New Ground 119
July - August, 2008
Contents
People
Charity Begins at Home
Labor Day in Pullman
New World Resource Center
New Ground
119.1 - 08.09.2008
0. DSA News
Reminder
New Ground
Introducing Erik Rosenberg
Save the Date
Bastille Day
1. Politics
Support the Congress Hotel Strike
Renegotiate NAFTA
Empty Bellies
2. Democratic Socialism
Didn't Theory Fail?
3. Books
"The Big Squeeze" and
"Love the Work, Hate the Job"
4. Upcoming Events of Interest
New Ground
119.2 - 08.28.2008
0. DSA News
DSA Statement on the 2008 Presidential
Election
Socialist International 23rd Congress
Young Democratic Socialists
September Chicago DSA Membership Meeting
New Ground Labor Day Issue
1. Politics
Labor Day
Minimum Wage? What Minimum Wage?
Wildly Disparate Funding
Kartemquin Films Online
Renegotiate NAFTA
2. Democratic Socialism
Tragedy?
Cuba
3. Upcoming Events of Interest
5 Years
and Striking
by Bob Roman
Well over a thousand people showed up
at the Congress Hotel on Thursday afternoon, June 12, to support
Congress Hotel workers on the 5th year of their ongoing strike.
Supporters of UNITE
HERE Local 1 turned out in such numbers that they were able
to form a double picket line encircling the entire building which
occupies fully half a city block. Giant balloon rats contributed
by various building trades succinctly represented the prevailing
opinion about Congress Hotel management.
The picket line was followed by a brief
rally where Henry Tamarin, President of Local 1, expressed regret
that this conflict had turned into the annual event that united
all of Chicago's labor movement. John Wilhelm, the President
of UNITE HERE's Hospitality Division, was among the more eloquent
speakers at the rally. He spoke about how the strikers were part
of a heroic tradition of social justice. Wilhelm has made it
a point to appear at each of the anniversary demonstrations for
this strike since it began. 2nd Ward Alderman Bob Fioretti also
spoke, his speech slyly referring to some of the litigation resulting
from increased City Council scrutiny of the Congress Hotel by
stating what he would like to say if his lawyers hadn't told
him not to.
There were also speakers from the Local
1 rank-and-file, Interfaith Workers Justice, Dennis Gannon who
is President of the Chicago Federation of Labor, and others.
Henry Tamarin took the opportunity to
recognize some two dozen or so organizations that had been especially
supportive of the Congress Hotel strike, including Chicago DSA.
The recognition came with a plaque that does indeed make a pretty
office ornament. Chicago DSA had sent out some 800 postcards
advertising this demonstration, mostly to addresses in the central
city area, our members, and our friends. We had a decent turnout
of DSA members for a Thursday afternoon. I counted about a dozen,
but those were the people I saw and recognized. Photos of the
demonstration are posted on the web at http://www.chicagodsa.org/c20080612/index.html.
It seems pretty clear to me, at least,
that Local 1 (and possibly the rest of UNITE HERE even more so?)
would like to be done with this strike. Not that they are about
to throw in the towel but just what deal, if any, the workers
might be willing to do for a contract is moot as, by all accounts,
Congress Hotel management has been totally disinclined to do
any negotiating this past year. The 5 years length of the strike
plus a hotel occupancy rate that reportedly never exceeds 30%
(usually much less) pretty much gives lie to management's original
assertion that it could not afford to pay the going rate under
UNITE HERE contracts. The Congress Hotel has probably lost more
money with the strike than they would have with a settlement.
Plus, management has somewhere found the money to start doing
renovations to the hotel. This mulish behavior will probably
leave Local 1 with no alternative but to turn up the heat.
Local 1 will be beginning another round
of contract negotiations with Chicago hotels soon. The ominous
news is that Local 1 is voting on whether or not to increase
their dues, the extra money to be going to their strike fund.
Stay tuned.
Thirty
Seconds Over Burger King
by Bob Roman
On May 23rd, the Coalition
of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and Burger King held a joint news
conference in Washington, DC, to announce an agreement to directly
pay workers who pick the tomatoes that Burger King buys an additional
penny per pound. The agreement goes beyond previous agreements
in that Burger King is also offering the employers of the tomato
pickers an additional half cent per pound to cover the additional
payroll taxes and administrative expenses.
