Tidbits  & Announcements
June 10, 2011

- Students Step Up Protests in Chile

- Re: The Bernanke Scandal: Full-Frontal Cluelessness
(Laurel MacDowell)

- Join Robert Meeropol in NYC at 58th Memorial Mtg for
the Rosenbergs - June 17

- The 36th Annual Northeast Regional Summer School for
Union Women (July 17 - 22)

- Labor and Radical History - Herb March And Vicky
Starr:Chicago Organizers Of The United Packinghouse
Workers Of America (UPWA-CIO) (Harry Targ - paper to be
presented at the Working Class Studies Association,
2011 Conference.

- Rebuild the Dream Campaign launch Rebuild the Dream
Campaign Launch Event

=======================

Students Step Up Protests in Chile

Prensa Latina
June 10, 2011

http://www.prensa-latina.cu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=296064&Itemid=1

Marches and peaceful take-overs of institutes,
secondary schools and universities marked the
radicalization of student demonstrations in Chile
protesting for-profit education.

Demonstrators want a return to state and public
education and speedier reconstruction of schools
damaged by the February 2010 earthquake.

University and secondary school students joined
together to oppose the increased scope of private, for-
profit education and demanded that the National Student
Card be free of cost.

In addition to the capital, protests have been held in
the cities of Arica, Iquique, Antofagasta, La Serena,
Valparaiso, Concepcion and Montt Port, among others.

To protest current national educational policies, two
national strikes were announced for next week, one by
secondary school students on Monday the 13th and
another by teachers' unions, on Thursday the 16th.

Education is a right, not a business, said Francisco
Figueroa, vice president of the University Student
Federation at the University of Chile.

=========================

- Re: The Bernanke Scandal: Full-Frontal Cluelessness

Americans love capitalism. Your companies that became
internationals took the jobs overseas and your banks
orchestrated the recent housing and mortgage crisis.
These large institutions have not been held
accountable. Your national lawmakers for years have
voted to give the rich tax breaks and the conservative
rich are now working to undo the minimalist medicare
law that passed. Despite a mainstream media that gives
out little real information, it is time people
questioned their assumptions. Capitalism may be great
but it seems to be working better for the Chinese than
for Americans. Americans need to get together to form
new entrepreneurial enterprises, strong unions, and get
control of their own government so that it will
actually work for the people and be of and by the
people. Right now the elites run it for themselves and
no one else. This is not complex. It takes political
will. Great article.

Laurel MacDowell

==========

- Join Robert Meeropol in NYC at 58th Memorial Mtg for
the Rosenbergs

The National Committee to Reopen the Rosenberg Case
(NCRRC) invites you to the 58th Annual Memorial Meeting
for Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.

- Friday, June 17, 2011 - 6:30-9PM - Tamiment Library,
70 Washington Square South, 10th Floor, New York City
(West 4th St. btw LaGuardia Place & Greene St.). - Free
admission - Refreshments will be served

Robert Meeropol, younger son of Ethel and Julius
Rosenberg, will deliver "The Eulogy I Was Unable to
Give" in which he'll address his parents' lives and
motivations, as well as the government's actions, the
implications of which are critical for us all today.

The Memorial will be chaired by NCRRC Vice President,
Jolie Pataki. A special message from NCRRC President,
David Alman, who is unable to attend, will put forward
the group's demand for "Redress in the Rosenberg Case."

Jeanne Mirer, President of the International
Association of Democratic Lawyers, will speak on the
relevance of the Rosenberg Case to the current spate of
post-911 "Terrorist" cases.

A Question-and-Answer session will follow the speakers.

Karen Taylor with keyboard accompanist will render a
musical tribute to the memory of Ethel and Julius
Rosenberg.

And a short video will be shown of readings of the
Rosenberg Death House Letters narrated by Angela Davis,
at a 2007 performance of the Rosenberg Fund for
Children's "Celebrate the Children of Resistance"
performance.

==========

- The 36th Annual Northeast Regional Summer School for
Union Women Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

http://uale.org/2011-northeast-region-union-women%2526%2523039%3Bs-summer-school

What is the Summer School? The 36th UALE Northeast
Regional Summer School for Union Women, July 17-22,
2011, is a five- day residential program, sponsored by
the United Association of Labor Education (UALE). The
school brings together union women who are rank-and-
file members, staff, and officers to strengthen their
knowledge and understanding of the American labor
movement in an effort to develop skills that will
prepare them to be more active union members and
leaders. UALE works to promote education as an
essential tool to develop new union leadership and in
the process of union transformation.

