[None of the Above raw #38]

New York City Labor teach-in at Columbia University. Raw footage for "None of the Above," a documentary examining non-voters during the 1996 presidential election season.

00:00Copy video clip URL Scenes of New York Fire Department at work followed by street scenes of New York.

03:20Copy video clip URL Line up for the Labor Teach-in and entry into the building in anticipation of the start of the event.

06:25Copy video clip URL Interview with one of the speakers, who speaks about the decline of women voting in the 1994 election. She says that women are responsible for closing the gender gap, and for promoting a progressive agenda in America during the 1996 election. She predicts that women will turn out in this election because they see how their interests are affected by this election.

11:45Copy video clip URL Footage of Columbia outside the session followed by footage of panel discussion from behind the speakers.

13:08Copy video clip URL Interview with a Jo-Ann Mort, communications director from UNITE, who says that the political process in the US needs to offer something to people who have the most to lose (those with the lowest income levels, who are most unlikely to vote).

15:20Copy video clip URL Interview with Joel Rogers, who says that the voter registration process provides a barrier to voting. He also says that there is a narrow choice with few differences between the candidates, and until there is more diversity in political candidates, many people will not vote because they think it doesn’t matter.

18:10Copy video clip URL Linda Chavez-Thompson, Executive Vice President of the AFL-CIO,says that we are not giving people the right reasons to vote, so they are not interested in voting. She feels “disgraced” and compares our system of voting to that in Chile, where people finally earned the right to vote.

20:40Copy video clip URL Frances Fox Piven, who is professor of Political Science and Sociology at the City Colleges of New York claims that the majority of people who do not vote are the young people and the poor people. She criticizes the assumption that these people are not motivated. She speaks of historical laws that intentionally disenfranchised many people and continue to today. She also notes that because those who are wealthy are three times more likely to vote, they get at least three times the attention. She says that there’s also a problem of mobilizing the base and that the issues of the election are further removed from the young, minorities, and poor people. She speaks also about conspiracies in voter registration, and how each party deliberately targets voters who are likely to vote for their party.

36:20Copy video clip URL Norman Markowitz, professor at Rutgers University, claims that the system is “inhospitable” to voters. An example is that we vote on a regular work day. He also claims that we have a system of two conservative parties.

40:00Copy video clip URL Interview with Cornell West, author and professor a Princeton, who says that we have limited choices, saying that voters are forced between the “cold-hearted mean-spirited conservatism of Mr. Dole and the spineless milk-toast no-backbone neoliberalism of Bill Clinton.” He says that we need more choices to speak to the deep economic inequalities, the legacy of white male supremacy, and the deep economic insecurity that workers experience. He speaks also about the wasted potential in civic life, not simply in voting, but also in broader civic life.

42:40Copy video clip URL Various scenes around New York, across campus, and back into the teach-in event.

48:40Copy video clip URL Interview with Richard Trumka, Secretary of the AFL-CIO, who says that many union workers choose not to vote because they see no difference between candidates or they believe lies about taxes increasing or they may be uninformed or they’re too busy and may not have time to be involved in civic life or vote. He speaks about the plan to push candidates to focus on issues and to help voters see that there’s a candidate who votes for them and another who votes against them.

53:38Copy video clip URL Scenes of people walking through campus after dark, followed by more subway scenes.

1:02:52Copy video clip URL End of tape.