The agreement also establishes zero
tolerance guidelines for certain unlawful activities, requiring
immediate termination from the Burger King supply chain of any
grower in violation, and provides for farm worker participation
in the monitoring of growers' compliance with the company's vendor
code of conduct.
While the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange
has not dropped its opposition to buyer / CIW agreements, it
has dropped its policy, adopted last year, of fining any member
of the cooperative who participates in such agreements.
The relatively quick collapse of Burger
King's opposition to CIW was a consequence of activist pressure,
changed circumstances, and most especially Burger King's amazing
talent for shooting itself in the foot.
Among other things, the company was
revealed to have an ongoing relationship with an unlicensed private
detective agency when it attempted to use the service to spy
on CIW and its allies. A vice-president of the firm (not
top management, according to Burger King) was fired when it came
to light that he was using his daughter's email accounts to post
scurrilous attacks on CIW and CIW supporters.
Circumstances had changed from the Taco
Bell and McDonalds campaigns as well. With Democrats now in control
of Congress, the Senate (where Senators Bernie Sanders and Dick
Durbin deserve considerable credit) was able to hold hearings
that help put the campaign in the public spotlight in a manner
distinctly unfavorable to Burger King and the Florida Tomato
Growers Exchange. Another case of farm labor slavery in Florida
and growing editorial sympathy among the news media most especially
in Florida also helped.
Activist pressure was also a factor.
While the Burger King campaign never developed the national coherence
of the two previous campaigns (particularly in Chicago), CIW
was able to exert some credible pressure in Florida where both
the Burger King HQ and CIW are located.
CIW currently has a campaign that is
directed at bringing Chipolte Mexican Grill into an agreement.
This is yet another fast food chain that boasts of using its
buying power to "revolutionize the way America grows and
gathers its food." There are grocery chains that make similar
claims, and CIW has already begun pressuring Whole Foods to come
to agreement. Wal-Mart and Subway have also been mentioned as
possible near future targets. The Student / Farmworker Alliance,
one of CIW's allied organizations, is planning a conference (an
"enceuntro") in Immokalee on September 18 through 21,
and it's reasonable to expect the CIW's priorities will be settled
by then.
Progressive
Democrats of America Illinois Conference
by Bill Barclay
With the revived prospects for the Democratic
Party no longer apparently facing Karl Rove's permanent
Republican majority a growing number of politically committed
people have asked the question, "What would or should a
resurrected Democratic Party look like?" There are a variety
of answers to this question, e.g., the Democratic Leadership
Council's centrist conception, the Blue Dogs' Republican lite,
etc. One of the more promising visions that has emerged is represented
by Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), a national organization
that emerged out of the Kucinich for President 2004 campaign.
PDA is still quite fragile, even with its estimated 100,000 members,
but its "inside, outside" strategy vis à vis
the Democratic Party has the potential for linking together and
giving voice to a large number of groups engaged in their own
issues, e.g., the war and occupation, health care, the
housing meltdown, etc., under the aegis of a reformed and remade
national Democratic Party. Only time and political struggle will
answer the question of whether this strategy is actually viable.
This short report is an account of one piece of that effort:
the first state-wide PDA conference in Illinois.
The conference occurred on June 28th
at the Marvel Davis Farm near Big Rock, Illinois. You can be
forgiven for not being quite sure where that is, but note two
things about the location: it is not in Chicago and the farm
is located where Dennis Hastert's Prairie State Expressway is
proposed to run. In fact, Marvel Davis, the farm's owner, offered
the site for free because she had met and supported John Laesch,
a PDA supported-candidate who ran against Hastert in 2006 and
was narrowly beaten by centrist Democrat Bill Foster in the 2008
primary.
The theme of the conference was "More
and Better Democrats" with much emphasis on the better,
especially by the end of the day. An equally important impetus
for the conference was the desire to bring various groups to
the same venue to explore how we could all work together. In
addition to PDA, DSA, Democracy For America. MoveOn, these groups
included local peace and justice groups and grass roots level
Democratic Party activists. Altogether, about 75 people gathered
from the northern and western portions of the state.
