abuse

The revolution in Egypt at first was less about poverty and labor than it was about police brutality and the mistreatment of the people by a repressive regime. But now, Khaled Fahmy notes, the growing labor movement in Egypt is coming to the fore, following two years of concerted effort and protest by workers across the country.The protests continue, and Fahmy tells us that many of the functions of the government have been nearly completely shut down by the protesters, who remain in the streets and vow to stay until Mubarak is gone."I had the feeling it might happen," says Medea Benjamin of CodePink of the ongoing revolution in Egypt. Recently back from Cairo, Medea has been traveling through Egypt to get to Gaza for a while, and she says that the feeling in that country was of too many people angry, frustrated, and willing to fight their government to go on another 30 years without fighting back.Medea joins Laura in studio to discuss her recent experience in Egypt, including nearly being arrested at gunpoint, and having had friends detained for hours by state security forces.The revolution continues in Egypt, and in addition to creating new coalitions and partnerships as different groups come together in the streets, it's inspiring artists around the world. Jasiri X and M-1 of Dead Prez have a new track, "We All Shall Be Free," illustrated with scenes from the protests in Cairo.This weekend saw something revolutionary — not just in Egypt, but in Congo. ; The V-Day foundation , led by playwright and GRITtv guest Eve Ensler, opened its first City of Joy, a compound that will help Congolese women, many of them rape survivors, heal and learn, as V-Day puts it, to “turn their pain to power.”

We hear a lot about "post-racial" politics these days--the election of Barack Obama supposedly has led us into a post-racial age, but have we really seen anything change? Not much, notes Kimberle Crenshaw, co-founder of the African-American Policy Forum, and it's not really new either. But a lack of a sense of history is another symptom of today's politics, and Crenshaw notes that even black elected officials and candidates sometimes fall victim. Crenshaw joins Laura in studio for a look at black tea party candidates, the troubles facing Adrian Fenty and other black mayors, and the problem with claims of "reverse racism." "We talk about this fault break between war and peace, and it doesn't work that way for women," notes Ann Jones, longtime journalist, author, and humanitarian. Women, she points out, are often victims of sexual violence long after the official peace agreements are signed, and they often become the victims of abuse when soldiers come home traumatized and unable to deal with what they've seen and done. Jones was recently embedded with U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, and also has a new book out, War Is Not Over When It's Over: Women Speak Out from the Ruins of War. She joins Laura in studio to discuss her time reporting on conflicts around the world, and what happens to the people who survive them. And Laura has some thoughts on just why the cycle of war never ends, and wonders why we can't seem to figure out the simple answers.

If the United States government is the largest energy consumer in the world, asks Nation contributing editor Christian Parenti, why doesn't it use its massive buying power to support real green, clean energy technologies instead of subsidizing the catastrophic failures of oil giants like BP? Parenti joins us in studio to point out that if the U.S. post office switched to electric cars, that subsidy alone would bring down the price and create infrastructure for the rest of the country. He also talks Bill Gates, more green technologies, and the war in Afghanistan. Across the United States, the brutal and dysfunctional juvenile justice system sends queer youth to prison in disproportionate numbers, fails to protect them from violence and discrimination while they're inside and to this day condones attempts to turn them straight. So wrote Daniel Redman in a terrifying new article in The Nation this week, where he investigated the treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth in the juvenile justice system. Redman joins us via Skype, along with Gabrielle Prisco of the Juvenile Justice Project at the Correctional Association of New York, to talk about the way the justice system fails all youth--and the reasons LGBT youth wind up in the system more often than straight teens. Finally, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editor and Publisher of The Nation, has some words for "the false apostles of austerity."