The two state solution has been declared dead too many times to count. But have we turned a corner? In the last Israeli elections, Prime Minister Netanyahu raised alarm about Palestinian citizens voting, and declared his opposition to a two state solution. This week's episode airs 67 years after the founding of the state of Israel, known to Palestinians as the Nakba, or tragedy. To mark the occasion, we speak to both Israeli and Palestinian activists. Ronnie Barkan is an Israeli activist, a cons...
May 12, 2015•26 min•Ep. 15
In 2014, a 12 year old Georgia girl faced expulsion and criminal charges after writing on a locker room wall of her Middle School. A Detroit honors student was suspended for her entire senior year for bringing a pocket knife to a football game. In 2013, an 8 year-old girl was arrested for acting out. A 12 year old girl was threatened with expulsion unless she changed her hairstyle. Those are just some of the stories told in a shocking report released this year by the African American Policy Foru...
May 05, 2015•24 min•Ep. 14
Many people know of Mumia Abu-Jamal as a journalist and political prisoner. But did you know he’s also a Star Trek fan? That’s one of the many revelations in the new book Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements, a collection of visionary fiction from Walidah Imarisha and Adrienne Maree Brown. Adrienne Maree Brown is a writer, organizational healer, facilitator, pleasure activist, and Science Fiction scholar, among many other roles. Walidah Imarisha is an educator, ...
Apr 30, 2015•16 min•Ep. 13
This week is US tax week, a good time to ask what will it take before we have a mass movement in the US offering economic alternatives. We explore this question with two guests who are in the trenches of the new economy movement. Stacy Mitchell is co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and directs its Community-Scaled Economy Initiative. She is the author of Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses. Esteban Kelly is the Co-...
Apr 14, 2015•24 min•Ep. 12
Where do art and social justice meet? From early roles in films like Bob Roberts and Five Corners to her award winning roles in plays including Wit and Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, to her current starring role in the award-winning Showtime series The Affair, Kathleen Chalfant is one of the most acclaimed actresses in the US. She has also been an outspoken advocate on issues like Middle East peace and incarceration. This episode also looks at Stanley Cohen, a radical lawyer who has r...
Apr 07, 2015•24 min•Ep. 11
Jesse Hagopian is part of a movement challenging the regime of high stakes testing in U.S. schools. Global Warming, war, poverty, violence against women, disease... None of these problems can be solved by A B C or D thinking, he writes in a new book, so why do we continue to sink hundreds of millions of dollars into just that sort of test? Jesse Hagopian teaches history and is the Black Student Union adviser at Garfield High School in Seattle which made history when teachers, parents and student...
Mar 31, 2015•24 min•Ep. 10
Alicia Garza is the co-creator of Black Lives Matter, and also Special Projects Director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance. She helped start "Black Lives Matter" as a call to action for Black people after the killing of 17 year old Trayvon Martin. Women are at the heart of this movement. Specifically young Black women - many of them calling themselves queer. We talk about what this movement wants and where it's going. From there, we look at other systemic issues facing Black communities...
Mar 24, 2015•25 min•Ep. 9
With marijuana legalization passing around the US, are we finally entering the last days of the War on Drugs? Johann Hari had an early start as an op-ed columnist for The Independent at 23. Since then, he has written for the New York Times, the LA Times, the Guardian, Le Monde, Slate, the New Republic and The Nation among others. His new book, Chasing The Scream , is a bracing look inside the War on Drugs. This episode also looks at what resisting the war on drugs looks like at the grassroots, w...
Mar 10, 2015•25 min•Ep. 8
In celebration of International Women's Day, GRITtv featuring leaders of the global women's movement, Agnes Pareyio and Monique Wilson plus a look at women of color's fight for rights with Standing on My Sister's Shoulders and Hillary Clinton's White Feminism with Laura's F-Word. Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders-Executive Producer, Writer; Sabrina Artel-Supervising Producer; Jeremiah Cothren-Senior Producer; Veronica Delgado-Video Editor, Janet Hernandez-Communications Director; J...
Mar 03, 2015•24 min•Ep. 7
Ai-jen Poo, Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) and Co-director of the Caring Across Generations campaign, has been organizing immigrant women workers since 1996. In 2000 she co-founded Domestic Workers United, the New York organization that spearheaded the successful passage of the state’s historic Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in 2010. As Co-director of Caring Across Generations, Ai-jen leads a movement that is reshaping labor and inspiring thousands of careworkers, par...
Feb 26, 2015•23 min•Ep. 6
The US media has been breathlessly reporting the spin about Uber, the $40 billion dollar car service that until recently was called "ride-sharing" by the AP. Bhairavi Desai, co-founder and Director of the Taxi Workers Alliance, presents the other side - including Uber and similar services' effects on the California cab industry, and workers' rights and the changing face of "work" in the US. Plus, Esther Cooper Jackson, creator of Freedomways, on fighting for equal rights for almost a century. La...
Feb 17, 2015•24 min•Ep. 5
A short documentary in partnership with Toolbox for Education and Social Action. Watch as we go through concrete steps for building economic alternatives by creating worker-owned cooperatives. Featuring conversations with worker-owners from Union Cab; Ginger Moon; Arizmendi Bakery, Anti-Oppression Resource and Training Alliance (AORTA); New Era Windows; and more.For supplementary materials from Toolbox for Education and Social Education, visit store.toolboxfored.org/own-the-change/ Laura Flander...
Feb 12, 2015•25 min•Ep. 4
Is the economy recovering, or is the system itself the problem? Economist and philosopher David Harvey on money; which he calls "the great corrupter". Professor David Harvey is one of the world’s leading Marxist thinkers and most prolific writers on class warfare, capitalism, crisis and how we find our way out. Harvey has also coined key social movement concepts, such as the idea of "the right to the city". His latest book is Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism. Also on the show: ...
Feb 03, 2015•5 min•Ep. 3
Why is it so hard to invest your money locally? Grassroots activists trying to build economic alternatives in the US encourage investing in the businesses in your neighborhood, instead of in far-off corporations. However, it turns out that it’s not so easy to move your money; there are even laws against it in the US. Laura Flanders talks with local finance expert Michael Shuman, and profiles a grassroots success story, CERO Group, that’s funding its start-up without deep pockets or Wall St cash....
Jan 27, 2015•25 min•Ep. 2
What is the fallout from Obamacare on the movement for universal healthcare, and is there any hope for change in the US electoral system? A discussion on organizing within the system with Chuck Pennacchio, Executive Director of Health Care 4 All Pennsylvania and founder of Citizen Solutions for Pennsylvania. He was also a 2006 US Senate candidate. He’s a longtime advocate of publicly-financed, privately-provided universal healthcare, and an organizing veteran of 34 years. Then, from the US to Gr...
Jan 17, 2015•24 min•Ep. 1