The opening panel, "Progressives,
Democrats, November 2008 and Beyond" included representatives
from the full range of conference attendees. The panelists did
a good job of talking about their own organizations and the work
they were doing that fits into the progressive label, and a less
thorough job of spelling out how we could all work together
of course, if it were easy to answer that question there would
have been no need for the conference. There were break out sessions
in the both the morning and afternoon on "Ending the Death
Penalty in Illinois." "Winning Single Payer Health
Care in Illinois," "Next Steps in Working against the
War and Occupation," "Causes and Progressive Policies
Responses to the Financial and Economic Crisis," and "Grass
Roots Electoral Skills." All were interesting and stimulated
discussion among the attendees. Check the PDA web site (http://www.pdaillinois.org
) for outlines from the sessions.
Stephen Kinzer, formerly New York
Times correspondent and author of All the Shah's Men:
An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror, delivered
the keynote, entitled "Advice for the Next President and
the Democrats." The final session was on working together
how, when and where. Most of the discussion revolved around
supporting progressive candidates at the local and state level
and how to determine whether a candidate actually merited
the label "progressive." No definitive answers, but
in the short time since the conference some of the groups have
initiated conversations about closer working relationships. We'll
see what happens as the political year 2008 "progresses."
Fair
Trade
by Bob Roman
The "Trade Act of 2008" (HR
6180) was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by
Representative Michael Michaud of Maine in early June. It has
gathered 63 cosponsors, including Illinois Representatives Danny
Davis (7), Phil Hare (17), Jesse Jackson Jr. (2), Daniel Lipinski
(3), Jan Schakowsky (9). In the Senate, the legislation (S 3083)
was introduced by Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio and has gathered
4 cosponsors. Neither Durbin nor Obama are among them.
This important legislation would:
- Require the Government Accountability
Office to conduct a comprehensive review of existing trade agreements
with an emphasis on economic results, enforcement and compliance,
and an analysis of non-tariff provisions in trade agreements;
- Spell out standards for labor and environmental
protections, food and product safety, national security exceptions,
and remedies that must be included in new trade pacts;
- Set requirements with respect to public
services, farm policy, investment, government procurement, and
affordable medicines that have been incorporated in trade agreements;
- Require the President to submit renegotiation
plans for current trade pacts prior to negotiating new agreements
and prior to Congressional consideration of pending agreements;
- Create a committee comprised of the
chairs and ranking members of each committee whose jurisdiction
is affected by trade agreements to review the president's plan
for renegotiations; and
- Restore Congressional oversight of
trade agreements.
With a Republican President, of course,
this bill has little chance of becoming law, but it is important
anyway as means of demonstrating a constituency for renegotiating
NAFTA and placing the issue on the agenda for next year.
Complimentary to this effort is a petition
drive being organized by DSA. Addressed to the next President,
the demands the renegotiation of NAFTA so that the treaty follows
a 9 point "Principles of Fair Trade." It further demands
a review of the effects of NAFTA and the termination of the "Security
and Prosperity Partnership."
Signatures are being gathered both electronically
and on hardcopy. To sign up on line, go to http://www.renegotiatenafta.org
. You can also download copies of the petition for signatures.
If you're not on line, call the Chicago DSA office at 773.384.0327
or the DSA National Office at 212.727.8610 for copies to circulate.
Other
News
compiled by Bob Roman
People
Tom Broderick was elected to the Illinois
Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty's Board of Directors
at the organization's annual meeting on June 26.
Bill Pelz was elected Political Education Officer at
Chicago DSA's annual membership convention on June 21. He is
the author of Against Capitalism: The European Left on the
March (2007), The Spartkusbund and the German Working
Class Movement (1988), and Wilhelm Liebknecht and German
Social Democracy (1994). He also edited the recently re-issued
Eugene V. Debs Reader (2000, 2007). Bill's articles and
book reviews have appeared in the American Historical Review,
International Labor and Working Class History, German
History, Sozialismus, JahrBuch für Forschungen
zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung, and International
Labor History Yearbook, among others.
Activist, educator, historian Timuel Black
will be presented with the IVI-IPO's "Saul Mendelson Social
Justice Award" at that organization's 64th Annual Independents'
Day Dinner. The awards presentation and luncheon will take place
on Saturday, August 2 at Galleria Marchetti, 825 W. Erie in Chicago.
