From xcruz@webtv.net Mon Mar 2 00:52:38 1998 From: xcruz@webtv.net (Robert Chavez) Date: Mon, 2 Mar 1998 00:52:28 -0700 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Fwd: US-Dutch Union Victory --WebTV-Mail-429775091-5901 --WebTV-Mail-429775091-5901 Approved-By: Michael Eisenscher Date: Sun, 1 Mar 1998 21:26:36 -0800 Reply-To: LABNEWS - News and Organizing about the Labor Movement Sender: LABNEWS - News and Organizing about the Labor Movement From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: US-Dutch Union Victory Subject: U.S.-DUTCH UNION VICTORY Date: 26 Feb 1998 05:42:04 From: ICEM@GEO2.poptel.org.uk Newsgroups: labr.newsline ICEM UPDATE No. 11/1998 26 February 1998 The following is from the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM): U.S.-DUTCH UNION VICTORY AT DSM An American union has won a recognition vote at plastics manufacturer DSM Polymer - with the active involvement of a Dutch union. Both the American union OCAW and the Dutch union FNV Bondgenoten are affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions. DSM Polymer is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dutch-based multinational DSM. In fact, this was the second union election at the plastics plant in Wytheville, Virginia. Back in January 1996, the workers there had already voted for the OCAW to represent them. But management refused to recognise the result of the first election. In more than 30 negotiating sessions, the company made only minor concessions. Management offered contract [collective agreement] provisions below the existing ones in order to keep the union from securing a contract. FNV Bondgenoten, which organises DSM workers in the Netherlands, was directly involved in the second election campaign at the US plant. In December, Dutch trade unionists travelled to Wytheville to investigate OCAW charges that DSM had engaged in union-busting there. And last week, just before the vote, another Dutch delegation visited the plant to talk to the workers about the importance of trade unions. The Bondgenoten's efforts helped to clinch the US ballot, the OCAW believes. Robert Wages, OCAW President and a member of the ICEM Executive, said the direct involvement of Dutch trade unionists in the election "is unprecedented and signals a growing awareness of the necessity for unions to work together in the global economy." "We extend our deep and profound appreciation to our Dutch brothers and sisters and congratulate the workers in Wytheville who have waged a long and bitter struggle for economic justice and worker rights," Wages declared. And Bondgenoten representative Henk Walravens commented: "Both Dutch and American workers have sent a strong message to the DSM Board of Directors in the Netherlands that it is time to settle long-standing differences and negotiate fairly with OCAW and its workers." The workers' vote "has decided the question of representation," emphasised OCAW International Representative Steve Gentry, who coordinated the two-year campaign. Now, he said, "we can move on to develop a constructive collective bargaining relationship benefiting both the company and the workers." _________________ Individual ICEM UPDATE items can be supplied in other languages on request. Our print magazines ICEM INFO and ICEM GLOBAL are available in Arabic, English, French, German, Russian, Scandinavian and Spanish. Visit us on the Web at http://www.icem.org ICEM avenue Emile de Beco 109, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium. tel.+32.2.6262020 fax +32.2.6484316 Internet: icem@geo2.poptel.org.uk Editor: Ian Graham, Information Officer Publisher: Vic Thorpe, General Secretary. --WebTV-Mail-429775091-5901-- From aaron@burn.ucsd.edu Tue Mar 3 01:00:15 1998 Tue, 3 Mar 1998 02:59:57 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 03:01:34 -0500 To: a-infos@tao.ca, Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu, LABOR-L@YORKU.CA, marxism-news@jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU From: Aaron Subject: U.S. Labor and Iraq: a response to Harry Kelber Comrades, et ??, The following item from Harry Kelber came to me via Michael Eisenscher . I have reproduced here the full text of Kelber's post, with my comments interspersed. The original, uncommented text of Kleber's post as I received it is now on my web site as both (http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aaron/Iraq/Kelber.text) and (http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aaron/Iraq/Kelber.html). - In solidarity with the oppressed, - Aaron >From: Harry Kelber >Newsgroups: labortalk >Subject: LaborTalk: Is Iraq a Labor Issue? >Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 22:48:18 -0800 (PST) > >It is most unlikely that the AFL-CIO will have anything to say about >the looming U.S. military attack against Iraq. The subject of Iraq is >taboo in the official labor press. We have yet to see a prominent >union leader make any statement, for or against, concerning the >Administration's current policy toward Iraq. The prevailing view is >that this crisis, as important as it may be, is outside the limits of >the AFL-CIO's legitimate concerns. The 'AFL-CIA', as it is known around the world, has a history of support to U.S. imperialist intervention everywhere, and an even stronger record of support to Israel, whose total domination of the 'Middle East' requires a very weak Iraq. Given these facts, maybe the U.S. labor bureaucracy's silence on the issue of Iraq is a progressive step! >Herein lies a dilemma which, sooner or later, must be confronted. The >AFL-CIO proclaims itself as the champion of working families and >certainly is striving to attain that posture. Although this is a side issue, it is an important one: There are many millions of workers in the U.S. who are not in any real sense part of "families", "working" or otherwise. Let's not fall into the assumptions of the reactionary "pro-family" demagogues! >But if working people are troubled about U.S. military action against >Iraq, including a possible ground war that would mean the loss of >countless lives, ... Over a million Iraqi lives -- most of them from "working families" -- have been lost since 1991 as a result of U.S.-led military and economic warfare against them. One can infer that Kelber accepts that the lives of U.S. nationals are qualitatively more important than those of Iraqis. >... should the AFL- CIO be indifferent toward their worries? What if >the Iraq crisis becomes a hot-button issue in the 1998 elections, will >unions continue to ignore it? >Will AFL-CIO political campaign literature talk about the minimum wage >and health care and have nothing to say about Saddam Hussein and how >to deal with the threat that he poses? If we're just talking here about dictators of oppressed nations, how about the far greater threat to working people posed by, for example, Indonesia's Suharto or Peru's Fujimori? Are U.S. workers supposed to concern themselves about such dictators only when the latter are no longer on the CIA payroll, doing the bidding of "our" ruling class? >By remaining silent, organized labor is giving a blank check to >whatever the Clinton administration does about Iraq. Does that serve >the needs of America's working families? If the alternative to remaining silent is to discuss "how to deal with the threat that [Saddam Hussein] poses", it's better that they remain silent on the matter! But that doesn't mean that leftists within the unions should remain silent. In fact, those U.S. workers who can't be moved by solidarity with the people of Iraq should have the "Gulf War Syndrome" waved in front of them to remind them of the rewards of being a mercenary for their ruling class. >One of the main reasons why unions avoid issues like the bloated and >wasteful Pentagon budget, NATO expansion and the proliferation of >biological, chemical and nuclear weapons is that they are controversial. >(Thousands of workers earn their livelihood in the manufacture of >military weaponry.) Working people in the U.S. are taxed a few hundred billions of dollars each year to finance the U.S. war machine. The largest portion thereof goes for the super-profits of the investors in war production. But a substantial portion goes to those who work in such production -- the "cheap whores" of the Military-Industrial Complex. [Correction: "Whores" (cheap or otherwise) don't usually facilitate mass murder in the normal course of their employment.] But thanks to the dominance of ruling- class ideology in the U.S. working class, it's easier to mobilize a minority to defend their short-term interests than to mobilize the class as a whole to stop financing the wars and profits of its masters! Incidentally, the wasteful part is the least objectionable part of "the bloated and wasteful Pentagon budget" from the viewpoint of the workers and oppressed of the world. >But often, it is the controversial issues that are matters of public >concern, especially during an election campaign. That's the only good reason for parties of the oppressed to participate in election campaigns. Certainly not to get Democrats elected so that they can bomb Arabs and cut welfare instead of the Republicans! >There is a simple and enlightening way to deal with controversy; namely, >to present both sides of an issue. When somebody talks about "both sides of an issue", your crap detector should be sounding a loud alarm. What the "sides of an issue" are is a consequence of how the issue is defined. I'll comment on some of Harry Kelber's specific questions below. >In serving the nation's working families ["families" again -- Aaron], >unions ought to provide them with accurate, useful information on all >public issues that affect their lives. Unfortunately, the labor bureaucracy is generally as incapable as the mainstream capitalist press of providing "accurate, useful information" on anything of importance. But leftist union activists should fight to get their views printed in labor papers and heard and discussed at union meetings. >Take the issue of Iraq, about which there is much confusion: Here's one place where I definitely agree with Kelber! I see almost as much confusion on the side of those who oppose U.S. domination as on the side of those who support it! It is the confusion of the former that I want to help clear up. >What does U.S. diplomacy consist of? Is it not actually an ultimatum to >Saddam Hussein to let the U.N. inspectors examine whatever they wish to >or else face military action? One need only add that the "U.N. inspectors" are actually led by U.S. military and intelligence agents! >Should the U.S. engage in military action virtually alone (except for >England), with strong opposition from Russia and China and uncertain >support from Saudi Arabia? Germany, February 1938: "Should Germany invade Csechoslovakia now in the face of strong opposition from England and France, or should it wait to arrive at a negotiated agreement at Munich next month?" >What are the announced military objectives of the White House and what >impact will they have on Saddam Hussein and his alleged arsenal of >biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction? >What effect have the U.N. economic sanctions had on Iraq and should we >continue to rely on them rather than engage in military action? Should the U.S. just continue to starve to death a few thousand Iraqis each week or should the U.S. kill another couple of hundred thousand of them in a short time like it did in 1991? >Are there other countries that are producing biological weapons of mass >destruction, given the fact that scientists have developed the >technology to produce them? The biggest producer and stockpiler of weapons of mass destruction is -- without any doubt -- the United States. The country that devotes the largest proportion of it's wealth to producing such weapons is -- without any doubt -- that other favorite of the AFL-CIO bureaucracy, Israel! >Should the AFL-CIO have some constructive input on these life-and-death >questions or should it leave the decisions to politicians, many of whom >have shown little regard for working families? And does the AFL-CIO have >a responsibility to provide working people with the facts, pro and con, >on these issues? >These are questions that ought not to be ignored. They deserve serious >answers. Ruling-class propagandists know that getting people to think about the right questions is more important than how they answer said questions. In that spirit, I propose a question of my own: "Should the people of the world assasinate U.S. diplomats and businessmen - and burn and bomb their embassies, consulates and places of business - now, while the U.S. is starving the Iraqi people to death, or should we wait until the U.S. again launches actual military action against Iraq?"** I don't think the AFL-CIO bureaucrats will want to present their members with ANY answers to THIS question! ** Note to Janet Reno: This question is being asked for educational purposes only. It should not be construed as advocating anything! {;->} From sunshine@comp.uark.edu Wed Mar 4 12:33:15 1998 Date: Wed, 4 Mar 1998 13:32:42 -0600 (CST) From: "Dionne S. Ward" To: Labor Research and Action Project Subject: seeking assistance In-Reply-To: <39722dd3.34f50e08@aol.com> I am seeking assistance in tracking down organizers, activists, and scholars who have been involved in organizing Latino workers--particularly in the poultry industry. I am writing my MA thesis on the prospects for organizing Latino immigrant workers in the poultry industry, concentrating on the barriers that unions face as they attempt to organize this work force. Any names/numbers/email addresses would be GREATLY appreciated! Please email me directly at sunshine@comp.uark.edu or call 501-587-8277. Thanks! D. Sunshine Ward From aaron@burn.ucsd.edu Thu Mar 5 23:19:17 1998 Fri, 6 Mar 1998 01:19:03 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 01:19:49 -0500 To: fnb-l@tao.ca, damn@tao.ca, Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu, LABOR-L@YORKU.CA, marxism-news@jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU From: Aaron Subject: CHUMBAWAMBA North American tour schedule The British anarchist punk group CHUMBAWAMBA is on a North American tour. They're the folks who recently dumped a bucket of ice on the British Deputy Prime Minister at an awards banquet and told him "that's what you get for being a scab". Check out their web site at (http://www.chumba.com/). Here's the schedule for the remainder of Chumbawamba's North American tour. MARCH: Friday 6 BOULDER Boulder Theatre Sunday 8 LAWRENCE KS Monday 9 ST LOUIS Wednesday 11 MINNEAPOLIS First Avenue Thursday 12 MILWAUKEE Friday 13 CINCINNATTI Bogart's Sunday 15 INDIANAPOLIS Egyptian Room Monday 16 COLUMBUS Newport Music Hall Tuesday 17 PITTSBURG Wednesday 18 ROCHESTER Water Street Music Hall Thursday 19 TORONTO Warehouse Saturday 21 KAMLOOPS Snojob Festival Sun Peaks Sunday 22 SEATTLE Paramount Monday 23 VANCOUVER Rage Tuesday 24 CALGARY Macewan Hall Thursday 26 ASHLAND Ohio. Ashland University Friday 27 MYRTLE BEACH House Of Blues Saturday 28 ATLANTA Centennial Park Sunday 29 PANAMA CITY Club La Vela Tuesday 31 ORLANDO House Of Blues APRIL: Wednesday 1 MIAMI Cameo Theatre "Support will be Alabama 3 (or, as they're known in the USA, 'A3')." ---------- http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aaron/ mailto:aaron@burn.ucsd.edu Important: Most mail sent to this address between December 11 and 14 was lost in transit. Please resend! From aaron@burn.ucsd.edu Fri Mar 6 00:08:52 1998 Fri, 6 Mar 1998 02:08:45 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 02:10:25 -0500 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu, LABOR-L@YORKU.CA From: Aaron Subject: Strike in Copperhill, TN, USA: Info request from Sweden Please send any response to (Anders Larsson ), not to me (Aaron). If it contains information of general interest, you may want to Cc it to the list(s). - Solidarity, - Aaron --------------- Begin Forwarded Message: --------------- Date: Thu, 5 Mar 1998 23:15:22 GMT From: "Anders Larsson" Subject: The Copperhill Conflict. A company in the Trelleborg group has a strike going on in Copperhill, Tenesee, USA. Can anyone help me with information about this conflict and give me the name of some contact person there that has acess to e-mail. Thank you. Anders Larsson a.larsson@malmo.mail.telia.com --------------- End of Forwarded Message --------------- ---------- http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aaron/ mailto:aaron@burn.ucsd.edu Important: Most mail sent to this address between December 11 and 14 was lost in transit. Please resend! From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Fri Mar 6 01:07:27 1998 Thu, 5 Mar 1998 23:26:38 -0800 (PST) Thu, 5 Mar 1998 23:19:35 -0800 (PST) Date: Thu, 5 Mar 1998 23:19:35 -0800 (PST) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Dirty Rings Around Saturn's Model Contract? March 6, 1998 Many at Saturn Factory Find Less to Smile About By ROBYN MEREDITH SPRING HILL, Tenn. -- Every week, hundreds of curious tourists make pilgrimages to this small town to take a tour of the Saturn factory. They watch yellow and orange conveyors flow through it like veins and arteries carrying essential car parts to the heart of the assembly line. Many come to see where their beloved Saturns were built. They wave at workers, who smile and wave back. Indeed, the scene resembles the touchy-feely image created by Saturn's advertising campaigns -- one of cheerful, dedicated Americans working in teams to build quality cars. But all is not well on the factory floor. Some workers are embarrassed by the television ads that continue to portray them as a contented work force. "We want to sell cars and build an image, but I want to feel like I'm living the truth," said Daniel Lawrence, 45, who installs batteries at the factory. The market for small cars is collapsing, and even Saturn's well-liked no-haggle pricing policy and reputation for good customer service could not keep Saturn's sales from plunging. The cheerful workers in Saturn's advertisements have been complaining about what they see as bungling by Saturn's parent, General Motors Corp. They have watched their annual bonuses dwindle and have begun to fear for the first time that Saturn may be approaching the kind of catastrophe that would trigger layoffs. Next Tuesday and Wednesday, Saturn's 7,200 unionized workers will vote on whether to ask GM to jettison the innovative labor contract forged here by Saturn and the United Automobile Workers union in favor of the traditional contract that governs the Big Three's 400,000 other unionized workers. If dissident workers prevail, the UAW and GM will presumably begin discussing what to do next. There are no formal provisions in the current contract on how to overturn it. At the very least, though, a negative vote would be a staggering blow to corporate America's most ambitious ongoing experiment in labor-management relations. The vote, which is expected to be close, "represents a confrontation between the new and the old, the future and the past," said David Cole, director of the Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation at the University of Michigan. GM executives, fearful of tipping the union vote against the Saturn contract, have refused to comment since workers decided in late February to vote on changing the contract, which has no expiration date. The UAW national office also refused to comment. In the meantime, the company is quietly fighting back. Last week, it agreed to make it easier for Saturn workers to earn bonuses, by allowing them to win up to $1,860 this year if quality goals are met. In addition, if the factory produces 280,000 cars a year, 30,000 cars fewer than before -- but still 30,000 more than the factory churned out last year, they could earn a few thousand more. Many workers are skeptical about reaching the quota anytime soon. The 75-page Saturn labor contract is a bare-bones document compared with the 1,470-page tome that covers workers at other GM factories. The Saturn contract requires managers and hourly workers to cooperate in teams. On the other hand, the traditional contract divides responsibilities with hierarchical precision. Managers are required to go through union officials to make many requests of workers. Workers get higher base pay but forego the chance to earn the big bonuses Saturn workers have received in past years. GM assembly-line workers, on average, earn $40,622 a year, plus a bonus tied to corporate performance that has amounted to $2,439 over the last six years. Saturn workers, by contrast, on average earn between $36,774 and $41,787 a year, depending on whether the factory meets its quality, health and safety, and training goals. They have earned additional bonuses amounting to $32,829 over six years for reaching production targets. The crucial difference in the contracts, from the standpoint of Saturn workers, is that they are protected against layoffs except during "unforeseen or catastrophic events or severe economic conditions." Saturn is in deep enough trouble, many workers say, that layoffs are increasingly likely. The traditional UAW contract allows layoffs but requires GM to continue paying idled workers 95 percent to 100 percent of their base pay until they are offered another job or retire. The Saturn contract offers no explicit protections. Thomas Hopp, 39, said his two decades of experience working at GM factories have taught him a simple truth. "If we're not making cars, your job is in jeopardy," said Hopp, who helped organize Concerned Brothers & Sisters of Local 1853, which forced the contract vote. "I get scared when that line isn't running." Slow sales are the root of the problem, and Saturn is suffering along with the entire market. Small-car sales peaked in the 1980s but have fallen 20 percent in the last four years. Until 1996, Saturn was able to shelter itself from the downturn by increasing its market share, mainly by building a nearly cultlike following with its folksy advertisements featuring workers. But for the last two years, Saturn has been stuck with a dwindling share of a withering market. Small-car sales have faltered for a number of unrelated reasons. With a gallon of gasoline priced at less than bottled water, few people want to buy small, fuel-efficient cars. The Asian currency crisis has helped foreign small-car makers drop prices to woo Saturn buyers. And the proliferation of sport utility vehicles and other light trucks is hurting sales of small cars, whose drivers find the bigger vehicles blocking their view of the road. Saturn has fared better than some competitors, but its sales still dropped 9.9 percent last year. In October, Saturn lowered prices on its 1998 models. In January, with unsold Saturns piling up at dealerships, the company stopped building cars on Mondays. Workers use the time to maintain equipment or take additional courses on creative thinking, conflict resolution and other Saturn standbys. Last month, Saturn lowered lease prices: Its cheapest car can be had for $129 a month. Precisely because Saturn workers are used to taking pride and responsibility in the cars -- and the company -- they have built, they are doubly frustrated by what they view as mistakes by management. The disputes are fueling an extraordinary debate between labor and management over how the company should be run. Many workers and local union officials believe General Motors has missed several opportunities to expand on Saturn's success as a popular small-car maker. GM should have developed Saturn into a company selling cars and trucks of all sizes and shapes, they contend. "If Saturn is to take its place as initially stated to be an import fighter, well, the imports are fighting us on a lot of fronts," said Joseph Rypkowski, president of Saturn's Local 1853. With more than 70 percent of Saturns sold to non-GM customers, he sees lots of potential. "If we can do that in the small-car market, we can do that in midsized and there's no reason we can't do it in trucks." But until next spring, nearly a decade after the first Saturns rolled off the assembly line, dealers will have nothing to show loyal customers who had children and outgrew the small cars. Only then will dealers begin selling the Saturn LS, the first midsized sedan. Similarly, GM did not act on workers' suggestions two years ago that Saturn begin selling a small sport utility vehicle, and workers have watched Honda's CR-V and Toyota's RAV4 sell like hot cakes instead. Saturn now is considering selling a small sport utility vehicle, but not until 2002. And instead of sending Saturn the Catera, a small, sporty near-luxury sedan, GM doomed it to slower sales by christening it a Cadillac and hoping it would attract buyers without gray hair to GM's luxury brand. Executives at General Motors said they had little choice but to starve Saturn. The parent corporation nearly ran out of money in the early 1990s and had to cut back in the development of new cars and trucks at all its divisions. Wagoner said last month that it was easy to second-guess GM now, but acknowledged that Saturn would be better off if it were already selling a midsized car. "Clearly we would like to have it," he said. Last summer, Michael Bennett, chairman of Saturn's Local 1853, took the unusual step of proposing that GM spin off Saturn as a separate company. That request has so far been ignored. Indeed, instead of increasing Saturn's autonomy, GM is increasingly integrating it into the corporate parent. That's part of GM's strategy to capitalize on worldwide efficiencies by using common parts and processes for many of its different cars, and by having workers around the world jointly develop new models. The upcoming Saturn LS was developed in Europe as the Opel Astra and will be built at a spare factory GM owns in Wilmington, Delaware. That has alarmed workers. "They think that General Motors is swallowing us back up, which in fact it is," Bennett said. "The problem with that is that Saturn was set up to be a different kind of car company and a different kind of car, and the two strategies aren't fitting very well." All of these issues add up to matters of pocketbooks and pride. The GM decisions have hurt Saturn sales and profits, which have caused workers' bonuses to fall to $2,200 last year from $10,000 in 1995 and again in 1996. Some workers argue that the Saturn contract, and the style of factory life it makes possible, should not be abandoned. "If this was a normal GM plant under a national agreement, we'd already have a layoff," said Dennis Adams, who assembles about 500 front doors per shift, and plans to vote to keep the current labor agreement. "We have a better system here," said Adams, who worked at other GM factories for 16 years before coming to Saturn in 1993. Local union leaders, who favor retaining the contract, said Saturn had not faced such a challenge before, because times had been good. "We're really for the first time getting a test," Rypkowski, the union president, said. Many workers who want to return to the traditional UAW agreement said they were embarrassed, not proud, of Saturn's image because of all the changes in the last couple of years. Boyd Burton, 38, who has worked at Saturn for nine years, recently had some friends at his house when a Saturn commercial was shown on television. "They asked if that's really the way it was there," Burton said. He told them, "That's not reality -- it isn't working like that." Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Fri Mar 6 20:13:51 1998 Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 18:19:16 -0800 (PST) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: SAWSJ Conference, April 24-26 Below is the initial call for the SAWSJ Teach-In and First Annual Meeting, along with a registration form to be mailed in. You will be receiving a more detailed program schedule, but at this time we invite you to pass the word along and, of course, to register. We look forward to seeing you in Washington. Onward, SAWSJ! ************************************************************************** DEMOCRACY AND THE RIGHT TO ORGANIZE: A NATIONAL LABOR TEACH-IN April 24-26, 1998 George Washington University Washington, D.C. Scholars, Artists, and Writers for Social Justice is sponsoring an important public event this spring, entitled "Democracy and the Right to Organize: A National Labor Teach-in." This convocation, which will be held April 24-26 on the George Washington University campus in Washington, D. C., will bring together hundreds of academics, students, trade unionists, and social activists to explain, advocate, debate, and celebrate the right of all Americans to organize, both on the job and off. Plenary speakers on the evening of Friday, April 24, include Julian Bond, civil rights activist recently elected chair of the NAACP board of directors; John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO; Kimberle Crenshaw, Columbia University professor of law; Steve Fraser, editor and writer; Juliet Schor, Harvard University economist; and Robin D. G. Kelley, New York University historian. More than a dozen workshops, plus the first annual meeting of Scholars, Artists, and Writers for Social Justice, will be held on Saturday, April 25. SAWSJ, whose members have sponsored more than a score of labor teach-ins at universities and colleges across the country, believes that democracy and dignity at work and in American society requires the right to self-organization. But tens of millions of American workers are today denied this essential right. SAWSJ insists that whatever legal, political, managerial, or bureaucratic obstacles stand in the way of a genuinely unfettered right to organize must be swept aside in the interests of American democracy itself. This is a task, not only for the labor movement, but for all those who want to make the Bill of Rights a living document in the 21st century. Saturday workshops will include sessions on labor and political action, the future of the Teamsters union, organizing the South, labor and the law, student activism, labor's connection to other social movements, and more. Among those who will be speaking at these workshops are legal scholar Karl Klare; Ken Paff of Teamsters for a Democratic Union; historians Gary Gerstle, David Brody, Andor Skotnes, and Nelson Lichtenstein; student activist Ligaya Domingo; sociologists Allen Hunter, Dan Clawson, Stanley Aronowitz, and Lynn Chancer; American studies scholar Nikhil Singh; labor educators Elaine Bernard, Kate Bronfenbrenner and Tom Juravich; and numerous trade unionists, including Bruce Raynor, Lane Windham, and Joe Uehlein. Tami Gold and Kelly Anderson, co-producers of the documentary film _Out at Work_, will also participate. SAWSJ will hold its first annual meeting on Sunday, April 26, where it will elect its first set of officers. The group envisions a movement that can reshape the nation's political culture and foster the growth of a vibrant, militant, multicultural working-class movement. The labor movement needs an academic, cultural, and intellectual community that helps shape the terms of public debate, contesting corporate dominance of politics and culture. In turn, professors, students, artists, and writers need a progressive unionism that can provide a powerful voice for social justice. The time is ripe to restore that mutually empowering relationship that once gave hope and dynamism to the labor movement and its allies in the academic and cultural communities. To register, to join SAWSJ, and/or to be added to our e-mail mailing list, please print out a copy of the form below and mail it in with your check (made payable to SAWSJ), to: SAWSJ 2565 Broadway, #176 New York, NY 10025 For more information, or if you would like to volunteer to work on the conference, please contact Tami J. Friedman: tjf3@columbia.edu You can also check our website: http://www.sage.edu/html/SAWSJ If your organization would like to have a display table at the conference, please fax your request to Michael Kazin at 301-656-8145. We will do our best to accommodate you. **************************************************************************** 1. CONFERENCE REGISTRATION "Democracy and the Right to Organize," April 24-26, Washington, D.C. Name: Street address: City, state and zip: Organizational affiliation: Home phone: Work phone: E-mail: FAX: CONFERENCE REGISTRATION FEE: $5 student/low income (circle one) $10 Friday night session only $20 all others 2. SAWSJ MEMBERSHIP MEMBERSHIP DUES: $10 student/low income (circle one) $25 others with incomes below $40,000 $40 for those with incomes of $40,000 or above 3. SAWSJ E-MAIL MAILING LIST: You will receive timely information about SAWSJ activities and other labor-related programs, resources, etc. ___ I am currently on the list. ___ I am not on the list. Please add my e-mail address. ___ Please do not add my e-mail address to the list. Make checks payable to SAWSJ (Scholars, Artists, and Writers for Social Justice). Mail them to SAWSJ, 2565 Broadway, #176, New York, NY 10025 . ******************************************************************************* From zabin@ucla.edu Sat Mar 7 17:30:06 1998 Date: Sat, 7 Mar 1998 16:30:02 -0800 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: Carol Zabin Subject: Re: Dirty Rings Around Saturn's Model Contract? Hi Michael: I did take the job at Berkeley. I will be moving late April or early May. I wanted to ask you to keep your ear open for any apartments you might hear about-- I am looking. My preference is Oakland, in a safe neighborhood, but I would consider other East Bay cities as well, even SF if it was near a Bart station. I look forward to talking to you about the Bay Area labor movement. ARe you going to the UCLEA conference? saludos, Carol From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Sun Mar 8 01:46:53 1998 Sat, 7 Mar 1998 22:50:54 -0800 (PST) Date: Sat, 7 Mar 1998 22:50:54 -0800 (PST) To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu, Labor Research and Action Project From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Re: Dirty Rings Around Saturn's Model Contract? Hi, Nice to know you'll be coming up to Paradise. I will be at some portions of UCLEA. Nissen has me on a panel. As for apartments, much depends on what you want/need and what you are willing to pay. My suggestion is that you pickup want-ads from the East Bay Express and SF Guardian, in addition to the SF Chronicle/Examiner and Oakland Tribune. There is also an East Bay community paper called the Montclarian that covers some nicer parts of the hills above Oakland. From them you'll get an idea of what the market looks like. It's expensive, unless you luck out or are willing to get into shared housing, which is what I did. I share a large old, not very spiffy Victorian with two other people about six blocks above Lake Merritt in Oakland (area is sometimes referrer to as Adams Point). Since you're coming up for UCLEA, you should take a couple of extra days and just drive around different neighborhoods to get some idea of what's what. In solidarity, Michael At 04:30 PM 3/7/98 -0800, Carol Zabin wrote: >Hi Michael: > >I did take the job at Berkeley. I will be moving late April or early May. >I wanted to ask you to keep your ear open for any apartments you might hear >about-- I am looking. My preference is Oakland, in a safe neighborhood, but >I would consider other East Bay cities as well, even SF if it was near a >Bart station. > >I look forward to talking to you about the Bay Area labor movement. ARe you >going to the UCLEA conference? > >saludos, > >Carol > > From rjohns@bayflash.stpt.usf.edu Mon Mar 9 07:22:04 1998 Date: Mon, 09 Mar 1998 09:13:02 -0500 From: Rebecca Johns To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Re: Dirty Rings Around Saturn's Model Contract? Good morning all. I just thought I'd point out that if you are sending a personal message to someone on the Labor Rap Net, you should hit "reply-to", not "reply-to-ALL", otherwise we all have the privilege (or irritation, if you prefer) of reading your personal messages! solidarity Rebecca -- "The struggle against hunger is crucial to us all because it holds the secret to all struggles for social justice. No greater gap can exist between human beings than that between people who are well fed and those who are physically and mentally weakened due to inadequate nutrition. Divisions of race, gender, religion, and nationality are real enough, but none is as stark as that between the satiated and the hungry. If we can overcome this human chasm, we can overcome all others." Kevin Danaher, The Color of Hunger. "God sent the blight, but the English landlords sent the famine." - Irish saying Dr. Rebecca A. Johns Assistant Professor Department of Geography 140 Seventh Avenue South St. Petersburg, FL 33701 813-553-1556, phone 813-553-1526, fax From culturex@vcn.bc.ca Wed Mar 11 16:53:42 1998 Wed, 11 Mar 1998 15:48:20 -0800 (PST) Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 15:48:18 -0800 (PST) From: Franklin Wayne Poley Subject: NEW: workfare-discuss, a Workfare Discussion List. (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 15:34:22 -0800 (PST) From: Franklin Wayne Poley To: NEW-LIST@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU Subject: NEW: workfare-discuss, a Workfare Discussion List. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ workfare-discuss on workfare-discuss@icomm.ca Workfare is an international forum for the discussion of any matters pertaining to workfare, impressed labour and slavery. Philosophies, laws, rules, regulations, questions and answers are all on topic. In jurisidictions where workfare has been implemented, is it working? If not, is there an alternative social-political policy which will achieve the the main objectives of workfare, e.g. providing full employment and ending absolute poverty? At the end of the forum in 6 months time, the moderator will summarize the findings (giving due authorship for ideas), post them to a web site and send them to the relevant government authorities. To subscribe, send the following command in an email body to majordomo@icomm.ca: subscribe workfare-discuss Moderator: Dr. Franklin Wayne Poley is on the roster of B.C. Benefits Service Providers. B.C. Benefits is the closest this province of 4,000,000 yet comes to workfare. He is also Financial Agent for two of British Columbia's 17 registered political parties. The Labour Welfare Party platform emphasizes rights for the poorest 20% of the population; Party of Citizens platform emphasizes direct electronic democracy and contributes to its development in B.C.(However, workfare-discuss is not a propaganda outlet for either of these parties; it will interest all parties, philosophies and ideologies). He will send key conclusions of this list/discussion to the Cabinet Ministers and senior bureaucrats responsible for workfare and workfare-related programs. From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Wed Mar 11 22:12:47 1998 Wed, 11 Mar 1998 21:05:02 -0800 (PST) Wed, 11 Mar 1998 21:04:20 -0800 (PST) Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 21:04:20 -0800 (PST) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: DW: Update: Bills to Put CRS reports on the Internet *** Democracies Online Newswire - http://www.e-democracy.org/do *** ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 14:55:02 -0500 (EST) Reply-to: gary@essential.org From: Gary Ruskin Subject: Update: Bills to Put CRS reports on the Internet Congressional Reform Briefings March 10, 1998 -- Please contact U.S. Senators on the Rules and Administration Committee to support bills placing Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports and products on the Internet. The bills are facing heavy lobbying opposition from CRS. Excellent bills have been introduced in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to put Congressional Research Service reports and products on the Internet (S. 1578, H.R. 3131). The good news is that the bills have received a boost from enthusiastic newspaper editorials in the Houston Chronicle, Arizona Republic, Dallas Morning News, Indianapolis Star, and Hartford Courant. The bad news is that the Congressional Research Service is conducting an intensive lobbying effort to prevent its reports from being placed on the Internet. Most of the legislative action on the bills is focused in the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, which held two hearings touching upon whether CRS reports should be placed on the Internet. At those hearings, Chairman John Warner (R-VA) and Ranking Minority Member Wendell Ford (D-KY) expressed concerns about placing CRS reports on the Internet. At a March 4 Rules Committee hearing, Chairman Warner suggested that if citizens could read CRS reports on the Internet, they might ask Members of Congress for additional new CRS reports, which might, in turn, overburden CRS. In our view, it may be true that the CRS is understaffed. If so, their budget should be increased. But that is no reason to deny taxpayers access to CRS reports via the Internet. Taxpayers ought to be able to read the research that they pay for. Please call, write, phone, fax, or e-mail Chairman Warner and Senators on the Rules and Administration Committee. Tell them you want to read CRS reports and products on the Internet, and that you want them to support S. 1578. Senate Rules and Administration Committee: Republicans: John Warner, Chairman (VA) phone: 202-224-2023, fax: 202-224-6295, senator@warner.senate.gov Jesse Helms (NC) ph: 224-6342, fax: 228-1339, jesse_helms@helms.senate.gov Ted Stevens (AK) ph: 224-3004, fax: 224-2354, senator_stevens@stevens.senate.gov Mitch McConnell (KY) ph: 224-2541, fax: 224-2499, senator@mcconnell.senate.gov Thad Cochran (MS) ph: 224-5054, fax: 224-9450, senator@cochran.senate.gov Rick Santorum (PA) ph: 224-6324, fax: 228-0604, senator@santorum.senate.gov Don Nickles (OK) ph: 224-5754, fax: 224-6008, senator@nickles.senate.gov Trent Lott (MS) ph: 224-6253, fax: 224-2262, senatorlott@lott.senate.gov Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX) ph: 224-5922, fax: 224-0776, senator@hutchison.senate.gov Democrats: Wendell Ford, Ranking Member (KY) ph: 224-4343, fax: 224-0046, wendell_ford@ford.senate.gov Robert Byrd (WV) ph: 224-3954, fax: 228-0007, senator_byrd@byrd.senate.gov Daniel Inouye (HI) ph: 224-3934, fax: 224-6747, senator@inouye.senate.gov Daniel Patrick Moynihan (NY) ph: 224-4451, 228-0406, senator@dpm.senate.gov Christopher Dodd (CT) ph: 224-2823, fax: 224-1083, sen_dodd@dodd.senate.gov Dianne Feinstein (CA) ph: 224-3841, fax 228-3954, senator@feinstein.senate.gov Robert Torricelli (NJ) ph: 224-3224, fax: 224-8567, senator_torricelli@torricelli.senate.gov For e-mail addresses of Members of Congress, check The Internet Activist. The congressional switchboard phone number is 202-224-3121. What newspaper editorialists have written about the McCain-Coats and Shays-Price bills to put CRS reports and products on the Internet: "Under the twin theories that citizens ought to know as much as possible about their government and ought to get their money's worth out of that government, a bill has been introduced to make the Congressional Research Service available over the Internet. The bill deserves hearty support....By putting CRS on line, Congress will give citizens ready access to what they've already paid for. More important, citizens will have access to material that can help them understand more fully the complicated issues and legislation that emanate from Washington. And that will help them be better citizens and better voters. Put the CRS on line now." ("On Line: Make Congressional Research More Accessible on `Net" Houston Chronicle, 2/10/98.) "The CRS is a particularly good source for finding out how much money the federal government is spending on various programs. Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper for Washington insiders, has described CRS reports as `often the most trenchant and useful monographs available.' Information is power. Washington lobbyists know how to tap into this information source, but the general public has no direct way to obtain these reports....[The bill is] a significant and long overdue step toward making the processes of Congress more transparent to the voting public. As it is, far too much of what Congress does is blocked from public access on the Internet." ("Opening Government," The Indianapolis Star, 2/18/98.) Putting CRS reports on the Internet is "a great idea that wouldn't cost much....Voters ought to have easy access to the research used in legislative debates. In a cyberspace age, access to timely information is the essence of good decision-making." ("Cyber Democracy: Research Should Be Available to the Public," The Dallas Morning News, 2/17/98.) "...a variety of congressional documents are still unavailable on the Library of Congress' THOMAS online computer search system, or any other free government online service. That is why Sen. John McCain's recently introduced legislation providing public access to Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports and products on the Internet - at no cost - is particularly appropriate. It serves as a defibrillator to jolt the Capitol information system back to life." ("More Access Online: Fulfilling a Pledge," The Arizona Republic, 2/10/98.) "Mr. Shays and his co-sponsors are to be commended for insisting that this useful CRS material be posted on the Internet. The information will help citizens to better understand issues before Congress. It can be done quickly and at little cost. Not everyone has access to the Internet, but it's a good bet that more people will see the research once it's launched in cyberspace than see it now. Congress mostly uses the Internet to distribute self-serving fluff. It should pass the legislation to put CRS reports on the Internet and follow that up with posting drafts of important bills, a nonpartisan database of voting records, transcripts of hearings, lobbyist disclosure reports, congressional office expenditure reports and the like." ("Put the Research on the Internet," The Hartford Courant, 2/20/98.) The Congressional Accountability Project is a congressional reform group affiliated with Ralph Nader. For more information about Internet access to Congressional documents or CRS reports, see . For more information about the failure of the Congress to place its documents on the Internet, see . For more information about the long list of excellent reports produced by the Congressional Research Service, look at the web page for Penny Hill Press, which sells CRS products. . To subscribe to Congressional Reform Briefings send the message: subscribe cong-reform your name to . PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY --------------------------------------------------------------- Gary Ruskin | gary@essential.org | Congressional Accountability Project | 1611 Connecticut Ave. NW Suite #3A | Washington, DC 20009 Phone: (202) 296-2787 | Fax (202) 833-2406 http://www.essential.org/orgs/CAP/CAP.html -------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- Steven Clift - Public Strategies for the Online World 3454 Fremont Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55408 USA T: +1.612.822.8667(NEW) E: clift@publicus.net Democracies Online - http://www.e-democracy.org/do Universal E-mail - http://www.iaginteractive.com/emfa Consulting and Home Page - http://www.publicus.net ------------------------------------------------------- *** Please send submissions to: DO-WIRE@TC.UMN.EDU *** *** To subscribe, e-mail: listserv@tc.umn.edu *** *** Message body: subscribe DO-WIRE "Your Name (Place)" *** *** Second Line: subscribe DO-NOTES "Your Name (Place)" *** *** To unsubscribe instead, write: unsubscribe DO-WIRE *** *** Democracies Online - http://www.e-democracy.org/do *** From rross@clarku.edu Thu Mar 12 11:38:26 1998 id LAA05142; Thu, 12 Mar 1998 11:38:22 -0700 (MST) Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 13:37:22 -0500 From: "Robert J.S. Bob Ross" Subject: [Fwd: Presentations] To: Progressive Sociology Network , World Systems Network , Labor List This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------A7BFF6E5C3C839FBC3A50638 THE PUBLIC IS WARMLY WELCOME TO THE EVENTS BELOW -- Robert J.S. Ross Professor and Chair Department of Sociology Clark University 950 Main Street Worcester, Massachusetts 01610 Voice: 508 793 7376 Fax: 508 793 8816 Webpage: http://www.clarku.edu/~rross --------------A7BFF6E5C3C839FBC3A50638 Return-path: Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 11:31:24 -0500 From: Jason Willoughby Subject: Presentations To: lgrandmaison@clarku.edu, mkohout@clarku.edu, rross@clarku.edu, sweintraub@clarku.edu On March 17, 3PM , In the Grace Conference Room of Higgins University Center, Prof. John McClymer, Assumption College, author/editor of the new book "The Triangle Shirtwaist Strike and Fire" will discuss the most infamous sweatshop tragedy in American history as part of Clark University's commemoration of International Women's Week. Speaking on "Memory and Resistance" McClymer will discuss the events of 1910-1911 in contemporary perspective. Prof. Robert Ross of Clark University will give an update on contemporary sweatshop conditions in the United States. On March 19th, At 4:15pm, IN Room 218, Geography, Rand Wilson of the Interantional Brotherhood of Teamsters will speak on "Lessons of the Teamster's Strike at UPS: An Inside View." for more info contact jason willoughby (5085) --------------A7BFF6E5C3C839FBC3A50638-- From aikya@ix.netcom.com Mon Mar 16 10:01:08 1998 by dfw-ix13.ix.netcom.com (8.8.4/8.8.4) id rma020724; Mon Mar 16 10:59:48 1998 From: "Ms. Aikya Param" To: "'Labor Research and Action Project'" , "'UNITED@cougar.com'" Subject: Requests NAFTA Info Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 08:22:20 -0800 Please reply to Don Loughlin not to the forwarder of this message... ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date: Sun, 15 Mar 1998 14:44:06 -0700 Reply-to: Internationally-Oriented Computer-Assisted Reporting List From: Don Loughlin Subject: Request for information on NAFTA To: INTCAR-L@AMERICAN.EDU Dear Recipient: I am compiling a report on NAFTA. The report will be presented to students at The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology located in Alberta Canada. The contentents will be on a positve note. If you are able to send me any information it would be appreciated. sincerly, Don Loughlin e-mail address natasha1@compusmart.ab.ca ----- end of forwarded message ---- From culturex@vcn.bc.ca Mon Mar 16 20:00:59 1998 by vcn.bc.ca (8.8.5/8.8.5) id SAA03434; Mon, 16 Mar 1998 18:59:50 -0800 (PST) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 18:59:44 -0800 (PST) From: Franklin Wayne Poley Subject: Workfare: Voluntary or Involuntary? (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 15:15:41 -0800 (PST) From: Franklin Wayne Poley To: Workfare-Discuss@icomm.ca Subject: Workfare: Voluntary or Involuntary? To the list: Please understand that we are breaking new ground in social-political-economic policy and that I am as much as anyone am in the position of learning more than giving answers. > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > Date: Sat, 14 Mar 1998 09:22:33 -0800 > From: Rene J. Baumgartner > To: workfare-discuss@icomm.ca > Subject: > > Like most issues Work fare has several slants. One slant is that forcing > someone to work in exchange for a benefit check is akin to slavery. > > The other position is that those who are productive members of society have > to work to support themselves and support those who choose not to work. > Some distinction needs to be drawn here between those who are unable to > work and those that choose not to. I might add that the distinction is > sometimes difficult to draw. > > The position on this side of the argument is that society is providing a > subsistance to people who have the capacity to work and since they have > chosen not too, is entitled to something (Work fare) in return. It seems very reasonable to me that society-at-large can expect some kind of work in return for keeping workfare recipients alive on the planet. But I remember well my first meeting with the Labour Welfare Group. I expressed the opinion that THOSE WHO DIDN'T WORK WERE NOT ENTITLED TO SUSTENANCE (unless they were ill or handicapped). A young Afro-American whose hair at the time was orange as I recall looked me straight in the eye and said MY LIFE HAS INHERENT VALUE. Coincidentally the Shao Lin monks were on tour here (Vancouver) and as I pondered his point I thought of a monk living a life of prayer and meditation. What if society-at-large should decide that a monk's life is ECONOMICALLY UNPRODUCTIVE and THEREFORE NOT WORTH LIVING....so that society puts an end to all sustenance (ie welfare)? Is that the end result of workfare? In Canada even a serial murderer-pedophile like Paul Bernardo cannot be put to death yet a gentle soul spending his or her life in quiet contemplation, meditation and prayer COULD be put to death if workfare is defined in certain ways. Is that the "Workfare Contract" we want? FWP. PS-The young Afro-American is now the right hand man of the lawyer who heads LWP though he cannot be on its executive because he doesn't have Canadian citizenship as yet. From aikya@ix.netcom.com Tue Mar 17 13:37:33 1998 by dfw-ix11.ix.netcom.com (8.8.4/8.8.4) id rma021988; Tue Mar 17 14:36:19 1998 From: "Ms. Aikya Param" To: "'Labor Research and Action Project'" , "'UNITED@cougar.com'" Subject: College Library Leads Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 11:54:38 -0800 In February 1998, Women and Money Economic Justice and Empowerment Report was one-year old. Some people are surprised to see that we carry fine pieces on both labor unions and entrepreneurship in each issue. This year also, we will carry regular sections on Housing and Home Ownership and Health Care and Insurance. Our newest section will cover scholarships, fellowships, grants and funding opportunities for women in business. Subscription income is still the main support for our publication. LEADS REQUEST: In the next months we will be trying to place Women and Money in college libraries, especially in the libraries of colleges which have a Women's Studies Department, a Labor Studies Department, or education for Entrepreneurship. If you are affiliated with such a college or you have one in your geographic area, we would much appreciate contact information for the college, for any of the above mentioned departments, or for the library. We appreciate your interest and we need your financial support. We're supporting true economic consciousness raising. If you would like a sample copy of the publication, please send your snail mail address and we'll send one to you. Aikya Param, Publisher, Women and Money Economic Justice and Empowerment Report http://www2.netcom.com/~aikya/womenandmoney.html From bbyrd@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU Wed Mar 18 11:14:50 1998 Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 10:21:18 -0800 From: bbyrd@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU (Barbara Byrd) Subject: PNLHA conference To: LABOR-RAP@csf.colorado.edu 1998 Pacific Northwest Labor History Association Conference, May 15-17, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon ****************************************************************************** "Lost Traditions of Organizing and the Reinvention of Unionism" ****************************************************************************** The 30th Annual PNLHA Conference will include a variety of panels and workshops. The following is the current conference agenda: Friday Night, May 15 Reception Labor Music: General Strike, Portland, Oregon Saturday, May 16 Keynote Speaker, Dorothy Sue Cobble, Associate Professor, Rutgers University, author Dishing It Out: Waitress Unionism in the Twentieth Century "Lost Tradition of Organizing and the Reinvention of Unionism: Lessons from a Century of U.S. Labor History" Panel 1--"Oregon's Longest Labor Struggle: Remembering the Oregonian and Journal Strike of 1959-65" Bob Hulen, Portland Newspaper Guild Gene Klare, Portland Newspaper Guild Darrel Tarter, Multnomah Typographical Union #58 John Wykoff, Portland Newspaper Guild Moderator: Nellie Fox-Edwards, Former Political, Education Director, Oregon AFL-CIO Panel 2--"Workers and the Environment" Peter Knutson, Professor, Seattle Central Community College, "Fishermen and Pentacostals: Class Alliances and the Defeat of Initiative 640" Aurian Haller, Simon Fraser University, "Labour and the Ethics of Ecology" Michael Matthews, Portland State University, "The Hudson's Bay Company and the 'Rogues': Regional Corporate Policy Conflicts with Indigenous Society" Moderator: Barbara Byrd, Instructor, Labor Education and Research Center, University of Oregon Workshop 1--Popularizing Labor History in the Local Union, Schools and Community. Local activists will discuss their activities in popularizing the struggles of Pacific Northwest Workers Bob Nightingale, Field Representative, AFT-Oregon,"Creating and Displaying a Labor History 'Time Line'" Ed Beechert, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Hawaii and Jim Strassmaier, Oral Historian, Oregon Historical Society," Doing Oral History" Jim Cook, President, National Association of LetterCarriers Branch 82, "Creating and Maintaining a Labor in the Schools Program" Panel 3--"African-American Workers in Portland" Rudy Pearson, Associate Professor, American River College, "African-Americans and the Portland ILWU" Elizabeth McLagan, Freelance Writer and Historian,Portland, "Legal Barriers to Equal Economic Opportunity in Oregon, 1844-1980" Keith Edwards, Assistant Business Manager, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 48, "A Minority Caucus in the IBEW" Moderator: Bob Williams, President, Oregon Chapter, A.Philip Randolph Institute Commentary: Bob Boyer, Former State Senator, FormerPresident, Inland Boatmen's Union Workshop 2--"Collecting Union Memorabilia" Oregon trade unionists will display their collections of union memorabilia including buttons, banners and documents and discuss how individuals and organizations can best preserve their heritage through them. Don Patch, Oregon Public Employees Union Tracy Pierce, Oregon Public Employees Union Michael Richards, United Brotherhood of Carpenters Local 1388 John Williams, United Association of Plumbers and Fitters Local 290 Panel 4--Labor and the Community Roger Yockey, United Food and Commercial Workers Local1105, "Labor, Social Justice Movements and the Church in the Pacific Northwest" Andy Parnaby, Memorial University of Newfoundland, "On the Hook: Waterfront Work and the Rhythms of Family Life in Vancouver" M. Diane Rogers, Simon Fraser University, "'More Working than Weeping': 1910's Attitudes Towards Women's Suffrage in Coquitlam, B.C." Moderator: Laurie Mercier, Assistant Professor, Washington State University Vancouver Panel 5--Young Workers and the New Economy Roger Crowther, Staff Representative, Canadian Autoworkers, Vancouver, B.C. Lori Banong, CAW member, Starbucks Organizing Campaign Erik Amos, Retail Worker, Portland Warren Mar, Northwest Region Coordinator, Organizing Department, AFL-CIO Moderator: Mark Hinz, PSU Students for Unity Workshop 3--"WPA Art of the Pacific Northwest" A display and discussion of WPA art. Trish Kaufman, ARTSPACE, Bay City, Oregon Saturday Night---Social Hour, Banquet and PNLHA's "Person of the Year" Music: Jon Fromer, San Francisco labor Singer and Songwriter, member American Federation of Musicians Local 1000 Presentation of PNLHA "Person of the Year Award" Sunday, May 17 Panel 6--"Latino Railroad Workers in the Pacific Northwest: 1890-WW II" Erasmo Gamboa, Associate Professor, University of Washington, "Keep 'Em Rolling: Mexican Track Labor in the PNW During WWII" Jeff Garcilazo, Assistant Professor, University of California, Irvine, Wobblies and Traqueros: The IWW and Mexican Trackworkers in the West, 1900-1917" Panel 7--"Portland's Workers and Bosses in the 1934 Maritime Strike" Michael Munk, Professor emeritus of Political Science, Rutgers University, "Born on the Fourth of July: The Citizen's Emergency Leagues vs. the 1934 Portland Longshoremen" Ottilie Markholt, Independent Historian, Office and Professional Employees Union Local 28, Tacoma,"The Portland Central Labor Council During the 1934 Maritime Strike" Moderator: Craig Wollner, Professor of Social Sciences,Fellow Institute for Portland Metropolitan Studies, Portland State University Workshop 4--Labor Videos "Good Work Sister," Sandy Polishuk, Director, Radical Elders Oral History Project, Portland Bette Lee, Worker Activist, Photographer, Portland Panel 8--Wobblies and PNW Free Speech Fights Jay Mullen, Associate Professor, Associate Professor, Southern Oregon State College, "The 1911 IWW Walk Over the Siskyous" John-Henry Harter, President, President, Support Staff Union, Simon Fraser University "'True to Her Class and True to Her Kind': Gender and the Industrial Workers of the World" Terry Willis, Ph.D., Independent Scholar,"The Black Hole of Seattle': Socialist Free Speech Fights of 1906 and 1907" Moderator: Ross Rieder, Organizer, Snohomish County Labor Council, Everett, Washington Workshop 5--Working Class Literature of the Pacific Northwest. A panel of regional authors will read from their writings on work and workers. Moderator: Norm Diamond, Communication Workers of America, Workers Education Local 189 Readers To Be Announced Registration for the conference is $50 regular, and $10 for students, seniors and unemployed ($70 Canadian, regular, $14 Canadian for students, seniors and unemployed). For a complete program brochure with registration form contact Marcus Widenor at the Labor Education and Research Center, University of Oregon, 541-346-2785, or e-mail: mrwide@oregon.uoregon.edu From dreiling@darkwing.uoregon.edu Wed Mar 18 14:24:23 1998 Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 13:23:33 -0800 From: Michael Dreiling Reply-To: dreiling@darkwing.uoregon.edu To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Conference/Teach-in on Labor and Race at the U of Oregon This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------471C74253E8CB133026DCB60 *********************************************************************** > NOTICE OF SPECIAL CONFERENCE - PLEASE FORWARD TO INTERESTED PARTIES > > * CONFERENCE ON RACE, WORK AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE * > > UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, ERB MEMORIAL UNION EUGENE, OREGON > > APRIL 3 AND 4, 1998 > > The Student-Faculty Task Force on Labor Race and Economic Justice at the > University of Oregon proudly announces a conference to discuss issues of > the growing inequalities at work both here and abroad and struggles for > economic justice. A series of four keynote sessions and eight workshops > examine racism, gender and inequality, the impact of globalization, labor and > environmental justice, and how unions and communities are fighting back. > > A key goal of the conference is to link students with unions and community > groups and to propose new classses for the UO curriculum. > > The conference is free and open to the public. For more information or a > brochure, look up our webpage at http://lrej.uoregon.edu or call 541-346-2830. > > The conference features four * KEYNOTE SESSIONS *: > > >April 3, 9 a.m., Fir Room > *The Fight Against Sweatshops > Lora Jo Foo, Asian Law Caucus > Kent Wong, Director, Center for Labor Education and Research, UCLA > > >April 3, 12:30 p.m., Fir Room > *The Farmworker Story > Dolores Huerta, Secretary-Treasurer, United Farmworkers of America > Ramon Ramirez, President, PCUN > > >April 3, 7:30 p.m., EMU Ballroom > *Race, Work and Inequality > Manning Marable, Diref African-American Research, Columbia > University > Linda Chavez-Thompson, Executive Vice-President, AFL-CIO > > >April 4, 10:30 a.m. Fir Room > *Labor, Race and Environmental Justice > Bob Wages, President, Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union > Robin Morris Collin, UO School of Law > > There are three sets of **CONCURRENT WORKSHOP SESSIONS**: > > Friday, April 3, 10:00-11:30 a.m. > Cross Border Organizing > Race and Labor: Combatting Racism > Youth and Labor Activism > > Friday, April 3, 2:30- to 4:00 p.m. > Women, Labor and Globalization > Farmworkers: The Struggle for Justice > Race to the Bottom: The Global Labor Process > > Saturday, April 4, 1998 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. > Learning About Work: Labor Studies at the UO > An Injury to One is an Injury to All: Lessons from Labor History > The Global Sweatshop: The Nike Syndrome > > * AGENDA * > > Friday, April 3, 1998 > > 8:00 a.m. ­ 6 p.m. Registration (EMU Ballroom) > > 9:00 ­ 10:00 a.m. Opening Session ­ "The Fight Against Sweatshops" (Fir Room) > > Convener: Margaret Hallock, director, Labor Education and Research Center (LERC) > Speakers: Lora Jo Foo, attorney, Asian Law Caucus and president of Sweatshop Watch > Kent Wong, director, Center for Labor Research and Education, UCLA > > Lora Jo Foo addresses the struggle to protect workers and improve employment conditions in garment shops in California and Kent Wong will speak on the role of labor studies in a university curriculum. > > 10:00 ­ 11:30 a.m. > Workshop Session I ­ Concurrent Workshops > > A. Cross Border Organizing > > Convener: Dan Goldrich, Department of Political Science > Panelists: > > B. Race and Labor: Combatting Racism > > Convener: Daniel Pope, Department of History > Panelists: Kent Wong, director, Center for Labor Research and Education, UCLA > Teresa Enrico, director, Workers' Organizing Committee, Portland > Sergio Romero, Department of Sociology > Race has long been a dividing line among workers in the U.S. and abroad. This workshop explores the legacy of racism at the workplace and in the labor movement and current efforts to overcome it. > > C. Youth and Labor Activism > > Convener: Gordon Lafer, Labor Education and Research Center > Panelists: Warren Mar, Northwest Coordinator, AFL-CIO Organizing Department > Teresa Tobin, UO student, Union Summer > Plus representatives from the Longshore Workers, Teamsters, Carpenters, > Service Employees, Eugene-Springfield Solidarity Network and more. > > Come learn how to get a job as a union organizer or set up an internship with unions and community organizations working on issues of worker rights and economic justice. > > 12:30 ­ 2:00 p.m. > Keynote Session: The Farmworker Story (Fir Room) > > Convener: Emily Lerma, co-chair, Labor Race and Economic Justice Task Force > Speakers: Dolores Huerta, secretary-treasurer, United Farmworkers of America (UFW) > Ramon Ramirez, president, Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noresta (PCUN) > > A co-founder and current secretary-treasurer of the UFW, Dolores Huerta is one of the best known and most inspirational leader in the civil rights and labor movements. Her decades of activism for farmworkers speaks eloquently to the issues of labor, race and economic justice. Ramirez presents information on Oregon farmworker issues. > > 2:30 ­ 4:00 p.m. > Workshop Session II ­ Concurrent Workshops > > D. Women, Labor and Globalization > > Convener: Margaret Hallock, Labor Education and Research Center > Panelists: Linda Chavez-Thompson, executive vice-president,AFL-CIO > Joan Acker, Department of Sociology, UO > Carolyn Cartier, Department of Geography, UO > Maria Damaris Silva, community activist, El Bracero > > Women's work and lives have been profoundly affected by the forces of economic development and the global economy. This distinguished panel looks at women's work and struggles for justice in the U.S. and abroad. > > E. Farmworkers: The Struggle for Justice > > Convener: Emily Lerma, co-chair, Labor Race and Economic Justice Task Force > Speakers: Eric Nicolson, Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noreste (PCUN) > Erin Reyes, United Farmworkers of America > > Representatives from PCUN, Oregon's union of tree planters and farmworkers, and the UFW discuss the campaigns for strawberry workers, apple pickers and packers and other agricultural workers. Learn how to get involved in the farmworkers' struggles. > > F. Race to the Bottom: The Global Labor Process > > Convener: Cristina Gabrielidis, School of Law > Panelists: Ibrahim Gassama, School of Law > Keith Aoki, School of Law > Lora Jo Foo, Asian Law Caucus > > The global economy is producing a "race to the bottom" with low wages and unsafe working conditions in many industries and countries. Three prominent legal scholars and activists discuss the state of worker rights here and abroad and the role of the law in improving the lives of workers. > > 6:00 p.m. > Dinner ­ Tickets are $10 in advance - (EMU Ballroom) > > 7:30 ­ 10:00 p.m. > Keynote Session, "Race, Work and Inequality (EMU Ballroom) > > Speakers: Manning Marable, director, Institute for Research in African American Studies, > Columbia University > Linda Chavez-Thompson, executive vice-president, AFL-CIO > > Marable, prominent political activist, social critic and educator, argues that we must combat both racism and inequality to have a just society. Chavez-Thompson, the top ranking woman in the AFL-CIO, discusses the role of unions in contemporary strugglesfor economic justice. > > ** Music by Jim Garcia, UO Office of Multicultural Affairs ** > ** with special guest Emily Lerma of MEChA. ** > > Saturday, April 4, 1998 > > 10:30 a.m.­12:30 p.m. > ** Keynote Session ­ "Labor, Race and Environmental Justice" (Fir Room) > > Convener: Carnet Williams, Labor Race and Economic Justice Task Force > Speakers: > Bob Wages, president, Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers,International Union (OCAW) > Robin Morris Collin, associate professor, UO School of Law > > Environmental degradation is linked to racism, unhealthy working conditions and the destruction of jobs and communities. OCAW is a leader in the labor movement for fighting for environmental and economic justice for workers and communities. Morris Collin is an activist and scholar on environmental racism. > > 1:30 ­ 3:00 p.m. > Workshop Session III ­ Concurrent Workshops > > G. Learning About Work: Labor studies at the UO > > Conveners: Members of the Labor, Race and Economic Justice Task Force > Speaker: Kent Wong, director of the Center for Labor Education and Research, UCLA > > A survey of UO classes shows that there are some gaps in the UO curriculum on issues of labor, race and economic development. UCLA recently established a certificate program on workplace studies with a strong internship component which links students to unions and community organizations. This workshop discusses a proposal for new classes in labor studies at the UO. > > H. ³An Injury to One is an Injury to All² > The Lessons of 20th Century Labor History: Organized Labor¹s Potential for Progressive Social Transformation > > Conveners: Jason Barton-Norris, Department of History > Eric Haunold > Panelists: David Milton, Department of Sociology > William Smalldone, Department of History, Willamette University > Barbara Corrado Pope, Women Studies Department > > > A centralized labor movement in the 1990¹s has much to learn from organizing workers during industrialization, the depression and post-war period. Three prominent scholars discuss the politics of the labor movement, labor as a social movement and gender and the labor movement. > > 3:15 ­ 3:45 p.m. Closing Session ­ (Fir Room) > > Please gather to close the conference with conclusions, resolutions and next steps. > > ** This conference was coordinated by the Student-Faculty Task Force on Labor, Race and Economic Justice. For more information, visit our website at http://lrej.uoregon.edu or call 541-346-2830. > > ----------------- End Forwarded Message ----------------- -- Michael Dreiling Assistant Professor Phone: 541-346-5025 Department of Sociology Fax: 541-346-5026 1291 University of Oregon Email: dreiling@darkwing.uoregon.edu Eugene, OR 97403-1291 Web: http://www/~dreiling/ --------------471C74253E8CB133026DCB60 17 Mar 1998 19:04:44 -0800 (PST) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 19:09:07 +0000 From: Carnet Williams Subject: LREJ: Conference email Sender: owner-lrej@comitia2.uoregon.edu To: lrej@comitia2.uoregon.edu, concern@comitia2.uoregon.edu Delivered-to: lrej@law.uoregon.edu Please forward to appropriate lists... carnet *********************************************************************** NOTICE OF SPECIAL CONFERENCE - PLEASE FORWARD TO INTERESTED PARTIES * CONFERENCE ON RACE, WORK AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE * UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, ERB MEMORIAL UNION EUGENE, OREGON APRIL 3 AND 4, 1998 The Student-Faculty Task Force on Labor Race and Economic Justice at the University of Oregon proudly announces a conference to discuss issues of the growing inequalities at work both here and abroad and struggles for economic justice. A series of four keynote sessions and eight workshops examine racism, gender and inequality, the impact of globalization, labor and environmental justice, and how unions and communities are fighting back. A key goal of the conference is to link students with unions and community groups and to propose new classses for the UO curriculum. The conference is free and open to the public. For more information or a brochure, look up our webpage at http://lrej.uoregon.edu or call 541-346-2830. The conference features four * KEYNOTE SESSIONS *: >April 3, 9 a.m., Fir Room *The Fight Against Sweatshops Lora Jo Foo, Asian Law Caucus Kent Wong, Director, Center for Labor Education and Research, UCLA >April 3, 12:30 p.m., Fir Room *The Farmworker Story Dolores Huerta, Secretary-Treasurer, United Farmworkers of America Ramon Ramirez, President, PCUN >April 3, 7:30 p.m., EMU Ballroom *Race, Work and Inequality Manning Marable, Diref African-American Research, Columbia University Linda Chavez-Thompson, Executive Vice-President, AFL-CIO >April 4, 10:30 a.m. Fir Room *Labor, Race and Environmental Justice Bob Wages, President, Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union Robin Morris Collin, UO School of Law There are three sets of **CONCURRENT WORKSHOP SESSIONS**: Friday, April 3, 10:00-11:30 a.m. Cross Border Organizing Race and Labor: Combatting Racism Youth and Labor Activism Friday, April 3, 2:30- to 4:00 p.m. Women, Labor and Globalization Farmworkers: The Struggle for Justice Race to the Bottom: The Global Labor Process Saturday, April 4, 1998 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. Learning About Work: Labor Studies at the UO An Injury to One is an Injury to All: Lessons from Labor History The Global Sweatshop: The Nike Syndrome * AGENDA * Friday, April 3, 1998 8:00 a.m. ­ 6 p.m. Registration (EMU Ballroom) 9:00 ­ 10:00 a.m. Opening Session ­ "The Fight Against Sweatshops" (Fir Room) Convener: Margaret Hallock, director, Labor Education and Research Center (LERC) Speakers: Lora Jo Foo, attorney, Asian Law Caucus and president of Sweatshop Watch Kent Wong, director, Center for Labor Research and Education, UCLA Lora Jo Foo addresses the struggle to protect workers and improve employment conditions in garment shops in California and Kent Wong will speak on the role of labor studies in a university curriculum. 