"The paradox of education is precisely this -- that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated." James Baldwin wrote that in 1963, but as we watch teachers and their students leading pro-labor protests in Wisconsin and around the country, it remains truer than ever. Baldwin died in 1987, but his novels and essays--and his activism--live on. This week at NYU, a conference examining Baldwin's work and influence in today's globalized world is meeting, and Laura sat down with two of the speakers, Hortense Spillers and Darryl Pinckney, to discuss why Baldwin's work still feels so vital, so important.

Alice Mizrachi isn't just an artist--she's a community organizer, too. A graduate of the Parsons School of Design, Mizrachi's shown her work around the world, and yet her favorite canvas is New York's walls. Mizrachi's built a global network of women artists as co-director of the Younity Arts Collective, and now she's working with young people. This piece was produced by Rebecca McDonald, and special thanks to Noisemaker Media for the music.

"There is only one state employee I'd like to see laid off, and that's Scott Walker," says Milwaukee's Ellen Bravo, who helped lead a successful campaign in Wisconsin for family leave that is now being attacked by Governor Walker's administration. As thousands of Wisconsinites gather in the capitol and Democratic state senators flee the state to avoid a vote on Walker's bill to bust the public employees' unions, Ellen points out the ongoing struggles of workers for basic rights.

"This is a national plan of action designed to take women back to a time when we had second class status as persons," Lynn Paltrow says of the ongoing attempts by conservatives around the country to shut down abortion rights by any way they can think of: fetal personhood, banning taxpayer funding, defunding Planned Parenthood, and making it "justifiable homicide" to kill an abortion provider.

When Lara Logan of CBS News came forward with the news that she had been brutally sexually assaulted by a group of men while reporting from Tahrir Square, the story caused shock waves. Logan is the chief foreign affairs correspondent for CBS, and it is rare for prominent women to come forward with stories of rape or sexual assault.

"This is a national plan of action designed to take women back to a time when we had second class status as persons," Lynn Paltrow says of the ongoing attempts by conservatives around the country to shut down abortion rights by any way they can think of: fetal personhood, banning taxpayer funding, defunding Planned Parenthood, and making it "justifiable homicide" to kill an abortion provider.

"It's a reimagining of the middle east, what is possible," says poet Remi Kanazi of the revolution in Egypt, and Laila El-Haddad notes the direct impact that the Mubarak regime had on Palestinian people, particularly in Gaza, which shares a border with Egypt. Laila and members of her family--including her small children--had been detained by the Mubarak regime.

"People who want to see the budget cut are people who are advocating throwing people out of work, it's that simple," says Dean Baker of the pressure from conservatives on Obama's budget--pressure, it appears, that Obama is conceding to as he brags that discretionary spending will be the lowest since Eisenhower's administration.

"People who want to see the budget cut are people who are advocating throwing people out of work, it's that simple," says Dean Baker of the pressure from conservatives on Obama's budget--pressure, it appears, that Obama is conceding to as he brags that discretionary spending will be the lowest since Eisenhower's administration.

They're calling him the Mubarak of the Midwest: Wisconsin governor Scott Walker might have gone too far threatening to call the National Guard on union workers who might fight back against his draconian bill to strip their collective bargaining rights. Walker's union-busting has brought out thousands of protesters, who packed the capitol building and even drew support from the Super Bowl-winning Green Bay Packers. The protests continued today with a "sick-out" from Madison schools, and support just might be eroding for Walker's policies...