Tickets are $85. For more information, call 312.939.5105 or go
to www.iviipo.org.
Charity Begins at Home
Resurrection Health Care has begun a
"1,000 Healthy Kids and Families" campaign to enroll
children in the State of Illinois' All Kids health insurance
program. In response, the Oak Park Austin Health Alliance (OPAHA)
has called upon the healthcare corporation to extend its commitment
to children's health by providing its own employees with affordable
health care. Resurrection employees must pay more than $200 per
month to cover their families through the Resurrection health
insurance plan but some of these employees make less than $10
an hour. This dissonance is one of the major reasons why Resurrection
employees have been working with AFSCME to organize a union at
Resurrection hospitals. A study of Resurrection's skewed pay
policies is available at http://www.reformresurrection.org/resources-and-publications.html
.
OPAHA is also questioning plans by Resurrection's
West Suburban Medical Center to close clinics at 3 senior citizen
buildings: Mills Park Tower, The Oaks, and the Oak Park Arms.
According to hospital management, the closures are due to budgetary
concerns, but they have not provided information on projected
cost savings and these cuts will seriously affect services to
hundreds of senior citizens. OPAHA is asking Oak Park residents
to call the Oak Park Village Board of Trustees at 708.358.5784
or West Suburban CEO Jay Kreuzer at 708.763.6701.
Greater Oak Park DSA is a member of
OPAHA.
--Bob Roman
Labor Day in Pullman
Monday, September 1, 2 PM, at Hotel
Florence / Pullman Arcade Park at 111th and Cottage Grove Av
in Chicago: join Historic Pullman Foundation, Pullman Civic Organization,
Illinois Labor History Society, Bronzeville/Chicago Black History
Society, Illinois AFL-CIO, Calumet Heritage Partnership, Chicago
Metro History Project, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement,
State of Illinois Historic Site at Pullman for a Rally; Historical
Exhibits and special guest speeches. The event will feature tributes
and performances dedicated to early leaders in the history of
the Labor Movement: Eugene Debs, A. Philip Randolph, a young
Jennie Curtiss; with a special tribute to Franklin D. Roosevelt
and the 75th Anniversary of The New Deal. For further information,
contact Tom at tomshepherd2001@yahoo.com
, 773.928.3040, or Larry at larrys@afscmeillinois.org
, 312.641.6060x4318, or go to http://members.aol.com/pullmanil/events.html
New World Resource Center
Chicago's famous radical bookstore and
meeting center, the New World Resource Center, has closed. The
1300 N. Western Avenue building that housed this Chicago institution
was sold and the new owners wanted the space pretty much immediately.
The collective that runs the bookstore views this as a temporary
situation. Most of the inventory and fixtures have been put into
storage and they expect to eventually reopen in a new location.
The web site is also temporarily down; however, the weekly email
calendar is still being published. You can subscribe by sending
an email to NWRC2600@juno.com
.
|
New
Ground #119.1
08.09.2008
Contents
0. DSA News
Reminder
New Ground
Introducing Erik Rosenberg
Save the Date
Bastille Day
1. Politics
Support the Congress Hotel Strike
Renegotiate NAFTA
Empty Bellies
2. Democratic Socialism
Didn't Theory Fail?
3. Books
"The Big Squeeze" and
"Love the Work, Hate the Job"
4. Upcoming Events of Interest
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DSA News
Reminder
for Chicago DSA members: the
Executive Committee meets Tuesday, August 12, 7 PM at the Chicago
DSA office. While it is a committee meeting, all DSA members
are welcome to attend and to add their thoughts and perspectives
to the business at hand. It's also a good place to see and be
seen. If you'd like to become more involved, there are all manner
of possibilities, including deeply. For example, the Executive
Committee has at present two vacancies, the Female Co-chair and
the Treasurer (the latter being temporarily occupied by the ghost
of Bob Roman). Please come by, say hello, check out the possibilities.
The office is at 1608 N. Milwauee, Room 403, at the 3-way intersection
of Milwaukee, North, and Damen avenues. Incidentally, there is
some news about the office and the building....