10:00 ­ 11:30 a.m. Workshop Session I ­ Concurrent Workshops A. Cross Border Organizing Convener: Dan Goldrich, Department of Political Science Panelists: B. Race and Labor: Combatting Racism Convener: Daniel Pope, Department of History Panelists: Kent Wong, director, Center for Labor Research and Education, UCLA Teresa Enrico, director, Workers' Organizing Committee, Portland Sergio Romero, Department of Sociology Race has long been a dividing line among workers in the U.S. and abroad. This workshop explores the legacy of racism at the workplace and in the labor movement and current efforts to overcome it. C. Youth and Labor Activism Convener: Gordon Lafer, Labor Education and Research Center Panelists: Warren Mar, Northwest Coordinator, AFL-CIO Organizing Department Teresa Tobin, UO student, Union Summer Plus representatives from the Longshore Workers, Teamsters, Carpenters, Service Employees, Eugene-Springfield Solidarity Network and more. Come learn how to get a job as a union organizer or set up an internship with unions and community organizations working on issues of worker rights and economic justice. 12:30 ­ 2:00 p.m. Keynote Session: The Farmworker Story (Fir Room) Convener: Emily Lerma, co-chair, Labor Race and Economic Justice Task Force Speakers: Dolores Huerta, secretary-treasurer, United Farmworkers of America (UFW) Ramon Ramirez, president, Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noresta (PCUN) A co-founder and current secretary-treasurer of the UFW, Dolores Huerta is one of the best known and most inspirational leader in the civil rights and labor movements. Her decades of activism for farmworkers speaks eloquently to the issues of labor, race and economic justice. Ramirez presents information on Oregon farmworker issues. 2:30 ­ 4:00 p.m. Workshop Session II ­ Concurrent Workshops D. Women, Labor and Globalization Convener: Margaret Hallock, Labor Education and Research Center Panelists: Linda Chavez-Thompson, executive vice-president,AFL-CIO Joan Acker, Department of Sociology, UO Carolyn Cartier, Department of Geography, UO Maria Damaris Silva, community activist, El Bracero Women's work and lives have been profoundly affected by the forces of economic development and the global economy. This distinguished panel looks at women's work and struggles for justice in the U.S. and abroad. E. Farmworkers: The Struggle for Justice Convener: Emily Lerma, co-chair, Labor Race and Economic Justice Task Force Speakers: Eric Nicolson, Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noreste (PCUN) Erin Reyes, United Farmworkers of America Representatives from PCUN, Oregon's union of tree planters and farmworkers, and the UFW discuss the campaigns for strawberry workers, apple pickers and packers and other agricultural workers. Learn how to get involved in the farmworkers' struggles. F. Race to the Bottom: The Global Labor Process Convener: Cristina Gabrielidis, School of Law Panelists: Ibrahim Gassama, School of Law Keith Aoki, School of Law Lora Jo Foo, Asian Law Caucus The global economy is producing a "race to the bottom" with low wages and unsafe working conditions in many industries and countries. Three prominent legal scholars and activists discuss the state of worker rights here and abroad and the role of the law in improving the lives of workers. 6:00 p.m. Dinner ­ Tickets are $10 in advance - (EMU Ballroom) 7:30 ­ 10:00 p.m. Keynote Session, "Race, Work and Inequality (EMU Ballroom) Speakers: Manning Marable, director, Institute for Research in African American Studies, Columbia University Linda Chavez-Thompson, executive vice-president, AFL-CIO Marable, prominent political activist, social critic and educator, argues that we must combat both racism and inequality to have a just society. Chavez-Thompson, the top ranking woman in the AFL-CIO, discusses the role of unions in contemporary strugglesfor economic justice. ** Music by Jim Garcia, UO Office of Multicultural Affairs ** ** with special guest Emily Lerma of MEChA. ** Saturday, April 4, 1998 10:30 a.m.­12:30 p.m. ** Keynote Session ­ "Labor, Race and Environmental Justice" (Fir Room) Convener: Carnet Williams, Labor Race and Economic Justice Task Force Speakers: Bob Wages, president, Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers,International Union (OCAW) Robin Morris Collin, associate professor, UO School of Law Environmental degradation is linked to racism, unhealthy working conditions and the destruction of jobs and communities. OCAW is a leader in the labor movement for fighting for environmental and economic justice for workers and communities. Morris Collin is an activist and scholar on environmental racism. 1:30 ­ 3:00 p.m. Workshop Session III ­ Concurrent Workshops G. Learning About Work: Labor studies at the UO Conveners: Members of the Labor, Race and Economic Justice Task Force Speaker: Kent Wong, director of the Center for Labor Education and Research, UCLA A survey of UO classes shows that there are some gaps in the UO curriculum on issues of labor, race and economic development. UCLA recently established a certificate program on workplace studies with a strong internship component which links students to unions and community organizations. This workshop discusses a proposal for new classes in labor studies at the UO. H. ³An Injury to One is an Injury to All² The Lessons of 20th Century Labor History: Organized Labor¹s Potential for Progressive Social Transformation Conveners: Jason Barton-Norris, Department of History Eric Haunold Panelists: David Milton, Department of Sociology William Smalldone, Department of History, Willamette University Barbara Corrado Pope, Women Studies Department A centralized labor movement in the 1990¹s has much to learn from organizing workers during industrialization, the depression and post-war period. Three prominent scholars discuss the politics of the labor movement, labor as a social movement and gender and the labor movement. 3:15 ­ 3:45 p.m. Closing Session ­ (Fir Room) Please gather to close the conference with conclusions, resolutions and next steps. ** This conference was coordinated by the Student-Faculty Task Force on Labor, Race and Economic Justice. For more information, visit our website at http://lrej.uoregon.edu or call 541-346-2830. ----------------- End Forwarded Message ----------------- --------------471C74253E8CB133026DCB60-- From robinson@edtech.mcc.edu Wed Mar 18 15:09:36 1998 Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 17:18:33 -0500 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: robinson@edtech.mcc.edu (Steve Robinson) Subject: Computer help for a teachers' union Computer help for a teachers' union I am president of the Mott Community Collge Education Association, an affiliate of MEA/NEA. Our local has purchased a new computer system, and we want to begin using MS Office '97 to manage our records. For the previous 6-8 years, the union has kept a database on a MacIntosh SuperDrive SE. The database program that we currently use is MS Works 2.00a for Macintosh. Q. What is the best way to migrate our database from Macintosh MS Works 2.00a to PC MS Access Office 97? We have access to a Macintosh Power PC. Will that help? Currently, the files reside on our SuperDirve SE. Any information members of the list can provide will be helpful. Thank you very much. ====================================================================== = Steve Robinson (810) 762-0483 = = Mott Community College http://edtech.mcc.edu/~robinson = = Michigan State University http://pilot.msu.edu/user/robins11 = ====================================================================== From rross@clarku.edu Wed Mar 18 16:38:24 1998 id QAA07978; Wed, 18 Mar 1998 16:38:20 -0700 (MST) Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 14:53:45 -0500 From: "Robert J.S. Bob Ross" Subject: Origin of International Women's Day/Help To: Progressive Sociology Network , Labor List , community-urb sec server , Al Haber , Allen Young , Betty Garman Robinson , Cathy Wilkerson , Clark Kissinger <73447.1527@compuserve.com>, David Wellman , Dorothy Burlage , "Goldsmith, Steve" , "JAMES W. RUSSELL" , Jim Monsonis , Jim Russell , Joan Goldsmith , Jonny Lerner , Laura Hammond , Marc Flacks , Marilyn Katz , Marilyn Webb , Mariya Strauss <71112.2765@compuserve.com>, Colleagues and Comrades, I am trying to track down and document different versions of the origin of International Women's Day. One version is that it commemorates The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (March 25, 1911). Another version is that it commemorates the "Bread and Roses" strike, settled with a victory in March 1912. Might anyone in cyberspace lead me (and others who raised the question at a lecture on the Triangle Fire) shed some light on this matter? Feel free to pass the query to actual existing historians. Regards, Salud! Bob Ross ____________ Robert J.S. Ross Professor and Chair Department of Sociology Clark University 950 Main Street Worcester, Massachusetts 01610 Voice: 508 793 7376 Fax: 508 793 8816 Webpage: http://www.clarku.edu/~rross From jeff@server.sasw.ncsu.edu Thu Mar 19 07:31:08 1998 From: "Jeffrey Leiter" To: labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 09:29:54 -0500 Subject: econ departments with sociological leanings I have an undergraduate student in a large sociology course who is majoring in economics and wants to go to graduate school in economics. He is intrigued with the sociological take on the economy and, so, would like to investigate economics graduate programs where institutional, organizational, interorganizational, and/or Marxist approaches would be explored. I would appreciate your suggestions on economics graduate programs to suggest to him, if possible with the name of one or two significant faculty members who give the place its intellectual character. Thanks. Jeffrey Leiter Professor and Director of Graduate Programs Department of Sociology and Anthropology North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27695-8107 phone: 919-515-9009 fax: 919-515-2610 internet: jeff@server.sasw.ncsu.edu homepage: http://sasw.chass.ncsu.edu/~jeff/leiter.htm From jrogers@ssc.wisc.edu Thu Mar 19 07:46:40 1998 Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 08:48:16 -0600 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: Joel Rogers Subject: Re: econ departments with sociological leanings In-Reply-To: <1009F7B51BA6@server.sasw.ncsu.edu> The best bet remains U-Mass Amherst. Sam Bowles and Herb Gintis, among others, are signature in their radical, but neoclassically informed, style. At 09:29 AM 3/19/98 -0500, you wrote: >I have an undergraduate student in a large sociology course >who is majoring in economics and wants to go to graduate school in >economics. He is intrigued with the sociological take on the economy >and, so, would like to investigate economics graduate programs where >institutional, organizational, interorganizational, and/or Marxist >approaches would be explored. I would appreciate your suggestions on >economics graduate programs to suggest to him, if possible with the >name of one or two significant faculty members who give the place >its intellectual character. Thanks. >Jeffrey Leiter >Professor and Director of Graduate Programs >Department of Sociology and Anthropology >North Carolina State University >Raleigh, NC 27695-8107 >phone: 919-515-9009 >fax: 919-515-2610 >internet: jeff@server.sasw.ncsu.edu >homepage: http://sasw.chass.ncsu.edu/~jeff/leiter.htm > From nissenb@fiu.edu Thu Mar 19 08:33:55 1998 Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 11:33:03 -0500 () From: Bruce Nissen To: Labor Research and Action Project Subject: Re: econ departments with sociological leanings In-Reply-To: <1009F7B51BA6@server.sasw.ncsu.edu> X-X-Sender: nissenb@mailhost.fiu.edu On Thu, 19 Mar 1998, Jeffrey Leiter wrote: > I have an undergraduate student in a large sociology course > who is majoring in economics and wants to go to graduate school in > economics. He is intrigued with the sociological take on the economy > and, so, would like to investigate economics graduate programs where > institutional, organizational, interorganizational, and/or Marxist > approaches would be explored. I would appreciate your suggestions on > economics graduate programs to suggest to him, if possible with the > name of one or two significant faculty members who give the place > its intellectual character. Thanks. > Jeffrey Leiter > Professor and Director of Graduate Programs > Department of Sociology and Anthropology > North Carolina State University > Raleigh, NC 27695-8107 > phone: 919-515-9009 > fax: 919-515-2610 > internet: jeff@server.sasw.ncsu.edu > homepage: http://sasw.chass.ncsu.edu/~jeff/leiter.htm > Jeffrey-- The ones that come to mind are: U. Mass Amherst (Jerry Epstein, soon to also have Robert Pollin); U. Cal. Riverside (losing Pollin, but has Steve Cullenberg and a couple of others); Univ. of Notre Dame (has Chuck Craypo, Marty Wolfson, Teresa Ghillarducci, others); The New School in NYC (Anwar Shaikh, perhaps others); maybe American University in Wash. D.C. (although unable to name people, as this is just second hand, vague info.). Bruce Nissen Center for Labor Research and Studies Florida International University Miami, FL 33199 nissenb@fiu.edu From westbroo@marshall.edu Thu Mar 19 10:35:43 1998 From: "Westbrook, William S" To: "'Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu'" Subject: RE: econ departments with sociological leanings Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 12:35:28 -0500 Jeffrey: Add the name of the University of Utah. I have a colleague in the Economics Department here at Marshall who took his PhD from Utah and he publishes some pretty good stuff in the highest level journals(Journal of Economic Literature, for example). He also does a great job integrating his economics, institutional economics and sociology with his strong Marx background. Peace, Bill Westbrook > -----Original Message----- > Sent: Thursday, March 19, 1998 11:33 AM > To: Labor Research and Action Project > Subject: Re: econ departments with sociological leanings > > On Thu, 19 Mar 1998, Jeffrey Leiter wrote: > > > I have an undergraduate student in a large sociology course > > who is majoring in economics and wants to go to graduate school in > > economics. He is intrigued with the sociological take on the > economy > > and, so, would like to investigate economics graduate programs where > > > institutional, organizational, interorganizational, and/or Marxist > > approaches would be explored. I would appreciate your suggestions > on > > economics graduate programs to suggest to him, if possible with the > > name of one or two significant faculty members who give the place > > its intellectual character. Thanks. > > Jeffrey Leiter > > Professor and Director of Graduate Programs > > Department of Sociology and Anthropology > > North Carolina State University > > Raleigh, NC 27695-8107 > > phone: 919-515-9009 > > fax: 919-515-2610 > > internet: jeff@server.sasw.ncsu.edu > > homepage: http://sasw.chass.ncsu.edu/~jeff/leiter.htm > > > Jeffrey-- > The ones that come to mind are: U. Mass Amherst (Jerry Epstein, > soon to also have Robert Pollin); U. Cal. Riverside (losing Pollin, > but > has Steve Cullenberg and a couple of others); Univ. of Notre Dame (has > Chuck Craypo, Marty Wolfson, Teresa Ghillarducci, others); The New > School > in NYC (Anwar Shaikh, perhaps others); maybe American University in > Wash. > D.C. (although unable to name people, as this is just second hand, > vague > info.). > > Bruce Nissen > Center for Labor Research and Studies > Florida International University > Miami, FL 33199 > nissenb@fiu.edu > From pegkahn@spruce.flint.umich.edu Thu Mar 19 15:30:52 1998 Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 17:30:46 -0500 (EST) From: Peggy Kahn To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Women in the Labor Movement conference The following series of presentations is scheduled at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in conjunction with Women's History Month. For further information, contact the organizer, Donna Ainsworth (donnasa@umich.edu). Peggy Kahn University of Michigan-Flint Rocking the Boat: Women in the Labor Movement Thursday, March 26, 1998 Martha Ojeda Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladores Organizing Across Borders: Sweatshops in Mexico and the U.S. 7:30pm, Michigan Union Parker Room Friday, March 27, 1998 Dorothy McGuigan Lecture and Awards Peggy Kahn, Associate Professor of Political Science University of Michigan, Flint Time and Money: Women Workers, Unions, and the Political Economy 3:00pm, Michigan Union Pendleton Room Sunday, March 29, 1998 Aurora Levins Morales Dramatic Reading Remedios: Medicine Stories from the Lives of Puerto Rican Women and Our Kin Aurora Levins Morales creates a collage of prose poetry retelling the history of working women around the world. 1:00pm, The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, admission, $5 at the door. Monday, March 30, 1998 Women Warriors: An Intergenerational Panel 2:00pm, Michigan Union Ballroom Dorothy Haener, United Auto Workers Dottie Jones, United Auto Workers Ah Quon McElrath Becky Belcore, Service Employees International Union Eileen Ma, Service Employees International Union Moderator, Joyce Kornbluh, co-author of Rocking the Boat: Union Womens Voices, 1915-1975 followed by a Book Party for Rocking the Boat: Union Womens Voices, 1915-1975 4:00-6:00pm, Shaman Drum Bookshop, 313 S. State St. Tuesday, March 31, 1998 Brigid OFarrell co-author of Rocking the Boat: Union Womens Voices, 1915-1975 Coalition Building: Lessons From Union Womens History 12 noon, Womens Studies Lounge, 232D West Hall March 22_- April 4 The Detroit Newspapers Strike: A Photographic Exhibition by Rebecca Cook Michigan Union Study Lounge 530 S. State St. A photographic exhibition documenting the sorrows and the victories of the Detroit Newspapers strike. Over 2500 families are fighting for their livelihoods in this longest newspaper strike in U.S. hisotry Thursday, March 26, 5:30-7:30pm Reception for the Photographic Exhibition Michigan Union Art Lounge Film Series Friday, March 27, 1998 With Babies and Banners 44 min. 1978, director, Lorraine Gray Describes the role of women in the General Motors Sit-Down Strike, 1936-37, especially the formation, success, and subsequent disbanding of the Womens Emergency Brigade. Includes interviews with several Brigade members as they met on the 40th anniversary of the strike, as well as authentic footage of the events discussed. The Willmar 8 55 min. 1980, director, Lee Grant A film which tells the tale of eight women who went on strike in Willmar, Minn. because of employment discrimination. It describes how they formed their own independent union and that even though they lost, they found new strength within themselves. Angell Hall, Auditorium C 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 28, 1998 Coal Mining Women 40 min., 1982, director, Elizabeth Barret Interviews with female miners throughout the United States reveal the ongoing struggles and moments of success women are experiencing in this career. \Archival artworks, films, and photographs depicts the history of women in coal mines, and their leadership role in union organizing. The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter 65 min. 1987, director, Connie Field Several women who worked in the shipyards during World War II, recount their experiences at work and offer comments on societys expectations of them during the war effort and after the war. Their narratives are interspersed with sequences from war department films, newsreels, and Hollywood movies made during that time which concerned women working outside the home. Angell Hall, Auditorium C 7:30 p.m. Sunday, March 29, 1998 Labor Beat: Workers Visit a Gap Store When two young women workers from a Guatemala Maquilladora visited Chicago recently, cameras followed them into a Loop GAP store, where shirts they make are sold. They were accompanied by their hosts from UNITE! and the National Labor Committee, who helped them explain, to the annoyance of the GAP manager, how their labor is exploited by plants who pay them a fraction of a percent of the value of the clothes they wear and refuse to let them attend school. The Face Behind the Label A documentary which takes viewers to Guatemala to witness exploitative garment factory conditions first-hand. Angell Hall, Auditorium D 7:30 p.m. Sponsored by the University of Michigan Womens Studies Program, the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, the Center for the Education of Women, the Labor Studies Center, the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, the Undergraduate Womens Studies Association, the Division of Student Affairs, the Office of the Vice-Provost for Academic and Multicultural Initiatives, and the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute. ******************************************************************************* Donna S. Ainsworth 234 West Hall Program Associate Ann Arbor, MI 48l09-1092 Women's Studies Program phone: (734) 647-0774 University of Michigan fax: (734) 647-4943 donnasa@umich.edu ****************************************************************************** From Robert.Gardner@Colorado.EDU Thu Mar 19 20:04:10 1998 Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 22:17:34 -0400 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: Robert.Gardner@Colorado.EDU (Robert Gardner) Subject: Re: econ departments with sociological leanings Sorry that I can't suggest any programs, but on a similar thread, could anyone suggest any SOCIOLOGY grad programs/significant