racism

"We're supposed to love life, right? And protect mothers and ban abortion because abortion is about ending babies lives, right? But then we see cuts to WIC, [Women, Infants & Children benefits], we know women are being chained to beds to give birth," Paris Hatcher of SPARK Reproductive Justice points out. The entire idea pushed by conservatives that we are concerned with a "culture of life" is proved false by the way our society treats mothers--certain mothers, anyway. Today, while the House debated H.R. 3, the "redefining rape" bill that would eliminate funding for abortion, we spoke with Paris via Skype from Georgia, and she noted the outrage that women around the country feel over the double standard in Congress and the states--we don't want women to have abortions, but we don't want to support their motherhood, either. One of the deadliest tornadoes in US history, over a mile and a half wide, touched down in Tuscaloosa, Alabama last week, with devastation extending across seven states. More than 350 fatalities have been reported, 80 people are still missing in Tuscaloosa alone, and over a thousand people remain hospitalized with critical injuries. The Alabama state Emergency Management Agency is calling the aftermath in Tuscaloosa “Katrina, without three days warning...” While the networks are wall-to-wall Bin Laden, with or without budgets or even homes - survivors are getting the story out.. To compile this piece GRITtv's Rebecca MacDonald relied on eyewitnesses -- many of them students of University of Alabama assistant professor Dr. Rachel Raimist. Student Trey Moe's graduation was to be this week. "We need to understand that we are one people all of whom have myriad origins. We've come together here in this place," says bestselling author Walter Mosley. He joins us to talk about his newest book, 12 Steps Toward Political Revelation. For a growing number of American who feel left out--or even targeted--by the current political climate, the possibility of influencing change and of having a voice is becoming an increasingly problematic task. 12 Steps Toward Political Revelation stresses the importance of everything from finding a strong political identity, and recognizing the systems that work against us and not for us. Walter joins us to explain how important each of our paths towards political enlightenment is for our nation and our world. Distributed by Tubemogul.

"People actually want to believe in heroes, so they'll believe in Glenn Beck, they'll believe in Barack Obama, they choose individuals to believe in but won't believe in politics itself," says Walter Mosley, author and activist. Obama may have been pressured into releasing his "long form" birth certificate this week, but that won't heal the hurt in our politics, Mosley says, until Americans stop trusting heroes and experts and start trusting each other. Mosley joins us for part one of a two-part conversation on his vision for a truly people-powered America.

"Poor people thought that they could only enter politics through different sorts of tactics. They had to be noisy, they had to get people's attention, they had to make trouble. I've come to the conclusion that they're right, that lots of people only have real power when they make trouble," says Frances Fox Piven, the most dangerous woman in America according to Glenn Beck. Frances and renowned public intellectual Cornel West held a "Fight Back Teach-in" this week that was streamed online to the public and to over 200 college campuses around the country. Their aim was to provide more information to counter the lies about the need for "austerity" for working people, and to help sustain the growing movement around the country fighting back for working people. Laura sat down with Frances and Cornel after the teach-in to talk austerity, Obama, poor people's movements, and why it's time for progressives to make some trouble. Then, activists in San Francisco tell Twitter and other big corporations to pay their fair share when they move into a community.

In a lot of the talk about attacks on labor, the focus has been on electoral politics and cash. Defunding unions will defund the Democratic party and progressive candidates who might fight for working folks. But Jane McAlevey made the point in a recent issue of The Nation that doing away with unions does away with one of the only forms of popular education we have. It's not just the organized schoolteachers that teach—unions have a long history as face-to-face educators, keeping history and even songs alive, passing them generation to generation. Distributed by Tubemogul.