Frances Fox Piven & Cornel West: Teaching to Fight Back

“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.

This video was originally posted on GRITtv.org.