faculty members that have Economic leanings. In particular, I would be interested in finding suggestions of programs that have a focus in economic theory/political economy, economic sociology, labor markets/unionization, etc. thank you for your time, rob gardner >I have an undergraduate student in a large sociology course >who is majoring in economics and wants to go to graduate school in >economics. He is intrigued with the sociological take on the economy >and, so, would like to investigate economics graduate programs where >institutional, organizational, interorganizational, and/or Marxist >approaches would be explored. I would appreciate your suggestions on >economics graduate programs to suggest to him, if possible with the >name of one or two significant faculty members who give the place >its intellectual character. Thanks. >Jeffrey Leiter >Professor and Director of Graduate Programs >Department of Sociology and Anthropology >North Carolina State University >Raleigh, NC 27695-8107 >phone: 919-515-9009 >fax: 919-515-2610 >internet: jeff@server.sasw.ncsu.edu >homepage: http://sasw.chass.ncsu.edu/~jeff/leiter.htm * * * * * Robert O. Gardner Department of Sociology University of Colorado-Boulder From clawson@sadri.umass.edu Fri Mar 20 07:29:51 1998 Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu; Fri, 20 Mar 1998 09:29:47 -0500 (EST) 20 Mar 1998 09:29:46 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 09:29:46 -0500 (EST) From: Dan Clawson Subject: Re: econ departments with sociological leanings In-reply-to: To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu I'm sure there are lots of other answers, but the University of Massachusetts Amherst department has a group of people with left leanings interested in these issues, surrounded by a larger group of people with related interests, in a university with lots of other resources. Four people we have who fit this description perfectly: Dan Clawson, previous work on business power, current work on unions and organizing Dee Royster, economic sociology internationally, race, a comparative study of black and white graduates of a vocational high school and their subsequent job market experiences Sarah Babb, work on 19th century unions and Greenbackism, current work on the emergence of the American trained economics profession in Mexico Naomi Gerstel, parental leave policies and their economic context (class nature of their utilization), homelessness policy Others are not on the left or do work not as centrally on these issues, but there are several of those as well (work, complex organizations, welfare policy). The UMass Amherst economics department has the biggest concentration of left economists anywhere (Sam Bowles, Herb Gintis, Jerry Epstein, Nancy Folbre, David Kotz, Stephen Resnick and Richard Wolff, etc.). The UMass Labor Center is the most important unequivocally pro-union labor center anywehre in the country, and has recently doubled its size (admittedly, only from 2 to 4, but 4 great people are quite a resource, along with lots of students). Dan Clawson (clawson@sadri.umass.edu) > > Sorry that I can't suggest any programs, but on a similar thread, could > anyone suggest any SOCIOLOGY grad programs/significant faculty members that > have Economic leanings. In particular, I would be interested in finding > suggestions of programs that have a focus in economic theory/political > economy, economic sociology, labor markets/unionization, etc. > > thank you for your time, > rob gardner > > > > >I have an undergraduate student in a large sociology course > >who is majoring in economics and wants to go to graduate school in > >economics. He is intrigued with the sociological take on the economy > >and, so, would like to investigate economics graduate programs where > >institutional, organizational, interorganizational, and/or Marxist > >approaches would be explored. I would appreciate your suggestions on > >economics graduate programs to suggest to him, if possible with the > >name of one or two significant faculty members who give the place > >its intellectual character. Thanks. > >Jeffrey Leiter > >Professor and Director of Graduate Programs > >Department of Sociology and Anthropology > >North Carolina State University > >Raleigh, NC 27695-8107 > >phone: 919-515-9009 > >fax: 919-515-2610 > >internet: jeff@server.sasw.ncsu.edu > >homepage: http://sasw.chass.ncsu.edu/~jeff/leiter.htm > > > > * * * * * > Robert O. Gardner > Department of Sociology > University of Colorado-Boulder > > -- Dan Clawson 413-545-5974 (work) Dept. of Sociology 413-545-0746 (fax) W-36 Machmer Hall 413-586-6235 (home) Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst MA 01003 email = clawson@sadri.umass.edu From nissenb@fiu.edu Fri Mar 20 08:20:40 1998 Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 11:19:35 -0500 () From: Bruce Nissen To: Labor Research and Action Project Subject: Re: university labor centers In-Reply-To: <199803201429.JAA05305@wilde.oit.umass.edu> X-X-Sender: nissenb@mailhost.fiu.edu On Fri, 20 Mar 1998, Dan Clawson wrote: > The UMass Labor Center is the most important unequivocally pro-union > labor center anywehre in the country, and has recently doubled its size > (admittedly, only from 2 to 4, but 4 great people are quite a resource, > along with lots of students). > > Dan Clawson (clawson@sadri.umass.edu) > Dan- It's great that you're justly proud of the UMass Labor Center, but you might want to be careful of "home campus chauvinism". There happen to be a lot of very good labor studies and labor ed. programs in the U.S. The U Mass. program undoubtedly is one of the best, but one could name four or five others that are in the same league certainly, and some are much bigger. Your boosterism is great -- but I hope everybody on this listserv looks close to home, to discover what treasures the local campus labor studies people can be. Sometimes they'er not, but in many cases they will be if you seek them out. They've had intimate contact with the labor movement for years and years. Best, Bruce Nissen Center for Labor Research and Studies Florida International University Miami, FL (formerly with the Indiana University Div. of Labor Studies) nissenb@fiu.edu From westbroo@marshall.edu Fri Mar 20 09:08:08 1998 From: "Westbrook, William S" To: "'Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu'" Subject: RE: econ departments with sociological leanings Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 11:07:59 -0500 Robert: I have never been there myself, but I know several folks who hold the PhD from Michigan State University and they are well grounded in political economy. I have also worked with some people who came through the labor education and research program at MSU and they demonstrate a high level of commitment to, and understanding of, the working class perspective. Some years ago the University of Illinois had a reputation for having a good program such as you desribe but in all honesty I must say I have lost contact with the individuals I knew who came from Illinois. It is also problematic to rely on aged reputations; schools and departments change in a few years. I am more current w.r.t. the Michigan State Program. University of Massachusetts at Amherst also has a good reputation in this area. Hope this is some help. Peace, Bill Westbrook Marshall University > -----Original Message----- > Sent: Thursday, March 19, 1998 9:18 PM > To: Labor Research and Action Project > Subject: Re: econ departments with sociological leani > Sorry that I can't suggest any programs, but on a similar thread, > could > anyone suggest any SOCIOLOGY grad programs/significant faculty members > that > have Economic leanings. In particular, I would be interested in > finding > suggestions of programs that have a focus in economic theory/political > economy, economic sociology, labor markets/unionization, etc. > > thank you for your time, > rob gardner > > > > >I have an undergraduate student in a large sociology course > >who is majoring in economics and wants to go to graduate school in > >economics. He is intrigued with the sociological take on the economy > >and, so, would like to investigate economics graduate programs where > >institutional, organizational, interorganizational, and/or Marxist > >approaches would be explored. I would appreciate your suggestions on > >economics graduate programs to suggest to him, if possible with the > >name of one or two significant faculty members who give the place > >its intellectual character. Thanks. > >Jeffrey Leiter > >Professor and Director of Graduate Programs > >Department of Sociology and Anthropology > >North Carolina State University > >Raleigh, NC 27695-8107 > >phone: 919-515-9009 > >fax: 919-515-2610 > >internet: jeff@server.sasw.ncsu.edu > >homepage: http://sasw.chass.ncsu.edu/~jeff/leiter.htm > > > > * * * * * > Robert O. Gardner > Department of Sociology > University of Colorado-Boulder > From shecker@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU Fri Mar 20 10:15:20 1998 Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 09:15:57 -0800 From: shecker@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU (Steven Hecker) Subject: Re: university labor centers To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Bruce- Thanks for your gentle reprimand. I was about to be a little more sarcastic but you did it well. I was wondering if I somehow missed US News and World Report's rankings of labor centers. I hope things are going well with you. Steve Hecker >On Fri, 20 Mar 1998, Dan Clawson wrote: > >> The UMass Labor Center is the most important unequivocally pro-union >> labor center anywehre in the country, and has recently doubled its size >> (admittedly, only from 2 to 4, but 4 great people are quite a resource, >> along with lots of students). >> >> Dan Clawson (clawson@sadri.umass.edu) >> >Dan- > It's great that you're justly proud of the UMass Labor Center, but >you might want to be careful of "home campus chauvinism". There happen to >be a lot of very good labor studies and labor ed. programs in the U.S. >The U Mass. program undoubtedly is one of the best, but one could name >four or five others that are in the same league certainly, and some are >much bigger. > Your boosterism is great -- but I hope everybody on this listserv >looks close to home, to discover what treasures the local campus labor >studies people can be. Sometimes they'er not, but in many cases they will >be if you seek them out. They've had intimate contact with the labor >movement for years and years. > > Best, > Bruce Nissen > Center for Labor Research and Studies > Florida International University > Miami, FL > (formerly with the Indiana University Div. of Labor Studies) > nissenb@fiu.edu Steven Hecker, Associate Professor Labor Education and Research Center 1289 University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403-1289 USA tel: 541-346-2788 fax: 541-346-2790 email: shecker@oregon.uoregon.edu LERC homepage: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~lerc/ From dreiling@darkwing.uoregon.edu Fri Mar 20 12:24:22 1998 Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 11:23:28 -0800 From: Michael Dreiling Reply-To: dreiling@darkwing.uoregon.edu To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Re: econ departments with sociological leanings On the question of sociology programs (not econ) with a left political economy orientation.... In addition to the fine east coast and midwest Sociology programs previously mentioned, I would add that the west coast has a few sociology programs that fit your interests. Here at the U of Oregon, we have a fairly large group of faculty in sociology that fit your description, not to mention the Labor Education and Research Center with a large group of faculty WEB http://www/~lerc/ (Steve Hecker posted a note earlier -- Steve Deutsch is the sociologist there, his work includes: Labor and Participation at Work, Occupational Safety and Health, Labor and Technological Change). Vallon J. Burris, business political activism, right-wing movements, etc. Michael Dreiling, Work and class formation, environmental sociology, social network analysis. John B. Foster, Marxism, political economy, historical and comparative sociology. Linda O. Fuller, Comparative socialism, work, development and social change. Gregory McLauchlan, Political sociology, peace and war, science and technology. Sandra L. Morgen, Women and health care, women and work, social movements. Donald R. Van Houten, Complex organizations, work. In addition, we have a group of Emeriti that have made substantial contributions to the study of labor, labor markets, and gender and work from a left sociological perspective. Joan R. Acker, Women and feminist theory, stratification and work, the welfare state. David Milton, (his book (1982) on the CIO is excellent!) Political sociology, stratification, comparative social structures. I would also add the U.C. Davis, Berkeley, Irvine, L.A. and Riverside sociology departments to the list. Peace out, Mike -- Michael Dreiling Assistant Professor Phone: 541-346-5025 Department of Sociology Fax: 541-346-5026 1291 University of Oregon Email: dreiling@darkwing.uoregon.edu Eugene, OR 97403-1291 Web: http://www/~dreiling/ From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Fri Mar 20 21:36:43 1998 Fri, 20 Mar 1998 20:01:26 -0800 (PST) Fri, 20 Mar 1998 19:54:16 -0800 (PST) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 19:54:16 -0800 (PST) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Re: [Fwd: Crime and Punishment 1999 (fwd)] Forwarded from PEN-L: A weensy complement to: >> > When Currie, who has taught sociology and criminology at Yale and >> > Berkeley, advanced similar arguments in his 1985 volume Confronting >> > Crime, the New York Times reviewer noted that the "biggest incarceration >> > binge in merican history" had increased the nation's prison population >> > from fewer than 200,000 in 1970 to 454,000 by 1984. What may have seemed >> > an astonishing number of inmates back in 1984 is dwarfed by the current >> > prison population of 1.2 million, plus an additional half-a-million >> > people in local jails. Fed. Prisons Drug Year Pop. Offenders % ----------------------------------------- 1980 24,363 6,120 25.1% 1982 29,673 7,920 26.7% 1984 34,263 10,110 29.5% 1986 44,408 16,340 36.8% 1988 49,928 22,270 44.6% 1990 65,526 35,060 53.5% 1992 80,259 47,270 58.9% 1994 95,034 58,260 61.3% Grwth: 390% 952% In the same period federal anti-drug spending grew from 2.7 billion in 1985 to over 15 billion in 1997. Tom Kruse / Casilla 5812 / Cochabamba, Bolivia Tel/Fax: (591-42) 48242 Email: tkruse@albatros.cnb.net From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Fri Mar 20 22:39:19 1998 Fri, 20 Mar 1998 20:53:13 -0800 (PST) Fri, 20 Mar 1998 20:46:09 -0800 (PST) Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 20:46:09 -0800 (PST) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: SA8000: New Global Standards of Social Accountability [What follows was passed along by Tim Lavery. Both labor and international solidarity activists may find it worth a read. I assume, though he provides no indication, that this article has a copyright held by Quality Digest. I have no further information regarding the periodical, date of publication, etc. Contact them directly if you want permission to use it. (Tim may be able to provide contact information.) Apologies for duplicates as a consequence of cross-posting.] Michael, below is an article from Quality Digest which explains the issue. Think you might find it interesting. Regards, Tim As most quality professionals know, quality products usually aren't produced in conditions where workers are unhappy. Long hours, unsafe working conditions, unfair wages, discrimination and arduous labor can create work environments where quality and employee satisfaction prove rare. However, ensuring fair treatment of employees in today's complex business environment can seem as daunting as it was a century ago. Numerous stakeholders -- suppliers, manufacturers, buying agents, contractors and subcontractors -- share the responsibility of safeguarding worker rights, but sometimes the efforts of these various groups fall short for any number of reasons. The problem may lie in greed and cruelty, as it has so often in the past, or it may stem from something else, such as entrenched cultural differences. To address and, hopefully, eliminate unfair and inhumane labor practices, Social Accountability 8000, a new international and inter-industry standard, has been created. Based on ISO 9000, SA8000 targets workplace conditions in factories around the world. The standard was written by an advisory board of 25 people, including representatives from the Council on Economic Priorities Accreditation Agency, Amnesty International, the National Child Labor Committee, KPMG, SGS International Certification Services, Avon Products, Toys R Us, Reebok, The Body Shop, clothing company Eileen Fisher, Amalgamated Bank and the International Textile Workers Union. The difference between SA8000 and its cousins ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 is that this new standard includes performance requirements in addition to system requirements. SA8000 requires that employers pay wages sufficient to meet workers' basic needs, provide a safe working environment, not employ child or forced labor, and not require employees to regularly work longer than 48 hours per week. "One of the problems in monitoring working conditions or human rights has been to move beyond the anecdotal," emphasizes Eileen Kohl Kaufman, program director for the Council on Economic Priorities Accreditation Agency. "It's very hard to have any sense of what conditions were like last week or have any confidence in what they will be like next week. We felt that by merging the performance audit with a quality systems concept, we'd be able to provide a system that could give more confidence and more comparability, both across industries and across countries." Many companies have developed codes of conduct that promote basic rights and prohibit such practices as child labor, prison labor and discrimination. As a result, hundreds of codes now exist, a situation that not only poses difficulties for suppliers but is extremely inefficient. "The effort to combat serious violations of workers' rights is thus hampered both by a lack of clear definitions of terms and by a lack of consensus on the basic benchmarks in codes themselves," states CEPAA's framework for the standard. Kaufman agrees. "It's difficult for the people from the customer companies who are responsible for monitoring the code of conduct as well as vouching for working conditions," she observes. "It's overwhelming." SA8000's certification process will resemble that of ISO 9000; accrediting certification firms to the standard began in late January. The standard will require certification bodies to educate themselves about the facilities they certify and the regions where those facilities are located. If a registrar wants to certify a facility, it must develop a process for auditing the facility's compliance to the standard. Potential SA8000-accredited registrars include BVQI, ITS Intertek Services, SGS-ICS and ACTS Testing Services. SA8000 requirements The standard has four major sections; the fourth, titled "Social Accountability Requirements," includes nine subsections that cover such topics as child labor, forced labor, health and safety, freedom of association and right to collective bargaining, discrimination, disciplinary practices, working hours, compensation and management systems. Any organization wishing to subscribe to the standard must not engage in or support child labor, which SA8000 specifies as any work by a child younger than 15 years of age (or, in special cases, age 14, in accordance with developing-country exceptions under ILO Convention 138). Nor is forced labor -- defined in the standard as "all work or service that is extracted from any person under the menace of any penalty for which said person has not offered him/herself voluntarily" -- anywhere allowed. Likewise, companies are required to provide safe, sanitary working conditions for employees. Under the standard's requirements, personnel must be allowed to join trade unions of their choice and bargain collectively for better wages and conditions. Race, caste, national origin, religion, disability, gender, sexual orientation, union membership or union affiliation all are listed as unacceptable reasons for hiring, compensation, access to training, promotion, termination or retirement. Personnel must not be subject to corporal punishment, mental or physical coercion, or verbal abuse by employers. SA8000 specifies that employees shall not be required to work in excess of 48 hours per week; they also must be provided with at least one day off for every seven-day period. The standard breaks new ground in subsection eight, which outlines compensation requirements. Section 8.1 states, "The company shall ensure that wages paid for a standard working week shall meet at least legal or industry minimum standards and shall always be sufficient to meet basic needs of personnel and to provide some discretionary income." "The Need for Standards" section of the standard's framework document contends that universal standards offer many advantages, including procedural consistency across audits, development of corporate management systems to guarantee social accountability, a market incentive to play fair and permanent processes for involving interested parties (e.g., workers, human rights organizations and unions). However, another, more pressing reason for SA8000's creation exists, according to Dorianne Beyer, general counsel of the National Child Labor Committee and an active participant in the standard's creation. "There has been a worldwide shift in awareness and in thinking about child labor," notes Beyer. "There is public-consumer awareness and public-consumer demand, which then become corporate awareness and corporate demand, for assurances that the products we buy are not the result of exploitative child labor." The problem of child labor In numerous countries, workers -- many of them children -- continue to toil for low wages in unsafe environments. In May 1997, leaders from six Southeast Asian nations and India agreed to work to end child labor by 2010. The goal won't be met easily: A recent report by the International Labour Organization estimates that 250 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 work in developing countries; of that number, 120 million children work full-time. The report goes on to say that Asia is home to 61 percent of child workers, or more than 153 million children. Eighty million children (32 percent) work in Africa and 17.5 million (7 percent) in Latin America. Other parts of the world aren't immune to the problem, either. Child labor exists in Eastern Europe, Portugal, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States. A recent investigative report conducted by The Associated Press identified child labor as a continuing presence and problem in some U.S. industries, particularly agriculture. Children pick chilies in New Mexico, harvest apples in upstate New York, pick beans in Florida, pack cherries in Washington state, work construction in New York City, pack peaches in Illinois, cut grapes in California and work in sweatshops around the country. Douglas L. Kruse, a Rutgers University economist, worked with the AP to estimate the number of children working illegally in the United States. His findings: 290,200 children worked illegally in the United States last year; 59,600 of them were under age 14; more than 13,000 worked in garment sweatshops. By using child laborers rather than legal workers, employers saved $155 million. Compared with the 2 million children who worked in the United States a century ago, these numbers may seem small. But in the larger context of a globally conscious, humane market, they are astronomical. Since Congress' introduction of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, which set out to end child labor, the practice of employing children in harsh environments has declined significantly. However, the decline began to level off in 1995. Perhaps most disturbing