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This week on Uprising:

* Mexico Student Protests Buoy Lopez Obrador’s Presidential Candidacy
* Wisconsin Gov. Walker Pours Unprecedented Campaign Funds Into Recall Race
* Black Agenda Report on Obama and Bain Capital
* The Central Park Five: The Untold Story Behind one of New York City’s Most Infamous Crimes

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Mexico Student Protests Buoy Lopez Obrador’s Presidential Candidacy

Tens of thousands of Mexican students have been protesting over several weeks in a dramatic turn in Mexico’s Presidential race that many have dubbed the Mexican Spring. The movement reflects growing anger among Mexico’s young and educated population and was sparked by a group of 131 students at a private university who confronted the Presidential frontrunner Enrique Pena Nieto. The students accused Nieto of benefiting from biased media coverage from Mexico’s two dominant media outlets. The resulting slogan of “Yo Soy 132” has been widely adopted as students are mobilizing using social networks and making broader demands for democracy and against corruption.

Nieto is known for his heavy handed governorship in 2006 when he oversaw the imprisonment and repression of activists in San Salvador Atenco. In running for President, Nieto’s win seemed inevitable, signalling the possible return to power of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) that ruled Mexico for more than 70 years until 2000.

But the mass student protests have emerged as a wild card in the election and buoyed the candidacy of the left-leaning Andres Manual Lopez Obrador. Obrador last ran for President in 2006 against the conservative Felipe Calderon and was viewed by many as the legitimate winner in an election marred by widespread fraud. Representing a diverse coalition of political parties, he has now climbed dramatically in the polls. In fact, a poll released on Thursday by the newspaper Reforma shows Obrador trailing Nieto by only 3 percentage points. Also running for President is Ms. Vazquez Mota, representing the current ruling National Action Party or PAN.

GUEST: Laura Carlsen, Director of the Mexico City-based Americas Program of the Center for International Policy and a columnist for Foreign Policy In Focus

Wisconsin Gov. Walker Pours Unprecedented Campaign Funds Into Recall Race

A year of popular organizing and partisan showdowns is ramping up to a photo-finish conclusion in the Wisconsin recall election to be held on Tuesday to determine if Governor Scott Walker will keep his office. A Marquette Law School Poll conducted last weekend found Walker, in office for only one year before facing a recall, leading with 52% of the vote to challenger Tom Barrett’s 45%. Tom Barrett lost to Walker by a nearly identical split when they faced off in the 2010 Gubernatorial race, reflecting a sharp, persistent partisan divide in the state. The two candidates squared off in a debate on Thursday night with Barrett reminding voters of the labor battle Walker sparked, and the Governor accusing his rival of taking orders from union bosses.

Meanwhile, the embattled Governor’s campaign has once again been buoyed by wealthy donors throughout the popular resistance to his anti-union, pro-corporate agenda. During the 2010 Gubernatorial race, through campaign and super PAC funds, Walker was the recipient of about $100,000 of Koch Brother money. This time around, Walker continues to be funded by conservatives from outside his state with ambitions for a national right-leaning agenda. John Nichols of the Madison Capitol Times wrote this week that 70% of Walker’s 31 million war chest has come from out-of -state contributors, including Texas millionaire developer Bob Perry and billionaire Nevada casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. Walker’s campaign also received $500,000 from Wisconsin billionaire Diane Hendricks, who paid zero dollars in taxes in 2010.

Barrett, Mayor of Milwaukee, was elected to face Walker in an early May primary that gave him less than 30 days to fund-raise. In just under a month he has raised about $4 million, with 70% of his campaign funds come from smaller in-state donations.

GUESTS: John Nichols, associate editor of the Capitol Times in Madison, Wisconsin and a correspondent for The Nation magazine, contributing writer for The Progressive, co-founder of Free Press, author of many books including his latest called Uprising: How Wisconsin Renewed the Politics of Protest, from Madison to Wall Street; Paul Buhle is co-editor with Mary Buhle of, It Started in Wisconsin, Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Labor Protest. He founded the Students for a Democratic Society journal Radical America and the archive of Oral History of the American Left. He is also coeditor of the Encyclopedia of the American left and is a former Senior lecturer at Brown University.

Black Agenda Report on Obama and Bain Capital

Bruce Dixon is managing editor of the Black Agenda Report. This week’s commentary is about President Obama and Bain Capital.

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

The Central Park Five: The Untold Story Behind one of New York City’s Most Infamous Crimes

In her new book “The Central Park Five,” author Sarah Burns explores the 1989 Central Park Jogger case during which five Black and Latino teenagers were convicted for the brutal rape and beating of a white woman named Patricia Ellen Meili. Burns meticulously documents events leading up to the crime and describes in detail the questionable tactics used by New York City Police Detectives during interrogations of the 14-16 year olds, that lasted hours, producing confessions riddled with inaccuracies and inconsistencies.

The Central Park Five contextualizes its subject, examining the media frenzy that erupted around the case and portraying a New York City in the grips of an unprecedented crime wave with cuts to social services, skyrocketing drop out rates, and an ever expanding divide between rich and poor. Burns gives her reader a glimpse into an episode of American history only recently removed and whose race-related issues the country is still struggling to resolve. The case that began 23 years ago invokes some of the same issues that the US is still struggling with in cases like the Florida killing of Trayvon Martin in terms of simmering racial animosities and inherent prejudices within the American judicial system.

GUEST: Sarah Burns, author of The Central Park Five: The Untold Story Behind one of New York City’s Most Infamous Crimes. Burns is also putting the finishing touches on a film based on the book which has just been accepted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival

Click here to find out more about the book.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:

“I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” — Malcolm X