solidarity

"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.

"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.

So the Obama team is telling top donors he’s in a weaker position than in 2008. According to the Wall Street Journal Monday the president’s team is trying to galvanize top Democratic donors by explaining that despite his rebound since the 2010 elections, his reelection prospects are far more difficult than they appear. In other news, the Washington Post reported Sunday that Team Obama’s been engaged in some interesting under-the-radar efforts to fire up young voters. The way he's going about the latter may explain the first. Distributed by Tubemogul.

"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.