protests

"I think that we're in a society where art still is threatening, but at some point I think that we can look at when art is still being questioned or being sanctioned or being funded, then we need to look at that work that is being deliberated over because it's speaking to something that is happening in culture," says performance artist Karen Finley, whose lawsuit against the National Endowment for the Arts made her into a national icon against her will after her grant was denied on the basis of the subject matter of her art. In her new book, The Reality Shows, and in her performances, Finley takes on different personae to explore traumas, and teaches people to get in touch with their own experiences. Finley joins Laura in studio for a conversation about art, trauma, our culture's perception of women, and much, much more. In the past days and weeks we've seen some very young people protesting in the streets, squares and statehouses around the world. But what becomes of children who live through that reformation or regime change? Our documentary of the week is My Perestroika, and it tells the story of the last days of the USSR through the eyes of a group of former schoolmates who came of age as the world around them changed. The filmmaker is Robin Hessman, and the film is currently playing at festivals around the country. Comedian Lee Camp visited Scotland and was shocked by what he saw: college students protesting? What's that all about? But he's realized something more important as well--maybe the key to ending police brutality of protesters is putting them in new outfits. It seems to work all right for the Scots... Distributed by Tubemogul.

"Republicans are moving an agenda to defund programs and agencies that they've never supported," says Bill Fletcher, Jr. "They're not discussing where we get the money to attack Libya if we're broke." Bill, past president of the TransAfrica Forum, says that it's hypocritical of the U.S. to get involved in Libya's conflict while ignoring tyrants in other parts of the world.Bill joins Laura via Skype from Washington, D.C. to discuss the conflict in Libya, the ongoing workers' struggles at home, and his hopes for tactics both at home and abroad."We have to change the balance here and the way you change the balance is a conceptual shift in what you see as the purpose of a nation. The purpose of a nation isn't to make the rich richer or to make the poor poorer, it's to make sure that you have a vibrant economy where there's room for everyone," says Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich.Laura sat down with Rep. Kucinich in Madison March 12 after his speech at a rally hosted by The Progressive magazine and discussed the attacks on public sector workers and what a real economic democracy would look like--full employment, universal health care and education, and a commitment to peace.Then, with all the talk about attacks on unions recently, Laura reflects on the other jobs unions do for us--including help serve as public education.

"You see this coming together of networks of educated people - I call them the graduates with no future - with the urban poor, with sometimes organized labor. This mixture is there everywhere the protests have been," says Paul Mason, Economics editor of BBC Newsnight and author of Live Working or Die Fighting: How the Working Class Went Global. Mason notes that from student protests in London to workers in Wisconsin, revolution in Tunisia to uprising in Libya, many of the same characteristics are visible. Paul joins Laura in studio for a conversation about the global protest movement, the role of social media, what different areas have in common, and much more. You can see Paul and Laura along with Cornel West and Barbara Ehrenreich in New York on Friday night at the opening plenary of the Left Forum--more information here!

"This has been spontaneous combustion, what's happening here in Wisconsin," Jim Hightower says. "Ordinary folks have been knocked down: workers, farmers, consumers, environmentalists." Hightower and former Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager spoke with Laura Flanders this weekend during protests that saw more than 120,000 people descend on Madison to demonstrate against Governor Scott Walker's bill that took collective bargaining rights away from public unions. Lautenschlager says that the process Governor Scott Walker and other Republicans circumvented Wisconsin state law and will face pending legal challenges, both to the process and the bill itself. Distributed by Tubemogul.