New Ground
On the other hand, if you haven't
the time to get involved, could you spare some change? I mean,
everyone's talking about it. Change, that is. So your help in
supporting New Ground would be timely and important. Here's
how:
http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngpromo.pdf
Introducing Erik Rosenberg
Dave Duhalde has been the YDS
National Organizer for the past few years but he's now going
on to other work. Erik Rosenberg has been hired to replace him.
Roseberg recently posted the following introduction on The
Activist:
I am pleased and excited to begin my
tenure as Youth Organizer of the Young Democratic Socialists.
Thanks to all of you for giving me this opportunity. As Youth
Organizer, I hope to strengthen and expand YDS as an organization,
a community, and a movement.
My past political activism has centered
primarily on peace. As a high school student at the Walworth
Barbour American International School in Israel, I co-organized
a conflict resolution committee that brought together Palestinians,
Israelis, Israeli-Arabs, and Americans to discuss the conflict
in the Holy Land. After graduating, I returned to the United
States to attend Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut
where I earned my B.A. in Government, graduating in 2008. Throughout
college I continued my work as a peace activist. I co-founded
Students for Ending the War in Iraq (SEWI) which I helped develop
into one of the most prominent activist organizations on campus.
I also connected SEWI with larger networks such as Connecticut
Opposes the War (COW) and the Campus Anti-War Network (CAN).
I have interned with Brooklyn For Peace (formerly Brooklyn Parents
For Peace), United For Peace and Justice, and served on the Steering
Committee of United For Peace and Justice.
Outside of the political realm I enjoy
playing the guitar and the piano, gardening, squash, and yoga.
I look forward to returning to New York, the city of my birth,
to begin my work as Youth Organizer.
Please feel free to contact me with
any ideas, comments, or concerns. I look forward to meeting you
(hopefully at the Summer Conference, if not sooner) and working
to build an even better YDS.
Sincerely,
Erik Rosenberg
For more information, see
http://www.theactivist.org
and
http://www.ydsusa.org
Save the Date
On Wednesday, October 1, Chicago
DSA will be bringing Bill Fletcher to town for a panel
discussion focusing on his latest book, Solidarity Divided,
that he co-wrote with Fernando Gapasin. It will be at the UE
Hall, 37 S. Ashland in Chicago at 7:30 PM. The event is being
co-sponsored by In These Times. The panel is still under
construction, so stay tuned for more information. (This is going
to be fun!) Thanks to Mel Rothenberg for getting the ball rolling.
Bastille Day
Michael Baker
On July 13th, Chicago DSA along with the Chicago Socialist Party,
Open University of the Left, Marxist-Humanist Tendency, and Solidarity
(Chicago) held a Bastille Day Party at Quencher's Saloon, Fullerton
& Western in Chicago. About 75 people attended the event.
While some of the attendees were the usual suspects, there were
a number of new faces as well. The event featured live free jazz,
a great deal of conversation and conviviality, and a raffle featuring
such prizes as t-shirts of Rosa Luxemburg and collections of
works by Eugene V. Debs. Members of Chicago DSA networked, distributed
literature, and collected a number of petition signatures for
the "Renegotiate NAFTA" campaign.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Politics
Support the Congress Hotel Strike
Some of the latest developments
were covered in New Ground 119, and there have been more
developments since. One is that Chicago DSA members have been
helping to cover selected picketline shifts. You're invited to
help with our next shift at the Congress Hotel (520 S. Michigan
Av): Saturday, 8-12. There are other ways you can help. For more
information, contact Jessica at 312.446.1767 or jmarielala@gmail.com
Renegotiate NAFTA
See http://www.renegotiatenafta.org
Empty Bellies
Since 2003, prices of basic agricultural commodities such as
corn, wheat, soybeans, and rice have skyrocketed worldwide, threatening
to further impoverish hundreds of millions of the world's poor.
In Dollars & Sense, Ben Collins explains the situation.
See:
http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2008/0708collins.html
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Democratic Socialism
Didn't Theory Fail?
Donna Haraway, a past editor of Socialist Review and author
of the Cyborg Manifesto, examines the question. See:
http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/2008/08/donna-haraway-but-didnt-theory-fail.html
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Books
"The Big Squeeze"
and "Love the Work, Hate the Job"
In the latest issue of Dissent,
Jack Metzgar reviews books by Steven Greenhouse and David Kusnet.
