Watch Our Exclusive Studio Interview With “March for Our Lives” Leaders

“I promise you this is all strategic.” Parkland teens speak about what’s next in the fight to stop gun violence.

Mother Jones recently invited three top student leaders from the March for Our Lives movement into our studio to mark the six-month anniversary of the Parkland shooting, and to talk about what they learned during their national “Road to Change” tour, which made its final stop in Newtown, Connecticut, last Sunday.

The co-founder of the movement, Parkland survivor Jaclyn Corin, joined chief strategist Matt Deitsch and Chicago peace activist Alex King for a candid roundtable hosted by Mother Jones’ senior digital editor, James West—diving headlong into topics including recent legislative wins, the grueling hours of being on the road, and the burden of being called “saviors.”

“People like to romanticize the fact there are young people, and I truly don’t get it,” Corin admitted during the chat. “It doesn’t matter what our age is. Most of the things we say are facts, or stories, and those don’t have age limits. And so, I guess the romanticism is what needed to happen because people are finally listening, even though people of all ages have been fighting for this issue for decades upon decades.”

“I promise you this is all strategic,” Deitsch said about the group’s intense focus on registering and turning out young voters for the 2018 midterms. “If the young people turn out in these states, they get to pick the governor, they pick the congressmen, they pick the mayors, they pick the school board. They get to pick every single level of their government, simply by showing out.”

For the full discussion, watch the video above.

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You can also watch our passionate interview with Parkland student leader David Hogg about how the media ignores gun violence when it occurs in black communities, and how to build a truly diverse national movement. “The thing I learned most on this tour is how blatantly racist society is,” he said. “Mass shootings that primarily affect affluent white people get a lot more coverage than everyday shootings, especially [shootings] in black and brown communities. And that’s incredibly disturbing.”

Finally, in the video below, Mother Jones speaks to Nicole Hockley, who lost her son Dylan in the Sandy Hook attack, and Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime died in the Parkland shooting, about the ties that bind victims and survivors of highly publicized gun violence and about their own journeys of turning tragedy into advocacy.

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The Mother Jones Podcast this week takes you to the final “Road for Change” rally in Newtown, Connecticut, where you’ll hear interviews with student leaders David Hogg and Bria Smith, as well as with the parents of victims in both the Parkland and Sandy Hook shootings.

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That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

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Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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