February 17, 2005
Order Labor Notes Book: Troublemaker's Handbook 2 now!
Troublemakers Page is under construction. While the new Labor Encyclopedia - Laborpedia, an open edit website using simple web technology called wiki, is always under construction.
Information on the AFL-CIO Restructuring Debates / New Unity Partnership
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In Today's Message:
1) New Troublemaker's Handbook 2 Website: Help Labor Notes Spread Troublemaking!
2) Black Unionists Warn: Don't Restructure Us Out
3) International Labor Communications Association Convention
4) Educators to Stop the War Conference
5) 10th Annual 40-hour Fast - Health Care For All in New York City
6) Job Announcement: Northland Poster Collective
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1) New Troublemaker's Handbook 2 Website: Help Labor Notes Spread Troublemaking!
NEW LABOR NOTES WEBSITE Labor Notes has just started a new website to promote our latest book, A Troublemaker's Handbook 2. Check it out at TroublemakersHandbook.org We also offer stories that didn't make it into the book. If you want to find how the Wisconsin public sector workers developed a multi-union contract campaign, how to win a sit-in, or how to develop new leaders, please visit this website. We plan to add new material regularly. Check back also for an upcoming discussion board.
HELP LABOR NOTES GET THE WORD OUT
If you're impressed with this new book, what about helping us spread some of the troublemaking around? We could send you a standard blurb for you to send to all your co-workers and activist friends in your email address book. Or write your own! Hint: It should say "Buy this book!"
EXAMPLE EMAIL FROM YOU:
"I've known Labor Notes for a long time and find it to be an invalubale resource--so much that I'm sending you some information about their latest book, A Troublemaker's Handbook 2.
This book is a must-get resource; you'll get a bunch of ideas from it about creative tactics and strategies that have worked for other rank-and-file activists. If anything it'll give you a huge dose of inspiration, as this book, and Labor Notes magazine, show us that workers and activists like us are fighting back and sometimes we even win!
I really encourage you to check out this new Labor Notes book. I've already got my own copy. Get yours today at TroublemakersHandbook.org."
CONTACT US
If you can help us, please contact Sheila at Sheila@labornotes.org. She can send you promotional brochures or let you know about upcoming Troublemakers Book Parties in your area. If you have a personal mailing list (snail mail or email) and want to share it with us, that would be wonderful.
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2) Black Unionists Warn: Don't Restructure Us Out
See http://www.blackcommentator.com/124/124_cover_black_unionists.html
By BlackCommentator.com
The push to "streamline" and consolidate the structures of the AFL-CIO threatens to diminish the influence of Blacks in the labor movement.
"They want bigger unions," said Bill Lucy, head of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), referring to leaders of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Teamsters, the
Communications Workers of America (CWA) and others. "They want power players, big unions in charge. The end result is diminution of community power."
Blacks make up about 30 percent of organized labor, concentrated in the urban centers, says Lucy, who is also Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). However, the proposed AFL-CIO restructuring would concentrate power
and resources in the headquarters of a few large union chiefs, and away from the metropolitan area Central Labor Councils. "Our fortunes lie at the local level. Most of the national leaders are talking about getting a bigger 'bang for the buck.' We lose out on this."
Continued at:
http://www.blackcommentator.com/124/124_cover_black_unionists.html
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3) International Labor Communications Association Convention
ILCA to Celebrate 50th Anniversary at Convention in Chicago July 21-23
The theme of the convention is "Communicating for a Change: Let the Voice of the People Be Heard." The last phrase was the final words to leave the lips of Haymarket martyr and militant labor communicator Albert Parsons.
The keynote speaker at this conference will be Thomas Frank, author of the best selling book "What's The Matter With Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America." Other panelists will include radio host of "Democracy Now!" Amy Goodman; "The Nation" reporter John Nichols; author Christopher Martin; Executive Director of the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice Kim Bobo; International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers
President Gregory Junemann; Labor Notes reporter Marsha Niemeijer, radio host Thom Hartmann, and more.
The two plenary sessions will be "Breaking the Chains of the Corporate Media," and "Speaking to Workers Wherever They Are."
Workshops will include:
Building a Better Website
Media Relations: Networking and Spin
Write to Be Read
Layout and Design: Putting the Pieces Together
TV and Radio Production
Labor History and Labor Communications
Avoiding Legal Landmines.
Panels on Saturday will include the following topics:
Creating Our Own Mass Media
Creating Workers Media Action Centers and Communications Training
New Communications Technologies
Framing Our Message: Social Security, Tax Inequities, Foreign Policy,
Values, and More
How To Pay for Our Media
Communications Strategies for Organizing.
Also on the agenda and included in the $175.00 registration fee are a dinner reception on Thursday, special lunches on Friday and Saturday, and a 50th Anniversary Celebration and Awards Banquet on Saturday, July 23.
Learn more and register:
http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1180.
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4) Educators to Stop the War Conference
Saturday March 5, 8:30am-5:00pm in New York City, at Hunter HS, 71 E. 94th St., at Park Ave.
US Labor Against the War is sponsoring an east coast conference of educators which is being organized by members of AFT, NEA, UAW, AAUP, and professional organizations such as Educators for Social Responsibility and Historians Against the War.
The purpose is to organize educators teaching kindergarten through graduate school to change the positions of their unions on the war, to organize at their schools and campuses, and to address political analysis, strategy, and curriculum issues via a wide range of
workshops and plenaries.
For registration and other information go to EducatorsToStopTheWar.org.
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5) 10th Annual 40-hour Fast - Health Care For All in New York City
Tues. March 1, 2005, 8pm until Thurs. March 3, noon
Sponsored by NY State Labor-Religion Coalition. Contact Brian O'Shaughnessy at 518-213-6000 x6294 or go to Labor-Religion.org for more information.
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6) Job Announcement: Northland Poster Collective
Northland Poster Collective (NorthlandPoster.com) is looking for someone who can handle the soliciting and collection of ads for a program book that it intends to put out to celebrate their 25th anniversary.
If you know of any potential candidates, or are interested yourself, please send an email to Ricardo at Ricardo@nortlandposter.com. This
is a temporary position, and experience organizing and tracking networking projects is prefered. A working knowledge of the labor movement is also a plus. Location: anywhere in the U.S.
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