banks

Thousands of people descended on Wall Street Saturday, participating in an demonstration called "Occupy Wall Street." Protesters have been camped out in New York City's financial district without a permit. Demonstration organizers say they were inspired by the anti-austerity protests in Spain and Greece. Isham Christie, who has been camping out alongside the group since the onset of the protest, talks about the demonstrations from the ground.

"It seems that when you flip the switch too late you actually promote the revolutions in your country. What would've happened if Egypt hadn't flipped the switch? If people are home blogging their discontent they're a lot more controllable, a lot less dangerous," says Doug Rushkoff, author of Program or Be Programmed, of the role of the Internet in the recent revolutions. Doug joins us via Skype to discuss corporate control over our communications, the fight for Net Neutrality, the AT&T and T-Mobile merger, the attempts to defund NPR, and more. Bradley Manning, the accused leaker of many of the documents posted on the website WikiLeaks, remains in jail under increasingly harsh conditions. This weekend, protesters, including regular GRITtv guest Col. Ann Wright and Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg, were arrested at Quantico Marine Corps base, rallying in support and demanding better treatment for Manning. This Saturday, protests are planned in the UK, the US, and Canada against corporate tax avoiders and government austerity cuts. The UK Uncut movement has been going strong, occupying retail outlets as diverse as Vodafone and TopShop, and its solidarity movement in the US is just getting started. Using street theater and organizing largely on the web, the direct action movements aim to make tax dodging a whole lot less profitable for big banks like Bank of America and corporations like Verizon and FedEx. Allison Kilkenny has been covering the US Uncut movement for The Nation, and she joins us along with J.A. Myerson, a "tax avoidance consultant", to discuss the new resistance to paying for corporate welfare. Finally, Republicans have declared war on Elizabeth Warren. But what will it take to get Warren some real power, enough to really put some fear into banksters and their allies in Congress? Distributed by Tubemogul.

"We're seeing a populist wave right now that's going to go through 2012," says James Mumm of National People's Action, who says he's seeing "big ideas and bold demands" from progressive groups around the country. National People's Action is part of a coalition that shut down a Bank of America this week and protested at the National Association of Attorney Generals conference, and then took the fight to John Boehner and Mitch McConnell's offices in Congress. James and Bobby Tolbert of VOCAL-New York join Laura in studio the day after their successful protest action to talk about next steps, about Bank of America's tax refund from hell, and about the new wave of protest movements that are going to keep building beyond the next election. Distributed by Tubemogul.

James Mumm of National People's Action discusses Bank of America's tax return from hell and "The Big Bank Tax Drain" report. Watch the full conversation at http://grittv.org Distributed by Tubemogul.