stand between the police and protesters in order to head off violence.

Southeast Asia Correspondent for The New York Times, Philip Shenon (SHE-none). He's been following the protests between Thai troups and pro-democracy protestors in Bangkok, Thialand. The protestors: students, professionals, and workers have been demanding that the Prime Minister Suchinda Kraprayoon step down. Suchinda, a former military leader, led a coup last year against the democratic Government and took power in April as an unelected Prime Minister. Many people have died in the protests. SHENON will update us on the situation. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Executive Director of the human rights group Asia Watch, Sidney Jones. In light of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Thailand, Terry talks with Jones about the state of democracy and human rights in Asia.

Many listeners will know Clennon from his role as Miles Drentell on the ABC TV show "thirtysomething." He received and Emmy nomination for the part. Now he plays a drug dealer in the new Paul Schrader film "Light Sleeper" along with Willem Dafoe and Susan Sarandon. He's also been in the films "Missing," "the Right Stuff," "Sweet Dreams," "The Thing," "The Paper Chase," and many others. Offscreen, he's very active in Central American politics.

Former Black Panther Elaine Brown. Her new book, A Taste of Power, tells the story of her rise to the head of the Black Panther Party in the mid-70s and her later break with the Party.

Regional Director of four women's clinics in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Omaha, Nebraska, Diane Strauss. Three of her clinics were the target of Operation Rescue's protests last week. Before that, Strauss has been harassed at home by the group. In 1987, one of STRAUSS's clinics was the first clinic to be targeted by Operation Rescue outside of Binghamton, New York where the group is based.

Ed Ryder and Reverend James McCloskey The story of one man's fight for freedom. Three days after Ryder arrived at Holmesburg prison to do time for theft, he was accused of murdering a prisoner in his cell block. For twenty years, Ryder fought to prove his innocence... the city of Philadelphia rallying behind him. Reverend James McCloskey, who helps prisoners he believes are unjustly convicted get pardons, spearheaded the efforts for Ryder's release. Now Ryder is a free man.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews: "Kay Boyle: Author of Herself," by Joan Mellen.

Author and activist Mahnaz Afkhami lobbied for many years for women's rights in her native Iran. For the past fifteen years, she has been in exile from her country for this work. During that time, she talked with other women in exile from all over the world. Twelve of these women's stories are recorded in her new book, "Women in Exile."

Journalist Verlyn Klinkenbor's article "Violent Certainties" appears in this month's edition of Harper's Magazine. He reports from a Milwaukee abortion clinic from the perspectives of both abortion providers and protestors.

Mitford died of cancer at the age of 78 on Tuesday (July 23). She was considered one of the premiere investigative journalists of her day, a muckraker in the tradition of Sinclair Lewis and John Dos Passos. Her targets included the Famous Writers School, a Midwest correspondence school, and the U.S. penal system ("Kind and Usual Punishment: The Prison Business"). Mitford's most recent book, "The American Way of Birth" (1992), declares that doctors perform too many C-Sections and de-legitimize midwifery.