See:
http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=1242
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Upcoming Events of Interest
Events listed here are not necessarily
endorsed by Chicago DSA but should be of interest to DSA members,
friends and other lefties. For other events, go to http://www.chicagodsa.org/page9.html.
Monday, August 11, 7 PM
Heartland Cafe's 32nd Anniversary
Party
Heartland Cafe, Lunt & Glenwood, Chicago
Featuring the Chicago Catz, Funk, Soul, R&B. See http://www.heartlandcafe.com/
Tuesday, August 12, 6 PM
An Evening with Meade Palidofsky
Loyola University Chicago, 111 E. Pearson, 13th Floor, Beane
Hall, Chicago
The Albert Schweitzer Fellows for Life Lecture Series (in collaboration
with Loyola University School of Social Work) is proud to present
an evening with award-winning playwright/director, Meade Palidofsky,
founder of Music Theater Workshop. The event is free but reservations
are strongly recommended. Please RSVP at: rsvp@hmprg.org
or call 312.372.4292 ext. 24
Saturday, August 15, 5 PM to 6:30 PM
Iraq Moratorium 12 by Lipinski's
Office
Representative Lapinski's District Office, 6245 S. Archer Av,
Chicago
Vigil, honk for peace survey, leafleting sponsored by Near West
Citizens for Peace and Justice. See http://icjpe.org/organizations/?org-id=12
and http://iraqmoratorium.org
Saturday - Sunday, August 16 - 17, 9:30
AM to 4 PM
16th Annual Protest of Chicago's
Air & Water Show
East End of Lake Shore Drive Pedestrian Bridge (2 blocks north
of North Av), Chicago
For more information, call Paul Bossie, 773.826.8136
Monday, September 1, 2 PM
Labor Day in Pullman
111th and Cottage Grove Av, Chicago
Featuring tributes and performances dedicated to early leaders
in the history of the Labor Movement: Eugene Debs, A. Philip
Randolph, young Jennie Curtiss; with a special tribute to Franklin
D. Roosevelt and the 75th Anniversary of The New Deal. See http://members.aol.com/PullmanIL/
|
New
Ground #119.2
08.28.2008
Contents
0. DSA News
DSA Statement on the 2008 Presidential
Election
Socialist International 23rd Congress
Young Democratic Socialists
September Chicago DSA Membership Meeting
New Ground Labor Day Issue
1. Politics
Labor Day
Minimum Wage? What Minimum Wage?
Wildly Disparate Funding
Kartemquin Films Online
Renegotiate NAFTA
2. Democratic Socialism
Tragedy?
Cuba
3. Upcoming Events of Interest
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DSA News
DSA Statement on the 2008 Presidential
Election
See http://www.dsausa.org/pdf/Statement_on_the_2008_Presidential_Election.pdf
or
http://talkingunion.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/dsa-pac-statement-on-2008-elections/
Socialist International 23rd
Congress
Nearly 700 participants from
150 political parties and organisations from 120 countries attended
the XXIII Congress of the Socialist International when it met
in Athens, Greece, from June 30 to July 2. DSA is a member of
the Socialist International and was represented at the Congress
by Frank Llewellyn, Corey Walker, George Roberts, David Duhalde,
Alejandro Duhalde, and Carthene R. Bazemore Walker, For more
information on the business completed at the 23rd Congress, see:
http://www.socialistinternational.org/viewArticle.cfm?ArticleID=1915
Young Democratic Socialists
The Young Democratic Socialists
held their annual summer retreat in Wurtsboro, New York, August
8th through the 10th. While it was not a large event, it was
encouraging in its diversity and it was the best attended summer
conference in the past 6 years. For a brief report back on the
conference, see:
http://theactivist.org/blog/?p=323
September Chicago DSA Membership
Meeting
At the August Executive Committee
meeting, Michael Baker volunteered to be Treasurer. Bob Roman
had been appointed acting Treasurer at the June Membership Convention
pending someone willing to take the job. When Baker volunteered,
Roman resigned, and Baker was appointed acting Treasurer pending
a special election for the post at the next membership meeting.
And the next membership meeting will
be Tuesday, September 9, 7 PM at the Chicago DSA office: 1608
N. Milwaukee, Room 403 in Chicago. If anyone else had been
thinking it would be way cool to be Treasurer of Chicago DSA,
it's not too late.
