brian jones

"The message of public vs. private, fight against each other, isn't working," says Jean Ross of the Minnesota Nurses Association, who joined the protests in Madison, Wisconsin at the Capitol building against Scott Walker's union-busting bill. Jean and the National Nurses United have been traveling and talking to their workers, hearing firsthand about the impact of the economy on nurses and their patients. "The notion of shared sacrifice--there needs to actually be some sharing, but there's been none. All the burden has been on the working people in this country," Jean notes. She joins Laura via Skype from Minnesota to discuss the nurses' plan to take the fight to Wall Street. "I imagine a world in which my seven-year-old daughter doesn't say to me 'I can't be the president because I'm a girl.'" Anika Rahman was horrified and yet not surprised when her daughter expressed that sentiment. As the new CEO and president of the Ms. Foundation for Women, Anika works to empower women to fight for their right to control their bodies and their lives. She joins Laura in studio to talk about the latest research on how the recession is hitting women, about why she works for women's rights, and why the attacks on collective bargaining are attacks on women. Teachers right here in New York are facing more than just cinematic attacks—Mayor Bloomberg is laying off 4100 teachers and eliminating another 2000 teaching jobs through attrition. The Mayor blames Governor Cuomo, but the story is the same as the one we've heard in Wisconsin and around the country: there's just no money for those greedy union teachers. Our friend Brian Jones and the Grassroots Education Movement have crafted a response to that message in a film, The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting For Superman, and they're premiering it on May 19 in New York City. On May 12, the teachers and a broad coalition of unions and activist groups are descending on Wall Street to make the point that there's actually plenty of money for schools and other social programs, if only Wall Street kicked in its fair share—or if they hadn't tanked the economy in the first place. Check out the links here for more on the May 12 action and the film premiere. Distributed by Tubemogul.

What would Dr. King say about the racial achievement gap in our schools today? The most reliable national test data shows, for 13-year-olds, a 28-point racial gap in math scores, and a 21-point gap in reading scores. Distributed by Tubemogul.

The New York Times reported recently on yet another scandal in the Catholic Church, this one reaching as high as the current Pope. When he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the current Pope Benedict XVI was the head of the Vatican office called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1981 to 2005. While there, he failed to respond to letters reporting that Father Lawrence Murphy was responsible for sexually abusing as many as 200 deaf boys. The Times wrote: Father Murphy not only was never tried or disciplined by the church’s own justice system, but also got a pass from the police and prosecutors who ignored reports from his victims, according to the documents and interviews with victims. Actors Brian Jones and Jordan Mahome came to our studio to read a letter from one of Father Murphy's victims, and the response from the Church. These letters are graphic. GRITtv with Laura Flanders brings participatory democracy onto your computer screen and into your living room, bridging the gap between audience and advocates. Watch any show, at any time: http://grittv.org Distributed by Tubemogul.

Yesterday, Laura called our attention to the strange tale of the attempt at bugging Senator Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office, noting the stories uncovered by indie reporters connecting the dots between the ACORN sting, the break-in, and funding flowing into universities from the nation's intelligence agencies--as well as right-wing organizations. David Price of Counterpunch and Lindsay Beyerstein of the Media Consortium joined us to talk about the disturbing layers to this story, and discuss where it goes next. Last week, rebel historian, best-selling author, and lifelong activist Howard Zinn passed away at age 87. We speak with four people whose lives, careers, and activism were shaped by his work: poet Staceyann Chin, author of The Other Side of Paradise: A Memoir, progressive sportswriter Dave Zirin, Nation contributor and author of several books, including A People's History of Sports in the United States, and teacher, actor and activist Brian Jones. Benjamin Jealous is the youngest-ever head of the NAACP, but he has a long history with the organization--he is the fifth generation of his family to be involved. He joined us to remember Howard Zinn and to discuss the importance of knowing your own history and the history of the everyday men and women around us, the ones who shaped movements like the Civil Rights movement and continue to press for social justice the world over. Zinn's work has been translated into nearly every format imaginable: we also have the history of the American empire told through cartoons and narrated by Viggo Mortensen. Chevron oil company has contributed for years to devastating environmental damage in Ecuador and the Amazon region. Citizens of Ecuador call on new Chevron CEO John Watson to do the right thing and help clean up the damage his company has caused. Finally, we continue to bring you stories from the Haiti earthquake recovery from the students at the Cine Institute in Jacmel. In this video, we hear stories of rescues during the aftermath of the quake.