march

"People are sick and tired of the way things have been for the past 30 years," says Philip Rizk, a blogger and filmmaker based in Cairo. In 2009, Philip was detained by state security after taking part in a protest in support of Gaza, and so has intimate awareness of the control and terror inflicted by the state on its people--who are only escalating, with a general strike called for today and a "Million March" for Tuesday. Despite reports on some media outlets of increasing chaos, Philip says he feels very safe in Cairo, and joins us via phone to tell us the latest from where he is.

Barack Obama hit the Daily Show on Wednesday night, and made the unfortunate comment that Larry Summers had done a "heckuva job" running the economy. Robert Scheer of Truthdig notes that Summers was the chief architect of Clinton-era policies that created the economic crisis in the first place, and that Obama's appointment of him to get us out of it was never going to result in anything but more money being thrown at Wall Street.Scheer visited the GRITtv studios to talk about Summers, Bill Clinton, Obama, and why there are a few Tea Party candidates he wouldn't mind seeing win this election cycle."It's a bizarre idea to fix a global capitalist crisis by breaking a long-term promise," notes Richard Wolff, economist and author of Capitalism Hits the Fan of the "austerity" measures rocking Europe's social democracies at the moment. Governments across Europe are implementing drastic cuts to social safety nets, raising retirement ages, all in the name of fiscal responsibility, and people have taken to the streets--in France, between 1.3 and 2.9 million people have come out in protest, a percentage that Wolff notes would be equivalent to between 6.5 and 14.4 million.So what's going on in Europe, and what are the lessons we can learn from the European left? Wolff joins us along with Inez McCormack, Chair of the Participation and the Practice of Rights Project in Ireland, to talk us through the crisis, the lessons, and the ongoing struggle.Finally, Laura remembers former president Nestor Kirchner of Argentina, who fought banks, the IMF, and the remains of the military dictatorship to return his country to prosperity.

"You don't go to war without being changed by it," says Geoff Millard, former Chair of the Board of Iraq Veterans Against the War. From sky-high suicide rates for veterans at home to horrific stories of "kill teams" in Afghanistan, we're hearing stories every day of the traumas that going to war inflicts on our young men and women. Millard and IVAW, though, have been working both at home and back in Iraq to bring about some sort of reconciliation, both for soldiers and for Iraqi civilians. Millard joins Laura in studio to discuss IVAW's Operation Recovery campaign to stop redeploying traumatized soldiers, the ongoing news from the wars, and his upcoming trip back to Iraq on a humanitarian mission. "Standing up and speaking out against a supervisor is harder than what I do every day," says Mary Kay Henry, new president of the Service Employees International Union. Yet becoming the first woman--and the first out lesbian--to lead the country's largest labor union means she's faced some pretty tough battles, and she's gearing up for another one: an election in which corporations are outspending progressives 26 to 1 for anti-worker candidates. Henry joins Laura in studio for a talk about the future of SEIU, her past as an organizer, and why it's important to keep the fight going long after November's elections. Finally, the Obama administration seems to be taking out its frustrations on the so-called "professional left," setting up blame for anticipated losses in November. But maybe they could take a lesson from Bill Clinton, of all people...

Last weekend's 200,000-person-strong march on Washington for justice on immigration was spared from too much violence and anger because the press was largely focused on health care reform. But as that bill was signed into law Monday, immigration will again find itself at the top of the list for political action, and the passions that it inspires are certain to flare. Joining us to talk about whether the Obama administration and this Congress will have the will, vision, and political capital to get anything done on immigration--and whether the legislation being considered at the moment will do more harm than good--are Seth Freed Wessler of the Applied Research Center and ColorLines, and Roberto Lovato of New America Media.