New Ground Labor Day Issue
Just a reminder that the deadline
for ad copy, letters to the editor, articles, etc., is Monday,
September 8. Get the details about supporting New Ground
at:
http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngpromo.pdf
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Politics
Labor Day
The union movement is celebrating
Labor Day in a variety of ways around Illinois, most typically
with parades and picnics, though here in Chicago there is the
Labor Day in Pullman program (see Upcoming Events below), the
CFL's annual "Labor in the Pulpits" program, and a
$500,000 radio and TV ad campaign. For a survey of Illinois events,
see:
http://www.ilafl-cio.org/events.htm
For information about the Labor in the
Pulpits program, see:
http://www.chicagolabor.org/content/view/258/194/
For an account of the ad campaign, see:
http://www.suntimes.com/business/1116633,CST-FIN-labor20.article
Minimum Wage? What Minimum Wage?
Every time labor, liberals and
the left propose raising the minimum wage, whether on the Federal
or State level, conservatives always whine about (or threaten)
job losses. When economists attempt to study the question, the
picture becomes ambiguous. Part of it is that any negative or
positive effect is often swamped by more general upturns or downturns
in the economy. Some of it is because it is actually more difficult
than you might imagine to assemble consistent and comparable
data on wages, occupations, and employment from year to year.
And some of it is that the law is simply not enforced.
Last month Interfaith Workers Justice
Executive Director Kim Bobo testified before the U.S. House of
Representatives Committee on Education and Labor on the magnitude
of the problem on the Federal level. Her testimony is here:
http://www.iwj.org/documents/Wagethefttestimony.pdf
Keep in mind the problem regarding the
Illinois minimum wage is probably worse.
Wildly Disparate Funding
With the Urban League suing
the State of Illinois over inequalities in school funding and
with the Reverend Senator Meeks calling for a school boycott
on the first day of classes, you may be wondering just how bad
the funding situation is. The Chicago Reporter has assembled
a report that will tell you:
http://www.chicagoreporter.com/index.php/c/Web%20Exclusive/d/Wildly_Disparate_Funding
For some additional background information,
including legislation currently moldering in the General Assembly
because of the factional gridlock therein, see
http://www.ctbaonline.org/Education.htm
Kartemquin Films Online
Kartemquin Films is a 40 year
old Chicago institution with a reputation for producing quality,
progressive documentaries. Now some of the company's work is
available in digital form from http://www.snagfilms.com.
Four Kartemquin features (5 Girls; Golub: Late Works are the
Catastrophes; Refrigerator Mothers; and Vietnam, Long
Time Coming ) are available as video streams. The website,
which aims to make independent documentaries more available for
public viewing, allows users to e-mail films, or easily imbed
the movies in personal webpages, so that others can watch. The
site features quick methods to post films on Myspace and Facebook
pages, as well as other popular social networking sites.
One of Kartemquin's more recent features,
At the Death House Door is currently available on iTunes
and as a free download from the IFC for non-profit groups interested
in holding screenings. Kartemquin's highly acclaimed Mapping
Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita will also be available
for download on iTunes shortly. See:
http://www.ifc.com/atthedeathhousedoor
For more information about Kartemquin
Films, see http://www.kartemquin.com
Renegotiate NAFTA
Sign the petition: http://www.renegotiatenafta.org
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Democratic Socialism
Tragedy?
In The Myth of the Tragedy
of the Commons, Ian Angus takes on the 1968 Science
magazine article that has become a classic article in the neo-liberal
argument. Far from being scientific, Angus shows it to be polemic,
mostly:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/angus250808.html
Cuba
Social democrats often use a
"slightly imaginary" Sweden as their reference point
in arguing policy. Here, the Institute of Policy Studies' Saul
Landau and University of New Mexico's Nelson Valdes use a slightly
imaginary Cuba as their reference in a discussion of the state
of reform in Cuba leading the October, 2009, Communist Party
Congress. See:
http://www.counterpunch.org/landau08142008.html
For more discussion, see:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/category/5/20/43/
and
http://www.kaosenlared.net/cuba
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Upcoming Events of Interest
Events listed here are not necessarily
endorsed by Chicago DSA but should be of interest to DSA members,
friends and other lefties. For other events, go to http://www.chicagodsa.org/page9.html.