This year's school will be hosted by Labor Education
and Research Now (LEARN, Tracy Chang, Director) and the
Dept. of Labor Studies and Employment Research of the
School of Management and Labor Relations (SMLR),
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. The School
will be coordinated by Donna Schulman, Carey Library,
Rutgers, and Karen Bellamy Lewis, IFPTE, AFL-CIO, CLC.

The Program All students attend classes designed to
teach and improve leadership skills. In addition, each
student chooses two workshops, which meet Monday
through Thursday, and there are evening activities and
receptions. Summer School instructors are union
officers, staff and labor educators from universities
and unions. All workshops will be held at the Labor
Education Center on the Cook Campus of Rutgers, the
State University of New Jersey.

Registration Register early, as space is limited. The
cost includes tuition, housing, meals, and parking for
the five days of the sum-mer school. The costs for
commuters includes tuition, 2 meals/day and parking.
Participants will be housed in on-campus apartments
near the Labor Education Center. Each apartment
consists of 2 bedrooms, a full kitchen, and a bathroom.
All rooms are non-smoking. To register, please return
the attached registration form with the full
registration fee, no later than June 24, 2011. You will
receive confirmation of registration by e-mail. An
information packet and course selection material will
be sent to the e-mail address listed on your
registration form. (Please indicate if you require a
print mailing.)

http://uale.org/2011-womens%2526%2523039%3B-summer-schools-information-0

Scholarships A limited number of partial scholarships
are available and will be awarded based on individual
needs. In addition, the Berger Marks Foundation is
offering FULL scholarships to four young union women.

Please encourage your union or central labor body to
cover your registration costs before you apply for a
scholarship. For scholarship applications, download the
forms at the right, or contact Donna Schulman at (732)
932-9608 or via email at [log in to unmask] .

Transportation The Labor Education Center, Rutgers, is
easily accessible by car, train or plane. Travel
instructions as well as will be included in your
information packet and are also available at
http://maps.rutgers.edu/directions/nb.aspx/.

Child care Because of limited resources and a lack of
child care providers on campus, we regretfully cannot
offer childcare.

Cancellation and Refunds Cancellations must be received
in writing. Full refunds are available until July 1,
2011. Written cancellations made after July 5, 2011
will incur a late cancellation fee of $100. Registered
participants who fail to cancel in writing prior to the
start of the summer school and do not attend the
program (i.e. no-shows) will not receive a refund
except in extreme circumstances addressed on a case-by-
case basis.

==========

- Labor and Radical History - Herb March And Vicky
Starr: Chicago Organizers Of The United Packinghouse
Workers Of America (UPWA-CIO)

Harry Targ

[This paper will be presented at the Working Class
Studies Association, 2011 Conference, June 22-25,
Chicago, Illinois. The Working Class Studies
Association will feature 70 panels and workshops and
more than 200 presenters. For more information see
http://www.wcstudies.org/conference/ ]

Abstract

Worker ferment, including uprisings in Minneapolis,
Toledo, and San Francisco, reverberated inside the U.S.
labor movement in the 1930s. John L. Lewis stormed out
of a 1935 national meeting of the American Federation
of Labor to create by 1940 what would become the
Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) with 4
million industrial workers marching to the banner of
trade union militancy.

Herb March was sent by the Communist Party USA to
Chicago to help organize workers in the meat packing
plants on the south side of Chicago. The slaughtering
and distribution of meat products in the 1930s was
centered in a small number of locations. The Chicago
Stockyards constituted the largest site. Work on the
line was brutal as graphically described earlier in the
century by Upton Sinclair in his classic novel, The
Jungle. Workers tried to organize at the time in which
Sinclair wrote and again after World War I. Such
efforts failed, often because of racial divisions.

When March was sent to Chicago in the 1930s, he and
other activists knew that racism would have to be
overcome along with monopoly control of the industry by
"the Big Four packers." March recruited a young AÆ'AcmigrAÆ'Ac
Michigander, Vicky Starr, to help organize in the
"yards." They networked with college students from the
nearby University of Chicago and worked with Communist,
Socialist, and religious activists from the plants to
build a militant CIO union that for a time represented
meat packing workers in their struggles to improve
wages and working conditions and end racism and sexism
in the plants.

This paper examines the political theory and practice
of March and Starr as they helped organize the UPWA CIO
in the 1930s and 1940s with particular attention given
to possible meanings for 21st century organizing of the
working class

For the complete paper see:
www.heartlandradical.blogspot.com


====================

Join Van Jones, MoveOn.org Civic Action, and special
guests, The Roots and artist/DJ Shepard Fairey, for the
Rebuild the Dream campaign launch event on Thursday,
June 23rd at 8 PM Eastern time. We'll livestream the
event right here -- join us!

http://www.rebuildthedream.com/

___________________________________________

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