Free screening of ‘Inequality for All’ to honor International Women’s Day

Local organizations are offering a free March 7 screening of “Inequality for All,” a documentary that features former U. S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, in honor of International Women’s Day 2014.

Reich’s award-winning documentary focuses on the widening income gap in America, a press release said.

The screening is scheduled from 1 to 4 p.m., Friday, March 7, in the City Room (A-111) of Roane State Community College at 702 Briarcliff Ave. It’s sponsored by Women’s Interfaith Dialogue, the League of Women Voters, Altrusa International, and the Sisterhood of the Jewish Congregation, all of Oak Ridge.

The release said Reich uses humor and a wide array of facts to explain how income inequality and the shrinking middle class affect everyone and have implications for the future of democracy, the economy, and the nation. The film premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, winning the Special Jury Prize. It was recently released in theaters nationwide and has now been made available for educational screenings.

Reich served in three presidential administrations, including President Bill Clinton’s, when Reich was labor secretary. In 2006, Time Magazine named him one of the 10 most effective cabinet secretaries of the century, the press release said. The Wall Street Journal placed him among America’s Top 10 Business Thinkers. He is currently Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of 13 books including the best seller “After Shock.” His latest book, “Beyond Outrage,” is now out in paperback.

The theme of the 2014 International Women’s Day is Inspiring Change, a very good fit with the goal of the film, the press release said. Since its first observation in 1911, International Women’s Day has encouraged advocacy for women’s equality and vigilance inspiring positive change, according to the website.

Immediately following the screening, presentations and discussion will be led by Fran Ansley, distinguished professor of law emeritus at the University of Tennessee College of Law, and the Rev. Jim Sessions, director of Interfaith Worker Justice of East Tennessee and founding president of the Working America Education Find. Husband-and-wife team Sessions and Ansley will focus on the particular impact low wages and growing inequality have upon women, the release said.

Ansley has been a civil rights and women’s rights advocate for more than 40 years. She has a special commitment to organizations that are working to bring grassroots, bottom-up social change, the release said. She is a member of Jobs with Justice of East Tennessee and a member of the board of directors of the Tennessee Immigration and Refugee Rights Coalition.

Sessions is a United Methodist minister who has lived and worked in Southern Appalachia for more than 40 years, serving as executive director of several social and economic justice organizations such as Southerners for Economic Justice as well as program director of the Children’s Defense Fund national training center, Alex Haley Farm.

The event is open to the public. Registration is not required. For more information, call (865) 483-6752.