Monday, September 1. 2 PM
Labor Day in Pullman
111th and Cottage Grove Av, Chicago
Featuring tributes and performances dedicated to early leaders
in the history of the Labor Movement: Eugene Debs, A. Philip
Randolph, young Jennie Curtiss; with a special tribute to Franklin
D. Roosevelt and the 75th Anniversary of The New Deal. See http://members.aol.com/PullmanIL/
Tuesday, September 2, 1 PM to 4 PM
Congress Hotel Strike Picket
Line
Congress Hotel, 520 S. Michigan Av, Chicago
Join DSA members and others as we help with a picket line shift.
There are ways you can help, too. For information, contact Jessica
Lawlor at 312-446-1767 or email her at jmarielala@gmail.com
Monday, September 8, 6:30 PM to 8:30
PM
Sports, Poetry, and Resistance:
Looking for Democracy in American Culture
Chicago Cultural Center 5th Floor Garland Room, 78 E. Washington
St, Chicago
A Public Square event: sports and poetry featuring sports writer
David Zirin and poet Kevin Coval. Reservations required: phone
312.422.5580 or email events@prairie.org.
For more information, see:
http://www.prairie.org/events/18433/sports-poetry-and-resistance-looking-democracy-american-culture
Tuesday, September 9, 7 PM
Chicago DSA Membership Meeting
Chicago DSA Office, 1608 N. Milwaukee, Room 403, Chicago
Special election for Treasurer and other business. Call 773.384.0327
or email chiildsa@chicagodsa.org
Saturday, September 13, 3 PM to 6 PM
A movement Re-imagining Change
The Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone, Chicago
A panel of activists will provide an opportunity for lively discussion
about a movement-building document that seeks to help forge a
progressive platform of issues for 2009 and beyond, and to build
bridges between social justice struggles. For more information,
see http://www.ellasdaughters.org
Wednesday, September 17, 6 PM to 9 PM
30th Anniversary of the Center
for Neighborhood Technology
Garfield Park Conservatory, 300 N. Central Park, Chicago
Center for Neighborhood Technology will celebrate its accomplishments
and innovations which have addressed critical urban environmental
and economic issues. See http://www.cnt.org/calendar#cnt30
Saturday, September 20, 8:30 AM to 12:30
PM
2008 Pax Christi Saint Gertrude
Peace Conference
St. Gertrude Parish Social Hall, 1401 W Granville, Chicago
Listen, learn and discuss concrete actions to support Iraqi citizens
and veterans who have experienced war and its aftermath. For
information, call Jim at 773.743.4632 or email your name, phone
number, and organization to paxgert@gmail.com
Saturday, September 27, 9 AM to 11 AM
Congress Hotel Strike Picket
Line
Congress Hotel, 520 S. Michigan Av, Chicago
Join DSA members and others as we help with a picket line shift.
There are ways you can help, too. For information, contact Jessica
Lawlor at 312-446-1767 or email her at jmarielala@gmail.com
Saturday, September 27, 8 PM
10th Annual Matthew Shepart
March for LGBT Freedom
Halsted & Roscoe, Chicago
Beginning with a short rally at Halsted & Roscoe. For more
information, email lgbtliberation@aol.com
or go to:
http://www.gayliberation.net
Sunday, September 28, 2 PM
"At the Death House
Door"
Oak Park Public Library Veterans Room, 834 Lake St, Oak Park
Showing of the death penalty documentary by filmmakers Steve
James and Peter Gilbert followed by discussion. Co-sponsored
by the Oak Park Coalition for Truth and Justice and the Oak Park
Public Library. See:
http://www.opctj.org.
Wednesday, October 1, 7:30 PM
The Labor Movement and Progressive
Politics in the Post-Bush Era
UE Hall, 37 S. Ashaland 1st Floor, Chicago
Panel discussion featuring Bill Fletcher Jr, Richard Berg,
and David Moberg, moderated by Kim Bobo. Co-sponsored
by Chicago DSA and In These Times. For information, call
773.384.0327 or go to:
http://www.chicagodsa.org/sd.pdf
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