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On Friday, Nov. 27, traditionally the biggest shopping day of the holiday season, tens of millions of people around the world will take one small step toward a more just and sustainable future by celebrating "Buy Nothing Day." This year's day of protest is calling for a General Strike; organizers are asking you to park your car, turn off your phones, shut down your computer, and not buy anything, for 24 hours. For more information, click here.

Today, a discussion of the protests against the University of California's regents approval Thursday of a 32 percent increase in student fees and the growing privatization of public education with UCLA student activist Zen Dochterman and the president of the AFC, Bob Samuels. As protesters gather at Ft. Benning in Georgia this weekend for the annual protest to shut down the U.S. Army training center dubbed by critics as the “School of the Assassins,” we’re joined by Blasé Bonpane, director of the Office of the Americas.

The National Book Awards were announced this week; Colum McCann was honored for his fiction work "Let the Great World Spin: A Novel," and T.J. Stiles' biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt won the nonfiction prize. Dave Eggers, author of Laura's book of the year, Zeitoun, received this year's Literarian Award. Jeannie Vanasco of Lapham's Quarterly, Julian Brookes of the Progressive Book Club and Sir Harold Evans, of The Week magazine and former president and publisher of Random House trade group, talk about the books that they think deserve more recognition.

On Tuesday, John Nichols told us that the dire jobs situation in the U.S. has had an effect on the debate surrounding escalation in Afghanistan and that the administration is actually meeting with peace groups for the first time to discuss alternate plans. Brave New Films' Rethink Afghanistan explores the problems there and proposes peaceful and diplomatic solutions and a responsible exit strategy. With this video, they bring together U.S.

This week a federal district judge finally ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers was indeed responsible for part of the devastation in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward and parts of St. Bernard Parish. The failure of the Corps to recognize the hazards wetland destruction had created was "clearly negligent on the part of the Corps," said U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. No judgment, of course, will bring back the Ninth Ward, which years after Katrina and Rita is still largely a ghost town. But this acknowledgment that the destruction didn't have to happen is important.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was recently stripped of his federal authority to make immigration arrests after repeated complaints that he abuses power and uses racial profiling to target Latinos in his Arizona community. Salvador Reza, U.S. Air Force veteran, community organizer and renowned immigrants rights activist, joins Laura for an exclusive interview on Arpaio's ongoing abuses. Dennis Gilman brings us video footage from an Arpaio raid and from protests in Arizona, where white supremacist groups showed up to support Arpaio's policies.

Zapatista is the definitive look at the Zapatista uprising, its historical roots and its lessons for the present and the future. On Jan. 1, 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) comes into effect. A few minutes after midnight in southeastern Mexico, several thousand Mayan soldiers take over half the state of Chiapas, declaring a war against the global corporate power they say rules Mexico. They call themselves the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN).

The word "Change" has been used so much lately that it often seems almost meaningless. What's change really? Is it having Barack Obama in the White House, talking about withdrawing from Iraq, a stimulus bill that spends some federal dollars on infrastructure? David Harvey, author of "A Brief History of Neoliberalism," and Alexander Cockburn, author of "End Times: The Death of the Fourth Estate," don't think small when it comes to change.

In "A Heartbeat and a Guitar: Johnny Cash and the Making of Bitter Tears," author Antonino D'Ambrosio connects Cash to the tradition of folk and political music in America from Woody Guthrie to Pete Seeger to Bob Dylan and the 60s folk-music scene. At the peak of his fame, just after "Ring of Fire," Cash cut a record of songs about the Native American experience, many written by the now-forgotten songwriter Peter La Farge.

Grace follows the lives of three women -- a young aspiring ballerina, a twenty-something career woman and an elderly grandmother -- as they all become victims of rape. The original Nathan Terry composition conveys the power and pain of the film without the need for dialogue. Grace is a tribute to the female spirit and its ability to triumph over violation, betrayal and disrespect. Media That Matters brings you inspiring films by youth and independent filmmakers committed to changing the world in 8 minutes or less.

Directed by Mai Iskander, Garbage Dreams looks at the lives of Egyptian trash collectors. Media That Matters brings you inspiring films by youth and independent filmmakers committed to changing the world in 8 minutes or less.

Attorney and investigative reporter Andrew Kreig tells about a whistleblower case making headlines in Alabama involving the Department of Justice and that state’s governor. Then, we sit down with Adam Kolton of the National Wildlife Federation to discuss the story of a public-relations firm with ties to the energy industry. The firm falsely wrote letters from groups (NAACP) to key Senatorial staff asking for the impending climate legislation to be shelved. The groups had no idea they were doing so and actually supported the legislation in different cases.

DJ Spooky aka That Subliminal Kid's work as a trip-hop musician has expanded over the last decade to include multimedia. For the last few years he has toured with the just now released "Rebirth of a Nation," a piece that takes the technically groundbreaking and racist 1915 D.W. Griffith silent film, "Birth of a Nation" and updates it through hip hop, remixing, but not remaking it. It's gotten quite a bit of critical acclaim. Take a look.