On the eve of the recall election in Wisconsin, Old Mole Denise Morris talks with Wisconsin baker, activist, and journalist Andrew Sernatinger about the struggles between Governor Scott Walker and public service workers that have led up to this event. Sernatinger has written for Labor Notes and contributed to the book Wisconsin Uprising: Labor Fights Back

Is capitalism's latest fix for the problems of overproduction and overaccumulation to put the excess into our poor bodies?  The new HBO series "The Weight of the Nation" explores the "epidemic" of obesity in the US without making some important connections.  They are made here in this commentary by Frann Michele.  

You can read her remarks and find links to her sources here.  

 Frann Michele hosts this edition of the Old Mole, featuring discussions of Wisconsin's recall election, the legend of Robin Hood and its continuing resonance today, the so-called "obesity epidemic," and what happens when libertarians think about (their own) working conditions.  

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Leo Panitch is a Distinguished Research Professor at York University, renowned political economist, Marxist theorist and editor of the Socialist Register.   He is the co-author, along with Sam Gindin who appeared on last week's Old Mole,  of The Making of Global Capitalism -- and many other works.  They discuss the outdated idea that European nations are generous welfare states and the future of resistance to austerity measures engineered by neo-liberal governments.