is that, in its child labor investigation, the AP linked these illegal and unethical practices to high-profile, mainstream companies, including Costco, H.J. Heinz, Newman's Own, J.C. Penney, Pillsbury, Sears, Wal-Mart and Campbell Soup Co. When confronted with the information that their suppliers were using child labor, the majority of these companies condemned the practice; in the case of Newman's Own, actor Paul Newman investigated his suppliers personally and, upon finding child labor present, switched suppliers. Contributors' comments The Council on Economic Priorities Accreditation Agency, a nongovernmental organization, was established early in 1997 to drive SA8000's development. CEPAA is affiliated with the Council on Economic Priorities, founded in 1969 and dedicated to impartially analyzing corporate social performance while promoting excellence in corporate citizenship. CEPAA and the SA8000 advisory board worked on the standard for nearly a year, beginning in February 1997. Meetings were held every six to eight weeks. "We were very mindful of including China in our thinking about how to create this standard," recalls Beyer on the subject of Asian participation. "The China issue was never far away on any standard, on any words, on any terminology. I can't say that we broke the back of the China problem. I don't think we can in a standard." John Brooks, president of SGS-ICS, acted in an advisory role for SA8000's management system elements. He gathered comments from various board members and others who reviewed the standard confidentially. "Based on that input, I advised CEPAA on the final wording," he says. Public comment was necessarily limited due to time constraints imposed by the standard's financial backers, notes Brooks. However, another reason for keeping the standard closely guarded was to protect the effort itself. By delaying the standard's publication as long as possible, the advisory board hoped to produce a better, more complete document that would please as many stakeholders as possible, explains Brooks. The Body Shop, an international manufacturer and retailer of skin and hair care products, also took an active role in drafting SA8000. The company always has been interested in the people who manufacture its products, says Alistair Jackson, The Body Shop's drafting committee representative. "We've become increasingly active in inspecting the manufacturing facilities of our suppliers," says Jackson. "When we became aware of [the standard's] process, we were quite interested in being involved. We would like to see that everybody applies the same standard. From the vendors' perspective, it makes life a lot easier. We're very conscious that we already require quite a lot from our suppliers in other areas, particularly in the environmental area and animal protection." The motivations for companies to subscribe to the standard are many, according to SA8000's various authors. "One of the fundamental issues about this process is it's about businesses being more accountable for the impact that they have up their supply chain, rather than just within their own facilities," asserts Jackson. Brooks maintains that the supply base will be driven from the desire to be seen as "good actors" and to gain credibility in the eyes of customers and stakeholders. "I think it is an excellent standard," adds Brooks. "It is far better than anything else that's ever been published before in this area." Looking ahead SA8000 underwent four trial audits last summer in New York, Pennsylvania, Mexico and Honduras, respectively. The document itself is still open to revisions and suggestions, but Kaufman says the advisory board is holding the standard in its current form long enough to get the system going and to finalize the guidance document and application procedures. Kaufman doesn't expect the standard will require a label on products to signify certification to SA8000. "We're not attesting to the quality of the product," she explains. "It could still be shoddy goods. But if it's produced in an SA8000-certified factory, we know that certain rules of working conditions were followed." Brooks believes major companies will drive adoption of the standard and that it will appeal to many organizations for different reasons. "The standard is sufficiently robust that, as with ISO 9000, if properly interpreted, it would be satisfactory for implementation in an organization of any size, shape, form, in any industry sector," he claims. James McKinnon, ITS Intertek's global manager for SA8000, heads up an international team getting ITS ready to become an SA8000-accredited registrar. Companies like his will have to go through a specific process, similar to that used to set up ISO 9000 certification services, he explains. "We started working with SA8000 toward the middle of last year," he says. "ITS is interested in it because it's a natural extension of our current business streams of inspection, testing and certification." McKinnon believes the standard will affect the apparel and toy industries the most and may eventually move into the electronics industry. "It should appeal to the consumers directly, when they see and have confidence that the garment or toy they're buying is not only safe for children, but hasn't been produced by children," he contends. Tom DeLuca, vice president of product development and safety assurance at Toys R Us, reveals that his company issued its own conduct standard to its suppliers, an estimated 5,000 worldwide, in early 1997. The company, which is a signatory of SA8000, worked with CEP to ensure that its standard closely paralleled SA8000 in its requirements and auditability, says DeLuca. Because of the similarities, DeLuca doesn't expect Toys R Us will issue a mandate to its suppliers for compliance to SA8000. "We would be sending a mixed message if we suddenly issued a second code," he comments. Avon, another participant in drafting SA8000, appears willing to make a solid commitment to enforce the standard. In an interview with Business Week, Fitzroy Hilaire, Avon's director of supplier development, disclosed that his company intends to certify its 19 factories to SA8000 and will ask its suppliers to do likewise. SA8000's potential for positive change hinges on its ability to imitate ISO 9000, which has revolutionized business management and process improvement. Hopefully the new standard can accomplish what ILO and even the Fair Labor Standards Act have failed to do -- eradicate, once and for all, abusive child labor and ensure that workers around the world are treated with economic and social dignity. The standard's possible secondary benefits are no less worthwhile. Enforcing humane conditions in factories may lead to a higher standard of products on the market. Consumer consciousness may increase, too, as people realize their power to change conditions in other parts of the world simply by selecting products that come from SA8000-registered suppliers. Registrars interested in becoming accredited to the standard may request application packs by contacting the CEPAA at telephone (212) 358-7697, fax (212) 358-7723 or e-mail SA8000@ aol.com. CEPAA's address is 30 Irving Place, New York, NY 10003. About the authors Elizabeth R. Larson is news editor of Quality Digest. Bonnie Cox is an editorial assistant at Quality Digest. ---- Timothy A. Lavery, PHR/CPP/AAP President Lavery & Associates 2180 White Pine Circle First Floor, Suite D West Palm Beach, FL 33415-6175 (561)641-1463 Fax (561)439-0175 From culturex@vcn.bc.ca Sat Mar 21 10:27:56 1998 Sat, 21 Mar 1998 09:27:32 -0800 (PST) Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1998 09:27:31 -0800 (PST) From: Franklin Wayne Poley Subject: Letter to the Editor: Poverty-Related Diseases in Canada. (fwd) I guess it gets down to what the most basic social contract should be. Who has a right to life and who doesn't? Who is to decide? FWP. ******************* http://www.vcn.bc.ca/fc *********************** ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1998 07:45:19 -0800 (PST) From: Franklin Wayne Poley To: Lori_Anderson@hc-sc.gc.ca councillor_nunziata@city.toronto.on.ca, councillor_layton@city.toronto.on.ca, councillor_chow@city.toronto.on.ca, Workfare-Discuss@icomm.ca, End Legislated Poverty Subject: Letter to the Editor: Poverty-Related Diseases in Canada. See "Chronic Diseases in Canada" at http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hpb/lcdc (Laboratory Centre for Disease Control). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Lori Anderson 03/20/98 04:41 PM Dear FWP: Your e-mail was forwarded to me, as I am the Editor-in-Chief of "Chronic Diseases in Canada" (CDIC). Thank you for the compliment to the journal. We are certainly interested in considering epidemiologic research that examines socio-economic status (SES) as a risk factor for "chronic" disease. Our definition of "chronic diseases" includes injuries in addition to other non-communicable diseases, as you have noted below. This is explained in our Information for Authors, which provides a brief description of the types of articles we consider for publication as well as guidelines for submitting manuscripts to us. The latest Information for Authors is always on our Web site and on the inside back cover of the most recent hardcopy issue available. We appreciate your interest in our journal. Sincerely, Lori Anderson ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Lori: At the conclusion of Workfare-Discuss List/Discussion, in six months time, I will summarize the postings and put them on my web site . Perhaps it would be a good idea to work them into a manuscript for your journal, Chronic Diseases in Canada. It has been some years since I worked as an academic and published articles in refereed journals like this but I haven't forgotten how to do it. What I will do is ask if someone from Workfare-Discuss with experience in writing for refereed journals would like to collaborate as co-author. In particular, we need some library research on relevant statistics. I guess every Canadian by now is familiar with those grim Food Bank TV commercials in which a number of people are shown playing a game of musical chairs around a dinner table with the caption, Which Canadians will go hungry this year? Yet 20 years ago there were no Food Banks. Preliminary data tell me that cost-of-living plotted against welfare cheques has steadily increased over that time which necessitates the Food Banks and other charities in support of basic amenities of life for poorer citizens. My interest in this as an epidemiological problem was aroused in 1995 when I saw TV coverage of Mayor Prue from East York and others who had lived for a time on the typical welfare stipend and reported marked symptoms of malnourishment. I was shocked. Could there be an epidemic of malnourishment in Canada even while the media are trumpeting Canada as U.N.-rated "number one" in standard of living? A group of doctors and nurses from Victoria made a report similar to the one of Prue et al. around that time and it was also reported on TV. As difficult as it is to accept I think the facts are there. Without the private charities (which some cannot reach or will not accept) poor Canadians will suffer from malnourishment. And it is of a sufficient magnitude to be called an epidemic. Let me quote from mayor Prue's letter which he was so kind as to send me. I wrote for confirmation of what I had seen on television. Since this was a very public matter I feel at liberty to quote the letter of Dec. 28/95: "I participated in the 'Walk a Week in My Shoes' program which was sponsored by the Daily Bread Food Bank. In the program the participants were asked to limit their meals to the amount of monies left after fixed expenses were deducted. These expenses included rent, heat, hydro, telephone etc. In my case there was $17.15. For this modest amount I was able to eat 14 'meals' which included 3 breakfasts, 4 lunches and 7 dinners. During the course of the week I lost 4 pounds. Physiological symptoms of hunger, loss of concentration and irritability were apparent. More importantly I was isolated from social functions since there was no money for 'frills'". Others in the Walk a Week program included Mayor Nunziata of the City of York and Councillors Chow and Layton. (As you know all are now councillors with the Toronto amalgamation). There were some media personalities plus a doctor and nurse in this as well. In sending this email out I would ask that anyone receiving it send me any statistics on illnesses which are associated with malnourishment or good, solid anecdotal reports like those above. Having spent 10 years working as a clinician in a mental hospital I now see former patients occasionally on the streets. Our policy was de-institutionalization and normalization. I wonder sometimes how much of a favour we did by sending them into the community. In the mental institution the diet most certainly met Canada Food Guide standards. In the community it does not. Perhaps we just need to take normalization a step further. In the institution we had a "Workfare-like" program. If we follow through on that in the community for all recipients of welfare whether mental patients or not, I think we may find the solution. Thank you for your prompt reply to my inquiry. Sincerely-FWP. From aikya@ix.netcom.com Sun Mar 22 13:58:52 1998 by dfw-ix11.ix.netcom.com (8.8.4/8.8.4) id rma022998; Sun Mar 22 14:56:30 1998 From: "Ms. Aikya Param" To: "'Alex Chis & Claudette Begin'" , "'Dave de la Vega'" , "'Labor Research and Action Project'" , "'Michael Eisenscher'" , "'UNITED@cougar.com'" , "'womenandmoney@cougar.com'" "'Sanskrit Mailing List'" , "'shree'" Subject: FW: Internet as Communications Medium - Need for Discussion Date: Sun, 22 Mar 1998 12:05:57 -0800 See John Walker's comments below. His thoughts on proposed changes to the internet suggest that U.S. government changes could limit or eliminate individual and group contributions for the good of all and tighten a "commercial use only" framework on the 'net. You can comment on these proposals before they are implemented. Aikya ---------- Sent: Friday, March 21, 1980 3:58 PM To: TownTalk Community Development Subject: Internet as Communications Medium - Need for Discussion Featured Site: http://www.networx.on.ca/~jwalker Select: --> Internet Resources, and then --> Business Resources The University of Kansas, School of Business, International Business Resource Center "Connecting businesses to the World" A comprehensive list of International Trade Resources -------------- Internet as Communications Medium - Need for Discussion I welcome comments and discussion on the following draft and on the issues it is raising. The Internet as a Communication Medium and how that is not reflected in the proposal to restructure the DNS There is currently a proposal by the U.S. govt to change the way that Internet domain (site) names are given out, and thus to affect in an important way the future of the Internet. The proposal is at http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/domainname130.htm March 23 is the end of the time that one can submit comments on it to the ntia and comments up till then can be submitted electronically. It is interesting to look at the Framework that Ira Magaziner, the advisor to the President, has created looking at the future of the Internet. In the document called Framework, he fails to mention or consider that the Internet is an important new *communication* media. Instead he substitutes the word *commerce* for *communication* and sets out a framework for making the Internet into an important new means of commerce. In two sentences at the beginning of his document he says that "the Internet empowers citizens and democratizes societies" and then he goes on and spends the next 24 pages describing changes that have to come about to make the Internet into an electronic marketplace for business. Nowheres in the "Framework" does he discuss the fact that Netizens are those who come on line to contribute to the growth and the development of the Net. Instead Magaziner sees the Internet as "being driven ... by the private sector." If the "Framework" has *no* understanding of the ways that the Internet and Usenet contribute to and make possible new forms of *communication* between people, then there is no way that the proposal he has made for changing the DNS (domain name system) that assigns address and maintains the lookup tables can help to facilitate the communication that is so important as the essence of the Internet. The Proposal "Improvement of Technical Management of Internet Names and Addresses: Proposed Rule" is listed in the February 20, 1988 Federal Register. (And one can make comments on it till March 23. It is also online at the ntia web site.) Instead of examining how this *communication* has been developed and why it is so important, Magaziner is rushing to replace the current system (which was also developed without any analysis of the importance of the communication aspects of the Internet) with a "privatized" new form. In this "privatized" new form, he has proposed creating a "membership association" that will represent Internet users. So Internet users are not to represent themselves, but the U.S. government is proposing creating a rubber stamp organization to promote its attempt to change the Internet from a media for human-to-human communication into something that only conceives of users as "customers" of unregulated advertertisers and other forms of business. This is hostile to the whole nature and development of the Internet. Magaziner claims that the "marketplace, not governments should determine technical standards." What he seems to have no knowledge of is how the government support for a standards process that wouldn't be dominated by the most powerful corporations, is some of how helpful standards have been developed. Instead Magaziner is trying to recast the standards development process to mirror the unhealthy situation that develops when the supposed "marketplace" is allowed to set standards. Magaziner is proposing creating a supposed "not for profit" corporation to take over the domain name system functions currently being administered by IANA (the root system and the appropriate databases). This new corporation he proposes will have a board of directors which will be made up of 5 members who are commercial users. There are proposed two directors from "a membership association of regional number registries", two members designated by the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) and two members from an association he is proposing be created representing domain name registeries and registrars, and 7 members from the membership organization he is creating. (Of which he says at least one of those board seats could be designated for an individual or entity engaged in non-commercial, not-for-profit use of the Internet, and one for individual end users. The remaining seats could be filled by commercial users, including trademark holders." Thus he is basing his proposal on to-be-created associations that will not be based on the Internet, but created to provide for commercial control of the domain naming system. The proposal is an effort to change the nature and character of the Internet from a means of communication to a means of "commerce." It is almost like claiming that the advertisers in a newspaper should have an organization that will assure their control of the newspaper, and ignoring the fact that the newspaper exists to present the news, editorials, etc. The Internet has been developed and continues to be for most of its users, a place where one can communicate with others, whether by email, posting to Usenet newsgroups, putting up a www site, etc. As such it is the nature of this communication that has to be understood and protected in any proposals to change key aspects of how the Internet is adminstered. Also the Internet makes possible communication with people around the world. Thus creating a board where commercial businesses are the main controlling interests is hostile to facilitating this communication. While Magaziner's proposal is being distributed electronically, it gives no indication of where it came from, and why it fails to be based on the most essential aspects of the Internet. Why doesn't the advisor making up such a proposal ask for discussion on line and participate in the discussion so as to be able to create a proposal that will reflect the needs and interests of those who are online rather than a narrow group of commercial interests. The Judges in the Federal District Court in Philadelphia hearing the CDA case (the Communications Decency Act) and the Supreme Court Judges affirming their decision recognized that the Internet is an important new means of mass communication. The Judges in the Federal District Court case wrote: "The Internet is...a unique and wholly new medium of worldwide communication." Judge Dalzell, in his opinion, wrote explaining how "The Intenet is a far more speech-enhancing medium than print, the village green, or the mails.... We should also protect the autonomy that such a medium confers to ordinary people as well as media magnates.... There is also a compelling need for public education about the benefits and dangers of this new medium and Government can fill that role as well." However, there is no indication in either of Magaziner's proposals, the longer "Framework" proposal, or the specific proposal to restructure the DNS, that he is interested in or has considered the benefits of the Internet for the public of the U.S. or elsewhere around the world. Instead he is only putting forward the wishes of certain commercial entities who want to grab hold of the Internet for their own narrow purposes. By restructuring the domain naming system in a way that can put it up for control by a few commercial interests, Magaziner's proposal is failing to protect the autonomy that the medium confers to ordinary people, as the court decision in the CDA case directed U.S. government officials. The ARPANET and Internet (up till 1995) developed because of an Acceptible Use Policy encouraging and supporting communication and limiting and restricting what commercial interests were allowed to do. As such it developed as an important means of people being able to utilize the regenerative power of communication to create something very new and important for our times. Pioneers with a vision of the future of the Internet called for it to be made available to all as a powerful education medium, not for it to be turned into something that would mimic the worst features of a so called "democratic nation" which reduces the rights and abilities of its citizens to those of so called "customers" of unregulated and unaccountable commercial entities. The Internet and the Netizens who populate the Internet have created something much more important than the so called commercial online "marketplace" that the Framework is trying to create. Netizens have created an online international marketplace of ideas and discussion which is need to solve the complex problems of our times. The process of "privatizing" what is a public trust will only result in more problems and fights among the commercial entities that are vying for their own self interest, rather than having any regard for the important communications that the Internet makes possible. Both the government processes and purposes in proposing the DNS restructuring do not ground themselves on the important and unique nature of the Internet. Proposals and practices to serve the future of the Internet and the Netizens who contribute to that future, can only be crafted through a much more democratic process than that which led to the current proposal. There is a need to examine the processes that have actually given birth to and helped the Net to grow and flourish, and to build on those processes in creating the ways to solve the problems of the further development of the Net. Sadly Magaziner's proposal has ignored that process, and thus we are left with a proposal that doesn't reflect the democratic and communicative nature of the Internet and so can only do harm to its further development and cause ever more problems. Ronda Hauben ronda@panix.com Comments and Discussion needed! Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/ and in print edition ISBN # 0-8186-7706-6 ----------------- Also in this issue: - Y2K Legal Obligations First of all, any attorney discussing the law in a format such as this should give two warnings: 1. Law varies from place to place. 2. Your legal rights and obligations will vary with the facts of your particular situation. Therefore, you should always consult with your own lawyer in your own state before relying upon any legal information you obtain elsewhere. That said, here are some general principles that will help you in most situations. - Antitrust enforcer tips hand on Microsoft WASHINGTON - The federal government's top antitrust enforcer outlined yesterday the lofty goals of his case against Microsoft: He wants to create a world in which "everyone in America has a chance to be the next Microsoft." - How Much RAM Is Enough--for Now? And how much more will keep you happy for the rest of your life? - Facing the Problems Of Prank Messages: Bogus E-Mail a Growing Issue on the Net So was that e-mail message saying you're part of a surprise layoff really from your boss? - HP's Java Decision Is Politics As Usual Hewlett-Packard's decision to go its own way with Java is more of a political move than a technically important one, industry observers said Friday. - D.C. Schools Seek Internet Funding: System Plans $45 Million Program The D.C. Public Schools system, which has nearly finished a project to wire each of its schools to the Internet, disclosed this week that it now wants to go much further: It's planning a $45 million, five-year project to wire each of its 5,500 classrooms with fiber-optic lines for advanced Internet services, including links for live video sessions with distant classes. - New Lists and Journals * PC.Home discusses anything to do with PC's as used in the home including, but not limited to: software, the Internet,computer brands, neat Web Site's, trouble shooting, and general computer Q&A. * Womantalk is for woman to discuss whatever they have on their minds. * TSOCIAL - Foro sobre la intervencion social, Preferred language: spanish. TSOCIAL is a discussion list in Spanish on social issues and the response of social institutions to such issues (social work, social policy, social services). Sunday Supplement - Week in Review The 'Net's newsmakers of the week. - Internet as Communications Medium - Need for Discussion The Internet as a Communication Medium and how that is not reflected in the proposal to restructure the DNS There is currently a proposal by the U.S. govt to change the way that Internet domain (site) names are given out, and thus to affect in an important way the future of the Internet. - Taking Aim at the 'Ken Burns' View of the Civil War Edward Ayers arrives at his revisionist argument by using the Web and focusing on 2 counties ------------------------------- Excerpt from CSS Internet News (tm) ,-~~-.____ For subscription details email / | ' \ jwalker@networx.on.ca with ( ) 0 SUBINFO CSSINEWS in the \_/-, ,----' subject line. ==== // / \-'~; /~~~(O) "On the Internet no one / __/~| / | knows you're a dog" =( _____| (_________| http://www.networx.on.ca/~jwalker ------------------------------- From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Mon Mar 23 00:34:29 1998 Sun, 22 Mar 1998 23:15:54 -0800 (PST) Sun, 22 Mar 1998 23:08:58 -0800 (PST) Date: Sun, 22 Mar 1998 23:08:58 -0800 (PST) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: SAWSJ Conference DEMOCRACY AND THE RIGHT TO ORGANIZE: A NATIONAL LABOR TEACH-IN April 24-26, 1998 George Washington University Washington, D.C. Scholars, Artists, and Writers for Social Justice (SAWSJ) is sponsoring a major public event this spring, entitled "Democracy and the Right to Organize: A National Labor Teach-in." This convocation, to be held April 24-26 on the George Washington University campus in Washington, D. C., will bring together hundreds of academics, students, labor educators, filmmakers, trade unionists, and social activists to explain, advocate, debate, and celebrate the right of all workers to organize, both on the job and off. The weekend will also innaugurate SAWSJ, (whose members have sponsored scores of teach-ins across the country), as an organization dedicated to reshaping U.S. politicial culture by helping to foster a vibrant, militant, multicultural, labor movement. The opening plenary begins at 7pm on the evening of Friday, April 24. Speakers include: Julian Bond, civil rights activist and chairman of the NAACP board of directors; John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO; Kimberle Crenshaw, Columbia University professor of law; Steve Fraser, editor and writer; Juliet Schor, Harvard University economist; Robin D. G.. Kelley, New York University professor of history and Africana Studies; and worker representatives from a number of on-going, labor campaigns, including, Louisiana's Avondale Shipyard workers, Washington D.C. parking attendants (HERE Local 27), and the asbestos workers from New York City. The teach-in reconvenes Saturday at 9:30am with a series of panels addressing the legal, political, managerial and bureaucratic obstacles that block the genuinely unfettered right to worker self- organization. Panels will address labor and political action, the future of the Teamsters union, organizing the South, labor and the law, and the relation of the labor movement to social movements for gender, racial, and sexual equality. Speakers include: Karl Klare, Ken Paff, Gary Gerstle, David Brody, Andor Skotnes, Nelson Lichtenstein, Alison Porter, Stanley Aronowitz, Lynn Chancer, Cathy Cohen, Elaine Bernard, Kate Bronfenbrenner, Tom Juravich, Bruce Raynor, Lane Windham and Joe Uehlein. The panels are followed at 11:30am, by a series of activist workshops devoted to practical discussion of on-going political struggles, and to building networks among various constituencies within SAWSJ. Workshops include: sessions on organizing cultural workers; the academic labor movement; building student/labor action coalitions; organizing on welfare/workfare issues; anti-sweatshop activism; and writing, training and teaching for labor activism. Workshop speakers and coordinators include: Pricilla Murolo, Ligaya Domingo, Geoff Miller, Ellen Starbird, Kate Shaughnessy, Steve Kest, Joyce Dorsey, Peter Rider, Michael Denning, Kitty Krupat, Andrew Ross, Allen Hunter, Christina Vasquez, Mike Alewitz, Nikhil Singh, Ernie Benjamin, Andrew Schroeder, Erin Clune and Johnathan White. Saturday afternoon at 2:30pm the teach-in reconvenes for reports from the workshops, and a group discussion in which SAWSJ will begin to set its priorities for the coming year. The discussion is followed by a screening of the documentary _Out at Work_, with commentary by filmmaker Tami Gold and others. Saturday evening there is a party (time and location to be announced), including readings and performances by D.C. poets Belle Waring and Sydney March, and the band the Bones of Contention. SAWSJ will hold its first annual meeting on Sunday, April 26, chaired by Dan Clawson. The meeting will adopt a structure and elect the group's first set of officers. All dues paying members are entitled to participate and vote at the meeting. SAWSJ believes that the labor movement needs a viable cultural and intellectual movement that can shape the terms of public debate, and contest corporate dominance of U.S. politics and culture. In turn, as professors, students, artists, and writers, we need a progressive labor movement to fight for social justice in our own workplaces, including universities, where labor is exploited and undervalued and where the right to organize is often proscribed. We believe that a just and democratic society depends upon our ability to establish and sustain a mutually empowering, dynamic relationship between our labor, academic, creative and cultural communities. To register, to join SAWSJ, and/or to be added to our e-mail mailing list, please print out a copy of the form below and mail it in with your check (made payable to SAWSJ), to: SAWSJ 2565 Broadway, #176 New York, NY 10025 For more information, or if you would like to volunteer to work on the conference, please contact Tami J. Friedman: tjf3@columbia.edu You can also check our website: http://www.sage.edu/html/SAWSJ If your organization would like to have a display table at the conference, please fax your request to Michael Kazin at 301-656-8145. We will do our best to accommodate you. From pkraft@binghamton.edu Mon Mar 23 04:39:32 1998 Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 06:44:37 -0500 From: Phil Kraft To: Labor-Rap Subject: CONFERENCE (Binghamton): Work, Difference and Social Change All, First, apologies for multiple postings. This is the program/author list for the Conference on Work, Difference and Social Change, to be held at SUNY-Binghamton May 8-10, 1998. There may be some last minute changes, but all the listed panels and panelists have been confirmed as of this posting. The flood of papers and registrations is gratifying but we now face some logistical problems, mostly around catering and preparing the conference Proceedings. Both the caterer and the printer have rejected the Just-in-Time production model. As a result, registrations received after May 1, including those made on-site, will not include lunches or the conference Proceedings, although we will have to charge the same fees. Late registrants will be able to order the Proceedings for a supplemental charge. Unfortunately, the only (uncatered) food on campus that week-end will be in the usual assortment of vending machines. There is a Denny's nearby.... More information, including travel directions, suggestions for international visitors, and a printable registration form, can be found on our webpages: http://sociology.adm.binghamton.edu/work Or you can contact us at work@binghamton.edu or +1-607-777-6844 Hope to see you in May! For the conference committee, Phil Kraft Work, Difference and Social Change May 8-10, 1998 State University at New York at Binghamton Preliminary Program NOTE: Panels and participants have been confirmed as of March 18, 1998. The program, participants, times and locations are subject to change. Friday May 8, 1998 5-8 PM Registration and Reception Susquehanna Room, University Union (Registration continues all day Saturday, May 9, in front of Lecture Hall 14) Saturday May 9, 1998 8:30-9:00 AM Lecture Hall 14 in Lecture Hall Complex Welcoming Remarks James Geschwender 9-10:30 AM Lecture Hall 14 in Lecture Hall Complex Plenary Session "Twenty Five Years after _Labor and Monopoly Capital_", Harry Magdoff, Paul Sweezy and Ellen Meiksens Wood Moderator: Phil Kraft 10:30-10:45 Coffee 10:45 AM-12:15 PM Panel Meetings Session 1 Lecture Hall 14 Lecture Hall Complex Technology, Work Organization and the Globalization of Production David Noble, "And Then They Came for Us: The Automation of Higher Education" Sean O'Riain, "Networking for a Living: Irish Software Developers in the Global Workplace" Richard Sharpe, "Globalization: The Next Tactic in the 50-year Struggle of Labour and Capital in Software Production" Moderator: Charles Koeber Session 2 Student Wing Room 331 Gendered Work and Gendered Time Pei-Chia Lan, "'Bodily Labor' in Contemporary Service Jobs: Cosmetics Retailers in Department Stores and Direct Selling" Angelo Soares, "Silent Rebellions in the Capitalist Paradise: A Brazil-Quebec Comparison" Daniel Villeneuve and Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay, "Working Time and Gender Differences: Restructuring Work to Reconcile Family and Work?" Moderator: Carol Jansen 12:15-1:15 PM Lunch Susquehanna Room, University Union Luncheon Roundtable with Seymour Faber and Martin Glaberman (Signup at registration) 1:30-3:00 PM Panel Meetings Session 3 Student Wing Room 331 Strategies of Control Sheila Cohen, "Ramparts of Resistance: Rank and File Unionism and the Labor Process" Richard Reeves Ellington, "Leveraging Local Knowledge for Empowerment in Global Markets: A Bulgarian Case" Duane P. Truex and Ojelanki K. Ngwenyama, "Unpacking the Ideology of Post-Industrial Team-Based Management: Self-governing Teams as Structures of Social Control of IT Workers" Peter Whalley and Peter Meiksins, "Controlling Technical Workers in Alternative Work Arrangements: Rethinking the Work Contract" Moderator: Fred Goldner Session 4 Student Wing Room 327 "Marginal” Work, Marginalized Workers Teresa Gowan, "Excavating 'Globalization’ from Street Level, or Homelessness, from Science to Ideology" Helge Hvid, "Work for Welfare: A Presentation of the Strategy of 'The Developmental Work'" John Krinsky, "Work, Workfare, and Contention in New York City: Recombinant Repertoires and Multiple Accounts of Worker Identity and the Opposition to Workfare" Moderator: Phoebe Godfrey Session 5: Lecture Hall 14 Lecture Hall Complex Globalization, Work and Class Elly Leary, "Making them Content with Subordination: the Truth about Labor Management Cooperation in the Automobile Industry" James Rinehart, "Transcending Taylorism and Fordism? Two Decades of Work Restructuring" Luc Sels, "The New Division of Labor and the Death of Class" Chris Smith and Paul Thompson, "Beyond the Capitalist Labour Process: Workplace Change, the State and Globalisation" Moderator: Muto Ichiyo 3-3:15 Coffee Hospitality Room, Third Floor, Student Wing 3:15-4:45 PM Panel Meetings Session 6 Student Wing Room 331 Ideologies of Control Kenneth Ehrensal, "Manufacturing Managers: Education and Consent in the Managerial Class" Jeffrey Haydu, "Employer Class Formation and the Labor Process: 'The Business Community' and Management Prerogatives c. 1886-1904" Eric Margolis, "Picturing Labor: A Visual Ethnography of the Coal Mine Labor Process" Moderator: Richard Barley Session 7 Lecture Hall 14, Lecture Hall Complex Race, Class, Ethnicity and the Labor Process Rick Baldoz, "Filipino Migrant Workers in the United States: Incorporation, Class Formation and the State c. 1908-1970 " Evelyn Glenn "Gender, Race and the Organization of Reproductive Labor" Eva Pietsch, "Class and Ethnicity among Baltimore Immigrant Workers in the 1920s: Hierarchies of Human Allegiance” Edward Webster, "Manufacturing Compromise: The Dynamics of Race and Class among South African Shop Stewards in the Nineties" Moderator: John Hollister 7 PM Conference Banquet Susquehanna Room, University Union Music by Miles Ahead and Mona Lott * Reservations Required.* Limited Seating Availability after May 1. Inquire at Registration Desk. Sunday May 10, 1998 9-10:30 AM Plenary Session Lecture Hall 14 Lecture Hall Complex “Labor and Globalization,” presentations by Giovanni Arrighi, Doug Henwood, Muto Ichiyo and Beverly Silver Moderator: Keith Williams 10:30-10:45 AM Coffee 10:45 AM-12:15 PM Panel Meetings Session 8 Student Wing Room 331 The Dark Side of Globalization and Flexibility Joseph A. Blum, "Degradation without Deskilling: Twenty-Five Years in the San Franciso Shipyards" Jennifer Chun, "Flexible Despotism: The Intensification of Uncertainty and Insecurity in the Lives High-Tech Assembly Workers" Charles S. Koeber, "Downsizing and the Transformation of Work: The Process of Work and Employment Change for Displaced Workers" Elaine Bernard and Sid Shniad, "Fighting Globalization: Contesting Management's Right to Mismanage in the Workplace" Moderator: Reiko Koide Session 9 Lecture Hall 14 Lecture Hall Complex Organized Resistance and Everyday Struggles Edna Bonacich, "The Challenge of Organizing in a Globalized Flexible Industry: The Case of the Apparel Industry in Los Angeles" Elaine Coburn, "The Ontario Labour Split: the Role of the State in Shaping Labor Struggle in an Era of Globalization" Corey Dolgon, "If We Don't Stick Together We'll All Be Working at K-Mart: Labor Struggles, Racial Identities and Coalition Building in Southampton, New York" Moderator: Rick Baldoz Session 10 Student Wing Room 327 Gender and the “New” Division of Labor Margaret Heide, "The Impact of Corporate Restructuring on Women in Customer Service Jobs: A Case Study of Female Customer Service Representatives" Niki Panteli, Janet Stack, Harvie Ramsay, and Malcolm Atkinson, "Gender and Computing Work in the late 1990s" Donald Tomaskovic-Devey and Jacqueline Johnson, "The Job Matching Process and the Production of Gender Segregation" Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay, "The 'New Division of Labour' and Women's Jobs: A Complex Picture from Research Conducted in Quebec" Moderator: Rhonda Levine 12:30-2:00 PM Concluding Plenary Lecture Hall 14 Lecture Hall Complex Michael Burawoy, “Flight From Capital” Bryan Palmer, “Before Braverman: Harry Frankel and the American Working Class” Erik Olin Wright, “Class Compromise, Globalization and Technological Change” Moderator: Edna Bonacich (A box lunch will be available at the 12:30 Plenary) The Conference organizing committee: Rick Baldoz Phoebe Godfrey Carol Jansen Chuck Koeber Reiko Koide Phil Kraft * * * * Work, Difference and Social Change May 8-10, 1998 Preliminary List of Authors (Partial) This list is subject to change Giovanni Arrighi, Doug Henwood, Muto Ichiyo and Beverly Silver, “Labor and Globalization.” (plenary panel) Rick Baldoz, "Filipino Migrant Workers in the United States: Incorporation, Class Formation and the State c. 1908-1970" Elaine Bernard and Sid Shniad, "Fighting Globalization: Contesting Management's Right to Mismanage in the Workplace" Joseph A. Blum, "Degradation without Deskilling: Twenty-Five Years in the San Franciso Shipyards" Edna Bonacich, "The Challenge of Organizing in a Globalized Flexible Industry: The Case of the Apparel Industry in Los Angeles" Michael Burawoy, “Flight From Capital” Jennifer Chun, "Flexible Despotism: The Intensification of Uncertainty and Insecurity in the Lives of High-Tech Assembly Workers" Elaine Coburn, "The Ontario Labour Split: the Role of the State in Shaping Labor Struggle in an Era of Globalization" Sheila Cohen, "Ramparts of Resistance: Rank and File Unionism and the Labor Process" Corey Dolgon, "If We Don't Stick Together We'll All Be Working at K-Mart: Labor Struggles, Racial Identities and Coalition Building in Southampton, New York" Kenneth Ehrensal, "Manufacturing Managers: Education and Consent in the Managerial Class" Seymour Faber and Martin Glaberman (Luncheon Roundtable, Saturday, May 9) Evelyn N. Glenn "Gender, Race and the Organization of Reproductive Labor" Teresa Gowan, "Excavating 'Globalization’ from Street Level, or Homelessness, from Science to Ideology" Jeffrey Haydu, "Employer Class Formation and the Labor Process: 'The Business Community' and Management Prerogatives c.1886-1904" Margaret Heide, "The Impact of Corporate Restructuring on Women in Customer Service Jobs: A Case Study of Female Customer Service Representatives" Helge Hvid, "Work for Welfare: A Presentation of the Strategy of 'The Developmental Work'" Charles S. Koeber, "Downsizing and the Transformation of Work: The Process of Work and Employment Change for Displaced Workers" John Krinsky, "Work, Workfare, and Contention in New York City: Recombinant Repertoires and Multiple Accounts of Worker Identity and theOpposition to Workfare" Pei-Chia Lan, "'Bodily Labor' in Contemporary Service Jobs: Cosmetics Retailers in Department Stores and Direct Selling" Elly Leary, "Making them Content with Subordination: the Truth about Labor Management Cooperation in the Automobile Industry" Harry Magdoff, Paul Sweezy and Ellen Meiksens Wood, "Twenty-Five Years after _Labor and Monopoly Capital_" (plenary panel) Eric Margolis, "Picturing Labor: A Visual Ethnography of the Coal Mine Labor Process" David Noble, "And Then They Came for Us: The Automation of Higher Education" Sean O'Riain, "Networking for a Living: Irish Software Developers in the Global Workplace" Bryan Palmer, “Before Braverman: Harry Frankel and the American Working Class” Niki Panteli, Janet Stack, Harvie Ramsay, and Malcolm Atkinson, "Gender and Computing Work in the late 1990s" Eva Pietsch, "Class and Ethnicity among Baltimore Immigrant Workers in the 1920s: Hierarchies of Human Allegiance” Richard Reeves-Ellington, "Leveraging Local Knowledge for Empowerment in Global Markets: A Bulgarian Case" James Rinehart, "Transcending Taylorism and Fordism? Two Decades of Work Restructuring" Luc Sels, "The New Division of Labor and the Death of Class" Richard Sharpe, "Globalization: The Next Tactic in the 50-year Struggle of Labour and Capital in Software Production" Chris Smith and Paul Thompson, "Beyond the Capitalist Labour Process: Workplace Change, the State and Globalisation" Angelo Soares, "Silent Rebellions in the Capitalist Paradise: A Brazil-Quebec Comparison" Donald Tomaskovic-Devey and Jacqueline Johnson, "The Job Matching Process and the Production of Gender Segregation" Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay, "The 'New Division of Labour' and Women's Jobs: A Complex Picture from Research Conducted in Quebec" Duane P. Truex and Ojelanki K. Ngwenyama, "Unpacking the Ideology of Post-Industrial Team-Based Management: Self-governing Teams as Structures of Social Control of IT Workers" Daniel Villeneuve and Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay, "Working Time and Gender Differences: Restructuring Work to Reconcile Family and Work?" Edward Webster, "Manufacturing Compromise: The Dynamics of Race and Class among South African Shop Stewards in the Nineties" Peter Whalley and Peter Meiksins, "Controlling Technical Workers in Alternative Work Arrangements: Rethinking the Work Contract” Erik Olin Wright, “Class Compromise, Globalization and Technological Change” From jeff@server.sasw.ncsu.edu Mon Mar 23 06:52:25 1998 From: "Jeffrey Leiter" To: labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 08:50:52 -0500 Subject: soc depts with strength in economic soc First, thanks for all the suggestions on graduate economics programs with sociological leanings. I will pass them on to my student in hopes that he can escape the economic orthodoxy that prevails in his undergraduate major here. In response to the related question about sociology programs with strength in economic sociology, I would certainly mention our own at North Carolina State University. It is characterized by joint emphases on inequality and organization. Faculty and students with an activist orientation are very comfortable. Faculty include Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, Cathy Zimmer, Michael Schulman, and Jeff Leiter. Our research includes projects on workplace race and gender segregation, commodity chains, and Latinos in low wage jobs. Jeffrey Leiter Professor and Director of Graduate Programs Department of Sociology and Anthropology North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27695-8107 phone: 919-515-9009 fax: 919-515-2610 internet: jeff@server.sasw.ncsu.edu homepage: http://sasw.chass.ncsu.edu/~jeff/leiter.htm From kustere@american.edu Mon Mar 23 08:48:24 1998 Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 10:54:47 -0500 From: Ken Kusterer Reply-To: kustere@american.edu To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Re: CONFERENCE (Binghamton): Work, Difference and Social Change Phil Due to ill health, I am going to have to pull out of the conference. I apologize for the inconvenience, and I will really miss it. I was very much looking forward to what looks to be a fantastically stimulating discussion. Maybe the 50th? Ken. From jholling@ccs.carleton.ca Mon Mar 23 10:37:09 1998 Mon, 23 Mar 1998 12:36:59 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 12:36:59 -0500 (EST) To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu, Labor Research and Action Project From: John Hollingsworth Subject: Re: soc depts with strength in economic soc Hi, Just to shill for my own program -- I have found the Institute of Political Economy here at Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada) to be a fulfilling and rewarding experience as a student, enabling colloboration and research opportunities with progressive, pro-labour academics from a variety of disciplines, including Political Science, Sociology, Economics, Geography, Public Administration, etc. The Political Economy M.A. is two years, including a year of coursework and another year for an M.A. Thesis or Research Essay. They can be reached c/o Elaine Rouleau, Institute of Political Economy, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By, Ottawa ON (613) 520-7414. The Director is Dr. Wallace Clement. In solidarity, John John Hollingsworth (613) 231-2431 Ottawa, Ontario, Canada 2-216 James St. K1R 5M7 ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø, From pkraft@binghamton.edu Mon Mar 23 11:59:43 1998 Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 14:04:44 -0500 From: Phil Kraft To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Re: CONFERENCE (Binghamton): Work, Difference and Social Change Ken, Sorry to hear you are ill. If you are better by May please try join us anyway. We might even be able to keep you on the program, e.g., as a moderator, if that makes it easier to justify the trip to your chair (I understaand you have a particularly difiicult one). Please, let's stay in touch about this. Phil > Phil > > Due to ill health, I am going to have to pull out of the conference. I > apologize for the inconvenience, and I will really miss it. I was very > much looking forward to what looks to be a fantastically stimulating > discussion. Maybe the 50th? Ken. > From pkraft@binghamton.edu Mon Mar 23 12:20:08 1998 Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 14:25:14 -0500 From: Phil Kraft To: Labor-Rap Subject: Apologies for private messages Dear Labor-rap'ers Ken Kusterer responded to the conference announcement of Labor-rap instead of my own email address, informing me that illness would keep him from attending. To compound matters I simply hit the "reply" key, sending my own response to the list as well. For those concerned that the exchange might make Ken's relationship with his chair awkward, the last time I checked Ken *was* the chair. May I should start to use those little smiley/winky face thingies... Phil Kraft From clawson@sadri.umass.edu Tue Mar 24 13:44:21 1998 labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu; Tue, 24 Mar 1998 15:43:11 -0500 (EST) 24 Mar 1998 15:43:00 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1998 15:43:00 -0500 (EST) From: Dan Clawson Subject: labor meeting at ASA convention To: labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu In order for the Sociology Labor Network to receive meeting space from the American Sociological Association at the August 1998 San Francisco convention, we must submit a petition endorsed by ten or more members of the A.S.A. (The time will be Saturday August 22 from 8:30-10:30; there's no choice on this.) If you are a member of the A.S.A., and if you support this request, please email ME (clawson@sadri.umass.edu). Do NOT hit "reply" or everyone on the list will have to read a host of these messages. Dan Clawson -- Dan Clawson 413-545-5974 (work) Dept. of Sociology 413-545-0746 (fax) W-36 Machmer Hall 413-586-6235 (home) Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst MA 01003 email = clawson@sadri.umass.edu From mdelao@colef.mx Tue Mar 24 16:16:44 1998 Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1998 17:21:52 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu, Enrique de la Garza From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Mar=EDa?