Dear Friends:

You are invited to participate in the 2008 Debs - Thomas - Harrington Dinner. It will be held on Friday evening, April 25, at the Crowne Plaza Metro Chicago, at Madison and Halsted in Chicago. It is a union hotel.

This will be our 50th Dinner, an historic milestone of sorts at a time that could be the start of an historic change for the better in our country. There are myriad unmet needs in our country: the need for labor law reform, for peace, for road and bridge repairs, for education, for universal health care. Indeed, the theme for the Dinner this year is Universal Health Care.

Since 1971, the Dinner has recognized individuals and organizations whose careers have advanced the cause of working people, organized labor, civil rights, civil liberties and democracy. Our honorees this year reflect the history of struggle and the promise of tomorrow.

This year we have the privilege of honoring Leslie Orear. Les Orear had a long career with the United Packinghouse Workers of America where he was an organizer and journalist (editor of the Packinghouse Worker). The Packinghouse Workers was a legendary union that embodied many of the better qualities of unionism here in the States; you'll notice we've honored many leaders of the Packinghouse Workers, and Les Orear is very much in that tradition. Les Orear is also a founder of an important institution, the Illinois Labor History Society. In addition to keeping the union movement (and the general public) in touch with the best of labor's past, the Society is the custodian of the Haymarket Martyrs' monument in Forest Park. Please join us in honoring a man whose life has been devoted to the labor movement and to labor education.

We also have the privilege of honoring a dedicated union lawyer, a partner at the historic firm of Jacobs, Burns, Orlove, Stanton, and Hernandez, Laurie Burgess. Laurie Burgess has racked up years of victories for unions and individual workers alike. She has advocated for workers' rights in arbitration, before labor boards, and in court. One labor dispute that she was involved in resulted in the largest number of Unfair Labor Practice findings issued by the NLRB in its history. In protecting the rights of victims of employment discrimination (including Americans with Disabilities Act and Family and Medical Leave Act), she has compiled an exemplary record of success. For the past several years, Laurie Burgess has collaborated with worker centers, employment activists and union leaders to bring immigrant workers out of the shadows and into economically rewarding and unionized work. The aim of her career has been nothing less than to set the union movement on the path to growth and renewal while seeking justice and a place at the table for immigrant workers in America. Please join us in honoring a woman whose legal acumen is combined with a total commitment to the people and the principles she seeks to advance.

We are especially pleased at being able to honor Dr. Mardge Cohen. Since her days in the legendary Chicago Women's Liberation Union, Dr. Cohen has always been an activist. She has combined her activism with a career in health care. At Cook County (Stroger) Hospital, she started the Women and Children HIV Program in 1988. This program provided comprehensive medical care (physical and psychological) to women, their partners and to children. Dr. Cohen is a co-founder of Women's AIDS Project in Chicago (CWAP). CWAP's mission is to address the disparities in health care, prevention and support services for women, youth and communities of color through innovative programs, advocacy and collaboration. Dr. Cohen is Medical Director of Women's Equity in Access to Care and Treatment (WE-ACTx). This is an international community-based initiative that was founded by frontline AIDS physicians, activists and researchers with extensive experience in caring and advocating for HIV-positive women. The goal of WE-ACTx is to increase women's and children's access to HIV testing, care, treatment, support, education and training in resource-limited settings at the grassroots level. WE-ACTx began working in Rwanda in early 2004 to provide HIV care to genocide rape survivors. A member of Physicians for a National Health Program, Dr. Mardge Cohen is a long-time advocate of a universal national health program. Please join us in honoring a woman whose practice is her principles.

Our featured speaker, Rose Ann DeMoro, has decided to opt out of participating in this year's Debs - Thomas - Harrington Dinner. For the curious, you can read SEIU's letter to Chicago DSA by CLICKING HERE. You can read CNA/NNOC's reply by CLICKING HERE.

If you cannot attend, or even if you can, please consider participating in the Dinner Program Book with a message from you or your organization (congratulating the honorees, for example). You can view last year's Program Book HERE.

Please accept our invitation to participate in the 50th annual Debs - Thomas - Harrington Dinner. CLICK HERE for information about ordering tickets, reserved tables, or an ad in the program book. If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to email, call or write.

In solidarity,
Robert Roman
for the Dinner Committee

PS Carl Shier is no longer with us. Those of you who knew Carl will also know that he would have been seriously irritated with me if I did not suggest this 50th dinner would be a good occasion to honor his memory with an ad in the Dinner Program Book.

PPS Those of you with a speedy internet connection might like to listen to an audio recording that Carl Shier gave to us some years ago. It's an "infomercial" about America's need for a national health plan, featuring Dr. David Stark Murray, one of the chief architects of the British National Health Plan: CLICK HERE.