martin luther king jr.

On April 4, GRITtv traveled to Newark, New Jersey for the We Are One rally, speaking with workers, racial justice activists, and leaders from the new national movement. Why New Jersey? Hetty Rosenstein of the Communication Workers of America filled us in on Governor Chris Christie. “He's anti union, he opposes collective bargaining, he's for the rich, he cut taxes on rich people by $9000 each while cutting services to those who are most vulnerable.” Laura spoke with Hetty about Christie's attacks on collective bargaining, about the need for a broader, wider coalition to fight for working people, and more. "It makes good common sense that people of common interest would come together," said Estina Baker of the We Are One rallies this week. "It's sort of history repeating itself in a very positive way," she notes, pointing out that the civil rights movement and workers' rights movement have a long history together. Laura spoke with Estina and Joyce Simmons, both of the NAACP, in Newark, New Jersey, about the movement begun at the One Nation rally last year and continuing now across the country. While Laura and most of the GRITtv crew were in Newark, workers gathered around the country to support union workers and call for government policy that benefits the majority of working people. We visited New York's City Hall, and put together this segment with video from rallies around the country. "People don't realize that by not belonging to the union, the only right they have on the job is the right to die. People don't understand that the collective bargaining agreements and the right to organize protects them," said Ray Stever, President of the New Jersey Industrial Union Council. Speaking at the We Are One rally in Newark, New Jersey, Stever connected the dots between the old Congress of Industrial Organizations, the 29 mine workers at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine, killed one year ago, and the current attacks on public workers in New Jersey and beyond. Distributed by Tubemogul.

"Phil was always a little ahead of the curve," says Ken Bowser, the director of a new documentary on 1960s protest singer Phil Ochs. Ochs wrote and performed folk music in its heyday, weighing in on major political issues of his time and connecting with other singer-activists around the world, from Bob Dylan to Chilean singer Victor Jara. Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune talks to people, from Sean Penn to Christopher Hitchens, who were touched by Ochs's music and who knew the singer, who took his own life in 1976 at age 35. Bowser joins Laura in studio for a conversation about Ochs and the film, the place of art and music in protest and activism, and why Ochs has faded from the public's consciousness. Half a century after Dr. King, the civil rights struggle continues and one group still pushing even to be understood, let alone included in what President Obama would call the circle of our concern are transgender people, people who feel their gender and their physical bodies don't match. The group for Parents Familes and Friends of Lesbians and Gays has produced a film, "Faces and Facets of TransGender Experience," a story less of tragedy than triumph. You can get copies to play in your community or school through PFLAG and they benefit from every sale. And finally, GRITtv contributor John Fugelsang has a few Bible lessons for Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church. Distributed by Tubemogul. Distributed by Tubemogul.

As everyone probably knows, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed in Memphis in 1968 by an assassin's bullet, but it's often forgotten that he was in Memphis joining the sanitation workers' fight for fair wages and working conditions. King's support for labor, particularly low-wage public workers, was a theme of his work for most of his life, and to honor that legacy, we bring you a segment of the speech he gave to those workers the day before his death. Distributed by Tubemogul.

Half a century after Dr. King, the civil rights struggle continues and one group still pushing even to be understood, let alone included in what President Obama would call the circle of our concern are transgender people, people who feel their gender and their physical bodies don't match. The group for Parents Familes and Friends of Lesbians and Gays has produced a film, "Faces and Facets of TransGender Experience," a story less of tragedy than triumph. You can get copies to play in your community or school through PFLAG and they benefit from every sale. Distributed by Tubemogul.