= Eugenia de la O Subject: Re: CONFERENCE (Binghamton): Work, Difference and Social Change In-Reply-To: <35164B24.8B4BDCFE@binghamton.edu> At 06:44 AM 23/03/98 -0500, you wrote: >All, > >First, apologies for multiple postings. > >This is the program/author list for the Conference on Work, Difference >and Social Change, to be held at SUNY-Binghamton May 8-10, 1998. >There may be some last minute changes, but all the listed panels and >panelists have been confirmed as of this posting. > >The flood of papers and registrations is gratifying but we now face some > >logistical problems, mostly around catering and preparing the >conference Proceedings. Both the caterer and the printer >have rejected the Just-in-Time production model. As a result, >registrations received after May 1, including those made on-site, will >not include lunches or the conference Proceedings, although we will >have to charge the same fees. Late registrants will be able to order the > >Proceedings for a supplemental charge. Unfortunately, the only >(uncatered) food on campus that week-end will be in the usual >assortment of vending machines. There is a Denny's nearby.... > >More information, including travel directions, suggestions for >international visitors, and a printable registration form, can be found >on our webpages: > > http://sociology.adm.binghamton.edu/work > >Or you can contact us at work@binghamton.edu or +1-607-777-6844 > >Hope to see you in May! > >For the conference committee, > >Phil Kraft > > > >Work, Difference and Social Change >May 8-10, 1998 > >State University at New York at Binghamton > >Preliminary Program > >NOTE: Panels and participants have been confirmed as of March 18, 1998. >The program, participants, times and locations are subject to change. > > >Friday >May 8, 1998 > >5-8 PM >Registration and Reception >Susquehanna Room, University Union >(Registration continues all day Saturday, May 9, in front of Lecture >Hall 14) > > >Saturday >May 9, 1998 > >8:30-9:00 AM >Lecture Hall 14 in Lecture Hall Complex >Welcoming Remarks >James Geschwender > >9-10:30 AM >Lecture Hall 14 in Lecture Hall Complex >Plenary Session > >"Twenty Five Years after _Labor and Monopoly Capital_", Harry Magdoff, >Paul Sweezy and Ellen Meiksens Wood > >Moderator: Phil Kraft > >10:30-10:45 >Coffee > >10:45 AM-12:15 PM >Panel Meetings > >Session 1 >Lecture Hall 14 Lecture Hall Complex >Technology, Work Organization and the Globalization of Production > >David Noble, "And Then They Came for Us: The Automation of Higher >Education" >Sean O'Riain, "Networking for a Living: Irish Software Developers in the > >Global Workplace" >Richard Sharpe, "Globalization: The Next Tactic in the 50-year Struggle >of Labour and Capital in Software Production" > >Moderator: Charles Koeber > >Session 2 >Student Wing Room 331 >Gendered Work and Gendered Time > >Pei-Chia Lan, "'Bodily Labor' in Contemporary Service Jobs: Cosmetics >Retailers in Department Stores and Direct Selling" >Angelo Soares, "Silent Rebellions in the Capitalist Paradise: A >Brazil-Quebec Comparison" >Daniel Villeneuve and Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay, "Working Time and Gender > >Differences: Restructuring Work to Reconcile Family and Work?" > >Moderator: Carol Jansen > >12:15-1:15 PM > >Lunch >Susquehanna Room, University Union >Luncheon Roundtable with Seymour Faber and Martin Glaberman >(Signup at registration) > >1:30-3:00 PM >Panel Meetings > >Session 3 >Student Wing Room 331 >Strategies of Control > >Sheila Cohen, "Ramparts of Resistance: Rank and File Unionism and the >Labor Process" >Richard Reeves Ellington, "Leveraging Local Knowledge for Empowerment in > >Global Markets: A Bulgarian Case" >Duane P. Truex and Ojelanki K. Ngwenyama, "Unpacking the Ideology of >Post-Industrial Team-Based Management: Self-governing Teams as >Structures of Social Control of IT Workers" >Peter Whalley and Peter Meiksins, "Controlling Technical Workers in >Alternative Work Arrangements: Rethinking the Work Contract" > >Moderator: Fred Goldner > >Session 4 >Student Wing Room 327 >"Marginal” Work, Marginalized Workers > >Teresa Gowan, "Excavating 'Globalization’ from Street Level, or >Homelessness, from Science to Ideology" >Helge Hvid, "Work for Welfare: A Presentation of the Strategy of 'The >Developmental Work'" >John Krinsky, "Work, Workfare, and Contention in New York City: >Recombinant Repertoires and Multiple Accounts of Worker Identity and the > >Opposition to Workfare" > >Moderator: Phoebe Godfrey > >Session 5: >Lecture Hall 14 Lecture Hall Complex >Globalization, Work and Class > >Elly Leary, "Making them Content with Subordination: the Truth about >Labor Management Cooperation in the Automobile Industry" >James Rinehart, "Transcending Taylorism and Fordism? Two Decades of Work > >Restructuring" >Luc Sels, "The New Division of Labor and the Death of Class" >Chris Smith and Paul Thompson, "Beyond the Capitalist Labour Process: >Workplace Change, the State and Globalisation" > >Moderator: Muto Ichiyo > >3-3:15 >Coffee >Hospitality Room, Third Floor, Student Wing > >3:15-4:45 PM >Panel Meetings > >Session 6 >Student Wing Room 331 >Ideologies of Control > >Kenneth Ehrensal, "Manufacturing Managers: Education and Consent in the >Managerial Class" >Jeffrey Haydu, "Employer Class Formation and the Labor Process: 'The >Business Community' and Management Prerogatives c. 1886-1904" >Eric Margolis, "Picturing Labor: A Visual Ethnography of the Coal Mine >Labor Process" > >Moderator: Richard Barley > >Session 7 >Lecture Hall 14, Lecture Hall Complex >Race, Class, Ethnicity and the Labor Process >Rick Baldoz, "Filipino Migrant Workers in the United States: >Incorporation, Class Formation and the State c. 1908-1970 " >Evelyn Glenn "Gender, Race and the Organization of Reproductive Labor" >Eva Pietsch, "Class and Ethnicity among Baltimore Immigrant Workers in >the 1920s: Hierarchies of Human Allegiance” >Edward Webster, "Manufacturing Compromise: The Dynamics of Race and >Class among South African Shop Stewards in the Nineties" > >Moderator: John Hollister > >7 PM >Conference Banquet >Susquehanna Room, University Union >Music by Miles Ahead and Mona Lott > * Reservations Required.* Limited Seating Availability after May 1. > Inquire at Registration Desk. > > >Sunday >May 10, 1998 > >9-10:30 AM >Plenary Session >Lecture Hall 14 Lecture Hall Complex > >“Labor and Globalization,” presentations by Giovanni Arrighi, Doug >Henwood, Muto Ichiyo and Beverly Silver > >Moderator: Keith Williams > >10:30-10:45 AM >Coffee > >10:45 AM-12:15 PM >Panel Meetings > >Session 8 >Student Wing Room 331 >The Dark Side of Globalization and Flexibility > >Joseph A. Blum, "Degradation without Deskilling: Twenty-Five Years in >the San Franciso Shipyards" >Jennifer Chun, "Flexible Despotism: The Intensification of Uncertainty >and Insecurity in the Lives High-Tech Assembly Workers" >Charles S. Koeber, "Downsizing and the Transformation of Work: The >Process of Work and Employment Change for Displaced Workers" >Elaine Bernard and Sid Shniad, "Fighting Globalization: Contesting >Management's Right to Mismanage in the Workplace" > >Moderator: Reiko Koide > >Session 9 >Lecture Hall 14 Lecture Hall Complex >Organized Resistance and Everyday Struggles > >Edna Bonacich, "The Challenge of Organizing in a Globalized Flexible >Industry: The Case of the Apparel Industry in Los Angeles" >Elaine Coburn, "The Ontario Labour Split: the Role of the State in >Shaping Labor Struggle in an Era of Globalization" >Corey Dolgon, "If We Don't Stick Together We'll All Be Working at >K-Mart: Labor Struggles, Racial Identities and Coalition Building in >Southampton, New York" > >Moderator: Rick Baldoz > >Session 10 >Student Wing Room 327 >Gender and the “New” Division of Labor > >Margaret Heide, "The Impact of Corporate Restructuring on Women in >Customer Service Jobs: A Case Study of Female Customer Service >Representatives" >Niki Panteli, Janet Stack, Harvie Ramsay, and Malcolm Atkinson, "Gender >and Computing Work in the late 1990s" >Donald Tomaskovic-Devey and Jacqueline Johnson, "The Job Matching >Process and the Production of Gender Segregation" >Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay, "The 'New Division of Labour' and Women's >Jobs: A Complex Picture from Research Conducted in Quebec" > >Moderator: Rhonda Levine > >12:30-2:00 PM > >Concluding Plenary >Lecture Hall 14 Lecture Hall Complex > >Michael Burawoy, “Flight From Capital” >Bryan Palmer, “Before Braverman: Harry Frankel and the American Working >Class” >Erik Olin Wright, “Class Compromise, Globalization and Technological >Change” > >Moderator: Edna Bonacich > >(A box lunch will be available at the 12:30 Plenary) > > >The Conference organizing committee: > >Rick Baldoz >Phoebe Godfrey >Carol Jansen >Chuck Koeber >Reiko Koide >Phil Kraft > > > * * * * > > >Work, Difference and Social Change >May 8-10, 1998 > >Preliminary List of Authors (Partial) > >This list is subject to change > > >Giovanni Arrighi, Doug Henwood, Muto Ichiyo and Beverly Silver, “Labor >and Globalization.” (plenary panel) > >Rick Baldoz, "Filipino Migrant Workers in the United States: >Incorporation, Class Formation and the State c. 1908-1970" > >Elaine Bernard and Sid Shniad, "Fighting Globalization: Contesting >Management's Right to Mismanage in the Workplace" > >Joseph A. Blum, "Degradation without Deskilling: Twenty-Five Years in >the San Franciso Shipyards" > >Edna Bonacich, "The Challenge of Organizing in a Globalized Flexible >Industry: The Case of the Apparel Industry in Los Angeles" > >Michael Burawoy, “Flight From Capital” > >Jennifer Chun, "Flexible Despotism: The Intensification of Uncertainty >and Insecurity in the Lives of High-Tech Assembly Workers" > >Elaine Coburn, "The Ontario Labour Split: the Role of the State in >Shaping Labor Struggle in an Era of Globalization" > >Sheila Cohen, "Ramparts of Resistance: Rank and File Unionism and the >Labor Process" > >Corey Dolgon, "If We Don't Stick Together We'll All Be Working at >K-Mart: Labor Struggles, Racial Identities and Coalition Building in >Southampton, New York" > >Kenneth Ehrensal, "Manufacturing Managers: Education and Consent in the >Managerial Class" > >Seymour Faber and Martin Glaberman (Luncheon Roundtable, Saturday, May >9) > >Evelyn N. Glenn "Gender, Race and the Organization of Reproductive >Labor" > >Teresa Gowan, "Excavating 'Globalization’ from Street Level, or >Homelessness, from Science to Ideology" > >Jeffrey Haydu, "Employer Class Formation and the Labor Process: 'The >Business Community' and Management Prerogatives c.1886-1904" > >Margaret Heide, "The Impact of Corporate Restructuring on Women in >Customer Service Jobs: A Case Study of Female Customer Service >Representatives" > >Helge Hvid, "Work for Welfare: A Presentation of the Strategy of 'The >Developmental Work'" > >Charles S. Koeber, "Downsizing and the Transformation of Work: The >Process of Work and Employment Change for Displaced Workers" > >John Krinsky, "Work, Workfare, and Contention in New York City: >Recombinant Repertoires and Multiple Accounts of Worker Identity and >theOpposition to Workfare" > >Pei-Chia Lan, "'Bodily Labor' in Contemporary Service Jobs: Cosmetics >Retailers in Department Stores and Direct Selling" > >Elly Leary, "Making them Content with Subordination: the Truth about >Labor Management Cooperation in the Automobile Industry" > >Harry Magdoff, Paul Sweezy and Ellen Meiksens Wood, "Twenty-Five Years >after _Labor and Monopoly Capital_" (plenary panel) > >Eric Margolis, "Picturing Labor: A Visual Ethnography of the Coal Mine >Labor Process" > >David Noble, "And Then They Came for Us: The Automation of Higher >Education" > >Sean O'Riain, "Networking for a Living: Irish Software Developers in the > >Global Workplace" > >Bryan Palmer, “Before Braverman: Harry Frankel and the American Working >Class” > >Niki Panteli, Janet Stack, Harvie Ramsay, and Malcolm Atkinson, "Gender >and Computing Work in the late 1990s" > >Eva Pietsch, "Class and Ethnicity among Baltimore Immigrant Workers in >the 1920s: Hierarchies of Human Allegiance” > >Richard Reeves-Ellington, "Leveraging Local Knowledge for Empowerment in > >Global Markets: A Bulgarian Case" > >James Rinehart, "Transcending Taylorism and Fordism? Two Decades of >Work Restructuring" > >Luc Sels, "The New Division of Labor and the Death of Class" > >Richard Sharpe, "Globalization: The Next Tactic in the 50-year Struggle >of Labour and Capital in Software Production" > >Chris Smith and Paul Thompson, "Beyond the Capitalist Labour Process: >Workplace Change, the State and Globalisation" > >Angelo Soares, "Silent Rebellions in the Capitalist Paradise: A >Brazil-Quebec Comparison" > >Donald Tomaskovic-Devey and Jacqueline Johnson, "The Job Matching >Process and the Production of Gender Segregation" > >Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay, "The 'New Division of Labour' and Women's >Jobs: A Complex Picture from Research Conducted in Quebec" > >Duane P. Truex and Ojelanki K. Ngwenyama, "Unpacking the Ideology of >Post-Industrial Team-Based Management: Self-governing Teams as >Structures of Social Control of IT Workers" > >Daniel Villeneuve and Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay, "Working Time and >Gender Differences: Restructuring Work to Reconcile Family and Work?" > >Edward Webster, "Manufacturing Compromise: The Dynamics of Race and >Class among South African Shop Stewards in the Nineties" > >Peter Whalley and Peter Meiksins, "Controlling Technical Workers in >Alternative Work Arrangements: Rethinking the Work Contract” > >Erik Olin Wright, “Class Compromise, Globalization and Technological >Change” > > > > > > From clawson@sadri.umass.edu Tue Mar 24 19:58:23 1998 labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu; Tue, 24 Mar 1998 21:58:18 -0500 (EST) 24 Mar 1998 21:58:14 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1998 21:58:13 -0500 (EST) From: Dan Clawson Subject: No more names for ASA To: labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu Labor-rap works great -- in six hours I received far more names than are needed to guarantee a room for the ASA meetings. No more names please. Thanks to all, and see you in San Francisco on August 22 at 8:30 p.m. (Saturday evening). Dan -- Dan Clawson 413-545-5974 (work) Dept. of Sociology 413-545-0746 (fax) W-36 Machmer Hall 413-586-6235 (home) Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst MA 01003 email = clawson@sadri.umass.edu From fgardner@aflcio.org Fri Mar 27 13:57:43 1998 Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 15:49:00 -0500 From: Florence Gardner Sender: Florence Gardner To: labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu Subject: question I understand that a recent back issue of a journal called something like Critical Sociologist did a special issue on power structure analysis. Does anyone have any information about this journal or this issue more broadly? From RLEVINE@CENTER.COLGATE.EDU Fri Mar 27 19:38:36 1998 From: RLEVINE@CENTER.COLGATE.EDU Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 21:32:28 -0500 (EST) Subject: Re: question To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu You can recieve back issues of Critica, socilogy from critical Sociology, University of Oregon dept. of Sociology, Eugene, oregon..one special on Power strutcure research was also published as en edited book, by G. Willima Domhoff and published by Sage...I would contact the journal, howvere, since I do belive there are back issues available.. Rhonda Levine From fgardner@aflcio.org Mon Mar 30 13:02:04 1998 Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 14:54:00 -0500 From: Florence Gardner Sender: Florence Gardner To: labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Re: question ======== Original Message ======== You can recieve back issues of Critica, socilogy from critical Sociology, University of Oregon dept. of Sociology, Eugene, oregon..one special on Power strutcure research was also published as en edited book, by G. Willima Domhoff and published by Sage...I would contact the journal, howvere, since I do belive there are back issues available.. Rhonda Levine ======== Fwd by: Florence Gard ======== Thanks! From jdluff@widomaker.com Mon Mar 30 15:36:32 1998 by wilma.widomaker.com with esmtp (Exim 1.62 #4) From: "luff jennifer d" To: Subject: Announcement: "Does Labor Need a Party?" roundtable Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 17:39:02 -0500 The Tidewater Labor Support Coalition in Williamsburg, Virginia, announces a roundtable entitled "Does Labor Need a Party?" Participants and audience members will discuss U.S. workers and party politics. Participants include: Chris Townsend, United Electrical Workers/Labor Party Dan Leblanc, president, Virginia AFL-CIO Edith Heard, vice-president, Local 32, Food and Beverage Workers John Levy, Marshall-Wythe College of Law, William and Mary The roundtable will be held on on April 19, 1998 at 7pm at the Marshall-Wythe College of Law, room 119. For more information or directions, please contact Jennifer Luff, Anthony Destefanis, or Brian Geiger at 757-221-0927; or James Spady at 757-229-7225. You can also reach us at tlsc-l@warthog.cc.wm.edu. We look forward to seeing you there - [This message is being cross-posted to several lists, so please pardon the duplication] From stewrob@hotmail.com Mon Mar 30 18:35:13 1998 X-Originating-IP: [170.140.37.50] From: "Stewart Roberts" To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Academic resources--Request from Bolivia Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 20:35:00 EST Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 06:15:45 -0700 (MST) This forwarded email is from a guy in Bolivia. He has a lot of questions about labor-related resources. I hope some of you can help him. Remember, he is not on this list so you should send email or faxes to the addresses at bottom. ------------ Dear Neteros: A couple of us have started to work with the local factory workers unions -- at their invitation -- to study changing labor relations here. There's lots of "flexibilization" going on: outsourcing, subcontracting, piecework, sweatshops arising, etc. For example: * a US businessman provides rural women with Peruvian alpaca yarn, they knit for 3 weeks, get paid about $20, and the sweater is resold in Germany for about $200-250 dollars (all natural fiber ... hand made, etc.) * the local telephone cooperative is laying fiber-optic cable in the city. The digging and cable-laying is organized in the following way: the phone company enters into a commercial (not labor) contract with one worker, who then must find 9 more to make up a team of 10. The one with the contract is responsible for paying the other 9, dealing with injuries, etc. This is illegal, of course, but law enforcement is very hard. The local factory workers union's president is very frank in noting that the number of people unionized in falling, while they have no idea where they are winding up. At the same time, small and medium manufacturing is booming. Anecdotally, we know the conditions are 19th century-like, but there is no organized exploration/exposition of these realities. We have what we need to study labor processes on the ground. What we are lacking is some materials/literature to help us conceptualize & study the global-local connections, with special attention to Bolivia's situation as small, highly dependent, land-locked country. So, my requests: 1. Any literature out there that makes the "labor and globalization" connections for small, highly dependent economies like Bolivia's? We've found some "globalization" literature but most of it talks about Asia, Mexico, Brazil, etc. Our question is what about the problems/processes specific to labor in smaller, more vulnerable countries & economies? 2. As the first example above suggets, we need to look at literature on the gendered divisions of labor too. Suggestions for countries like Bolivia? 3. Our approach to the problem is to look at the labor process itself, but also what goes on in the lives of workers outside the factories. This is relevant because many of the new small and medium firms are organized on the basis of patri-/matrimonial, extended kinship or clientilist networks. Thus, any "labor-capital" confrontation is also a complicated kinship (real or fictive) affair. We desperately need to see some of the anthropology or sociology of work/labor literature that deals with such relations & processes. 4. Any websites through which the above might be accessible? It is hard and slow for us to get stuff, so in so far as the materials might be on the web, all the better. 5. Any organizations/organizers we should now about? It would be great to open lines of communication with people active on these issues. Any e-mail lists in particular with international labor issues? (Please note: money for subscriptions is scarce.) Thanks in advance for any help with any of the above. Tom Tom Kruse / Casilla 5812 / Cochabamba, Bolivia Tel/Fax: (591-42) 48242 Email: tkruse@albatros.cnb.net --------------End of forwarded message------------------------- ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com