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Fresh Start Festival For Families in Watts
Working families in Watts are invited to make a fresh start of the school year by attending the annual Service Employees International Union Fresh Start Festival. It's also a chance to think about generating a fresh start for California's economy through civic participation.
Email this pageGRITtv: Wisconsin Farmers, Lena Taylor, and Susan Sarandon
Laura's back in Madison, Wisconsin, for our third special broadcast at the largest rally in Wisconsin history - more than 120,000 people are estimated to have descended on the capital. These protests mark the fourth weekend of protests and follow the action in the state house, as Wisconsin state senators forced through a bill stripping Wisconsin public unions of their collective bargaining rights. In this very special edition of GRITtv, we hear from Wisconsin farmers standing in solidarity with public workers, state senator Lena Taylor, actress and activist Susan Sarandon, and Will Williams of Veterans for Peace Madison. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Will Williams: Years of Struggle Gone
"Too much has been spent on defense and killing at the expense of people, of working class people," Will Williams, of Veterans for Peace Madison, said to Laura. "And I say that because, when you look at the statistics, it costs one million dollars a year to keep one troop in Iraq. Yet we talk about we can't balance the budget unless we do it on the backs of working class people. And it's wrong." Williams spoke with Laura from the streets of Madison during this weekend's protests. He pointed to the widening wealth gap and excessive military spending as evidence that the middle class is being forgotten. "This governor we have has taken away everything that working people had, what was built throughout years of struggle," Williams said. "He took it in the stroke of a pen." Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Susan Sarandon and Robert Turner
"We will not yield to the system where political power derives from wealth," said actress and activist Susan Sarandon as she spoke to the protesters in Madison. "This is a great opportunity to become more human human beings and base our politics on compassion and love and not economics." Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Lena Taylor: Awakening a Sleeping Giant
"They've awakened a sleeping giant. People who have never been engaged are engaged," Lena Taylor, Wisconsin state representative, told Laura Flanders from the streets of Madison. "900 million dollars, almost a billion dollars, out of education. How can we be prepared for our future?" Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Ryan Bingham: A Song for Wisconsin
"There's just no time for propaganda, or media filled with hate. No time for scripted messages that slither around like snakes in your brain," sang Ryan Bingham, of Ryan Bingham and The Dead Horses, as he performed "Direction of the Wind," which he dedicated to all the people on the streets of Madison, WI. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Wisconsin Farmers Support Labor
Rolling down the streets of Madison in their tractors, Wisconsin's farmers joined the protests that rose throughout Madison this weekend. While in Madison, Laura spoke with Scott Schultz, executive director of Wisconsin Farmers Union, who spoke about the ripple effects of the anti-union bill that will be felt throughout their community. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Diane Palmer & Sheila Cochran: Who Gets Hurt With Walker's Cuts?
If Scott Walker is allowed to gut public employees' right to collective bargaining, Sheila Cochran of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council points out, it will lower the floor for all Wisconsinites' wages and benefits. ; The unions in the state have long helped keep wages high and benefits, including health care, good for all of the state's workers, even as factories have closed and jobs gone overseas.The public sector remains the last bastion of union workers around the country, and Sheila joins Laura in Madison along with Diane Palmer of SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin to discuss the impact the cuts will have on working families in Wisconsin and around the U.S.
GRITtv: Fighting Union-Busting in Wisconsin
They're calling him the Mubarak of the Midwest: Wisconsin governor Scott Walker might have gone too far threatening to call the National Guard on union workers who might fight back against his draconian bill to strip their collective bargaining rights. Walker's union-busting has brought out thousands of protesters, who packed the capitol building and even drew support from the Super Bowl-winning Green Bay Packers. The protests continued today with a "sick-out" from Madison schools, and support just might be eroding for Walker's policies... Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Sodexo Workers Unite
Sodexo is one of the largest and most profitable food services companies, clearing $1 billion in profits last year even amidst global financial crisis. But you wouldn't know it from talking to its workers. Stateside, they earn as little as $8.27/hour, low enough to qualify for food stamps. Something else you'd learn from talking to their workers is that they're not going to stand for it - they're speaking out and going on strike across the nation: at Lehigh Valley Hospitals in Allentown, Pennsylvania, at Highland Park Public Schools in Highland Park, New Jersey, at Morehouse College in Atlanta, at Tulane University in New Orleans, and just this weekend, at Ohio State University. We talk to Autumn Weintraub, director of the Multiservices Campaign, Clean up Sodexo! and Marcia Snell, a Sodexo concession worker in Columbus.
