students
GRITtv: The F Word: Cuts Leave Young People No Future to Win
Paul Mason of the BBC called them “the graduates with no future.” They've been at the center of protest movements around the world, from Tunisia to Wisconsin. GRITtv contributor Gary Younge reported on Spain's unemployment for the Guardian recently —64 percent of youth under 19 are out of work, and the total youth unemployment rate is 43 percent—higher than Egypt and Tunisia, both. Don Tapscott noted in the same paper that in the UK, 40 percent of the unemployed are aged 16 to 24, and here in the US, 21 percent of young people are unemployed. Distributed by Tubemogul.
Email this pageGRITtv: Lee Camp: The Answer to Police Brutality?
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.
GRITtv: Paul Mason: The Global Working Class Fighting Back
"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!
GRITtv: Laura Dresser: Learning at the Protests in Wisconsin
"There's nothing like learning about how you change something outrageous," says Laura Dresser of the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, who's been at the protests in Madison all week with her nine-year-old son. It's not just the kids who are learning from supporting their teachers' union this week against Scott Walker's cuts--Laura notes that she's learned that even when the votes appear to be there in the legislature, there can be ways to stop a vote.Laura joins our Laura Flanders in the WORT studio in Madison to discuss what she's learned this week--and what it appears that Scott Walker still hasn't learned.
GRITtv: Brian Jones: Following King's Lessons for Students
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.
GRITtv: Hamid Dabashi: Iran, The Green Movement, and the USA
Before the contested Iranian election of 2009, scholar Hamid Dabashi notes, most people in the U.S. only thought of Iran in terms of geopolitics. But when protesters poured into the streets that summer, he points out, "Suddenly people mattered. People's liberty, and economic and social well-being mattered."Dabashi has a new book out, Iran, The Green Movement and the USA: The Fox and the Paradox, and he joins Laura in studio for a conversation about geopolitics and internal politics, about the long, tumultuous relationship between the U.S. and Iran, and to discuss the best course of action for peace in the region, with hawks clamoring once again for war.
GRITtv: Laurie Penny: Smashing Up the Future
"It's fair to smash up someone's future but not to smash up someone's lobby," notes UK journalist Laurie Penny of the student protests in London last week, now being branded as "violent" and "out of control." Aside from one person who dropped a fire extinguisher off a building, she points out, the protests were free of violence against people, and property damage needs to be put in the proper perspective. Laurie joins us via Skype from London, where she attended the protests and covered them for The New Statesman, where she is a columnist, to provide some perspective on misunderstood events--and to fill us in on why they're said to be only the beginning. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Student Protests in London
A crowd reportedly of over 50,000 British students rallied in London yesterday and marched to the Conservative Party headquarters to protest not only cuts to education budgets and hikes to student fees, but the ongoing attack on the social safety net in the UK by the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government. In the name of "austerity," promises are being revoked, and the protests, which turned violent, could be a sign of things to come across the UK. We'll have more soon, but for now, check out this footage from our friends at the Guardian of the rallies. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Got Docs: Race to Nowhere
What's all this talk about being in a "race" when it comes to education? Does the "Race to the Top" framing change anything? And what's all of this racing really doing for our kids? This week's featured documentary, Race to Nowhere, takes a look at just what's going on with our schools, and whether putting a lot of pressure on kids to ace constant tests and load themselves with work is actually producing happy, well-educated people.
GRITtv: Student Organizing in the Age of Obama
The current stage of the recession sees state budgets hitting crisis points around the country, and one of the areas targeted for cuts has been state univerisities. Students, already dealing with prohibitive levels of debt, have been coming together to protest tuition hikes and budget cuts in some of the largest student protests since the 1960s. Is this a new era for student activism? Did the Obama campaign train young organizers to turn their skills onto their local campus, or is it just the pressure of paying the bills? Christian Ragland, Student President at Pennsylvania State University, and Angus Johnston, founder of StudentActivism.net, join us to discuss.
